Henneth Annûn Story Archive

Hey guys,

Over in LiveJournal-land several people have been posting tankas based on Tolkien's writing. Certain people answering to names such as Meril and Juno who shall remain nameless introduced me to the form and now have me seriously hooked. Certain other people -- namely, you guys -- should join in the madness. (This doesn't have to be done in LJs; that's merely where I was introduced to the form.)

For the uninitiated, a tanka:

* has 31 syllables, arranged in five lines: 5-7-5-7-7
* tends to use courtly/formal language
* focuses on symbolism from nature and personal emotion

For more information, see this site. (Note: Leads to a site outside HASA...)

Anyway, are other people interested in joining the madness? Write a tanka, or a series of tankas, based on anything in Tolkien. To get us started, I'll include my own effort below. This is my first effort in the field, so I am open to correction if I have not followed the form, but this should give you an idea.

If people are interested I will set up a workshop for this challenge. That way people can just add a chapter to a central story, rather than everyone having to create a story for such a short form.

Now for the example:

The waters carry boat
Over rock, under sky,
'Twixt statues, past field and forest,
Down, down to the Sea,
Carrying Gondor's son home.

Marta

 

I wrote another Sindarin tanka this morning to show off some of my rose icons.

I hope you like it.



Rovail en·ithil
Tûgat in ûl e·meril.
Flâd gîn morn flâd nîn.
Na·vathad nîn echadas
Elodhio meril gîn.



Wings of moonlight
Carry the scent of roses.
Your skin hot against my skin.
My touch makes
Your rose bloom.



P.S.: It was Marastar who started the tanka craze by challenging everyone within sight and obviously quite a number of people she did not see.

I don't feel comfortable writing tanka or haiku in English or German, so I switched to Sindarin.

Comments & concrit of all kinds very welcome!

Yours
Juno

P.S.: I made a story for my tanka! It is here.

P.P.S.: That means I am in, of course.

 

It's all Marastar's fault! She's the one who decided to throw tanka-challenges at us and instigated the tanka madness!
*shakes fist*

Fine. I'll do it.

And yours is lovely and *wibble* inducing, Marta. *sniff*

 

Gosh! A tanka thread!

Aragorn passes a few idle moments here.

These are my first go at the form - and I'm not that keen on them now

Also, they're free form - i.e. I've chosen not to count the syllables - many writers of English language tanka don't as Japanese and English syllables don't really correspond.

Cheers!
Alawa

 

Hmph.

I step away from HASA for awhile, and here I find baseless accusations being directed at me!

*assumes Grievously Injured Person Face*

I, Allie (alias: Meril), assume NO RESPONSIBILITY for this nuzgul.

The accusing finger should be pointed at Marastar, the instigator of all this tanka madness. I was just passing along the message, I swear! Honestly! It was UNINTENTIONALLY FLUNG!

And that is all I shall say on this subject.

Allie
(*giggles madly*)

 

Thou shalt not "giggle madly"!

Thou shalt tanka madly!

I take it you're in?

*raises eyebrow at you*

~Juno 

 

Giggle all you want - are you in on the Challenge?

Tankas, get yer fresh, hot tanka challenge right here...

Fergus 

 

*grumble, grumble*

Yes, I'm in...

Allie

 

I"m fixin' to sign up Marastar while she's not lookin' -- that'd show her!

g

 

I am in, of course... and I take it that you are in, too?

*evil cackle* (sounds so much better than a simple giggle! )

Yours
Juno

 

Is that five victims then?  

Is Marta in?

~Nienna

 

I should hope so, since she's the one responsible for taking this from LJ-land into HASA...

Tanakaway!

~Juno 

 

Y'all are fixin' to git me tankered, eh?

*Juno nudges pistol in side*

OK! OK! It was only some harmless nuzgul flinging! It didn't mean anything! And I promise I'll sign up for the challenge. Cross my black little heart.

 

And we've got ourselves a challenge!

Give poor Fergus a hand here and give me a reasonable time frame for writing your odes to toy metal dump trucks.    I'll put the challenge itself together in a day or so

Fergus 

 

Here you go: Challenge and Discussion!

Enjoy!

~Nienna

Give poor Fergus a hand here and give me a reasonable time frame for writing your odes to toy metal dump trucks.

 

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