Smith of Wootton Major moved the young (about 16) Terry Pratchett to write to Tolkien because of how it made him feel.
At this point I should probably also drop in the legendary birthday party invitation. I suspect many parents of young men felt like this at being able to celebrate their birthday in late 1945.
When I first saw the Peter Jackson dwarfs (or is it dwarves? I can’t remember) . . . .
Dwarves if you’re Tolkien, dwarfs if you’re Disney, or pretty much anyone else not influenced by Tolkien. Tolkien adopted dwarves early on, thinking it was the “correct” plural form of dwarf. He later wrote: “I am afraid it is just a piece of private bad grammar, rather shocking in a philologist; but I shall have to go with it.”
I always pictured them as looking exactly like humans, but without those silly pointy ears...
To be fair to Peter Jackson and his designers, Tolkien did, in non-Hobbit, non-LOTR and non-Silmarillion writings describe Elves’ ears as more pointed and leaf-shaped that human ears. The Sindarin words for ear and leaf were described by Tolkien as related. And in a letter to Houghton Mifflin in which he described Hobbits for the benefit of illustrators, Tolkien wrote that their ears are “only slightly pointed and ‘elvish.’”
I thought the radio version in the 1980s was excellent - apart from Aragorn's lisp!
I don't recall a lisp, but I do remember that his voice in The Prancing Pony at Bree was rather rough and menacing, changing gradually as he and the hobbits got to know each other better. Later in the book, Sam actually mentions how Aragorn's voice has altered...so that was a neat touch on the part of those responsible for the adaptation.
Tolkien's elves are not humans with pointy ears, and it's probably impossible to put them in live action.
To be fair to Peter Jackson and his designers, Tolkien did, in non-Hobbit, non-LOTR and non-Silmarillion writings describe Elves’ ears as more pointed and leaf-shaped that human ears. The Sindarin words for ear and leaf were described by Tolkien as related. And in a letter to Houghton Mifflin in which he described Hobbits for the benefit of illustrators, Tolkien wrote that their ears are “only slightly pointed and ‘elvish.'
I did not know that about Tolkien's elves or hobbits.
My point was more that elves should really look like minor deities or other immortals.
Tolkien's elves are not humans with pointy ears, and it's probably impossible to put them in live action.
To be fair to Peter Jackson and his designers, Tolkien did, in non-Hobbit, non-LOTR and non-Silmarillion writings describe Elves’ ears as more pointed and leaf-shaped that human ears. The Sindarin words for ear and leaf were described by Tolkien as related. And in a letter to Houghton Mifflin in which he described Hobbits for the benefit of illustrators, Tolkien wrote that their ears are “only slightly pointed and ‘elvish.'
I did not know that about Tolkien's elves or hobbits.
My point was more that elves should really look like minor deities or other immortals.
I always got the sense that Elves were “fair” and beautiful, but otherwise looked much like Men.
OK, huge Tolkien fan here*. Read the early books as a teen and have read pretty much all of the stuff I can find (entire history of middle earth).
And I still think they are incredible books, amazing stories. Yes, they are of their time and Tolkiens situation. They are an expression of one mans dreams and ideas.
The films I thought did a moderately good job - given how incredibly challenging they are to film. And how everyone will have their issues with the casting! The biggest problem I had was that the Hobbit was split over 3 films, when 2 as a maximum was needed. And it could have been done in 1.
But he inspired so much - pretty well the entire worldbuilding style of writing. And the whole concept that a world need to be consistent and entire - even if you only write a small part of it.
*Despite the fact that I so often spell his name wrong.
Tolkien's elves are not humans with pointy ears, and it's probably impossible to put them in live action.
To be fair to Peter Jackson and his designers, Tolkien did, in non-Hobbit, non-LOTR and non-Silmarillion writings describe Elves’ ears as more pointed and leaf-shaped that human ears. The Sindarin words for ear and leaf were described by Tolkien as related. And in a letter to Houghton Mifflin in which he described Hobbits for the benefit of illustrators, Tolkien wrote that their ears are “only slightly pointed and ‘elvish.'
I did not know that about Tolkien's elves or hobbits.
My point was more that elves should really look like minor deities or other immortals.
I always got the sense that Elves were “fair” and beautiful, but otherwise looked much like Men.
Yes, me too, with *fair* not necessarily meaning *blonde*. Frodo addresses Gildor and the Elves he meets in the Shire as *O Fair Folk!*.
