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Talk:Maedhros

Untitled
Minor correction: Maedhros' red hair (probably a dark red-brown, actually) comes to him through his mother, but there is no mention of Nerdanel actually having red hair, so it is probably more accurate to say that it comes from his grandfather, Mahtan (who did have red hair). Seeing as there is actual discussion of hair color in Peoples of Middle-earth, and the red is distinctive enough to bear mentioning, it is reasonable (although I am aware of the logical fallacy) to suppose that Nerdanel's hair was not red. Aranel 22:32, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Citations not used in summary paragraph?
I'm not sure, but I think citations are not used in the summary paragraph. Everything mentioned in the summary paragraph should be repeated later in one of the sections, and referenced at that point. I think! Hence my requests for citations at later points. Still a nice article, but let's get these citations in there! Carcharoth 10:24, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Just found all the citations in the Trivia section. What I'm wondering is whether the best way to approach this is to say that everything is from The Silmarillion (1977) unless otherwise stated, and to reference the bits mentioned in HoME and other writings. That should, IMO, be the way to tackle articles like this. Somehow intertwine the story biography with the story of the order and sequence in which Tolkien wrote various bits about Maedhros. This involves massive trawling through HoME, but would look nice at the end of it all. Carcharoth 10:33, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

Wrong reference?
I'm not sure, but some of the references seem to have been mixed up in the wrong order. There is a references (currently number 7) that links from the account of the wounding of several of the sons of Feanor at the Hill of Himring, to the boat-burning episode many centuries earlier in Losgar. Not quite sure what is going on there. Carcharoth 10:37, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

 * The system being used automatically updates the numbering / linking of the references and that reference has been associated with the same text since it was added. The point appears to be to explain why six of Feanor's sons were wounded... because the 7th was already dead at that point. It does seem a bit roundabout though. --CBDunkerson 13:39, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Ditto to what CBD said, except the point was to explain why there were only six, and not seven. If anyone has a better way of making the citation point clear, please do! — Mir  l  e  n  19:18, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Well, just say in the reference that the quote is intended to illustrate why there are only six sons wounded. That would make it a bit clearer. I vaguely suspected it might be this, but it really wasn't clear what was going on. Carcharoth 20:04, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Ah, okay. Thanks for the suggestion. :)  I have made a correction that'll hopefully make the point clear here .  Oh, and feel free to fix it. — Mir  l  e  n  20:08, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

Overall suggestion
Following on from the bit about Silmarillion references, above, the bit I am most unclear about, after reading the article, is which bits come from which texts. I'd like to be shown (by references) which bits come from which text. Specifically, which bits are from 'The Silmarillion' (and if possible to have the biographical details in chapter order with the chapters referenced), and then to have the HoME references inserted, either in the main narrative, or at the end, depending on how much they contradict the story in 'The Silmarillion'. It would also be worth explaining this in the lead introduction - something like:

"Most of the story of Maedhros is contained in The Silmarillion, a posthumous work edited by Christopher Tolkien from the writings of his father J. R. R. Tolkien, and published in 1977. More of the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien were published in The History of Middle-earth series of volumes, edited by Christopher Tolkien and published from 1983-1996. This article references details published in both works."

In fact, that could be worked up into a template to use on many articles, similar to the "canon" template. What do people think? Carcharoth 10:50, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Forgive me, but I'm rather confused on what you're trying to say in the first paragraph. For the message — wouldn't the canon template serve the same function as what you're proposing? — Mir  l  e  n  19:22, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

 * The difference between the canon template and what I am proposing is that the canon template is (I think) meant to be used when there are glaring and major contradictions between various parts of the writings, especially when it is unclear what Tolkien's intent was. What I am suggesting is some sort of template that would say that, unless stated otherwise, the article is based on Tolkien's published writings, and further (something I failed to make clear above) that any other details from other writings are clearly referenced.

 * This would be suitable for articles where the unpublished writings are being used to expand upon what we see in 'The Silmarillion'. To take the example here, the following are bits that I think (please correct me if I am wrong) are from outside 'The Silmarillion', and should be referenced to the other writings they are from (some already are, some aren't - I've bolded the ones I think need referencing as being outside 'The Silmarillion'):

 * Auburn hair
 * Like Mahtan
 * Other names
 * Most diplomatic of the sons
 * Travelled far and wide with their father
 * The friendship of Maedhros and Fingon proved to be true and lasted their entire lives
 * Maedhros lived in Formenos
 * Maedhros brought the tidings of Finwe's death

 * The rest seems, to me, to be mostly from 'The Silmarillion', though maybe expanded versions appear in various HoME texts. It's just this distinction between the published Silmarillion and HoME that I feel should be made clear. Hope that was clearer! :-) Carcharoth 21:23, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

 * I don't think the template is needed, since the References section already implies that we're referencing from The Silmarillion and the HoME books.

 * Most diplomatic of the sons - This I think is pretty clear in The Silmarillion (I hope I'm not seeing this through a scholarly view, I don't think I am, but I may be — it all depends on what the majority of Tolkien editor think). Though it is not stated ouright that he was the more diplomatic one — Tolkien shows this through Maedhros's actions.  There are several mentions throughout the stories that Maedhros restrained his brothers and that moved his brothers out of Mithrim to "lessen the chances of strife" between the Elves.  After abdicating kingship over all Ňoldor, it is stated that he remained in "common counsel" with the houses of Fingolfin and Finarfin.  Later, instead of immediately attack Sirion, he sent a message to Sirion of friendship but with stern demands to the people/Elwing to yield the Silmaril (he does the same with Dior as well at Doriath). I don't know if searching for the sons of Dior after Celeegorm's servants left them in the forest to starve adds to my point, but if all his actions stated above isn't being temperate and diplomatic in comparison to the other Fëanorians, then I don't know what it is.
 * Travelled far and wide with their father - This is stated in The Silmarillion
 * The friendship of Maedhros and Fingon proved to be true and lasted their entire lives - This is something that is pretty clear in The Silmarillion as well. Though it may be called "interpretation", this "interpretation" is widely accepted as canon by Tolkien fans.  However, I don't think the fact that they were best friends is an interpretation, it is something that Tolkien clearly intends to show through the actions of Maedhros and Fingon.  At the burning of the ships of Losgar, we learn that Maedhros and Fingon had a close friendship, but when Morgoth came and spread discord, they quarreled and parted not so friend-like.  Despite the fact that they argued, Maedhros still remembered Fingon and asked his father at Losgar if he was returning for Fingon first among Fingolfin's hosts that were still in Araman.  When Fingon decided to rescue Maedhros in 5 Y.S. to heal the feud between the Ňoldor, the text states that he still remembered their "ancient friendship".  It is also said that "Fingon had been close in friendship with Maedhros" in the same paragraph.  After Maedhros gave up his position as High King, he still remained to be touch and in friendship with the House of Fingolfin, especially with Fingon after Fingon takes over the throne, and Finarfin in "common counsel".
 * Maedhros lived in Formenos - This too is stated in The Silmarillion
 * Maedhros brought the tidings of Finwe's death - I think this is in "The Shibboleth of Fëanor", so I agree that should be referenced.

 * I do agree that the last bullet should be referenced, but for the rest, I think it may be overreferencing. If majority do not think so, then referenced it shall be.  Hope I don't sound like I'm attacking you, I have a tendency to go into debating mode at times.  (Oh, if you want specific quotes in bullet #2 and 4, I can give you them to you :) — I'm just too lazy to type up the text from The Silmarillion :P — Tolkien is rather wordy [I know, I know, bad me]). — Mir  l  e  n  22:49, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

 * I think that if something can't be explained by references, it might be veering into the realm of opinion/speculation. I actually agree that Maedhros was diplomatic at times, and that he and Fingon were certainly good friends, but I'm just disagreeing with the emphasis that has been placed on these aspects of Maedhros's story. I'd rewrite those sentences, but don't have time at the moment unfortunately. Thanks for the extra references anyway - I hope you feel they improved the article. Don't get me wrong, I do like the way this article has been presented. I'm hoping to find the time to expand a character article to be as good as this one! Carcharoth 12:00, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Oh, perhaps I should just "let the facts speak for themselves"...perhaps it is tiptoeing into opinion. Feel free to rewrite the sentences :) — you'd write it more encyclopedic.  Yeah, it's really improved with help from all of those who've edited this article, isn't it?  That's what so beautiful about Wikipedia I think.  That everybody is able to help to improve an encyclopedia that enables everybody to edit.  Of course, you always have your vandals, but aside from that, most seem to be working hard to improve Wikipedia into a dependable encyclopedic resource in the future. Please keep going with your constructive criticisms, they really help me. — Mir  l  e  n  16:15, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

Two examples of contradictions in published Silmarillion
There are two examples of contradictions with the published Silmarillion that could be made clearer:

 * The reference in footnote 8 to Amrod/Ambarto dying in the ships at Losgar needs to be reconciled with the account in 'The Silmarillion' of Amrod and Amras dying in the attack on Earendil's people at the mouths of Sirion (see index entry for Amras).
 * The different texts about the sons of Elwing, with either Maglor or Maedhros searching for them, needs to be made clearer in the main text, rather than left to a trivia note at the end. Personally, I would leave it out altogether, like the account about the Dragon-helm - unless you can clearly reference something that shows which one was Tolkien's intent.

If I hadn't heard of this before, these bits would have confused me. Carcharoth 21:47, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

 * As for footnote 8, that was what I was asking in the talk page of the WikiProject (but I didn't get an answer, so...): Also, I'm pretty sure that it was Amrod who was burned in the ships of the Teleri, not Amras. Amrod was the younger one of the twin, and it was he who was called Ambarto. —Mirlen 23:20, 12 April 2006 (UTC) I'm sure that it's mentioned somewhere in the HoME books that Amrod was Ambarto and that there was a mistake in The Silmarillion about the translation of Ambarussa/Ambarto.

