[ SECRET POST #5556 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5556 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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[The Mystic Nine]




















Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 12 secrets from Secret Submission Post #795.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

05. https://i.imgur.com/6NT2Cvz.png

[(Anonymous)]

That skeleton is Baldor, son of Brego. He went to the Paths of the Dead because of a drunken bet he made while celebrating the newly-built Meduseld. And obviously Aragorn knew who the skeleton was because a) legend has it that nobody after Baldor ventured on those paths and Aragorn knows all the legends and b) Aragorn clearly recognises the skeleton as somebody from the nobility of Rohan, because he mentions the burial mounds of the House of Eorl and the flowers that grow there but will never grow next to this dead dude.
It's all there in the book, OP ;)

[(Anonymous)]

But does it explain what's on the other side of the door?

[meadowphoenix]

Tolkien had an unfinished essay in which he explained that the door lead to a Sauron temple and that unknown assailants broke his legs and left him there to die.

[(Anonymous)]

That rules

OP

[(Anonymous)]

I think I love you, omg

Re: OP

[starwatcher]

This secret reminds me of a poem that's haunted me since childhood. The relevant bit is --

"Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word," he said.

He's calling at the door of a deserted house and the questions tumble through my mind. How long did it take him to come back to 'keep his word'? Why/how is everyone gone? It seems to have been important -- why did it take him so long to come back? What happened?!?!?

I'm with you, OP -- digging at my curiosity (for about 55 years), but never to be satisfied.

Re: OP

[tabaqui]

That is an awesome poem - i love W. de la Mare!
I found this, which doesn't explain, but is still a good read.

https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/walter-de-la-mare/the-listeners

Re: OP

[starwatcher]

Thank you. As you say, doesn't explain, but it is interesting.

I don't have much exposure to de la Mare, but this one has stuck with me since childhood. I guess it's the unanswered questions that stick in our minds.

Re: OP

[tabaqui]

I first read his poetry (in snippets) as chapter headings in 'Watership Down', and from there I was hooked.

This is the one that stuck with me forever, basically. The stanza that starts 'When the green field comes off like a lid' is what was quoted in WD, and it gave me chills.

http://figures-of-speech.com/2018/01/furies.htm

Re: OP

[starwatcher]

That is... kind of spooky/creepy. I can see why it made such an impression. I find the last verse particularly threatening and ominous.

When I was in 6th grade, my teacher would write a poem on the board (every other Friday), we'd copy it into notebooks, and needed to be able to recite it the next Friday. A lot of old classics -- The Tyger by William Blake, The Way through the Woods by Kipling, and I Remember, I Remember by Thomas Hood are three that stick in my memory. I even wrote a fanfic based on "The Way through the Woods", many, many years later.

Poetry's fun, isn't it? <g>

Apologies for the late reply. I wasn't in a good headspace, and bounced off the poem the first two times I tried to read it. But this morning I can appreciate it, and yeah... powerful.

Re: OP

[tabaqui]

Arrgh, sorry, that's WH Auden, wrong poet! Heh. His 'Napoleon' stood out for me in the book....
There was also Thomas Hardy and Congreve and Robinson Jeffers, Dylan Thomas and Jane Austen and Aeschylus...all things I hadn't known before, and the bits of which presented as epigrams made me just want to read *more*.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

The er, WHOLE POINT of the poem is that there is no definitive story to it.

Re: OP

[starwatcher]

That may be true... but it doesn't stop me wondering what the story / answer is!

[(Anonymous)]

Of course. Can't leave anything to just be mysterious or anything.

[(Anonymous)]

Holy unreadable text Batman

[(Anonymous)]

AAAAH MY EYES!

Transcript

[(Anonymous)]

There is something from the original ROTK book that still bugs me.

When Aragorn & Co are in the Paths of the Dead, they come across the skeleton of a warrior lying in front of a sealed door, with his hand bones stretched out like he was clawing at the door in his last moments.

Aragorn goes "Hm, wonder who this guy was and what he was doing down here. Wonder what was on the other side of that door that he wanted to get to so much. Oh well, not my problem," and we never hear about it again.

That's been digging at my curiosity for over 20 years now and I know there will never be a reveal.

Re: Transcript

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you, oh great eyesight saver.

Re: Transcript

[arcanetrivia]

Bless you

[(Anonymous)]

This is just to say that, for a second, I thought the title of the book beneath the secret was "Handbones Return He was Doing" which I tried for shamefully long to parse.

[(Anonymous)]

That is a prompt if I ever saw one.

[arcanetrivia]

That's when Aragorn takes the hand from the skeleton and takes it back to Rohan.

[(Anonymous)]

Ooh, I thought it was Yoda in a crossover.

[arcanetrivia]

You know, you might be right XD