OK, huge Tolkien fan here*. Read the early books as a teen and have read pretty much all of the stuff I can find (entire history of middle earth).
And I still think they are incredible books, amazing stories. Yes, they are of their time and Tolkiens situation. They are an expression of one mans dreams and ideas.
The films I thought did a moderately good job - given how incredibly challenging they are to film. And how everyone will have their issues with the casting! The biggest problem I had was that the Hobbit was split over 3 films, when 2 as a maximum was needed. And it could have been done in 1.
But he inspired so much - pretty well the entire worldbuilding style of writing. And the whole concept that a world need to be consistent and entire - even if you only write a small part of it.
*Despite the fact that I so often spell his name wrong.
The films I thought did a moderately good job - given how incredibly challenging they are to film. And how everyone will have their issues with the casting!
It's always difficult to translate works from one medium into another. This is especially true for translating a book into a film, since books don't have to worry about time constraints (looking at you, Dostoevsky) and the cost of introducing more characters is trivial from a monetary point of view. Films have to cut a lot (sorry Glorfindel, your part will now be played by Arwen) and some things have to be summarized with visuals rather than stated explicitly by characters or narration.
An example of the latter was Jackson's interpretation of the Gondorian military kit. In Tolkien's written works the most technologically advanced armor is mail, which is still pretty advanced stuff to make. Jackson chooses to break with this and puts his Gondorian soldiers in a cinematic version of cap-a-pie plate armor, which conveys with a few quick visuals several facts:
Gondor is a technologically advanced place. By comparison Jackson mostly uses mail to armor the Rohirrim. Théoden is an exception, but he's a king and can afford the very best.
Gondor is willing to kit out almost all its troops in this very expensive armor, which conveys that Gondor has manpower issues which it tries to make up for with high tech armor and weapons. This manpower issue was conveyed in the books through the arrival in Minas Tirith of the insufficient reinforcements from the southern fiefs. And just like that several minutes of a long and visually boring procession are summed up in a few establishing shots.
Despite its current difficulties, Gondor is a fairly prosperous kingdom steward-dom that can afford to kit out almost all its troops in very expensive armor.
As far as casting goes, I'm going to have to disagree with everyone else here about Hugo Weaving as Elrond. Weaving has a very unusual facial structure, one that can be easily used to convey "not quite human" if given the right context. It seems like a good use of an actor's innate traits.
Three times as many monstrous trolls, three scores by Howard Shore
Five hundred forty minutes filled with tracking shots galore
Revisiting old friends, a thought so comforting indeed
It's not at all to do with unadulterated greed
Despite ballooning into three films the Hobbit films actually cut most of the Mirkwood scenes. Presumably they weren't felt to be as cinematic as interminably drawn out CGI fight scenes.
A friend of mine was very adept at mimicking Tolkien's less inspired style, under the nom de plume "Larry the Locked-up"
Many write and many tell
How Roneld lived in Driveldell
Lived he there, this Roneld chap
In Driveldell, and that's a fact
A fact indeed, for nowhere else
Did Roneld live but Driveldell
There he made his home forsooth
He lived there really, it's the truth!
Here I'll stay, said mighty Ron...*
And so on and so forth.
No wonder the Tibbits so often had recourse to Merrymage Pipeweed and Southfumbling Funherb up at Fag End in Tibbiton.
*Can be sung to the tune of "Let us with a gladsome mind".
The relationship between Frodo and Sam is based on that between a British WW1 officer and his "batman" or personal assistant. Tolkien rhapsodized to some length about the courage and loyalty of the batmen, and how often they were vastly superior to the officers they served. It's a part of his lionizing of the common people of the English countryside.
The purposes of the Bombadil chapters:
1. He shows that the Ring is not all-powerful. It doesn't make him invisible, and he can still see Frodo when he's wearing it.
2. It gives a little spice of the unknown -- he doesn't fit into Tolkien's finely woven world tapestry in any way.
3. Staying there throws the Nazgûl off the scent for a bit.
4. The stay there hardens Frodo's will. When they are fighting the Willow, Frodo is a bowl of jelly, running up and down the path hollering for he knows not whom. After their stay, when Frodo is lying in the barrow, he doesn't take the easy way out though tempted, but calls upon Bombadil with the rhyme they were taught.
5. Merry needed that particular knife to stab Ol' Baddie.
6. Since the tale of Aragorn and Arwen was moved to an appendix, this and the Maggots constitute our only glimpses of Tolkien's platonic ideal marriage.
