It all started with an Instant Message between Rachel and I. I catch
her on IM now and then. We tried to think up a catchy overall name
for the awards and were stumped. I came up with an idea I worried was
too epic: Titles for the individual awards.
So we brainstormed some categories and how to represent them with
Awards titles.
Men was pretty easy: The Faithful of Numenor, The Kings of Gondor
and Arnor, and the Ruling Stewards. The good-guys of Men-dom.
Elves were trickier, seeing as I'm anti-partial to the Noldor. But
we ended up with Elven rulers of three different realms: Ingwe in
Valinor, Elu Thingol in Doriath, and Turgon in Gondolin.
Hobbits were also easy: The Ringbearer of BagEnd, perhaps one of the
most famous (though perhaps overlooked in the Shire) hobbits, and
then Merry & Pippin in their eventual titles: The Master of Buckland
and the Thain of Tookborough.
For cultures, we picked Rohan and Numenor. Rohan was also easy with
the triumvirate of Theoden, Eomer, and Eowyn. For Numenor, we picked
only those of the Faithful: Elros, Tar-Palantir, and Tar-Miriel
For genres, we went with Humor, Drama (where we'll store Angst as
well), Romance, and Adventure.
For humor we nearly stumped ourselves, and I could still entertain
suggestions for changing out Quickbeam. Tom Bombadil is, by far, the
most humorous character, I think. Bilbo was fairly amusing as well.
Turin Turumbar obviously wouldn't fit in Humor, but he's a shoe-in
for Drama. We original had Tar-Miriel picked again because hers is a
sad story, but I changed it to Nimrodel and Amroth so as not to
duplicate award titles. And then of course we have Frodo, who can be
quite angsty in his own right.
Romance was pretty easy, too. The most famous Elf-Man unions: Beren
& Luthien, Tuor & Idril, Aragorn & Arwen.
I almost went with the Three Hunters as the first prize for
Adventure, but I couldn't come up with a 2nd and 3rd. We finally
decided upon the big battles of LOTR: The Black Gate, Pelennor
Fields, and Helm's Deep.
Crossovers is perhaps my favorite (amusement-wise). What other
movies have the cast of LOTR been in? Well, PoC, of course, and
Hidalgo is still in theaters. Had a little trouble with the third,
wanting it to be something recognizable to just about everyone. And
in the end, we went with the three hunters as JRD was in Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade.
Then for general categories, LOTR broke down easily, being a trilogy
and all: FOTR, TTT, ROTK. Rachel suggested the Ainulindale,
Valaquenta and Akallabeth for the Silm, and I picked major places
along the journey for Bilbo: The Shire, Mirkwood, and the Lonely
Mountain.
Now, we just need artists to make banners for all of these. ;-)
--Ainaechoiriel
Oh, I forgot the Horror genre. Titles named after the evils of Arda,
of course: Morgoth, the Eye of Sauron, and the Witch-King of Angmar.
--Ainaechoiriel
still cut off from her computers.