Tag: tolkien

ok so i really want to get into tolkien and lord of the rings and everything but honestly i have no idea where to start. books? movies? where do i learn all the stuff? you seem to know so much about tolkien and middle earth ‘mythology’.. how did you get there? where did you find all your information? i really want to learn all about tolkien but i guess i just need a ‘guide’…

samwwise:

Oh, lord. Where to begin?

Tolkien’s world is super complex and The Lord of the Rings + The Hobbit is just a fraction of Middle Earth’s history and its mythology. 
And Tolkien is not just Middle Earth! He has written stories that don’t take place in Middle Earth. 

I really have no idea where to start, but I guess since you’re like completely new to this whole world, I suggest you start off by watching the movies. Just to get an idea of what you’re about to get into.

And to avoid too much confusion, you should watch them in chronological order.

MOVIES

  1. The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey
  2. The Hobbit – The Desolation of Smaug
  3. The Hobbit – The Battle of the Five Armies
  4. The Lord of the Rings – Fellowship of the Ring
  5. The Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers
  6. The Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King

Keep in mind, they were not filmed in that order! Lord of the Rings was filmed ten years before The Hobbit. But I think it just makes sense to watch them in that order so understand the storyline better.

There’s an extended edition of every movie (except for The Battle of the Five Armies, which will be released later this year) and most people will tell you that the movies are a lot more fun and interesting if you watch the extended editions. But they’re super long! Like, really freaking long. I mean if you’re up for 12 hours of move material and 40+ hours of Behind-The-Scenes material, go ahead! But I started off by just watching the theatrical versions. 

BOOKS

Okay, you know that the movies are based on books, that’s good! And I think once you’ve watched the movies, you should also read the books. But don’t be surprised: Sometimes movie and book are two completely different things, especially The Hobbit. Like, you will literally find yourself thinking “what the hell, this is really the same story????!!!” So, yeah. Just a warning.

You can find pretty much all of Tolkien’s works online.

What? The Hobbit is just one book? Yeah, that’s correct. Again, two completely different things!

Okay, so you’re covered for The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings, which are obviously Tolkien’s most famous stories with the widest fanbase.

But, there’s a lot more to read about Middle Earth! Ready for a shit on of Middle Earth history? Here we go!

The Silmarillion

A collection of stories about The First Age (Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit take place during The Third Age), published and partly written by Tolkien’s son Christopher. 
It really is a must-read for Tolkien fans! It really describes the universe in which the stories take place and at times it can be a bit confusing because there’re so many characters and races and places and wars. 

Read The Silmarillion here

And the fandom has even provided us with a hella cool reader’s guide, which is a cool thing to keep up with the story and all the long-haired and beautiful elves.

Read/Download The Reader’s Guide here

So, that’s The Silmarillion. If you’re wondering if there’s gonna be a Silmarillion movie, the answer to that right now is no. But you never know.

Unfinished Tales

Again, written by Christopher Tolkien. As the title suggests, this is a collection of ‘expanded’ stories from The Silmarillion, The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings. It’s mostly longer versions of certain chapters or stories. Definitely not as hard to read as The Silmarillion, since you already know all the characters and storylines!

Read Unfinished Tales here

Okay, once you’ve come this far, it’s time to step up the nerd level a little bit. 

The History of Middle-Earth

Okay. Okay, now take a deep breath, because shit’s about to get real. Because The History of Middle-Earth is a 13-volume series of books!
Basically it collects and analyses every piece of material that is related to Middle-Earth.
There’s stuff like early versions of already published works but also completely new material!

These books are so freaking detailed, because Christopher Tolkien literally analysed every single footnote and every small bit of information that his father had written down. This is all the mythology, you guys!

I cannot give you a summary or overview of every single book, because by now they have kind of converted themselves into this massive box that is titled “Middle Earth nerd trash stuff” in my brain. I’m sorry!

But anyway, here’s the list:

Congratulations! That’s about it for the mythology. But we’re far from done here. There’s more!

But so far, all of the books I have listed should be read in that order! Just to make things easier for you. 
Anyway, there’re a few more books, but it doesn’t really matter when you read them, because some of them are stories on their own, some are only loosely connected to The Lord of The Rings or The Hobbit and some of them are just collections of poems, not really story-related at all.

So, here we go!

