HELP!
We need the assistance of every able-minded elf-friend out there.
Newspapers and magazines print articles in which ELFQUEST is featured or mentioned. Often, but not always, the editor sends us a copy of the article for our files. We love this.
But we suspect there are more appearances of ELFQUEST out there than we know about, and we'd like your help in filling the gap.
Here's the deal: Be the first one to send in a newspaper or magazine clipping that includes ELFQUEST, and we'll send you a copy of the hardcover graphic novel of your choice. (Of necessity, this offer excludes comics news publications, since we receive those regularly. We're looking for what we might ordinarily miss.) In the case of duplicate submissions, the postmark will determine who's first. Be our eyes in the world. Thanks!
The mail this month seems to be drawn from
the "Irritating Characters" bin on the ELFQUEST list, so
let's take a Chot in the dark, as it were. This first letter
is in response to a thread about whether or not Suntop
and Shenshen are going to Recognize... - RP
From: Hyla/Nita/Winnoword
<HLACEF13@UA1VM.UA.EDU>
Howdy!
Re: Suntop & Shenshen. Maybe, but I doubt it. He'd probably be ready for it while Shenshen thinks he's still a child.
Besides, at the rate things move in NEW BLOOD, it will be years before he thinks anything of the sort. (sorry Barry, nothing personal). Personally I think he and Chot are going to do it before he and Shenshen do. Sometimes differences make good sparks, and sometimes certain similarities do. Heh heh. What a cute couple. And everyone knows how Chot likes to cozy up to leader-types! OK, I'll take my stand. I think Chot has great potential. His unpredictability is one of his strengths IMHO. Dart has Kimo (now they really do make a cute couple), so why not Chot and Suntop? I mean, when it occurs to him. Perhaps Suntop will find his complement (in the same way that Ember used to be his complement, or Skywise used to be Cutter's) in the wildly unpredictable Chot. I mean, Suntop has always been buffeted by things beyond his control, including his own power, and needs some happy wildness to balance his prematurely "old head".
From: Steve Blevins
<blevins@AGAMES.COM>
Dorene Boltz writes:
Wanna bet Shenshen will Recognize Chot?
Personally, I don't think Chot's got anything
worth passing on via Recognition. Unless he grows up
a helluva lot and becomes a decent worthwhile individual,
or does something noteworthy, I think that
Recognition will pass him by. After all, not every elf
Recognizes, neh?
Soulseer
dorene@tcl.scarolina.edu
Has it occurred to anyone that Chot is a lot like the common idea of how an 'elf' is supposed to look and act since the dark ages? Kind of unattractive, mischievous, tricky, cowardly, and not entirely good-natured. Maybe his line evolved as hiders and skulkers and thieves and thereby managed to survive while other braver, nobler elves faced their fates and were destroyed. I can see definite Chot-like characteristics in elves and gnomes like Rumpelstiltskin and his ilk.
From: Dorinda Hartmann
<dmhartma@STUDENTS.WISC.EDU>
Weeks ago (19 Sept.), Steve Blevins posted something that I'm only getting around to replying to now...
Has it occurred to anyone that Chot is a lot like the common idea of how an 'elf' is supposed to look and act since the dark ages? Kind of unattractive, mischievous, tricky, cowardly, and not entirely good-natured.
Y'know, I found this idea very interesting. So far in EQ we've seen a number of different elf-types, including the remote, emotionally removed "Faerie" nobility (the High Ones, mostly; some Gliders); elegantly wicked antagonists (Haken, Winnowill, sometimes Rayek); peaceful, delicate sylvan folk (Sun Villagers, some Wolfriders); and the wild, more sensual ones (Go-Backs, the bulk of the Wolfriders). Lots of permutations of these types show up in EQ... but so far, the one type of Elf that has a strong legendary presence here on Earth-1 but hasn't shown up very much at all on Abode is exactly the one Steve points out. The UNadmirable one.