 * Well, anything that's "Behind the scenes" information go under the 'Trivia' section. The bullet in the Trivia section mentions the original/earlier drafts.  ORIGINALLY, Tolkien planned to have Maedhros rescue Elrond (there was no Elros), but obviously, he changed his mind to have Maglor rescue Elrond and added Elros, twin brother of Elrond.  As for the Dragon-helm (the story of how it was given to Maedhros is in UT [Unfinished Tales]), should that be moved to the Biography section?  But I do like how it ties in with the original drafts concerning the Elfstone. — Mir  l  e  n  22:21, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

 * I'll have to check the other bits (Elrond/Elros, Dragon-helm, Elessar), but my point is that there is a quote from 'The Silmarillion' that directly contradicts the footnote about Amrod in this article, and we need to make clear why this is, and, if we present one version as more canonical than another (I don't think we should really do this), why we are doing this. Anyway, the quote is:

 * "...Maedhros and Maglor won the day, though they alone remained thereafter of the sons of Feanor, for both Amrod and Amras were slain." (Of the Voyage of Earendil and the War of Wrath)

 * So I'm not disputing that the Amrod that dies in the ships at Losgar can be identified with the Amrod said to die at the Mouths of Sirion, but rather I'm saying that if we include this footnote about Amrod, we need to explain the whole set of inconsitencies. On the other hand, we could just leave that footnote out. It properly belongs in an article about Amrod anyway. The only thing being that it is nice to have it here because of the ships. In any case, I'd link the reference to the earlier account and picture of Maedhros at Losgar. Carcharoth 16:17, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Sorry, I misunderstood you! Alright, I'll leave the footnote out, and let you reference it the way you think it should be, because I see that it should've been referenced earlier. :) -- Mir  l  e  n  16:27, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

 * I've put it in the Amras article, although if that is wrong it should be in the Amrod article! Couldn't really work out how to put it in this article. Carcharoth 20:48, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

 * It should go in the Amrod article, methinks, because in HoME XII, I think it mentions JRRT switching around their birth order so that Amrod was last, but it doesn't indicate any changes about their father names. Since Amrod is the younger of the twin, then should his and Amras's father names be switched around? Or should we just add a note in the articles saying that Tolkien switched around the order, but it's not certain if their father's names are switched around? — Mir  l  e  n  21:42, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Oh dear Lord, why!! :-) Why did he change his mind again! :-) I'm afraid I don't have the time to change it now, but you are right, this does need to be mentioned. Somehow. Carcharoth 07:32, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Haha, lol, I agree. Tolkien needs to make up his mind — it's frustrating how he keeps changing his mind, which creates contradictions, therefore makes it harder for us to decide which one is canon!  — Mir  l  e  n  17:15, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

 * I think it should stand in the intro or the infobox where you can find this character; nowhere did I find any references to what work he was related, just add it. --Shandris 09:46, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Repetitive references
Some of the references seem a bit repetitive, especially 2, 3, 4, and 13. Is there not a way to do Ibid, or whatever that phrase is? Carcharoth 21:48, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't have the HoME books right now, but I was hoping that anyone who had the HoME books would be able to specify the references by adding the page numbers, and what "chapter" the information referenced was stated. Sorry, I should've added a comment about that in the article. — Mir  l  e  n  22:23, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
 * So references #2, 3, 5, and #14 need page numbers. If the page numbers between two of these are the same, then we would combine the references. — Mir  l  e  n  23:14, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

Good Article nomination has failed
The Good article nomination for has failed
 * Bullet-pointed text is bad prose. If the things listed under trivia are significant they should be mentioned in the main text, and if they're not they shouldn't be mentioned at all.

Worldtraveller 20:40, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

A couple of other things. The article needs to conform to WP:WIAGA ''For articles dealing with fictional subjects, characters, objects, or locations, significance outside of the "fictional universe" must be established and discussed, together with its process of authorship. The focus of the article should remain on discussing the subject as fiction within the context of "our" universe, not on establishing it as a "real" topic in a fictional universe; otherwise the article may be better placed in one of the many fictional-universe specific wikis.'' What I would like to see (and will do if I ever have time and energy) is to take some of the things from trivia and make an External History section covering the evolution of Maedhros' character and history in Tolkien's writings. As an aside the pronounciation My'thros really annoys me, even if not wrong it is confusing. Could it replaced by IPA or a more detailed explanation? Eluchil404 00:20, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

Different style needed?
Based on the comments above, from the failed "Good article" nomination, it seems that a different style is called for for character articles. Something along the lines of the "textual history" that Eluchil mentioned. I've rewritten the Maedhros introduction in draft form below:

"Maedhros is the name of a character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. The character first appeared in The Silmarillion, a work published posthumously in 1977, but the first writings about the character date back to .

In the published Silmarillion, the character arc is. The publication of the History of Middle-earth series in the 1980s and 1990s revealed some of the details of the creation and development of the character ."

In other words, a balance needs to be kept between writing about the character and what happened to the character, and writing about how Tolkien came to create the name and write the character. At the moment, the sections are "Biography" and "Trivia". Maybe a more rounded structure for "character" articles would be along the lines of: (1) "summary paragraphs"; (2) "Context in legendarium"; (3) "Character arc"; (4) "Textual history"; (5) "Etymology" (getting a language section into all the articles would improve them immensely). The infobox could similarly be revamped with a section saying what book(s) the character appears in - the above comment from Shandris is very telling: there is no reference in the current Maedhros article to The Silmarillion outside of the references or trivia sections.

In particular, if an article in general can have a robust section on the relationship of the names in the article to how Tolkien developed his languages, then that, IMO, makes it relevant enough for Wikipedia - the relevance being a summary (using sources) that provides an insight into how Tolkien created his world.

Comments welcomed. Carcharoth 15:03, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

 * I agree with the introduction should be more encyclopedic and less 'wikia', but I think renaming the sections is a bit overdoing it. For example, Mythology of Final Fantasy X: a good article, it's less 'wikia', but it still manages to keep a general balance.  I would say renaming the Biography to 'History' or something more "real-world".  On a rather random note, I am confused on what "summary paragraphs" are. Anyway, I do agree on renaming some of the sections, but I do not think it's necessary to go that far into doing so.  I would think 'Textual history' would be necessary — as for an Etymology section — that could be easily merged within the introduction.  As for the infobox, hm, perhaps...but I think mentioning the character's appearances in the introduction should be fine. — Mir  l  e  n  21:10, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

 * Firstly, about the "summary paragraphs", I meant the introductory section that doesn't have a title. It should summarise the article and everything in it should be repeated and usually expanded upon later in the article, which should be able to stand alone without the introductory section. Have a look at a typical biographical article like Copernicus, to see what I mean.

 * As for the wider Wikipedia/wikia issue, I've just been reading the Mythology of Final Fantasy X article, and to be honest, as someone who knows nothing about the subject matter, I was frankly a bit lost. After a few explanatory sentences, the article dives deeply into detailed stuff. I fear some people fell like this when reading the more detailed Middle-earth articles. I think the basic problem here is one of audience. Who are these articles intended for? Applying this to the WikiProject Middle-earth articles, are they intended for people who have never read anything of Tolkien's works, people who have a passing familiarity with Tolkien's works, or the fan who has read everything they can get their hands on? I would say that the first two would be in something like Wikipedia, and the last sort would be a wikia-style article.

 * It would be very easy to write these articles in these different styles (and both styles would use the same set of information, but would express it differently), but at the end of the day I think we need to settle on a consistent style and write and edit articles accessible to the reader of a general-purpose encyclopedia, rather than have a group of articles written by fans for fans.

 * Don't get me wrong, I like both styles, and I want to see both styles written, but this will be an ongoing problem unless some sort of consensus is agreed. Carcharoth 21:27, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

 * Ah, but summary paragraphs for "real-world" articles are different from fictional articles. The introductory paragraph, for fictional articles, should not contain any spoilers, hence the spoiler tag is placed AFTER the introductory paragraphs.

 * Hm, well, I see your point and it is an entirely valid point — it's not that I'm against what you're proposing. I agree with you on some parts, but I also think that there should be a general balance in-between that would still serve as a general-purpose encyclopedia at the same time.  I think there should be a renaming of the sections to make it more "real-world", but I also think there should be a balance kept. — Mir  l  e  n  22:20, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

Infobox on characters
Taking Maedhros as an example, I want to raise a few points about Template:Infobox_Tolkien (comments also copied to the talk page of that template), and some of the entries I disagree with. In general I am uncomfortable with the idea of assigning characters to a realm or culture, and especially a weapon. It comes across very much like a role-playing card, or "attributes" list, rather than a character within a work of literature. I have been trying to find suitable "literary" infoboxes, but failing. The key fields I would like to see in a Tolkien info box should show the key points about the character, not the incidential and sometimes trivial aspects.

When I think of Maedhros, I don't think: Sword, Noldorin King, or even his other names (a complicated matter). I think of "Sons of Feanor", "The Silmarillion", "Noldor" and "Elf". And not a lot else.

Taking another example, with Samwise Gamgee, his "other names" are again something that is not trivial and not easily summarised in a box. That sort of thing should be dealt with at length in a section of the article. His title of "Mayor of the Shire" is a spoiler anyway, and also not something that is key to the character until the end of the story. And saying that his weapon is "barrow-blade" makes me laugh, unfortunately.

When I think of Sam, the key points that come to mind are: "hobbit", "The Lord of the Rings", "Fellowship of the Ring", and so on.

My point is that we should maybe be adapting these character templates a lot more to fit Middle-earth. Maybe even adapting them to fit different races, different books, and moving them from a "wargaming" slant to a "literary" slant. For example, the language might be a better way to characterise characters in Middle-earth, as that would be more natural for Tolkien's writings. Carcharoth 21:57, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

 * I see your point. I agree, the 'weapon' category should be removed.  But I think the titles should be kept. I think what the character is (e.g. titles) specifically in the literary work is important to know, even in a general-purpose encyclopedia.  I also think that the names/aliases should be kept.  Of course, your point about the titles and other names being spoilers are entirely correct.  However, if a summary paragraph is there to summarize the article, then the infobox would serve as a summary of stastical information that would later expand in its respective section, wouldn't it?  If the history behind the other names are given in the texts, then it should be addressed and expanded in its history, however, I think a general listing of the character's names/titles should be kept as a listing for the same purpose summary paragraphs serve.

 * Anyway, I'm not sure how to address it at this point, but I agree that the infobox has to go on a less "wargaming" slant.

