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Just while I'm in both a Hobbit and Mirkwood mood, rereading for my Thranduil fic reminded me of something. There was a description in the books of the Mirkwood Elves feasting, and there was one line that confused me mightly as a kid:
"Their gleaming hair was twined with flowers; green and white gems glinted on their collars and belts; and their faces and their songs were filled with mirth."
It was the 'gems on their collars' bit. I didn't understand that at all. It seemed a really weird place to put gems to me, and I couldn't really picture it. The only things I could think of were a) rhinestones, and b) Jareth's sparkly ballroom coat in Labyrinth. It left me with a really weird image of the elves, at least when they were feasting.
And then, later on, the LotR movies happened, and elves in those were all robes and intricate knotwork and delicate strands of metal, so that sort of overwrote the old image of the elves in my head. But now the Hobbit movies are happening, and there's this thing about Thranduil the Party Elf, and I'm just ...
I'm remembering that as a kid, my main picture of the Mirkwood elves was as sort of weird green Jareth-crossed-with-Elvis woodland party-goers, all blond hair and bling, and there was a brief period where I thought Legolas in Rohan was the Rhinestone Cowboy.
*facepalms* Just ... thanks for that, Tolkien. Why couldn't you have put the gems on a necklace, like a normal person? Honestly ...
"Their gleaming hair was twined with flowers; green and white gems glinted on their collars and belts; and their faces and their songs were filled with mirth."
It was the 'gems on their collars' bit. I didn't understand that at all. It seemed a really weird place to put gems to me, and I couldn't really picture it. The only things I could think of were a) rhinestones, and b) Jareth's sparkly ballroom coat in Labyrinth. It left me with a really weird image of the elves, at least when they were feasting.
And then, later on, the LotR movies happened, and elves in those were all robes and intricate knotwork and delicate strands of metal, so that sort of overwrote the old image of the elves in my head. But now the Hobbit movies are happening, and there's this thing about Thranduil the Party Elf, and I'm just ...
I'm remembering that as a kid, my main picture of the Mirkwood elves was as sort of weird green Jareth-crossed-with-Elvis woodland party-goers, all blond hair and bling, and there was a brief period where I thought Legolas in Rohan was the Rhinestone Cowboy.
*facepalms* Just ... thanks for that, Tolkien. Why couldn't you have put the gems on a necklace, like a normal person? Honestly ...