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil

Basically just a collection of poetry. Beautiful poetry! These poems are loosely connected to the events of The Lord of the Rings, but don’t contribute anything to the story.

Download The Adventures of Tom Bombadil here

The Letters of J.R.R Tolkien

So freaking interesting! A collection of letters written by the professor to his wife Edith, his friend C.S Lewis, his son and many other. Most of them discussing his stories.

Read The Letters of J.R.R Tolkien here

Bilbo’s Last Song

A poem sung by Bilbo at the Grey Havens as he is about to leave Middle-Earth forever. So chronologically it takes place at the and of The Return of the King, but it was never included in the book.

Couldn’t find a link anywhere!

The Children of Húrin

A more detailed version one of the Three Great Tales in The Silmarillion. 

Read The Children of Húrin here

That’s about it. It took me about five years to read and understand all of this. So, good luck my friend!

WEBSITES

There’re so many websites dedicated to Tolkien and his characters and languages! If you ever feel like looking up some random stuff or learning more about certain things, here’s a good list of interesting websites!

That’s all I can think of right now. Might add more later!

DOCUMENTARIES

There are a few documentaries about Tolkien on YouTube. I haven’t watched all of them but you might find them helpful!

Okay, I’m spent! That’s literally all of the information and resources I could dig up. Should last you for a bit, I think! 

If you ever have any questions about Tolkien, feel free to ask me! Because I do think that I know quite a bit, even though I’m still far from being an expert! So far from it! 

hufflepuff-jedi:

kaible:

jordisstigander:

tcfkag:

4setsofcorsets:

bluepaladinredlion:

lazytechsupport:

katobleps:

lesbianrey:

hi i’m tolkien here are my ocs. i call them Elves (not elfs!!! if you call them elfs i will block you) they look like humans but they’re tall, live forever, and have pointy ears. that’s it bye

cs lewis: are you alright with constructive criticism? i dont want to sound mean

tolkien: no go ahead i want to hear it

cs lewis: they fucking suck

tolkien: thats not constructive criticism

cs lewis: here’s my OC, it’s jesus but he’s a lion
tolkien: Furry
cs lewis: blocked

Tolkien: lamp posts don’t exist in fantasy worlds
Cs Lewis: ok you know what fuck you

CS Lewis: I could beta for you if you want. help you trim the fat on your stories

Tolkien: what do you mean

CS Lewis: I just. you describe a lot of trees.  are trees that important

Tolkien: just you fucking wait. trees are SO important.

~and that day, Tolkien invented ents~

@urulokid

CS Lewis: Not more trees.

Tolkien: This one’s based on you.

casual reminder that Lewis and Tolkein almost completely ended their friendship over Lewis having Santa make an appearance in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe because Tolkein hated it so fucking much.

CS Lewis: bitch

Tolkien: blocked

CS Lewis: wait unblock me i need to tell you something

Tolkien: unblocked

CS Lewis: bitch

Imagining Tolkien’s Middle-earth Survey

maedhrosrussandol:

Posting this here again. From the Tolkien Society Facebook page. Survey for a PhD project. The data displayed once you finish survey is interesting to see. Quite a few long term Tolkien fans and some insight on demographics, fan art and fan fiction among this international cross section of Tolkien fandom. If you haven’t had a chance to take the survey Tolkien fans, artists, writers, please do and make your interests known and counted!

Imagining Tolkien’s Middle-earth Survey

teamrocketing:

janothar:

urulokid:

teamrocketing:

Y’know when people use the Tolkien quote “Not all those who wander are lost” as inspirational.. It’s just.. That line was referring to Sauron’s evil servants being around in Middle Earth.. Not about your boho journey to South Cali in a rented minivan..

I don’t know where, when, or how OP pulled this from the depths of their asshole and decided to splatter it across the internet as Fact, and I really don’t care, because this is the full poem.

All that is gold does not glitter/Not all those who wander are lost/The old that is strong does not wither/Deep roots are not reached by the frost/From the ashes a fire shall be woken/Alight from the shadows shall spring/Renewed shall be blade that was broken/The crownless again shall be king.

In text, Bilbo fucking Baggins wrote that poem for Aragorn and the Rangers, who don’t have homes and wander around the West of Middle Earth generally being badass and saving people and protecting the good left in the world.

