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Spoilers Below posted:edit: and if you want "Similar, but different," you should check out ER Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros and Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books. The former was the previous king of English fantasy fiction, and there's no doubt Tolkien was a devotee of his work, and the latter is what you get when you take Tolkien's flair for description and fantasy world building and confine it to a small castle and a small family. Peake and Tolkien were contemporaries, and reading them side by side was a very pleasurable experience. The Worm Ouroboros is fantastic, but oh boy does it drag. If you want to read it, be prepared for multi-page descriptions of the decorations of a throne room, etc. Also, the names (both of races and individuals) are just ridiculous (Eddison started writing TWO as a schoolboy, and obviously was fond of those names, as he never changed them). Favorite quote: Lord Gro posted:Have I done amiss? 'Tis easy remedied.
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Apr 2, 2013 22:12
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Any opinions on the new Hobbit trailer? The final scene really pissed me off - Smaug never met Bilbo when visible, in the original  .
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Jun 14, 2013 16:44
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skasion posted:Get Eddison in here and we can add curled moustachios to the ideal male body I think you mean horns.
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Feb 17, 2021 20:19
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CommonShore posted:yeah that's cash Next up: D*vid *ddings finally writing the LotR sequel he was denied originally.
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Mar 2, 2021 12:04
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Omnomnomnivore posted:(Muppet version). I'd watch it. I'd also watch a movie version of Bored of the Rings.
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Mar 2, 2021 12:06
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Before we had word processing, there were these things called "manuscripts". As in, "hand written". With an implement called a "pen". The only way to correct an error was to "strike out" the text and to write a new version in the remaining space (if you had enough foresight to leave any, otherwise you would have to "paste" a new piece of paper over it using "glue"). Or something like that, anyway.
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Apr 3, 2021 12:27
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Data Graham posted:It's cool, I thought maybe you were doing a really oblique gag about overwriting my post in pen Now waiting for sweet geek swag to
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Apr 3, 2021 18:29
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Gats Akimbo posted:Don't know for sure but rambling was definitely a thing for his social circle - Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet has the hero getting kidnapped to Mars by a mad physicist because he's out hiking and hasn't told anyone where he's going so he's unlikely to be missed. Fun fact about that book, Lewis and Tolkien had an agreement that one of them should write a story about space travel and the other one about time travel. Lewis finished his space travel story, but Tolkien characteristically abandoned his time travel story before it was finished. It's in The Lost Road (HoME vol. 5).
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Apr 8, 2021 17:40
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Gats Akimbo posted:Pippin was also enough of a dimwit to steal a palantir off a wizard and look into it, which is how come Gandalf hauled him off to Gondor in the first place. Storywise you'd probably have to come up with a much more random reason to get Gandalf to take Merry instead. Volume five is one of the earlier ones. 
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Apr 8, 2021 20:54
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Lemniscate Blue posted:"With blackjack! And hookers!" I think that's Bored of the Rings.
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Apr 9, 2021 21:28
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HIJK posted:there is a non-zero chance they'll have the attack on Celebrian's caravan be a gangrape scene unfortunately In the style of Mary Gentle's "hand me another Elf, sergeant, this one's split".
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Apr 17, 2021 12:21
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Ginette Reno posted:Many Colors to me means that Saruman is basically too big for his britches. Instead of keeping a narrow focus on his duty he's gone full Sauron and has decided to control every aspect of everything. He's got his orcs and men. He's created his own ring, or tried to. He's tried to turn Isengard into a copy of Mordor. When he accuses Gandalf of trying to acquire "the crowns of seven kings, and the rods of the Five Wizards", that's just pure projection.
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Apr 24, 2021 12:09
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eonwe posted:the real question is would it have flown back to it's dungeon or walked what if, just a crazy thought, but bear with me, what if Frodo flew to Mt Doom on the Balrog's back?
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May 12, 2021 05:36
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Omnomnomnivore posted:Yeah this gets misunderstood a lot (not helped by the movie which changed it or at least made it unclear): it isn't a secret password at all, Gandalf just made a translation error. "Mellon" isn't the key, it's the doorknob. It's not even necessarily an error, if he had just read the inscription out loud the doors would have opened. But he had to show off his mad Elvish skillz...
