Molland's Community

[keeba]

I've obviously been derelict in my duty to be on top of all things Middle-earth. I've just discovered that there's a 'new' J.R.R. Tolkien book about to be published, The Children H�rin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Children_of_H%C3%BArin

This is a novel length version of the sad saga of T�rin Turambar and Nienor from The Silmarillion [and the "Narn I Ch�n H�rin" in The Unfinished Tales].  It's a great story but very sad.  Almost a Greek tragedy.  I wonder how much was written by JRRT and how much comes from Christopher T.  His fingerprints are all over everything published since JRRT's death anyway so at this point, it's probably not easy to tell.

I'd love to see an extended version of the story of T�rin's cousin Tuor as well. There's a tantalizing fragment in The Unfinished Tales of a longer version that JRRT was working on at some point but abandoned just when Tuor reaches the gates of Gondolin.  I like the story of Tuor for several reasons.  He's unique in the history of Middle-earth in that he's the only mortal man to achieve a sort of elf-hood and cross the sea into Valinor [not counting the hobbit Ringbearers, who got to go to Valinor but did not achieve immortality].  A one-time-only deal, I guess.  After Tuor, all elf/mortal marriages resulted in the elf becoming mortal, not the man becoming immortal.

I wonder who will carry the torch after CT dies. He is 82 now. I believe there was a falling out between CT and his son Simon [who is also a novelist], but there are a lot of Tolkiens. CT has probably already tapped his successor.

[Mary]

I always wanted to read the other Middle Earth books, but I just couldn't get into The Silmarillion.  I've tried several times to read it, but it's a little slow for my taste.

[keeba]

I had difficulty getting into The Sil the first couple of times I tried to read it too, but once I got past the first few chapters, I got sucked in and I couldn't put it down.  It's written in a different style than LOTR, more of a chronicle rather than a narrative with dialog.  I'm assuming that this new book is going to be a traditional novel version of chapter XXI of The Sil, "Of T�rin Turambar".  It's a fabulous story with a tragic hero, loyalty, betrayal, revenge, incest, unrequited love, lots of derring-do, tragic bad timing and a dragon.  You can't get much better than that.

The Tolkien estate issued a statement about the book here.

Three � Great Tales � were to be of most considerable importance to J.R.R. Tolkien in his creation of Middle-earth : Beren & L�thien, The Fall of Gondolin, and The Children of H�rin. As was to be expected, these tales exist in many unfinished and heavily reworked forms. As a culmination of thirty years' work on his father's papers, and having already published such fragmentary and condensed forms of the tale of T�rin as part of the development of � The History of Middle-earth �, Christopher Tolkien has now succeeded in assembling the multiple variants, unfinished pieces, and outlines of the tale to produce a standalone and complete version, entirely in the author's original words. The work therefore is accessible both as a new and complete version of the text for the Tolkien scholar, and as an entirely new tale from Middle-earth for the Tolkien reader who is not familiar with the great tales and mythology that are the roots of � The Lord of the Rings �.

[Mary]

Perhaps, I'll try it again someday. 

The next book I'm going to read (whenever it decides to come in) is a Irish history book.  I figured I should know a bit about the history since I'll be living there.  It seems only polite. 

Since The Sil reads like a history book (to me), I'm not sure if I'll be up for it anytime soon.

[keeba]

So Irish history is okay, but not Middle-earth?   

[Mary]

lol!  Well, I think the Irish folk will appreciate me knowing a bit about Ireland when I'm there for a year.  They'll just think I'm crazy if I start saying - oh yeah, you guys did that? - that's kind of like when so and so did such and such in Middle Earth!   

[keeba]

Where in Ireland are you going, Mary?  I've spent a lot of time there.  I could tell you hair-raising stories about driving on narrow Irish roads.    I've got a good Irish ghost story too.

[Mary]

I've done some driving on those roads, too!  After my mother almost had us killed a few times, I figured I should take over.  When she gets confused, she just stops the car.  NOT GOOD!!! 

I'm studying for a year in Dublin.  Other than there, I've been down in the southwest a bit.  Do you have any places you recommend seeing? 

I like ghost stories!  Tell me, please.    Did it happen to you?  Or did you just hear it from someone you know?  (If I recall correctly, you have family there, right?)

Oh, and speaking of Tolkien, I was watching the movies with my brother today.  I think it's time for a re-read this year.  I'm forgetting what was in the book and what was only in the movie.

[keeba]

Wildly off-topic ghost story follows.

This is a genuine first-hand ghost story.  My cousin Tim and his wife live in a castle in west Cork.  The original structure dates back to the 11th century so lots of history there.  I believe there are stories about death and torture and other good stuff, but I can't recall any of them now. 

Anyway, back in March of 2002, I went to Ireland with a friend.  We rented a car in Dublin and drove down to the castle, which is called Kilbrittain.  It is near the town of Kilbrittain, which is so tiny, it doesn't appear on most maps.  It's in south-west Cork, within view of the sea.  Getting there in itself was an adventure.  We could see the castle up on a hillside but we couldn't seem to get to it, no matter what road we chose.  The signs would say, Kilbrittain - 10 km, then Kilbrittain - 8 km, then Kilbrittain - 12 km.  It was as tantalizing and unreachable as Brigadoon.  Finally, we found the town of Kilbrittain and asked for directions and within five minutes, we were there.

