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z-h-i-e · 4 months

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Character Study: Thranduil Headcanons

I don't recall how far back I wrote this, but I reposted it on March 8, 2011 on Yahoo!Groups. Of course, that's gone, so now I drop it here, with updates for 2024, because a few things have changed since I started writing Thranduil into stories over 20 years ago.

Author: Zhie

Character: Thranduil

What does your character look like, how do they dress, what are their mannerisms, how would you describe their voice, what is their personality like, what kind of day-to-day problems do they face, and how do these problems affect them?

I see him as fairly proper, and not one who likes those fancy robes Elrond wears. He's a 'say yes to pants' kind of guy. He is very patient, but at the same time, once he has an opinion it can be difficult to sway him. I kind of have Otto Preminger's voice stuck in my head for him, thanks to the cartoon. Day-to-day, when in Middle-earth, he deals with running a kingdom, which he does very systematically and very diplomatically. He's very organized, and really gets into whatever sort of work he is doing. (I don't always directly say what a person's occupation is, but I like to give everyone an occupation. In Doriath, I had him as a sort of law librarian/paralegal, and eventually move him up to being the Middle-earth equivalent of a lawyer.)

2024 addition: By the time I get him to Valinor, he's an extremely formidable lawyer, and an expensive one. I also have it that he keeps many, many horses that are expertly trained and can be rented for journeys, and thus runs the Valinor equivalent of Uber. Eventually I have plans to have him move up to the level of Magistrate.

When and where was your character born?Due to a lot of storytelling stuff my brother and I came up with before I started putting fanfic down on paper, we decided that Thranduil would be born in Valinor, and made him just a little younger than Ecthelion and Galadriel, his best friends when he was growing up. He's a few hundred years older than Celeborn.

What problems did your character face growing up?

Not many. The worst problem was probably dealing with the punishments from going along with whatever mischief Ecthelion was causing, or from kissing too many girls and making them run off startled or screaming.

What are their interests? What are they good at? What are their personal strengths and weaknesses?

Great diplomat. Excellent public speaker. Not so good at keeping prisoners safely locked up *coughgollumanddwarvescough* He likes shiny things. He doesn't particularly like war, but he's good at combat. He likes to drink, he's a wine connoisseur. He also likes to sing.

Besides being a lawyer, he has a fair amount of knowledge about healing. Most of it was learned non-traditionally, from observation or just trying things. He ends up aiding in the delivery of both of his sons, as well as countless other elflings later (including a daughter Galadriel has later in Valinor)

2024 edition: This is part of what I leaned into in Phoenix, where he offers to accompany Finrod around Tol Eressea when Finrod is still recovering from some injuries he has. Thranduil is very much a person I think strives to take care of people he is close to or likes or whom he feels some responsibility for -- he was a dad mode king. In the story Tusk, I have a side story where Glorfindel learns that in the depths of Mirkwood, there's an area where there are half-orcs and some full orcs, the products of soldiers who fell in love with the enemy and brought them back to Mirkwood, and Thranduil finds a way to keep these families together.

What are your characters favorites (food, color, season, place, type of music, etc.)? List any you can think of.

Very eclectic musical tastes. In Valinor, his 'retirement' job is running an inn that includes a large pub and dance hall. He tends to have a variety of musical acts. Favorite color is green (which I tend to think is the typical color for an Elf, though from many surveys the statistically typical color a human picks is blue). He likes to be outdoors among lots of trees more than any other place. Favorite food would be a good glass of strong red wine. He enjoys the quiet of winter.

2024 addition: He likes reading outside and watching fancy birds be around him. White peacocks, silly parrots with big colorful plumes, rainbow pheasants found only in Valinor--bird watching, but like, super fancy bird watching.

Do they have any family?

From the canon, he has parents, and of course there's Legolas, his son. But I extended the tree a little, and gave names to people (like his mother) who didn't have one before.

