Glorfindel and Gildor among the Mormons

It appears, at least from what I currently read from my words, that Glorfindel and Gildor spent some time among the Mormons in Salt Lake City in the aftermath of events in the Sawtooth Mountains.

I still don't have a good sense if they arrive with or joined the Disciples and Asenath at Sawtooth, or arrived sometime later.  I can imagine a few different scenarios, and nothing has settled yet in my mind.  And afterward, I am not sure as to their activities between this time back in 2020 and the following year where the Sawtooth Stone was taken over to France.  That is all a bit of a mystery to me, and it will be interesting to understand where they were, when, and why during that whole timeframe.

However, despite all that, it does seem that they spent at least a few days in SLC.  The reasons for that assumption I will share here in this post.  And my current guess is they continued to loiter around the American West until 2021, with the directions to William Peak from Boise (3 hours by car) as one clue that would support this.

The observations they make in their (brief) dialogue makes me think that they hadn't initially passed through Salt Lake City with Gandalf-Nephi and the other Disciples (if they were in one group, which I assume they were).  Their words seem to be commenting on having seen SLC and operations and businesses the Mormons had built for themselves as if for the first time.

As I wrote in an earlier post, Glorfindel and/or Gildor reference my sister by name and refer to Gaul on June 8.  This would seem to indicate that they at least know the general whereabouts of Tom Bombadil's House.  Meaning, by this time, they had already found it, or at least knew where they would be going in the future.  Either are just as likely in my mind right now, and we will see where it shakes out.

On June 9, they make a couple observations that I now take or imagine as commentary as they were observing Salt Lake City for the first time.  June 10 would seem to really reinforce this guess:

June 9
Joseph Smith was a profit center [a play on words between Prophet and Profit]
Everyone has their own little sense of happiness



June 10
Dinner in Salt Lake City
He is a "Murphy"
Well, you definitely have 2 objects in the glass walls
Dylan's (originally spelled out as Dillon) going to kill me
There are different kinds of protection
Here are the words of the King: Leonidas Barber gems cut for epe (originally spelled ipa)

Quite a few seemingly random excerpts here.  There are also dreams that go along with some of these words on June 10 which might have some of it make a little more sense.

You will note that the first comment on June 9 involved the word-play with Prophet and Profit.  A criticism from many both within and without Mormonism is the vast amount of wealth that organization has amassed.   Glorfindel seems to note this as he looks around SLC, and ties that all to the fact that the modern church has built that wealth from Joseph's name and work.  The juxtaposition to the poverty that Joseph Smith died in (Joseph was in bankruptcy proceedings at the time of his murder) would be striking.

And I suppose Joseph is also a 'prophet' center in that there have been many, many self-titled prophets since who claim that role and designation simply by tracing their authority back to him, not actually because they themselves do the works of a prophet.  The LDS First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles call themselves "Prophets, Seers, and Revelators" almost solely because they trace authority back to Joseph, rather than the actual activities they engage in.  Prophets prophecy.  Seers have Stones.  And Revelators reveal things.

Back to the dialogue, it appears that one of our duo makes that initial observation, and the other simply says that apparently this arrangement is what makes them happy.  

At this time a relatively negative view of Mormon leadership is held or has been developed by Glorfindel and Gildor, I believe.  A dream I will share at the end of this post seems to put an exclamation point on this.

On June 10, we have the opening phrase of "Dinner in Salt Lake City".  This accompanied a dream where I was observing a group of people sitting at a very fancy, upscale restaurant.  There was conversation going on, and my vision settled on a older, larger woman with black hair.  As she was in the process of bringing a fork to her mouth to eat something, someone said "He is a Murphy"  (I am not sure by whom).  The woman's face showed shock and dismay at this mention, and she dropped her silverware.  This appeared to be unpleasant news.  That is all I remember from the dinner dream.

In "Murphy" we have another Gaelic name, and it likely means something like "Warrior of the Sea".  Who is this Being?  It isn't clear, but obviously his presence or the very mention of his name is not welcome among those at the dinner table, who I take now as likely being symbolic of Mormon leadership in the context of everything else.  Someone from the "Sea" would be, consistent with how I have viewed this term on this blog, someone from outside the bounds of this Earth.  An Alien, basically  It could be Glorfindel himself, as an example, meaning that there there is an Alien (defined as somebody who came from another world) among the Mormons in SLC.

