so-called-quail

[so-called-quail]

Life has been too crazy to rly be on tumblr and I actively have a horrible headache but

guys we did it... we lorded that ring

😎 😭 I'm so whelmed. What a lovely time it has been!!! 💚

I've been yearning for book 1 again since...idk, for most of books 3-6 I think. Book 1 always feels like coming home, and it will especially after everything we went thru reading it Day By Day. The suffering :D🤌 I'll be back to catch up on the tag when I can, but for now I'm super proud of everyone who participated and it was so fun!!

Anyone who said two words put together to me because of this newsletter, I cherish that :] the best part is reading your thoughts and feelings (even and most especially when they're just inarticulate yelling)

I just know, because I'm me, that I forgot to respond to some things along the way. If I ever snubbed you I'm sorry, please know it wasn't on purpose! I'll be sure to pick up any loose threads I find, when I look back on the year.

Thank you @sindar-princeling once again :> I remain endeared and impressed by you and what you've pulled off, and I'm that glad that you'll be there with us again when September comes back around. I think I officially have a new yearly tradition, Mr. Lee would be proud hehe... I'm gonna read "When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced..." and just start vibrating. It's gonna be like a warm hug 🍂 I really have so much affection for this book club-of-sorts. It's made me love better a story I didn't know I could enjoy more than I did.

[so-called-quail]

That's a wrap!

Today, we finished reading The Lord of the Rings - again!

Thank you so much to everyone who joined - both for the first time and the second time, to those who finished the whole book, and to those who joined for a part of it.

This year I especially wanted to thank you for sticking with me and the newsletter through the messy and stressful process of TinyLetter closing in February, and figuring out a new way to continue. Your ideas (big shout out to @none-ofthisnonsense for the calendar file) and words of motivation were a huge help, and it meant the world to me to know you were willing to keep reading even in new forms! I am very, VERY happy to be able to share this another ending of the newsletter with you.

Thank you for posting in the tag, talking on Discord (once again, thank you @k-she-rambles for setting it up!), creating a whole ass audio version of the newsletter from the audiobook (!!!) - just generally keeping this space alive! I'm incredibly grateful for this corner of Tumblr you all helped create and sustain!

I am just really, really happy to once again be able to say the project worked, even if there were bumps along the way this time. Thank you SO much for taking part in it 💕💕💕

And, of course, I will see you again in September!

[so-called-quail]

I come back with more graphic design is my passion edits - we made it to the very end of the newsletter!

other ribbons from this year:

week 2 by @cornerful

the february-march marathon by me

all last year's ribbons linked here!

Once again, thank you so much for everyone who joined!! And I'll see everyone who wants to take part again in September!

[so-called-quail]

How I’m feeling right now.

[so-called-quail]

'I will not say: do not weep; for that would be fucking futile, look at your face, you're a wreck, are you trying to recreate the great wave over Numenor??? a flood warning would've been nice' - Gandalf @me, probably

[so-called-quail]

today's the last reading day!

[so-called-quail]

like I said in the notes of this post, per @so-called-quail's request, I have added the print-friendly version of the newsletter to the MEGA folder! it's formatted more like a book than the previous files which were meant to be electronic device friendly, and it's the version I'll be using for my bookbinding project, so you can see the preview in the post I linked. the file is in the pdf format because there are several fonts in the file that I needed to download separately, mostly for tengwar and runes, and this will prevent certain fragments from looking wonky on your own computers.

the link to the folder is in my pinned post!

[so-called-quail]

(has never tried bookbinding on anything that's actually thick) I wanna bookbind lotr newsletter

[so-called-quail]

I saw someone a while back complaining that Aragorn stops being interesting in RotK because once he becomes king he's too lofty and remote and loses the humanity of his character, and I just...

Aragorn lets Beregond think he's being banished for a solid five seconds before telling him he's being sent to be Faramir's captain of the guard. He refuses to tell his friends that he's getting married because if they can't figure it out then they're just going to have to wait and see. Yes, he is a great and lofty king, but he is also still clearly a man whose best friends include Gandalf and Bilbo, and who consistently trolls people as a love language.

