Q. When should I tag something with Tolkien? A. Generally, posts are tagged with tolkien in the following cases: The question refers to a work that was written, impacted or inspired by J.R.R Tolkien The question is about J.R.R Tolkien's literary motivations, philosophy, background or history
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Is there a community for learning Sindarin?
For years now I try to engage myself in how to learn Quenya or Sindarin. I started with two printed excellent courses, but couldn't motivate myself to keep at it — it is difficult when you are ...
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Is there any canonical reference to the fate of the Blue Wizards, Alatar and Pallando?
All I've ever been able to find is that they arrived in Middle Earth and left to go do something outside of the scope of the story. Has anyone ever found any additional information?
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Why didn't the elves take the Ring after the Council of Elrond?
The elves of Lorien certainly had military strength to fight at Mordor and also would not have been corrupted by the Ring as men would. Wouldn't the destruction of the Ring have gone more smoothly if ...
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Is there any evidence pointing to the planned future development of Arda?
Is there any evidence in Tolkien's writing, notes or letters pointing to the planned future development of Arda?
More specifically, did he envision the Age of Man to usher in the industrial progress ...
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Why didn't Gollum ever become a wraith?
Inspired by this answer regarding the long-term effects of The One Ring: Sméagol possessed the ring for close to 500 years, and although he clearly didn't wear it constantly, it had some terrible ...
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Mentions of Ent history?
I know that the Ents were created by Yavanna, to protect the forests from the dwarves, but also it was the Elves that taught them to speak.
Is there any mention of Ent history in any of Tolkein's ...
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What is the origin and scope of term “legendarium”? [closed]
When researching LOTR lore, I frequently ran into a term "legendarium" as pertaining to the entirety of Tolkien's work.
What is the origin of this term?
Does it have a generic meaning (either ...
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What is the difference, historically, between Unfinished Tales and The History of Middle-earth?
Tolkien's Unfinished Tales and History of Middle-earth are both collections of incomplete works edited by Christopher Tolkien, and cover many of the same topics. UT was published shortly before the ...
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Why was Dale rebuilt?
Why was Dale (the city ruined ages ago by the dragon Smaug), featured in Tolkien's The Hobbit, rebuilt after the events of the aforementioned story?
As far as I can remember, the dragon laid not ...
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Can the Elves do magic?
It's mentioned many times throughout Tolkien's work that the Elves (High Elves mostly) are in some way more powerful than Men. We hear many times, for example, that Rivendel and Lórien are mostly safe ...
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What age group did Tolkien write The Hobbit for?
Tolkien wrote The Hobbit as a story for children. However, I've never seen a specific age mentioned. Did Tolkien intend the story for young children or for teens?
At what reading level should a ...
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LOTR: TTT - Where is Fangorn Forest Filmed
The scene I am thinking of is in Isengard when Saruman is ordering the forest to be burned. The forest is on the edge of the mountain.
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Why was Gandalf so concerned about Gollum?
In The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf seems to be particularly sensitive to Gollum's wretched state. When explaining his recent activities to Frodo, Gandalf says things like:
'Unless [the evil part of ...
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Which creatures in Tolkien's literature can be female?
In the Lord of the Rings trilogy, there are many different types of creatures. Hobbits, elves, dwarves, ents, humans, and giant spiders all have female members mentioned somewhere in the story.
But, ...
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Did Tolkien really explicitly consider Sam the true hero of LOTR?
Quoting from http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass (TVTropes link alert!!! Don't tell me I didn't warn you!):
Perhaps even more aptly: Samwise Gamgee. His name ...
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What was Gandalf's plan?
I'm currently re-reading Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time, and a question occurred to me.
When Gandalf hears from Faramir that Frodo and Sam were heading for Cirith Ungol, he is shocked. ...
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Silmarillion & Book of Lost Tales, which should I read first?
Several years back I read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
I recently discovered (when going through some old boxes I hadn't unpacked after moving house) that I've got a few additional books which ...
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The Silmarillion — Different versions?
I just read about the book The Silmarillion and thought I'd like to buy it, but I'm a little confused about the different versions that I found.
On amazon I found foremost these two versions (I hope ...
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What are the revisions in the (Revised Edition) of The Hobbit?
So this past Saturday a group of my friends and I all watched the three Lord of the Rings extended edition movies in one sitting. (I'd detail my strange, warlike dreams that night, but they're ...
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Creation myth that inspired The Silmarillion?
In J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarillion, the creation myth is based on music - the creation of elves, etc. are new themes in the music, the "devil" introduces discords that are then used to develop the music ...
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Early in The Hobbit the dwarves refer to a king - which king?
From chapter two of The Hobbit, Roast Mutton:
"They have seldom even heard of the king round here..."
Which king are the dwarves referring to?
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Are the dwarf runes from 'The Hobbit' just a script or does it have a language?
In the book 'The Hobbit', the map that the dwarves have has writing in what is the dwarf runes. The script is simple enough as the foreword includes some tips and each letter can be substituted ...
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Why was Gandalf involved with the Dwarves mission to rob Smaug?
From what I understand, the Istari were sent in to help the peoples of Middle Earth get through the third age. Why then, did Gandalf help the Dwarves along (and get Bilbo involved) in their mission to ...
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What are the common themes present in both Tolkien's “Lord of the Rings” and Jordan's “Wheel of Time”?
This is probably going to be a rather detailed set of answers. Hopefully someone can come up with a "short list" of common themes.
Both sets of books have a distinctive theme of good vs. evil, but ...
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What happened to the Hobbits and the Dwarves after the Elves left?
From what I understand LOTR is written as the mythic past of our own world. We are constantly reminded that the race of man is becoming more and more prominent. In the end of "Return of the King" the ...
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In The Lord of the Rings, what important background information is contained in the poems?
From Jeff's answer to a separate Lord Of The Rings question:
... the songs and poems give some relatively important background information
I don't recall any information that seemed important ...
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Are there any statistics on how many people skip poetry in LOTR?
I know that some people find it impossible to read through the songs/poems in LOTR text and just skip them.
Are there any sort of statistics on what percentage of readers do this?
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What exactly happened to the Noldor?
The Noldor were numerous and powerful, yet by the time of the events of The Lord of the Rings they are few and far between. Why did this once great group of Elves all but vanish by then?
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How does one pronounce the word “Akallabêth” from the Silmarillion?
In the Silmarillion, "Akallabêth" is the story of how Numenor fell. Its an Adunaic word, not an elvish word, and I haven't found any Adunaic pronunciation guides.
So, how is Akallabêth pronounced? I ...
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Lord of the Rings written to support constructed languages or the other way round?
I've heard the claim that Tolkien wrote, or at least started writing, The Lord of the Rings to support (with a history providing cultural depth) the artificial languages he was creating at the time.
...
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Did the Ent-Wives become trolls?
In LOTR, is the disappearance of the Ent Wives during or before the War of the Last Alliance connected with the appearance of the Trolls?
Since Orcs were corrupted Elves, did Sauron enslave the Ent ...
