#pedalo

‘But as for our white ships, those you gave us not. We learned not that craft from the Noldor, but from the Lords of the Sea; and the white timbers we wrought with our own hands, and the white sails were woven by our wives and daughters. Therefore we will neither give them nor sell them for any league or friendship. For I say to you, Fëanor son of Finwë, these are to us as are the gems of the Noldor: the work of our hearts, whose like we shall not make again.’ (The Silmarillion, Of the Flight of the Noldor)

I came across some swan shaped pedaloes in Stratford this morning and they got me thinking about the swan ships of Alqualondë and the luscious art nouveau aesthetic of the Teleri and Sindar. One of the reasons I’m so normal about the Silmarillion is how hard boiled it is: it is the work of a lifetime wrought and rewrought in a way that makes even Virgil look like a jobbing journalist, but it’s also a slim 440 page volume. In what for a C21 writer would be the amount of pages of a single instalment of a series, Tolkien crams in so much beauty, so many insane details that yes draw on history or myth or contemporary aesthetics but which paint such a vivid picture. Who can forget the swan ships, or Yavanna in tree form, or the bells of Tirion?

Anyway, have some East London pedaloes. They’re nowhere near as cool as the ships of the Teleri but they are swan shaped

The city of Überlingen has quite a lot to offer, from the obvious waterfront and historical centre, with the Münster and its interesting lighthouse-like tower seen above, to some more subtle nods.