Thank you Dream Bureau!

[minoanmiss]

I just slept for 15 hours and had an epic dream It was about a war started by a halfling woman who carried on epistolary affairs with both father and son rulers. (She had a deliberate destructive reason for doing so.) Because she was a halfling, human chroniclers called her "The Bauble", which halfling scholars rightfully took as a slur.

I was watching a bunch of LARPers reenacting all this.
That is unfortunately all I remember but it's definitely enough for a story idea.

Comments

[sovay]

I was watching a bunch of LARPers reenacting all this.

That is most excellent.

[princessofgeeks]

Wow!

[acelightning2]

My son was in a very intense LARP when he was in his teens. However, the plots of the adventures were never that salacious. The rules of the game were that, if you had a physical skill in real life, you could use it in character. My son's character was a rogue, and he could flip a coin and tell which side was up inside his hand. So he made lots of silly bets, and won them. He once tricked a minor god out of an artifact of great mystical power, which made him the most powerful player, until someone STOLE the artifact out of his backpack. I designed and made all his costumes, including tie-dying some tights for his gypsy persona. And once when I drove him to the location where the game was being played, someone asked me whether I was in-game or out-of-game. I was wearing leggings and a t-shirt in the same shade of purple, plus a lot of Pagan jewelry, and they asked me why I didn't join the game. I said, "Well, if I meant this as garb, I'd be wearing more jewelry, different shoes, and a vest. But I just don't want to bother pretending to be someone else. "

Apparently in canonical LOTR, halflings can mate and have children with humans, Elves, Orcs, and dwarves. There must be some magic that helps them not get injured by such mating, nor by the birth of larger offspring. And those rulers must have had a bit of a fetish for small women. (There are humans who have a fetish for human dwarves, which carries less opprobium than does a fondness for children of one's own sub-species.) But given how the relationship between Sam and Rosie became legendary, halflings probably had as much gusto for amorous pursuits as they did for feasting and poetry.

[full_metal_ox]

The rules of the game were that, if you had a physical skill in real life, you could use it in character.

“Oh…crap. Someone invited blumineck.”

But given how the relationship between Sam and Rosie became legendary, halflings probably had as much gusto for amorous pursuits as they did for feasting and poetry.

This is what cracks me up about George R. R. Martin’s complaint about the sexlessness of Middle Earth: where did he think Sam and Rosie’s thirteen children came from?

(And dirty Hobbit poetry must have existed, but that’s an intimate thing not to be shared with the Professor.)

[acelightning2]

As I mentioned, thieves in game were supposed to be able to pick locks, and the game had a supply of inexpensive padlocks that were insanely easy to pick. My son had learned a bunch of stage magic, so he could palm small objects, read a coin flip with his fingertips, and he did eventually learn how to pick those cheap locks. Gypsies -especially women - were known for giving Tarot card readings and preparing love potions.

Hey, there was a whole Shire full of Hobbits, all reproducing as vigorously as they could, with families with more than ten children considered desirable. Tolkien didn't write any seductresses or prostitutes into his world, but Saruman forced Human or Orc females to breed more orcs for his army. And Hobbits were known for being fond of simple pleasures - feasting, drinking, singing and dancing - so they certainly were familiar with the pleasures of the flesh. Elves were known to be so physically beautiful that other races would fall in love with an Elf and pine away and die from unrequited love. And Elves were known to be fond of pleasures, but they usually married for political reasons, except for legendary couples like Beren and Luthien. And apparently female dwarves were nearly indistinguishable from male Dwarves, including the facial hair. They mined and worked precious metals and gems, and possibly created beautiful and useful items with the same skills. And Humans just did Human stuff, which included Eowyn learning to ride and fight and become a Shield-maiden (and developing a crush on Aragorn because he was "noble of spirit" and about to become King. And there were many female Elves whose skills in magic, archery, weaving and embroidery, and baking became legendary.

[anna_wing]

,Apparently in canonical LOTR, halflings can mate and have children with humans, Elves, Orcs, and dwarves.

There are no references in canon (text) to interspecies cross-breeding involving either Dwarves or Hobbits, no. Elves and Men could cross-breed but there are only three definite cases and one reported. There is nothing in canon about Elves marrying for political reasons either, which makes sense since canonically both they and their marriages were forever (with one gigantic exception), whereas political situations come and go.

[acelightning2]

Elves would marry in order to unite two family bloodlines. Since the birth of a baby Elf was a rare occurrence, it would take a long time for the couple to decide to become a couple. It's said somewhere near the beginning of LOTR that Hobbits were possibly descended from Men somehow. And Dwarves never discussed their private lives at all, except that it it is stated that nobody but a Dwarf could discern the gender of any other Dwarf, and the females were as industrious and sturdy as the males. And there were apparently no female Wizards.

[magid]

I saw an early modern French play (in translation, obv) in which the main character cross-dressed in order to get access to the guy she wanted, and while seducing him, distracting the one-generation-older brother and sister who were his guardians by romancing both of them....

[full_metal_ox]

Was this about Julie d’Aubigny, AKA Mademoiselle de Maupin?

[magid]

Not officially: it's Marivaux's The Triumph of Love, officially set in classical Sparta, but as it was written in the early 1700s, who knows, really?

[radiantfracture]

Amazing.