User Controls
J.R.R. Tolkien
-
2018-04-10 at 9:20 PM UTCGrew up with this Oxford nigga. I could've sworn there was at least one other member here into The Lord of the Rings other than me, along with The Silmarillion and related titles. The Fall of Gondolin has been assembled from a collection of posthumously gathered notes and it's going to be published through HarperCollins this August.
Out of everything found in Lost Tales and Unfinished Tales, the story of Gondolin's destruction impacted me perhaps the most. On its own, it contains every element of a traditional epic and it certainly fills those shoes. As with many critical unions in Tolkien's legendarium, we see at the center of a struggle between good and evil a politically complex romance between a man and an elf. What we generally don't see in his work is the psychotic ex getting killed trying to kidnap the maiden - not to mention that he was even a tragic character in his own right.
So many heroes are named only here: Glorfindel, who ended his first incarnation grappling with a single balrog over a cliff; Legolas the night-sighted, who will forever be a subject of debate in LotR history for having led the people of Gondolin to safety only to be never spoken of again, depending on whether you connect the two figures; Ecthelion, the lord of the fountain who slew more balrogs than any other hero mentioned in the passage. There are countless others who lost their lives, but these are the standouts in my mind.
Also, I seem to remember the balrogs having crossbows and getting cut down pretty well by the more powerful elves - really makes you wonder whether the strength of elves and men has waned in years since, or if the balrog in Moria was simply an immensely powerful specimen.
Previously, we only had access to this story through minimal, supplementary texts, so getting a full-length narrative like The Children of Húrin is a huge deal. hope this is as exciting for all of you as it is for me. -
2018-04-10 at 9:25 PM UTCWho's that one flower wizard they left out of the movie? He's my favorite.
-
2018-04-10 at 9:25 PM UTC
-
2018-04-10 at 9:26 PM UTC
-
2018-04-11 at 6:31 AM UTC
Originally posted by Fox Paws Fuck, my post would have had more impact before you posted lol
I actually don't like LOTR that much. I made my §m£ÂgØL username after the secret service came to my house for my zoklet post. It was dumb, but I wanted a name that would blend into google searches. So I picked something that would blend. Think I was reading The Hobbit at the time. -
2018-04-11 at 6:43 AM UTCAlways was confused by the elf power scaling in his books, in the silmarillion they would 1v1 essentially demigods but it took thousands to have a chance at dagorlad.
-
2018-04-11 at 8:19 AM UTCTom Bombadil is the shit.The following users say it would be alright if the author of this post didn't die in a fire!
-
2018-04-11 at 8:23 AM UTCI only read Mary Higgins Clark.
-
2018-04-11 at 9:38 AM UTC
-
2018-04-11 at 9:44 AM UTCbooks are gay and lame
-
2018-04-11 at 9:52 AM UTCi liek video games
-
2018-04-11 at 8:31 PM UTC
Originally posted by the pat-man Always was confused by the elf power scaling in his books, in the silmarillion they would 1v1 essentially demigods but it took thousands to have a chance at dagorlad.
WHAT?! Pat-man is here, and a LotR nerd? Good to see you again, nigga, glad you made it over.
I would agree with you on the scaling because I think Tolkien is trying to codify in allegory the expectation that the power of elves in Middle-Earth has steeply declined over the course of millennia, particularly devastated by the ensuing war after the forging of the One Ring but prior to the march of the Last Alliance on Dagorlad. At the same time, it's important to realize that Sauron had assailed Middle-Earth in every way conceivable, igniting their hubris and nearly also bringing them under his authority.
In the form of Annatar the deceiver, his surreptitious military push and creation of a master ring were clever deceptions on his part which caught the elves largely off guard, even though they didn't all trust him to begin with. By the time they realized anything was wrong, he'd raised an army deadly enough to slaughter a large portion of those remaining in Eriador.
