“The Lord of the Rings” (1954-1955), known as “LotR” for short, is J.R.R. Tolkien’s longest and best book about Middle Earth, his made-up world full of dwarves, elves, wizards, magic rings and all that. Somehow he makes it seem more real than our Earth.
It is arguably the best book written in English in the 1900s. It easily makes the top ten in readers’s polls, as it did on this blog, at the BBC and on Amazon.
The book is about 1200 pages long, so it was put out as three books for reasons of length:
- The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)
- The Two Towers (1954)
- The Return of the King (1955)
“Lord of the Rings” was made into a nine-hour film by Peter Jackson. It also came out as three pieces for reasons of length – in 2001, 2002 and 2003. It was hugely successful, bringing in nearly $3 billion (658 million crowns), ten times more money than it cost to make.
Having read the books, I never saw the films: it seemed like it could only end in disappointment since films are rarely as good as their books. (On the other hand, I rarely read the book if I have seen the film since I already know how the story ends.)
Tolkien wrote three main books about Middle Earth, whose events take place in this order:
- Silmarillion
- The Hobbit
- The Lord of the Rings
In “The Hobbit” Bilbo Baggins finds a magic ring on his way to fight a dragon with some dwarves. In “The Lord of the Rings” he gives the ring to his son, Frodo Baggins.
To Bilbo it is just a trick ring that lets him disappear. In fact it can do more than that: with it you can rule the world. Frodo has enough sense to destroy it since only evil can come from so much power. But to destroy it he must travel all the way to heart of the country of the person who wants it most: the already-evil and powerful Sauron. It is a tale of good against overpowering evil.
Of course this gives Tolkien an excuse to have Frodo see much of Middle Earth and its wonders, which he tells so well that you feel like you are there.
Tolkien wrote the book from 1937 to 1954. He could not afford a typist so he had to retype all 1200 pages himself. The story probably hangs together better because of it.
Since he wrote much of it during the Second World War, some think that Sauron stands for Hitler or that the ring stands for the atom bomb. Tolkien says the book has no hidden meanings like that – he just meant it to amuse.
Still, he was the sort to complain that the 1900s were too grim and grey and that the English-speaking world had no great stories like the ancient Greeks did. In fact he believed in the power of fantasy and myth as more than just a way to pass the time and forget one’s troubles.
See also:
LotR is one of my favourite novels. So I might be biased here. But I really love it.
Still, that doesn’t mean I can’t see its faults. I mean, if nothing else, it can sure use an editor, and there are some things that reveal the act Tolkien was, well, a child of his time and place.
But I do love this book and yes, I do think it’s one of the best ever written (or at least in the previous century, and it was full of amazing books).
Potential SPOILERS below.
In “The Lord of the Rings” he gives the ring to his son, Frodo Baggins.
Technically, Frodo is his nephew.
Frodo has enough sense to destroy it since only evil can come from so much power.
Yes, in the beginning. But at the end, he doesn’t have the strength to destroy it, and that’s one of the things I like the most about the story: their quest has basically failed. If there wasn’t for Gollum, the ring would never be destroyed. Frodo claimed the ring for himself at the end, unable to destroy it.
It’s worth reminding that out of the all ringbearers, only ONE of them gave up the ring with his own free will: Sam Gamgee. With all of the others (Sauron, Isildur, Gollum, Bilbo and Frodo), it had to be taken by force.
Did I mention Sam was my favourite character in the book? 😉
Having read the books, I never saw the films: it seemed like it could only end in disappointment since films are rarely as good as their books.
A wise choice. The films were fine (and quite beautiful), but for some reason, they failed to capture the spirit of the novel. Not sure how to explain it. There were some changes, yes, usually not for the good (Arwen with the sword and the like), but it’s not the main problem. They did keep most of the story intact, but still, they failed to capture the essence of this wonderful book.
Except in one aspect: music. The soundtrack is perfect. I highly recommend it: it captures Tolkien’s world perfectly.
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While I hate elves, because they’re just “Mary-Sues/perfected white people” in typical fantasy, I really didn’t like one of the things Tolkien did with them. He basically created an Elven language, and then kept having them talk in that language; as if the reader was supposed to know what they were saying. I’m sorry, but at the end of the day, that’s just pretentious.
