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Thread: The Lord of the Rings

  1. #1
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    The Lord of the Rings

    Hello everyone!!

    Yesterday I finished reading The Lord of the Rings. I found it amazing and really loved it. The characterrs I liked best are Frodo, Gandalf, Sam Gamgee and Aragorn. I cried a little when I finished the last chapter, it was out of emotion. Have you read it? Have you enjoyed it? Which part was your favourite? Have you any favourite characters?

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    I read it the 1st time when I was 12 or 13 and I remember cheering on the Riders of Rohim asthey charged through the orcs. A gripping fun book, but you have to get through the birthday party at the beginning to get to the good bits. An epic, and enjoyable story - with a trilogy of films which are not too bad.

    The BBC also did a 24 hour radio dramatization which is brilliant.
    Last edited by sandy14; 06-27-2016 at 12:49 PM.

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    Registered User Jackson Richardson's Avatar
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    I used to read it every year in my teens. I read it again a few years ago and was very disappointed. I like the first book (and I find the birthday party both amusing and moving - here is the innocent, silly life which is under threat from dark forces.

    I find the noble characters - Aragon and the Men of Rohan and the elves - boring. The character characters - hobbits, ents, dwarves and all - amuse me.

    Sam and Frodo going alone into Mordor is both moving, potentially tragic.

    And Smeagol/Gollum is very moving and tragic.
    Previously JonathanB

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    Registered User tailor STATELY's Avatar
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    I have read the Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion many times. The enigmatic Tom Bombadil and Galadriel remain my favorite characters. I find when Galadriel refuses the one ring the most moving for me in the book and film; Tom Bombadil the most amusing. I still have other books in the franchise to read and hope to do so soon.

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    Ecurb Ecurb's Avatar
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    Galadriel clearly has on of the best lines in the novels:

    As they are parting, Treebeard says, "I do not think that we shall meet again"

    Galadriel said, "Not in Middle-Earth, nor until the lands that lie under the waves are lifted once again. Then in the willow-meads of Tasarinan we may meet in the Spring."

    Lord of the Rings was my favorite novel in my youth, and remains one of my favorites.

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    I'm not much of a fan, but I do like the detail that hobbits love books that tell them things they already know.

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    I have also read the trilogy- several times. I think it was the book of the last century (the 1900s).

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    Thanks for answering.
    I liked very much the times when the hobbits visit The Prancing Pony at Bree. And also Mr. Butterbur, he made me smile.

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    somewhere else Helga's Avatar
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    Tom Bombadil is my favourite character and the ents are brilliant. I think I have read the trilogy twice and the Hobbit a few times too. The Silmarillion has been on my reading plan for years.

    I could see myself living in the Shire, loving home, not even thinking about travelling or seeing other places just me in my hobbithole barefoot in the grass. I always say I am working on my Hobbit feet when I get a comment on my barefeet and hard skin, not hairy though.
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    The first time I read it I was 23-24 and read it in Spanish. This time I read it in English and enjoyed it even more than the first time.
    Last edited by Carmilla; 06-29-2016 at 10:25 AM.

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    Ecurb Ecurb's Avatar
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    The Tom Bombadil fans on Litnet can, perhaps, be glad that he was cut from the movie adaptation. Based on the wizard fights (where Gandalf and Saruman blast each other with their staffs, as if they had stumbled into a "Star Wars" or "Harry Potter" movie), the movies would not have done justice to Bombadil.

    I was thinking about the difference between magic in Harry Potter and LOTR recently. In Potter, magic is basically equivalent to science and technology: Harry flies an a broom, modern, scientific man flies in an airplane. Harry can blast people with his wand; modern man can blast people with a rifle. Harry learns the principles and techniques of magic in school; modern man learns the principles of technology in science class.

    Lord of the Rings magic does involve some technology: rings, for example. But the powers of the rings (other than the rather prosaic power of rendering the wearer invisible) are more mystical and unexplained than Harry Potter magic. That (I think) is why the movies failed to get that part of LOTR right. The ridiculous wizard battles tried to make Gandalf's and Saruman's "powers" more technological than they were in the books. Worse (the worse thing in the movies), the power of the One Ring over Frodo made the One Ring seem like a dose of heroin, depicted by showing Frodo's eyes rolling back in his head as if he'd just main-lined some dope.