[so-called-quail]

we didn't have one last year but it feels like we should because godDAMN what a ride

all previous ribbons:

week 2 by @cornerful

book 1 and fellowship of the ring by @so-called-quail

the two towers and end of the newsletter by me

[so-called-quail]

But in truth all now are in like danger. Though it may be our part to find a bitter end before the Gate of Mordor, if we do so, then you will come also to a last stand, either here or wherever the black tide overtakes you. Farewell!'

At last the trumpets rang and the army began to move. Troop by troop, and company by company, they wheeled and went off eastward. And long after they had passed away out of sight down the great road to the Causeway, Merry stood there. The last glint of the morning sun on spear and helm twinkled and was lost, and still he remained with bowed head and heavy heart, feeling friendless and alone. Everyone that he cared for had gone away into the gloom that hung over the distant eastern sky; and little hope at all was left in his heart that he would ever see any of them again.

As if recalled by his mood of despair, the pain in his arm returned, and he felt weak and old, and the sunlight seemed thin. He was roused by the touch of Bergil's hand.

Forever soft about how important even small characters like Bergil are shown to be, or that rider who saved Merry and Pippin. Anyone can do good, not just the heroes. The great wheels that move the world are turned by many hands, often without heed for the grand design.

None of the plot would happen without the unseen actions of so many, but we get glimpses that prove minor characters are not just set pieces. I like that.

[so-called-quail]

Pardon my catching up with the posting 💚

'Then we must take the road, Mr. Frodo,' said Sam. 'We must take it and chance our luck, if there is any luck in Mordor. We might as well give ourselves up as wander about any more, or try to go back. Our food won't last. We've got to make a dash for it!'

'All right, Sam,' said Frodo. 'Lead me! As long as you've got any hope left. Mine is gone. But I can't dash, Sam. I'll just plod along after you.'

'Before you start any more plodding, you need sleep and food, Mr. Frodo. Come and take what you can get of them!'

Had an incredible amount of feelings about Lead me, for my hope is wasted but even without it I will not dishonor yours. I've been thinking hard about the humility of Sam's love lately, and here is the humility in Frodo's.

And of course the ways their roles are being broken down and here reversed gets me good. Frodo and Sam and the theme of following. Augh. Ough.

[so-called-quail]

🗡That will depend on the manner of your return 🏹

[so-called-quail]

not a legolas girl or an aragorn girl but a third, more insane thing (faramir girl)

[so-called-quail]

If it is destroyed, then he will fall; and his fall will be so low that none can foresee his arising ever again. For he will lose the best part of the strength that was native to him in his beginning, and all that was made or begun with that power will crumble, and he will be maimed for ever, becoming a mere spirit of malice that gnaws itself in the shadows, but cannot again grow or take shape. And so a great evil of this world will be removed.

I am having thoughts about these words in the context of Sméagol. And others. And fairy stories.

Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.

This is why I bother to pick broken bits of plastic out of the ground and litter out of forests! I have to believe in a future where that small work wasn't for nothing. Even if I can't fix the huge problem myself, I can do that, and I refuse to be cynical like the people who say such efforts are wasted 😤

Plus I prefer not to find bits of sticker and bin among my root vegetables, thanks.

'If this be jest, then it is too bitter for laughter. Nay, it is the last move in a great jeopardy, and for one side or the other it will bring the end of the game.' Then he drew Andúril and held it up glittering in the sun. 'You shall not be sheathed again until the last battle is fought,' he said.

Sword Autism 💚

'...Tower raided and all, and hundreds of your lads done in, and prisoner got away. If that's the way you fighters go on, small wonder there's bad news from the battles.'

'That's cursed rebel-talk, and I'll stick you, if you don't shut it down, see?'

I'm fascinated by the orcs' infighting, particularly "rebel-talk" and what it might mean. Plus the obvious thread of surveillance among peers...