(That’s really one of the only gripes I have with the series.)
Speaking of writers, I’m surprised Abagond hasn’t done a topic on the famous fantasy writer H.P. Lovecraft. In regard how his white fans make excuses over how blatantly racist/paranoid he was toward black people in his fantasy writings.
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Oh, I also chuckle at how White Supremacists/Nationalists/Race Realists/Whatever-label-they-now-use try to inject their own racist theories/beliefs into Tolkiens world, to make it seem as if he was “one of them”.
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Franklin,
Tolkien was a linguist. Inventing words and languages was his passion. Of course he put a lot of it in his work. And there’s also more than one Elvish language, and quite a few non-Elvish ones that he invented.
And frankly, the language is one of the strongest aspect of LotR, even though I’m not much into it. (I’m not good at languages and linguistic doesn’t impress me). But it’s clear he knew what he was doing, unlike so many others who tried to copy him.
(Which is true for more things than just the language).
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Having read the books, I never saw the films
In my humble opinion, big mistake. Although I love the LOTR trilogy I feel the movies were much better. In fact, all three movies are in my list of top ten favorite films.
Two critiques about the books:
1)The language. At times it could be a bit hard to follow. I’m not a big fan of middle Earth English(or whatever the hell he used). I will say I was a middle schooler when I first read the trilogy, so that might have had some affect on my lack of appreciation for Tolkien’s diction. I plan on rereading the sometime in the future…
2)Too much trivial sh*t that should have been edited out of the final copy. I’m sorry, but I don’t need to read about every time Frodo needs to take a sh*t. There were too many pages about trivial every day activities from meaningless conversations to mentioning food rations. I guess Tolkien was attempting to make the journey seem more “real.” For me, it was too much. I could of done without it.
That being said, LOTR comes right behind the Harry Potter series for me(save two or three HP books). Dramatic, action-filled, humorous, enchanting, a plethora of interesting characters. Definitely one of the best stories ever written. A great read for all of the fiction heads out there.
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Sorry, for this comment being all over the place…
Okay, I wouldn’t describe myself as close minded or immature, but am I the only one that got a homo vibe btwn Frodo & Sam in the end of LOTR:<The Two Towers & Return of the King?
Anyways, Gandalf, Merry, Pippen, & Gollum were all my favorite characters from the book(Yeah, I know. Pretty strange/random bunch). Gollum has to be one of the most epic characters in all of characterdom. Strange considering his personality was a bit…. off. The book would have been completely different(in a bad way) without him.
I hated Frodo. Not bc of his personality traits or anything, but bc I actually read the Hobbit prior to the LOTR. I couldn’t help, but constantly compare him to Bilbo. He just never lived up to the Baggins name.
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The homoerotic elements of LotR are frequently talked about, but sorry, I don’t see any. This might be only my interpretation, but LotR is basically a fantasy modeled after the European Middle Ages and their norms.
In this sense, Frodo/Sem relationship resembles the “faithful servant and his master” relationship more than anything. It was quite popular in those days: brave, smart master and his less than intelligent, but good and loyal servant, who’d do anything for him. That’s what Frodo and Sem’s relationship looks to me.
And yes, I loved Gollum, and I hated the fact he was CGI in the movie. I mean, it’s such a complex character and an Oscar-worthy role. Why did they use CGI anyway?
I liked Frodo. What’s wrong about him?
But I disliked Aragorn. He was waaaaaay too perfect for my taste.
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Oh yes, this faithful servant narrative later in history transformed into a racist image of a loyal slave. But it’s another story.
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@ Mira
Him being a linguist wasn’t my point, and is irrelevnt. Like you, I wasn’t impressed with his ability to create languages and shove them in our faces. To me, that acts as a pointless fluff and filler. I wouldn’t like it if in a book about an English speaking man from New York, he encounters a group of Chinese characters, then there’s an entire chapter devoted to their conversations, but in Mandarin.
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@Mira
Oh I don’t hate Frodo. I just thought his character was too… blah.
