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Tolkien

Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 9:31 am
by Tea
Because with so many LoTR and Tolkien mythos people we should get somewhere very interesting indeed. To start things off, just finished reading The Silmarillion (admittedly, on the third try reading it, surprisingly, after the Kinslaying it picked up quite a bit and instead of being difficult to read I could barely put it down.)


I now take back anything I said about wanting to see a Silmarillion movie. I still want to see it, however, what I had labeled Silmarillion is perhaps better covered as a now 12x3 movie epic (since apparently the only way to make one of these things is to have the tale in three parts *eyes Hobbit suspiciously*) drawn more from The History of Middle-Earth books (and Unfinished Tales (don't remember if that's technically part of the History or not). (Admittedly, I have only gotten my hands on Unfinished Tales (which I did not finish) and The Lays of Beleriand, so I may yet realize I'm mistaken about this idea). Sorry, Silmarillion, but as beloved as you are, compared with the rest of Tolkien's published writings you're a pretty basic overview. Several of the tales in the Silmarillion admit fuller versions in his other works (Beren and Luthien, and I think either of or both The Children of Tuor and Hurin (damn, why'd I return the book to the library, now I can't look that bit up)). Will that ever happen, most likely no, the people making it would likely die before it was finished, quite possibly through several generations...now, if we secretly had some interested elves in the cinema business things would be different, or Numinoreians...or,..dare I think of it, Melkor or Sauron taking it up...now that would be quite interesting, and probably a bad idea for us cinema-going humans given their history...(plot to gain dominion by allying a great host of Tolkien Fans? actually, that sounds strangely reasonable... :lol:)

That said, I have no intention of bashing Silmarillion with anything...at least, not anything fatal. Brevity aside, Silmarillion is still awesome, and it's the Silmarillion, not The History of Middle Earth. If it wanted to be anything but concise then it would have been a completely different book. Although, speaking of brevity, the translation of the events in The Lord of the Rings to their counterpart in Silmarillion was pretty amusing. So, we go from the three-volume set of tomes to...a few paragraphs in The War of the Rings in which the main people are Aragorn (creeps out of the woodwork at just the right time), Gandalf (well, that does explain that mysterious business he ran off to do in The Hobbit), and Elrond (the grand transistor), who, actually, I think, were kept pretty much intact. Then we get to Frodo and his Unnamed Servant, because two hobbits just "happening" to be off on a merry jaunt in the area of Mordor, oh, and by the way, do either of you two mind throwing that ring you have into the firey mountain yonder? Much obliged. And that, friends, just that, is the entire trilogy we know and love.

Speaking of Gandalf, after reading Lord of the Rings and then picking up Hobbit, man is he sassy. Sure, it's more if a children's book than LoTR, but I swear Gandalf has some growing up to do between the two stories. You have officially been labeled a disturber of the peace.

Wait,..I was going to say more...I know there's more Middle-Earth related stuff to pull out of my brain here. Well, on a side note, I stumbled across this awhile back.
http://employees.oneonta.edu/smalle/tiras.html

And, just to derail things anymore, anyone taking up any of Tolkien's languages? They always seemed interesting but every time I think of trying I end up starting my own colang instead of learning his.