No, this is not “Can I touch your butt” in Elvish. This is “Can I touch your butt?” in English, transcribed using the letters of the Elvish alphabet. There is a difference.
In Elvish, the letters of the alphabet correspond to sounds, not to words. The above text spells it out using one symbol to represent one letter of the original English, which is incorrect:
c-a-n i t-o-u-c-h y-o-u-r b-u-t-t
If you really want to spell out an English phrase using the Elvish alphabet, you would do so phonetically, which would basically equate to one symbol per phoneme (sound):
c-a-n a-i t-u-ch y-o-r b-u-t
If you actually wanted to write “Can I touch your butt?” in Elvish, one (very rough) translation would be:
Annog nin daf pladan tele ci?
Which, in Sindarin Elvish, roughly translates to, “Would you give me permission to touch your rear?”
Written in tengwar (the Elvish alphabet), it would look like this:
ok but what if like. werewolves transform under the full moon but theres just this one and by day hes a big tough guy and then when he transforms hes a tiny dog. just fucking. just fucking turns into the tiniest, fluffiest dog
So, as you all probably know, in Japanese culture, cutting off one’s hair was a sign of disgrace and banishment. In the context of Avatar, it also symbolizes Iroh and Zuko’s tenure as fugitives and their cutting ties with the Fire Nation.
But, according to the Avatar wiki, there’s also another meaning behind this scene which I think is pretty awesome.
According to Buddhist tradition, Siddhartha Buddha renounced the world on the banks of the Anoma River. He did this by cutting off his hair, abandoning his royal regalia, and adopting the dress of the common people. It’s at this point that the Buddha began his journey of self-discovery and enlightenment.
Hey guys, guess what other prince is starting a journey of self-discovery by cutting his hair near a river and adopting the dress of the common people?
“When someone seeks,“ Siddhartha said, “it is all too easy for his eyes to see nothing but the thing he seeks, so that he is unable to find anything or absorb anything because he is always thinking exclusively about what he seeks, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed by that goal. Seeking means having a goal. But finding means being free, remaining accessible, having no goal. You, venerable one, are perhaps really one who seeks, because, pressing after your goal, you fail to see many a thing that is right before your eyes.”
So you remember the firebender prison? And how Zuko kept his bending at full strength when he was put in the freezer box, which disabled anybody else put in there? That’s because Iroh taught him that airbender trick, just like later he taught him waterbending moves to deal with lightning. Iroh was secretly master of all four elements and passed it on to Zuko without him noticing.
The Dead Marshes are, frankly, really creepy. And a lot of the creepiness can’t be explained any more than just creepy magic stuff (as lame as that sounds.) In a way, I think the movie took a lot of the Dead Marshes descriptions too literally, because in the book it makes a bit more sense.
For example, the lights. In the movie they’re shown as literal flames burning over the water, but in the book, the description (from Sam’s point of view) is very different:
He first saw one with the corner of his left eye, a wisp of pale sheen that faded away; but others appeared soon after: some like dimly shining smoke, some like misty flames flickering slowly above unseen candles; here and there they twisted like ghostly sheets unfurled by hidden hands.
In the book they sound more to me like a sinister type of will-o-the-wisp (see the wiki page for an explanation of the phenomenon/folklore), and not so much literal, tangible flames. Either way, the only explanation we get is from Gollum, who when asked about the lights says “The tricksy lights. Candles of corpses, yes, yes. Don’t you heed them! Don’t look! Don’t follow them!” The description of “candles of corpses” is the best we get, and seem to tie the flames to something tangible, at least. Until we get a closer look at these corpses.
Soon after spotting the lights Sam gets a good look at the “faces in the water” On this topic Gollum’s explanation is a bit more helpful. First, he says that “You should not look in when the candles are lit”, implying that the faces are somehow temporary, based on the lights. Later on he explains that the bodies are those of the men, elves, and orcs who died in the Battle of the Last Alliance, and that the marshes have spread since then, and “swallowed up the graves.“
Sam argues that the bodies couldn’t have been there for thousands of years. He asks ”Is it some devilry hatched in the Dark Land?“ And Gollum answers:
“Who knows? Smeagol doesn’t know,” answered Gollum. “You cannot reach them. We tried once, yes, precious. I tried once; but you cannot reach them. Only shapes to see, perhaps, not to touch. No precious! All dead.”
So, my conclusion is that the bodies, and the flames, are more spiritual at this point than physical. Maybe it is some magic on Sauron’s part, or maybe these are spirits that ignored the call to the Halls of Mandos, who knows.
I can answer the question of who the elves are, though! In general, all the bodies are, like Gollum said, casualties of the Battle of Dagorlad at the end of the Second Age. But the elves we know specifically are the Silvan and Sindarin elves who charged prematurely (see this post for more details.) Even more specifically, the elves from Lorien. Their king, Amdir, died in the charge (along with Oropher), and in the Unfinished Tales we’re told that it’s his company of elves that Sam Frodo and Gollum travel through.
While in the book Frodo is mesmerized by the lights, he isn’t drawn into the water like he is in the movie. But my speculation, based on the importance the movie placed on that particular elf, is that it was supposed to be Amdir himself.
SOURCES: LOTR, The Unfinished Tales (“The History of Galadriel and Celeborn”)
Mashups and Exports 