Sep-18-2010, 02:37 PM (UTC)
I guess I'm too much of a Tolkien buff but "valar morghulis" has always sounded quite ridiculous to me. Valar = the god-like spirits that govern the world, morgul = sorcery/black arts. It's like the dagger Lökdahl in Kay's Fionavar Tapestry books - it means literally "onion valley" in Swedish.
"Green nubs on the dry sticks of the clematis promised that the appearance of death was not death itself." - Ship of Destiny