Somsnosa

Sorry, I couldn't resist. #MTG

You've heard of #TTRPG -- now here's a wall-pin RPG. "DUDE DIED", pictured here in its entirety, has one of the players take the role of the Dude, and the others become his unhealthy cope mechanisms, like Agression, Domination or Supression of Emotions. The goal of the game is for Dude to not Die.

While we're talking linguistics, here's a little fun story. Sergey Mikhalkov, a prominent Soviet poet (best known for co-authoring the USSR anthem), had written a poem for kids about the World War II. It had the following lines: (1/3)

No -- we said to the fascists -- Our people won't allow For the fragrant Russian bread* Was called by the name "brot" The Russian word for "bread" is "khleb". Very patriotic, except... (2/3)

Here's another possible source of inspiration #Tolkien might have used: The Wanderer (Widfarend), a X century old English poem. Here's a quote: Where have the horses gone? where are the riders? where is the giver of gold? Where are the seats of the feast? where are the joys of the hall?

A funny thing about it is that I've found this poem in a book of lectures on old English poetry by Jorge Luis Borges. Interestingly, Borges didn't care for Tolkien's writing. He found LOTR too boring to read more than a couple chapters. He did quote Tolkien's scholary works, though!

Here's another possible source of inspiration #Tolkien might have used: The Wanderer (Widfarend), a X century old English poem. Here's a quote: Where have the horses gone? where are the riders? where is the giver of gold? Where are the seats of the feast? where are the joys of the hall?

Speaking of #Tolkien, actually reading old European epics gave me some new insights into his work. For example, kennings (metaphors) for kings are frequently based on their generocity, calling them "giver of rings", "spender of rings", or... That's right, "lord of rings".

The term "Lord of the Rings" first appears in Hobbit, way before the whole story about Sauron and the Rings took shape. Maybe #Tolkien came across that epithet in a saga, and felt a potential poetic power inside it, unused in the source material, like he did with the forest prophecy from Macbeth?