The old castle is on the ground level.  the rooms look rather dungeon-like with thick curving brick walls.  Tim uses this area for storage mostly.  The living quarters are above in the parts of the castle built in later centuries.  To get up to the second level, you have to climb a very narrow stone spiral staircase.  It's not easy to get a suitcase up it.  The second level is lovely.  There's a long gallery down one side with windows looking out on the surrounding countryside.  The walls are rough stone and there are a couple of cruciform shaped arrow slot windows.  They've put glass in them to keep the wind out.  On the other side are the kitchen, dining room, living room, tv room, etc.  The windows on this side look towards the sea.  The main sitting room has a large fireplace where they burn peat.  There are some rather ominous gargoyle faces in the corners of the ceiling.  Tim had heat put in under the stone flooring which is great on a cold morning when you are brewing coffee in your bare feet.

The bedrooms are up another flight of stairs.  Our room was at the end of the long hallway on the right.  When Tim bought Killbrittain twenty-some years ago from the eccentric widow of an English inventor, there was no working plumbing.  Tim's sister Emer asked her, "how do you bathe?" and her terse reply was "haven't had".  Apparently, she used to prevail on the neighboring farms for baths.  Thankfully, Tim has corrected that since.  Our room had a bathroom and two beds.  The English inventor, by the way, died when he crashed his plane on the adjacent air strip.

Anyway, the second night we were there was the day before Easter.  I remember this because we drove down from Dublin on Good Friday and all the pubs were closed and we were desperate for a meal.  Some time in the wee hours of Easter morning, I woke up with the creepy sensation that someone was standing beside my bed.  The lights were out and the curtains were drawn but the blackness seemed just a little more black right next to my bed and I thought I detected movement in the shadows.  At first I thought my friend had gotten up to use the bathroom and stopped by my bed because it was too dark to see.  I even called her name.  She didn't answer.  I lay there long enough to hear my friend snoring in the other bed.  I started looking for a rational explanation.  The headlights from a passing car that made the shadows move.  But the road is very far from the castle.  A breeze that fluttered the curtains and cast a moving shadow.  The windows were closed and the curtains were still. 

Now I was starting to freak out.  I didn't want to look too closely in case I saw something I didn't want to see, but turning my back on it was even worse.  I lay there paralyzed for several minutes until I couldn't take it any more.  Then I climbed out of bed on the opposite side from the dark spot and went to the bathroom.  But I had to pass the dark spot to get to the bathroom.  I ran past and turned on the bathroom light.  Of course there was nothing there.  I left the bathroom light on all night and went back to bed.

The next morning, of course, I felt really sheepish.  I told Tim and Sylvia about my creepy encounter.  Sylvia told me that Tim's mother Nan, who claimed some experience with ghosts, saw an apparition in the very same bedroom.  On Easter morning.  And a year later, Nan died.  On Easter morning. 

Nan was a true believer in ghosts.  She lived in a supposedly haunted house outside of Dublin where she claimed to have seen an evil looking man with two nuns and a giant demonic cat.  The Hellfire Club was known to have been active in the area.  The house was exorcised several times to no avail.  Years later, a dwarf skeleton was found under the floorboards.  It was given a proper burial and I think the hauntings ceased at that time.  But Nan had sold up and moved on by then.  Killakee House is a restaurant now.  You can check it out for yourself.  I'm sure the current owners would be happy to share ghost stories with you.

Kilbrittain Castle from the road

Kilbrittain Castle from the back

I have better pictures, but with my scanner unplugged and my PC still in a state of disarray, I can't post them right now.

The Black Cat of Killakee

I like this account better:

The owner, Margaret O'Brien, did indeed see on several occasions some "big black animal." But it was artist Tom McAssey who had the most famous sighting of the Black cat of Killakee in March, 1968. After the front door had mysteriously unlocked itself, he saw a large black cat lying outside. McAssey said the cat spoke to him, saying "You don't see me." And then, when he tried to lock the door, "Leave this door open." (McAssey painted a picture of the cat, which has an eerily human face.)

(Margaret O'Brien is Nan, my first cousin once-removed.  She had McAssey's painting for years.  I'm not sure where it is now.  Maybe Tim has it at Kilbrittain.)

Killakee House and the Hellfire Club

[Mary]

That was neat and creepy!  Thanks.   

Glad you made it past the following Easter. That must have been a bit unnerving - having that in the back of your mind for a year. 

Do you have a lot of relatives that you speak with over there?  I think that must be neat.  My grandfather's family came over during the famine, but they didn't keep in contact with anyone. 

[keeba]

I actually have family on both sides but my dad's side of the family came to the US earlier and I don't have any contact with the old clan on his side.  His second cousin, however, married an Irishman and moved back to Ireland.  So I know some of her kids, though we are not really in touch.  Both of my mom's parents were born in Ireland, but I don't know anything about my grandfather's family.  My grandmother was one of twelve kids though, so there are a lot of them.  About half of them emigrated and half stayed in Ireland.  There are some in Australia and New Zealand and one guy in South Africa, I think, whom I've never met.

Yeah, the Easter thing really creeped me out.  You can be totally rational and skeptical in the bright light of day, but under the right circumstances, your mind can entertain some pretty irrational thoughts.  I'll try to avoid Easter the next time I go over there.

[Mary]

My roommate sees ghosts.  Usually, it's always the same one.  According to her, he follows her and she's seen him in our apartment.  Normally, that doesn't bother me, but the first night she told me that, I was a little freaked out.

You can apply for citizenship then.  My life would be a lot easier (and cheaper) next year if I could have dual citizenship while I'm over there.  My family came over too long ago for that.  I'll guess I'll have to go with the marrying a native route. 

I wish I had family in other countries to visit.  That would be neat.  I don't think any side is in contact with anyone.  Granted, I'd imagine it'd only be in Italy if they were.  My mom's grandparents and oldest aunt and uncle came over early in the 1900s.  All of my other ancestors came over much earlier.

I feel like we should make a new thread on Ireland, unless Mags doesn't mind the threadjacking...