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May 12, 2021 05:38
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sweet geek swag posted:The real answer is that elves are assholes. The real answer is always that elves are assholes. IIRC in the commentary track for one of the movies they mention how everybody hated the elves on set.
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May 14, 2021 21:53
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Arcsquad12 posted:Everything Turin does turns to poo poo. Also having an evil sword telling you to do bad poo poo and kill yourself doesn't help. The sword wasn't evil (like, say, Moorcock's Stormbringer), it was just very good at killing things. Whatever being was struck by it would die, no matter how powerful. IIRC the Silmarillion (or at least one of the drafts) says that Turin would not leave the world (as humans usually do), but wait in the halls of Mandos for the return of Morgoth, and deal him a killing blow with Gurthang as his final revenge. The suicide was entirely his own decision, and the sword just agreed to it. That bit is straight out of the Kalevala: quote:Kullervo, Kalervo's offspring,
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May 14, 2021 22:24
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skasion posted:The sword was kind of evil. I forget if this element had already entered the story in BOLT version, but Anglachel was made by Eöl, and given to Thingol unwillingly. It’s coming from a bad place. If you want, you could consider it to be imbued with Eöl’s misanthropy (miselfthropy?) and general badness. I think Melian even tells Beleg that the sword is going to gently caress him over if he keeps it. When it accepts Turin's suicide request it complains that it was used to kill Beleg (its rightful owner) and Brandir (who was innocent of the things Turin accused him of).
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May 14, 2021 22:48
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Imagined posted:I dunno but I would love it if the soundtrack to the LOTR movies was done by '70s Popul Vuh. Make it Tangerine Dream and I'll second it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIfubrDZnQ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJIn7batAtc
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Jun 7, 2021 05:51
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WoodrowSkillson posted:Tolkien was a total prude so its safe to say everyone was loving and tolkien just had no idea how to write it The story of Beren and Luthien explicitly echoes Tolkien's own love affair with Edith (née Bratt), and the opposition to their marriage by Tolkien's guardian. 
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Jun 14, 2021 18:20
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Action George posted:If a mountain can sense the fellowship and intentionally throw a snowstorm at them explicitly designed only to impede forward progress and not retreating then I don’t see why it’s impossible for a ring imbued with the essence of a god to have some ability to sense things and be proactive, even if it’s not sentient. It's ambiguous in the book whether the snowstorm is caused by Caradhras itself or whether it's being sent by Sauron. "His arm has grown long" vs. "Caradhras was called the Cruel, and had an ill name, long years ago, when rumour of Sauron had not been heard in these lands."
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Jul 14, 2021 00:46
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SHISHKABOB posted:What's the Wall Drug of Middle Earth. Ioreth's Herbal Emporium And Gossip Mill
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Jul 17, 2021 17:05
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:What if there's just a whole bunch of supposedly lost stuff in the mud of the Gladden Fields? Maybe even a silmaril down there. The Elendilmir was there, at least.
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Jul 19, 2021 18:10
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Seamus Heaney does a good job of communicating the original sound and feel of the poem if you read it in the original. Available on YouTube, read by himself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaB0trCztM0
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Jul 21, 2021 11:24
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Imagined posted:There's no poetry about Boromir. Oh yes there is.  And the name of that smiley is appropriate, as he's a big fan.
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Aug 1, 2021 11:08
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…till the dark lord lifts up his hand over dead sea and withered land. lmao
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Aug 9, 2021 13:07
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galagazombie posted:Why didn’t they set up a hobbit relay system to get the ring to mount doom? You get every hobbit in the shire to carry the ring for like five miles, and they’re waiting at their designated handoff point ahead of time instead of hanging around with the ring bearer soaking up its ambient bad vibes (which is what doomed the Fellowship). And then you get to the point where the designated bearer is Ted Sandyman and we’ll,
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Aug 20, 2021 11:16
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ChubbyChecker posted:no, they can be, and also were used historically as defensive weapons in sieges Kingdom of Heaven has them used by the defenders of Jerusalem, and
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Aug 20, 2021 16:12
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BigglesSWE posted:Reading the first book again, I started to wonder over the nature of the Old Forest, and what drives it to be so devious. I suppose the root cause (heh) is, like with all wicked things, the corruption of Morgoth, but the animosity between the forest trees and the Bucklanders intrigue me. The Hedge was apparently cultivated and maintained specifically because of the threat from the woods, but so far I haven't really found a stated purpose to this hostility. Huorns without Ents? Also the influence of Old Man Willow.
