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Post by Agan on Nov 15, 2007 4:40:19 GMT
Congratulations on the Third Anniversary of the Circles, Angmar and Elfhild! And a nice new chapter, Elfhild - with a great cliffhanger ending!  |
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Post by Angmar on Nov 16, 2007 1:38:24 GMT
Agan, thank you. Originally, "The Circles" was to be part of the Second Darkness RPG. We soon discovered, however, that SD was too restrictive for The Circles. Since SD was a roleplay, it had a preexisting history that could not be modified, and thus we could not transform old myths into new ones. *grins*
Anyone want to guess what is behind that door? ;D
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Post by khazarkhum on Dec 4, 2007 0:53:03 GMT
Haun sounds like a NeoMastino -- a Neopolitan Mastiff. The big war dogs are impressive, wrinkly & drool. They are Serious Dogs.
At first I thought they might be dealing with Radagast. It'll be interesting to see how he managed to survive.
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Post by Angmar on Dec 4, 2007 5:35:00 GMT
Khazar, you are dead right on target about Haun's breed. Elfhild and I had considered including a copy of an old print of a Neo Mastiff with this chapter, but the background included a fancy column which was far too rich for the Gondorian village in this story.
Radagast and/or other wizards might be in the story at another time, but not for the foreseeable future.
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Post by khazarkhum on Dec 4, 2007 21:58:21 GMT
We've seen them at dog shows. They are not the biggest, most massive dogs we're seen--that goes to Pyreanean Mastiffs, dogs that look like St Bernards on roids. But they are damned impressive. So are the Dogue de Bordeaux, which look like they have basketballs for heads. They are very friendly. The Neos we've met are aloof. And for their size, massive. They make three of my Standard Poodles. My Mercedes tips the scale at a massive 39 lbs. BTW, there's a website called Molosser World that has all sorts of historical information on these truly mighty animals. www.moloss.com/001/ptxt/breed.html |
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Post by Angmar on Dec 10, 2007 7:27:15 GMT
Khazar, thanks for this link. There are some magnificent animals shown there. I have been to a couple of dog shows plus several demonstrations of dogs used in police work, and there were no mastiffs there in any of them. I have never seen a mastiff outside of photographs and paintings, but "Haun" has been "living" inside my brain for many years. Not sure where he came from, but he seemed like just the dog for old Tarlanc, especially since Tolkien seemed to consider Gondor as Italy.
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Post by Agan on Dec 10, 2007 21:25:42 GMT
Good new chapter, Angmar, sorry it took me so long to comment.
Yes, the mastiff is awesome - I guess the girls would indeed have difficulty to identify it as a dog.
And Tarlanc - what the hell is he doing there? Why didn't he run away?
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Post by Angmar on Dec 11, 2007 1:37:02 GMT
Agan, glad you liked the chapter. The twins' sections in the rest of this book and the next one have the theme of "farewell to the West." (The West will figure in from time to time but not play a dominant role.)
The sisters had never seen a dog as big as Haun before. Combined with their fright and terror when they first beheld him, their perceptions would be altered.
Some people never want to leave their homes, even if all common sense says to do so. We've all heard about the people who refuse to move when their houses are jeapordized by volcanoes, floods, earthquakes, etc. Maybe originally Tarlanc had some idea that the West would be triumphant, or perhaps he was just too stubborn to move and start up life someplace else.
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Post by Agan on Dec 24, 2007 6:36:51 GMT
Hee... the girl's necks are now in dire peril.  Captivating chapter, Angmar and Elfhild. Tarlanc is awesome. I don't really see why Tarlanc thinks that removing the collars is essential - if they are spotted by enemy patrols, the two pretty sisters will be captured anyway, collars or not. Maybe it is better to have a collar and simply be returned to the owner instead of repeating the procedure of "registration" all over again, if nothing worse. Ah, and there are 2 typos that you have missed: "warming" instead of "warning" and in the next paragraph: "I am was not finished talking". I thought I should better tell you. |
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Post by Angmar on Dec 24, 2007 23:41:11 GMT
Hee... the girl's necks are now in dire peril. Captivating chapter, Angmar and Elfhild. Tarlanc is awesome. Agan, we will have to see if the sisters can escape with their necks intact or not, or if the old miller's hand might shake while using the file. In that case, there will be one less sister. ;D The whole concept of slavery is repugnant to Tarlanc. The collar is a symbol of that slavery. Thank you for calling this to our attention. Sometimes it seems that no matter how sure you are that you have found all the errors and corrected them, there always seems to be a sneaky few which make it into publication. Little grimlins. *grins* |
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Captivating chapter,