Parents: Oropher & Hisre

Wife: Avisiel

Sons: Ilmendin, Legolas (both sons are eventually married, so he's got inlaws from that)

Grandchildren: 1 granddaughter* (I); 1 granddaughter and 1 grandson (L)

Great-Grandchildren: total of three thus far

Also, his father officially adopted Erestor while they were in Doriath, so while he has no blood siblings, he will refer to Erestor as his brother, as well as a character borrowed (with permission) from Mary & Mal named Thaladir, who becomes loyal to Oropher and leaves Doriath when the rest of the family does.

Thranduil is also related to Celeborn in that they are first cousins; his father (Oropher) is the younger brother of Celeborn's mother.

I like to story weave...

2024 addition: *When I finally got a copy of the Mirkwood choose your own adventure book, I pulled the name of the main character as his adventurous granddaughter.

Who are their friends?

From childhood, his best friends were Galadriel and Ecthelion. When he was in that post-childhood pre-adulthood phase, his best friends were Celeborn and Finduilas. Eventually, he and Erestor became very close friends, and one part of this was due to them both managing to survive through the three ages in Middle-earth, while another part certainly had to do with their mutual appreciation of good liquor, shared religious beliefs, and philosophical ideas.

2024 addition: He becomes quite close to Finrod later, to the point of romantic relationships that his wife approves of.

Do they have any pets or animals they are close to or care for (like a favorite horse)?

Not particularly. He does like sled dogs; those are used more often in Mirkwood than horses, due to the ease of keeping them in the caves, and the greater ability the dogs have to be able to fight giant spiders.

2024 addition: When I wrote Tusk in November of 2010 as my NanoNovel, I gave everyone fun animals -- Gildor had a unicorn, Erestor ends up adopting a cobra, and Thranduil got a giant deer. Do the math - the films started coming out in 2012, I got tired of having people finding Tusk years later tell me I had the wrong animal in the story, so I retconned the deer to match the films -- that was also when I declared I was done aligning Bunniverse with all adaptations. (And thank Eru I did, because can you even imagine the literary gymnastics it would take to reconcile all of Rings of Power with everything else?)

What do they do for fun?

Drink, listen to music, sing on occasion, hold discussions, make love to his wife, watch other people having sex. He has, in Mirkwood, a beautiful suite, which is offered for use to most anyone who is interested, with the understanding that there are a number of areas where Thranduil can sit behind the wall and look in through a peep hole to observe. He doesn't do it to get off, he does it strictly for research purposes -- he writes various guides and sociology books under a pseudonym. Not many even know it's him; he only explains that the room is set up to allow for this unnamed person to observe. He even makes sure not to be in the observation areas every single time things are going on so that there is less suspicion it is him. (I guess this goes more into that secret area..) Since there are a few who are aware of what he does, he has on occasion been invited to observe more closely, and in those cases is very professional, asks questions while he's there, etc.

2024 addition: In Valinor, with plans to finish the most extensive work he's been writing for thousands of years, he get Amarie, Finrod, and Edrahil to let him observe some of the more unique techniques of sexual relations. Later, when he begins a relationship with Finrod, it begins under the terms that it is to allow Thranduil to have experiences so that he can write about them with better understanding. This has led to some of the best scenes I have written, and I don't think any of them are posted publicly as of the writing of this.

Why do people like your character?

He's very intelligent, and very fair. He sees things with a very legal mind. He's also fairly generous, depending on the situation.

Why do people dislike your character?

He makes sure you know that he's right when he knows or thinks he is. He's also a slight bit paranoid about some things -- you would be, too, if your neighbors were evil.

2024 addition: I don't think it gets mentioned in this, but, he is creeped out by goats because of their eyes. Galadriel is almost always seen as keeping them as pets to troll him.

What is your character’s dream or ambition?

To have a happy, healthy family, living together, in a safe place. At the end of the second age, he sent his wife and his mother to Valinor after the death of his father, so it was a while before he saw them again.