In any case, after that dream sequence, the dialogue seems to shift to some direct statements.

There are 2 objects within the 'glass walls'.  Two things with the mention of glass walls.  First, it takes me to my short story on Herbie the Hamster, who was confined within a glass cage and who eventually escaped by means of the seed he planted.  Second, Walls have a function within Tolkien's cosmology that is probably what is being referenced.  The "Walls of the World" are what were said to surround Arda (this Creation), and separate us from the Outer Void.  Tolkien actually developed a later view of multiple sets of Walls, which I don't know enough about to get into right now.

Importantly, though, Tolkien has Rumil (the same Being I believe may be referred to as Isaiah), describing the Walls thus:

They are as ice and glass and steel, being above all imagination of the Children of Earth cold, transparent, and hard. They cannot be seen, nor can they be passed, save by the Door of Night. (from the Ambarkarta)

So, Rumil uses glass as one description or analogy for these Walls, which I think ties to Glorfindel's comment.  Thus, the two objects he mentions lie within our 'world', or on this side of the Wall.  What are they?  My guess, consistent with previous posts, is that the two objects in question are the Elessar (Green Elfstone) and the Sawtooth Stone, or Stone of Enoch.  I think this guess is further supported by how the dialogue on June 10 is concluded, which I will get to in just a second.

Another code name comes up with "Dylan" or "Dillon" (it could be either spelling).   Dylan means "Son of the Sea" or "Born of the Sea", but it can also mean something like "Loyal, Faithful" or "Like a Lion", apparently.  I am not confident on who this Being is, actually.

After mentioning 'protection', the dialogue closes with what I believe is Glorfindel summarizing words of "the King".  Who is this King?  My guess is Thingol-Aragorn (as in "Return of the King"), but who knows.  This makes the most sense to me since I currently think of them as having been travelling companions for at least some of the time in 2019 and 2020.  Further, as I think of it currently, Thingol-Aragorn would have departed with Joseph, I believe, using the Anor Stone, thus leaving Glorfindel and Gildor stranded behind on our world.  So, maybe some parting instruction?  I am not sure.

Leonidas, as I have guessed before, I believe is a reference to Glorfindel.  The "Barber" appendage to his name seems to reinforce this notion.  Glorfindel is famous for his hair (his name, in one version, literally meaning "Goldilocks"), so a reference to a barber wouldn't be out of place here.

The phrase following mention of Leonidas describes 'gems' and that they were cut for "epe".  I believe this is the word intended, and its Elvish.  It would mean something like "later, after of time, following".  Given that, it seems that there is mention that gems have been 'cut' for a later time than in the present when Glorfindel is relating the King's words.  My guess is that these 'gems' are the 2 objects within the Glass Walls that I mentioned above:  the Elessar and the Sawtooth Stone.  Time will tell, though, I suppose.  Those make the most sense to me given everything else, but it is still a very rough guess.

OK, so early to mid-June we have Elvish Aliens galavanting around Salt Lake City, forming some fairly negative opinions of Mormon leadership, and likely the institution a whole, and then remarking on some objects that are for 'later'.  This negative take on Mormon leaders will come out in a dream I had later that summer - either in July or early August - that involved both the Catholic and Mormon churches, and specifically their leadership.  Based on my view now that Glorfindel and Gildor were at this time among the Mormons and had developed these opinions, I actually place Glorfindel as the likely source of my dream, for what it's worth.

Here it is.  I had actually recounted this dream to my older sister fairly soon afterward because some of the imagery was disturbing and I needed to talk to someone about it.  Also, as you will see the dream ends with some fairly immediately relevant things that were difficult to explain away without assuming some Being was aware of my immediate surroundings, strangely.   And this really spiked my anxiety.  It put my into a bit of a tailspin, honestly.

