Keep, Toss, or Mathom?

.....Spent a little time working on the desk last night (part of the 100 item challenge). I had forgotten just how much 'stuff' can actually fill a desk. I've taken a couple of bag loads of trash out so far. I have an overfull box going to the Goodwill. Then there is a another box filling with stuff.

.....Over the years in the SCA I've accumulated quite a large number of 'medieval-esque' items. Some were personal gifts to me. Some were 'fantastic things found at garage sales and the like that I KNEW you would want' (if's amazing how often people at work have done that :-)).

.....Also in that collection is a number of articles received as part of a gift basket given to me after running an event, especially a Kingdom event. For July Coronation a couple of years ago I not only received a basket from the King and Queen, but also from the Prince and Princess of the Summits and a couple of the Coronets who attended. It was quite the haul. I gave away items to various Team Haggis members as they expressed interest in them, but was left still with a large number of items that, while wonderful in their own way, didn't interest anyone around me. There are bottles with etched designs on them, soaps and candles with unusual smells, skeins of yarn, crochet'ed items, etc. Like I said, it is an interesting collection.

.....I didn't want to throw any of this stuff away in the trash. People worked hard on it. It may be unusual stuff, but again, like I said, cool in its own way. So I asked Her Excellency Brighid what should be done with it and she had an easy answer, regift it. It seems that there is a large amount of largesse out there making the rounds and being gifted over and over until it eventually DOES find someone who will love having it. It's a lot like the Island of Misfit Toys in that Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer cartoon that is a Christmas time viewing requirement every year.

.....But I was also reminded of something from Professor Tolkien. Hobbits love to give presents and do so a lot. So much so in fact that they have to have a steady supply of ready-to-give presents available to take to the next party. This has led to the practice of re-gifting of presents. In the Shire there are a large number of relatively ancient articles of 'stuff' that, while obviously valuable, had no real use in their current world. Some to the point where their real use was unknown. Some of the things in this category were swords and other weaponry from when the Shire was just being established.

.....These items were called 'mathoms'. The cool thing is that this is not just a made-up word on Professor Tolkien's part. He took an actual word of english-germanic origin from early English history and modified it for his use. In Old English, mathom basically means 'gift of treasure'. Professor Tolkien kept the original intent of the word, but changed it slightly to mean a valuable gift for which the original intent was hazy but was acceptable for re-gifting as needed.

.....Professor Tolkien's humour was quirky, but he did have one. :-)

.....So, there are four growing piles of stuff: The stuff that is going to stay. The stuff that is going to Goodwill. The stuff going into the trash. And the stuff that is going back into rotation as an An Tirian mathom. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.