So I was reading/listening to Midwinter and I was kind of wondering if you had any general ideas on what the elvish dance would look like and the kind of music it would be to? I really want to try and recreate it to the best of my ability!

Hey Nonnie – I hope you liked Midwinter 🙂

I went for a little expedition through my blog just then, and do you know? I had totally forgotten that I had written this! It’s a general description of what I imagine Elvish dancing to look like, and the themes of the most popular holiday dances!

Dang, my memory is slipping, hehehhe.

Music-wise, I feel that the Elves would be more inclined towards collaborative music that ebbs and flows and never quite reaches a “formal” climactic moment as is common in Western classical tradition… I don’t think there’d be huge orchestras but instead small quartets, trios, chamber groups. A small group of virtuosos who know each other’s talents and thoughts so intimately that they are able to grow the music as they play it. Indonesian gamelan springs to mind, as does Bugaku (Gagaku) or Indian classical music. Music that takes its inspiration from the sounds of nature, too: the calls of birds and forest creatures, the long slow growth of trees, the sound of waves crashing upon a sandy shore…

I don’t think they’d be into short music – even folk/history songs (such as the Lay of Luthien) go on FOREVER AND EVER oh god so many stanzas, and so perhaps instrumental music is the same: slowly building, forming and increasing in intricacy, undercurrents of passion that never pierce that sense of continuity and movement… before it breaks apart, melding again in a new configuration…

Vocal music is obviously a massive part of their lives: Legolas never stops singing, and neither does Galadriel! So there’d be different songs for different clans of elf, I guess… some would be formal and some would be ‘folk’… the word ‘Lay’ suggests a bardic tradition, too.

Tra La La La Lally is an outlier and should not have been counted? IDK

We know that Maglor played harp. He also composed the lament ‘Noldolantë’… I have a feeling that a lot of the Noldorin songs are laments, tbh.

~~Sindar songs are likely ‘I’ll get you for that, you dirty rat’ lmao~~

I think that instruments like zithers and kotos would be popular: both need a lot of patience and delicacy to learn, and are incredibly evocative and beautiful. Too, we saw that harpist and flautist in Rivendell! So we can assume that those are instruments that they use commonly 🙂

IDK, that’s just some random thoughts thrown together. I hope it’s helpful, Nonnie! I am SO excited to see what you create, it is sure to be amazing! *waves pompoms*

Frerinith is really into tea parties. He has tea parties at daycare and tea parties at home. His family members have tea parties all the time – picture Dwalin shoved into a tiny toddler chair with Frerinith, Wee Thorin, and Mumblebee the Bumblebee as table companions, drinking imaginary tea out of the lovely child-sized (and -proof) tea set Dori gave Frerinith for his birthday. (Dain has totally done a few, and loves it). Thorin is laughing his head off.

sldjflshdfgash

Dwalin would be the best at a child’s tea party, though. He would. He’d be determinedly solemnly committed to the whole thing, drinking the tea and clinking the cups and everything.

(he gets the faint feeling that someone is laughing at him – but damn it, his little pebble wants him to take the “cake and bishcits!” and how can anyone say no to that little face???)

I think Narvi would be having rather fun with Legolas and Gimli’s romance XD

I would think that Narvi figured it out so early. She’s not tremendously observant when it comes to people, but hey. She is a genius, and this situation is not dissimilar to something… important.

And then she would have watched with some small amusement as every other member of the Dead Dwarf Peanut Gallery figured it out, one by one.

(She probably invented popcorn just for this purpose.)

Dain has a stash of pig toys that he commissioned from Bofur. He keeps a few on him to hand out to kids. They’re really cute toys – the limbs move, and the tails have little springs.

AWWW I WANNA PIGGY TOY TOO DAIN

Since dwarfs have stone-sense, would I think make sense (haha) if dwarlfings were more percepting of how other dwarfs feel because they spend the majority over their time in their arms

Ooooh, what a fantastic concept, Nonnie!

Bofur probably sells little costume sets at his toy shop. Like, a Bilbo costume -hobbit feet, a cape, a little toy sword.

OH MY GOD THIS IS AMAZING

baby Dwarves dressed as BILBO

the bubs with curly hair and/or not much beard yet OH JUST SO PROUD because they “look just like the Dragon Burglar, Mama!”

(Bilbo tagging along with Thorin one day to haunt Erebor, and spluttering for half an hour solid, while Thorin tries very hard not to beam at him and at the bubs dressed as his little thief and isn’t it a lovely day today?)

So Gimizh had a hair-chewing phase too? He probably especially liked Bofur’s mustache. And Gimli’s nose.

Gimli’s beard was probably a fave. Gimris despaired of Gimli’s neglect for his hair and beard even before a small tot got his teeny teeth onto it – post-Gimizh, she’s resigned to having the scruffiest Dwarf in Middle-Earth for a brother.

Dis doing knitting as an act of fury for her family. Thorin has a jumper. Vili is kept in mittens. Dwalin gets hats. Fili and Kili have adorable baby blankets and hats and tiny tiny socks (imagine little preemie baby Kili swimming in newborn-sized knitwear). Oin and Balin get knitted nose-warmers as jokes – these are a real thing!! Gloin has a nice scarf.

holy crud I just looked up nose warmers that’s hilarious

Gimizh has such a hero-worship for Nori that Dori ends up giving him A piece from Nori’s collection of little boxes. (Nori loves little boxes, especially with valuable shiny things inside) Gimizh treasures it, and keeps tiny treasures in it. Balinith also has one of Ori’s ink pots, a nice little purple glass one.

sdfjgslmhdgsdhgsahf oalksdhflajshda

meanwhile, Dori is simultaneously proud that his brothers are not forgotten – far from it! – and wistful. Because Nori would have been a terrible influence on Gimizh, but my word, they both would have loved it. And Balinith and Ori would have been happily lost for DAYS in the library together.

Little Frerinith who sees that someone is unhappy. He clambers in their lap and does cuddles. He may try to put a candy in their mouths – perhaps the one that was just in his own mouth. He does aggressive cuddling. And possibly napping.

Frerinith is an implacable snuggler. You will be snuggled.