In the dream, I was in a church building sitting in the audience with something like a General Conference going one, with all of the LDS church general authorities/ leaders up behind the podium. It was a very nice looking church - kind of like a cathedral, with high ornate ceilings. In looking back on it, I think it was meant to represent a combined Catholic and Mormon building. There had been a speaker, and then one of the leaders introduced a guest speaker from the Catholic Church to talk to everyone about all of the great work they were doing to help the poor and needy. The Catholic priest [I am not sure on what leadership position he had - he did wear a mitre] got up to make his way to the podium to speak, and as he did so, the whole church began to shake, like in a very big earthquake. Dust started coming down from the ceiling. The priest looked up and around, then appeared to think that rather than speak it might be best to get out of the building, so the scene cut to him and his entourage (there was a group of priests with him) exiting rather quickly as they nervously looked up at the ceiling.


After they left, there was a lot of commotion, nervousness, etc. among the congregation about what to do. The LDS leadership on the stand consulted with each other, and then Dallin Oaks (currently the first counselor in the LDS First Presidency) got up and stood at the podium. He began to calm everybody down, telling them that there was nothing to worry about and everything was going to be just fine. As he did this, there was another massive earthquake, and the ceiling right above where Oaks stood gave way and crashed down on him, burying him under the rubble. Everything pretty much went into chaos at this point - with the crowd screaming, and I remember a few leaders going to where the rubble was to check on Oaks, and the scene then cut away.


Following this scene, I remember walking outside in darkness for awhile, and then found myself on my farm. The gate to my animal pen was open, and animals were wandering all around my farm. However, I also noted a hole in my fence, and I picked up a strange black animal that had gotten in among my own farm animals. This creature clearly didn't belong in there, and I felt it intended harm, so I was thinking about how to get rid of it.



As I thought this, I noticed what looked like two black bears wandering outside of my pen, among the animals that had gotten out through the open gate.



I woke up from the dream hearing a commotion outside of my window from the chickens. I opened my blinds to look out in my apple orchard where the chickens were, and there was a small black animal trying to break into my chicken house. I am not sure what it was - it wasn't a fox. Maybe a weasel, though it seemed bigger than that. In any case, it reminded me exactly of the small black animal I had just seen in my dream. I yelled at it from my window and it ended up running away.


I went outside to investigate, and all of the chickens were fine. However, out of the corner of my eye, I saw what looked to me two small black bears in my yard, just like in my dream! That was my initial instant take, at least, but as I turned to look at them, I realized they were my pigs. We raise Berkshire hogs, which is a breed of pig that are black, with some white coloring on their lower legs and sometimes face, and by July/ August they get pretty big. If you looked at them quickly from a distance, you might be forgiven for mistaking them for small black bears walking around.


And here they were wandering around my yard, just like what I thought had been black bears did in my dream. I ran over to the gate for the animal pen, and saw that it was open, just like in my dream as well. This was how the pigs had gotten out of their pen and were wandering around my yard.


I managed to get the pigs back in, and the gate secured, but I was a little shaken up by the events in general. Waking up from that dream, which was already a bit disorienting, to seemingly some things happening on my farm in real life that had some sort of connection to how my dream ended was again not something I really liked or welcomed at that time.  If you could summarize my feelings at that time, I wanted to be left alone, basically, and forget about all of this.



When I spoke with my sister to try and talk through my anxiety and how to view this, her opinion was that the sounds of the chickens outside in real life had likely started to work into my dream at the end, and so that is why I imagined a dark predator among my animals threatening them. I tried to believe this, but I wasn't convinced that this explained how I saw the open gate and what turned out to be my two black pigs wandering out in my yard in the dream while I was very much in my room with my eyes closed and windows shut.



In any case, I now, in light of everything else, view the dream as having come from Glorfindel, which I think reflected his feelings about Mormon leadership and perhaps symbolically the fall of that group and their authority at a future time.  It is the best explanation or guess that I have, and it seems consistent with this view that Glorfindel, having been among those leaders back in June, seems to have judged them and found them wanting.

My guess is that Glorfindel and Gildor may have stayed in the American West until the following year, but I can't be sure, obviously.  It does seem that they were the ones that stayed behind, but it is still unclear to me who else would have been at Williams Peak the following year in 2021.  I don't have that sorted out clearly at this point.