The Reckoning of Durin's Folk (a lunar-based calendar)

Adventure in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Learn more at our website: http://www.cubicle7.co.uk/our-games/the-one-ring/
Otaku-sempai
Posts: 3400
Joined: Sun May 12, 2013 2:45 am
Location: Lackawanna, NY

Re: Might Durin's Folk have used a 13-month calendar?

Post by Otaku-sempai » Fri Oct 21, 2016 8:51 pm

Thanks for the reply. Glor! I can't recall for certain if I ever gave a Dwarf-hero a Scottish accent in the days before Jackson's LotR films. I do remember attempting a bad German accent for an Ogre-mage hero named Vilmarh (named for a Devaronian bounty hunter from the Star Wars comics) when we started an AD&D campaign of all monster heroes. And I have a cleric named Connel who is basically Irish.

Image
"Call me Villy."
"Far, far below the deepest delvings of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he."

Enevhar Aldarion
Posts: 210
Joined: Mon May 23, 2016 6:25 pm

Re: Might Durin's Folk have used a 13-month calendar?

Post by Enevhar Aldarion » Sat Oct 22, 2016 8:58 am

I have been playing rpgs since the early 80's and I could not tell you the source of the Scottish-sounding dwarf, but it has been that way since my early days of gaming. I am not sure if there was a cartoon or fantasy movie that was to blame or if it was just the easiest foreign-sounding accent for Americans to use and it simply caught on and spread. Sometimes it seemed that good races used an accent that that was based on real-life English-speaking populations, while the bad races got the German or Russian accents. And goofier characters got the oddball accents, like Swedish or Indian (Asian, not American).

Otaku-sempai
Posts: 3400
Joined: Sun May 12, 2013 2:45 am
Location: Lackawanna, NY

Re: Might Durin's Folk have used a 13-month calendar?

Post by Otaku-sempai » Sat Oct 22, 2016 9:13 pm

This has been a fun and interesting digression, but perhaps we should get back on topic. Does anyone think that this calendar is something that they might like to use as background in their TOR (or AiMe) campaign?
"Far, far below the deepest delvings of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he."

User avatar
Rich H
Posts: 4162
Joined: Wed May 08, 2013 8:19 pm
Location: Sheffield, UK

Re: Might Durin's Folk have used a 13-month calendar?

Post by Rich H » Sun Oct 23, 2016 12:02 am

I think I would, even if it's just as flavour. I think even just making passing reference to it would add an extra layer of detail and verisimilitude to a campaign.
TOR resources thread: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=62
TOR miniatures thread: viewtopic.php?t=885

Fellowship of the Free Tale of Years: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8318

Otaku-sempai
Posts: 3400
Joined: Sun May 12, 2013 2:45 am
Location: Lackawanna, NY

Re: Might Durin's Folk have used a 13-month calendar?

Post by Otaku-sempai » Sun Oct 23, 2016 1:08 am

Rich H wrote:I think I would, even if it's just as flavour. I think even just making passing reference to it would add an extra layer of detail and verisimilitude to a campaign.
Would you care to take a stab at Dwarf-names for the months and weekdays? I already have Mahalsday for the first day of the week. Unfortunately, we don't have much to go on for the other Dwarf-clans beyond their common-tongue names. In addition to the Longbeards: Broadbeams; Firebeards; Ironfists; Stiffbeards; Blacklocks; and Stonefoots.

In some of Tolkien's early writings (see The Book of Lost Tales 2) he had the Longbeards, named as the Indrafangs, in Belegost. Their leader was named Bodruith. The Dwarves of Nogrod may have been the Nauglath (also Nautar), led by Naugladur. However, Nauglath might have been synonymous with the Elven term Naugrim, referring to all Dwarves. We could take Bodruith as the Father of the Broadbeams and assume that Naugladur was the First Father of the Firebeards (or vice-versa). These names are likely to all be of Elven origin.
Last edited by Otaku-sempai on Sun Oct 23, 2016 1:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
"Far, far below the deepest delvings of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he."

User avatar
Rich H
Posts: 4162
Joined: Wed May 08, 2013 8:19 pm
Location: Sheffield, UK

Re: Might Durin's Folk have used a 13-month calendar?

Post by Rich H » Sun Oct 23, 2016 1:29 am

I have a really old note/word document, so don't know the source, for when I was writing up some Erebor notes when I ran MERP in the late-90s. I therefore don't know how accurate these are but I think I tried to translate the clan names into Khuzdul or grabbed them from... somewhere:

Longbeards - Sigin-tarag
Firebeards - Urs-tarag
Blacklocks - Dush-zharum
Ironfists - Kirikh-mazur
Broadbeams - Findu-nahab
Stiffbeards - Mabal-tarag
Stonefoots - Aban-bushud

Not sure these are much help, or how accurate these are, but I do like the idea of the days of the week being based on the seven dwarf clans; and far better than using Bashful, Sleepy, Doc, etc. ;)

Those 13 months are going to be harder though!

Would this site help: https://dwarrowscholar.wordpress.com/kh ... tionaries/
TOR resources thread: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=62
TOR miniatures thread: viewtopic.php?t=885

Fellowship of the Free Tale of Years: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8318

Otaku-sempai
Posts: 3400
Joined: Sun May 12, 2013 2:45 am
Location: Lackawanna, NY

Re: Might Durin's Folk have used a 13-month calendar?

Post by Otaku-sempai » Sun Oct 23, 2016 2:00 am

Sigin-tarâg at least comes from The People of MIddle-earth as the Khuzdul for 'Longbeards'. An authentic lexicon of Tolkien's Khuzdul is very short, so I'm guessing that the bulk of those names are derived from some form of Neo Khuzdul or Quasi-Khuzdul such as this one: http://midgardsmal.com/neo-khuzdul-glossary/.
"Far, far below the deepest delvings of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he."

User avatar
Rich H
Posts: 4162
Joined: Wed May 08, 2013 8:19 pm
Location: Sheffield, UK

Re: Might Durin's Folk have used a 13-month calendar?

Post by Rich H » Sun Oct 23, 2016 12:08 pm

The makes some sense... I do vaguely remember using something online but not knowing whether it was authentic or not.
TOR resources thread: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=62
TOR miniatures thread: viewtopic.php?t=885

Fellowship of the Free Tale of Years: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8318

Glorelendil
Posts: 5162
Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2014 5:20 pm

Re: Might Durin's Folk have used a 13-month calendar?

Post by Glorelendil » Sun Oct 23, 2016 12:16 pm

I found this: https://www.quora.com/Who-started-this- ... sy-fiction but the author and one respondent both think Blizzard started it with their Warcraft franchise, so clearly they are just young'uns with no clue.
The Munchkin Formerly Known as Elfcrusher
Journey Computer | Combat Simulator | Bestiary | Weapon Calculator

User avatar
Rich H
Posts: 4162
Joined: Wed May 08, 2013 8:19 pm
Location: Sheffield, UK

Re: Might Durin's Folk have used a 13-month calendar?

Post by Rich H » Sun Oct 23, 2016 12:26 pm

... Where were you thinking of going with the 13 month names?
TOR resources thread: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=62
TOR miniatures thread: viewtopic.php?t=885

Fellowship of the Free Tale of Years: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8318

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Indur Dawndeath, Tolwen and 5 guests