Some interesting thoughts regarding the enigmatic Tom Bombadil - thanks! Their brief stay with him certainly gives the hobbits some much needed rest and refreshment.
Another glimpse of marital domesticity comes right at the end of LOTR, when Sam returns home to Rosie after seeing Frodo off at the Grey Havens...
Setting aside the question of film-Elrond's looks for a moment, the bit where he talked Arwen into setting out for the Havens really stuck in my craw. Book-Elrond would never have done it. Not because he didn't want her to go, but because at that point she was betrothed to Aragorn and Aragorn was still alive, however hopeless the situation looked, and it was her duty to stay. He would never have lied to her to persuade her to abandon Aragorn.
@mousethief: you missed out Éowyn and Faramír. Admittedly they don't get married 'on stage', so to speak, but Faramír's offer of a marriage of two people working together to rebuild and heal the damage left by the war is much more appealing than Arwen's fate of being married to someone who persistently refers to women as 'treasure' and seems to think that her chief function is to sit around looking beautiful all day, with perhaps a little light embroidery, occasionally bursting into song.
I've ordered a copy, though the seller's description doesn't specifically mention colour. It does come with a bonus CD of the songs, though.
🎶🎻🎵🎹
The book* arrived (courtesy of Quick Post) today - no colour, as I anticipated , but the bonus CD is of the classic William Elvin/Donald Swann recording
@Jane R - good point re Eowyn and Faramir. I wonder how the marriage worked out eventually?
*The song cycle with music by Donald Swann and decorations (lots of Elvish lettering!) by Tolkien himself. @Ariel mentioned that her first edition had lots of colour...
A friend of mine was very adept at mimicking Tolkien's less inspired style, under the nom de plume "Larry the Locked-up"
Many write and many tell
How Roneld lived in Driveldell
Lived he there, this Roneld chap
In Driveldell, and that's a fact
A fact indeed, for nowhere else
Did Roneld live but Driveldell
There he made his home forsooth
He lived there really, it's the truth!
Here I'll stay, said mighty Ron...*
And so on and so forth.
No wonder the Tibbits so often had recourse to Merrymage Pipeweed and Southfumbling Funherb up at Fag End in Tibbiton.
*Can be sung to the tune of "Let us with a gladsome mind".
Has anyone else come across the parody "Bored of the Rings"?
A friend of mine was very adept at mimicking Tolkien's less inspired style, under the nom de plume "Larry the Locked-up"
Many write and many tell
How Roneld lived in Driveldell
Lived he there, this Roneld chap
In Driveldell, and that's a fact
A fact indeed, for nowhere else
Did Roneld live but Driveldell
There he made his home forsooth
He lived there really, it's the truth!
Here I'll stay, said mighty Ron...*
And so on and so forth.
No wonder the Tibbits so often had recourse to Merrymage Pipeweed and Southfumbling Funherb up at Fag End in Tibbiton.
*Can be sung to the tune of "Let us with a gladsome mind".
Has anyone else come across the parody "Bored of the Rings"?
A friend of mine was very adept at mimicking Tolkien's less inspired style, under the nom de plume "Larry the Locked-up"
Many write and many tell
How Roneld lived in Driveldell
Lived he there, this Roneld chap
In Driveldell, and that's a fact
A fact indeed, for nowhere else
Did Roneld live but Driveldell
There he made his home forsooth
He lived there really, it's the truth!
Here I'll stay, said mighty Ron...*
And so on and so forth.
No wonder the Tibbits so often had recourse to Merrymage Pipeweed and Southfumbling Funherb up at Fag End in Tibbiton.
*Can be sung to the tune of "Let us with a gladsome mind".
Has anyone else come across the parody "Bored of the Rings"?
Golly, that's going back a few years. Like Nick T, I didn't much enjoy it. However, I do remember one scenario where the 'Frodo' character is tempted to hand over the ring during a steamy encounter with a sultry elf maiden. Being a good Christian in those days, I hadn't hitherto been exposed to any erotic literature! Which is why I remember it I suppose.
On a tangent, not all of Tolkein's Inkling circle, to whom he read extracts as they were written, appreciated his story. Hugo Dyson was heard to mutter, on more than one occasion, "Oh fuck, not another elf!"
Once again, an elf warning would have been appreciated...
I read a small portion of Bored of the Rings, and quickly threw it aside. Utter tripe - and you will notice that, unlike LOTR, BOTR has not stood the test of time...
