Eachdraidh Application

Fri, 25 Apr 2014 02:36:34 GMT

( PLAYER INFORMATION )

- ★ NAME: Tori
- ★ AGE: 29
- ★ TIMEZONE: EST
- ★ CONTACT: toriangeli on Plurk, mtangeli on AIM
- ★ CURRENT CHARACTERS & LATEST AC: N/A

( CHARACTER INFORMATION )

- ★ NAME: Sigrid
- ★ AGE: Fifteen (guesstimate)
- ★ CANON & CANON POINT: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the end of the movie
- ★ CANON INFORMATION:

The Lake-men of Esgaroth are part of the branched-out group known as the “northmen.” This particular title is applied to any of the race of Men who never passed into the West and crossed the Blue Mountains, and thus, never fought in the War of Wrath. This in fact makes all the difference, as those Men were granted very long life and their own extra-special Camelot/Atlantis hybrid. Those who remained behind were expected to remain unremarkable in their history. Naturally, by the end of the Third Age, one such person killed a dragon and another vanquished an undead zombie king.

Along with the folk of Dale and the Lake-men, the Rohirrim were counted among the northmen and indeed were the same people until they broke off, traveled south, and impressed the shit out of the King of Gondor thereby being granted a huge plain of grass. Still, ties can be seen between the northmen of Dale and Esgaroth and the northmen of Rohan, language among them. Tolkien represented Rohirric with Old English, which branched off of Old Norse, and it is Old Norse he used to represent the language of the northmen of Dale and Esgaroth. The woodsmen of Mirkwood are also of this race and speak a similar tongue. Hobbits supposedly came from this area in the far northeast, and gradually migrated down the Anduin and across the Misty Mountains and eventually settled in the Shire. When Merry and Pippin meet Theoden, it is quickly discovered that their tongues are very similar and the Rohirrim have knowledge of hobbits. Very similar would any searching conversation be between hobbits and northmen of any sort, but the northmen of Esgaroth and Dale are closer to their roots and speak a language much closer to the original.

Dale was the city destroyed by Smaug after his arrival. The dragon first utterly conquered Erebor and drove out its people, then gradually picked off any survivors in Dale who didn't run. Most ran, of course, and settled in Esgaroth, known as Lake-town by most. It is from these refugees that Sigrid and her family are descended. In fact, her father is the hypothetical heir to the long-defunct station of “Lord of Dale,” a rather self-explanatory position I imagine involves being a feudal lord in charge of a city.

If Scotland is any example, it's unlikely Bard or his predecessors had an easy time lying low in Lake-town. People take hold of glory days and remember them as better than they were. Girion was the last Lord of Dale. He perished while attempting to kill the dragon, but his wife and child escaped. Bard experiences continual antagonism from the Master of Lake-town and his aide, so it's very clear that his ancestry is known, as well as the fact that he has a legitimate claim to power. The Master feels threatened by this, and it's likely he is keenly aware that many would rather have the Stuarts back in power and kick the Hanoverians back to Germany. So he undermines Bard constantly, and publicly denounces him and his bloodline, reminding the townsfolk that Girion failed to protect his city. Bard's bloodline is nothing new, of course. It would have been noted in his father as well, and in his grandfather, and every single heir of Dale since Girion's death. Therefore this antagonism must not be anything new, either. Bard has probably been targeted his entire life by people either wanting him to take power and change things, or fearing his threat to the current regime. The Master's public shaming of him would not be an isolated incident, but one of many. He will not tolerate a threat to his power, and so his answer is to turn the people against the idea of Bard in power.

When Bard arrives with the dwarves to smuggle them into his house, his son, Bain, tells him their house is being watched by the Master's spies. Bard has to get creative, coming inside with only his son. This is where first we see Sigrid, giving a joyous but anxious laugh as she embraces her father and tells him she was worried. It isn't just Bard who feels the danger the family is in; clearly, his children feel it as well.