I can’t think of a single novel personality trait when it comes to Frodo Baggins. He wasn’t particularly funny, strong, or clever. I have no hatred or dislike towards him, but I just don’t feel there was anything special about him to like. He was just… there. His character, or lack thereof, was like a doll to me. The events and story around him were interesting, Frodo, not so much.
And mind you, I was comparing him to The Hobbit’s protagonist the entire time. It was disappointing to see such a funny, brave, and clever character like Bilbo, replaced with Frodo(I’m trying to think up personality traits to go along with him, but my mind just goes blank).
This didn’t hurt the book for me though. There have been several stories I’ve enjoyed where I dislike or feel indifferent towards the main character.
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You have no idea how many discussions I’ve gotten into, because I’ve shared this same sentiment…
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An interesting critique of LotR: Epic Pooh, by Michael Moorcock. http://www.revolutionsf.com/article.php?id=953
Another foible of the LotR is that the forces of goodness reside in the NW corner of the map and all that is evil comes from the South/East. Read into that what you will, it’s funny how many other fantasy writers follow him in this. David Eddings is one that comes to mind. I seem to recall Terry Brooks’ first Shannara books were like this too, but it’s been a long long time.
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Franklin,
While I can live without the excessive linguistics in LotR, I appreciate it, and it certainly added to the atmosphere. That being said, the novel DOES beg for an editor. (Especially int he first 50 pages or so).
The Cynic,
I never liked The Bobbit. There, I said it. I don’t remember how many times I’ve tried reading it before LotR and failed. At one point I hated Tolkien’s writing because of it. Then finally I skipped Hobbit and went straight to LotR and fell in love. I only read Hobbit after it, so I wasn’t influenced by it.
That being said, Frodo IS a bit bland, but then again, most of the characters are achetypes and many are bland or have one character trait. (Aragorn. ugh.) That’s not the problem, though, because the story is basically a myth, and you don’t need three dimensional characters. Still, when you have some (like Sam, Gollum, Faramir, etc.) they stand out and are amazing.
bingregory,
And not to mention that the Undying lands are located on the far West, across the sea…. 😛 (Though it’s not the west in our sense of the word, as explained in the Silmarillion. But still.)
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I really enjoyed the books and the films. The films made some changes for marketing and editing obviously but I thought they held together well.
I didn’t care for the relationship between Frodo and Sam but I don’t think there was anything gay in it. There was a definite class element but mostly I think it was Tolkien’s way of dealing with his experiences in WW1. Interestingly enough both Tolkien and Hitler were at The Battle of the Somme. Imagine if Tolkien had been able to kill him.
I’ve read the epic pooh essay. I like Moorcock’s honesty on the issue and agree with some of what he has to say but mostly I think it’s just different strokes for different folks.
Getting older I have gotten into more realistic and “grimier” stories, which Tolkien tended to avoid.
http://www.theurbanpolitico.com/2011/04/book-reviews-game-of-thrones-hit-me.html
I do remember the first Shannara books and thinking they were wholescale “lifts” from Tolkien though I’m given to understand that wasn’t the case in later series.
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yes Franklin zek j everts, lovecraft, and even hitler are racist not so much as outward but inward through their various writings and such.
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I had no idea these books go back to the mid 20th century. I appreciate the diversity of topics on this blog. Always something useful.
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When I read the book I never saw any races as in human races. For example, in my mind elves were all sorts of. Some were dark, some blond. The black of orchs was in my mind something to do with the smoke, dirt, oily grime, not skin color. It is good to remember that Aragorn is described as dark. Only the hardrim are racially clearly foreign, BUT Tolkien tells why they are fighting against Condor: in the old days it was Condor who fough and subjacated Harad, or caused all sorts of sorrow down there.
All and all it is good to remember that is a book, fantasy. We tend to read to much in there. Tolkien once said that all he wanted to do was to write a good story. Just like Picasso once said, that he does not consider himself a master, he just wants to paint pictures.
@bingregory: you read the goepgraphy from our point of view. Look at the map of Europe and you’ll see straight away why Mordor is south east of Shire and the “good”. Right. Tolkien was in WW1 fighting against imperial Germany and lost some of his best friends in the western front. Later the nazi Germany started the whole thin again. Think of the Shire as ideal english country side and Mordor as the “Germany” of sorts. I think that is where this geographical thing comes from.
