Saturday, June 22, 2024

Ushers and Stone Couriers: Hodnil and Gildor

In my post yesterday called "East, West, and much ado about nothing", I corrected the story of who is talking and what they are referring to with respect to Beings who would usher a Being 'home' (presumably Faramir in this case).  I had before thought this amounted to some kind of trick by Saruman or a similar Being, but I think it is pretty clear that the dialogue points to 2 Elvish Beings who will both know the way "East" to Tom Bombadil's House, but who also seem to be suggested as ushering Faramir-Eonwe even further, and bringing him home.  As in, they would be on both the East and West legs of that journey.


That last part - the West ushering - was not fully formed in my mind yesterday (I had mostly been thinking about the East part of the trip, and the Beings' involvement with that), but I think this is so.  They lead him East, and then accompany him West as ushers and companions.


This concept seems to be borne out in that dialogue around the Anor Stone, in which it was identified as the Liahona of the Book of Mormon.  Here is the dialogue again, and I will pull out the relevant parts to demonstrate where my thinking is:


Feb 10 & 11, 2020:

Those of us who delivered that ball-instrument to Lehi's family;

a compass, yet not wholly so, sufficient to lead one across seas to lands promised.

A palantir it was - a globe of crystal, metallic-seeming royal ancient sunlight beaming

<asgwiliant>

Singing songs of heroes bold, yet some songs remain untold

Resonant it was, echoing thought commissary needful for instruction, eggs bearing

[Hodnil]

to learn from who irradescent, a welding link, hands made sickly stewards reward

[Gildor]


There are 3 words which I have bracketed as seeming like they were separate from the rest of the dialogue.  Almost like a background or explanatory voice speaking this as the primary dialogue occurred.  They are:  Asgwiliant, Hodnil, and Gildor.


I have discussed the 2 words, Hodnil and Gildor, and guessed that they are names, and that these names belong to the Stone Couriers.  The first word, asquiliant, I don't think I have touched on, primarily because I didn't really have a way to tie it in to anything or make sense of it until now. 


Interestingly, in the previous times I have included this quote, I misspelled what I originally wrote down.  I checked back on both my excel and word file, and I should have written asgwiliant, with the w instead of a u.  I think I did it wrong the first time, and just copied and pasted my error into all subsequent posts.


I mention that because the proper translation will be based on that correct form, and if it had been a u originally then my guess would have been I sounded it out as such.  But, that isn't a problem, because I spelled it correctly back in my notes, and the error occurred in these posts.


The translation for that word is pretty straightforward, and I have had it the way I am going to type below for awhile (but again, just not knowing how it all ties together).  Here is my simple translation:


As:       With

Gwil:    to sail or fly

Iant:      Bridge


So, "With to sail-fly bridge" as the crude interpretation, and there it has sat, though I thought it probably had something to do with the Anor Stone given that the main dialogue includes mention of sailing over seas.  


But, I think if we pull this word out with the two names of who I believe are the Stone Couriers, I think these 3 words come together into a cohesive phrase that supports the notion that these Couriers will be with Faramir on the trip as these Ushers.  The phrase would be something like (smoothing it out a bit):  "to sail with Hodnil and Gildor [over] Bridge".


Thus the background commentary likely identifies the speakers of the main phrase, the "those of us who delivered that ball-instrument to Lehi's Family", who are Hodnil and Gildor, and mentions that they will be flying or sailing with who is being spoken to, which in this case I believe is Faramir.


This fits very will with the overall narrative of the Stone Couriers and their future role I guessed at yesterday, so I am feeling pretty good about this.


The question then becomes just who are Hodnil and Gildor.  I have a guess on this (I may have actually touched on Gildor before, but I don't think Hodnil), and will get those down in a post and see how it goes.

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