New answers tagged tolkiens-legendarium
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I’ve read that very few elves remained in Middle-earth and certainly not enough to send an army. As far as the dwarves there may have been an even bigger battle than Minas Tirith at New Dale and Lonely Mountains. It says dwarves marched out and fought for three days in open combat before falling back to their defense which took much longer to besiege. Along ...
3
What dragon(s) was Bilbo talking about and just how long ago was it exactly?
Nobody knows. This is just a line appearing in the movie, not in the books. There is no canonical evidence what-so-ever that a dragon was ever seen or lived near The Shire.
Everything else is just speculation.
23
Given this was an invention for the films the scene must be taken with a pinch of salt. The original occurrence in the book, that firework was let off by Gandalf specifically for Bilbo and signalled the beginning of supper:
And there was also one last surprise, in honour of Bilbo ... The dragon passed like an express train, turned a somersault, and burst ...
1
Yes, kind of.
We have no information on him actually plotting on his masters overthrow, but at least on one occasion he clearly placed his interest in front of Melkors, and acted to his masters wrong. It is the incident Amarth mentions:
But no wizardry nor spell, neither fang nor venom, nor devil's art
nor beast-strength , could overthrow Huan without ...
6
I can't believe that Mark Olson found seven quotes for his answer but didn't give the most important one. Since I could find only partial versions of that passage online, I had to type in the full passage manually from The Return of the King, Book V, Chapter 6, "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields":
The great shadow descended like a falling cloud. And ...
2
At least in the Elder Days, and before he was bereft of his lord and fell into the folly of imitating him, and endeavouring to become himself supreme Lord of Middle-earth. While Morgoth still stood, Sauron did not seek his own supremacy, but worked and schemed for another, desiring the triumph of Melkor, whom in the beginning he had adored.
History of ...
11
A "fell beast" is not a specific type of animal. "Fell" is a somewhat archaic work meaning "fierce", "deadly", or "terrible" -- basically, pretty any dangerous animal can be a "fell beast."
In **LotR*, Tolkien uses it twice:
Under the boughs of Mirkwood there was deadly strife of Elves and Men and fell beasts.
Could be pretty much anything, really. ...
15
The only thing we know about Sauron during the First Age is that he captured Tol Sirion and held it until he was eventually defeated by Luthien and Huan. After that, he disappeared and kept in hiding. Possibly because he feared Morgoth's wrath, since Sauron's defeat had made it possible for Luthien to create the disguises used when she and Beren infiltrated ...
24
The reference is to the murder of Thorin's grandfather Thror a few paragraphs earlier:
"Your grandfather Thror was killed, you remember, in the mines of Moria by Azog the Goblin."
So when Thorin says "We have long ago paid the goblins of Moria", he is speaking of revenge. The modern idiom (in American English, anyway) would be "We long ago paid back the ...
14
He means that they metaphorically "paid back" (i.e. took revenge upon) the goblins for their role in Thror's death. At the Battle of Azanulbizar, where Thorin earned his name "Oakenshield" and his cousin Dain slew Azog the goblin king, the dwarves exacted their vengeance for the murder of the king of the Longbeards.
Per Tolkien Gateway:
The War of the ...
-1
I think it's more so that Eomer is insulted by being reminded of courtesy by someone he feels is beneath him. In the book he retorts 'the stranger should declare himself first..' oblivious to how that applies equally to him in Gimli's eyes. Simply put, Eomer is insulted because he is easily insulted type. He has an air of arrogance & superiority at the ...
1
Wine, and lots of it. Also beef and butter. From the description of the Elvenking's realm in The Hobbit:
There stood barrels, and barrels, and barrels; for the Wood-elves, and especially their king, were very fond of wine, though no vines grew in those parts. The wine, and other goods, were brought from far away, from their kinsfolk in the South, or from ...
2
I find it has a dual purpose of a nod to Hollywood history, and to elicit a smile and a chuckle (to those in the know) without breaking narrative during otherwise sombre and tense moments. Anyone complaining about it is really just bragging about recognizing it.
21
If you're looking for a picture book, there's a 1999 graphic novel you could look for. Otherwise there are a various illustrated editions that might be appropriate for reading along with; I found a list that includes several of them.
Apparently there's even been a pop-up book, though it's not the complete story.
42
Yes, several abridged versions have been made available;
The (2009) Highbridge Radio Edit (full cast)
The (2002) BBC Radio Edit (full cast)
The (1993) Martin Shaw Abridged Audiobook
The (1986) BBC Radio Edit (full cast)
The (1979) Jackanory Radio Edit
The (1964) Princess Magazine Serialisation ( http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/tolkien-book-store/PC000007.htm)
...
26
He's been hiding under a mountain for years, and when he wasn't hiding under a mountain, he was stalking the Fellowship. The point is that his activities would not put him in contact with people who would know Sauron's plans.
