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PostPosted: Sun Aug 24, 2003 10:55 am
by Bhairav
Heh.. just confirming :D . Oh and BTW, I see that Escher link in your signature: my sister is doing her bachelor's degree in Fine Art, and she's referring to a book on MC Escher's work right now.
It's called "The magic of MC Escher", big red hardbound book.

PostPosted: Sun Aug 24, 2003 11:22 am
by dodecahedron
i added another bit about Ancalagon, from The Silmarillion, to my previous post (in case anyone's interested).

PostPosted: Tue Aug 26, 2003 7:36 am
by dodecahedron
MediumRare wrote:I should have know that that's the source...
dodecahedron wrote:AFAIK, these two are the only named dragons in The Lord of The Rings, apart from Smaug, of course.

I guess if you add a third machine you'll have to go to something like "Ouroboros" or "Norbert".

OK now I need clarification... i don't get the references.
Norbert seems familiar somehow, but i can't put my finger on it.
Ouroboros - is this from Greek mythology? the name sounds kind of greek.

PostPosted: Tue Aug 26, 2003 7:45 am
by dodecahedron
OK i get it norbert is from Harry Potter.

no computer of mine is going to be named anything related to Harry Potter! :x

LOL i googled for norbert dragon, got 14,800 hits, turns out there is a guy named Dr. Norbert Dragon. apprently he's in the University of Hannover, he deals with theoretical physics - relativity, gravity, particles and waves, Yang-Mills theory and lots of stuff like that. etc. :lol:

PostPosted: Tue Aug 26, 2003 8:13 am
by MikeTR
dodecahedron wrote:yeah, it's obvious, isn't it? :D


Comes as a total shock to me :o.

My computer doesn't have a name right now. Never found a really good one. I thought about Morgoth, since it's got a M$ OS on it, but maybe Fangorn would be more fitting considering it's age.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 12:37 am
by CowboySlim
Mine came with names already on it: RESET and POWER
:o

PostPosted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 12:59 am
by CDRecorder
MikeTR wrote:I thought about Morgoth, since it's got a M$ OS on it, but maybe Fangorn would be more fitting considering it's age.


What does Morgoth mean? I'm assuming it's also a reference to Tolkein's books! :D

PostPosted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 5:32 am
by dodecahedron
CDRecorder wrote:What does Morgoth mean? I'm assuming it's also a reference to Tolkein's books! :D

Morgoth is the name of the Dark Lord in the First Age of Tolkien's fictional world. this is approx 6400 years before the events that take place in The Hobbit.
Sauron, the dark lord in The Lord of The Rings, was the servant/underling of Morgoth.
Morgoth's overthrow (and the related events) marked the end of the First Age.

Tolkien's book The Silmarillion tells the stories of the events that happened in the First Age, Morgoth and all the rest of them...

PostPosted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 9:31 am
by CDRecorder
I see. Thanks for the explanation! :D

PostPosted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 6:41 pm
by MikeTR
dodecahedron wrote:
CDRecorder wrote:What does Morgoth mean? I'm assuming it's also a reference to Tolkein's books! :D

Morgoth is the name of the Dark Lord in the First Age of Tolkien's fictional world. this is approx 6400 years before the events that take place in The Hobbit.
Sauron, the dark lord in The Lord of The Rings, was the servant/underling of Morgoth.
Morgoth's overthrow (and the related events) marked the end of the First Age.

Tolkien's book The Silmarillion tells the stories of the events that happened in the First Age, Morgoth and all the rest of them...


Damn, didn't even get to react myself. But I couldn't have said it any clearer myself.
Thanks dodec, BTW did you ever find that other dragon??? Guess you did, it was too easy to begin with, but I couldn't resist. :wink:

other dragons

PostPosted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 5:05 pm
by MediumRare
dodecahedron wrote:Ouroboros - is this from Greek mythology? the name sounds kind of greek.

Sorry it took so long- here's a bit of info.

During the first big Tolkien wave in the 60's, one publisher trying to cash in on the interest pushed a book as being "similar". This was "The Worm Ouroboros" by E.R. Eddison (written in 1922). This is a kind of cyclic heroic tale that starts anew once it's finished- hence the byline "the worm Ouroboros that swallows its own tail". I read it at the time but don't remember much other than that it was a big disappointment.

There are other literary dragons of course, e.g. Fafnir the guardian of the Nibelungen gold whose blood lent Siegfried invulnerability. The German children's book author Michael Ende created at least 2 remarkable characters. His "Never Ending Story" was at least as big a hit as Tolkien among the college crowd in the 70s (and is highly recommended today too- don't be put off by the film(s)). The dragon there is "Fuchur", the white dragon of luck. Mainly for "real" children is the delightful "Jim Knopf and Lucas the Locomotive Driver". The dragon there is "Frau Mahlzahn" (Mrs. Molar) who is primarily a nasty teacher who turns out to be (oh wonder) a dragon.

Fuchur is probably the most "tolkienesque" of the bunch, although Fafnir was probably the prototype. Anyway- this is getting a bit off topic, so I'll stop.

G