Lord of the Rings

Y'all are making me want to read it again, I have enough on my list already!

We moved to Birmingham a couple of years ago, not far from where Tolkien grew up, so we've paid a few visits to Sarehole Mill, the inspiration(*) for the Old Mill at Hobbiton, and Moseley Bog, the twisted tangled and boggy wood which inspired(*) Mirkwood and the other ancient forests. There are also two towers which are said to have been an influence - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgbaston_Waterworks and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perrott%27s_Folly - but there's also this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Chamberlain_Memorial_Clock_Tower#cite_note-19, which got me wondering which exactly of the many towers are The Two? I think I assumed they were Orthanc and Barad-dûr, seems I was half right:

Tolkien wrote, "The Two Towers gets as near as possible to finding a title to cover the widely divergent Books 3 and 4; and can be left ambiguous."[3] At this stage he planned to title the individual books. The proposed title for Book III was The Treason of Isengard. Book IV was titled The Journey of the Ringbearers or The Ring Goes East. The titles The Treason of Isengard and The Ring Goes East were used in the Millennium edition.

In letters to Rayner Unwin Tolkien considered naming the two as Orthanc and Barad-dûr, Minas Tirith and Barad-dûr, or Orthanc and the Tower of Cirith Ungol.[3][4] However, a month later he wrote a note published at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring and later drew a cover illustration, both of which identified the pair as Minas Morgul and Orthanc

(*) apologies to mark s

The flight out of the caves and into the light, free but only then free to be devastated- possibly the single most notable moment where the movie most successfully makes visual what can be somewhat skipped over in the reading.

Ledge im sorry to possibly embarrass u but tolkien grew up around birmingham, alabama

His own performance of bilbo always had a pronounced Mississippi accent

Id have thought he would've been happy to leave the two towers open but there you go

lol i have always been confused by which towers were The Two, thanks ledge

the two towers are sam and frodo obv, they are pint-sized towers of strength

as a child growing up in shropshire i was kept fearfully awake by the huge sleepless eye hovering over ironbridge, another of his so-called "inspirations"

post-Moria Orlando is very early attempting the Joey Tribbiani "divide 232 by 13" method of grieving

I mean orlando bloom is no fuckin matt leblanc, hes not even a mark wahlberg

He is by a distance the worst actor short of daniel radcliffe to reach any such status

Lets be real like radcliffe is in his own galaxy, then bloom is in a solar system by himself, the next six worst actors are in a clump somewhere about the size of floor five of harrods

https://www.eryn-carantaur.com/legolas_grief1.jpg

this is gabriel byrne AND ewan macgregor erasure

Its a nomination thread and a poll thread at least, but theres just no way that you just offered gabriel byrne from millers crossing up as bloom-level

I think Emilia Clarke feels left out.

He's hollow-eyed and banal but I've come to accept, even quite like Bloom as Legolas. Don't @ me.

I very fuckin will

Anyway there's a thread for this

Somehow this discussion of Our Presidetn has reminded me of a song I began writing for the Hallmark Movie version of LOTR
🎶 What do your
Elf
Eyes
Seeeeeee?
They see me seeing you seeing meeeee🎶

Another of the scenes Jackson got right was the Orcs beset by the Rohirrim. Tolkien’s account of M&P escaping is weirdly slack (altho its great to see Pippin in trickster mode).

I don't mind Bloom, though film Legolas isn't anything like my image of the book Legolas (more of a general elf issue, perhaps). It's also missing some fun moments like his petulance at being blindfolded in Lorien.

tolkien grew up around birmingham alabama
His muse the statue ov Vulcan on Red Mountain---hard to pick a pic, but here's a bunch:
https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tTP1Tcwrqo0yDVgtFIxqLCwsLA0TEqxNLA0NUgzMDS3MqgwSTS1MDFONEw1NDQxSU7z4i0rzUlOzFMoLkksKU0FACeSElE&q=vulcan+statue&oq=Vulcan+sta&aqs=chrome.1.0i355j46i175i199j0i433j69i57j0l2j0i395l4.8294j1j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Can I just say:

I am a mere chapter or so away from finishing Two Towers

It has been notable for me to see how rich the character of Faramir is, how much depth he was given in the book vs the short shrift he gets in the movie

Also I love the scene in the book where Faramir warns Frodo that the path they’re taking into the mountains is bad & dangerous & that Gollum seems to him to be capable of murder: and Frodo’s heartbreaking response, like “wtf am I supposed to do, go back? turn around? I have to follow him.”