Is your character romantically involved with anyone? Who? How long? Why? What is this person like?

Avisiel was living in the wilds of Doriath, much in the same way Nellas does. Thranduil met her one day while wandering in the woods. The rest of her family had been captured by Morgoth and turned into orcs when she was very young; she escaped by hiding. He coaxes her into Doriath, teaches her the language, and eventually falls in love with her. She's not a very complex character, but I didn't think Thranduil would necessarily fall for one of the elite ladies of Elvendom.

2024 addition: He also becomes romantically involved with Finrod during the Fifth Age in Valinor. The first time is brief, about a year, which Thranduil ends up fucking up when he agrees to take on the lawyer role in a case against Finrod, in part thinking that not much will come of it, and in the end, Finrod loses and spends some time after that refusing to even speak to Thranduil. Years pass, and they eventually slowly get together again, with Finrod giving the ultimatum that everyone is allowed to make mistakes, but now that Thranduil has made the mistake once, if he does so again, there is no third chance.

What is a secret about your character that no one knows?

Some people know about that bit with the room and the watching and the writing and all that. This is a tough one. Well, there's one that his wife knows (hard to keep things from a spouse) and no one else really does. Sometimes, when he wants to get out of being at a party or to go to bed (or to "go to bed" *nudge nudge*) he'll act more intoxicated and sleepy than he is so that he can escape to his room. He actually holds his liquor quite well (especially compared to some other Mirkwood Elves)

What else is important to your character?

Religion is very important to him, so much so, that he became the equivalent of what would be an ordained minister/priest in the religion he practices, though he really doesn't do much in terms of that with everything else he does -- it was more a personal spiritual thing. His younger son, however, also takes that path, but more-so as his occupation (yes, I made Legolas the 'cleric' of the Fellowship... too much D&D influence? you decide...). Because of all of that, he is very devoted to and protective of his religion, and it tends to influence him with some of the decision making he does.

2024 addition: Of course, this is something that I know is going to weave into and make difficult the relationship with Finrod, whom I have as one of the biggest heretics in all of Valinor, and someone who does not practice any religion, faith-based beliefs, etc. (He only gets away with it because he's so nice.) I have writings (again, unposted thus far) where at one point, Finrod decides to start his own religion, and again, this becomes straining between him and Thranduil because Thranduil is so devout to his beliefs.

#thranduil headcanon #finrod headcanon #oc headcanons #hobbit fanfiction things #over twenty years of musings

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rosesastrology · 4 years

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The house meanings, in depth

1st house (ascendant): how you react, stature, your impulses, instincts, vitality, form and shape of the body, breath, physical appearance, complexion, life, our image, how we are perceived, the self, strength, light, behavior, manner of being, the identity, identification, initiation, the head (headaches), facial features

2nd house: how your voice sounds, abundance of food, assets, stocks, attitude towards possession, wealth, money, concrete values, self-worth, control, banks, personal finance, where you need to feel secure, personal needs, (real or illusional) certainties, neck, vocal chords, material comforts, gain, profit, collarbones, hedonism, hedonist sex, personal material needs, possessive love, jealousy, the senses, sensuality, nutrition, income, gems, jewelry, resources, self-esteem, talents, inheritance from the father, ammunition

3rd house: interactions, communication style, learning, mundane knowledge, logic, extended family (not parents), the color orange, siblings, close friends who feel like siblings, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, cousins, writing, education up to university, language, arms, hands, fingers, shoulders, contracts, mobiles/telephones, personal community, friend groups, neighborhood, local vicinity, short-distance travel, travelers, our daily commute, transport, rituals, environment in which we live/work, postal service, regular journeys, letters, rumors, messages, written reports, faxes, journalism, diaries, the press, propaganda, magazines, public opinions

