Falling Stars

The cool thing about being one of the first countries on the timezone chart - you can wake up in the morning, enjoy a lovely Christmas lunch with your family, go for a leisurely walk to the park and watch the baby ducks swimming around, and get back home just as the Yuletide archives open at midnight.

Thank you, Secret Santa! Beleg Cuthalion is the most awesome elf to ever walk Middle-Earth and one of *the* reasons I love archers so much. And now he has an awesome new story! Woo!

Title: Bright Are the Stars Upon the Margin of the World
Fandom: J R R Tolkien - The Silmarillion
Rating: PG
Summary: You are children of starlight, the water sang, the fairest and most favored of Iluvatar's design. Great deeds will you bring forth upon the world. And he smiled and listened still, but in his heart, though born of starlight and culled from dream and song, he was a son of the wilderness who wist no sire but the wood, and he cared little for great deeds.

2426 stories in 1010 fandoms by 1620 authors. It's like a magical library of Stories That Never Were, only someone wished for them and then they became real.

Some people keep a list of things they want to do before they die - like go trekking in Nepal, or learn how to tango. I don't have a list like that exactly, but I do believe in trying new things.

On the weekend, I went to an archery session at the Sydney Olympic Archery Centre. It was an introductory class aimed at absolute beginners like me. There were about fifteen people there, including kids who hardly came up to my waist.

We each got a bow and six arrows and a leather armguard (to protect against the bowstring snapping back). The instructor ran through the safety procedures, then showed us how to nock an arrow to the string, how to draw it back (the string, not the arrow), and how to aim and release. We spent the next two hours shooting at ringed targets, which were set about ten metres away.

I only hit the target about two thirds of the time, but it was still pretty cool to actually learn how to use a bow. I'm not the most athletic person in the world though, and after two hours, the effort of drawing a bow again and again made itself felt. It was also a windy day - I'd tied my hair back, but my fringe kept getting blown into my eyes, which was pretty distracting. Will have to remember to pin it back next time.

All up, an interesting experience, and one I wouldn't mind repeating.

Have you ever wondered whether Legolas's braids actually serve a practical purpose? Or the considered the mechanics of switching from bow to daggers mid-combat?

Check out The Boy With The Bow, subtitled "Legolas & Stunt Archery in Jackson's Film of FoTR". This is an amazingly detailed analysis of the archery in The Fellowship of the Ring, written by an archery expert who loves the movie. It's a fascinating read. What impressed me most is how much of the archery in the movie - while looking too cool to be true - was actually carefully orchestrated and stands up under expert scrutiny. There are even details which the average viewer would miss and only an expert would catch - and yet the filmmakers took pains to get them right.

The more I learn about the making of these movies, the more impressed I am by Peter Jackson and co.

Also, from SFX Issue 100:

The on-screen Legolas melted members of both sexes into little puddles. Which is cool, elves are pretty, but then you kind of forget that he's the 1,000 year-old son of a king and a member of the most magical race on the planet. No wonder he's such a good shot. He's had a lot of practice.