# Random Tolkien finds



## Ealdwyn (Jun 1, 2021)

I thought I'd create a place to share those random Tolkien references that we stumble across.

A couple of pubs I spotted on a recent visitt to Whitby, UK.:

 




I'm not aware of any Tolkien connection with the town. Whitby's claims to fame are that Bram Stoker's Dracula was written and set here, and the 18th century explorer Captain James Cook came from Whitby. 

But a little research reveals an interesting connection to the Ango-Saxon princess Hild - later St. Hilda - who set up a monastery at Whitby in the 7th century, and was an important figure in the Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England. In Hilda’s monastery it's possible to find a verse of the first ever English poet, Caedmon, who was encouraged to write by Hilda.

Fragments of Caedmon's verse remain:
_“How he the Lord of Glory everlasting
Wrought first for the race of men Heaven as a roof-tree,
Then made he Middle Earth to be their mansion."_

Interesting, yes? 
Is this the first ever reference to "middle earth"?


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## Olorgando (Jun 1, 2021)

Ealdwyn said:


> Fragments of Caedmon's verse remain:
> _“How he the Lord of Glory everlasting
> Wrought first for the race of men Heaven as a roof-tree,
> Then made he Middle Earth to be their mansion."_
> ...


In writing, possibly yes. But then in the 7th century, there was probably a lot of background stuff around that the Anglo-Saxons shared with the Norse peoples, with whom they were at least close neighbors, or perhaps even a southern "sub-tribe".
From Wikipedia:
"In Germanic cosmology, Midgard (an anglicised form of Old Norse Miðgarðr; Old English Middangeard, Old Saxon Middilgard, Old High German Mittilagart, and Gothic Midjun-gards; "middle yard", "middle enclosure") is the name for Earth."


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## Ealdwyn (Sep 6, 2021)

This seemed to fit in this thread:








‘What is this if not magic?’ The Italian man living as a hobbit


After building his own version of Middle-earth, Nicolas Gentile has thrown a ‘ring’ into Mount Vesuvius




www.theguardian.com





A pastry chef would seem a very appropriate job for a hobbit imho


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## Barliman (Dec 19, 2021)

I think I may have posted this in some random thread, but a really good BBQ joint in Bremen GA.
Unfortunately I discovered it recently got bought by someone who changed the name and reviews say the food is horrible now.


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Dec 19, 2021)

There's this place in Houston, Texas.




No Tolkien connection to Houston that I know of. 😊


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## HALETH✒🗡 (Jan 1, 2022)

The sign reads: "One does not simply find a lens cap". It's in Russia, Moscow, VDNKh (All-Russia Exhibition Center).


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## Olorgando (Jan 1, 2022)

HALETH✒🗡 said:


> The sign reads: "One does not simply find a lens cap". It's in Russia, Moscow, VDNKh (All-Russia Exhibition Center).


OK, the phrase "One does not simply ..." is now an immortal Sean Bean meme (like Orlando Bloom's "They're taking the Hobbits to Isengard!", but immensely more versatile).

"Len cap" must be an inside joke in Russia (or perhaps the entire defunct Warsaw Pact) that definitely eludes me ... 😬


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Jan 1, 2022)

Lens cap:


Frequent subject of "oopsies" -- including in the last scene of "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow".


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## HALETH✒🗡 (Jan 1, 2022)

Olorgando said:


> OK, the phrase "One does not simply ..." is now an immortal Sean Bean meme (like Orlando Bloom's "They're taking the Hobbits to Isengard!", but immensely more versatile).
> 
> "Len cap" must be an inside joke in Russia (or perhaps the entire defunct Warsaw Pact) that definitely eludes me ... 😬





Squint-eyed Southerner said:


> Lens cap:
> View attachment 11197
> 
> Frequent subject of "oopsies" -- including in the last scene of "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow".


Personally, I don't know any jokes about a lens cap. So, I considered the phrase about a lens cap as a version of "one doesn't simply do sth".


