The Stingray is an atmosphere to space hybrid racing craft that’s a concept for a story in working on. It needed a boaster rocket to achieve escape velocity but can re enter the atmosphere on its own.
This stupid thing took so long to draw it’s gonna pull double duty as a stand-alone pic! Inking at 600 DPI is just straight up masochism, but damn if it doesn’t also make for some crisp line art when you finally finish.
This little flattie is a Costa Rica Nelson frog [Ctenophryne aterrima], a robust species found in Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica. These frogs are quite secretive and are rarely seen during the day. Image by
Renato Gaiga.
A Graeco-Roman gold snake ring.
Composed of two coiling snakes, their heads turned out on either side, their bodies forming a Herakles knot at the center, details incised.
1st century BC - 1st century AD. (Christies).
One of the ballsiest things Tolkien ever did was write 473k words about some hobbits called frodo, sam, merry, and pippin and then write in the appendices that their names are actually maura, ban, kali, and razal.
This just in: Eowyn and Eomer’s names actually start with the letter “L.” [source for other nerds]
What you’ve got to understand is that everything Tolkien wrote was him pretending to merely translate ancient documents. He was writing as if the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were actually been written by Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam (or Bilba, Maura, and Ban) and he was just some random contemporary academic translating it all into English for us.
There are many languages in his books, but generally speaking, everything written in English in the books is a translation of the language “Westron.” Therefore any names that come from Westron, he translated. Names coming from other languages, like Sindarin, he left as they were. Why? IDK. Maybe because the stories are from a hobbit perspective and hobbits speak Westron, so he wanted the Westron parts to sound familiar and the other languages/names to remain foreign?
“But Mirkwoodest!” you cry, “The word ‘hobbit’ isn’t an English word! And the names Bilbo Baggins, Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Peregrin Took, and Meriadoc Brandybuck” all sounds super weird and not like English at all!”
Psych! They are in English! (Or Old English, German, or Norse.) Once again you underestimate what a nerd Tolkien was. Let me break it down:
In Westron, hobbits are actually called “kuduk,” which means “hole-dweller,” so for an English translation, Tolkien called them “hobbits” which is a modernization of the Old English word “holbytla” which comes from “Hol” (hole) and “Bytla”(builder).
“Maura” is a Westron name which means “Wise.” Weirdly enough, “Frodo” is an actual Proto-Germanic name that actual people used to have and it means the same thing.
“Razanur” means “Traveler” or “Stranger” which is also the meaning of the word “Peregrin(e)” This one is a twofer because “Razar” means “a small red apple” and in English so does “Pippin.”
“Kalimac” apparently is a meaningless name in Westron, but the shortened form “Kali” means “happy,” so Jirt decided his nickname would be “Merry” and chose the really obscure ancient Celtic name “Meriodoc” to match.
Jirt chose to leave “Bilba” almost exactly the same in English, but he changed the ending to an “O” because in Westron names ending in “a” are masculine.
I’m not going to go on and talk about the last names but those all have special meanings too (except Tûk, which is too iconic to change more than the spelling of, apparently).
The Rohirrim were also Westron speakers first and foremost, so their names are also “translations” into Old English and Proto-Germanic words, i.e. “Eowyn” is a combination of “Eoh” (horse) and “Wynn” (joy/bliss).
“Rohirrim/Rohan” are Sindarin words, but in the books, they call themselves the “Éothéod” which is an Old English/Norse combo that means “horse people.” Tolkien tells us in the “Peoples of Middle Earth” that the actual Westron for “Éothéod” is Lohtûr, which means that Eowyn and Eomer’s names, which come from the same root word, must also start with the letter L.
The names of all the elves, dwarves, Dunedain, and men from Gondor are not English translations, since they come from root words other than Westron.
The takeaway from this is that when a guy whose first real job was researching the history and etymology of words of Germanic origin beginning with the letter “W” writes a book, you can expect this kind of tomfoolery.
Notes: Sorry I said “Razal” instead of “Razar” in my original post I’m a fraud.
Most frogs rely on their strong legs and quick reflexes to get them out of a dangerous situation. But for meandering, ground-dwelling species, like this banded rubber frog [Phrynomantis bifasciatus], fleeing is not always an option. This frog has inflated it’s lungs with air, and has elevated its body in a way that suggests it’s much bigger and stronger than whatever is targeting it. Images taken at Kruger National Park by photographer
David Beadle.
Wyatt
I have no idea what I'm doing and its starting to become a problem.
This blog is mostly about firearms, war, and video games. Additional topics include art, traditional games, reptiles, and occasionally internet spaceships. I am a military surplus collector and military history buff with a particular interest in the German military and tanks of all sorts. I am currently living in California.
Skype: space_plague
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“This little flattie is a Costa Rica Nelson frog [Ctenophryne aterrima], a robust species found in Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica. These frogs are quite secretive and are rarely seen during the day. Image by Renato Gaiga.
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