4th house (Imum Coelli): parents (in particular the father), immediate family (Inc. grandparents), our roots, memories, the past, childhood, ancestry, ancestral lands, home life, the private self, what you do behind closed doors, family roots, home, houses, land, mining, oil, minerals, fossil fuels, nurturing, emotional foundation, physical death, foundation of life, karmic debt through family, roots of consciousness, upbringing, ancestral/ethnic traditions, nationalism, final years of life leading up to death, water supplies, ground, quality and fertility of ground, history, funerals, crops, farming, breasts, the chest/lungs, the beginning and ending of all things, wells, deepest region of the underworld, the origin of humanity, graves, buried treasure, drowning, inheritance from parents

5th house: your will, ideas, children, how you express yourself, progeny, pleasure without responsibility, no regret pleasure, joy, fun, romance & sex (NSA), fertility, pregnancy, miscarriages, health and condition of children, creation, hobbies, sports, creativity, entertainment, gifts, luxury, scandals, controversies, indulgence, parties, theatre, drama, parks, leisure, porn, prostitution, dancing, inns, banquets, pubs, art, love affairs, muses, music, clothes, gambling, horse-race betting, betting, taverns, liver, the heart, the back, a honey color, lotteries, speculation, games, resorts, spas, feasts, holidays, leisure, overindulgence, diplomats, recreation, parks, the stomach

6th house: discipline, service, plants, nurturing, schemes, medicine, work, slavery, daily routine, maintenance tasks, mundane work, tasks, accidents, illness, injuries, health, healing, doctors, veterinarians, nurses, death of friends, physicians, animals, pets, housework, chores, infirmity, bones, farmers, caretakers, cattle, weakness, affliction, sorrow, food reserves, dark colors, smaller intestine, lower stomach, guts, liver, kidneys

7th house (descendant): relationships, business partners, romantic love, long-term commitments, mutual commitments, marriage, long-term enemies, what we project on others, partnerships, the spouse, engagement, lovers, fugitives, runaways, escaped convicts, thiefs, the destination, paternal grandfather, butt, lower intestines, bladder, womb, sex organs

8th house: transformations, death, birth, doubt, questions, the occult, material spiritual pursuits such as astrology and tarot, high needs, power, spiritual sex, crisis, the underworld, the devil, demons, mental agony, anxieties, fear, mental illness, inheritance, financial support, possession of others, obsession, other people's money, debt, loans, collective resources, emotional and material richness, power, control, abuse, sexual abuse, taxes, decay, loss, the quality and nature of death, ego death, spiritual death, inheritance, legacies, poison, inner transformation, personal vulnerability sex organs, bladder, groin, gallstones

9th house: higher (classical) knowledge, law, religion, saints, psychology, long-distance travel, culture, foreign countries, belief systems, morals, ethics, race, ethnicity, growth, physical freedom, luck, progeny, prophecies, prophets, where we find meaning, larger than life questions, religious buildings, spirituality, higher education (university and above), teachers, mentors, guides, divination, mystic pursuits, meditation, yoga, mysteries, detectives, mental & physical journeys, lawyers, publishing, the unknown, space, the universe, meaning of life, philosophy, foreigners, dreams, visions, inspiration, astrology, mysticism, books, wisdom, university, scholarships, students, counsellors, advisors, solicitors, cults, God, the freemasonry

10th house (medium coelli): career (not per se everyday work like the 6th), ideals, ambitions, desire for success, reputation, traditions, honors, awards, prizes, recognition, fame, leadership, kings and queens, law, authority, business, social status, inheritance from the mother, judges, magistrates, butt, hips, thighs

11th house: friendship, credits, where you feel as though you belong, community, the collective, adoption (usually a 5th house involvement is present), humanitarianism, collective activism, radicalism, parliament, groups, social network, stepchildren, other people's children, hopes, aspirations, support, assistance, protests, trust, praise, positive hope, broader ambitions for the larger collective, political ideals, supporters (behind the scenes), servants, councils, ambition, freedom, optimism, confidence, personal strength, motivation, security, restoration, mother's money, legs, ankles