 * Perhaps you should address this at Template talk:Infobox Tolkien as a proposal, so members can decide this at the concensus with votes. — Mir l  e  n  22:31, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

Infobox part 2
Have a look at User:Carcharoth. Do people think that looks better? Carcharoth 17:41, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

The oath reference is wrong.
The version of the oath in the footnotes is from Morgoth's Ring. See here for its textual history. Uthanc 17:35, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

IPA
By pure researching, the IPA in pronouncing Maedhros's name may be wrong...I am not expert, and I am just learning. The pronunciation of Maedhros's name as I know it in non-IPA would be MY-thros. In IPA, I've "translated" this to this:.

However, there is a difference between Sindarin and North Sindarin, which was the dialect used by the Sons of Fëanor, so the pronunciation would differ. I don't know Sindarin (much the less North Sindarin) very well, but according to Ryszard Derdzinski's Northern Dialect of Sindarin, it would be — which has me confused. In the back of The Silmarillion, it states that 'dh' should be pronounced the th in then, and 'ae' should be pronounced 'ai' in Maedhros's case, but Derdzinski seems to suggest something a little different.

Personally, I'd go with the latter, aside from the fact that Derdzinski obviously knows his stuff better than I do, which is very little. Comments? — Mir l  e  n  20:48, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

 * I'd suggest we go with the pronunciation guides of authorized publications. john k 00:05, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

 * See, the problem is that my "translation" uses the, which now I discovered is the 'th' in this. I chose to use th based on what the Sindarin article had put in its chart, but it isn't the one Christopher Tolkien reccomended to use.  To paraphrase C.T.'s words, it was a soft 'th' in then, and not a distinctive 'th' in this. So I think  is afterall, a better choice. But I don't quite understand the use of  instead of an , so I was hoping someone who knows the IPA and North Sindarin better might explain this to me.  My revised translation: ...but I need somebody to check the accuracy on this. — Mir  l  e  n  10:22, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
 * I had thought "this" and "then" use exactly the same soft "th" sound. john k 17:22, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Oops, I meant the th in thin, sorry. For some reason, my brain equated this with thin, and that was the seed of my mixup.  Never mind then. >_< — Mir  l  e  n  17:51, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
 * So are we agreed that the "dh" in Maedhros is the soft "th" sound, as in "the" and "then"? john k 18:09, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes, sorry about confusing you. I was being stupid... — Mir l  e  n  18:15, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

I'm not much of a Tolkienite, but if we are to trust the rules given in the phonology section of the Sindarin language article (and this is a conlang, after all, not English), I think there's no doubt that the name is supposed to be either (if we go by the actual description) or  (if we go by the German analogy given there - supposing that Tolkien used it). The essay about North Sindarin doesn't mention differences that would justify another pronunciation. would, according to the article, be an option "if you don't care about details". That seems likely to me; if I were making a conlang, I wouldn't have two spellings for the same diphthong (since there is already an ai in Sindarin). And is much more interesting and exotic! --Anonymous44 09:50, 29 July 2006 (UTC)
 * So is the one you are going with? — Mir  l  e  n  18:13, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Though The Silmarillion denotes ae to be pronounced as individual vowels (as you suggested: ), it also indicates that it could be prounounced as one syllable. Since ae is a diphthong in Sindarin, it would be pronounced as ai.  So I am finally going with ai, because I feel it is the most accurate.  And yes, it seems that Tolkien has two spellings for the same diphthong (only in Sindarin I think) since it is said in Appendix B of RotK and TS that "ae and oe may be pronounced ai, oe" respectively. — Mir  l  e  n  09:17, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

 * Just noticed this, looking through my old contributions. You said that "Since ae is a diphthong in Sindarin, it would be pronounced as ai." I'd just like to point out that there do exist diphthongs (pronounced as one syllable) that are pronounced as /ae/ and not /ai/ in the world's languages, for example in German phonology. As a linguist, Tolkien was probably aware of that. Of course, they don't exist in English, and they could be difficult to imagine for an English speaker. As for the sentence that "ae and oe may be pronounced ai, oe", it can be interpreted as a guide for the linguistically unexperienced readers of the novel, rather than as a description of actual Sindarin pronunciation. In any case, I guess that the Wiki article might as well reflect the pronunciation of the actual fans rather than the one that Tolkien perhaps intended originally. --Anonymous44 23:18, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

 * As an English speaker, yes, it's hard to imagine, since there are no ae/oe counterparts. I agree with you to a certain extent that the guide is for readers who are linguistically unexperienced, but the Appendix is the only primary source published regarding Tolkien's languages; meaning, it's the best that we have in terms of primary sources.  (HoME would be considered a secondary source because it is followed by a commentary and largely edited by Christopher Tolkien.)  The Sindarin article seems to state that Tolkien reccomends using ai and oe for the diphthongs ae and oe "if one does not care about details" — but I don't remember reading the quoted part from the Appendix or from Christopher Tolkien in the back of The Silmarillion.  Not that I am doubting those who are experts on Elvish languages, you understand — I would just like the primary source (or secondary source HoME) specified where that was mentioned.  To quote Wikipedia, that statement is "likely true, but needs specificity" for my benefit (I need to brush on the Elvish languages, though I'm focusing more on Quenya and the Tengwar than I am on Sindarin.)

 * I note that the Sindarin article also states that "If one does care, it is similar to pronouncing a or o respectively in the same syllable as one pronounces an e (as in pet)" — but surely there are exceptions to this. For instance, take Maedhros's name.  Originally, Tolkien created the pronunciation of Maedhros's name and then came up with the meaning.  The original spelling of Maedhros's name was Maidros, suggesting that he intended having it pronounced /ai/.  The reason why he changed the original spelling was due to the fact that he usually needed to keep to keep the same spelling for the same meaning (though that didn't work out too well; the meaning changed from "glittering of metal" to "well-shaped copper" due to complications).  Also, take note that Tolkien decided that Maedhros was a combination of his mother-name, Maitimo and his epessë, Russandol.  It's quite safe to say and quite likely, with aforementioned supporting evidence, that the component ai in Maitimo matches the pronunciation of Sindarin diphthong ae as ai in Maedhros; seeing as the shifts (pronunciation-wise) from Quenya to Sindarin occured primarily in the consonants, not in the vowels. (*sighs* This would be easier if Tolkien was alive...) — Mir  l  e  n  04:12, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

 * Well, I was assuming that there was a primary source describing the pronunciation of Sindarin, and that the wiki article about Sindarin was based on it. Otherwise, all of these considerations would be original research. I would suggest you contact the editor who wrote the phonology part of the Sindarin article and ask him/her. --Anonymous44 11:32, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

 * Right. The "diphthongs" part was added by user:Matjlav . Now, if he does have a source for that, I think it's safe to assume that Tolkien eventually came to mean "Maedhros" to be pronounced as "Maedhros" and not "Maidhros", whatever the original forms of the name and the motives for its choise were. Conlangs tend to have a rather regular spelling, unlike modern English, and pronunciation isn't memorized word by word. If, on the other hand, there is no source for the statement in Sindarin, then it should be deleted, and then, of course, we are only left with your sources and the most likely pronunciation of Maedhros would be Maidhros. --Anonymous44 12:04, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

 * And here is what seems to have been Matjlav's original source: this article, part of this beautiful site, made by thisNorwegian guy with a philological education with the e-mail helge.fauskanger@nor.uib.no. This site, featuring even soundfiles, confirms the [ae] interpretation, and this course mentions ae as a diphthong distinct from ai (without describing their pronunciations, though). I don't know what all these people's original sources were, but I think that the matter should be checked before any particular IPA transcription is chosen. --Anonymous44 12:45, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

 * I agree; I'm going to remove the IPA for now. If the information about ae is correct, then it is most likely true for most cases, but there are always exceptions to rules.  And there is the question of the sources.  And while the people who run the aforementioned sites are no doubt well-learned and experts, I quote from one of Wikipedia's official policies: "Verifiability, not truth."
 * "'Articles should contain only material that has been published by reliable sources, regardless of whether individual editors view that material as true or false. The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is thus verifiability, not truth.'"
 * Because Tolkien's legendarium is so contradictory and unclear in many parts, it's hard to establish waht exactly is canon. That is exactly why WP:Me decided to use primary sources and Christopher Tolkien's HoME books as the only sources that Tolkien articles are allowed to be referenced to.  Plus, Wikipedia's guidelines state here "...self-published books, personal websites, and blogs are largely not acceptable as sources."  The sites you list above are what are considered tertiary sources (Encyclopedia of Arda is a prominent example, however respectable it is considered among Tolkien fans), and because Wikipedia discourages tertiary sources to be used, we must rely on primary sources (and with exceptions, secondary sources).

 * Of course, your interpretation in that the spelling of Maedhros's name was changed for pronunciation instead of translation is perfectly valid of course (they are both, in the end, merely interpretations), but I would keep in mind that the fact that Tolkien combined Maitimo and Russandol together to form Maedhros is also valid evidence in that the ai in Maitimo matches that of the ae in Maedhros, since components of both pronunciation and meaning was incorporated into his Sindarin name. Another evidence suppporting that would be the fact that russ in Russandol attests to the the ros in Maedhros.

The conception of Maedhros and its evolution from Quenya:
 * Again, because Tolkien did not define the pronunciation for Maedhros's name and in the end all we can do is speculate, I think you are right in the fact that it is best to abstain from adding pronunciations. Even though he listed rules and guides, there always exceptions to rules (and the fact that ros was meant to mean red-haired was actually water spray is a good example of contradictions and mistakes).

