Story [The Hobbit, LOTR]: A Hobbit in Ered Luin Dear Diary 2014

I'm working on my next entry today, now that I've finally found my green book with the notes in.

That would be great, if you don't mind and have the time for it. I'm working on the next post, now that I've finally found my green book with my notes in. I didn't get to do Nano in the end, as I wasn't in a mood for writing, even if I did start it. With things like Nano, you have to be in the mood for it, no distractions, and it didn't work for me this time.

 

This is what I've been working on today. A bit messy, I think, because I've not worked on this for a while, but I want to get back into working on this again, and it's only the first part of that entry.

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Kili's Journal

13th Thrimidge

I was woken early next morning by Grimkell Stonebearer. He wanted to assist Nos Grimsong in getting rid of the lynx that had been pestering his thrushes and he would very much like me to join him and the small party of hunters who were going out to track the beast. Had Gimli's new saddle been made, I would have refused because I am keen to carry on with my journey. As it is, there is very little for me to do here in Noglond, so I agreed to go. The last time I had done any serious hunting was shortly before Yule, when I was gorged by that boar which ended up on our table. If I can face that, then I doubt that a cat, or a whole bunch of them, would be any trouble for me, and if we did catch any, I could send the furs back to Mam to make into a coat or blankets for the winter.
We had breakfast, which consisted of a big slab of bread, boiled eggs, bacon and cheese - all foods which had high energy content that will keep us going throughout the day ahead. I topped my breakfast up with a hot mug of tea - mead would have been my preferred choice, but I wanted to keep my head clear. Just because we were going after lynx on our hunting trip, did not mean that there was the chance of running into something else - bears, wolves, goblins, even wild boars! Though the Blue Mountains were safer than other mountain ranges of Middle-Earth, there was still danger to be alert for.

Of my friends, only Lyngheid showed any interest in accompanying us. Ori had found that the garrison held a small library - which was poor in comparison to Balin's back home, that he wanted to investigate. I have no idea what he thought he would find there - small libraries tend not to hold much of interest, but the curious scribe wanted to look anyway. For him, books were his treasure, not gold or jewels, but if looking made him happy, then I had no qualms about him looking instead of hunting. Lofnheid, of course, wanted to investigate the library with him.

Gimli was anxious over the construction of his new saddle and wanted to over see it. As a rule, dwarves love to craft, construct and mend, and though this dwarven trait is often attributed to metal-working, jewelry-craft and stone-masonry, dwarves will gladly take an interest in any kind of craft, and there are wood-workers, tailors, spinners, toy-makers - any kind of craftsmen among our people in Ered Luin. All of us, Ori, Gimli, Fili, myself and the two lasses were at the age where we were trying to discover what our 'craft' was. Gimli had been searching for a craft to take in interest in quite diligently recently and he wanted to see how leather work was done, and this gave him the opportunity.

I had no problem with him staying behind to observe - finding a craft had been a problem for me, too. I sometimes envied dwarrows like Ori and Lofnheid - because they always seemed to certain of their path, even if, in the case of Ori, their social and financial standing had been a difficulty. I had tried many things - my sword I had forged myself, under my Uncle's guidance. A wood-worker had helped me create my bow, and I had made my archery bracers, thumb ring and gloves myself. I like taking care of the ponies, but that is not really a craft in itself, and I suppose part of my difficulty in settling on a craft is that one day I may be called up on to take the throne. There are many responsibilities that take up my time, or that I must prepare for, and as much as this puts pressure on me, the pressure on Fili is far worse. For now, I train for battle, care for the ponies and carry out what ever task I need to accomplish so that I can do these things. Music - playing my fiddle and games of hnefatafl are perhaps the only things I do specifically for my own enjoyment. Everything else as a sense of duty attached to it, as hunting these lynx do now.

 

Excellent way to stay busy until they can continue the journey. Nice insights and details about dwarfcrafts and the variety of them.