12th house: mental freedom, dreams, sleeping conditions/disorders, prisons, mental asylums, transcendence, reincarnation, isolation, loss, institualitzation, insanity, poverty, slavery, step-parents, self-sabotage, paranoia, hidden enemies, hidden pain, emotional baggage, karma, shadow work, addictions, substance abuse, escapism, art, secrets, misunderstandings, being unaware of something, captivity, imprisonment, sorrow, monasteries, scandals, personal fears, hidden family secrets, shame, guilt, regret, scandals, suicide idealism (especially if there are bad aspects between the 8th, 12th and asc), traitors, spies, witchcraft, hauntings, bondage, finances of friends, sickness of spouse, death of the children, mother's kin, underground movements, hospitals, the occult, freemasonry, disease, bad health, hands and feet

Ref:

- skyscript.co.uk

- straightwoo.com

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alanafsmith · 7 years

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Exclusive: Elite London commercial chambers fails to pay clerks living wage

XXIV Old Buildings one of a number of sets paying pittance to support staff

A leading commercial chambers in London where barristers can pocket seven-figure earnings has been advertising junior clerk positions that pay thousands less than the living wage.

Legal Cheek can reveal XXIV Old Buildings, a Lincoln’s Inn-based commercial and chancery law set, posted a job ad (screenshot below) on the Legal Practice Management Association (LPMA) website looking to recruit two junior clerks in full-time roles on an annual salary of just £16,000. This is over £3,000 less than the London living wage. At the time of writing, the ad is still online

A screenshot of the XXIV Old Buildings’ advert (via LPMA website)

According to the Living Wage Foundation, an independent organisation that promotes fair pay across the UK, a person 18 or over and working in London should receive £9.75 an hour. Based on a working week of 37.5 hours this comes out at £19,012.50 per annum — £3,012.50 more than what XXIV Old Buildings is coughing up for its junior clerks.

It’s worth noting that the living wage, higher than the national minimum wage, is an optional guideline for employers and is not enforceable by law.

Emphasising that it is “committed to providing a positive working environment for all its staff”, a spokesperson for XXIV Old Buildings told Legal Cheek:

The position advertised is an entry-level position for individuals who have no experience and who are keen to take their first step into clerking — we do not expect the person to be on this salary for long. The salary is in line with industry standard and XXIV offers a very attractive benefits package.

These puny pay packets are all the more astonishing given that XXIV Old Buildings is home to some of country’s top remunerated lawyers. Boasting large multinationals as clients (it even has an outpost in Geneva, Switzerland), the chambers’ top QCs and juniors can trouser millions of pounds a year. Legal Cheek’s Most List also shows that pupils are awarded £65,000, over four times the salary of a junior clerk.

Another example of poor chambers pay, until very recently, is 12 King’s Bench Walk. An advert, again posted on the LPMA website and which has since been updated, showed that the London personal injury and clinical negligence set was looking to take on a new “junior clerk”. The London role came with a salary of “circa £17,500”, more than £1,500 under the living wage recommendation.

A spokesperson for the set told us:

12KBW have made a decision to ensure all staff are paid at least the London ‘living wage’, and having made this decision are not proceeding with the recruitment process of a junior clerk as advertised at £17,500 per annum. Chambers are in the process of re-advertising the junior clerk’s vacancy at £21,600.

Legal Cheek also spotted one further example of a chambers looking to recruit junior clerks on less than the London living wage. The ad, by a recruitment agency on behalf of a “leading barristers chambers”, shows that the role comes with a salary of “£17k + discretioary [sic] bonuses and excellent benefits.”

For all the latest commercial awareness info, and advance notification of Legal Cheek’s careers events, sign up to the Legal Cheek Hub.

The post Exclusive: Elite London commercial chambers fails to pay clerks living wage appeared first on Legal Cheek.

from All About Law https://www.legalcheek.com/2017/07/exclusive-elite-london-commercial-chambers-fails-to-pay-clerks-living-wage/

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