An Interview with Ringhilwen and Trignifty

1) How did you find CoE, and what drew you to it?

Ringhilwen: Oh, it’s probably a long, torturous tale…full of suspense…and intrigue! Intrigue and suspense!
Trignifty: …All I did was run through a search engine. And the little ‘join our site!’ thing was taunting me. Man, I wanna trade.
Ringhilwen: at least you remember….I think I typed in the wrong link or something, and ended up on CoE. I like it here, even if people are trying to get rid of me.
Trignifty: Wrong link? You were looking for a bad site, weren’t you? *shifts eyes*
Ringhilwen: Er….possibly.

2) How long have you been a member?

Ringhilwen: Let me check….almost 2 years now. I feel old. I’m like, the First Age of CoE
Trignifty: Almost two years, are you serious?
Ringhilwen: I joined in August 2002, I think.
Trignifty: Crap, that means I’ve been here over two years.
Ringhilwen: If I’m old…you’re ANCIENT.
Trignifty: SHADDAP!!!
Ringhilwen: You’re like, the old spinster of CoE.

3) How much time do you spend on CoE on a daily basis?

Trignifty: Hah….lately?
Ringhilwen: Yeah, lately…or maybe an average over the last year
Trignifty: Average….probably an hour. Maybe more. I stopped moderating forums so it took a chunk of time out.
Ringhilwen: I probably spend a couple hours a day. I’m not saying I “work” that entire time, of course.
Trignifty: Might as well say that, score some points with Riv.

4) What are your responsibilities as a humor admin?

Ringhilwen: Is this a trick question?
Trignifty: Responsibility……
Ringhilwen: We oversee Captions, format and upload parodies, write parodies, validate Karaoke songs and Haldir’s Pretty Pictures, think up new ideas for the section, and have fun…..I think. At least, that’s what my “Guide to being a Humor Admin” says.
Trignifty: Anything that you think is funny, we did. Anything that you don’t think is funny…it was all Veaglarwen’s fault.
Ringhilwen: Yeah. We take no responsibility for unfunny things.

5) What do you like about your “job” on CoE?

Trignifty: I get to act like an immature little girl who thinks she’s very funny. And people don’t mind. Not that I’d act any differently anyways.
Ringhilwen: I like being able to write funny things for other people’s entertainment, and force them to read it. I also like all the health benefits.

6) If there was no humor to look after, what other part of the site would you like to oversee?

Ringhilwen: *gasp!* No Humor?!
Trignifty: I suspect I’d still be doing Games and Ringer over there would be on Multimedia…like she is now. And we might have kept doing Newsletter. We gave up a bit to do Humor.
Ringhilwen: I liked doing the Newsletter….but we had to give it up to do Humor. But yeah, I’d still be doing Multimedia, though I’d like to give Themes a shot. Either that or I’d become a CoE-bum, and file for unemployment benefits.
Trignifty: I’d try to get Rivka to invent the position ‘CoE SlaveDriver.’ I think I’d be good at that.
Ringhilwen: Oooh, you would be!
Trignifty: I know. I might even get to hit people. Over the computer. Play some Devo, it’d be great.
Ringhilwen: Whip it good!
Trignifty: Fo sho.

7) Other than the humor section, where do you spend a lot of your time at CoE?

Trignifty: I don’t, really.
Ringhilwen: Well, I’m still a slave to the Multimedia section…
Trignifty: I slavedrive Ringer and BingoTook. It takes a lot of my time.
Ringhilwen: and we love you for it. In reality though, Trigs and I created the majority of the Humor Section last March. It’s been our primary focus since then. It’s like our CoE love child!

8) What’s your favorite Tolkien book and why?

Ringhilwen: Silmarillion. Elves Elves Elves! But I also love “Farmer Giles of Ham”, Tolkien’s “Anti-Heroic” story. It’s fantastic and fun. Plus, Chrysophylax Dives, the name of the story’s dragon, is the coolest name Tolkien ever came up with.
Trignifty: Tolkien…who’s he again?
Ringhilwen: Er, J.R.R. Tolkien….the guy who wrote the books Peter Jackson made movies out of?
Trignifty: ….Peter Jackson….nope, not ringing a bell.
Ringhilwen: The movie where Haldir died? And where Celeborn got like *no* lines? You must remember…
Trignifty: Wait…this isn’t a Harry Potter site?! I knew that elf was too pretty to be related to Dobby…
Ringhilwen: Um….perhaps we should skip the rest of this question then?
Trignifty: Does that mean there’s no Anakin either?

9) What’s your favorite non-Tolkien book?