Bard lets the dwarves in through the porcelain throne downstairs, as it empties into the lake and the lake is probably horribly gross and they eat fish from it oh ugh how do they not get wiped out by cholera. Sigrid is puzzled; Tilda her sister is charmed. Periodically after this, Sigrid can be seen working in the background. She makes no notable appearance until Bard reveals he kept one of Girion's black arrows, the only ones that can pierce dragon-scale. By this time, most of the dwarves have moved on to the Lonely Mountain and dragon-like sounds are coming from that direction. Bard resolves to pick up where Girion left off and away he goes.

Later, Sigrid awaits him on the terrace outside their house when an orc lunges at her. Screaming, she runs inside and is followed by more orcs. And more orcs burst through the windows and start trying to kill things. They are impeded by the arrival of a couple of elves, one of which remains behind after the orcs are all either dead or flown to heal a sick dwarf freeloading in Bard's house. Sigrid pitches in and makes her sister help, too, holding Kili down while Tauriel apparently tortures him back to health.

Sigrid's last known position is inside her own house, waiting for a flying hydrogen bomb to come destroy her world.

- ★ PERSONALITY:

The full form of this personality section can be found in the form of a case study of girls and women in similar family and social situations as Sigrid, written myself and posted on her journal. It should be noted that all names were changed and no places or dates are mentioned to protect the privacy of these individuals, but I have direct permission from only one. Thus the entire case study is linked and not included in full in this application. Below you will find a more concise, edited version.

Bard's wife, Sigrid's mother, passed away. Luke Evans has mentioned in interviews that it was decided she died in childbirth with the youngest, Tilda. Peggy and Mary Nesbitt were respectively thirteen and nine when cast in the roles of Sigrid and Tilda, so if we take Tilda as nine and Sigrid as about fifteen (Peggy looking older than she is; ageing up Sigrid helps to place a brother in between her and her sister and gives her a little more experience to use in RP), Sigrid would have been about six at the time of her mother's death.

Obviously we cannot take a single real-life situation and apply it over Sigrid like a patch. Sigrid has a personality, and the other members of her family have personalities that have to be accounted for. Moreover, Sigrid lives in a specific sort of society and in a different period of history than we live in. In Tolkien's works, there is no negative stigma on men displaying emotion or shame for the grief or passion they feel. Bard the Bowman is a particular sort of father. Bain, even though he is not the oldest, is the only boy and therefore seems to be given a particular role in his father's absence. Like boys in similar situations, Bain seems to be given the task of making sure his sisters are safe. But who takes on the other duties with a deceased mother and a hard-working father?

In Lake-town, a rigid dictatorship is in place. The city guard is no better than a band of henchmen for the Master of Lake-town (the charges against Bard in the film being "whatever charges the Master pleases") and the Master himself holds a grudge against Bard himself (the implication is that the Master fears both Bard's do-gooder charisma and his legitimate claim to power via the line of the Lords of Dale). Among popular society, it is almost certain that not only Bard is considered unsavory, but his children as well, considering how the Master does his public relations. The general populace seems easily swayed in the scene where Thorin's identity is revealed to the people of Esgaroth, both in favor and against Bard. It is very probable, and certainly never contradicted, that Bard's children can only rely on each other and perhaps a scant few friends for support.

Bard's family is also poor, as Balin observes. They have no social leverage beyond Bard's "champion of the common folk" attitude and reputation, and popular opinion is demonstrably unreliable, especially as the common folk do not want to cross with the law in a totalitarian government no matter how much they secretly root for the Stuarts, and Bard is constantly bullied by the government. Bard's life revolves around his children, but his profession as a bargeman keeps him away for long hours. When he first returns to Lake-town in the film, Bain meets him on the "street" and informs him that their house is being watched. That Bain is relied upon to keep watch over the house and guard the black arrow, and even to assist in smuggling the dwarves into town, reveals that in this male-dominated society, Bain is expected to be the man of the house when Da is away. This should be taken for what it is: a fulfillment of a culturally expected duty on Bain's part.