The other halted, and his voice was full of fear and rage. 'You cursed peaching sneakthief!' he yelled. 'You can't do your job, and you can't even stick by your own folk. Go to your filthy Shriekers, and may they freeze the flesh off you! If the enemy doesn't get them first. They've done in Number One, I've heard, and I hope it's true!'

!!!!! The vitriol!! Compels me

There the hobbits sat under the cover of the thorny bush, while the drear light of Mordor faded slowly into a deep and starless night; and Sam spoke into Frodo's ear all that he could find words for of Gollum's treacherous attack, the horror of Shelob, and his own adventures with the orcs. When he had finished, Frodo said nothing but took Sam's hand and pressed it.

'Well, I suppose we must be going on again,' he said. 'I wonder how long it will be before we really are caught and all the toiling and the slinking will be over, and in vain.' He stood up. 'It's dark, and we cannot use the Lady's glass. Keep it safe for me, Sam. I have nowhere to keep it now, except in my hand, and I shall need both hands in the blind night. But Sting I give to you. I have got an orc-blade, but I do not think it will be my part to strike any blow again.'

A a a a a ah

[so-called-quail]

suddenly Merry awoke, and he said:

'I am hungry. What is the time?'

- ICONIC

[so-called-quail]

the 15th of March, in fragments:

The Houses of Healing

A mist was in Merry's eyes of tears and weariness when they drew near the ruined Gate of Minas Tirith. He gave little heed to the wreck and slaughter that lay about all. Fire and smoke and stench was in the air

Slowly the lights of the torches in front of him flickered and went out, and he was walking in a darkness; and he thought: 'This is a tunnel leading to a tomb; there we shall stay for ever.' But suddenly into his dream there fell a living voice.

'Well, Merry! Thank goodness I have found you!'

🌸

'Lean on me, Merry lad!' said Pippin. 'Come now! Foot by foot. It's not far.'

'Are you going to bury me?' said Merry.

'No, indeed!' said Pippin, trying to sound cheerful, though his heart was wrung with fear and pity. 'No, we are going to the Houses of Healing.'

🌿

'If ever I see the Lady again, I will tell her!' he cried. 'Light and now water!' Then he stopped. 'Let me drink first, Mr. Frodo,' he said.

'All right, but there's room enough for two.'

'I didn't mean that,' said Sam. 'I mean: if it's poisonous, or something that will show its badness quick, well, better me than you, master, if you understand me.'

'I do. But I think we'll trust our luck together, Sam; or our blessing. Still, be careful now, if it's very cold!'

✨

Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising

I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing.

To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking...

🌅

upon the foremost ship a great standard broke

🏴

For it is said in old lore: The hands of the king are the hands of a healer.

🤲🏽🌿

as the sweet influence of the herb stole about the chamber (...) an air wholly fresh and clean and young, as if it had not before been breathed by any living thing and came new-made from snowy mountains high beneath a dome of stars, or from shores of silver far away washed by seas of foam.

'His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.'

...the scent of orchards, and of heather in the sunshine full of bees, suddenly Merry awoke

🦋

'I shan't ever be able to smoke again without thinking of him, and that day, Pippin, when he rode up to Isengard and was so polite.'

'Smoke then, and think of him!' said Aragorn.

🥮

Dear me! We Tooks and Brandybucks, we can't live long on the heights.'

'No,' said Merry. 'I can't. Not yet, at any rate. But at least, Pippin, we can now see them, and honour them. It is best to love first what you are fitted to love, I suppose: you must start somewhere and have some roots, and the soil of the Shire is deep. Still there are things deeper and higher; and not a gaffer could tend his garden in what he calls peace but for them, whether he knows about them or not. I am glad that I know about them, a little. But I don't know why I am talking like this. Where is that leaf? And get my pipe out of my pack, if it isn't broken.'

🍎

Far above the Ephel Dúath in the West the night-sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.

🍃