I always got the impression that the writers of Bored of the Rings did not respect the original, and I think to do really good parody of something you have to, at the very least, like the original.
Just popping to say that I've just listened to my free CD, and was delighted to find that it includes *Bilbo's Last Song*, sung by none other than Donald Swann, the composer.
A hauntingly beautiful song and melody - I might insist on it at my Funeral (instead of 12th Street Rag...) - here it is, introduced by Swann himself:
(I met Donald Swann once, some 40 years ago now, at a special church service in London. On that occasion, he played and sang another of his compositions, though I've never been able to find a recording of it...).
I was given a copy of "Bored of the Rings" and didn't care much for it. However, one line from it has stuck with me. It's when the hobbits are in a room together and there's a knock on the door, and Sam gets up to answer it.
"This had better be food, because I'm going to eat it."
I have used that line now and again over the years.
Swann, I seem to remember, composed an opera based on Perelandra. Don't see how it could have been staged at the time, bearing in mind that the principal characters are naked throughout. For radio, perhaps?
Turning back to Tolkien's works as well as Lewis's, I posted a while ago that at the end of LOTR Frodo seems to have ascended to a higher spiritual plane. It occurs to me that one might draw a parallel between the wounded Frodo, needing to be taken to Numenor for healing, and the wounded Ransom ('Mr Fisher-King') in 'That Hideous Strength' needing to be taken to a kind of Avallon in Perelandra for healing. Both, of course have their roots in the Grail myth, but it is no wonder that Tolkien thought Lewis was trespassing on his territory, and resented it. Of the two characters, I find Frodo more convincing, but that does not stop me enjoying Lewis' other writings. THS I dislike.
It occurs to me that one might draw a parallel between the wounded Frodo, needing to be taken to Numenor for healing, and the wounded Ransom ('Mr Fisher-King') in 'That Hideous Strength' needing to be taken to a kind of Avallon in Perelandra for healing. Both, of course have their roots in the Grail myth, but it is no wonder that Tolkien thought Lewis was trespassing on his territory, and resented it.
It might be even simpler than that given that the character of Ransom (a Cambridge philologist who served in the First World War) seems to be at least partly based on Tolkien himself (an Oxford philologist who served in the First World War). Or maybe the similarities are pure coincidence.
The relationship between Frodo and Sam is based on that between a British WW1 officer and his "batman" or personal assistant. Tolkien rhapsodized to some length about the courage and loyalty of the batmen, and how often they were vastly superior to the officers they served. It's a part of his lionizing of the common people of the English countryside.
The other best example I can think of in fiction is Lord Peter Wimsey and his "man" Bunter, who had indeed been Lord Peter's batman in the war. Like Frodo and Sam, their relationship is very close, they trust each other absolutely, have saved each other's lives ... but it is not a relationship of equals, rather one where the class barrier is always firmly in place. Lord Peter would die for Bunter without a second thought but would never call him (or expect to be called) by his first name, nor consider having Bunter as best man at his wedding.
I think it's something of a bygone idea now (perhaps rightly so) -- that relationships, even friendships, can be deep and intense but still remain within a rigid social class structure where everyone knows his or her place. It made sense to the writers who wrote about it because they had lived in a world where that social hierarchy was normal, but it feels odd and jarring to modern readers, and we question the power dynamics in ways that neither the original writers nor their characters probably would have done.
I think it's something of a bygone idea now (perhaps rightly so) -- that relationships, even friendships, can be deep and intense but still remain within a rigid social class structure where everyone knows his or her place. It made sense to the writers who wrote about it because they had lived in a world where that social hierarchy was normal, but it feels odd and jarring to modern readers, and we question the power dynamics in ways that neither the original writers nor their characters probably would have done.
There's a bit of that, but there is also subversion of the idea given that Frodo ultimately makes Sam his heir.
True, I'd forgotten that part. So the master/man relationship is what ultimately allows Sam and his descendants to rise in society, isn't it? (I am not nearly as hardcore a Tolkien fan as many people on this thread, and keep forgetting bits of lore!)
True, I'd forgotten that part. So the master/man relationship is what ultimately allows Sam and his descendants to rise in society, isn't it? (I am not nearly as hardcore a Tolkien fan as many people on this thread, and keep forgetting bits of lore!)
Sam was also a hero in the Shire. He might not have led the scouring like Merry or Pippin, but, he healed the land with the gift that Galadriel had given him. Frodo on the other hand was very much in the background in the scouring from the point of view of just about anyone except Merry, Pippin, or Sam.