It’s not about the servants of Sauron. It’s not even close to being about Sauron. Go home, you’re drunk.

I wanna see OP fight Stephen Colbert.

I know I shouldn’t keep reblogging my own ancient Tolkien misinterpretation, but I just want to say that seeing yourself being dragged on the internet like this is fucking hysterical. “I don’t know where, when, or how OP pulled this from the depths of their asshole and decided to splatter it across the internet as Fact” is absolutely iconic. Thank you @urulokid for ending my life so beautifully

the-vashta-nerada:

when my older sister was in high school they had a really strict policy against note passing and if they caught a note they’d read it in front of class so my sister and her friends all learned tolkien elvish so if a teacher ever found their notes they wouldn’t be able to read it

kelseyuum:

… he claimed to be genuinely surprised when, in March 1956, he received a letter from one Sam Gamgee, who had heard that his name was in The Lord of the Rings but had not read the book. Tolkien replied on March 18:

“Dear Mr. Gamgee,

It was very kind of you to write. You can imagine my astonishment when I saw your signature! I can only say, for your comfort, I hope, that the ‘Sam Gamgee’ of my story is a most heroic character, now widely beloved by many readers, even though his origins are rustic. So that perhaps you will not be displeased at the coincidence of the name of this imaginary character of supposedly many centuries ago being the same as yours.”

― The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien: Letter 184

He proceeded to send Mr Gamgee a signed copy of all three volumes of the book. However, the incident sparked a nagging worry in Tolkien’s mind, as he recorded in his journal:

“For some time I lived in fear of receiving a letter signed ’S. Gollum’. That would have been more difficult to deal with.“― J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

obtrta:

prismaticprince:

frodo and sam’s love for each other is literally the only thing keeping middle earth from just spontaneously combusting

No, but like, that’s literally it. Gandalf straight-up says to Elrond this Quest can’t succeed by force or wisdom, but by friendship. If Frodo and Sam hate each other even a little, Middle-Earth is doomed.

And it gets more terrifying when you realize that one of the strongest powers of the Ring is to turn people against each other, and that even if it didn’t, the Ring and the Quest still put Frodo in a psychological state where he can barely keep himself sane, let alone love anyone or anything other than the Ring. In fact, I’m fairly sure the Ring tried to persuade Frodo to kill Sam far more often than the books shows – the Ring tends to encourage murder, from what we see. Instead of listening to the Ring, Frodo somehow manages to keep in the back of his mind that he can trust Sam more than he can trust himself, and I have no idea how Frodo can resist the temptation to think his trust is misplaced.

And sure, one could say, “Oh, but Sam has to understand it, so it’s not all that bad” but you have to remember Sam is a plain, non-Tookish hobbit with no inclination or skills for adventuring around and yet he has to become the entire Fellowship. Name one thing the Fellowship did for Frodo that Sam doesn’t also do. He has to advise, guide and protect him as well as keep his hope alive and remind him of who he is. The amount of pressure he’s under is incredible, and unlike, say, Aragorn, he has no experience to draw from. Plus, Merry and Pippin tend to rely on each other, while Frodo relies on Sam, but Sam himself hardly seems to have anyone to turn to for strength. I’m not saying Frodo doesn’t support him as well as he’s able – actually, Frodo is remarkably consistent about taking care of Sam from Book I to Book VI. But what Frodo is capable to offer (see the paragraph above) is far from being all that Sam needs. And actually, in the last stages of the Quest, Sam is basically living a one-sided relationship under the worst possible conditions, and that his devotion doesn’t even waver despite that just blows my mind.

That the Quest was successful is one of the most incredible and beautiful things that Tolkien wrote. Frodo and Sam walked straight into the Land where no love can exist and managed to become closer to each other than they had been. It’s the biggest fuck you Sauron probably ever got. No, seriously. Frodo and Sam beat a Maia basically by cuddling a lot and talking about food. Like, what the fuck??? I mean, if I told you someone could write a 1000 pages novel in which a pacifist and his gardener beat a minor god via supporting each other emotionally, would you believe me? 

It’s classic Tolkien: the surprise element (i.e. flawed creatures can be incredibly noble even under unspeakable distress) might overcome even the most carefully thought out plots devised by powerful evil lords. (See also: the entire Silmarillion, pretty much.)