 * I second your opinion in that sounds better than .  For some strange reason, /ˈmaɪ.ðrɔs/ reminds me of Midas, which then reminds me of donkey's ears. >_< — Mir  l  e  n  20:53, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

 * I agree. BTW, this whole "ae" issue (and which particular legitimate source those illegitimate secondary sources are based on, if any) is indicative of a more general problem. Neither the Quenya article, nor the Sindarin article give their sources or explain what is the ultimate legitimate source about them, i.e. who made standardised and systematic descriptions of the languages. Did Tolkien himself do that, at any point, or - as is my impression - did people do research based on his various writings? In the latter case, don't those articles contradict the WP:Me guideline that you mentioned? Also, I think the Sindarin article should have a history section where the development from Quenya to Sindarin is shown in terms of sound correspondences. If such a thing had existed, it could have been helpful in our particular case, too. --Anonymous44 13:18, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

 * I agree with everything that you have said earlier. I've tagged the Quenya and Sindarin articles with 'Unreferenced' templates. I wish I could help fill in the references, but I'm still an amateur where Tolkien's languages are concerned, even though I am currently learning and researching.  (Somebody requested a Quenya Wiktionary, so if somebody can get that started, it'll be really useful.) — Mir  l  e  n  15:24, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

Good article nomination on hold
This article's Good Article promotion has been put on hold. During review, some issues were discovered that can be resolved without a major re-write. This is how the article, as of July 15, 2007, compares against the six good article criteria:

 * 1. Well written?: Yes. Fix the broken first sentence, and do something about the second, one-sentence paragraph in Appearances. Expand it by explaining why, or merge it with an existing paragraph.
 * 2. Factually accurate?: Current citations sufficient.
 * 3. Broad in coverage?: Yes.
 * 4. Neutral point of view?: Yes.
 * 5. Article stability? Yes. Editing is sparse.
 * 6. Images?: All in order.

Please address these matters soon and then leave a note here showing how they have been resolved. After 48 hours the article should be reviewed again. If these issues are not addressed within 7 days, the article may be failed without further notice. Thank you for your work so far. — Carson 03:33, 15 July 2007 (UTC)
 * All set! Edited intro and paragraph in appearances. Judgesurreal777 05:10, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Passed
GA nomination passed as minor concerns have been addressed. Bypassing the 2-day minimum hold as I don't foresee any changes or concerns. Congratulations! Carson 05:17, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 22:48, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

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Old English?
Not sure I quite see why Maedhros would need an Old English name -- I know Tolkien loved the language, but since the only people in Middle-earth who have OE names are the Rohirrim, perhaps this needs a word of explanation in the article? Chiswick Chap (talk) 17:36, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

I believe he gave them OE names because in the mythology the records survived via Aelfwine in the earlier versions, and Pelegodh in later versions. Biblo's translations of the elvish from Rivendell are of these records. Tolkien always wanted to make his stories so plausible that you could almost believe that somewhere a copy of the stuff could survive in a University's stacks.
 * Most of the Finwëans have Old English names given in the The Shaping of Middle-Earth. No, I can't remember why (and don't have my HoME with me). Double sharp (talk) 22:49, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

Notability not established
Looking back at this now, it's not obvious that the topic is notable. Fimi, a fine scholar, and Kinniburgh both see Maedhros as one example among several of Celtic influence, but that's for another article. Flieger basically mentions him in passing when discussing the Silmarils, contributing to the notability of that article; and the excellent artist Jenny Dolfen happens to like Maedhros, good for her. Apart from that we have, cough, a lengthy primary account. I see that earlier threads were still at the stage of discussing what Wikipedia's audience was, i.e. were we trying to tell the world about Tolkien's writings and characters, or did we possibly need something deeper (hint: multiple, reliable, independent sources). The obvious question is why would scholars write about Elves. Answer, from the point of view of folklore, or sociology, or mythopoeia, or the history of literature, or tracing themes and influences ... what they don't do much of is what fans expect, documenting characters, places, objects, and weapons in minute detail. I suspect this article is mainly a hangover from an earlier age. Probably time to redirect, really. I'll see about it. Chiswick Chap (talk) 15:23, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Maedhros


text:
Extremoduro

Extremoduro was a Spanish hard rock band from Plasencia, Extremadura. The band is led by Roberto Iniesta, also known as "Robe", who is often referred as "El rey de Extremadura" (lit. 'the king of Extremadura'). The name Extremoduro is a pun on the band's home region in western Spain, Extremadura, and roughly translates as "extremely tough", "rough edge" or, more literally, "hard extreme".

The band was created in 1987 and is regarded as one of the most influential bands of the Spanish hard rock scene, besides being a complete symbol for their region. Influenced by the Spanish literature, Iniesta's lyrics are often described as rude street poetry, with frequent allusions to drugs, sex and self-destruction.

Songs by Extremoduro include "So payaso", "Golfa", "Salir", "Extremaydura", "Puta" and "Jesucristo García". The highest moment in the band's career was probably reached with the release of their album Agila, which was awarded a prize for best video in the first edition of the Spanish Music Awards in 1997.

It is considered one of the best Spanish bands ever by several music magazines. They were ranked number 6 on Rolling Stone's "50 Greatest Spanish rock bands".

In December 2019, the band announced a farewell tour of eight cities for May and June 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tour was first postponed to autumn 2020, then cancelled and the band officially disbanded.

1987 to 2001
Roberto Iniesta (also known as "Robe") establishes the band in the summer of 1987 in Plasencia, the second most important city of Cáceres, a province of the west of Spain. Previously, in 1983, he had formed the band ‘Dosis Letal’ with Zósimo "Zosi" Pascual, with whom he composed the song "La Carrera", that would later come to be the penultimate track of Extremoduro's 1996 disc Agíla.

Extremoduro were initially formed by Robe, as vocalist and guitarist, "Chico" on the bass and "Miguelin" on the drums. This initial set-up lasted just a few months, after which Robe decided to reconfigure the group and found Salo and Louis "von Fanta" to replace Kaito and William respectively. With this new dynamic in place, and with the difficulty they faced recording an album, they decided to sell vouchers to their acquaintances (at a thousand pesetas each) that would entitle each of them to a copy of the demo tape after it had been produced. They sold 250 of these "coupons" (whose buyers are credited in the finished production). After this, they produced 1000 copies of this first "demo" which already contained some of the quintessential anthems of the group, such as "Extremaydura" or "Jesucristo Garcia"; the collection is Rock transgresivo.

The distribution of this transgressive musical offering of rock began to attract attention inside and outside their home region of Plasencia; it was so well received that the Spanish television program Plastic invited them for a live performance. They were then selected for the national final of the Yamaha trophy in which they finished third.

It was in this final that Avispa Music noticed them and began negotiations for the release of their debut professionally recorded album, Tú en tu casa, nosotros en la hoguera. The album was recorded that summer, containing the same songs as Rock Transgresivo (in addition to "Amor Castúo"). The group often expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome and, in fact, in 1994 it was remixed and partially re-recorded to be reissued under another name.

At the end of this deal-making 1989, Robe restructured the band again: he switched to the role of supporting guitarist, to focus on the delivery of the vocals. In this way, Salo became lead guitarist and Carlos "Dirty" took up the vacancy for a bassist. In 1991, a deal was struck with Wasp to record the second album, but due to the poor expectations that the label offered, they decided to break this contract and sign with Pasión-Área Creativa, like Avispa Music, an independent company, but this time with better conditions. They record a second album with them in Madrid Somos unos animales, published in July 1991.

With the collaboration of vocalist and guitarist Madrid Rosendo Mercado (ex-Leño) on the songs " La canción de los oficios " (voice) and " Perro Callejero " (guitar), they themselves define it as the beginning of the true sound of Extremoduro that the band calls "transgressive Rock."

In this first period, drugs – especially heroin – were the inseparable 'other member' of the group. As such, the group's live performances (usually considered their greatest asset) were unpredictable to say the least. Though they now had presence in the Spanish rock scene, it was said that Extremoduro's live gigs were either "unforgettable or a disaster." The group began to sell a lot and Pasión-Área Creativa proved too small for their ambitions, which together with other disputes (royalties not being paid for this LP), lead to them signing with DRO in 1991, giving them better distribution and promotion, and the means to the success that later years brought.

DRO Atlantic signing
DRO (Discos Radioactivos Organizados) was a record company founded in the '80s as Spain's first independent record label by members of the Aviator Dro techno pop outfit. When Extremoduro got signed up with them in 1992, it was one of the largest independent labels in Spain, in the process of a sale to Warner Music International, one of the most important multinational actors in the music business. Although the label has changed its name (DRO-Atlantic, DRO East-West, Warner Music España...), Extremoduro has published all of its albums through them since signing up. Indeed, they have re-edited their two previous albums with DRO.

In 1992, the third studio album came to be; the first within their contract with DRO, Deltoya. This had its origin in a spin-off project from the band, of Robe's: Extremozoide, although circumstances would cause this to be published as another album of Extremoduro's. The album has a more erotic—and less social—theme than the previous discs, and most of the lyrics are adaptations of the poems by Kiko "Luna Creciente", Tomás Rodríguez (the band's manager) and Manolo Chinato. The album includes the voices and participation of other artists, such as Argentinian singer and guitarist Ariel Rot in "Volando solo". It would not be the last time that Robe hatched upon a project that was independent of the group, nor the last time that this independence would prove to be short lived.

1993 is a crucial year in the history of Extremoduro. For starters, they cross paths with Iñaki "Uoho" Antón (then guitarist of Platero y Tú) in Bilbao and together with other musicians start a new project: La Pedrá. Robe is responsible for voice and guitar, Uoho for a second guitar, keyboards and percussion, and they join Dieguillo (bassist for Quemando Ruedas, Cicatriz, Antisocial), Gary (drums for Quattro Clavos) and Selu (from Reincidentes) with his saxophone and cante jondo. In August, they take to the studio to record a half-hour of music but it is highly experimental and discontinuous and the label refuses to back it, as it is seen as too risky. They would have to wait two more years for it to be sold commercially. Still, thanks to the stability that DRO gives the band, Robe is able to start a side project to Extremoduro in Barcelona: The Q3. This gives space to accommodate the ideas that did not work within Extremoduro. Jorge "el Moja" is on drums, Eugene on the guitar, Miguel Ferreras on bass and Ramón Sogas "Mon", on the other bass.