And so Sigrid, in a male-dominated society, can be seen in the background filling the role of the absent mother. The moment we see her, she is working when her father comes through the door. She comes to embrace her father with a smile and a tremor in her voice as she tells him she was worried, then takes his bag to put it away. Bard's eyes close when he embraces her--the bond between father and children is very close indeed. Sigrid then follows her brother at least partway to the bathroom when Bain lets the dwarves in.

"Daaaaa?" she calls uncertainly. "Why are there dwarves comin' out of our toilet?"

It ought to be noted at this point that Sigrid dresses simply and practically, her hair in the traditional "braids are the actual most practical hair style and this one gets wrapped around my head so I don't have to deal with it" style. Her clothing can be noted as cheap: fabrics colored with bleached and natural linen colors and an indigo blue. Her petticoat is made of the same fabric as Tilda's pinafore, which is code for "we found a great deal on this fabric and made it stretch as far as we could." This is a textbook poor family.

On and off, Sigrid can be seen working in the background while others talk. Things still need to be done, after all. When facing the prospect of a dragon attack, she and her siblings look to their father for comfort and protection. Sigrid does in fact have one strong parental figure left who has a consistent presence in her life. Her safety is a thing she trusts Bard to protect. However much of a hand she has had in raising Tilda, it is Bard Tilda looks to for reassurance when danger is afoot.

When danger comes in the form of an orc attack and Bard is not present, Sigrid is outside on the terrace, solitary and pitiful as a housewife waiting on the pier for a returning husband. She is clearly worrying about her father. An orc arrives and she screams. And screams, and screams, and runs back inside. As the orcs burst in, Tilda flings pottery and the girls hide under the table. Both are screaming, and Sigrid is shielding Tilda with her body while the dwarves and elves fight off the orcs. So even if Sigrid is not charged with Tilda's safety, it is still her instinct to get between her sister and danger, no matter how terrified she is.

The orcs are gone, and Tauriel is healing Kili's poisoned wound. Sigrid takes part in nursing, and when it is needed, she helps hold Kili down and calls for Tilda to come do the same. Tilda obeys. This is the last thing of note that Sigrid does in the film, teeth clenched in grim determination as she puts her weight into keeping down a guy twice her weight.

Sigrid is no warrior. She's not a politician, she's not a matriarch, and she's not a mother bear. She's what the family needs her to be. She's the cooking, cleaning, nurturing, getting-into-the-dirt-and-guts-because-someone-has-to semi-motherly figure of her family in lieu of an actual mother. Her identity is shaped by the loss of her mother, as daughters commonly find upon the deaths of their mother. In her paper, Lisa Nowak explores how a mother is commonly felt to be an extension of the daughter's identity in an online survey. She found that when women lost their mother at any age, their own identity changes in one of two ways: to become their own mother, or to lose a sense of faith and guidance in the world. Susan Hois, a child development specialist, wrote about a child's sense of loss during their developmental years. If Sigrid was six years or older when her mother died, then she would be old enough to feel a sense of being different from the children around her. The rearranging of priorities would happen very early, and she would grow up very quickly. Sigrid is unlikely to develop the behavioral problems children like her are at risk for because she has a strong and loving parental figure in Bard, but she is still at risk for pregnancy out of wedlock and difficulty forming close personal relationships outside her family.

Among her family (Bard, Tilda, and Bain) and those in her care (the dwarves) she shows an openness and warmth, tenderness of heart and compassion. Even when she cowers and screams during the orc attack, she is bodily shielding Tilda. Speaking with Tabby reveals a strong belief that older siblings have something akin to a maternal or paternal instinct with their younger siblings with who they are close to through hardship. I fully believe that Sigrid isn't thinking about what she is doing. Protecting Tilda isn't a virtue to her, nor really even an instinct or a choice. It's like a part of her body, there whether she wants it or not, irrepressible because this is not only the natural order but the only way for things to be.

