Lore in the Classes: Minstrel

The LOTRO Lorebook tell us that the Minstrel class was "inspired by Lúthien Tinúviel, whose Elven voice beguiled friend and foe alike."  They have skills such as Cry of the Valar, Call of Oromë, Invocation of Elbereth, Song and Gift of the Hammerhand - from what or whom do all these names come?

Let me start by taking several steps back, which is quite necessary when talking about many Minstrel skills and where they come from.  I mean way, way, way back to the start of things as chronicled by The Silmarillion!

In the beginning, there was Eru. "There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar; and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made.  And he spoke to them, propounding to them themes of music; and they sang before him, and he was glad."

Ilúvatar is the monotheistic creator entity of Tolkien's world.  He created this group of spirit beings called the Ainur, for whom music was their first and foremost means of expression and action.  Then Ilúvatar revealed his great plan to them and bade them "make in harmony together a Great Music," whereby the "voices of the Ainur, like unto harps and lutes, and pipes and trumpets, and viols and organs, and like unto countless choirs singing with words" created a music that began to fill the Void (I don't think Eru had invented the Pibgorn yet).  As Ilúvatar later showed them, the Void was no longer void, but a new World had appeared of their creation.  Ilúvatar showed them a vision of what this world, Arda, could be like, populated with the Children of Ilúvatar, who would be the first Elves and Men.  Throughout the first pages of The Silmarilion music - harmonies, melodies, parts -  is the critical ingredient in creating and expanding the Universe of Ilúvatar, and also is the means to introduce the first strife and tension.  Because of their musical skills Minstrels are tapped into the foundations of creation; little wonder that their skills can give so much healing.

Some of the Ainur were so taken with the idea of Arda and the Children of Ilúvatar that they wished to help this new creation develop, and were bound to Arda by Ilúvatar so "that their power should thenceforward be contained and bounded in the World, to be within it for ever, until it is complete, so that they are its life and it is theirs. And therefor they are named the Valar, the Powers of the World."

There were originally 15 Valar, each generally "in charge" of a specialty based on what part of Ilúvatar was put into them when they were created. For example, Ulmo was the Valar connected with water; Aulë the one who built landmasses, gems, ore, and created crafting (and also created the race of Dwarves). However, one Valar was more of a "generalist" with a broad understanding of the knowledge of all the other Valar, and was more powerful than the others. His name was Melkor, later known as Morgoth.

The Valar often had "companions" of "lesser Ainur," who became known as the Maiar, who would learn the expertise of their Valar tutors. The Wizards in Middle Earth were Maiar. Gandalf, originally known as Olórin, was most associated with Manwë and Varda, the "leader" of the Valar and his "wife," who is also known as Elbereth. Radagast the Brown was associated with the Valar known as Yavanna, the "Giver of Fruits" who loved all the things growing on Arda. Curumo (Curunír, or Saruman) and even Sauron (yes, he was of the Ainur) were associated with Aulë, at least initially. Melkor, who is no longer counted as one of the Valar because of all his naughtiness, corrupted several Maiar who later became Balrogs. Kind of interesting connections being made now, huh?

So back to Lúthien Tinúviel - she was the daughter of King Thingol, one of the Eldar, and his wife Melian, one of the Maiar. Basically,Lúthien liked to dance and sing a lot and was pretty good at it. She fell in love with Beren, a mortal Man. King Thingol, who like so many dads in Middle Earth want the guys interested in their daughters to first prove themselves, sent Beren on an ambitious quest to steal a Silmaril from the crown of Morgoth. When Lúthien discovered this, she went to help him, which was fortunate as Beren had been captured by Sauron, who was now a servant of Morgoth. She then helped Beren later to obtain the Silmaril, singing a song that distracted Morgoth and his minions, keeping them from realizing what was happening until it was too late. (Sounds like Song of Distraction, doesn't it!). As often happens in such stories, Beren and then Lúthien died soon after, but her singing as a spirit brought them both back to live out long lives. Elrond is descended from Beren and Lúthien, as was his brother Elros. And that means that far, far down the line, so is Aragorn.

Varda, or Elbereth, as mentioned above is the spouse of Manwë, the "leader" of the Valar. Together their powers complemented each other. Elbereth created the stars and constellations, and is also called Gilthoniel, or "Star Kindler" (not "Stir Kindly" if you listen to the tipsy Elves near the Vineyards of Lorien). She was said to be the most beautiful being, and became the favorite Valar of the Elves. For a Minstrel, calling upon her name will cause mobs to run in fear - a bit of an odd choice for such unsurpassed beauty, but there's no accounting for the taste of the minions of Morgoth.