Meanwhile, drugs continue to permeate Extremoduro, and throughout the tour there are disagreements in the band that lead to its break up. After being part of the band since recording the demo, and three albums, drummer Luis "von Fanta", bassist Carlos "el Sucio" and guitarist Salo left the group. Robe, not about to see the band go down the pan, or abandon their dreams, replaces the disbanded members of Extremoduro with members of Q3, which marks the end of this project, but saves Extremoduro. It was with this collection of musicians that recorded the fourth album: ¿Dónde están mis amigos?, Which continues the style begun with Deltoya and confirms their reputation as one of the most important groups of Spanish rock. They remain unknown to the public at large due to their political incorrectness and raw style. The album was recorded in autumn 1993 and was published later that year. While all his works hitherto had been self-produced, this is the first record for which they hired a professional producer: Ventura Rico. This LP is considered the most personal and intimate of the band. This is probably due to the disintegration of the group, because now the other musicians are employees in a band that is directed by Robe himself. Fernando Madina from Reincidentes takes part in the song Pepe Botika (¿Dónde están mis amigos?).

Last line-up

 * Roberto Iniesta, "Robe": voice and guitar
 * Iñaki "Uoho" Antón: guitar, keyboard and other instruments
 * Miguel Colino: bass
 * José Ignacio Cantera: drums

Previous band members

 * Guitar:
 * Salo (1990–1993).
 * Eugenio (1993–1994).
 * Iñaki "Milindris" Setién (1994–1997).
 * Bass:
 * "Kaito" (1987–1988).
 * Salo (1988–1990).
 * Carlos "el Sucio" (1990–1993).
 * Miguel Ferreras (1993–1994)
 * Ramón "Mon" Sogas (1993–1998).
 * "Dieguillo" Garay (1998–2001) and bass guitar on Pedrá (1995)
 * Drums:
 * "William" (1987–1988).
 * Luis "von Fanta" (1988–1993).
 * Jorge "el Moja" (1993–1994).
 * Alberto "Capi" Gil (1994–1997).

Main albums

 * Rock Transgresivo (1989)
 * Somos unos Animales (1991)
 * Deltoya (1992)
 * ¿Dónde Están Mis Amigos? (1993)
 * Pedrá (1995)
 * Agila (1996)
 * Iros Todos a Tomar por Culo (1997) (Live album)
 * Canciones Prohibidas (1998)
 * Yo, Minoría Absoluta (2002)
 * Grandes éxitos y fracasos (Episodio primero) (2004) (Compilation album)
 * Grandes éxitos y fracasos (Episodio segundo) (2004) (Compilation album)
 * La Ley Innata (2008)
 * Material Defectuoso (2011)
 * Para Todos los Públicos (2013)
 * Canciones (1989-2013) (2021) No.21 Spain

Videography

 * Gira 2002 (2004, DVD live performance)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Extremoduro


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Constitution Act, 1867

Constitution Act, 1867 was proposed for deletion. This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was KEEP as a redirect. Rossami 22:41, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Duplicate of British North America Acts, merge whatever is unique and redirect. RickK 22:33, Aug 3, 2004 (UTC)
 * Merge, redirect, and delete. Mateo SA 04:18, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Merge and redirect. Sean Curtin

This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like other '/delete' pages is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion or on the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.
 * Merge and redirect. -- Cyrius|✎ 19:25, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Merge and redirect. This act is almost universally known by Canadians as the BNA Act, and mention of the Constitution Act would get you a blank stare except among constitution lawyers and history junkies. Denni ☯ 01:53, 2004 Aug 7 (UTC)


text:
Willits House

The Ward W. Willits House is a home designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Designed in 1901, the Willits house is considered one of the first of the great Prairie School houses. Built in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, the house presents a symmetrical facade to the street. One of the more interesting points about the structure is Wright's ability to seamlessly combine architecture with nature. The plan is a cruciate with four wings extending out from a central fireplace. In addition to stained-glass windows and wooden screens that divide rooms, Wright also designed the furniture for the house.

Background
The Willits House is one of Wright's first true Prairie-style houses; as such, it is the culmination of the period of experimentation that Wright engaged in the previous few years. This house was designed for Ward Winfield Willits in 1901, who was then vice-president of Adams and Westlake Company, a brass foundry of which he was later made president. Orlando Giannini, who was employed by Willits at the time, may have been responsible for the creation of this house as he introduced Wright to Willits. Wright was known for bridging the gap between architecture and nature, which makes this house fascinating because it is a full expression of Wright's interest in reconnecting with nature and Wright's equal interest in Japanese architecture and the Dutch art movement that was simultaneously occurring.

Design
The Willits House is the first house in true Prairie style and marks the full development of Wright's wood frame and stucco system of construction. Although the Willits House has two stories, it is a more complex shape, consisting of a rectangular central space with a rectangular wing projecting from each side of that space. This is a standard design feature for most prairie-style houses, in addition to low roofs, elements that run parallel to the ground and extend out beyond the frame of the house. Wright used a cruciform plan with the interior space flowing around a central chimney core and extending outward onto covered verandas and open terraces. The plan of the house is a windmill style, as seen with the four wings extending from the fireplace in the central core and the movement from each wing being along a diagonal line. Wing two contains the great living room with high windows and a walled terrace. The dining room, extended by a large porch, comprises the third wing; the fourth, towards the rear of the house, contains the kitchen and servants' quarters. Wright incorporates diagonals into several other places in his design – the dining room has a prow-shaped end bay and another prow-shaped projection, the reception room has a similar prow-shaped bay, the art glass light over the entry stairway is rotated 45 degrees, again emphasizing the diagonal, and the terminating piers of the porte cochere are offset from the end wall by 45 degrees.

The first floor contains the living room that faces the street, the dining room, kitchen, pantry, servants' quarters, reception, porte cochere, veranda, and terrace. The first floor also contains several fireplaces that are clustered together. An entrance-stair hall, living room, dining room and kitchen rotate around the central fireplace. The plan of the house begins to open up and the rooms are linking much more strongly outward. The house is less contained and architecture that moved outwards was one of the main features. Moving to the second floor of the house, it contains five bedrooms, a sewing room and a library over the south entrance. Instead of continuing the west bedroom (directly over the living room) the full width of the wing, Wright left space for second-floor side porches and urns.

The Willits House was seen as an entertainment-style home. The use of the Romanesque archway in the entrance, an emphasis on horizontals as seen in the low roofs of the dining room wing and porte cochere and the use of different trim materials in the upper part of the house. When light shines on this area, the roof appears to be hovering and displays very deep and dark shadows. Another unique feature of this house is that Wright was able to design everything in the house, from the furniture to the lighting fixtures.

Architect-client relationship
Wright and the Willits's became friends soon after meeting and realizing that with Wright's architectural expertise and Willits's company making contributions to many architectural projects, a vision for the Ward Willits House was possible. The client and architect continued their relationship after the house was completed, and Willits and his wife accompanied Frank Lloyd Wright and his first wife, Catherine (Tobin) Wright, on a trip to Japan in 1905. The trip went well and was a first for Wright; however, the relationship could not withstand the hardships that occur by being an architect and having a strong relationship with one's client. The clients were wealthy and had enough money to have the house built—although their friendship barely survived the ill treatment of Wright's first wife and family and unpaid loans Wright is said to have had with Willits, eventually repaid with sales of some of the many Japanese prints acquired on the trip. Nonetheless, Ward Willits spent many years with his wife in the house and lived there until his death in 1950.

Post-1954
The house was purchased in 1983 and the new owner began renovations. The new owner and his wife mainly completed the work, focusing on returning the building to a point in time approximating 1909, and they made sure to maintain Wright's unique features throughout the house. The restoration was acknowledged by many to be Museum quality, and received a Driehaus award. The house still sits on the same site in Highland Park, Illinois and is a common attraction for those who want to view a piece of architectural history. The Frank Lloyd Wright "Tour of the North Shore" currently explores the northern suburbs of Chicago along Lake Michigan to see one dozen Frank Lloyd Wright houses, including the Ward Willits House.

title: Willits House


text:
Reno Stead Airport

Reno Stead Airport is a large public and military general aviation airport located in the North Valleys area, 10 nautical miles (19 km) northwest of the central business district of Reno, in Washoe County, Nevada, United States. A former military installation until 1966, when it was known as Stead Air Force Base, in honor of 1st Lt. Croston Stead who died there during a training exercise in 1949. The airport's sole remaining military presence consists of an Army Aviation Support Facility and the 189th General Support Aviation Battalion of the Nevada Army National Guard, flying CH-47 Chinook helicopters. The airport is owned by the Reno Tahoe Airport Authority. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a general aviation reliever airport.

Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, this airport is assigned RTS by the FAA, but has no designation from the IATA (which assigned RTS to Rottnest Island Airport in Rottnest Island, Western Australia). Reno Stead Airport does not have regularly scheduled service, but functions as a general aviation reliever for the nearby Reno–Tahoe International Airport. The airport is used by the Bureau of Land Management as a base for fire fighting aircraft.

History
The location was opened by the United States Army Air Forces in 1942, in the middle of World War 2.

Stead Air Force Base was established by the United States Air Force (USAF) at the airfield in 1951, when it was determined that the Sierra Nevada and nearby forests would be suitable for survival training. The USAF Survival School and 3904th Composite Wing moved to the base from Camp Carson, Colorado, on 29 May 1951. Equipped with C-119 Flying Boxcars for training, SAC had begun the training for its personnel, teaching them how to survive if forced down in remote and/or unfriendly terrain, how to escape capture, and how to escape if captured.

Other commands wanted to train aircrews in survival techniques, and in September 1954 Stead AFB became part of the Air Training Command (ATC), and the 3904th Composite Wing became the 3635th Combat Crew Training Wing. After a number of name changes, the survival training school became the 3637th Combat Crew Training Squadron.

In January 1958, a small group of instructor pilots from Randolph AFB, Texas, was sent to Stead AFB to determine the feasibility of advanced helicopter training in the area's mountains. On 15 July 1958, the 3635th Crew Training Wing was redesignated as the 3635th Flying Training Wing (Advanced), concurrent with the relocation of the USAF Helicopter Pilot School to Stead.

In 1960 and 1962, astronauts were trained in desert survival by the 3637th Combat Crew Training Squadron and then helicoptered to a location near the Carson Sink for further training.

