Happy Birthday, Bagginses: a manip and a poem by jan-u-wine.

[mechtild]

~*~

To celebrate the birthdays of Frodo and Bilbo, this year’s mathom is a [rather silly] manip. Also presented are two poems by jan-u-wine, which are not silly at all. I am hoping her poems will dignify the manip, which is meant to be charming more than convincing. In it the illustrious cousins are wearing party crowns. Or, one could think of it as a portrait of the Halfling Prince and the, um, Halfling Regent.

Most of you will recognize the images used. Bilbo’s portrait comes from the LotR calendar made up of black-and-white photographic portraits by Pierre Vinet. Frodo's image comes from a colour portrait by Vinet, from the gorgeous series of publicity stills for FOTR of Frodo and Gandalf.

Making the manip was relatively easy. I cut out the image of Frodo, flipped it, bled out most of the colour, resized it, inserted it into place and tweaked all the parts. This meant trying to match the hues (since no black-and-white photograph is actually black-and-white), the focus and lighting. The same was done for the crown. The crown came from a site selling party favours. After I'd finished the crowns I positioned them on Bilbo and Frodo's heads, manipping in strands and wisps of hair to make the crowns sit better in their curls.


ETA: lily_the_hobbit asked below if I had a version without the crowns. In fact, I had deleted the png file with the moveable parts. Furthermore, I had done all the fine-tuning with hues and lighting after I had the crowns in place. But I thought I’d give it a go. So I cut the tops of Bilbo and Frodo’s hair out from their source pics, re-tweaked them, fit them onto the crowned version, then clone-brushed the residual crown images out. With a bit more tweaking, they looked good as new.

I hope they will do, Lily! The crownless versions are posted below the poems.



~*~








~ Bilbo and Frodo's Party Portrait: the full manip, reduced to 600 pixels wide:








For a larger version of this manip click HERE.
Be sure to click it open all the way, using the icon
hidden under the lower righ-hand corner.










~ A “close-up”: actually a head-and-shoulders crop of the full-sized image:

Jan-u-wine’s poems.


When I got the idea of making the manip for Bilbo and Frodo’s birthday, I was *hoping* that jan-u-wine might make a poem to go with a birthday manip. Happily, she made two.

To My Cousin, Upon His Birthday contains two poems, one written from young Frodo's point of view, the other from Bilbo's.

I hope you enjoy these exquisite mathoms as much as I do.





~*~

To My Cousin, Upon His Birth-day

To Bilbo:


It is our birth-day.

Ours

Like the hot,

tiny bright
eyes

of fire-works,
the word

ascends,
overwriting,
with soft hope

the shadowy
spaces that lie hidden

within.

If now,
I,

at last

truly belong
somewhere,

am twined to something,
someone,

why,
so is he.

It is a strange thing that a solitary
day,

an hour,
a minute,

took all that mattered to a child's heart
from me,

brown water closing over the heads of those
I loved.

Just as odd the chance, the solitary chance,
out of all time,

that we should share this day.


Within the sharing,
like a circle which has at last come full,
I have found myself again,

found a heart
by whose side my own
might find healing.

Rich brown

closes
over *my* head:

the beloved earth of the Hill.

At last,
I have found Home.

At last,
I have found

our

Birth-day.

To Frodo:


Decidedly,
I recall
the day the lad was born.

How should I not?

The news of it, of course,
found its way from Hall to Hill
some few days thereafter,

I wondered,
greatly, then,

that somehow I should not have known it,
upon the instant,

felt the tiny spark of his presence,
woven tight alongside my own.

Perhaps
I

did know it.

Perhaps it was the watchful
quiet

that fell upon my heart,
that day,


perhaps it was the small
happiness I felt

as the Sun touched the Hill
with the rose-gold fire

of her departure,

perhaps it fell like words
of Elvish making

from the Netted Stars themselves.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

He is
different,

this lad,

my lad,

sunny and yet shadowed,
as if

the world were a joyous
burden

to him,

as if he'd understood,
straight off,

that the pour'd music of
life

is rendered somehow
more

perfect
from the twining of the bitter
midst the sweet......

And it seems to me,
that he

hears them all,

all

the tumbling notes,
too high

(or low)
for fleshly ears to follow.

His heart
follows them,

knows them,
hears them,


answers
them.

I am glad you are here,
little cousin.

I am glad you are here,
upon the

occasion
of our

birth-day.

~*~

More of jan-u-wine's Middle-earth poetry may be found at here, at LOTR Scrapbook.