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I forgot: In Ursula Le Guins Earthsea books the hero is dark skinned and the real bad guys come from north east and are blondes, just like vikings I guess.
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@Sam. Hi. I seem to remember us touching on this before but Tolkien clearly describes Aragorn as Caucasian.
lean, dark and tall, with shaggy dark hair “flecked with grey”, grey eyes, and a stern pale face
Aragorn was Dunedain and Dunedain aren’t black or asian or middle-eastern.
I do like how Tolkien did bring up the legitimate reasons that the Haradrim and others would have for fighting against Gondor and Rohan even as he mostly ties these reasons into manipulation and lies by Sauron and Morgoth before him.
I loved LeGuin’s Earthsea books. She was upset to see them “whitewashed” in the TV adaptation.
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@shady grady: I must admit that I got my first impressions of Aragorn from a finnish translation where the “dark” was translated as “tumma” which is in finnish often used as synonym with the roma/gypsies. So in the mind of eleven years old, back in 1975, reading the book in our summer place, Aragorn and dunedain transmuted into something of a kind of those black and white photos that I had seen of the plains native americans. Dark, outdoor men, faces darkened by the sun etc. I must admit I missed the pale.
I think many times movies are even more culturally tied than the books. I for example, always saw hobbits always as very small people, not some funny midgets with pointy ears. And elves were angelic acient beings, not some pointy eared androgynic guys from the ballet ensamble.
Yes, I found the Earthsea pics also dissapointing.The very thing that Ged is dark makes a lot in the book.
Which brings me to the damn ring in the movies. In the book theres three guys who are more or less immune for the ring: Tom Bombadil, Sam Gamgi and Faramir. The point of these I guess is that if you do not want the power, not even a bit, you do not feel the pull. Ok, Sam is influenced for a second in the tower in Mordor, but basically not. I hated how the movie makes the ring super super evil, as if it was not enuff evil in the book.
Also they missed the message of these guys: if you really do not want to rule others, you do not want power nor you can be corrupted by it. These characters also tell us that there is always a choice, no matter what. A very important thing, I’d say.
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Yeah. I think the movie made the choices about how to depict the ring b/c maybe some things don’t come across on screen unless you beat people over the head with them?
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@shady: true
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has anyone ever read sam Delaney or steve barns particular one that abagond would like and should write about “ZULU HEART”.
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I haven’t read much Delaney but I have read a lot of Barnes’ work.
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Phantom,
I’m sorry but did you just compare my little Jewish butt to Hitler?? Hahahahahahahaha……. I invoke Godwin’s Law, ya silly rabbit =P
But in the meantime, keep trying to project your hatred on to me during a discussin about Lord of the Rings. Because THAT totally makes sense.
Oh, and you don’t have “permission” to talk to me ; )
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Sam,
Gondor, not Condor. 😀
I remember I imagined orcs green skinned. Hobbits were brown skinned in my mind.
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Oooh, and don’t get me started on the movies! There is a huge point about some… people (to use that term, since we’re not sure what Tom Bombadil is) who were immune to the Ring. But in the movie, those were completelly different people!
In the movie, they made Aragorn, of all people, immune to the ring. And poor Faramir, who was actually the one to let Frodo go with the ring, was depicted as mini-Boromir. I hated that they did that.
Also, they never emphasized Sam enough. Let’s not forget:he was the ONLY ring bearer who gave up the ring with his own free will. The only one! With the other bearers: Sauron, Isildur, Bilbo, Gollum and even Frodo (which is the point of the story, I think), it had to be taken by force. Only Sam was able to part with it.
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Mira,
They also never mentioned that Sam was allowed to come to the Undying Lands near his old age, leaving behind the family he supposedly cared so much about.
Also, in the movie they totally messed up the Helms Deep battle. The trees are what save the Rohirrim, NOT Eomer and his paltry 2000 strong force of riders. Bleh.
But that said, I still effing love the movies. I frequently have marathons watching the extended editions during a long weekend =)
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I think that Sam’s exposure to the ring from Shelob’s Lair to the tower of Cirith Ungol would have given him a somewhat extended lifespan.
I believe that if you read in the Appendices, in the Tale of Years section you will find notes to the effect that Sam Gamgee did, in fact, leave for Valinor.