Trignifty: Oh that’s a dangerous question. And for anyone who cared, my favorite Tolkien book is the Hobbit.
Ringhilwen: Your fans will be pleased that you answered.
Trignifty: I should hope so. And I can’t pick just one favorite book. It depends on my mood, you know? Sometimes I like a little Catcher in the Rye. Some days I like a little Oliver Twist or the short stories of James Joyce. Just a dangerous question overall. I suppose my favorite works of literature could be summed into Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.
Ringhilwen: I think I’ve read “The Mists Of Avalon” like five times….so that’s one of my favorites. I love reading Beowulf (I learned Old English), and Greek epics also, like The Iliad.
Trignifty: Aw we have so much in common…
Ringhilwen: yeah, we’re so compatible. It’s weird that we were sceptical of each other way back when.
Trignifty: Yeah. It really is. But then you factor in that I have about 30 complexes and it’s not so weird.

10) What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever seen at CoE?

Trignifty: Anything I’ve written. Actually…not entirely untrue.
Ringhilwen: Ehem. Anything *we’ve* written. Actually, you’re funnier.
Trignifty: After I wrote the Gollum for Governor article and the site got overloaded with hits. The staff was going crazy, it was cool. Hilarious, too. Because everyone was all ‘THEY LINKED TO THE ARTICLE’ and I’m all ‘What article?’ and they say ‘YOURS’ and I said ‘oh. ooooooooh……’
Ringhilwen: That “Which Overworked CoE Staff member are you?” quiz that you made was pretty darn funny too. Actually, if you all want to read something HILARIOUS, check out the item descriptions in the CoE Store for all the action figures. Parmadur and Rivka wrote them, and they’re hilarious. Almost as hilarious as anything Trigs and I write.

11) What’s the funniest quote you’ve ever seen/heard?

Ringhilwen: Quotes! “What’s this? Another sock? For your whole body?”
Trignifty Oh don’t get us started. Please. Just don’t.
Ringhilwen: “Oh?……..Oh!”
Trignifty: Too late. “You’ve the brains of a butterfly! You were floating!”
Ringhilwen: “Is that sufficiently high for you to break your neck, little squirrel?”
Trignifty: And actually..if you’d like the honest funniest quote I’ve ever heard, it would be “Tell me this, right: why would I shoot a bloke, bang, then put him in the bloody car and whizz him off to the bloody hospital at a hundred miles an hour? I-It defeats the purpose of having shot him in the first place.” which is from the film Chopper.
Ringhilwen: Heh. Also very funny. “To hell with the bloody mantra! MINE!” and ““Put the teapot down, Legolas, before you spill it and scald one of us.” You really shouldn’t get us started.
Trignifty: We make quotes for a living on this site…I mean…just don’t do it.

12) Do you prefer cats or dogs?

Ringhilwen: Cats.
Trignifty: Dogs.
Ringhilwen: I guess we have to be different sometimes.
Trignifty: Yes we do. Together we love them all.

13) What’s your favorite season and why?

Trignifty: Winter. Cause it’s cold. I live in California, we cherish the cold. And it gets rainy, and I love rainy too.
Ringhilwen: I love fall because of the trees, and winter because of the snow. Straight up East Coast…. Er…in the future, remind me to leave all “ghetto phrases” to you.
Trignifty: Word.

14) What’s your favorite color?

Trignifty: Black. Which is theoretically the absence of light or the presence of all colors.
Ringhilwen: Black..and I just like it because I look really good in black
Trignifty: I look good in black too, actually.
Ringhilwen: But I’m partial to pink too.

15) You pull yourself up onto the sand of a deserted island. Turning back, you watch the ship go down. What three items did you manage to bring with you?

Ringhilwen: Orlando Bloom, Eric Bana, and a pitcher of margaritas
Trignifty: You don’t get Bana, woman.
Ringhilwen: fine. You can bring him. As long as we’re on the same island.
Trignifty: Oh that ruins my answer, I was gonna be cute and say I’d bring Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom and Ringer
Ringhilwen: So, Orlando Bloom, the margaritas, and Trigs.
Ringhilwen: well, you can bring snackfoods and I’ll bring Orlando.
Trignifty: Alright, I’ll bring snackfoods. Take Bloom.
Ringhilwen: Whoo hoo!

16) You have arranged a night out with your best friend, who hasn’t been out for ages. However, you get an invite to a Celebrity Dinner with your favorite actor, but it’s only for one. What would you do?

Trignifty: I call my best friend up, who would probably be Ringer, and I’d say ‘Ringer…I can go out with you tonight, or I can go out with Eric Bana. Which should I do?’ and she’d probably kill me if I didn’t go.
Ringhilwen: I would kill you. And I’m sure, since you’re like my best friend, that you’d understand. Plus, you’d know that I’d invite you to any after-parties.
Trignifty: Oh of course. And we could go out the next night. But if it was like ‘Celebrity Dinner with Brad Pitt’…I’d just let Ringer go in my place
Ringhilwen: Why thanks. And if it was, um, Gale? Then I’d let you go in my place.
Trignifty: Ooooh..Gale Harold…
Ringhilwen: or Sean Bean. I’d let you go then, too.
Ringhilwen: Cause then you’d OWE me.
Trignifty: SEAN BEAN!!!
Trignifty: Oh dude, my first born would be named Maverick.
Trignifty That’s how bad I’d owe you
Ringhilwen: omg, I’d love you forever.
Ringhilwen: but yeah, that would be about right…

17) If you could have any type of pet, what would it be?

