News Resources
Login
Become a member
Help
Search
|
|
| About Us News Resources
Login
Become a member
Help
Search
|
|
|
| Stirring Rings by Larner | 5 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| Agape4Gondor | Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 6/20/2012 |
| Pox against pox. Very interesting. I was starting to become anxious for Gondor and was hoping they would be warned. Author Reply: Oh, yes, they would be warned. And I remember a story in my third grade reading book about how children received the first of the smallpox inoculations, and learning it was actually cowpox virus that was administered. My mother had the scar on her upper arm where she received hers. I was only a baby when I got mine, and there was no sign of any scarring from the pox afterwards--apparently a baby's skin is more able to rejuvenate than that of a woman grown. Let's see--so far I've had bubonic plague, malaria, smallpox, and rabies. But I do believe that Sauron would experiment with germ warfare as well as more common guerrila and martial tactics. Anything to weaken his enemies. | |
| Linda Hoyland | Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 4/17/2007 |
| So Gandalf and Elrond discovered the cowpox/small pox link before Jenner?What a pity they could not have have invented a vaccine in the dark ages ! Author Reply: Oh, I agree, Linda--Jenner might well have been preumpted by folk in an alternate view of our history, just as I have Gondorian explorers bringing back quinine and other herbs and plants from the Americas. After all, potatoes and squashes had to come into the continent in some manner so that Hobbits might enjoy fish and chips! Somehow I missed responding to these reviews--sorry about that! | |
| Bodkin | Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 4/11/2007 |
| Saruman likes grand. And glory. And directing matters from the top. He goes for the show. While Dr. Gandalf Jenner has a better understanding of big things being made up from a lot of small things. He doesn't mind getting his hands dirty. He did well in convincing all those concerned that cowpox was a better option - and people with the power to do something about it listened to him and co-operated with him. And he - and his companions - did a good job with the wights. Author Reply: Oh, you have them pegged indeed. Now I have to figure out the Jenner reference--I fear I'm out of touch with much of current popular culture. And although he might not have been able to get rid of the wights I think Gandalf would have done his best to see them contained. So glad you responded to this one. | |
| Kitty | Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 4/9/2007 |
| Truly fascinating to see how they discovered the fact that having had the cow pox was a protection against the much more dangerous other pox, and how they spread the knowledge – and the illness itself – througout the realm. Thank godness for Gandalf and the Elves; I fear without them – and the trust the Kings show them – all these plagues would have been even more fatal than they already proved to be. Another intriguing part was the way how Gandalf and the others bound the wights to the Barrow Downs. That explains why they didn’t wander far from there to find other victims than four innocent hobbits and other unsuspecting travellers. This is one of the few chapters starring Saruman that didn’t left me fuming about him. If he is uncomfortable because he expects more comfort than Radagast is able to offer, then I couldn’t care less *evil grin* Author Reply: The relationship of cowpox to immunity to smallpox led to the development of smallpox vaccine, which doesn't have to be as deeply injected as many other vaccines--a mere scratch of the skin with the vaccine is enough to lead to development of immunity. Certainly my mother and stepdad both had notable scars on their upper arms from being vaccinated in the forties; I reportedly was vaccinated before reentering the U.S. after my father's death when I was still a baby, and I don't appear to have developed any kind of scar at all. In Europeans, where smallpox was endemic, over time many folk inherited sufficient resistance to smallpox they would recover; however when immigrants to the colonies in the Americas introduced native peoples to the disease they died wholesale; some xenophobic agents and government officials made blankets that had been used to wrap individuals infected with smallpox available to tribes at government sponsored trading posts, deliberately causing widespread deaths. It's one of the nastier historic moments in the history of the U.S. The wights of the barrowdowns appeared to be fairly localized to the ancient cemetery itself, although they did appear to have some influence in the stone circle where the four Hobbits took their afternoon nap and awoke to find evening descending rapidly and the fog gathering. The probability that Angmar was involved in the infestation of the place with wights is certainly implied in the appendices in the Tale of Years; why they didn't appear to affect those who traveled the Road was a question I've often asked myself as I've reread the books and more stories regarding travel between the Shire and Bree. Saruman may have developed the gift of persuasion; but it has seemed to me that he never appears to have really done a lot to promote the welfare of the various people of Middle Earth; while our peripatetic Gandalf was always on the move between one area and another, and at least in the North was greeted positively in the various places where he visited. That he would be one of those who would help folks face the problems afflicting them and find solutions and then share those solutions just seems likely to me; but where in the North his aid was recognized for what it was, while in Gondor and elsewhere he was apparently seen as one who came in the wake of problems and then was seen as one who enjoyed dealing with misery where in reality he was undoubtedly only trying to bring word on what was found to work elsewhere. As for Sauron--since the great plague in the time of Telemnar came out of the east, that he was involved is most likely; and that he'd continue experimenting with sending other contagions out to try to kill as many in Gondor and Arnor as possible also seemed very likely. I've just tried to imagine just what kinds of plagues he might have employed at different times. Anyway, am glad that for once Saruman hasn't appeared to be a total loss. Thanks so much for the feedback. | |
| SurgicalSteel | Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 4/8/2007 |
| Interesting - quite clever of Gandalf to have figured out the cowpox/smallpox connection. I'll be interested to see what happens when Gandalf and Saruman go off to see Radagast! Author Reply: To deal with one whose family succumbed to the new plague and find such a simple thing appears to have protected her and another would impress Gandalf, I think, as it would Elrond. I love to think of the various ways Sauron and his folk, including Angmar, tried to attack the one remaining line of Kings in the northern kingdom--after all, we're nearing the end of that of the southern kingdom already. I admit I don't know for certain precisely how cowpox is spread from cows to humans, but thought this made sense. And to think that once the connection was made Arveleg would find himself trying to figure out how to use that information to protect his folk was amusing. Here he and his son are, trained as healers by Elrond, realizing they have reason to ENCOURAGE a disease among their folk in order to protect them against a worse one let loose by Dol Guldur--that must have felt VERY odd just to contemplate. I remember in grade school reading a "Dick and Jane" story in third grade in which one of them gets a small pox vaccination, a prophylactic move that started in the general population of the U.S. during WWII, if I remember correctly, and the class discussing it and how Dr. Salk came up with polio vaccinations. My older brother was one of the very first children to get a polio shot, and as they refined the vaccine, my mother insisted I get a new round each time they came out with a new version. I must have had at least six versions of the vaccine over the years, ending with the first they put on sugar cubes. I'd have held out for that one, if I'd had the chance. I'm terribly needlephobic. I don't do flu shots at all, partly because of my intense fear of needles, that got worse after an emergency operation some years ago; but mostly because I appear to be one of those who gets intensely sick every time I get a flu shot--or at least I did for the four my mother insisted I get while still in public school. Thanks so much for the note. | |