The timeline says that his wife (Rosie Cotton) dies in 1482 (Shire reckoning). On September 22 of the same year Master Samwise rides out from Bag End for the last time. He is accompanied by his eldest daughter, Elanor. He gives to her the Red Book. He goes from the Tower Hills down to the Grey Havens, and then passed over Sea, last of the Ring-bearers.
On a side not, Gimli and Legolas also left Middle Earth. But they went to Tol Eressea (the Lonely isle) just within sight of Valinor itself.
It’s all there in the Appendices, and Tolkien was obviously very serious about his appendices. Lol.
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I read The Hobbit when I was 7 and fell in love with Tolkein’s world – I’ve enjoyed fantasy writing ever since, and always look for good authors of such. 😎
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Ooooooh, nom nom nom…
Lord of the Rings is the book that basically shaped me somewhat as a folklore-loving human being I am today (or more like the one I always was). Before that trilogy I had read King Arthur’s tales and Greek myths, containing Iliad and Odysseus…
And btw, LOTR was only published as a trilog because post WW2 Britain was suffering from the lack of paper, and printing the whole story in one volume would have created a book too expensive for people to purchase. So the publisher wanted to print it in 3 volumes. Tolkien originally wanted the 3 rd volume to be named as ‘War of the Ring’.
I was fortunate enough to read the Hobbit first, staying in a tent on my parents
‘s yard, enjoying the bright finnish summer nights… After that I discovered Lord of the Rings…. Enjoying the nightless nights of Finland again, adding to the magic…
This is going to be a long post, such was the influence of that book in my life -and I also loved the movies.
The book doesn’t really get going before Moria. After that, I was hooked. Completely. And unlike some of you, I always felt that the language was an integral part of the whole middle-earth. From the beginning I loved the names and places…. And of course I later found out that Tolkien was a scholar of middle-age languages. They rang true, because he was able to construct ancient-sounding languages. He was even able to create history for the languages. Every name had a meaning. They weren’t something he pulled out of his a**s, they were all based on old anglo-saxon and nordic languages.
Especially high elvish was based on Finnish. But dispite that flattering connection, I always loved his language. It made Middle-Earth so true to me. Do not underestimate the power of language, the names of peoples,
Originally, Tolkien was disappointed that brits didn’t have a national epic: he loved Iliad, the Icelandic sagas and surprisingly, the Finnish Kalevala he fell in love with (he even learned some finnish to be able to read it). So he decided to create an epic, especially trying to make a tribute to anglo-saxons. Rohirrim is his interpretation of them with horses….
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And about the relationship between Frodo and Sam. When I read it as a 12 yr old boy, I never had any homosexual vibes… But it has been elaborated that their relationship was of a social one: that Frodo was more like nobility, and Sam was of lower class, and that their relationship reminded of a British officer and his servant of WW1.
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Many of the characters in LOTR were able to resist the power of the One Ring… For a certain amount of time. Tom Bombadil was some sort of elemental ( my memory escapes me), but most of other characters were only shortly exposed to the ring…. Besides, hobbits were exceptionally tuff and able to resist the power of the Ring.
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@ Mira:
Faramir was the good reflection of his more powerhungry brother, Boromor. Faramir was always the lesser brother, he only wanted to be loved by his father. He never yer ned for power, only acceptance. Knowing that the Ring had seduced his brother, he did not want to touch it.
Ask me anything. 😉
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Hey, my name is Sam! 😀
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Abagond,
You really need to see the films. They’re excellent. Was sad when the saga came to an end.
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Looks up… ^ ^ ^
@sam:
Hi Sam!! 😎
@ Hannu L:
I read books about folklore and mythology from various countries, much as you did, during the bright summer nights in Alaska – well, they were only bright when it wasn’t overcast or raining, LOL 😉
Ahem…back to the topic – yes, the main gist of LotR, from what I’ve read and watched, is that absolute power corrupts, absolutely.
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@Mira
Lol its ok if you had trouble getting through the Hobbit. I found the beginning to be quite boring myself. The book really starts to pick up when Bilbo gets locked in Elf prison though. I fell in live with it from that chapter on.
