*thinking*

I remember a while back, I did a lot of reading on Tam Lin. All the variations in the story, I read a lot about it. And I read one possibly-related story...

It was listed with Tam Lin ballads, but it was really closer to Childe Rolland, except there is no happy ending. We have a girl and her brother, and one day the brother walks the wrong way around a church and disappears. So, of course, the girl goes after him, and eventually catches up with the faeries who had taken him. The faerie queen thinks this is all a joke, of course, so she tells the sister that she can have her brother back, so long as she can take him away from them. And, of course, as the girl holds her brother, he begins to change. And she holds him as he changes into a bear, and she holds him as he changes into a snake, but when he's transformed into living fire, she screams and lets go, and so is consumed by the flame. And as she's burning, the faerie queen laughs, and tells her that she should have "had more faith", and then she could have saved them both.

It's been stuck in my head this past week, that and the Erlkonig. I always liked the tragic endings better, even as a kid. You're given so much fluff, even if you have loving parents, that sad endings seem like the only solid land in a world of stories. But I usually wasn't thinking on them so much. *shrugs* Maybe it's the weather.

Two more unrelated things...

1. An article about gay marriage, taken from mephron. Well, it's a letter. Not an article.

2. Okay. So, if we're going to do pro/con essays about Harry Potter, we need a list...

( Remind me to check it. Thrice. )

I tried to limit myself to characters who have been reasonably important in more than one book, or whom we know a lot about (that'd be Dean), but I no doubt missed many. We've got space to offer to write pro-essays, con-essays, whatever. Or not. I might write a lot, if I don't get bored halfway through. I love overanalyzing stuff :)

Edit: If enough people are willing to do this, do you think this deserves a comm? Maybe hppeople_essays? I'm thinking links are good enough, but I can always add one more community to my huge list I already maintain.

I had completely forgotten about this!

( Found it when googling for my username. )