Tag: tolkien

It was Gondor that brought about its own decay, falling by degrees into dotage, and thinking that the Enemy was asleep, who was only banished not destroyed. … [they] hungered after endless life unchanging. Kings made tombs more splendid than houses of the living, and counted old names in the rolls of their descent dearer than the names of sons. Childless lords sat in aged halls musing on heraldry; in secret chambers withered men compounded strong elixirs, or in high cold towers asked questions of the stars.

Faramir, The Two Towers (via one-small-garden)

#tag yourself im the childless lord in a high cold tower asking questions of the stars (via @crocordile)

Well damn, then I’m definitely the childless lord musing on heraldry

Well, I can add ‘this fucking mountain’ to the list of things that have tried to kill me that by all reasonable thinking should not have tried to kill me. I think this is the weirdest, unseating Creepy Sentient Murder Tree and pushing the Ghost of Monarchies Past into the number three spot, but I might be wrong.

incorrecttolkienquotes:

– Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck, The Lord of the Rings, book II, chapter IV

New Tolkien book: Beren and Lúthien

mrswidgeryslodger:

A compilation of all versions of Tolkien’s tale of Beren and Lúthien will be published next year, HarperCollins has announced.

Edited by Christopher Tolkien and illustrated by Alan Lee, Beren and Lúthien will bring together material scattered throughout the 12-volume History of Middle-earth series.

The earliest version of the tale of Beren and Lúthien was written in 1917, when Beren was an Elf not a Man and the equivalent of Sauron was a large evil cat.

The story underwent considerable revision throughout Tolkien’s life, and was reworked in both prose and poetry. The new book will demonstrate this evolution in full.

Beren and Lúthien will be published 100 years since Tolkien’s wife Edith danced for him in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks in East Yorkshire, an event he later acknowledged was the inspiration for the meeting of the immortal Lúthien Tinúviel and the mortal Beren in the glades beside Esgalduin.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Beren and Lúthien will be published on 4 May 2017.

New Tolkien book: Beren and Lúthien

But Morgoth thought that his triumph was fulfilled, recking little of the sons of Fëanor, and of their oath, which had harmed him never and turned always to his mightiest aid; and in his black thought he laughed, regretting not the one Silmaril that he had lost, for by it as he deemed the last shred of the people of the Eldar should vanish from Middle-earth and trouble it no more.

The Silmarillion, JRR Tolkien

Reasons I adore this quote – how for once Morgoth is right in the first half, and how wrong he is in the second. Because how key to the narrative is Eärendil fulfilling his quest (and the self-sacrifice and humility behind it like Frodo, because he isn’t a warrior but a sailor, overlooked and dismissed). Because here’s the darkest hour before the eucastrophe.

misbehavingmaiar:

sebastian-bond:

but-the-library-of-alexandria:

the thing about writing fantasy stories is that language is so based on history that it can be hard to decide how far suspension of disbelief can carry you word-choice wise – what do you call a french braid in a world with no france? can a queen ann neckline be described if there was no queen ann? where do you draw the line? can you use the word platonic if plato never existed? can you name a character chris in a land without christianity? can you even say ‘bungalow’ in a world where there was no indian language for the word to originate from? is there a single word in any language that doesn’t have a story behind it? to be accurate a fantasy story would be written in a fantasy language but who has the time for that

Tolkien had the time apparently

LIsten. Linguistics Georg, who invented over 10,000 conlangs each day, is an outlier and should not have been counted.