Even when that didn't succeed in exterminating the Elves but rather almost crippling them, he proved that he can lie his way into any court by descending upon Númenór, again in the guise of a helpful and pious friend, where he started a very popular cult that eventually got the whole island destroyed. It was the surviving elves and the few Númenóreans who escaped the ruin of their home who ultimately managed to raise a force against Sauron, and it's important to understand them as just 'the guys who were left' and they were now facing an army led by Sauron and his brand new Nazgûl.
What really puts this in perspective for me was that the High King of the Noldor dies in the War of the Last Alliance and they don't even bother to replace him: this really capitalizes for me what a sad state the elves had come to know, and furthermore that they were, in fact, contending with a trusted, high ranking lieutenant of Morgoth, enhanced by the One Ring to the point of matching his old master at the height of his power. To push the point further, we see later on that Isildur starts expanding into the territories which had been lost by the Elves. We're meant to see their people wane and disappear, as men settle what they cannot maintain. -
2018-04-11 at 8:32 PM UTC
-
2018-04-12 at 12:32 AM UTCDamn low fertility rate waify elf bitches don't have elf babies and are replaced by demonstrably inferior beings, the allegories write themselves.
But seriously Tolkien is said to have loathed allegories and allusions so it's all likely just some subconscious amalgamation of northern European religion, traditions, and history, Bombadil included. -
2018-04-12 at 1:10 AM UTC
Originally posted by the pat-man Damn low fertility rate waify elf bitches don't have elf babies and are replaced by demonstrably inferior beings, the allegories write themselves.
But seriously Tolkien is said to have loathed allegories and allusions so it's all likely just some subconscious amalgamation of northern European religion, traditions, and history, Bombadil included.
Tolkien may have said that but I think we as fans would be foolish to believe it. To construct allegory is natural for writers and readers; extratextual meaning is inevitable.
As for Bombadil, you're likely correct about him being the product of some preexisting mythos, or at the very least one of personal importance to Tolkien. Still, many have tried to uncover his true identity and have generated some interesting literature through their attempts, to say the least:
https://www.cas.unt.edu/~hargrove/bombadil.html -
2018-04-12 at 1:11 AM UTCI thought the Harry Potter series was pretty enjoyable. I don’t care about the criticisms of it, what mattered to me was that it was fun.
-
2018-04-12 at 1:13 AM UTCI think you're trying to get a rise out of me!
Seriously though, the Harry Potter movies were an improvement on the books. -
2018-04-12 at 1:19 AM UTC
Originally posted by Zanick Seriously though, the Harry Potter movies were an improvement on the books.
Lol this is the first time I’ve heard someone say that who read the books and watched the movies.
I’ve done neither so I can’t comment. Well, I saw a few of the movies. The books are crazy long tho -
2018-04-12 at 1:25 AM UTC
Originally posted by Fox Paws Lol this is the first time I’ve heard someone say that who read the books and watched the movies.
I’ve done neither so I can’t comment. Well, I saw a few of the movies. The books are crazy long tho
They are very well written, but only children are really meant get the joy of reading out of them. That's why a young Harry is portrayed with such a vacuous personality; kids are meant to experience the third-person narrative from his POV. Clearly, this makes them a strong foundation for a young person's developing reading skills, but in-and-of-themselves I don't think the books of theHarry Potter series constitute a serious and mature literary endeavor as we see in The Lord of the Rings and related material from Tolkien. The movies at the very least make Harry into a more controversial figure, and thus his studying at Hogwarts almost takes on a sort of politically contentious tone at times that I feel was lacking in the books. He's a real asshole, and it's better than being the subject of reader projection. -
2018-04-12 at 1:26 AM UTCYea that's what I was trying to say with the subconscious allegory shit, every story has them even if the author actively tries not to. It's the kind of stuff that makes you wonder which caveman told the first story. I always assumed Tommy B was a dispassionate christ metaphor, as if the Lion from CS Lewis' books just gave up. That article is pretty neat and goes to show that lotr nerds are top tier beta-nerds.
Harry Potter is legit bad and JK Rowling would have 17 cats and a bad amphetamine habit without those books.The following users say it would be alright if the author of this post didn't die in a fire!
