Can Gelflings really fly?

[MGCJerry]

I haven't seen this addressed in anything yet, but I don't have any other materials besides the "The World of the Dark Crystal" book which just arrived today.

However, based on some thought that I've done, I have come up with these assumptions.

* Gelfling bones are like birds, flexible, strong and light. With Jen falling like a bag of rocks in the castle and not breaking something, their bones have to be pretty durable, or he just got VERY lucky. He got lucky throughout the movie, so...
* The ability to glide allows a female to possibly escape a natural evolutionary predator (if such evolution occurred on Thra like it did on earth) and being that the Gelflings are a young race (relative of the other species that may exist on Thra), the wings are an evolutionary work in progress. Even if it only keeps the females and their cargo (jen & fizzgig) from falling like a sack of potatoes.

However, one thought has occurred to me... Since landstriders are pretty fast and the principles of gliding requires airflow I actually wonder if a female Gelfling was riding a landstrider and spreaded her wings, if she would get a little lift, and be able to glide... Not far, but nonetheless a silent approach.

Just a few random thoughts.

 

[Redsonga]

I thought they were one of the older races..at least, next to the crystal races...The stone castle ruins looked like they must have been very old *pokes ideas* Hmmm...I wonder how old the myth of the Crystal being healed really was then?

I got the idea that they were born of the crystal when it first came into being as a pure thing and then other beings came later (at least the lesser animals like frogs and things)

I vote for the light and bendable bones idea to, it is the same one I use for winged horses and some types of dragons

 

[MGCJerry]

I thought they were one of the older races..at least, next to the crystal races...The stone castle ruins looked like they must have been very old *pokes ideas* Hmmm...I wonder how old the myth of the Crystal being healed really was then?

That was something that I also thought of, but that didn't occur to me as I watched the movie. The ruins really didn't look all that old to me since I've seen a number of structures that are really overgrown just after 5-6 years that looked worse than the ruins. I guess if the ruins would have been a lot more weathered, I may have had a different first impression. Then again it had to be abandon during the Garthim raids and how long ago was that? Not long I think...

Regardless of how old the Gelflings are, they are light years ahead of us.

 

[Redsonga]

That was something that I also thought of, but that didn't occur to me as I watched the movie. The ruins really didn't look all that old to me since I've seen a number of structures that are really overgrown just after 5-6 years that looked worse than the ruins. I guess if the ruins would have been a lot more weathered, I may have had a different first impression. Then again it had to be abandon during the Garthim raids and how long ago was that? Not long I think...

Regardless of how old the Gelflings are, they are light years ahead of us.

Well, from the intro I thought that a thousand years had passed between the time the crystal broke and the movie and I am almost sure that the gelflings would have been around before then when everything was green and nice . Of course I am of the mind that a thousand years is not that long to their race, so it could be that even Jen is a few hundred years old himself...

Of course they are, we humans have so much to learn...