Talk:Lonely Troll

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Latest comment: 28 October 2012 by Mith

This page made me think if we should create a category such as "Fictional Characters" or "Characters in Lore" Sage 18:04, 21 October 2012 (UTC)Reply[reply]

If such a category is needed (compare Template:Legend and Template:LegendLoc), I would perhaps suggest to name it "Legendary concepts".(1) "Concept" because we would otherwise need to have such sub-categories for all type of concepts. (2) "Legendary" since it suggest that these concepts are part of legend and thus not very trustworthy, like concepts appearing (only) in poems, or only mentioned fleetingly (e.g., were-worms), or only appearing in linguistic manuscripts (e.g., the spark-dragons). It might be tricky (or perhaps impossible) to actually determine if, for example, a certain character is only a fictional character (within Arda).--Morgan 18:26, 21 October 2012 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Perhaps legendary is not a very good word, though! :-) I looked here for its proper meaning in English. Is mythical a better word? Do any native speakers have suggestions? --Morgan 18:31, 21 October 2012 (UTC)Reply[reply]
For this discussion, let's call all fiction within the frame of Arda as a "Tertiary" world (as opposed to Secondary world). Words like "legendary" or "mythical" aren't clear enough that they refer to this tertiary world; one would think that archetypes appearing in the legendarium (immortality, curses, redemption, good, evil) would qualify as legendary or "mythical concepts". I would suggest a generic category such as "Lore" and subcategories such as "Creatures in Lore". Sage 20:52, 21 October 2012 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Since I'm the "troublemaker" who created the Lonely Troll article (in response to a red link) I should participate in this discussion. Having no other designation I used the fuzzy "Category:Characters" for this article, suspecting that it would provoke discussion - and it has. I think using "legendary" or "mythical" or even "lore" for a category of fictional characters would be dangerously confusing to our readers since J.R.R. Tolkien himself refers to stories and information about his Secondary World as legends, myths, and lore. What we want to convey is the concept that the article concerns something fictional to the people of Middle-earth, and we have a precedent for this. We have "Category:Books" and separately, "Category:Books and documents within the legendarium". How about "Category:Fiction within the legendarium" with a subcategory "Category:Fictional creatures within the legendarium"? These are rather lengthy names but they would be quite precise. --Gamling 22:16, 21 October 2012 (UTC)Reply[reply]
+1 to Gamling's suggestion. Or maybe "Mythical creatures within the legendarium"? I'm easy. --Mith (Talk/Contribs/Edits) 15:37, 28 October 2012 (UTC)Reply[reply]