~ Bilbo and Frodo's Party Portrait *without* the crowns (600 pixels wide):






For a larger version of the “no crowns” manip click HERE.
Be sure to click it open all the way, using the icon
hidden under the lower righ-hand corner.








~ A full-sized head-and-shoulders crop of the “no crowns” version:











Related Tables of Links:



~ Frodo Art Travesty LJ entries: selected manips featuring notes on the artists, manipping techniques, and reflections or poems.


~ Album of all Frodo Art Travesties: a gallery of images only (be sure to click fully open).


~ LJ entries featuring poems by jan-u-wine.

Comments

[eandme.livejournal.com]

Yes. But she never considered publishing her poetry? I wish that so many more could have access to it. I think what has been published of "serious" nature about Tolkien and Middle Earth is too much veered toward the intellectual realm. I do love reading articles and commentaries and even linguistic analysis to do with Tolkien's sub-creation, but I think there is a real gap to be filled in terms of understanding with the heart. Most of that is shared online, and only ever reaches very few people. I have to say, there is a real and tangible vacuum there too, in what is available online, in the sense that 95% or so of the creative force online is veered toward the sexual exploration of Tolkien's characters. I don't mind it as such, I just long for more of what *I* take from Lord of the Rings, which is so much more than that. Jan-u-wine's poetry has spoken to my longing, and like you say, she is so close to the characters and she brings us into that closeness. She does not give stones to those who ask for bread, if you will excuse a biblical saying.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

But she never considered publishing her poetry? I wish that so many more could have access to it.

As wonderful as it is, and as respectful of Tolkien as it is, I don't think her poetry could be published as long as it is illegal to publish pieces based on works still under copyright. Just as Tolkien fanfic can't be published, neither can poetry based on Tolkien. Unless they have changed the laws since I last looked. :)

I have to say, there is a real and tangible vacuum there too, in what is available online, in the sense that 95% or so of the creative force online is veered toward the sexual exploration of Tolkien's characters. I don't mind it as such, I just long for more of what *I* take from Lord of the Rings, which is so much more than that. Jan-u-wine's poetry has spoken to my longing, and like you say, she is so close to the characters and she brings us into that closeness. She does not give stones to those who ask for bread, if you will excuse a biblical saying.

I don't know what's out there in Tolkien fanfic, Eandme. I have read mostly romantic stories myself, but not that many of any sort. But when I used to look for stories at West of the Moon, it seemed to me that there were *tons* of stories and poems in the "Gen" section. This would include stories portraying Frodo in heterosexual relationships, but these were very few. Most of the stories in the Gen section--going by the posted ratings--had no erotic content.

I could be wrong, but I suspect that what you yearn for, and what Jan's writing satisfies, is a thirst for truly adult Tolkien-based literature. By "adult" I mean works written about adult themes in an adult manner. I don't equate "adult" with "eroticized". A story can be NC-17 and still be very childish in its perspective, making Tolkien's largely adult themes trivial or non-existent. Some Gen fic can be just as childish and far from Tolkien's original.

I think an "adult" work is adult according to its perspective and what it chooses to touch upon in any given story setting, whether it depicts a heated tryst or a hobbit putting out lettuce seedlings. No matter its surface subject, an adult story is going to be threaded through with adult themes, all of which thread through Tolkien's work: loss and the passing of time, the fading of what is beautiful, dealing with failures and uglinesses and sorrows, and learning to experience joy in ordinary things. I think this theme is very strong in Jan's work. This joy can be evoked by the turn of a head, the green-glossy back of a beetle, the sight of a favourite cup set out upon the tea tray when any vessel might have been offered. I think Jan's poem's capture the spirit of this joy--so keen and poignant touching upon small things--and make it a lucid, poignant experience for the reader.

I think she shows in her poetry the "old soul" Frodo is said to have, "old" not because he is prematurely aged or broken down or astonishingly wise, but in the way he exemplifies this "adult" attribute I am trying to describe. In spite of, or because of, what he has been through, he emerges with a keener (rather than dulled) sense for perceiving and rejoicing in these little things. When I was a child I ran heedless across lawns or fields, trampling little flowers and plants in order to get to whatever was the Great View. I still love a great view, but now I can appreciate the less spectular things to see and smell and touch along the way. Frodo seems to have been able to see these things, in an acute way, from early on. Or he does in our imaginations, and certainly in Jan's poetry. His early sensibility only seems to grow--it is not extinguished by what life has dealt him, or, he doen't *let it* become extinguished.

Well, I have rambled on! But thanks for the goad, Eandme. You make me think. :)