Sigrid's life has been difficult. She lost her mother and works hard to fill the void left by her absence, she is unsupported by the world around her and constantly in danger of losing her father to a paranoid man's grudge. She spends her life holding her breath and waiting for the other shoe to drop, but the "innocence," or what psychologists call "basic trust," is still there. She has a good and loving father whose hard work keeps him often away, and works hard in her turn because things need to get done even if no one wants to do them. I don't think we see her sitting down once in the movie, and she's only "idle" when she is out on the balcony looking for her father. She has been sucked into the vacuum society abhors. At her age, when other girls are thinking about boys, she is thinking about getting dinner done on time when she already hasn't had an idle moment all day. She's the one dealing with the little family crises when her father is gone, when Tilda is afraid of men lurking outside the door or when an argument breaks out or someone is being bullied. She is the disciplinarian, and very likely is only minimally educated. Whatever education she managed to scrape up, she would probably be passing down to her siblings. Chores would be spread out among all the siblings, and historically children as young as five were taught how to spin yarn for varying uses in cold climates like Esgaroth's.

It is no accident that every time we see her, Sigrid is either working or worrying or both. This seems to be the primary thing the director wants us to know about her character: that this is a functional, if broken, family trying to survive through a difficult time however they can. It gives Bard even greater motivation to save the day when at home he has three hardworking, great kids who look up to him. When we see how hard Sigrid works and how compassionate and virtuous she is, we have more sympathy for Bard's plight in trying to keep her and her siblings alive.

Going off what we have decided we know about Sigrid now, we can safely decide a few more things: because she is dutiful, she dislikes feeling useless or lazy. Despite being at an age when her interest in boys (or girls) should be peaking, she doesn't seem to leave the house (it is implied it is not entirely safe for her; their house is being watched in the film) and shows no signs of having any hobbies or social life (Tilda has a doll). Her life is defined by her Duty (with a capital D). But the dangers of her life are not so great as to be unsurprising to her when they do come up in the film, so she must place some measure of trust in her father and in the world around her. Still, she is unlikely to go out after dark unescorted, and even then only in gravest need. Her father did not teach her how to fight in self-defense or she would probably have used it against the orcs, so her self-defense training would simply be a matter of rules: don't go out alone, keep an eye out, make sure you keep a knife nearby, and this neighbor is a safe person to go to if an emergency happens. And Sigrid, charged with keeping these rules, would be the one to bear the solemnity and quiet fear that comes with knowing these scenarios may happen. Bain, charged with defending his sisters, would be similar.

But who is Sigrid? She herself does not need to know. She is what she does, and she is what is needed of her. She is kind, caring, and virtuous like her father, dutiful and capable, mature and girlish, charged with a weight her peers do not understand. She is a beautiful girl with no use for beauty, an intelligent girl with no chance of climbing any ladders (until the next movie), chaste but not by choice, capable of merriment but more inclined to worry. Her arms and legs and back are strong from lifting large pots full of soup or water, from laundering and carrying little siblings and bags of potatoes. She is tall for her age and durably built. She looks and acts like a woman without being one. She is no Joan of Arc, but she could be Florence Nightingale. She's a girl trapped in a woman's role and a woman's body, her virtues rewarded with even harder work and no guarantee of safety. She has the hormonal challenges of a girl of fifteen, the social challenges of a mother of two, and somewhere inside, a six-year-old grieving the person she ceased to be when her mother died.

- ★ COURT ALLIANCE: Seelie. Sigrid has her own brand of valor, a keen sense of duty and obligation to aid and protect those who need her. As the eldest child of a single-parent family, she has defaulted to the mother figure for her two siblings, and is seen almost constantly working in the background. She grew up the dutiful daughter, and it will have become her very identity if real life examples of girls in similar situations are held to.

- ★ ABILITIES:

Housekeeping
Cooking
Mending/darning
Knitting
Sewing
Speaks two languages: Westron (the common speech) and the tongue native to the northmen of the area
Spinning (historically a thing all children would learn from the age of five, in many cultures)
Being of the line of Dale, she can understand the language of thrushes as per book canon. She does not yet know this, as per headcanon.
She can do a headstand.

