The Middle-earth 1200

Post by **Teremia** » Tue Apr 20, 2010 9:53 pm

Oh, my goodness, your lists are going to brighten my days.

<settles back in comfy chair with contented sigh>

Post by **Hurin** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 4:13 pm

Dân, I too am very much looking forward to the weekly lists.

When I mentioned to my fifth grade daughter that you were posting this list of 1200 characters and that you would be including many animals including the famous Fox, she immediately said, "But what about the 'theoretical squirrel'?"

I said "What squirrel"?

"You know", she replied, "the theoretical squirrel who Elrond said (late in The Council of Elrond) once 'could go from tree to tree from what is now the Shire to Dunland west of Isengard'". [img]%20%20[/img]

Wed Apr 21, 2010 4:15 pm

Fifth grade, eh? Pretty impressive.

Wed Apr 21, 2010 4:25 pm

Húrin wrote:who Elrond said (late in The Council of Elrond) once 'could go from tree to tree from what is now the Shire to Dunland west of Isengard'". [img]%20%20[/img]

First choice, and an admirable one, to replace any of my 21; and a squirrel no less! Keep up the good work, as well as your daughter!

Post by **Inanna** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 4:34 pm

Wow. Very impressive indeed.

Dan, I have problems with your Nazgûl ranking.... and would love to discuss the same with you. Just running short of time...

Wed Apr 21, 2010 4:44 pm

Mahima wrote:Wow. Very impressive indeed.

Dan, I have problems with your Nazgûl ranking.... and would love to discuss the same with you. Just running short of time...

So you would have them at 1180-1185 instead of 1181-1186 (ahead of the Balrog of the Echoriath)? Since they are unnamed and unindexed, they can't be any higher, based on the standards Dan is using.

Post by **Frelga** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 5:14 pm

Húrin wrote:When I mentioned to my fifth grade daughter that you were posting this list of 1200 characters and that you would be including many animals including the famous Fox, she immediately said, "But what about the 'theoretical squirrel'?"

A theoretical squirrel sounds more like a Discworld animal than a Middle-earth one.

Impressive reasoning on the part of your daughter. And there I thought my son was a Tolkien geek.

Voronwë, I wonder if the Nazgûl should be higher on the list simply because they presumably have names, even though we don't know them, where a Balrog is just a specie-name.

Post by **Inanna** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 5:18 pm

Voronwë, I wonder if the Nazgûl should be higher on the list simply because they presumably have names, even though we don't know them, where a Balrog is just a specie-name.

There's that...

However, there is the notion of the centrality of the characters to the story. Shouldn't that be part of the criteria in an importance ranking?

Wed Apr 21, 2010 7:16 pm

Frelga wrote:Voronwë, I wonder if the Nazgûl should be higher on the list simply because they presumably have names, even though we don't know them, where a Balrog is just a specie-name.

I wouldn't disagree with flip-flopping the un-named Nazgûl with the Balrog (though presumably he too has a name that is not given, since we know that Gothmog lord of the Balrogs has a name). But I suspect that Mahima was suggesting that the Nazgûl be considerably higher on the list, and my point is that the list originally consisted of the 1179 indexed characters, and that therefore the 21 that Dan added would be definition have to be lower than those 1179. But hopefully Dan will speak for himself at some point. Meanwhile, it's fun to argue among friends.