Bethberry, thanks so much for this thread! You've obviously hit a chord with many people who haven't felt represented in either the moderated RPGs or the present ones in Freestyle. Cim, your point is taken, but I think there's room for more than one kind of RPG. And you have to realize that non-Tolkien elements "ruin" a game for some people just as jargon ruins it for you. Fanfic doesn't have the added fun of an interactive collaboration.
Having said all that, here are a few links:
Medieval Close-Fighting Techniques
Medieval Brewing and Winemaking
Earlier someone gave a link to the Sindarin Dictionary (which isn't working today but probably down temporarily). This is a great resource, especially on working out elven or Gondorian names. The name generator doesn't always give out names that have meaning, as Middle Earth names (elven, at least) generally did. For serious ME language people, there is also a Quenya Course, keeping in mind that by the Third Age, Quenya was only a language of lore and poetry:
Quenya Course
Sigrid Unset's novels set in the Middle Ages have also helped me to visualize the society of Middle Earth and are great reading to boot. People (women, probably [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]) who think Tolkien skimped on love stories or told them without enough passion might understand why by reading a medieval love story. Still passionate, but definitely not Hollywood.
Kristin Lavransdatter
Lastly, one of my greatest resources for visualizing is traveling in England! As an American I am struck there by the sense of layers of mythic history in many of the places I visited. Not to mention remnants of class structure (different accents! what Tolkien used to distinguish races and classes in ME) and simply the geography. Last but not least, a deeper appreciation for a good pint. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
[ August 10, 2002: Message edited by: Genandra of Mirkwood ]
[ August 10, 2002: Message edited by: Genandra of Mirkwood ]