As for the Song and the Gift of the Hammerhand, I already mention the noble behavior of Helm Hammerhand in my post "A Dunlending and Rohirrim Romance" found here. As the skill text describes, "the name comes from the adage that those who know this lay were said to have been able to take a blow from Helm Hammerhand himself." Not the most admirable behavior in a guy so revered by the Rohirrim, but that's probably why they hold some of the prejudices that they do.

Call of Oromë - "sheer lightning cleaving the clouds"

Once during one of my annual readings of the Lord of the Rings, I was flipping through Appendix A and came across a name that jumped out at me.  I had been playing my Mini frequently, and absolutely recognized the name Oromë from the skill Call of Oromë ("This piercing call, a lesser echo of one used long ago by Oromë the Great, demoralizes a group of your foes and reduces their resistance to further attacks."). In a teeny tiny little footnote, I read: "The wild kine that were still to be found near the Sea of Rhûn were said in legend to be descended from the Kine of Araw, the huntsman of the Valar, who alone of the Valar came often to Middle-earth in the Elder Days. Oromë is the High-elven form of his name." The footnote also refers the reader to the last page of the chapter "The Ride of the Rohirrim" in The Return of the King, where Éomer says: "Fey he seemed, or the battle-fury of his fathers ran like new fire in his veins, and he was borne up on Snowmane like a god of old, even as Oromë the Great in the battle of the Valar when the world was young."

Oromë was one of the Valar, described as a "mighty lord" in The Silmarillion.  It was said he loved the lands of Middle Earth, and was the last of the Valar to go to Valinor.  He was a lord of the hunt, loved all trees, and horses, and hounds.  His steed was named Nahar, and thus is revered by the Rohirrim, who said the mearas must have been descended from horses brought by Oromë out of the West. He also carried a great horn called the Valaroma. The horn is described as being heard above all other horns, "the sound of which is like the upgoing of the Sun in scarlet, or the sheer lightning cleaving the clouds." 

Oromë it was who first encountered the Elves soon after they awoke, and called them Eldar.  Interestingly, it seems that Morgoth, or Melkor at that time, was aware of the awakening of the Elves before any of the Valar, and so through either disguised minions and/or rumors, caused some of them to fear Oromë as being a dark, shadowy hunter who would come to steal them.  The fact that solitary or small groups of Elves who ventured too far from their original home would disappear, never to be seen again, bolstered this notion.  And these, according to The Silmarillion, were the Elves who were taken captive and slowly broken and corrupted by Melkor, thus leading to the race of Orcs "in envy and mockery of the Elves."

References:  The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Appendix A; The Silmarillion; Unfinished Tales

Lore in the Classes: Hunter and Captain

When I started playing LOTRO in March 2009, my very first toon was a Hunter, McFarlane.  She was my main for a long time, and I remember how very cool it was to go to my hunter trainer and find skills that had lore-based names.  My Minstrel, Gammy, was the second toon I leveled and I found even more skill names taken directly from lore, although a bit more obscure than the Hunter skills.  It led me to do a lot of reading to figure out what some of these less obvious names were referring to.

This post isn't meant to be comprehensive by any means, in fact I'm going to limit myself to the four classes that I have leveled to end-game (or what was end-game before Rohan): Hunter, Minstrel, Lore Master and Captain.  It is meant to focus only on class skills and traits.  It is also fun to come across items, such as armour pieces or weapons, that have lore-related names, but I won't cover those here.  The first installment will look at the Hunter and Captain classes.

Hunter

The Hunter class was inspired by - no surprise here - Legolas Greenleaf of Mirkwood. Curiously, however, we don't see many overt references to Legolas in the names of Hunter skills and traits.  There are, of course, Find the Path ("Your skill as a tracker allows you to increase the speed with which your Fellowship can move across terrain.") and Press Onward ("When the need is high, you can move on with little rest, restoring a great deal of Power and Morale in only a few seconds.") - moves that come in handy when running across Rohan tracking a horde of Uruks.

We do see a lot about Bard the Bowman.  If anyone remains who doesn't know who Bard is, you'll find out in presumably the second Hobbit movie next year.  Bard, descendant of Girion, the last Lord of Dale at the time Smaug devastated it and sent all survivors fleeing to Laketown.  It was pretty dang neat earning the ability to trait for the Bard's Arrow skill ("You fire with the skill of Bard himself, driving fear into evil enemies.").  We also have the trait Heart of the Bard ("A successful use of Bard's Arrow will reduce the current cooldown of Heart Seeker by 20 seconds.") which ties the Bard's Arrow skill closely to another skill, Heart Seeker, by reducing its cooldown.  Just like Bard took careful aim at the one sweet spot on Smaug's body, Heart Seeker ("Taking great care and practiced aim, you prepare a shot to strike at your target's most vital weak spot.") lets Hunters do the same.  I had a kin member who could crit that thing over 13K, back in the day before Heart Seeker was nerfed!