Do you at least plan on giving The Hobbit movie a chance?
@Zek
The battle at Helms Deep is my absolute favorite part of The Two Towers! I think I imagined it better reading it, but the movie certainly didn’t disappoint!
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I have read jrr Tolkien – even his name seems to imply(to me) meadevil European fantasy culture.
I’ve also read many others including many science fiction authors as well.
The majority where white/albinic as where their characters and as i started reading at an early age ,any bias’s went unnoticed.
I notice on this subject their are not too many commentors that are african/meleninated or POC
I also notice in my everyday life that most African Americans are not great fans of the LOTR movies or The harry potter series.
To me the difference between a book and a movie is that with a book you have to use your imagination guided by the author whereas a film presents you with sound and images that you either like or not.
And with the LOTR movies and The harry potter series the domaint images are of white/albinic people
with black/meleniated people being either nonexistent or stereotypical monsters of one sort or the other(who it is then easy to engage in mass slaughter as they have no moral value)
As I became an adult african american i’ve not read much of the works of my childhood although one author stands out ,not from my childhood but from the same meadevil European fantasy culture,Steven brust Jhreg series in which the protagonist is a human gangster living with discrimination harassment and oppression of his people by a society/empire of elves.
The parallels are Interesting and obvious.
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@telecomcorp: You are jokin about LoTR, right? 😀
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@Telcomcorp
Tolkien has been accused of racism. Maybe even rightly so. His world view was of the 30-50’s when westerners ‘ruled’. At the same time, Sauron was able to corrupt many people, especally Saruman, who was considered as the wisest and most powerful of his kind. But yes, Lotr does indeed represent the world order of its era.
And by the way. I aways hated Tolkien’s elves. Too perfect.
And still, Quenia, the language of high elves was based on Finnish. So I suppose they weren’t all gay…
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@sepultura:
The high, light blue summer night skies of the north are magical, aren’t they? Soft and full of stories and gentleness.
I never understood people who are afraid of forests, I suppose that’s why I loved ents. And balrogs. I still want one.
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I’d suggest that people on this board study a little Norse mythology, and works like Wagners opera and Beowulf to pick up on what influenced Tolkien. Certain concepts like Middle-Earth, the ring of power that many lust for, dragons hoarding massive wealth, dwarves, and elves, can be found in at least one of those works.
Tolkien nailed these concepts into an overall “Christian” framework — infused with Christian themes. As a black person who grew up in a integrated neighborhood in California, I spent a lot of time alone. So, I spent much of it
reading fantasy, mythology, comics, science fiction etc. I’m therefore aware of certain concepts from Norse mythology.
I believe his goal was to construct a mythology for England or Europe ? For this reason alone, his story will probably resonate more with European people than with non-European people.
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Actually, I did do some reading in the Elder Edda and Snori’s Edda. Nordic poetry is a difficult read (translated into English). But it does give you a look into where Tolkien got many of his ideas from… including some of the names of his characters.
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@king, bretano: Don’t forget Kalevala 😀
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Haha! Of course a Fin would say that! 🙂
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😀
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@ HannuL:
I love the forests at night – I’ve never understood why people are afraid of them, either. Summer nights in the north are grand – my brothers and I, and our friends, would play outdoors into the wee hours on the weekends – that is, when we weren’t inside, playing Dungeons & Dragons into the wee hours of the morning! I think it depended on whether it was raining or not, LOL
You and I think alike! I always thought it would be fun to ride on the shoulders of an Ent, and have a Balrog on my castle rooftop, like some massive, glowing gargoyle… 😎
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Yes, Tolkien wanted to create an epic for Brits. The Rohirrim in his books are his interpretation of Anglo-Saxons on horseback.
@sepultura
A friend of mine told me about his distant british relative, who was horrifed by the (relative) silence of Finnish forests. But I heard he lived next to Heathrow, lol! Poor bastard.
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I think we Finns have a special liking to trees, being surrounded by so many. Llike another british acquintance flew over Finland, he just said “nice collection you’ve got!”
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@sepultra13: One think that says a lot about finns and forests: you take ten guys from Helsinki City, put them in the tent in the middle of the winter freeze, into a forest for a week and they curse and moan and bitch, but not for a second they are in real trouble. This has happened in our military for decades and happens still.