Ringhilwen: Does Legolas count as a pet?
Trignifty: I’d have a pet Orlando Bloom
Trignifty: I could sell him for big bucks.
Ringhilwen: Yeah…sell him to me!
Trignifty: Actually, if I could have any type of pet, I’d probably like a pet tiger or shark.
Trignifty: Maybe a tiger shark.
Ringhilwen: Not a hammerhead like Eric Bana plays in Finding Nemo?
Trignifty: Nah. Too stalker-ish.
Ringhilwen: Good point. I think I’d maybe want a squirrel. I like squirrels.
Ringhilwen: A trained squirrel though, so it would sit on my shoulder and stuff.
Trignifty: *cough* and steal stuff…

18) What would your perfect evening out be like?

Trignifty: A perfect evening out…good conversation. The rest is just add-ons.
Ringhilwen: Mine’s simple too….I’ve had great nights out that only involve car rides to random places, as long as I’m with someone I can really talk to.
Ringhilwen: If the other person *happens* to look like Orlando Bloom and talk like Celeborn, well, that’s just a bonus, huh?

19) What is your lifelong ambition?

Ringhilwen: It’s like, I want to answer seriously, but I can’t….Perhaps, to fill the world with glitter?
Trignifty: To be happy.
Ringhilwen: I would say to make other people laugh…..that would make me happy.
Trignifty: I’d love to say that ‘to be happy’ is a simple goal in life…but it’s so complex when you actually think about what it takes to be happy. And I want to find that.
Ringhilwen: It’s not simple, but I’d like to think that our job allows us to bring a little bit of laughter and happiness to others….

20) Silmarillion? Brilliant or boring?

Ringhilwen: Almost as brilliant as me. Actually….more brilliant.
Trignifty: Proof indeed that obsessions are not necessarily bad, nor are overactive imaginations. So I’d call it brilliant.

21) Eomer or Legolas?

Trignifty: I wouldn’t dare try to take Eomer for fear that Ringer would kill me. And Legolas is just…too much. I’d want to thwack him upside the head every few moments.
Ringhilwen: Yeah, again I would kill you. Or, at least teach you a lesson. I have much love for both characters. I think Trig would prefer, perhaps, Boromir and Celeborn? Or maybe, Boromir and The Lt. of Barad-dur?
Trignifty: Ooooooh……Can I have all three, cause…yeah.
Ringhilwen: sure, i see no problem with that.

22) Who would you save first? A dwarf running away from a pack of marauding orcs or an orc running away from a pack of marauding dwarves?

Trignifty: The orc. Oh definitely the orc.
Ringhilwen: Save the Orcs!

23) Would you rather date Grima or Lurtz?

Ringhilwen: I plead the fifth? Can I do that?
Trignifty: Grima. I think underneath he’s a good guy.
Ringhilwen: but his complexion needs serious help
Trignifty: Yes, well. Maybe he’ll wash up on the island.
Ringhilwen: He ought to try Neutrogena…or ProActiv, or something!
Ringhilwen: yeah, he could do with a tan as well. He’s better than Lurtz though.

24) Would you rather be immortal and happy in the undying lands, or be mortal in Middle-earth?

Trignifty: Mortal. I don’t want to live forever; the thought of it terrifies me. And no one wants me to live forever. So all in all, it’s a good tradeoff.
Ringhilwen: If I was an elf, and was with a bunch of other elves, I’d choose to be immortal and eventually live in the Undying Lands. I wouldn’t want to be there forever though – I’d want to have spent some time on Middle-earth experiencing life.

25) You’re a psychoanalyst in Middle-Earth. Who would you rather have on your couch – Fëanor, Melkor, Denethor, or Grima?

Ringhilwen: Totally Fëanor. I love that elf. He did so much and chose his own art over the future of his people. I’d love to get into his head and see his motivations. To me, he’s the most complex character Tolkien ever wrote. Though, I’d probably end up on the couch with him. I think Fëanor’s got more complexes that you, Trigs.
Trignifty: If I’m a psychoanalyst, we’ve got big problems. I’d like to have Grima on my couch. There’s so many complexities to him for me to sift through. And I wanna know what that tear was all about.
Ringhilwen: Ah yes, the infamous tear. But you’re right….if either of us ended up as psychoanalysts, there’s something wrong with the world.
Trignifty: Granted if fictional characters are our studies, something’s already wrong.

compiled by the Realm of Nienna