Bilbo was only 50 when he left on his quest. He turns 51 while riding in the barrel, so he's 51 when he arrives in Esgaroth, on Long ...
70
Gollum knows what's common knowledge among the servants of Sauron
In the book The Two Towers, Sam asks Gollum more or less the same question as you're asking, in a typically suspicious manner:
‘No, no indeed,’ said Gollum. ‘Hobbits must see, must try to understand. He does not expect attack that way. His Eye is all round, but it attends more to some ...
16
Two points:
First, how could anyone in southern Middle-Earth be unaware of this? Sauron had been stepping up his pressure on Gondor for years, and armies being gathered in to Mordor could only mean one thing. And Gollum had an established pattern of spying and listening.
Second, Gollum had previously been Sauron's captive and was tortured. Sauron had an ...
4
The History of Galadriel and Celeborn touches on Silvan contributions to the Last Alliance twice more in the section about Amroth and Nimrodel:
Amroth was King of Lórien, after his father Amdír was slain in the battle of Dagorlad
Amdír obeyed the summons of Gil-galad and brought as large a force as he could muster to the Last Alliance, but he was ...
10
The trend throughout the Second Age clearly showed the decline of the Eldar (mainly the Noldor) and the rise of Men. Indeed, Gil-Galad recognized this early on, in a letter to Tar-Meneldur in S.A. 883:
A new shadow arises in the East. It is no tyranny of evil Men, as your son believes; but a servant of Morgoth is stirring, and evil things wake again. ...
2
It is highly unlikely that anyone of Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn knows that Sauron's true/original name as one of the Ainur was actually Mairon. They believe that his true name is Sauron.
While in truth Sauron was a moniker given to him by his enemies in the First Age, meaning "The abhorred"/"The hated". It would make perfect sense to forbid the use of that ...
30
Elendil and Gil-galad named it as such. Had they not defeated Sauron, they would literally have been the last alliance.
The Last Alliance of Elves and Men was indeed so great that it is noted to be only shadowed by the host of the Valar, which was assembled near the end of the First Age to overthrow Morgoth.
Now Elendil and Gil-galad took counsel ...
29
It would appear Mîm did indeed speak Sindarin, given this passage from Narn i Hîn Húrin from Unfinished Tales:
Then Mîm clapsed Túrin about his knees, saying: "Mîm will be your friend, lord. At first I thought you were an Elf, by your speech and your voice; but if you are a Man, that is better. Mîm does not love Elves."
This indicates Túrin was most ...
34
Most likely Sindarin
It was certainly not Khuzdul, as Mîm says they do not teach that tongue, futher, Mim is described as initially speaking a foreign language:
They have no name, save in the dwarf-tongue, which we do not teach
They led the old Dwarf away to their dismal camp, and as he went he muttered in a strange tongue that seemed harsh with ...
31
I believe @Adamant's answer is part of the reason, but it leaves out a more important factor.
Sauron was pretending to be dead.
At the end of the Second Age, Sauron was in fact mostly dead, with his body broken and his spirit dispersed. The hosts of Men believed he was all dead, and Sauron was in no position to dispute the matter.
It took over 1000 years ...
1
There's the old concept of the true name: If you know the true name of a person or a thing, that knowledge gives you power over them or it. For example, the Egyption goddess Isis manages to find out Ra's true name. That enables her to secure Ra's throne for her son Horus. In the Hebrew bible, next to all mentions of God have been redacted centuries ago with "...
8
'Neither does he use his right name, nor permit it to be spelt or spoken,'
Perhaps it's too painful for him, after all that he has lost: His place among the Ainur; his stature as a second to Melkor, the integrity and beauty (such as it was) of his physical form - all gone. To now be referred to as "The Admirable" (Mairon) - must cut like a knife, even if ...
74
Although I don't believe it's ever explicitly stated, I think it's clear that the purpose is to give Sauron's name an air of mystique among his servants, thus instilling a greater fear of Sauron himself.
Consider the language that the Orcs in the service of Sauron use to describe the people above them in the hierarchy:
'Whose blame's that?' said the ...
5
Yes, undoubtedly. You're misinterpreting the word "were." When Christopher Tolkien wrote "they [the Istari] were all Maiar" the use of past tense refers to the time during which the story occurs; it doesn't mean that they underwent a change of kind.
As far as we know change of kind isn't possible. It would certainly require the direct intervention of Eru. (...
1
You must have gone to the Elves for advice, for the answer is both "no" and "yes".
No, they are not Maiar because they lack essential traits of the Maiar. In the Silmarillion, it says:
With the Valar came other spirits whose being also began before the World, of the same order as the Valar but of less degree. These are the Maiar, the people of the Valar,...
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