 

Sometimes, I can get so caught up doing other things, that I forget about this. I will try to update this more often. The next installment is a part of that entry. Since I don't have a proper word processor on here (or OneNote, which is what I was using before) I don't always catch misspellings, and Microsoft no longer come with Works. Don't know why.
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With breakfast out of the way, I went outside to saddle up Bungo. The pony whinnied at me in greeting and I spoke to Leiknir, the stable master who was in charge of caring for the horses, riding goats and riding pigs. Yes, I did write riding goats and riding pigs. We do use them as beasts of burden because they can be hardier and, in the case of goats especially, more sure-footed in the mountains than ponies and horses. It is a strange sight for other races and those who aren't used to seeing them being used in that way. We didn't have a lot of them, though because when my great grand father was forced to flee Erebor, we lost most of them. There are some old dwarven settlements in the Blue Mountains that are remnants from the First Age that have them, and who have joined us in Thorin's Gate and they brought their goats and pigs with them. Balin says that Cousin Dain keeps and breeds them for his army. But my great grandfather had to make do with ponies after being forced out of Erebor, and this explains why they are more prominent here now. The riding pigs are not the soft, fat domestic creatures found in the Shire and in the farms of Men, but are wild, almost like that boar that gorged me in the hunt before Yule. Mam refuses to allow Fili and myself to have one for riding because of their aggression, even though we have tried persuading her more than once since we were forty. Her opinion on the matter is immovable, and though my Uncle secretly supports us, as her sons, he acknowledges that her decision on the matter is final. It was awfully tempting to take out one of those pigs instead of Bungo while Mam wasn't here, but if something happened, I would look a fool, so I decided to play it safe - this time. Perhaps if that saddle wasn't ready, I could take one of them out tomorrow. The riding goats are stubborn, but draw too much attention outside of the dwarven kingdoms, so it makes much sense that we have ponies instead.

Leiknir appeared to be in a jovial mood this morning and he appeared to enjoy his job of caring for the creatures in his stables. He was inspecting a worn looking bridle when I entered, and shaking his head, he tossed it on to a pile of old leather that would later be used as fuel in the fire place to warm the dining hall.

"I am planning on taking Bungo out this morning. Is he ready?" I inquired of the stable master. One of the important lessons that my Uncle and Dwalin had taught us was that ponies should not be fed before we exercise them because it can give them colic, - it was particularly important when a pony was going to be exercised intensely, which you could argue was what a hunting trip was and I was making sure that he hadn't been fed before hand. I shouldn't have worried, for the stable master knew his job well.

"Grimkill informed me the night before that there may be a lynx hunt today and I decided to wait until the party had gone out before feeding them. Your pony is good to go, my lord," he bowed his head respectfully, making me a little uncomfortable. Acknowledgement of my rank almost always makes me uncomfortable. Back home, none of the other dwarves bothered with it, unless there was an emissary of some kind visiting us, usually elves from the Refuge of Edhelion, Dullond or Celondim. When we traveled, we never traveled as a royal entourage might - we went about our business like common traders and it was a method I preferred, for it drew less attention to us. My Uncle and the rest of my close relatives were too easy a target for assassins if we traveled openly displaying who were were outside of kingdoms held by dwarves. I suspect, however, with the other clans coming to Ered Luin I shall have to get used to my rank being acknowledged, though I do not have to relish it.

 

Nice insights about his feelings on standing on rank and protocol And really interesting about riding goats and pigs. That is one thing I never imagined anyone doing.

 

You get riding pigs in Warhammer. (Mainly for the Orcs, I believe), and there are riding goats in LOTRO. I'll have to dig up some images of my dwarf in that, but they don't have pigs, though. I imagine the pigs to be more like wild boars and the goats to be like ibexes rather than domestic goats, and they are featured in the Battle of the Five Armies film. The dwarves might also use them for mining, but they weren't a creation of Tolkien. I suspect that the concept was borrowed from Norse Mythology since Thor has goats which pull his war chariot - (magic goats, by the way, that can regenerate if they are eaten), and Frayer has a wild boar. It has been a while since I was on here last and I am thinking of starting this story up again, and posting more stories in this verse. They will be different to this one as my knowledge of Tolkien has increased since I started it and I've also been playing LOTRO since then. The role-playing verse is practically dead now, but I've always liked the writing environment you find on here, so even though I may go for a short while, I always find my way back.

 

Seconded, thirded, and fourthed.

 

Thanks. I do have several ideas for stories, mainly ideas I had for role-plays, but which never really got off the ground. I think I prefer fan fic writing anyway because it's more likely to be consistent (if I don't take long breaks between working on a fic) as people don't suddenly drop things, disappear or a plot dies for other reasons. I might do some work on this tomorrow if I feel up to it. (I actually need to remind myself of a lot of things since I've not done any work on this for a while. The chapters I've done but not posted were written during one of the NaNos, so they need looking at anyway.)