MELO Round 1 - Edge of Night

The next song to inspire round 1 entries of MELO 2014-2015 was Edge of Night. This is a really interesting song, where context and melody really shape the tone. The original poem from Fellowship is all about going out for a walk before coming home to a nice warm fire. In the film, the lines about home and hearth have been removed, but still if you just read the lyrics, there is a lot of hope:

Home is behind, the world ahead
And there are many paths to tread
Through shadow to the edge of night
Until the stars are all alight
Mist and shadow cloud and shade
All shall fade, all shall fade

A straight-forward reading says that, yes, night is falling, but the stars are coming out, and night shall fade away come morning. But in the film this is sung with that haunting tune by Pippin while we see scenes of Faramir's forces being slaughtered, intercut with an uncaring Denethor, so the tone is completely different. Watching it on screen you get the feeling that everything is falling into darkness, and all that is good and noble in the world will fade away in the coming triumph of Sauron. It's that feeling of despair that drove most of the MELO entries. Here are a few of my favorites.

Mate Paton thought of the siege and near-fall of Minas Tirith and advanced to the next round.


Dominik the Builder also went to the RotK context, illustrating the charge of Faramir - a nice scene though it did not advance.


J-rod Smith went to a different context altogether, seeing Lake-town as being on the edge of disaster. His was the third-highest score of the round 1 entries and easily advanced.


Ian Diller left Tolkien's world altogether, simply keying off the song's tone of imminent disaster with his Last Stand in the Badlands. He advanced.


A few of the entries looked more at the lyrics, suggesting setting out from home on an adventure. Saequis still stuck to movie inspiration, showing Pippin singing to Denethor, but he illustrated the line "Home is behind, the world ahead", but he did not advance, so faded from the MELO.


Jake Andrews took this line as reason to justify Bilbo setting out on his adventure, illustrating different scenes from the Hobbit. He advanced.


Kevin Moyer did much the same with Frodo's journey. He also advanced.


Graham Gidman also advanced with an unnamed figure leaving home to set off on adventures.

Ta-runda runda runda rom!

My third round entry to the MELO was the Ents' Marching Song.

We come, we come with roll of drum: ta-runda runda runda rom!
We come, we come with horn and drum: ta-runa runa runa rom!
To Isengard! Though Isengard be ringed and barred with doors of stone;
Though Isengard be stong and hard, as cold as stone and bare as bone,
We go, we go, we go to war, to hew the stone and break the door;
For bole and bough are burning now, the furnace roars - we go to war!
To land of gloom with tramp of doom, with roll of drum, we come, we come;
To Isengard with doom we come!
With doom we come, with doom we come!



Fourth-wall commentary - Well, here my little twist of illustrating poems didn't lead me in any more interesting directions. The judges' description of the category (March of the Ents) pretty much asked for Ents attacking Orthanc, and the only relevant poem was pretty much just that. I was fairly happy with the articulation of my ent:



And also the forced perspective trick:



I was particularly pleased with how my micro Orthanc came out, and will be keeping that together.



The weak point of the MOC was obviously the ent's head, and perhaps the overall shaping of his body in general. My opponent Jacob Nion's ent was significantly better than mine, and he got the win. I'll be sure to feature his MOC when it's available. Over all I was quite happy with the contest. It really helped get me back into building and I'll probably illustrate more of Tolkien's poems in the future.

Frodo's Lament

My round 2 entry for the MELO was Frodo's Lament.


When evening in the Shire was grey
his footsteps on the Hill were heard;
before the dawn he went away
on journey long without a word.

From Wilderland to Western shore,
from northern waste to southern hill,
through dragon-lair and hidden door
and darkling woods he walked at will.

With Dwarf and Hobbit, Elves and Men,
with mortal and immortal folk,
with bird on bough and beast in den,
in their own secret tongues he spoke.

A deadly sword, a healing hand,
a back that bent beneath its load;
a trumpet-voice, a burning brand,
a weary pilgrim on the road.

A lord of wisdom throned he sat,
swift in anger, quick to laugh;
an old man in a battered hat
who leaned upon a thorny staff.
He stood upon the bridge alone
and Fire and Shadow both defied;
his staff was broken on the stone,
in Khazad-dum his wisdom died.


And here's the whole thing:

Fourth-wall commentary - In round 2 of the MELO we were paired up in head-to-head competitions. My category was 'The Mirror of Galadriel'. I considered going with a literal depiction of that scene, but I'd already done that. Plus, I'd already decided that I wanted to try to illustrate poems. The only poem in that chapter is Frodo's Lament. Perhaps my main nitpick here is that the bridge of Khazad-Dum is broken on the wrong side. I went back and forth on that - given the flow of Gandalf from the Shire past the Lonely Mountain, on to Moria and over the bridge, Gandalf should have broken the bridge behind him, but I thought that didn't fit the flow of the MOC. I debated including the Balrog, but decided against it, as that would have made the focus more on Gandalf's death than on his life. Also, I didn't include Sam's additional verse as I didn't think it fits Frodo's poem.
Due to the current problems on MOCpages, I can't feature my worthy opponent John Daniels' entry right now (I can't find him on Flickr or Brickshelf), so I'll get back to that later. His was gorgeous, and I think if I'd just done a straight-forward rendering of the scene he would have won, but the judges seemed to like my twist on the category.

The Road Goes Ever On

I've been wanting to post a lot of the great Tolkien MOCs that have been created as part of the Middle Earth LEGO Olympics, but have been frustrated by MOCpages' current problems. I know, many of these are posted here and there on Flickr and Brickshelf, but rather than hunt around I'll just wait until MOCpages is healthy again. In the meantime, though, I'll feature my own entries, as I also have them on Flickr. My qualifying round entry was The Road Goes Ever On.

The Road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began,
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
Let others follow it who can!
Let them a journey new begin,
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.

Fourth-wall commentary: As a challenge to myself I decided to illustrate poems for all of my entries. Many people skip over the poems in Tolkien, which I think is a mistake. They often help set the mood, or give important historical background to the action. Here, for instance, Bilbo brings an end to adventures and perhaps looks ahead to his own death. I was pretty happy with how this came out, in that I thought I achieved what I was looking for with a weary hobbit coming to the inn at the end of a day's journey and warm light coming out of the doorway. The inn is vaguely based on the Prancing Pony, in that Tolkien describes an arch leading to a courtyard between the wings of the inn and the door to the common room off to the left. My courtyard became more of a stable area, and there's only one side to the inn. Plus I've got a dragon insignia, so it must be another inn. Two stories, though, so it must not be in the Shire.