I mean, yeah, Bearclaw had been known to steal a human child and run around with it, but he didn't kill it or throw it off a cliff as far as we know. We're told he'd "leave the brat hanging on a branch somewhere", and we see a confused (but perfectly safe) child hanging in a swaddle-hammock. It might be assumed the pursuing humans will find the child from its cries, and go on home. And yes, Winnowill does some unpleasant things, but always with power and elegance and, dare I say it, flair. The elf-type I'm getting at has little of these things. It's the earthy one, the gross one, the arbitrarily unfair one, the ugly one.
This kind of elf-legend (brownie, goblin, vodyany, all kinds of other names I can't remember offhand) is darker and dirtier than the others. The little people who would just as soon break your dishes as look at you, if you forgot to leave out the proper amounts of food that they liked. The ones who were lustful enough to hide in chamber pots, to ogle and pinch people in vulnerable places. The ones who were said to smear horses' manes and tails in honey and excrement overnight, and then tangle them so tightly into "elflocks" that they were impossible to untie... and if you just went and cut off the elflocks, you had bad luck. How can you win with an elf like that?
Look out, I'm swinging into Mercutio's soliloquy about Queen Mab, from Romeo and Juliet, a speech all about this kind of elf... "This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, who presses them, and learns them first to bear!" <slap> <DOWN GIRL> Whoah, sorry. Back to EQ.
In any case, I'll tell ya this much: they ain't no shoemaker's elves.
So I'd say Chot does indeed have a niche in elf-lore... although I can understand the resistance to his type, since every EQ elf we've seen so far-- good, bad, or neutral-- has been beautiful and somehow noble. Never so gross or full of appetite. Even Kahvi never let fly with a great big burp.
Dorinda
From: Jon Coolidge
<Z_COOLIDGEJS@TITAN.SFASU.EDU>
Anyway, next point: Chot as the elf of legend Of course, we're not dealing with Earth legends, but this is a good point.
It is I suppose only fair to see some less than perfect elves. For awhile I was getting a bit like Barmek myself. "You're all so perfect! You live a long time, you look so neat..." There is no such thing as an overweight elf in ELFQUEST. (Not that I mind on that point.) Of course, I've always been an idealist. The elves vs. the humans when I started reading symbolized for me what could and should be versus what is at the moment. Of course, the issues have become a lot more complicated now.
From: Yngvar Foelling
<yngvar@VESTNETT.NO>
Very minor spoilers about the current NEW BLOOD storyline.
Stokowski wrote:
And just to stay on subject, has anyone ever
wondered who this troll is that's leading the humans
in trying to find the pass through the sun village?
Could she be one of the descendants of the
trolls that stayed there for a short period of time? I
forgot, how old is trinket at this time?
First of all, I'm not sure that it's female. It seems mainly to be the cloak that leads us to think in that direction, but the features seem rather asexual. And remember that that boy keeps calling it "Master." That sounds more like male to me.
This is the second time I correct you about genders in a few days (Though I must admit that I'm not 100% sure in this case). Is this a problem you have? (grin)
Anyway, back to your question. The trolls who stayed there were Picknose, Oddbit, Old Maggoty and Trinket. Trinket is probably still less than ten years old (only insecurity is that I don't know exactly how old she was when she was introduced), and she's still with her mommy and daddy, securely away on the other continent.
It could be another of Picknose's trolls. After all, it seems very much like it knows that the Sun Village is there. But the problem is then how it got back across the ocean. Still, Two-Edge has definitely done so, so it might still be possible. Maybe there is a way between them across land?
Yngvar
From: Wrenwater
<bvanlook@NYX.CS.DU.EDU>
Why not a transoceanic tunnel? They are "Dig-digs"....
Wrenwater
And finally, the perfect capper... - RP
From: Aenarion
<aenarion@NETCOM.COM>
I like Chot a lot.
He's a dirty Go-Back Elf
which suits him, Amen.
Chot haiku.
Vek@CotF
Beyond which there is no whicher. Keep
those comments coming, and see you in 30! - RP