Haban would absolUTELY be the one who says, ‘Don’t look at me, he gets it from YOUR side of the family!’
(she’s 110% right)
Fundin totally would have been the one who says, ‘MY children never caused such trouble; they both became civil servants, very respectable!’
Groin would have been the one bristling: “well, we can’t all be respectable!”
Aaaaaaand finally, Thror: “No. Your grandson had to be… a TREE-SHAGGER!”
omg
Honestly, I can see Hrera embroidering something perfectly genteel and appropriate… on the outside. Nobody would see anything else, really.
(however, if anyone ever went to the effort of unpicking all of those neat, tight stitches, in exactly the right order, the words ‘GO SIT ON A PICKAXE YOU LITTLE TURD’ might somehow emerge from the patterns and colours…)
stabbing a cushion several hundred-thousand times sounds like a good way to burn off your initial aggro :)))
Hey Nonnie! This got me thinking, and I did some riffing on your ask – I hope this is the sort of thing!
Oh they’re around, all those “Elves-Are-Doodyheads” Dwarves… I mean, the Nogrod thing has a minor effect on the characters even in the living world (Haban is a Firebeard, and I’m rolling with the old fanon idea of Nogrod = Firebeards, and Belegost = Broadbeams). It was a sticking point with Thranduil, remember. He was NOT a fan of Gimli in any way… but ESPECIALLY AND IN PARTICULAR NOT THE ¼ FIREBEARD PART. So, that bit of history is also informing the ‘Dwarves-Are-Doodyheads” Elves, as well…!
Anyway, back to the Halls. There’s some mention of how the watchers of the Quest gain some notoriety around the Halls of Mahal. At first, the watchers who violently oppose the Gimli-Legolas relationship have a lot of external support. They behave in a way that suggests that they feel secure, even self-righteous. That’s because the rumours that are flying around the place are framed pretty exclusively from the Elves-Suck perspective.
(This means that Narvi has been very isolated in her beliefs, as well as in her behaviour, for all those centuries.)
As the Elves and Dwarves of the living world make each small, agonisingly tiny step towards a better understanding of each other, those Dwarves who are a part of the watch all grudgingly accept the change, one by one. Slowly of course, but they do. They can’t really force it to NOT happen. I mean, it’s right there in front of their eyes, and all they can do is watch it happen. It’s sorta undeniable.
It’s tiny steps, sure – but there are a LOT of them. And they start small, and get so much bigger…
There’s Gimli and Legolas of course – but there’s also Merilin, who rescued Dori and saved the Queen Dowager’s life. There’s Laerophen who fought in the dark and on the secret stair, who cares for the young ones and welcomes Gimli as a brother. There’s Laindawar who travels East because it is right, not out of love for Dwarves but out of a love of freedom – freedom from darkness and fear. There’s the Lady Galadriel, who speaks to Gimli with the utmost respect and chides her own husband on Gimli’s behalf.
And eventually, even the pale old Spider himself, Thranduil… who fed their starving people.
So, the watchers of the Quest will be spreading a new story. It will not make a lot of people happy to hear it. There will be a lot of disagreements and debate… but what can any of the dissenters do about it? It’s happened, they can’t affect it, they’re dead. The only one with a hope of actually affecting these events is Thorin, and he’s firmly on team Gigolas these days (he’s probably Ship Captain, tbh). Heck, when the news about Kili’s silent, hopeless vigil gets around… a lot of folks are going to bite their pipes in half, heh.
It will take a LONG time for the rumour mill in the wider Halls to stop grinding out the old tune. Resentment is the last thing to fade in any heart.
(And yes, I think the Petty Dwarves are there, but they’d mostly be keeping to themselves and not really hobnobbing much. They were rumoured to be exiled Dwarves from the seven great clans, after all… ones that used their true-names openly. So yeah, I think they’d have their own areas and not really mix, by choice. Mim might set a trap or pick a fight or two for the sake of it though, bc he is TOTALLY That Guy.)
It’s implied that there are more verses to the song… and some of them are not safe-for-kids. Gimris is trying to limit-set Gimizh’s natural interest in such stuff
(she is not succeeding, bc some things are universal when it comes to pre-teens – and a fascination with naughty words is pretty high on that list.)
(ALSO – consider that Gimli wrote it when he was basically a teenager himself. This means he was that kid who makes up dirty little songs to make his friends laugh)
holy HECK ems…! This is so perfect, this is amazing.
I need this. I need Ole Gammer Greenhand and her big happy lollopy puddle of a warg doggo, Heather.
With his big sad eyes whenever she is cooking, so that he gets the scraps. “Bottomless pit… all right, here you are. I spoil you rotten, y’know that?”
And his tendency to try and curl up on her tiny lap, even though he can only fit his head and maaaaaaybe his front paws on there. “Ooof! Oh, you big goof. All right, who wants an ear-scratch? Whosagoodboy? Whoosagooboyden! YOU ARE!”
And his goofy, tongue-lolling grin after he has done a good job chasing the birds off the seedlings. “That’s a lad! Good boy, Heather.”
And oh yes FINE, sure – and his teeth that can crack an ox’s thighbone in one bite. “Oh, that’s just the dog, that crunching noise – pay it no mind me dears.”
and the ranger sees him and stares.
And Gammer Greenhand notices where the ranger is looking, and waves a tiny, wrinkled hand. “That’s just Heather, the great lummox. He’s a big soft lump, but I keep him for the company, you know? It’s nice t’ have someone to talk to, at my age.”
rutobuka2
replied to your post “What kind of dogs would the different races of middle earth have? Lord…”
FOTR also has a doggo barkin at the Black Rider, looks like a mutt of some kind, very cute (maybe Hobbits have big doggos then, ironically…)
I honestly, honestly love the idea of proper, staid little Hobbits and their big ole woofinpuppers. <333
I hadn’t heard of these little bombs of awesome! What cuties!!!
They do indeed! Very stately!
also floof 🙂
I LOVE DACHSHUNDS. Little wiggly noodles of happiness!
Dwarves would adore them, oh my god.
Laketown is Pugtown, this we know 😀
Erm. I think Elves would have hunting dogs, most likely: maybe not big packs of pursuers such as beagles, but certainly retrievers, pointers and birding dogs! They had Huan, after all, that we know of, and he was a hunting hound. Hunting dogs make sense with Elven choice of weaponry and lifestyle, also.
I feel like Hobbits would go in for the big packs; the more the merrier. Farmer Maggot had his dogs, Grip, Fang and Wolf, who were intimidating dogs that he would threaten to sic on people found stealing his mushrooms. But the dogs were actually big softies who wouldn’t harm anybody. They were trained only to scare thieves, not hurt them. They were so effective at this, in fact, that Frodo was still afraid of them thirty years after his youthful mushroom-rustling misadventures 🙂
I feel like sniffers/truffle hunters would also be highly prized by Hobbits. Because FOOD. Also sheepdogs. They would LOVE smart, intuitive, sheepdogs. Oh. So. Much.
idk about Dwarves! Perhaps burrowers or ratters? I feel like they would admire the go-get-em spirit of terriers. Also, a lot of Dwarf settlements seem to end up by rivers/the sea: perhaps they like water-dogs and fishing dogs such as spaniels! Which would be sorta awesome.
I wonder if it was the ancient Numenoreans who bred the fancy show dogs. It feels like the sort of thing the Numenoreans might do. Their mutt descendants might still be sniffing around Gondor, the carefully-purebred traits and characteristics all but erased.
There’s some ideas, Nonnie! Hope you like em.
Aw Yiss 