- ★ INVENTORY:

Her clothing. This consists of a button-up collared shirt, a sleeveless bed-jacket that is belted closed, stockings, shoes, and a blue printed petticoat. Since this was commonly done historically (and makes sense especially in a cold climate like Esgaroth), she will be wearing three or four other petticoats underneath for warmth, all able to serve as the top petticoat and not specifically as undergarments. She also wears an apron, though it's hard to find a still where it's visible.
Winter gear. A stiff coat with a striped brown linen shell and a madder-red wool scarf.

( SAMPLES )

- ★ NETWORK SAMPLE:

[A curious face peers into the locket with a slight frown.]

Bain? Tilda?

[She sounds and feels very awkward, asking a locket for her siblings.]

I don't know if you're here, but you'd better get over here if you are. If you're not...

[Her shoulders move as she huffs an impatient sigh.]

I don't like this. The dragon was just coming for us. I think...I've been rescued. From the dragon. But I don't want to be rescued if I can't take you with me, you understand? I'd rather go back home and save you, or...be with you, somehow, but I can't [her speech is quickening and she's starting to look upset] stand to be rescued without my family even if it means I'll die. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude or ungrateful or anything but I have to go back, I'm sorry...

Sorry. I just need to go home. Or if you can, bring them here. Please. I don't know why you'd rescue me and not them, but they're mine. I've got to help them. Can anyone help me?

★ LOG SAMPLE:

Drøymde mik ein draum i nótt
um silki ok ærlig pell,
um hægindi svá djupt ok mjott,
um rosemd með engan skell.

She has already been through the song a hundred times if once, since she came. As she's grown older, her voice has changed a little, enough to sound somewhat like her mother in her own ears. It helps her disconnect, placing herself in a different body and life altogether. Tilda never knew what she was really doing when she sang to her. It was a song for Sigrid as much as Tilda.

Ok i drauminom ek leit
sem gegnom ein groman glugg
þá helo feigo mennsko sveit,
hver sjon ol sin eiginn ugg.

Bright needle draws linen thread through wool flannel, a bold crimson stain poured over her lap and spilled onto the floor. A practical working gown with a slight luxury in the deep, cool red. An expensive red, not the earthy brick-red she is used to. And not a stitch of indigo blue, nor of brown, the two colors she is most sick of. She will never wear either again, if she has a choice. She is a lady's handmaiden now, and she will dress to suit the status such a title brings.

Talit þeira otta jok
ok leysingar joko enn —
en oft er svar eit þyngra ok,
þó spurning at bera brenn.

A bit of wool tape is useful. One end is pinned to the fabric and the other is tied around a post, anchoring the fabric and keeping her from having to bend over her work. Ma taught Sigrid that trick, and Sigrid taught Tilda. It was one of those times where her position as substitute mother was reinforced. Truly, everything Ma would have handed down to her youngest daughter, Sigrid was now tasked with bestowing. Tricks, skills, songs, and stories, wisdom and recipes, comfort and health. But Tilda isn't here, and Sigrid has no one to mother. It should be liberating. Instead, she feels useless. Her profession has always been mothering, and now she has no child.

Ek fekk sofa lika vel,
ek truða þat væri best —
at hvila mik á goðu þel´
ok gløyma svá folki flest´.

She sews and she sings, for herself, for anyone who listens behind the door. Pretty soon, she's not even sewing anymore, just rocking herself back and forth while the words pour out, eyes staring blankly ahead. She has flown very far on the wings of fairies, far from the Lake and the Mountain and the Dragon, yet she would rather go back and face death than stay in safety and face failure in her most basic purpose. In song and in work she has wrapped herself in layers, layers of usefulness and duty and everything she has had to become in order to supply her brother and sister with what they needed that their father could not provide. If you strip away enough layers, will you find Sigrid beneath? Does she exist?

Perhaps somewhere in there is a six-year-old girl who stopped growing so a woman could inhabit her body.

Friðinn, ef hann finzt, er hvar
ein firrest þann mennska skell,
fær veggja sik um, drøma þar
um silki ok ærlig pell.

Tears fall and bead up on her skirt before sinking like rain upon the Lake.

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Sigrid of Esgaroth

Eachdraidh Application