A - Z Challenge: T is for Thing and also for Tolkien, J.R.R

IS FOR

THING [1]

PART I:

        WHAT IS IT?

A thing is not a thing.  Nor is it a thing and it certainly isn't the Thing [2]


To clarify:   The word thing has several different meanings depending on where you are and what your doing at the time.




To clarify still further: A thing is not a thing, a Norwegian Sweedish jazz band.  Nor is it a thing-in-itself and it certainly isn't the Thing, Benjaman Grim of the Fantastic Four.




Now that we've got all that straightened out I can finally reveal that a thing was the governing assembly made up of the free people in the community and presided over by lawspeakers.  It was held in a thingstead which, as far as my "exahustive" research can tell means "a place where the thing happens"

        WHERE DO YOU GET IT?

It comes down to us from the lands of the Norse although over time it  filtered through the Germanic tribes and was also introduced into some Celtic societies.  In these modern times the thing lives on in the official names of national legislatures as well as political and judicial institutions in the Nordic countries.

        USING IT IN REAL LIFE:

• Essentially the thing is a parliament at its most basic level.  There are still hierarchies and the usual politics that you get with any gathering but on the whole it was a place for solving disputes and making laws.
  A famous incident took place when Þorgnýr the Lawspeaker told the Swedish king Olof Skötkonung that the people, not the king, held power in Sweden; the king realized that he was powerless against the thing and gave in.

        USING IT IN WRITING:

• As I've noted in a few other posts over the course of this marathon, anywhere you get people sooner or later you get politics and you can't have politics without plot [3]  It may be that everyone smiles and nods at the concept of one man, one vote but many a closed door has hatched a devious scheme.
  
• The easiest situation to imagine is that your hero has a grievance against someone of much higher standing than him and the thing is the only place where he might be heard in relative safety. [4]
  
• Perhaps the lawspeaker is the baddie.  What do the people do when he begins his grab for power protected, as he is, by the law of the land?
  
• Don't forget the magical element. [5]  It might be that the magical races of the ancient land could hold a thing, or attend one, to air their grievances against a particular group of humans for some wrong either actual or imagined. [6]

        MIGHT ONE TAKE OVER THE WORLD WITH IT?

PART II:

T

is also for

TOLKIEN, J.R.R [7]

I'll make it easy for you.  Tolkien is great.  The lord of the rings is a masterpiece.  Not just because of the running battles or the quest to destroy the ring [8]
But as well as that.


The entire war for the ring also dominates the entire world.  Saruman is the extreme version of the world of man with his reliance on machinery while Sauron is the extreme version of the world as it would be run on magical lines.
The elves are leaving man to his own devices and in a few generations they'll be nothing more than a memory.


The same thing has already happened, to a much lesser degree, to the hobbits although much of this is down to their reclusive natures.


I would, could and do strongly recommend this book to everyone.  but especially mothers to be.  Forget Mozart for babies, Tolkien for infants is just what every child needs.


NOTES:

1. I might have gone with Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu, which is the longest placename in New Zealand but I've been informed that the residents of Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu aren't prepared to rise up and take over the world. 
   
   The only logical conclusion I can draw from this is that this area will be the seat of the resistance when our plans finally come into effect.
2. I hope your happy Dr Suess!
3. and Iics.  which is a very rare creature found only in the imagination of a certain rainforest monkey.
4. I say relative because no baddie worth the name is going to let this jumped up farmer just stand there and ruin everything.  At least not when they've got a henchman named "Tiny"
5. For many people there's a direct line between "Celtic" and "magic"  sometimes its easier to just roll with it.
6. Please, whatever you do, don't let the elves get on the mike.  They'll just start moaning about how they are the last of the great races and how humans have spread so quickly.  (Note to any elves reading this: Yes. we know that you're a dying race.  The great Elf/Human wars are finished and we won.  Get over it already)
7. Oh yeah.  Nobody saw this one coming.
8. Note to any of Saurons minions reading this: this is an example of humour.  Certainly nobody would be silly enough to try and destroy the masters precious.  Up with Sauron!

The Tumultuous Tom-tommy Tortoise,
who beat a Drum all day long in the
middle of the wilderness.