This is fun because Maija is a very common name for women in Finland. Not this generation particularly but it's like the Finnish equivalent of Mary or something to the generation that was born around 30's-40's. For some reason it was exploding in popularity from the the 1900's (as in the oughts, not the century) to 1930 in Finland. And seeing how Tolkien definitely took influence from Finnish, I wonder if there might be an actual connection.

edit I changed the example name from Jennifer to Mary as I realised "Mary Poppins" is translated as "Maija Poppanen" in Finnish

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

For some reason it was exploding in popularity from the the 1900’s (as in the oughts, not the century) to 1930 in Finland.

It's because everyone wanted to associate their kids with the English Queen Mary. Idk why. My Italian grandparents named all their kids after English royalty too.

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[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 64 points 7 months ago (3 children)

"Well I read in a book that I was there. I can't actually remember more than a few hundred years back."

Ashildr from Doctor Who was brilliant.

[–] kamenlady@lemmy.world 20 points 7 months ago (4 children)

I'm wondering now, how our little brains would adapt to living like for thousands of years. Would we really start forgetting things that are waaaay back?

[–] De_Narm@lemmy.world 46 points 7 months ago (28 children)

I've already forgotten most of my childhood and I'm only around 30. So I'd assume, yes.

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[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 15 points 7 months ago (2 children)

You would forget most everything. Even big events would become fuzzy. Do you remember what you had for lunch on this date when you were 5?

[–] Glitterbomb@lemmy.world 16 points 7 months ago (6 children)

It's Friday. Rectangle pizza

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[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

"The Man from Earth"

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[–] pressanykeynow@lemmy.world 12 points 7 months ago

Yes and no, probably. You will remember important bits and will reconstruct/imagine other things just like you do now. Even with our short lifes not all the things you "remember" actually happened.

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[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago

I SEEN IT!!

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[–] CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de 57 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Doesn't matter. While that amazon shitshow tells a different story, Gandalf (as Radagast and Saruman) only arrived in the third age, long after the War of the Last Alliance. Gandalf might be infinitely older than Elrond yet wasn't there.

[–] WillBalls@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

The second age ended with the ending of the war of the last alliance, so Gandalf did arrive later, but not "long after"

[–] CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 7 months ago (4 children)

I assume you forgot a "not" after the "but". I just looked it up though, Gandalf left Valinor for Middle Earth around 1000 T.A. I don't know about you, but I'd consider that "long after" the War of the Last Alliance.

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[–] Godric@lemmy.world 38 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Hey Gandalf, fuck off. Were you literally there 3,000 years ago? Or are you just going "You're younger than me, so you know fuckall"?

Fuckin boomer

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 5 points 7 months ago

Gandalf: I was there in spirit!

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[–] Assman@sh.itjust.works 30 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Am I wrong or do the wizards not remember their lives before they were sent to middle earth?

[–] pressanykeynow@lemmy.world 18 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I don't think the original books ever told anything about it.

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 28 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Iirc the books themselves didn't say, but Tolkien's letters say something to the effect of the Istari only having vague memories of their time as Maia, with the exception of things that they were explicitly meant to remember, e.g. Olórin's memories of being sent back after his physical death while fighting Durin's Bane.

They know that they are, in our parlance, embodied angels or minor gods, but they don't remember a ton of where they came from

[–] Pilferjinx@lemmy.world 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Do the balrogs have the same memory issues?

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 15 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (8 children)

That's a very good question, and one that I don't know the answer to. I would guess no, as the point of the Istari losing their memories was to make them more like the people they were sent to save; it's not something about being embodied that made them lose their bodyless memories, it was part of their mission. The balrogs had no such mission

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[–] dustyData@lemmy.world 24 points 7 months ago

I mean, sure he was alive. But he wasn't physically there.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 16 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Christian Earth: 6000 years old

Middle Earth: 30,000 years old

Middle Earth wins again

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[–] NineMileTower@lemmy.world 16 points 7 months ago (6 children)

Is Middle-earth juxtaposed between Top-earth and Bottom-earth or Right-earth and Left-earth?

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

The serious answer is it's juxtaposed with East and West. West being the Undying Lands of Valinor, and East being the much less well-explored Land of the Sun.

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[–] mipadaitu@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Inner earth and outer earth.

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[–] lazynooblet@lazysoci.al 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I didn't understand this so I looked it up.

https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Maiar

Pretty cool.

[–] pressanykeynow@lemmy.world 14 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (12 children)

So there were five godlike beings sent to fight Sauron. Only one of them did his job.

I need to reword it.

You are the big cool powerful god. One of your servants, a minor much less powerful god does bad things to the world. So you send five your other servants just as powerful as the bad one to deal with him.

A lot of time passes. Three of those spend their time chilling. One joins the bad one. The last one turns out too weak. Who solves the problem? Four hobbits.

You really should reconsider your politics after that.

[–] root_beer@midwest.social 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Isn’t much of the power of the Maiar in diplomacy and setting events in motion? Gandalf was as much of an interloper and manipulator as he was anything else, and his hiring Bilbo as a thief was the penultimate piece of his mission, as inadvertent as I’m not entirely sure it was. Right? No, really, I’m kinda asking, I don’t know for sure.

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[–] boydster@sh.itjust.works 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Wait till you learn about Melkor! He's a Vala, or one of the Valar, which is a higher order than the Maiar, and was basically super-Sauron from the before times

[–] leftzero@lemmynsfw.com 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

And he was scared of Ungoliant, and we don't know what she is, besides nasty, and hungry, and shaped like a huge spider (well, spiders are shaped like her, probably).

(He also got his foot almost cut off by an elf in single combat and walked with a limp ever after — well, at least until he got his hands and feet cut off by the rest of the Valar, I suppose —, but elves were mighty back then.)

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[–] observantTrapezium@lemmy.ca 4 points 7 months ago

Maiar is the plural

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