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## Olorgando (Jan 1, 2022)

Squint-eyed Southerner said:


> Lens cap:


Every non-pocket camera I've ever owned has had a lens cap. Which is why I know that it is utterly impossible *NOT* to notice it's still on before you take a picture. Unless you're under the influence of a combination of legal and illegal substances that will kill you two minutes later anyway; gimme a break!!!


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## HALETH✒🗡 (Jan 1, 2022)

Olorgando said:


> Every non-pocket camera I've ever owned has had a lens cap. Which is why I know that it is utterly impossible *NOT* to notice it's still on before you take a picture. Unless you're under the influence of a combination of legal and illegal substances that will kill you two minutes later anyway; gimme a break!!!


As I understand, the joke isn't about taking a picture when a lens cap is still on. It's about loosing a lens cap.


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Jan 1, 2022)

True. That's much more common. 

And it's also true that, as Mr. O says, SLR's use through-the-lens viewfinders. But it can still happen if you're using manual, or a rangefinder camera. I've done it myself, I'm ashamed to say -- especially on Very Important Photos.


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## Olorgando (Jan 1, 2022)

HALETH✒🗡 said:


> As I understand, the joke isn't about taking a picture when a lens cap is still on. It's about loosing a lens cap.


The cap then adhering to a variant of Murphy's Law - maybe; but do they know about Murphy in Russia?

And anyway, my current digital camera (a Konica Minolta 35-420 mm equivalent zoom gadget I bought in December 2004) has idiot-proofed that by attaching the cap to the camera housing by a tough synthetic fiber string ... 😁


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## Olorgando (Jan 1, 2022)

Squint-eyed Southerner said:


> And it's also true that, as Mr. O says, SLR's use through-the-lens viewfinders.


Not just SLRs, but those (as I just found out in Wikipedia) "bridge" cameras. Mine had both a (very small by later standards) LCD view panel on the back of the housing and a classical viewfinder, both showing the picture through-the-lens like an SLR. Which was better varied with the picture to be taken.


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## HALETH✒🗡 (Jan 1, 2022)

Olorgando said:


> The cap then adhering to a variant of Murphy's Law - maybe; but do they know about Murphy in Russia?


I believe that Murphy's Law is quite well-known.


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## Alcuin (Jan 1, 2022)




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## Olorgando (Jan 1, 2022)

I get the impression what the world need is more idiot-proof camera-lens cap combinations. Well, I've done my part on that account. 🤪

(I have misplaced the *camera* a couple of times ... 🙄 )


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Jan 1, 2022)

Moving on, then. I posted this in the Joke and Meme thread, but maybe this is a more appropriate place:


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## Olorgando (Jan 1, 2022)

Squint-eyed Southerner said:


> Moving on, then. I posted this in the Joke and Meme thread, but maybe this is a more appropriate place:
> View attachment 11209


Picture obviously taken by someone who had the lens cap (if part of the gadget's equipment) *off*. 😁


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## Ealdwyn (Mar 30, 2022)

Although they've taken the name from Old English, it's just too close to be a coincidence









Distant star found by Hubble telescope may be earliest we will ever see


Light from Earendel has travelled for an estimated 12.9bn years to reach Earth




www.theguardian.com


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## Olorgando (Mar 30, 2022)

Ealdwyn said:


> Although they've taken the name from Old English, it's just too close to be a coincidence


They do use the spelling of the Old English (aka "Anglo-Saxon") poem from the Exeter Book rather than JRRT's version Eärendil. But I agree in one point: how likely is it that astronomers know about a book over a thousand years old, something dealt with only by very specialized students (and professors) of English Studies even in the time JRRT studied at Oxford, let alone now - compared with the likelihood that they have read writings by JRRT, or Tom Shippey?

Of course, one of them might *know* such a rare specialist, can't rule that out.


