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"Imladris: T.A. 2944: "Ada, why did you and Nana name me Estel? It's such a stupid name."top
Introduction
So begins a delightful tale by Fiondil1, writing in Stories of Arda as part of his series of stories entitled "Tales From Vairë's Loom: On the Naming of Names."" In this story, a thirteen-year-old Estel2 bemoans to his Ada, Elrond, that "Estel" is indeed a stupid name. Estel wishes he had a real name, pointing out to Elrond that "Estel" is not even meant to be a name, referring as it does to a philosophy of hope. The story is well-written, and full of irony to the reader somewhat familiar with the characters and their history in not only the LoTR, but the Silmarillion and other writings of Tolkien as well. Estel comments to his Ada that he would like to have a name like that of his brothers, Elladan, or Elrohir, or even Elrond himself, but that "Estel" is a sorry substitute. Of course, Elrond cannot yet tell his thirteen-year-old son about his true origin, or his "real" name, and of course the reader of Fiondil's story knows that someday Estel will in fact be named "Elessar", fulfilling his desire to have an "El-" name like his brothers and father, and which Estel's own son one day will bear. Furthermore, Elrond wisely chose a name for his adopted son that reflected both the boy's hopeful nature and his future as the hope of Elves and Men. The humorous end of Fiondil's story is ironic itself: in completing his homework assignment from Erestor, Estel misspells his own name, Aragorn, without knowing that it is in fact his "real" name!
This story gives one pause for thought, because a reader of the Fellowship of the Ring would probably remember the poignant scene in which Galadriel gives Aragorn the actual Elessar, and tells him to take the stone and the name that goes with it, "Elessar" as it was foretold that he would one day bear that name. Who is Galadriel referring to? Who made this bold prediction that a mortal man, even if distantly descended from the Elves himself, and a true descendant of Elrond's brother Elros, would one day receive a high Elvish name? Who foretold that one would come to receive this gemstone from Galadriel? Who foretold what, and when?
1In preparing this essay, I attempted to contact Fiondil at the Stories of Arda website, in order to gain his approval for using a quote from his story as part of my work. Much to my dismay, I discovered that Fiondil had passed away on 28 January 2015. I then wrote to the Moderator of the Stories of Arda site to confirm the use of Fiondil's quote.
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Image: "That is me in the middle receiving my Viet Era Vet pin at the local VA office."
Image: Business card Feb 2023: consulting for geologic and environmental analysis.
Image: Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists booth in June 2023 in downtown Denver. You can see part of my geologic hammer behind my left hand. We had the longest line of any booth for folks to play spin the dinosaur. Everyone got a prize of some type....I told those who landed on a "spin again" choice had actually gotten that newly discovered dinosaur, the "Spinagainosaurus". I worked the morning shift on Sunday morning....we recorded over 1,100 visitors in just four hours.