Hard Words Break No Bones

I am currently reading Erik the Red and Other Icelandic Sagas translated by Gwyn Jones. In fact, I just finished 'Hen-Throrir', the first saga in the book, and one line in particular jumped out at me:

Hard words break no bones.

Mostly the line struck me because of its inherent poetry. I don’t really know anything about Icelandic poetry, though I have studied a bit about Anglo-Saxon verse, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the two shared a lot of similarities. Most lines of Anglo-Saxon verses are divided in half, with each half containing some form of alliteration. Such an arrangement can be seen in this line.

In the first half of the line, both words end in ‘rd’ (poetic alliteration doesn’t demand that the consonantal repetition be in the first letter). The second half, of course, contains the double ‘b’ as well as picking up some nice assonance with the repeated long ‘o’ sound from ‘no’ and ‘bones’.

These elements caused this little five word phrase to bounce around in my head for days after reading it.

The other notable thing about the line, and perhaps the more immediately obvious to most people, is that it is a much more compact form of the children’s taunt ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me’. This little taunt also features a lot of alliteration, although its meter is probably a bit more modern.

I don’t know how much of the line is the responsibility of the translator and how much came from the original writer, but either way, it’s a fantastic bit of phrasing, that just seems perfect for harsh and often cruel world of the Icelandic sagas.

Bike Miles: 9,202

To be a modern Renaissance Troll, it is important to mix physical accomplishments with the mental and artistic ones. I must admit, over the years, this has not been my strong point. Since it looks unlikely that I will play softball this year due to time commitments, this puts a lot of pressure on my one other athletic pursuit of cycling.

This time last year, I was tallying up over fifty miles as week on my commute to and from work. However, a bad winter, a broken wrist, and an office move a mile farther away at the top of an agonisingly steep hill has dropped that average considerably. At present, I’m averaging two days of cycling to work a week (which is 30 miles), but even that has proved tough on my psyche. That last mile of climb up to my office is so dang hard, it really takes a lot of the fun out of it.

Still, with spring truly descended upon England, I am feeling the itch to get up on my bike more often. I am still hopeful to hit my long-term goal of 10,000 miles by the end of the year.

A Simple Warrior of Rohan

One of the challenges of collecting Games Workshop, Lord of the Rings figures is the size inconsistency within the range. This is especially noticeable between the older miniatures (especially the plastics) and the newer figures. It is a shocking example of the miniature hobby concept of ‘scale creep’.

Some people aren’t bothered by such issues and happily play with figures of wildly different sizes. Apparently, I am not one of these. I threw out all of my plastic warriors of Gondor because they were so small, though happily, in that case, there are enough metals available to collect those instead. However, when it came to Rohan, most of the basic troopers, both mounted and on foot, are small plastics. I tried, but I just couldn’t deal with it. So, I started looking for substitutes.

After a few weeks of searching and acquiring samples, I think I have found my warriors of Rohan with Musketeer Miniatures. I painted up my first one a couple of days ago, and I’ve got to say, I’m thrilled by these figures. This figure is actually a ‘Romano-British’ infantryman, but most of the figures I eventually use will probably come from the Goth range.  Between all of Musketeers dark age ranges, there are lots of suitable figures both mounted and on foot.

I can’t praise these figures highly enough. The detailing is so crisp that they are a real joy to paint. Obviously, I painted my warrior in a very basic way, but I still think it looks fantastic. The figures don't come with weapons, so you have to supply your own. You can get spears, but in this case, I went with a plastic Viking axe. It is perhaps also worth noting that the hands come completely closed, but are easy to drill out. This might be a turnoff for some people, but I really like it as you can drill the hole to fit whatever size weapon you want, and not have the weird opened-handed look you get with some miniatures

I am not completely happy with the shield. It was an attempt to paint the Uffington White Horse, which my wife and I cycled to from Oxford last year. I messed up the head a bit, but otherwise it is not a terrible rendering. It just seems to leave the shield a little open and plain. Partly this is because the boss forced the painting to go over the top, leaving the bottom open. If I were to do it again, I think I would, perhaps, paint a border first. Anyway, I don’t dislike it enough to change it.

Size wise, I have included a comparison shot between the warrior and Beregond, a metal miniature from the GW LOTR line. As you can see, the sizes are pretty close. Height is near spot on. The warrior of Rohan is slightly broader (which is probably correct anyway) and has slightly more exaggerated hands and head, but neither are noticeable enough to bother me.

Although Rohan is not the next thing up on my painting table, I am already looking forward to getting some more Musketeer minis to create my Rohirrim.

Witch-King Conversion

There is only one thing I didn’t like about Peter Jackson’s interpretation of the Witch King in his films, and that was the massively over-sized flail he wielded in his fight against Éowyn. The book says he used a ‘mace’. While the term mace is occasionally used to describe a one-handed flail, it more often refers to a metal club with some kind of spiked ball on the end. That is the kind of weapon that the Witch King used in my imagination, and that’s the weapon I wanted him carrying on my figure.

So, calling on the generosity of a fellow hobbyist, I acquired a plastic mace from a Fireforge plastic kit. It came attached to the arm, but that was no biggie. After cutting off the Witch King’s hand, I replaced it with the hand holding the mace. Just a quick pin and glue job. It’s a simple conversion, but I think it makes for a much improved figure. I think he is actually more menacing wielding this more believable mace than the over-sized flail.