'
Much is made about hobbits as being minor figures and yet fated to be pivots in history. They aren't elf lords or descended from the lords of Numenor. However Sam is a minor figure even among hobbits (Frodo, Merry, and Pippin are all well-off landed gentry) yet plays a pivotal roll in getting Frodo to Mount Doom. He is also the only figure (other than Tom Bombadil) who gives up the ring without even pressure (Bilbo had to be convinced by Gandalf).
Lewis' idea of the lure of 'The Inner Ring' comes across in THS. So. too, I think, does the tinge of sadism that A N Wilson detected in Lewis. And his view of the proper role of women.
But we are straying fro Tolkien, Sorry.
I was interested to see that after LOTR, Merry married Estella Bolger and Pippin married Diamond of Long Cleeve. They both had sons, who inherited their fathers' titles of Master of Buckland and Thain. They then got summoned back to Rohan because Eomer expressed a dying wish to see them again, moved on to Gondor afterwards and stayed there for the rest of their lives, being buried there.
I know they're only fictional characters, but in real life the sort of experiences they'd had would have changed them, and they might well have tried to settle into normal life and found it didn't work as hoped for them. The Shire might have seemed a bit tame by conparison afterwards.
I like that Sam sprinkled the gardening dust Galadriel had given him over the Shire, but I sort of wish he'd kept some of it for Mordor, which could really have done with it.
I remember not liking That Hideous Strength either. I've seen it described as Lewis trying to do Charles Williams and it's not really his style.
I love it, myself. ❤️
Me to. My precious full length version, bought in the US many years ago (when only the inferior abridged version was available in the UK ) is falling apart.
Mordor was accursed. It would have corrupted the dust, with disastrous results. I doubt if Sam would wantto go back there anyway.
Yes, although IIRC Aragorn (as King Elessar) gives Sauron's former slaves a good deal of Mordor to have as their own - the area around Lake Nurnen, for example - but one assumes that the desert around Orodruin would indeed remain an accursed desert for many years.
I would have thought all that lifted when Sauron went, as all his power seemed to crumble or evaporate when the Ring was destroyed. Mordor would have been a mess, but not an irredeemable one.
Comments
No doubt you would have been required to complete an elfin safety assesment.
May you be forgiven for that...
At this point I should probably also drop in the legendary birthday party invitation. I suspect many parents of young men felt like this at being able to celebrate their birthday in late 1945.
https://twitter.com/TolkienWonder/status/1547806398938877952
To be fair to Peter Jackson and his designers, Tolkien did, in non-Hobbit, non-LOTR and non-Silmarillion writings describe Elves’ ears as more pointed and leaf-shaped that human ears. The Sindarin words for ear and leaf were described by Tolkien as related. And in a letter to Houghton Mifflin in which he described Hobbits for the benefit of illustrators, Tolkien wrote that their ears are “only slightly pointed and ‘elvish.’”
Eh, Sam will kill him if he tries anything.
(Very Secret Diaries reference)
OMG The Lady Polly! I must reread Tolkien’s best friend’s books again. Thanks for the reminder!
For those who haven't yet read it:
Re the pointy ears of the Elves, I think Jackson overdid them rather...
I don't recall a lisp, but I do remember that his voice in The Prancing Pony at Bree was rather rough and menacing, changing gradually as he and the hobbits got to know each other better. Later in the book, Sam actually mentions how Aragorn's voice has altered...so that was a neat touch on the part of those responsible for the adaptation.
My point was more that elves should really look like minor deities or other immortals.
And I still think they are incredible books, amazing stories. Yes, they are of their time and Tolkiens situation. They are an expression of one mans dreams and ideas.
The films I thought did a moderately good job - given how incredibly challenging they are to film. And how everyone will have their issues with the casting! The biggest problem I had was that the Hobbit was split over 3 films, when 2 as a maximum was needed. And it could have been done in 1.
But he inspired so much - pretty well the entire worldbuilding style of writing. And the whole concept that a world need to be consistent and entire - even if you only write a small part of it.
*Despite the fact that I so often spell his name wrong.
Yes, me too, with *fair* not necessarily meaning *blonde*. Frodo addresses Gildor and the Elves he meets in the Shire as *O Fair Folk!*.
This.
It's always difficult to translate works from one medium into another. This is especially true for translating a book into a film, since books don't have to worry about time constraints (looking at you, Dostoevsky) and the cost of introducing more characters is trivial from a monetary point of view. Films have to cut a lot (sorry Glorfindel, your part will now be played by Arwen) and some things have to be summarized with visuals rather than stated explicitly by characters or narration.
