Willow's End - Jera Skyspear
Elvish words/phrases linked to Glossary OR hover mouse to see translation.
OOM Chant

Jera set out a task for herself. She was helping to school the youngest elflings in the many things children must learn, but her main responsibility was communication. She had a gift for understanding language, in fact she knew three, and then some. Her mother, Kumori, had taught her well and continued to teach the older children. Kumori was also the translator for official gatherings between their clan and the dwarves and, if need be, the humans from the valley.

Feeling no calling to shadow her mother that closely, Jera still found it rewarding and entertaining to work with the littlest. They were new to everything. It was a joy to experience their exploration. She hadn't accepted her own approaching adulthood just yet, so she reveled in the freshness of the children.

Jera began to focus on this: The children always had trouble understanding why the races are races, why they are different and yet have meetings and such together. They had no understanding at all about the interrelationship that had been developed with the clan on the mountain top, the dwarves below, and the humans in the valley. Thank the Goddess they also had no idea of the pain and sorrow that can be caused if such relationships are not properly tended.

The marvelous and troublesome thing about children is their frankness. Not all appreciate this, particularly between races.

Festivals and such were held amongst the strange racial triad, in the hopes of playing up the cooperation and playing down the inherent friction. This was all perfectly acceptable for the elven contingent, at least most of them. They would make appearances, be civil, or find a reasonable excuse not to go. It was clearly understood that there was to be no trouble. The dwarves were not quite as accommodating, but nearly. They had a lot of wealth at stake and trusted that they needed the elves on their mountain, even if they weren't exactly sure why. Didn't matter. They trusted it. The relationship had worked. So, they would uphold it.

The humans were the most difficult. They seemed to fear the entire arrangement, as if perhaps they were being set up for destruction, although neither the elves nor dwarves had shown any interest in their property or livelihood. They served as a market, more or less. But, the humans seemed fond of making up horrible reasons for things instead of ever assuming there might be good reasons why things happen as well. It's just that the good reasons aren't always as noticeable. Sometimes you have to look for them. It was clear that they didn't really take the time.

At any rate, Jera was looking for a way to condense the essence of all of this for the children, in a fun and uncomplicated way. It was indeed a monumental task, but she let the thought meander about in her head while she went on with her regular duties.

From Jera's point of view (and most of the clan's opinion), the dwarves were rather like children too. Besides being smaller, they seemed simpler in that their tastes appeared to be limited to only a few aspects of life, like wealth, weapons, winning, and working.

Anyway, a thought formed in Jera's head and then it meandered a bit more and drew from what she'd learned of language and of the three races involved. She also knew it was helpful for children to learn if they had catchy phrases or tunes to latch to, and so on.

Thusly, Jera devised a small bit of verse, in the Dwarven tongue. She also translated it into Common Speech and of course her own language. She checked very carefully, wanting to make sure that no one from any faction would be offended. She was trying to isolate, into a few memorable lines, what the three parties shared, which was basically an interest in Mithril. And yet, she couldn't give too much information away. She was aware that the dwarves and humans didn't really understand what part the elves played in Mithril.

DWARVEN
olar aya oom morndin	magical power upon the mountain peak
xunder bin splendarr levasst	secrets into [the] shining passage-linking-surface-to-underground
arau findar un ilith	[with] great good luck and agreement
oom halaur a bryn agland	the gift of the sword of light
(bryn is not literally 'light' but something that shines brightly, like gold in the sunlight)
ELVISH (Quenya mostly)
Tuurea ingole am aikasse	powerful magic upon [the] mountain peak
muilela mir i sisiila indo va silme	secreting into the shining heart of silver
o almare ar weere	with good fortune and agreement (compact)
i anna vai Hyandakalan	the gift of the Blade of Light
COMMON SPEECH: Power upon the mountaintop shining into silver's heart with good fortune and honor the gift of the blade of light The Dwarf OOM Chant oh-LAR ah-YAH OOM morndeen ZOON-der bin splen-dahr lay-vahst arr-OW feen-DAR OON illith OOM-hah-lahr ah brin ah-glahnd! Play the Dwarf OOM Chant plays a bit fast to keep it down to 215Kb To accompany this is a march step, which can be used for all three versions but is geared to the Dwarf Chant. The march would usually be performed by the children on a festival parade ground, with drums and perhaps pipes to accompany. The basic march is 6 long strides between half-steps back ~ start with right foot landing on 'LAR', then step with left landing on 'YAH', rock back on right foot on OOM, then rock forward onto left for '-deen' ~ next line is 4 smooth strides in rhythm ~ then right foot landing on 'OW', then step with left landing on 'DAR', rock back on right foot on OON, then rock forward onto left for '-lith' ~ final line is 4 smooth strides in rhythm again In parade drills there would be a 90º turn for each round of the 4 lines of the chant (to keep the marchers within the parade field :) There may also be split marchers, some starting on left, some on right and mirroring or weaving through each other The emphasis on 'THE mountain peak' (OOM), 'AND agreement' (OON) then a vocal punch at the end of the forth line, on the word for sword (agland) which is intended to make the dwarves happy. It's a double entendre for the Blade of Light ie lightning but also for the blades made with the resulting mithril.

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