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Apr 2, 2022)

This may -- or may not -- be confirmation.









Meet Earendel: Hubble telescope's most distant star discovery gets a Tolkien-inspired name


Tolkien fans and space fans rejoice!




www.space.com





Edit: Yep, the discoverer says so:









Meet Earendel, the Most Distant Star Astronomers Have Observed


The Hubble Space Telescope has revealed a single star whose light has traveled for 12.9 billion years to Earth — the most distant star known.




skyandtelescope.org


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## Olorgando (Apr 2, 2022)

Squint-eyed Southerner said:


> This may -- or may not -- be confirmation.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yup, as I guessed, JRRT nerds among the astronomers. 
Correctly speaking, the name Earendel in the thousand-years-plus old Exeter book inspired *JRRT*, not the other way around.
If they have somehow dug through to the original name, I'm guessing they have at least read Shippey.

Edit:
I'm a bit of an astronomy nerd, too, though not at the same level as being a JRRT nerd. I have several books on astronomy, including one that turned out to be the German translation of a college text, if for non-specialists. I think it was called "distributives" in the college I attended, meaning you had to take x courses in the sciences, social sciences and humanities each - and courses for you major didn't count, so as a chemistry student, say, you'd have to take geology, or astronomy, or ...
And my DVD collection on astronomy is also quite extensive, at 21 discs, including a four-season History Channel collection, each with at least four episodes, season two with five.


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## Ealdwyn (Apr 2, 2022)

It reminds me of the guy who named that area of the seabed in the North Atlantic. Zoom in and check out the seabed directly south of Iceland, near the Rockall Plateau http://www.shadedrelief.com/atlantic/North-Atlantic-Map-Type.jpg


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## Olorgando (Apr 2, 2022)

Ealdwyn said:


> It reminds me of the guy who named that area of the seabed in the North Atlantic. Zoom in and check out the seabed directly south of Iceland, near the Rockall Plateau http://www.shadedrelief.com/atlantic/North-Atlantic-Map-Type.jpg


Yikes! My tower computer is no slouch, but it took close to a minute to load the picture ... 

jpg (14170 x 10501) - 148,799,170 pixels???

But it did finish loading. And yes, south-west of the Rockall Plateau there are

Eriador, Gondor and Rohan Seamounts, Edoras and Fangorn Banks, Lórien Knoll, and Isengard Ridge.


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (May 29, 2022)

I'm not sure if it really belongs here, but there's this building in Seoul, South Korea.


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## Olorgando (May 29, 2022)

Squint-eyed Southerner said:


> I'm not sure if it really belongs here, but there's this building in Seoul, South Korea.
> View attachment 13506


Lotte World Tower, opened 2017, about 29 years after I'd been in South Korea ...
Yes, I'd think so, as all of those mega giga tera exo skyscrapers seem to show the needs of some parts of humanity, mainly their Saruman clones, to strive for Barad-dûr clones - or at least Orthancs with a massive steroid dose ... 😈


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (May 29, 2022)

Needs a flaming eye, though.


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## Goldilocks Gamgee (May 29, 2022)

Squint-eyed Southerner said:


> I'm not sure if it really belongs here, but there's this building in Seoul, South Korea.
> View attachment 13506


Maybe I've been watching too much Star Wars, but my first thought was that big Imperial starship from episodes 4-6.


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## Halasían (May 29, 2022)




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## Olorgando (May 29, 2022)

Squint-eyed Southerner said:


> Needs a flaming eye, though.


Perhaps even the dimmer Saruman-clones among the gaga-skyscraper-builders, in whose countries PJ's fanfic is not that well-known, have assistants who have told their bosses "that's not *really* a good idea!". The closest to the big-eye bit seems to be the 600-meter tower *Abraj Al-Bait* in Saudi Arabia (see Wikipedia).


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Jun 12, 2022)

No idea where this is:


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## Starbrow (Jun 12, 2022)

I think I'll pass on staying there.


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