Search results

  1. D

    Just revisited LotRO: what a wonderland

    ...after many, many months. Rode from Bree to Rivendell. (I had forgotten how to use milestones.) Goodness gracious, what beautiful scenery. Passing by a hundred ruins and byways, each that could lead to the sun or to the moon, riding east by night, the archer stars glowing, the sun coming...
  2. D

    [updated] Alliteration : Java program : certain sentences from Fellowship of the Ring

    Thanks, Kalle, for the kind words. It was fun to put together: I like NLP, and I enjoy Java. The program can sort sentences (Java streams and Comparators are like magic) based on 1: raw energy of the single most energetic phoneme, 2: energy density of that single max phoneme, 3: raw energy of...
  3. D

    Gandalf versus the Nine (citation request)

    Really excellent thread, by the way, with close attention to language in the instant case as well as comparisons to other usages. Nicely done all.
  4. D

    Alliteration -- automating searches by natural language processing

    I didn't want to litter the Questions for Narnion forum with any details, but since Narnion has expressed an interest in alliteration, he and anyone who might be interested in automating searches by "natural language processing" might want to check out: Exploring The Lord of the Rings / Let's...
  5. D

    [updated] Alliteration : Java program : certain sentences from Fellowship of the Ring

    And finally, to amuse those who like pictures, here is the electrostatic energy grid which generates the top result. The sentence is the first line; the phonemes of the sentence are the second line. Across the left are the phonemes that exist in the sentence; and the grid shows the...
  6. D

    [updated] Alliteration : Java program : certain sentences from Fellowship of the Ring

    Here, using an expansion and refinement of the above mechanism (implementing most of my suggestions, particularly using phonemes instead of mere alphabetical letters (so it now catches "cellar sale"), syllabifying, and weighting starts of words and syllables more strongly), is a better list of...
  7. D

    Legolas, light running, and the Fianna of Celtic myth

    “nixambulatory”! (? (! (? (!))))
  8. D

    [updated] Alliteration : Java program : certain sentences from Fellowship of the Ring

    Format is [score]{letter}: sentence. Click on the spoiler button to see the sentences. See if you can spot the winner, with a score above 35.
  9. D

    [updated] Alliteration : Java program : certain sentences from Fellowship of the Ring

    Given the current interest in alliteration, I wondered if it would be easy to write something which would try to identify alliterative hot spots in the text. I settled on a Java program which uses an electrostatic energy density model--that is, each letter has a repulsive power against other...
  10. D

    Video games: rendering in 3d

    This was mentioned in Ep.38. How do you take even a completed fully realized painting and turn it into 3d, such that a player can interact? (Go behind, look underneath, see spots in the game where something in the painting was hiding it.) Let alone take just a mental image of e.g. Minas...
  11. D

    "brilliant piece of retcon"

    In Ep.38, Prof CO, while discussing adjustments made in the Peter Jackson films, calls the "fixing" of the Gollum problem of Chap V "Riddles" in The Hobbit one of the most brilliant pieces of retcon ever. Interesting that, in Letter 128: 1 Aug 1950: Letters of JRR Tolkien, it is made clear that...
  12. D

    Fan Survey

    Just to follow up on this: an eager public awaits the results!
  13. D

    Blast from the past: "try to say" and "try and say"

    I was just browsing through "The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien," and I saw a reference I'm not sure was mentioned back during the Great Try and/to Say Controversy. Letter 148: to Katherine Farrer: 7 August 1954: "I am afraid there are still a number of 'misprints' in Vol. I!... Jarrold's appear to...
  14. D

    Legolas, light running, and the Fianna of Celtic myth

    It is mildly interesting that the Norse god of skiing is Ullr. There are a lot of stories about him; not very many go back to early source material, though, where references to him are scarce. (Besides that it was common to swear oaths on Ullr's name while touching one's own ring; if one...
  15. D

    Episode 36 -- hope and despair ; transplanting

    Wow, I just watched Ep 36 with CO, MP, and the handsome olive-jacket gentleman who works with the studio and, goodness gracious, we need to cross-reference every issue touched by CO in the entire Signum/Mythgard oeuvre with ExLotR. The idea of "moving Tolkien themes around" (e.g. putting one...
  16. D

    Fan Survey

    Done and many thanks; I’m very curious to see the results! Thanks!
  17. D

    After rewatching first three episodes...

    I’m glad someone else read Bear’s blog after he was on Other Hands! I generally agree with Ilana above. A very wobbly start, with some good scenes, good development, a lot of missed steps and annoyances, but in retrospect it will be judged largely how it plays out and pays out in 2-5. I...
  18. D

    After rewatching first three episodes...

    It’s interesting, the mention of her empathic abilities. As far as I know, this is only mentioned in LotR, ie the Third Age? So it could be that she starts out as a hot-head, and gains empathy only as she matures. Indeed, this seems to be suggested by her desire to rule a kingdom in the First...
  19. D

    After rewatching first three episodes...

    Completely agree. I don’t mind the RoP character arcs individually. Tolkien has heroic role models like Aragorn, Faramir, Sam, Elrond. Then he has people who start out bad and go good like Theoden (admittedly through a spell, but I found his weak king to strong king incredibly effective in...
  20. D

    After rewatching first three episodes...

    As for Gil-Galad and Elrond being younger, they are not hinted at in the legendarium as being hot-headed. Galadriel is said to have left Valinor to get herself a kingdom. I find it believable that Tolkien wanted her to be viewed as hot-headed. And I find it believable that she’s older than...
Back
Top