In 1964 the Reno Stead Airport was operated by the Ag Aviation Academy, which was then based in Minden, Nevada, about 15 miles south of Carson City. By 1966, the AG Aviation Academy moved totally up to Stead. In 1967 Robert E. Schricker retired from a 27-year career as a fighter pilot for the USAF and became Chief Pilot for the AG Academy. The academy taught all types of flying courses and ground schools, including helicopter and multi engine courses. Actress and race pilot, Susan Oliver, got her multi engine pilot license there in 1968. Chief Pilot Schricker left the AG Academy in 1969 to open his own flight school, Reno's Executive Air, at the main Reno Airport. In the 1960s Bill Lear, Lear Aviation, founder of the Lear Jet, also set up operations at the Stead Airport. Since 1964, it has been home to the National Championship Air Races, also known as the Reno Air Races, held every September. It was the launch site of "Earthwinds" balloon system in the early 1990s, which attempted and failed multiple times to circumnavigate the globe.

Facilities and aircraft
Reno/Stead Airport covers an area of 5,000 acres (2,023 ha) at an elevation of 5,050 feet (1,539 m) above mean sea level. It has two runways with asphalt surfaces: 14/32 is 9,000 by 150 feet (2,743 x 46 m) and 8/26 is 7,608 by 150 feet (2,319 x 46 m).

For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2020, the airport had 49,800 aircraft operations, an average of 136 per day: 86% general aviation and 14% military. At that time there were 186 aircraft based at this airport: 136 single-engine, 16 military, 9 multi-engine, 19 jet, and 6 helicopters.

title: Reno Stead Airport


text:
Napoleon Symphony

Napoleon Symphony: A Novel in Four Movements (ISBN 0-224-01009-3) is Anthony Burgess's fictional recreation of the life and world of Napoleon Bonaparte, first published in 1974 (by Jonathan Cape in the UK and Alfred A. Knopf in the US). Its four "movements" follow the structure of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, known as the Eroica. Burgess said he found the novel "elephantine fun" to write.

Synopsis
Burgess's Bonaparte is a cuckold suffering from heartburn and halitosis who is portrayed as a wily seducer of Tsar Alexander I of Russia. His conquest of Egypt is a central theme of the novel, which presents a comedic but detailed and revealing portrait of an Arab and Muslim society under occupation by a Christian Western power.

Background
Beethoven had originally dedicated his Third Symphony to Bonaparte. But when he learned that Napoleon had crowned himself Emperor, he tore the dedication from the manuscript. When the work was published it was titled, Sinfonia eroica, composta per festeggiare il sovvenire d'un grand'Uomo (Heroic symphony, composed to celebrate the memory of a great man), known to posterity as the Eroica.

The novel is dedicated to Stanley Kubrick, who had directed the film adaptation of Burgess's earlier novel, A Clockwork Orange. Kubrick had intended to make a biographical film about Bonaparte, but was dissatisfied with his own screenplay. They corresponded, then met in December 1971. Burgess suggested to Kubrick that the structure of the film could be based on the Eroica symphony, and was asked by Kubrick to write a novel based on this concept to serve as the basis for a screenplay. Using his own knowledge of symphonic structure, Burgess based his writing closely on the sequence of Beethoven's work, with Napoleon's funeral followed by a resurrection. In June 1972 he sent the first section to Kubrick, who responded with regret that the treatment was unsuitable for a film, writing, "the [manuscript] is not a work that can help me make a film about the life of Napoleon." Freed from these constraints, Burgess developed the work into an experimental novel. He reworked the material into a stage play called Napoleon Rising for the Royal Shakespeare Company, but it remained unperformed in his lifetime. It was first performed in a radio adaptation for the BBC on 2 December 2012.

Reception
Burgess suggested that reviews on both sides of the Atlantic were "mixed", with negative reviews from Peter Ackroyd in The Spectator, and from The New Yorker.

Two years later, when the novel was published in French, Burgess noted that reviews were more positive.

title: Napoleon Symphony


text:
Aleksandr Aleksandrov (mathematician)

Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov (Алекса́ндр Дани́лович Алекса́ндров, alternative transliterations: Alexandr or Alexander (first name), and Alexandrov (last name)) (4 August 1912 – 27 July 1999) was a Soviet/Russian mathematician, physicist, philosopher and mountaineer.

Personal life
Aleksandr Aleksandrov was born in 1912 in Volyn, Ryazan Oblast. His father was a headmaster of a secondary school in St Petersburg and his mother a teacher at said school, thus the young Alekandrov spent a majority of his childhood in the city. His family was old Russian nobility—students noted ancestral portraits which hung in his office. His sisters were Soviet botanist Vera Danilovna Aleksandrov (RU) and Maria Danilovna Aleksandrova, author of the first monograph on gerontopsychology in the USSR. In 1937, he married a student of the Faculty of Physics, Marianna Leonidovna Georg. Together they had two children: Daria (b. 1948) and Daniil (RU) (b. 1957). In 1980, he married Svetlana Mikhailovna Vladimirova (nee Bogacheva). In 1951 he became a member of the Communist Party.

Alekandrov had a personal love for poetry, writing and translating. Once, on a trip to London, he was received as a visiting Shakespeare scholar. He was also very well travelled, visiting India, the US, and throughout Europe.

Scientific career
He graduated from the Department of Physics of Leningrad State University. His advisors there were Vladimir Fock, a physicist, and Boris Delaunay, a mathematician. In 1933 Aleksandrov worked at the State Optical Institute (GOI) and at the same time gave lectures at the Department of Mathematics and Mechanics of the University. He completed his Ph.D. in 1935 at the University and later in 1937 — a D.Sc. dissertation. He became a professor at the University, while also working at LOMI, the Leningrad Department of the Steklov Mathematical Institute (now PDMI, Petersburg Department of the Mathematical Institute). Appointed the rector of the university in 1952, Aleksandrov remained in this position until 1964. He was the youngest rector in university history, and was fairly popular. One of his main contributions was the attempted move of Leningrad State University to Old Peterhof, which proved unsuccessful. In 1946 he became a corresponding member, and in 1964 a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since1975 he was also a member of the Accademia dei Quaranta.

From 1964 to 1986 Aleksandrov lived in Novosibirsk, heading the Laboratory of Geometry of the Institute of Mathematics of the Siberian Division of the USSR Academy of Sciences, teaching at Novosibirsk State University. In 1986 he returned to Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) to head the geometry laboratory at LOMI.

Aleksandrov's main work was in the study of differential geometry and physics. His work in geometry specifically is said to be second only to Gauss by N. V. Efimov, V. A. Zalgaller and A. V. Pogorelov.

Awards
Partial list of the awards, medals, and prizes awarded to Aleksandrov: One of the many orders that he was awarded was given to him in 1990 for his efforts in preserving genetics from the attacks of the pseudoscience of Lysenkoism that had official state support in the times of Stalin and Khrushchev.
 * Stalin Prize (1942)
 * Lobachevsky International Prize (1951)
 * Euler Gold Medal of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1992)

Works by Aleksandrov
Aleksandrov wrote a multitude of books, scientific papers, textbooks for various levels (schools to universities), including Convex Polyhedra, originally published in Russian in 1950 and translated into English in 2005. He also wrote non-mathematical papers, memoirs about famous scientists, and philosophical essays dealing with the moral values of science.

A full bibliography is available in [1]. Selected works are available in English:
 * Alexandrov, A.D. Selected works. Part 1: Selected scientific papers. Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach Publishers. x, 322 p. (1996). ISBN 2-88124-984-1
 * Alexandrov, A.D. Selected works. Intrinsic geometry of convex surfaces. Vol. 2. Boca Raton, FL: Chapman & Hall/CRC. xiii, 426 p. (2005). ISBN 0-415-29802-4
 * Alexandrov, A.D. Convex polyhedra. Springer: Berlin. xi, 539 p. (2005). ISBN 3-540-23158-7 (1st edition, 1950)
 * Alexandrov, A.D. Die innere Geometrie der konvexen Flächen. Akademie Verlag. (1955). (German translation of 1948 Russian original)

Students of Aleksandrov

 * I. Liberman, S. Olovianishnikoff, P. Kostelyanetz — all the three of them died on the battlefields of World War II
 * A. Pogorelov — from Kharkov
 * A. Yusupov — from Bukhara
 * Students from the Aleksandrov Leningrad period (ordered by the time of joining the seminars): Yu. Borisov, V. Zalgaller, Yu. Reshetnyak, I. Bakelman, Yu. Volkov, A. Zamorzaev, S. Bogacheva (who later married Aleksandrov), Yu. Borovskii, R. Pimenov
 * Sobchuk and Starokhozyayev — from Ukraine
 * G. Rusiyeshvili — from Georgia (country)
 * B. Frank and H. Frank — from Germany
 * Yu. Burago, V. Kreinovich; Grigori Perelman
 * Moved from Alma-Ata after Aleksandrov's lecture tour there: M. Kvachko, V. Ovchinnikova, E. Sen'kin
 * Stayed in Alma-Ata: A. Zilberberg, V. Strel'cov, D. Yusupov
 * Novosibirsk students: A. Guts, A. Kuz'minykh, A. Levichev, and A. Shaidenko.

Both in St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk Aleksandrov participated in joint research also with some of his students' students. Several of them became his co-authors: V. Berestovskii, A. Verner, N. Netsvetaev, I. Nikolaev, and V. Ryzhik.

His last Ph.D. student was Grigori Perelman who proved Thurston's geometrization conjecture in 2002/2003 which contains the Poincaré conjecture as a special case.

Mountaineering
Aleksandrov became attracted to alpinism under the influence of his advisor Boris Delaunay. In the summer of 1937, after defending his D.Sc.,
 * …together with I. Chashnikov he makes a first climb to the Chotchi summit, and with K. Piskaryov performs a climb of Bu-Ul'gen via the western wall (one of the first wall climbs in the history of the Soviet alpinism). […] In 1940  he participates in a record-making traversal […] He manages, almost by a miracle, to stop the fall of A. Gromov, who had fallen along with a snow shelf. It was with this traversal that Aleksandrov completed the alpinist sports master requirements. The German-Soviet War postponed awarding him this honorary title until 1949.

During his rectorship, Aleksandrov also advanced the mountaineering sport activities in the university, actively participating in the climbs.

