Saturday, June 22, 2019

The Dragon Reborn comes

I find it difficult to listen to the song The Dragonborn Comes without thinking of The Wheel of Time these days, so I decided to rewrite the lyrics to fit Robert Jordan's epic as opposed to Skyrim: Elder Scrolls. Personally, I think it came out rather well, with the second half inspired by another set of rewritten lyrics. Sadly, I have yet to replace the Dovahzul part of the song with something written in the Old Tongue because I fear running into spoilers...but mayhaps I shall after Tarmon Gai'don.

Our hero, our hero claims a shepherd's heart
I tell you, I tell you, the Dragon Reborn comes
With a soul wielding the Power of ancient Aes Sedai

Twice and twice, he shall be marked, 
Twice to live and twice to die
It's an end to the evil of the Creator's foe
Beware, beware, the
Dragon Reborn comes
For the Shadow doth rise, and his legend yet grows
You know, you know the
Dragon Reborn comes.
With the soul of the Dragon and the might of the sword
When the Forsaken are loose and the seals are no more
He will save the world yet break peoples and land
By the Wheel of Time, here he stands
By the countless of evils our hero has slain
The Shepherd of the Night shall know his bane.

Saturday, June 15, 2019

My father and I just started Silver on the Tree

My father and I just started Silver on the Tree, the final book of Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising Sequence.
The circle of Old Ones stands ready with the Drew children and the Pendragon to face down the Dark's final and greatest rising. But to do that they need the last of the Light's great Things of Power - the crystal sword Eirias.

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

My father and I just finished The Grey King

My father and I just finished The Grey King, book four of Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising Sequence.
We have always named this series as among the greatest of the greats, an Arthurian Epic without peer. This book brings the latter element into the fore as in the oldest hills of Wales the Harp of Gold must be found by the youngest of the One Ones to wake the Sleepers so that the Light may in full strength ride to the rescue of the world from the rising Dark.


“On the day of the dead, when the year too dies,
Must the youngest open the oldest hills
Through the door of the birds, where the breeze breaks.
There fire shall fly from the raven boy,
And the silver eyes that see the wind,
And the light shall have the harp of gold.


By the pleasant lake the Sleepers lie,
On Cadfan’s Way where the kestrels call;
Though grim from the Grey King shadows fall,
Yet singing the golden harp shall guide
To break their sleep and bid them ride.


When light from the lost land shall return,
Six Sleepers shall ride, six Signs shall burn,
And where the midsummer tree grows tall
By Pendragon’s sword the Dark shall fall."

Monday, June 10, 2019

Lament for Boromir

Among so many other things, one element of J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings that stands out is that so many characters sing songs – with the full and sometime several-page-long lyrics in the books – rather than him simply writing so-and-so person sung a song about such-and-such. Tolkien actually goes the full mile, being the perfectionist he is, and yet these songs are so often ignored! I know that, until recently, I skipped them entirely in my eagerness to get back to the story. Yet when they are not ignored they still go unappreciated, I feel, since we cannot hear them sung they deserve to be.

Until we can. Here is the funeral song sung by Aragorn and Legolas for Boromir:


Aragorn sang: 
Through Rohan over fen and field where the long grass grows
The West Wind comes walking, and about the walls it goes.
‘What news from the West, O wandering wind, do you bring to me tonight?
Have you seen Boromir the Tall by moon or by starlight?
‘I saw him ride over seven streams, over waters wide and grey,
I saw him walk in empty lands until he passed away
Into the shadows of the North, I saw him then no more.
The North Wind may have heard the horn of the son of Denethor,
‘O Boromir! From the high walls westward I looked afar,
But you came not from the empty lands where no men are.’

Then Legolas sang:
From the mouths of the Sea the South Wind flies, from the sandhills and the stones,
The wailing of the gulls it bears, and at the gate it moans.
‘What news from the South, O sighing wind, do you bring to me at eve?
Where now is Boromir the Fair? He tarries and I grieve.
‘Ask not of me where he doth dwell – so many bones there lie,
On the white shores and the dark shores under the stormy sky,
So many have passed down Anduin to find the flowing Sea.
Ask of the North Wind news of them the North Wind sends to me!’
‘O Boromir! Beyond the gate the seaward roads runs south,
But you came not with the wailing gulls from the grey sea’s mouth’.

Then Aragorn sang again:
From the Gate of the Kings the North Wind rides, and past the roaring falls,
And clear and cold about the tower its loud horn calls.
‘What news from the North, O mighty wind, do you bring to me today?
What news of Boromir the bold? For he is long away.’
‘Beneath Amon Hen I heard his cry. There many foes he fought,
His cloven shield, his broken sword, they to the water brought.
His head so proud, his face so fair, his limbs they laid to rest,
And Rauros, golden Rauros-falls, bore him upon its breast.
‘O Boromir! The Tower of Guard shall ever northward gaze,
To Rauros, golden Rauros-falls, until the end of days.

"You left the East Wind to me," said Gimli, "but I will say naught of it."
"That is as it should be," said Aragorn. "In Minas Tirith they endure the East Wind, but they do not ask it for tidings"

Monday, June 3, 2019

Netflix Announces Magic: The Gathering Anime Series

Wizards of the Coast is partnering with Joe and Anthony Russo (the co-directors of Avengers: Endgame) to make a Magic: The Gathering anime Netflix series, naturally with the Planeswalkers as the protagonists and otherwise. For myself, I am torn between blazing hope and serious skepticism, and hope that the Russo Brothers hire whomever makes the set trailers for Wizards.