The latest writing from TORn’s friend and regular Tolkien blogger Michael Martinez’s considers the content of Peter Jackson’s not one, not two but three Hobbit movies. The criticism often made is that Jackson has ‘padded’ Tolkien’s brief story, to create enough content for three films; but what of the content from the book which has in fact been lost? And how many of Jackson’s additions could be seen as necessary exposition, required to clarify and render cohesive several somewhat ‘glossed over’ plot points from The Hobbit (upon which Tolkien himself expanded, in the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings, for example)? Is any of Jackson’s content actually gratuitous padding, simply there to spin out a short tale? You can read Martinez’s take on all this in his interesting blog, here.
Category: LotR Books
Here’s a thought-provoking article from Slate.com. We couldn’t help but notice the correction at the bottom of the story: “The caption for this story originally stated that Arwen and Aragorn are half-elf and half-human. Their lineage is apparently much more complicated than that.” Knowing fellow Tolkien fans, we imagine they received a comment or two (or twenty) to set them straight!
Are hobbits human and just really short? Or are they some entirely other species, like a gold-hoarding dragon? In high-school biology class they teach you to define species in terms of interbreeding. A horse is something that can make nonsterile babies with other horses; it may mate with a donkey, but since their offspring are sterile mules, horses and donkeys count as separate species. By that standard, the most relevant J.R.R. Tolkien passage comes from Appendix A of the Return of the King:
There were three unions of the Eldar and the Edain: Lúthien and Beren; Idril and Tuor; Arwen and Aragorn. By the last the long-sundered branches of the Half-elven were reunited and their line was restored.
It helps to recall here that Eldar is another word for elf and Edain is another word for human. Tolkien is saying here that there were two human-elf pairings in the backstory to the Lord of the Rings. One between Lúthien and Beren and another between Idril and Tuor. Both Arwen and Aragorn are descendants of one of these pairings. So when they get together in the course of the series, they reunite the half-elven lines. [Read More]
In this piece, Matt Lebovic of The Times of Israel explores the eternally fascinating question of the parallels between Tolkien’s dwarves and the Jewish people. Allegory is almost certainly too strong a word for the relationship, the quotes that Lebovic draws from Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien and various interviews make clear Tolkien’s dislike of the allegorical style (although Leaf by Niggle makes one wonder and Letters #241 and #153 provide conflicting evidence there), and his sincere admiration of the Jewish people.
Edit to quote from Letter #153:
…I might say in my myth I have used ‘subcreation’ in a special way (not the same as ‘subcreation’ as a term in criticism in art, though I tried allegorically [emphasis mine] how that might come to be taken up into Creation in some plane in my ‘purgatorial’ story Leaf by Niggle (Dublin Review 1945))…
Couple of quick points of nit-picking: the Company has 13 dwarves, not 12, it’s Middle-earth not Middle Earth, and arguably Khazad-dûm (Moria) is more accurately the spiritual home of the Dwarves (especially of the Longbeards of Durin’s line) rather than Erebor. As a point of trivia, the Dwarves eventually reclaim Khazad-dum under Durin VII sometime in the Fourth Age. As for the Arkenstone, some people hold that, within the Legendarium, it might have been a Silmaril, but that seems unlikely to this writer. Continue reading “Are Tolkien’s dwarves an allegory for the Jewish people?”
This is a very cool, very interesting Middle-earth history lesson wrapped into a list of its seven greatest architectural wonders. I find myself hard-pressed to disagree with any of the author’s choices. The ancient Dwarven cities of Nogrod and Belegost — and even Erebor — paled in comparison to Khazad-dûm’s lost glory.
Perhaps, at its peak, Osgiliath’s grandeur might have outstripped that of Minas Anor, but it lacked Minas Anor’s mountainous, physics-defying scale. The strange Pukel Men of Dunharrow might offer another option. And what of Thangorodrim and Angband, Morgoth’s fortresses from the First age and earlier? Would they have been mightier than Barad-dûr?
Anyway, have a read and add your thoughts in the comments. I’d encourage you to follow the links and read the full (and very extensive) entries on each wonder!
Continue reading “Discover the seven greatest architectural wonders of Middle-earth”
Over at Radio Station Podastery, one can find the charming gents who host Country Squire Radio. These fellows are avid pipe smokers (and run a tabacco store); they are also huge Tolkien fans. When they wanted to discuss pipes, pipeweed and Middle-earth, they turned to TheOneRing.net, and staffer greendragon – not a pipe smoker herself, but the daughter of one! – answered the call. The conversation covers topics such as the latest Hobbit movie, the Rankin Bass animated Hobbit, how pipeweed first came to Middle-earth, and what Tolkien thought about pipe smoking. (Clue – he was a fan!) You can hear the chat they had in the latest Country Squire Radio podcast, which can be found here.
If you’ve ever pondered what a Tom Bombadil sequence might look like on film, this amateur short that adapts Tolkien’s chapter In the House of Tom Bombadil The Fellowship of the Ring offers one interesting perspective. It does take its own textual liberties though.
After the four hobbits; Merry, Pippin, Frodo and Sam leave the Shire for Bree, they encounter some trouble with a Willow Tree, only to be rescued by the mysterious yet whimsical character, Tom Bombadil. As the hobbits linger in Bombadil’s hollow, danger lurks outside the Old Forest, and Frodo begins to question secrets the One Ring may hold. When morning dawns again the hobbits must face an important question; “Who is Tom Bombadil?”