The fiftieth birthday was celebrated by Aleksandrov in the mountains with his friends. On that day he made a solo first climb of an
 * …unnamed peak 6222 m (Shakhdarinsk ridge, Pamir), that as he suggested was then named "The peak of the Leningrad university."

During later years Aleksandrov was unable to climb due to health problems, yet he never ceased dreaming of climbing. Finally, in 1982, the year of his seventieth birthday, he, together with K. Tolstov, performed in Tian Shan his last climb, of the Panfilov Peak…

title: Aleksandr Aleksandrov (mathematician)


text:
Theme Hospital

Theme Hospital is a business simulation game developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1997 for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows compatible PCs in which players design and operate a privately owned hospital with the goal of curing patients of fictitious comical ailments. The game is the thematic successor to Theme Park, also produced by Bullfrog, and the second instalment in their Theme series, and part of their Designer Series. The game is noted for its humour, and contains numerous references to pop culture.

Peter Molyneux and James Leach came up with the idea of creating a Theme game based on a hospital, but Molyneux was not directly involved in development due to his work on Dungeon Keeper. Designers originally planned to include four distinct gameplay modes corresponding to historical time periods, but this was dropped due to time pressures on the team. Multiplayer support with up to four players was added in a patch. The game received a generally positive reception, with reviewers praising the graphics and humour in particular. Theme Hospital was a commercial success, selling over 4 million copies worldwide, and was ported to the PlayStation 1 in 1998. A Sega Saturn version was in development, but cancelled. The game was re-released on GOG.com in 2012 and Origin in 2014, and the PlayStation version was released on the PlayStation Network in Europe in 2008, Japan in 2009, and North America in 2010. Revival attempts have been made with the development of open-source remakes such as CorsixTH.

Gameplay

The player is required to build an environment that will attract patients with comical diseases and then treat them while tending to their needs. The game has a somewhat dark sense of humour, similar to that of its predecessor, Theme Park. Diseases include Bloaty Head (which swells the patient's head), King Complex (which forces the patient to impersonate Elvis Presley), and Alien DNA (which transforms the patient into an alien).

Starting with an empty hospital, the player must build rooms and hire doctors, nurses, handymen and receptionists. Each staff member has statistics that affect their performance, and doctors can be trained so their statistics will increase. Rooms include GP's Offices, Psychiatric rooms, Operating Theatres and Pharmacies, and are built by placing down a blueprint, assigning the location of doors and windows, and then placing down required and optional pieces of furniture. The player may also set up items such as benches, fire extinguishers, and plants in the open corridor spaces provided. The player is given time to build the hospital at the start of each level before patients start coming. Patients see a GP in his office who either provides a diagnosis or sends them for further evaluation in a specialised diagnosis room. Once a diagnosis is made, the patient will be sent for treatment. While a few rooms are available at the start of the game, the rest must be researched. Some rooms, such as the Inflator room—where patients with Bloaty Head are treated—contain machines which require regular maintenance by a handyman: if neglected for too long, they will explode, killing all occupants of the room. Doctors must have acquired certain specialist skills to practise in certain rooms, such as the Research room (used to research new rooms and cures, and improve existing ones) and Operating Theatre. There are rooms that only staff use, such as the Staff Room and the Training room, while patients also require certain rooms such as toilet facilities.

Diagnosis and treatment cost patients money, and the player can change hospital policy, including the amount of diagnosis patients require. This can be set to over 100 per cent to force patients to have further unnecessary diagnoses. Other policies include when staff can go on breaks and whether they can leave rooms, and loans can be taken out. From time to time, events such as emergencies (in which patients arrive and must be cured within a time limit or they will die), and epidemics (in which a disease spreads rapidly) occur. During the latter, the player can attempt to cover it up by curing all affected patients before a health inspector turns up. If the player fails, they are fined and must face a damaged reputation, a statistic that shows how well the hospital is doing and affects the flow of patients. VIPs may also occasionally ask to tour the hospital; if impressed, the player is granted a cash bonus, a reputation increase, or both. There is an advisor who keeps the player informed about what is going on. Rats may infest the hospital, and the player is able to shoot them with the cursor.

Although the player has no direct control over the patients, they have some influence over whether to evict them from the hospital and in determining what to do with them when given a choice by the staff. The player can pick up any staff member in the building and move them (mainly to reassign them to another room or send them to get rest), or dismiss them if they argue about pay or are no longer required. The player may force patients to take a chance at a cure for their suspected disease before diagnosis is complete (at the risk of killing the patient), and rearrange queues.

The player competes against computer rivals named after famous computers, real and fictional: these include Holly from Red Dwarf and Deep Thought from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The game is timed with days of the year, and at the end of each year (game time), players are judged on their performances, and may be given trophies, reputation increases, or cash bonuses.

Each level has set goals in the fields of financial attainment, hospital reputation, patients cured, and hospital value. Holding negative funds or allowing sufficient patients to die will bring about losing requirements. When the goals have been met the player has the option to move on to a new, more elaborate hospital with tougher winning conditions and more diseases present, or stick with their current one. If enough rats have been shot, the player is taken to a special level whose goal is to shoot as many as possible.

A patch was released that fixed bugs and added support for Serial Cable, Modem, and IPX/SPX network gaming (with up to four players ) in the Windows version, and a difficulty setting. In multiplayer, each player has a colour, which patients will wear to distinguish from those of other players. "Litter Bombs" are featured, allowing players to spread litter around other players' hospitals, while staff members can be persuaded to work for other players, and there are "Mini Missions", with instructions for players to perform. Players are also able to chat with each other during a game.

Development
Theme Hospital took over two years to develop. The idea came from Peter Molyneux and journalist James Leach, who explored the possibility of other Theme games while discussing Theme Park. Leach suggested a hospital, and Molyneux was enthusiastic about the idea. Development began when the designer Mark Webley selected Theme Hospital from a list of possible games put together by Molyneux, and Webley, along with the artist Gary Carr, visited the Royal Surrey County Hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital, and Frimley Park Hospital for research and inspiration. Carr was initially displeased at the prospect of working on Theme Hospital: he had previously left Bullfrog to work for The Bitmap Brothers because he did not have faith in Theme Park. He chose to return based on his belief that he would work on Dungeon Keeper, which he was eager to do. Initially, Theme Hospital was to feature real diseases, but these were replaced with fictional, comedic afflictions as it was decided that the game's maladies should not be too realistic: the team were faced with the dilemma of having to make the hospital fun and interesting, as Webley stated that theme parks are "colourful" compared to hospitals, and Carr believed that hospital rooms looked very similar and that it was hard to tell what each machine does.

It was during a hospital visit (after witnessing an operation that they were ordered out of because they were distracting the surgeon ) that they came up with the idea of using made-up illnesses and cures: Carr considered death "quite sad" and believed that illness was not a popular subject. He stated that using made-up illnesses gave them "creative freedom", which he believed was essential. Webley said that Carr was concerned that using real diseases might be considered distasteful. According to Carr, the team were aiming for humour rather than gore. During the initial stages of programming, Bullfrog hired James Leach, who wrote the game's text and came up with the diseases. Molyneux was not directly involved in the game's production as he was then working on Dungeon Keeper.

The graphic design was decided to be modelled from those of cartoons, and a goal was to have two thousand character animations. Another artist was hired to complete the graphics on time, and the team ultimately ended up with four. Fellow artist Andy Bass had difficulty getting the Kit Kat graphics correct. He said they did not have the right colour, so Carr tweaked the palette. Bass modelled the vending machine that would use the Kit Kat graphics and used 3D Studio to render it into the game palette, which he then edited using Deluxe Paint. By spring 1996, around half of the illnesses and animations were complete, the introduction and cutscenes were mostly complete, and the programming of the management system was almost finished. By early 1997, all that was left was refining the difficulty levels.

The game deviates from the NHS model; Webley and Carr decided that players should think of the hospital as a business, with profit highly important. The team, who worked in offices near the Royal Surrey County Hospital, drew some inspirations from Theme Park and borrowed a great deal of code. Webley explained that this was an "obvious starting point" as he had been a programmer on Theme Park, and that the systems had been rewritten by the time Theme Hospital was complete. A program which facilitated animation was built upon by Webley, who dubbed it the Complex Engine. There were not many meetings, and Webley took the team to the pub weekly with a list of tasks to perform. Webley explained that the way the team worked meant that only they could perform their assigned duties otherwise they would not get done, effectively giving members ownership of their parts of the game. It was during one such meeting that the team realised the game was complete. The disease called King Complex was to be called Elvis Impersonator, but Elvis's estate owned the rights. Bloaty Head was based on an allergic reaction Molyneux had, when his face became an "alarming size".

According to Leach, the volume of work was small. A big problem was that the team had too many ideas, and insufficient time to implement them all. For example, other diseases were planned; one of these was Animal Magnetism, which would see patients with attached animals which would have to be cut away. Another idea that was not implemented was the possibility of four separate in-game eras: futuristic, mediaeval, Victorian, and modern. The game was originally to have players begin in the mediaeval zone, and progress to more modern ones. By May 1996, the idea of the other time periods had been deemed "prohibitive" due to the amount of graphics required. Carr later stated that the game did not need the other eras, and that the team was small enough to make things up as they went along. Carr was also afraid that if they had produced a design document, Electronic Arts would have considered the omission of the other eras feature cutting. An idea that Molyneux pushed Webley's team to implement was a screen that enabled players to mix coloured chemicals to apply them to diseases. Accessibility was also a concern for the team: with so many options, it was felt that players could treat the game like work. The tester Jon Rennie simplified the game from the original design; Webley was keen for players to be able to begin play without a long tutorial.

Theme Hospital was released on 28 March 1997 (although it was previously due for release in November 1996 ), and is part of Bullfrog's Designer Series. The game attracted some controversy from NHS managers, the Houses of Parliament, and The Daily Telegraph, who published an article criticising the game as "sick" and said that the British Medical Association was using it to train management staff. The NHS argued that the game mocked hospital management. Webley was invited to appear on a local radio station; he did not consider the game to make light of real-world health management because it featured fictional diseases rather than real ones. Theme Hospital was a commercial success, which surprised Bullfrog and Electronic Arts. It repeatedly appeared in the top five of budget charts and sold over 4 million copies. In 2014, Molyneux stated that he wanted the game to make a comeback, and described Theme Hospital as "a great game that I and many people remember".