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Aug 21, 2021 18:41
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:Merry and Pippin dragged themselves forward and lay down with their backs to the willow-trunk. Behind them the great cracks gaped wide to receive them as the tree swayed and creaked. They looked up at the grey and yellow leaves, moving softly against the light, and singing. They shut their eyes, and then it seemed that they could almost hear words, cool words, saying
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Aug 22, 2021 12:44
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TGG posted:Yeah, pretty sure Tulkas is the one true king of kicking rear end and taking names, he scares the poo poo out of Morgoth. Also where the hell is Orome, the wise yet still pretty powerful. Orome is out hunting.
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Aug 25, 2021 19:44
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Runcible Cat posted:He may just have made himself extra toasty for battle; He just put on a holocaust cloak. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmVkNHFfSi0&t=69s
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Aug 31, 2021 19:54
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Tree Bucket posted:Tell that to Boromir That was the Sharpe shooter.
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Sep 4, 2021 11:05
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Jackson OTOH, 
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Sep 5, 2021 11:54
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Mycroft Holmes posted:How did the hobbits worship Eru? Like I know the free peoples worship him but do the hobbits time like churches or something? They didn’t overtly worship anything/anybody, Frodo and Sam didn’t even understand the rangers in Henneth Annun having a moment of silence before the meal.
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Sep 5, 2021 19:36
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Ginette Reno posted:I wonder why he chose not to have religions in his mythology. I'd never really considered that before. He was a devout (really, going to mass every morning) catholic, inventing any other religion would probably have seemed wrong to him.
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Sep 5, 2021 20:49
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euphronius posted:Talking about middle earth being earth - I was listening to the recent Tolkien professor pod - and Mars !! Is on Lotr. I didn’t remember this line and I doubt anyone else does I do! There's other stuff about stars and constellations too, they are quite obviously intended to represent ones we have today. - the Sickle is Ursa Major - I think Remmirath is the Pleiades - Borgil is probably Betelgeuse - Menelvagor is Orion
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Sep 11, 2021 10:10
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Runcible Cat posted:I think Antares is a tad more likely than Betelgeuse to be Borgil (assuming the Elves considered Betelgeuse a part of Orion), unless Tolkien said anything one way or the other. Antares is quite far away from Orion in the sky, though. Three is Company posted:Away high in the East swung Remmirath, the Netted Stars, and slowly above the mists red Borgil rose, glowing like a jewel of fire. Then by some shift of airs all the mist was drawn away like a veil, and there leaned up, as he climbed over the rim of the world, the Swordsman of the Sky, Menelvagor with his shining belt.
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Sep 11, 2021 14:42
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Runcible Cat posted:It's in Scorpio, which in the Greek constellation mythology is supposed to be chasing Orion/about to sting him in the heel, so the connection's there. Tolkien's phrasing could be read as Borgil being part of Menelvagor or just being nearby - I incline to the latter, obviously. You're of course entitled to your opinion. I have to point out though that Scorpius isn't visible in the northern sky after mid-September, and the scene in question takes place on the night of the 24th/25th. Based on the description it has to be quite a while after midnight, since Orion rises around six hours after sunset at that time of year. Yes, I am pedant enough that I looked this up. Tolkien was a stickler for details, I'm quite certain he made sure that the hobbits would have seen the actual sky as it appears on that date.
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Sep 11, 2021 20:55
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HopperUK posted:I mean considering the Liverpool police recently destroyed the miraculous white stag that arrived to save us, the fae are probably grumpier than usual in Britain at the moment. Has anybody checked on Bran the Blessed's head lately?
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Oct 2, 2021 16:52
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Runcible Cat posted:Andy Serkis' reading of it was a great disappointment; dude is an amazing physical actor but he really doesn't get the rhythm of the prose at all. The Hobbit is written to be read out loud, but... he just can't. That reminds me that I really need to relisten to the BBC audio plays of TH and LotR (with Ian Holm as Frodo).
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Nov 27, 2021 18:36
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