How the hell those city boys can survive in climate and surroundings where for instance squad of brittish commandoes (back in the 80’s) perished? Because deep inside they still are guys from that forest. The forest is a shelter against winds, it provides wood for fire, water to drink etc.
When I was in the army back in early 1980’s I actually slept one night outside in the middle of the winter. I gathered a huge pile of pine braches, a huge one, lit up a cigarette and dove in. I woke up when my mates came to get me for breakfast next morning. 😀 I was cold for sure but did not get any frost bites despite the branch pile was covered in snow.
You are never more than five minutes away from a tree in Finland. Even in cities. Forest is in our soul. It is Finland. It has always been. It is our home, the place where we find refuge, rest, food, and where we can hide if need be. Even most of the finnish prison escapees do not try to go abroad, they run in the woods. 😀
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Certainly British Isles were engulfed by Nordic myths, most of it was invaded and ruled by Vikings ( the area was called Danelag). Canute (Knut) the Great et al… So of course someone like Shakespeare would be influenced by scandinavians.
Icelandic sagas are somewhat problematic, because they were recorded a couple of centuries after viking rule by people like Snorri Sturlason…but fascinating tales nevertheless!
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Of course, there were celtic myths as well, especially by the Irish and the Welsh. I always thought it was intriguing how similar yet diffirent yet similar the celtic and nordic ornaments were.
And of course Britain was invaded by William the Conqueror of Normandy, a descentant of Nordic invaders himself, but someone who was merged to ‘french’ culture.
So it’s all a mix, a beautiful tapestry.
I personally think that nationalistic states formed in the 19th century were a bad idea to begin with.
Dang, I definitely don’t master the vocalubary to be able to express myself correctly…
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I love myths and legends from all over the world – I read ‘Beowulf’ (Buliwyf) at an early age; a few modern authors have taken liberties with the legend and written their own versions of it, but the basic tale remains the same in them. Michael Crichton’s book Eaters of the Dead is one take on it; the 1999 film The 13th Warrior is another.
Just look at the days of the week for some Norse/Germanic names: Wednesday is Wodenstag (Woden/ Wotan / Odin’s Day); Thursday is Donnerstag (Thor’s Day / Day of Thunder), for starters…
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@ sam and HannuL:
I’ve lived in the city for years, but if I was thrown into a northern forest for a couple of weeks, my survival training and skills would kick in quickly! I could revert to me feral nature in an instant… 😎
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I understand the 13th warrior muslim was remotely based on a a muslim explorer who witnessed a Viking burial at the banks of Volga. “Tall as date trees”, he described them. Ibn Battuta?
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Sorry, it was Ahmad ibn Fadlan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_ibn_Fadlan
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Ah, sure. Me, as a callow youth of the tender age of twelve, just accidentally bumped in yo Tolkien’s Hobbit… Read it first, loved it, and after it found and realised that Lotr was a continuation to that story. Read them all in the dim light of the bright Finnish summer nights and was forever enchanted. Found out the Silmarillion next. I was just so lucky that I read them in the right order.
Tolkien indeed did try to create a national myth for the Brits.
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@hannu, bulanik: In Lennart Meri’s Hopean valkea (Silver white, a book about the great eastern routes from Baltic to Byzanthium, so called Silver way), there is a lot quotes from the arabs who visited the realm of the bolgars in Volga during 800’s.
Meris theory is that those eastern vikings were actually not swedes as much as estonians and finns. He goes to that conclusion based on the describtion of the viking funerals (actually the only surviving eye witness account of such, even though arab explorer could not understand what was going on) which are similar to the eye witness accounts of the estonian sea farers funerals later on. He also uses ethymology to come that conclusion and the fact that the swedish vikings could only get as far as tip of the Courland and some tiny tradestations along the way.
I read from somewhere some years ago that the DNA of the distant relatives of Rurik, the founder of the Russia/Kiev, happened to be fennougric, not germanic as was expected. Some russian scientists are also thinking that the varyags were not so much swedes as balts and finns and carelians. Who knows?