Original releases' cover art used a green cross on a white background, which Bullfrog did not have the right to use. The artwork was mistakenly approved because it was faxed in black and white, and had to be recalled. Later releases changed the cross to a star. Despite its rejection, the cross version is available in more recent formats.

Sound
The music and sound effects were produced by Russell Shaw and Adrian Moore. Moore used Sound Forge to develop the sound effects. Some (such as the snooker balls) were taken directly from its library, and others (including the treatment machines) were created by mixing sounds together. Some machine sounds were created by mixing the sounds of electric egg mixer with that of a hydraulic lifter. The farting sounds were recorded when Moore was working with bands including T'Pau, Prefab Sprout, and Seal at a recording studio: he did so as a joke, but they were useful for Theme Hospital.

Ports and re-releases
A PlayStation port of Theme Hospital was developed by Krisalis Software and released by Electronic Arts in 1998. The PlayStation version was released as a download on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable from PlayStation Store in Europe on 31 January 2008, in North America on 31 August 2010, and in Japan on 28 October 2009. Later PlayStation Vita version become available on PSN exclusively for Japan. This version is no longer available for purchase in Europe since September 2014, after becoming free for a short period of time. A Sega Saturn version (titled Sim Hospital as of October 1995) was in development and due for release in mid-1996, but was cancelled.

In 2012, Theme Hospital was re-released on the digital distribution service GOG.com. In January 2015, Origin distributed Theme Hospital free for a limited time through their "On the House" programme. It was distributed a second time through the "On the House" programme in September the same year, as a temporary replacement to Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 due to an excessive number of requests for the latter. It was released a third time in selected countries in 2017 from 7 March to 17 May as a replacement for Syberia 2.

An open-source remake, CorsixTH, improves the original game with features such as modern OS support, higher screen resolutions and a level editor. CorsixTH is available under the MIT Licence, and in 2012, a version was released on Android, available on the Google Play Store.

Reception
Theme Hospital received positive reviews. Critics noted the strong gameplay, detailed graphics, satisfying comedic tone, and voice acting performance, but fell conflicted on music, repetition, the artificial intelligence, and the user interface.

The British magazine PC Gamer Steve Owen praised the game's challenge and "cute" graphics, but criticised the interface. Frederick Claude of Coming Soon Magazine also complimented the graphics as "highly detailed", and the "very simple" user interface, although he criticised the repetitiveness and lack of multiplayer support that would later be introduced with a patch. GameSpot Trent Ward agreed about the graphics too, lauding them as "fantastic", and also complimented the "realistic" voice acting performance, and the humour, although he criticised the artificial intelligence as "flawed". His conclusion was that the game "just doesn't fly". Bonnie James of The Electric Playground also liked the graphics, as well as the "lovely" opening sequence, but found the music "horrible". Computer and Video Games Alex Huhtala concurred about the graphics, describing them as "large and colourful", but commented that the humour wears off after a while, although he felt it is good to begin with.

Another reviewer who liked the graphics was Dawn Jepsen of Computer Gaming World, who also praised the humour, especially the "wackiness" of the illnesses, and described the game as "delightful and absorbing". The humour was also approved by a reviewer of Jeuxvideo.com, who, like other reviewers, lauded the graphics, by describing them as colourful. Next Generation reviewer echoed others' views about the humour, describing it as something they had come to expect from Bullfrog, but criticised the lack of multiplayer support. The humour was again praised by a reviewer of PC Power, who said that the ailments enabled Bullfrog to have "hilarious" cures. The "thoroughly engrossing" gameplay, and the graphics were also complimented: it was stated that the bright colours gave hospitals a "cheerful look". Theme Hospital was described as a "fantastic title". Other comments from critics included Edge reviewer's compliments of the balance of patients and illnesses against the player's resources, and his belief that the game is a refinement of its genre, and PC Zone reviewers commendation of the detail: it was remarked that it gets players "helplessly immersed", and the game was awarded the PC Zone Classic accolade. Éric Ernaux of Génération 4 said the quality is "remarkable for a game of its genre".

The PlayStation version's main problem, as noted by critics, was the controls. It was cited by reviewers from GameSpot, IGN, Eurogamer, Edge, and GamePro as a major downside. GamePro explained, "Since the game was developed for mouse control, the directional pad's response is a bit jerky." Its reception was not entirely negative: James Mielke of GameSpot also commended the addictiveness, and described the port as "almost completely intact". GamePro found the dry humor was the game's shining quality, offering the player a consistent source of laughter through the steep challenges. IGN agreed with others about the humour, by praising it as "wonderfully sick". It was further commented that the game's "brilliance" made it a "must-have". The sentiments about the controls and humour were echoed by Dan Whitehead of Eurogamer, who reviewed it on the PlayStation Network. Absolute PlayStation's reviewers had a mixed view about the graphics: they criticised the resolution and colour palette, but complimented the sprites. The user interface was criticised as being reminiscent of a 16-bit game. Despite the criticisms, they agreed with others about the humour, and described the game as "a blast to play". Next Generation's reviewer lauded the depth and accessibility.

In 1997, Theme Hospital appeared alongside Theme Park at #61 on PC Gamer's list of top 100 games, and was named in April as a Game of Distinction.

Legacy
Oxymoron Games made Project Hospital, which is their take on Theme Hospital. Two Point Studios, a studio founded by Webley and Carr, developed a similar game Two Point Hospital, a spiritual sequel to Theme Hospital. Both games were released in 2018: Two Point Hospital was released on 30 August, while Project Hospital was released on 30 October. Two Point Hospital features the Animal Magnetism disease, that was originally cut from Theme Hospital before release.

title: Theme Hospital


text:
Bernard MacLaverty

Bernard MacLaverty (born 14 September 1942) is an Irish fiction writer and novelist. His novels include Cal and Grace Notes. He has written five books of short stories.

Biography
MacLaverty was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and educated at Holy Family Primary School in the Duncairn district and then at St Malachy's College. After school, he worked as a medical laboratory technician and studied at Queen's University Belfast. He lived in Belfast until 1975, when he moved to Scotland with his wife, Madeline, and four children (Ciara, Claire, John, and Jude). He initially lived in Edinburgh and then the island of Islay before settling in the West End of Glasgow.

He was Writer-in-Residence at the Universities of Aberdeen, Liverpool John Moores, Augsburg and Iowa State. He was the Ireland Fund Artist-in-Residence in the Celtic Studies Department of St. Michael's College, University of Toronto in October 2007.

Work
MacLaverty is the author of five novels and seven short story collections. His first novel Lamb was published in 1980. It is about faith, relationships and, ultimately, love. It was followed by Cal in 1983. This is an examination of love in the midst of violence. Grace Notes, which was published in 1987, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It is about the conflict between a desire to compose and motherhood. The Anatomy School is a comedic coming-of-age novel.

He has also written six collections of short stories, most of which are in his Collected Stories (Cape, 2013).

MacLaverty wrote a screenplay for Cal in 1984; Helen Mirren and John Lynch starred and Mark Knopfler composed the film soundtrack. He also adapted Lamb for the screen; Liam Neeson and Hugh O'Conor starred and Van Morrison composed the soundtrack.

MacLaverty has written versions of his fiction for other media – radio plays, television plays, screenplays and libretti. In 2003 he wrote and directed a short film Bye-Child (BAFTA-nominated for "Best Short Film") and more recently wrote libretti for Scottish Opera's Five:15 series The King’s Conjecture, with music by Gareth Williams, and The Letter with music by Vitaly Khodosh. For Scottish Opera in 2012, and again with music by Gareth Williams, he wrote The Elephant Angel, an opera for schools, which toured Scotland and Northern Ireland.

List of published works
Novels:
 * Lamb, Cape / Blackstaff Press (1980)
 * Cal, Cape / Blackstaff Press (1983)
 * Grace Notes, Cape / Blackstaff Press (1997)
 * The Anatomy School, Cape / Blackstaff Press (2001)
 * Midwinter Break: A Novel, W. W. Norton & Company (2017)

Short story collections:
 * Secrets & Other Stories, Blackstaff Press (1977)
 * A Time to Dance & Other Stories, Cape / Blackstaff Press (1982)
 * The Great Profundo & Other Stories, Cape / Blackstaff Press (1987)
 * Walking the Dog & Other Stories, Cape / Blackstaff Press (1994)
 * Matters of Life & Death & Other Stories, Cape (2006)
 * Collected Stories, Cape (2013)
 * Blank Pages and Other Stories, Cape (2021)

Critical reception
There have been several extensive assessments of his work including:
 * Rankin Russell, R. (ed.) (2014). About Bernard MacLaverty: New Critical Readings. Bloomsbury Academic. (191 pages)
 * Rankin Russell, R. (2009). Bernard MacLaverty. Bucknell University Press, Contemporary Irish Writers Series. (175 pages).

Colm Tobin described '‘Midwinter Break'' as 'a work of extraordinary emotional precision and sympathy, about coming to terms – to an honest reckoning – with love and the loss of love, with memory and pain...this is a novel of great ambition by an artist at the height of his powers’.

His work has received multiple awards including being nominated for the Booker Prize in 1987 for Grace Notes. His novel Midwinter Break was the winner of the Bord Gáis Novel of the Year in 2017 and was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. Other awards were the Pharic McLaren Award for the best radio play from Radio Industries of Scotland for 'My Dear Palestrina' and the Jacobs Award for best play from Radio Telefis Eireann for television production 'My Dear Palestrina' in 1981, the London Evening Standard Award for best screenplay for 'Cal' in 1984 and the Bronze medal for screenplay of 'Lamb'; also voted best film by the youth jury and by the ecumenical jury, Lucarno Film Festival in 1987.

Awards

 * 1988 - 'Scottish Writer of the Year'
 * 2005 - The Lord Provost of Glasgow’s Award for Literature
 * 2018 - Hennessy Literary Hall of Fame
 * 2018 - Sunday Herald Culture Awards Best Writer Award 2018

 * He is a member of Aosdána - the Irish arts academy.

title: Bernard MacLaverty


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