Nazgul aren’t really much fun to paint. Even with a bit of extra silver on the Witch King, he is still basically a bunch of black robes. Still, a figure I’m glad to add to my collection. 

The Royal Guard of Tolfolas (Join the Glaurung)

When Prince Althérion of Tolfolas joined the heroes of the Glaurung, he also brought a small contingent of his household guard with him. Although young, these soldiers are highly trained, battle-tested, and above all, devoted to the protection of the Prince.

* * *

As soon as I painted up the figure for Prince Althérion, I knew that I also wanted to include some soldiers of Tolfolas among the crew of the Glaurung. I wanted the figures to be distinct from the soldiers of Minas Tirith, but also, because they are mainly dressed in blue, I didn’t want them mistaken for soldiers of Dol Amroth either. After seeing what was available, I bought a pack of soldiers of Arnor.

  

The only thing I didn’t like about these figures was their spears. In general, I don’t like metal miniatures holding spears in one hand. They invariably get bent and never get straight again. (This happens to all metal miniature weapons, but looks worse with spears). So, I clipped off their spears and gave them each a short, heavy sword. I thought this weapon was a good fit with the heavy shield. I also gave the swords long hilts so they could be wielded two-handed, should a solder be caught without his shield.

These figures were relatively quick to paint, as they are predominately silver and blue, without too much detail. The only exception is the shields, which were a bit tricky to paint with their intricate decoration. I suppose these are symbols of Arnor, but they meant nothing to me, so I’m happy to have them represent the Princedom of Tolfolas.

With these guys finished and ready to sail, I’ve only got two figures left to paint to reach the full complement of thirty that I wanted for the Glaurung.

The ship is almost ready to sail. 

Painting Mahud

Since I had so much fun assembling my first two Mahud warriors the other day, I decided to move them to the front of my painting queue.

There is very little information regarding the warriors of Far Harad. Tolkien mentions that some fought at the battle of the Pelennor Fields, saying they were ‘black men like half-trolls with red tongues and white eyes...’ It’s not a lot to go on.

In the movie, we see a couple of men from Far Harad serving as drivers for the Mumaks. Both are dark-skinned, bald and covered with garish red and white face paint. It’s a rather effective ‘warrior look’ in my opinion, and I decided to use it as the basis for my own warriors.

For the most part, painting these figures was a little bit dull. Since they are mostly naked, there isn’t a lot of detail to pick out, which is my favourite part. It was only after I got the basic flesh and clothes finished that I really enjoyed it. With my red and white paint, I went to town painting little dots and lines on them, trying to give them that fierce warrior look. For awhile I didn’t think it was working, but when I put a couple of white dots under their eyes, the figures really seem to come together.

I think the key for me is to not paint too many of these figures at one go. If I space them out, I am actually more likely to maintain my interest. Anyway, these are the only two I’ve got constructed at the moment, and there are plenty of other figures waiting in the queue.

Making Mahud

Recently, me and a friend decided to create small, Lord of the Rings theme forces to play Lion Rampant, a new set of medieval wargaming rules, set to publish later this year in the Osprey Wargames series. After thinking it over, I decided on Far Harad for two reasons. First, I will be able to reuse all of the figures for the Glaurung campaign. Second, I liked the variety of troop types available: half-trolls, camel riders, lightly infantry, and, in theory, a Mumak.

There was only one problem with my selection. Assembling a Far Harad force of any size, using the official GW figures is tough. Not only are they expensive, but there are only three different basic infantry figures available.

So, first I sketched out what the core of my raiding force would contain:

3 Camel Riders

3 Half Trolls

18 Light Infantry

The good news was that I already owned 1 Camel Rider and 2 Half Trolls. So, I splashed a little cash and bought 2 more Camel Riders, another pack of Half Trolls, and one pack of 3 infantry. Those 3 infantry would serve as my sergeants, each leading a squad of five men. Then I turned my thoughts to acquiring the other 15 infantry.

I was pretty sure I wanted plastics, and the closest plastic figures to the Far Harad figures in look are Perry Miniatures plastic Sudanese (which isn’t that surprising since the Perry’s also sculpted the GW figures).

To my eyes, the warriors of the Mahud (as GW have named the people of Far Harad), have two distinguishing features, their wicker neck decorations and their large wicker shields. It is my desire to keep this as the common element of the force.

This morning I set to work on my first models. I started with the camel rider, because he was an easy little conversion. This figure came wielding a blow-pipe. I’m sorry, but I just don’t think the blow-pipe is really a war weapon. I discarded the arm and replaced it with a Sudanese spear arm. The consistent sculpting means it looks perfect.

Then I set about the harder work. I assembled a couple of Sudanese, using only the bald heads and the bare-chested torsos. I rolled a little noodle of green-stuff, which I wrapped around their necks, and did my best to texture. Hopefully, when I paint them, that texture will show through and make them look at least similar to the GW models.

For shields, I gave them Zulu shields from the plastic kit from Warlord Games. The only downside to this, is that most of the shields in the box are attached to forearms. For one figure, I was able to use a free shield and glue it straight to his Sudanese arm. For the other, I had to construct a shoulder out of green-stuff to fill the gap between the torso and the forearm. This is stretching my sculpting to the limit, but it doesn’t seem to have turned out too badly.

So far, I’m happy with my work, but the ultimate test will come when they are painted...