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| Númenor Margaritaville |
 Title text: I see white shores, and beyond it, a far green country under a tequila sunrise. |
Explanation
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This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by an ELVISH PARROTHEAD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. |
Cueball is conflating J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional island "Númenor" with the beach resort in Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville". The Elf who is telling him about Númenor, and Aragorn's link to it, becomes progressively more upset, and for cause.
Aragorn, more precisely Aragorn II, is the principal Mannish protagonist of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. He is crowned High King of Gondor and Arnor at the end of the saga. He is descended from Elros Tar-Minyatur, first king of Númenor and brother of Elrond.
"I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead" is a line from Buffett's song "Growing Older But Not Up", from his 1981 album Coconut Telegraph. Ar-Pharazôn refers to the twenty-fifth, and last, king of Númenor. He sought to conquer the Undying Lands, resolving to win eternal life, or die in the attempt. He was therefore responsible for the destruction of Númenor, the removal of the Undying Lands from Arda, and the transformation of Arda into a sphere.
"If there's a heaven for me, I'm sure it has a beach attached" is a quote from the chapter "A Caribbean Soul" of Buffett's autobiography A Pirate Looks at Fifty. Tol Eressëa is an island off the coast of Aman, the continent on which the Valar (divine angelic spirits) live. Aman is thought to have been inspired by the concept of a paradise out of time.
Cueball's last line alludes to a statement made by Galadriel in The Fellowship of the Ring, in the chapter "The Mirror of Galadriel": "I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel." Cueball's altered version of the statement refers to Key West, Florida, a city closely associated with Buffett, where he lived for many years, recorded albums, and established the first restaurant in his Margaritaville chain.
The title text alludes to a line from Chapter 9:The Grey Havens in The Return of the King. "And then it seemed to him" (Frodo) "that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise." The modified line makes a reference to the Tequila sunrise cocktail - and, perhaps, to the song by Eagles, which is thematically similar to "Margaritaville".
Tolkien's legendarium is frequently alluded to in xkcd.
Transcript
- [An Elf woman with a decorated headband around her long blonde hair and wearing a long dress is walking and talking with Cueball who walks ahead of her looking back at her over his shoulder.]
- Elf: Aragorn was king of Gondor, but we Elves remember when his line ruled Númenor.
- Cueball: Oh, the place from the Jimmy Buffett songs?
- [Closeup on Cueball who has stopped and turned towards the now off-panel Elf. The Elf's reaction is coming from a star burst in the top left corner of the panel.]
- Elf [off-panel]: What.
- Cueball: The semi-mythical seafaring Atlantic paradise? He sang about it. With the fancy cocktails?
- [Zoom back out showing that the Elf and Cueball are now standing facing each other.]
- Elf: ...You mean Margaritaville?
- Cueball: Yeah, that must be the modern name.
- [Another closeup on Cueball with the Elf speaking off-panel as before.]
- Elf [off-panel]: Númenor is not Margaritaville.
- Cueball: "I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead," sang Ar-Pharazôn, king of island life.
- [Zoom back out to see the Elf is now facepalming while Cueball continues.]
- Elf: Please stop.
- Cueball: "If there's a heaven for me, I'm sure it has a beach attached" is about the shores of Tol Eressëa.
- [The Elf is walking away from Cueball who raises his finger in the air.]
- Elf: See, this is why I'm leaving the world of Men.
- Cueball: You shall diminish, and go into Key West.
Trivia
In the image of the comic as first published, Númenor was styled "Numenor", and Ar-Pharazôn was given as "Tar-Pharazôn". Cueball had mistakenly appended the Elvish (Quenya) royal title Tar to the Mannish (Adûnaic) regnal name Pharazôn; the king did have a Quenya name, Tar-Calion, but he didn't use it, following the precedent established by most of the Kings of Númenor and signaling the increasing estrangement of the Men of the West (apart from the Elf Friends) from the Elves. The errors were corrected two days after publication.
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