The whole trek to Shelob’s lair is SO tense & scary, largely because of that shadow cast by Faromir & the knowledge that Frodo knows theyre likely being led into danger & goes anyway :(

Is this your first read or just fresh?

Faramir is a great character for his fairly small role

Book Four might be my favourite. All of those wild landscapes, deep in enemy-occupied territory. A basic overarching problem to solve (how to get into Mordor), as backdrop to the complexity introduced by Gollum. It's so good.

Seconding those landscapes, and what a flow -- the hard edges of the Emyn Muil, the rotten growth of the Dead Marshes, the blasted landscape before the Black Gate, the ruined beauty of Ithilien, the slow transition into the desolation of Morgul Vale and all that entails. All of it described just so.

My entry into the Tolkien Fandom oral histories at Marquette recently went live:

https://cdm16280.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16280coll11/id/509/rec/1

And I was reminded about how my focus was indeed those landscapes and the grounding. I need to make that the focus of a future episode.

xpost i had only read hobbit many times & fellowship once like 10 years ago, i dont think i havs ever made it through the whole trilogy

Oh wow

Thread is now hallowed ground so

lol

My childhood copies were the 1977 Ballantines with Tolkien’s art on the covers. I’m overdue for a reread and it seems critically important for me to get that edition now. Then again, I’ve never read the 50th anniversary cleanup text and I probably should.

the cleanup text is where they cut bombadil entirely

Looking fwd to my 50th anniversary cleanup text, ive taken the liberty of preparing extensive notes of suggested excisions, ive mentioned the main one a few times on other threads iirc

cleanup ilx: no mark s

If you removed all the nomarks......

Excited for VG. Let us know how it's going.

Why deems this is EXACTLY what you want to do, right now, at this historical moment in the world, I know.

For the first time in IMAX, experience the magic of Middle-Earth. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is making its debut on the BIG screen. Remastered by Peter Jackson in stunning 4K, experience the epic in IMAX theatres Feb 5. Reserve your seat: https://t.co/LBzdw8tML0 pic.twitter.com/Q9wexUkRAx

— IMAX (@IMAX) February 3, 2021

https://t.co/UaxLXY3Uq3 pic.twitter.com/x1X3XZU0XL

— karen han (@karenyhan) February 3, 2021

lol the replies on that are great too

me reuniting with my homies who died watching lotr pic.twitter.com/0Yqqnt7g3R

— tc (@chillmage) February 3, 2021

I'm not clear about the "first time in IMAX" claim. What was I watching the first time around when I saw the trilogy at an IMAX?

it is a mystery

It's the remastering in 4K being referred to (the Hobbit films were filmed directly in 4K, by comparison).

Wasnt godwin a minor elf

No wtf, darwin its the darwin award

Can we go back

I’ve been finding this map very helpful in locating myself in the books: http://lotrproject.com/map

whoa that is cool af

also I finished Two Towers :D
On to Return of the King, and finally joining the Appendices (Nerd) Club™️

Welcome welcome

I was just playing around with that map site earlier today.

The Emyn Muil always really intrigued me. I think that's where I'd set up my hermit hut.

"R. Baranduin (Brandywine)"

^^ encapsulates so much about Tolkien's sensibilities

Gimli waxing poetic for a page and a half about the beauty of the caverns at Hem’s Deep. *chef’s kiss*

Theoden is the Puddleglum of LOTR. On the heels of victory at Helm’s Deep and on finding that his losses on the plain of battle were fewer than he had imagined AND that Edoras was defended, he still has time to mope “Well, I probably won’t get to enjoy it long. Prolly gonna die soon.”

lmao true