    This distinction is not universal (the Palantir act a little like telephones, although they can also be more psychic), but in general "knowledge" in Harry Potter involves knowledge of techniques; knowledge (and power) in LOTR involves knowledge of history and lore (as well as a sort of birthright). The One Ring is not a mere technology -- Sauron has put himself, his essence, into it and that's why when it is destroyed, so is he.

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    For me it is one of the finest books ever written. The way the language evolves and grows with the adventure is wonderful. This is my favourite bit.

    With that he seized a great horn from Guthlaf his banner-bearer and he blew such a blast upon it that it burst asunder. And straightway all horns in the host were lifted up in music, and th blowing of the horns of Rohan in that hour was like a storm upon the plain and a thunder in the mountains.

    Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!

    Suddenly the king cried to Snowmane and the horse sprang away. Behind him his banner blew in the wind, white horse upon a field of green, but he outpaced it. After him thundered the knights of his house, but he was ever before them. Eomer roder there, the white horsetail on his helm floating in his speed, and the front of the first eored roared like a breaker foaming to the shore, but Theoden could not be outpaced. Fey he seemed, or the battle-fury of his fathers ran like new fire in his veins, and he was borne up on Snowmane like a god of old, even as Orome the Great in the bttle of the Valar when the world was young. HIs golden shield was uncovered, and lo! it shone like an image of the Sun, and the grass flamed into green abou the white feet of his steed. For morning came, morning and a wind from the sea; and darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them. And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and the sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the City.


    Ok it may seem over the top here, but you are brought up to it so that it fits perfectly to the situation and the character of the Rohirrim.
    Last edited by prendrelemick; 06-29-2016 at 06:05 PM.
    ay up

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    The work of Tolkein is made to last, like the potency of some of those artifacts of wizards, dwarves and elves he writes about. A magic sword stays magic for a long time, maybe forever.

    The old adage is to write about what you know. Believe it or not, that is what Tolkein did. Few knew more about the legends of elves, dwarfs, wizards, trolls and giants et al, than this scholar. Few had his technical understanding of languages.

    Then it helps to be a master of your native language as well. Done.

    The movies of his work are the best of their type yet made, and are likely to remain the standard for a long while. This is because no other story in that genre is yet written which can equal the LOTR and the Hobbit. The story will have to be there first. I do not believe it can come from a collaboration of a group of screenwriters. It must come from one human being working under the inspiration for decades.

    As a current example, I am confident the screenwriting team which has taken over writing episodes of Game Of Thrones because the author's output simply cannot keep up with the demand for television episodes, can only do an exemplary job because Martin has already fully created the alternative world for them. With the hard part done, they can now tell endless stories within the world Martin created.

    The alternative world must not copy original elements of other works. Copying tradition is different. Your elves can be magic, for elves have usually been magical. Rings that make you disappear or 700 ft. ice walls are another matter.

    Tolkein, whom so many denigrate and demote as a mere teller of fantasy tales, was a bit more, and will go right on hanging in there with literary giants in the longevity wars. Alice In Wonderland is a pure fantasy classic. There are not many. The entire work of Tolkein goes on the list. It is all one cohesive history.

    I do not believe tellers of space tales have yet written a masterpiece of their genre to equal Tolkein's mastery of sword and sorcery. There have been some great space epics, so the point is arguable. No space epic in print rules as the absolute standard for the foreseeable future, which is why I think Tolkein surmounted his genre like few ever manage to do. To consider the greatness it will take to topple him is dizzying. On the other hand, the position is open, I feel, in the space genre, but that epic is not yet written.

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    Couldn't agree more. I've never seen the film, so obviously I've missed something!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dreamwoven View Post
    Couldn't agree more. I've never seen the film, so obviously I've missed something!
    One visualizes things from the book a certain way, such as the appearance of Gollum, until one sees the movie, when they may permanently change to fit the movie's vision of the character, or the landscape, or Lothlorien. As you might expect, it was in visual effects that the movie broke stunning ground.

    A reader of any book is disappointed in some aspects of the later film, and finds much to criticize, such as omitted scenes and characters. It is amazing how much they manage to include, not how much they omit. Visually, the experience will one-up your imagination in scenic wonder. And now that a real fan can watch the entire two triologies in one or two sittings, you cannot complain about the length, which must be in the neighborhood of 15 hours or greater. I hope you treat yourself soon. If you hate them, you can always scold me.

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