Another Hunter skill does not tie to another well-known hunter of Middle Earth.  Instead it relates to the close relationship Hunters have to the land, a quality they share with...the Ents.  The skill Earthborn increases the effectiveness of another skill, Strength of the Earth ("You can find strength from the land. Devoting all of your attention to the task, you can recover power swiftly in the midst of conflict.").  We see the term Earthborn used in the poem Treebeard recites that categorizes the various living species of Middle Earth:  "Ent the Earthborn, old as mountains...."

Captain

The Captain class, as the LOTRO Lorebook tells us, was inspired "by Eärnur, last King of Gondor, who was revered both as a captain skilled in arms and as a lore-master."  Very interesting indeed.

My main for the last two years has been a Captain, Leeowyn, and I absolutely love playing her.  I love the way Captains contribute to groups.  I love how versatile a class we are:  I can dps, I can main tank many things, I can main heal even more things if traited properly.  But always, always I have associated the class with one character:  Aragorn!  He too does it all - tanking, damage, healing, inspiring his fellows.  But...Eärnur?  Erm, let's take a closer look here.

Eärnur was the last King of Gondor.  As I briefly mentioned in my post regarding Cirion and Eorl the Young, Eärnur disappeared after riding out to meet a challenge from the Witch King of Angmar.  No one knew what happened to him, and thus began the rule of the Stewards of Gondor, giving Boromir and Faramir's ancestors years of employment.  As we know, Turbine found Eärnur and brought him back as Mordirith, the Steward of Angmar.  Not exactly someone I want to model myself on as a Captain!

This may explain why Captains can dress like this.

What else do we know about Eärnur?  I mention more about him in my post on Arvedui, the Ghost in the Bay of Forochel.  How he took a fleet of ships north to help the kingdom of Arthedain take a last stand against Angmar.  In Appendix A of The Lord of the Rings, this story is told and Tolkien does twice refer to him as "Eärnur, Captain of Gondor."  Yet he does then go on to describe him as follows:  "Eärnur was a man like his father in valour, but not in wisdom. He was a man of strong body and hot mood; but he would take no wife, for his only pleasure was in fighting, or in the exercise of arms.  His prowess was such that none in Gondor could stand against him in those weapon-sports in which he delighted, seeming rather a champion than a captain or king, and retaining his vigour and skill to a later age than was then usual."  So why not give him to the Champs?!?  I know, I know, I'm not being fair at all.  How brave do you have to be to ride out to take on the Witch King of Angmar?  It just maybe wasn't so...prudent.  And the poor guy obviously had to have suffered horrible torture once he was captured; the Witch King carried some major resentment toward him, after all.  But I will always have a tough time accepting him as the inspiration for my favorite class.  Sorry Eärnur!

Many of the names of a Captain's skills point to a connection to Elendil and Númenor:  Blade of Elendil, Adherent of Elendil, Blood of Númenor, Shield of the Dúnedain.  These could of course apply to both Aragorn or Eärnur as both are heirs of Elendil, convoluted or not.

Two things that I feel relate exclusively to Aragorn are the trait line "Hands of Healing" and the legendary trait "Oathbreaker's Shame."  I have never seen any connection between Oathbreakers and Eärnur; it was Aragorn who went to claim what they owed the heir of Isildur.  And the Hands of Healing is a direct reference to a quote by the old woman Ioreth of Minas Tirith, in the chapter "The Houses of Healing" in The Return of the King:  "The hands of the king are the hands of a healer.  And so the rightful king could ever be known."  I'm pretty sure I have never seen any hint that Eärnur was a healer.  Certainly not after he became Mordirith in LOTRO!

We also have some names that are iconic phrases in the Lord of the Rings lore, though perhaps not attributed as some may expect!  The Now for Wrath ("Your Rallying Cry will also heal a small amount of power, in addition to its normal effects.") trait comes from a speech given by Éomer (and not Théoden, and not at dawn, as those accustomed to trusting the movies might assume!):

"Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising
I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing.
To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking:
Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!" 

Captains also have a trait called Turn of the Tide ("Your Routing Cry now stuns your foes and inflicts more damage.").  In The Two Towers, we meet Gandalf again in the forest of Fangorn (non-book readers note this too is presented a bit differently in the  movie):  "He stepped down from the rock, and picking up his grey cloak wrapped it about him: it seemed as if the sun had been shining, but now was hid in cloud again. 'Yes, you may still call me Gandalf,' he said, and the voice was the voice of their old friend and guide. 'Get up, my good Gimli! No blame to you, and no harm done to me.  Indeed my friends, none of you have any weapon that could hurt me.  Be merry!  We meet again.  At the turn of the tide. The great storm is coming, but the tide has turned.'"

I dunno.  I do feel kind of naughty sometimes when I wear my Amarthiel/Mordirith outfit.  And here I always thought I was just a good Captain girl from Rohan....

Next time:  the Minstrel and Lore Master classes.