One norwegian guy actually told me that the word varyag, the name of those eastern vikings, comes from acient version of the varg ganger, wolf goer (person who goes with the wolves) and he was adamant that the old norwegians said that the finnish tribes were those wolf goers. He claimed that it was the norwegians and the finns who formed the core of the varyags. I have no other source for this but interesting still.
Interestingly, some years ago they found a large treasure near Lahti which contained a horde of coins from a certain byzanthian emperor. The only other place where these coins have been found is in Norway.
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@bulanik: In Silmarillion he talks abot fells and enviroment which can easily be transtlated as northern, but I do not know he ever visited north, at least these parts. Perhaps Scotland was his inspiration to describe those northern regions?
There are some theories that old finnish tribes had their totem animals, such as the elk, the bear the wolf etc. but I have no idea what is the backround. Beowolf is translated as Honeywolf which means the bear but then again old celtish for bear was Arth as in Arthur.
I do know that the bear was seen both as a beast but also as the judge fo the woods, old man of the woods and there are lots of stories, myths and tales about bears. Bears also have several different names in finnish such as honeypawn, kontio (untranslatable) etc. as do wolves: hukka, susi etc.
When I read Tolkien I saw the whole Middle earth as in my surroundings. Only the Gondor and south seemed to be foreign, Rohan as well, but the Shire, Mirkwood, mountains, river Anduin, all those I imagined looking a lot like what I saw around me. Also when I first read LotR my family was on a boiat trip across the Saimaa waterways, trough narrows and open lakes, sleeping on rocky islands, listening the water etc. It was a real trip 😀
I think the Baltic region was more connected than we understand today. After all, via waterway it is the same boat trip from south western Finland to northern Germany as it is from southern Finland to the north of Gulf of Bothnia. Where we see water as an obstacle, for those people it was a highway.
Rivers, lakes, seas form the old transportation system of the North, all the way from Norways western coast, up to the Kola peninsula, down to the White Sea, Lake Ladoga, all those rivers which connect Finland interior to east and to the Baltic sea, and all the way to the south to the Black Sea and down to Byzanthium. Present day baltic states, sweden, finland, russia , poland, north germany, denmark were all connected by this system.
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@bulanik: Yes, present day Latvia consists of Courland and other regions which were occupied by the fennougric tribes up to the medieval times.
Around present day Riga the old german crusaders met people they called the Vaenalaises livonesis, that is the Väinäläiset of Livonia. Now, in Kalevala it is one of the names of the people of that story. It is interesting that in estonian language word Väin means a narrow water way, narrows. The king of these people was called Cauppo, which is pretty straight finnish name.
The curonians were according to some also a fennougrig people, the present day Liiviläiset, livonians, being their remanants.
So there was a whole plethora of fennougric people living on the eastern shores of the Baltic untill medieval times. Never too numerous and always very independent minded, they did not form states untill it was too late. Even in Finland there were three separate peoples: the Finns proper, the Suomi of the present day Turku region and abouts; the tavastians, Hämäläiset, who lived in the interior with their central region being around present day cities of Hämeenlinna (The Castle of Tavastia) and Tampere, but their realm reaching “from sea to sea” that is from the Gulf of Finland to the Gulf of Bothnia: and carelians who lived around the Lake Ladoga. Fourth group were the saami, or sami like it is spelled in english, real laplanders who lived in the wilderness.
All these groups had a distinct language and their own culture and very old traditions. It was only in 1800’s when nationalism swept in Finland too, they started to build one cohesive nation from these tribes and Kalevala was part of that project. Some poems have western motives and surroundings, clearly a viking type enviroment, but still the poems were collected from Carelia.
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Speaking of Vikings – here is a festival that I would love to attend someday:
http://visit.shetland.org/up-helly-aa
What a sight to behold! 😎
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Ugh!
As a fan of African folklore and African history, I can’t believe that I failed to mention how Aragorn’s story has incredibly strong similarities with Sundiata Keita’s. His story is so close to Sundiata’s, that one can’t help but notice the hilarious similarities of both.
And to clarify, the Sundiata Epic is a fantasy that is based off of the actual historical events surrounding the first king of Mali. It is a fantasy that has been sung by groit poets, going as far back as the 13th century in Mali. Whereas LotR was written in the early 20th century.
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