An example of the latter was Jackson's interpretation of the Gondorian military kit. In Tolkien's written works the most technologically advanced armor is mail, which is still pretty advanced stuff to make. Jackson chooses to break with this and puts his Gondorian soldiers in a cinematic version of cap-a-pie plate armor, which conveys with a few quick visuals several facts:
As far as casting goes, I'm going to have to disagree with everyone else here about Hugo Weaving as Elrond. Weaving has a very unusual facial structure, one that can be easily used to convey "not quite human" if given the right context. It seems like a good use of an actor's innate traits.
There must be three!
🤣
Many write and many tell
How Roneld lived in Driveldell
Lived he there, this Roneld chap
In Driveldell, and that's a fact
A fact indeed, for nowhere else
Did Roneld live but Driveldell
There he made his home forsooth
He lived there really, it's the truth!
Here I'll stay, said mighty Ron...*
And so on and so forth.
No wonder the Tibbits so often had recourse to Merrymage Pipeweed and Southfumbling Funherb up at Fag End in Tibbiton.
*Can be sung to the tune of "Let us with a gladsome mind".
The purposes of the Bombadil chapters:
1. He shows that the Ring is not all-powerful. It doesn't make him invisible, and he can still see Frodo when he's wearing it.
2. It gives a little spice of the unknown -- he doesn't fit into Tolkien's finely woven world tapestry in any way.
3. Staying there throws the Nazgûl off the scent for a bit.
4. The stay there hardens Frodo's will. When they are fighting the Willow, Frodo is a bowl of jelly, running up and down the path hollering for he knows not whom. After their stay, when Frodo is lying in the barrow, he doesn't take the easy way out though tempted, but calls upon Bombadil with the rhyme they were taught.
5. Merry needed that particular knife to stab Ol' Baddie.
6. Since the tale of Aragorn and Arwen was moved to an appendix, this and the Maggots constitute our only glimpses of Tolkien's platonic ideal marriage.
Another glimpse of marital domesticity comes right at the end of LOTR, when Sam returns home to Rosie after seeing Frodo off at the Grey Havens...
Like I said, I preferred film-Aragorn.
The book* arrived (courtesy of Quick Post) today - no colour, as I anticipated
@Jane R - good point re Eowyn and Faramir. I wonder how the marriage worked out eventually?
*The song cycle with music by Donald Swann and decorations (lots of Elvish lettering!) by Tolkien himself. @Ariel mentioned that her first edition had lots of colour...
Has anyone else come across the parody "Bored of the Rings"?
Can I say that it became BoRing?
Golly, that's going back a few years. Like Nick T, I didn't much enjoy it. However, I do remember one scenario where the 'Frodo' character is tempted to hand over the ring during a steamy encounter with a sultry elf maiden. Being a good Christian in those days, I hadn't hitherto been exposed to any erotic literature! Which is why I remember it I suppose.
On a tangent, not all of Tolkein's Inkling circle, to whom he read extracts as they were written, appreciated his story. Hugo Dyson was heard to mutter, on more than one occasion, "Oh fuck, not another elf!"
I read a small portion of Bored of the Rings, and quickly threw it aside. Utter tripe - and you will notice that, unlike LOTR, BOTR has not stood the test of time...
A hauntingly beautiful song and melody - I might insist on it at my Funeral (instead of 12th Street Rag...) - here it is, introduced by Swann himself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp6nmOjqXAo
(I met Donald Swann once, some 40 years ago now, at a special church service in London. On that occasion, he played and sang another of his compositions, though I've never been able to find a recording of it...).
"This had better be food, because I'm going to eat it."
I have used that line now and again over the years.
Turning back to Tolkien's works as well as Lewis's, I posted a while ago that at the end of LOTR Frodo seems to have ascended to a higher spiritual plane. It occurs to me that one might draw a parallel between the wounded Frodo, needing to be taken to Numenor for healing, and the wounded Ransom ('Mr Fisher-King') in 'That Hideous Strength' needing to be taken to a kind of Avallon in Perelandra for healing. Both, of course have their roots in the Grail myth, but it is no wonder that Tolkien thought Lewis was trespassing on his territory, and resented it. Of the two characters, I find Frodo more convincing, but that does not stop me enjoying Lewis' other writings. THS I dislike.
We have the CDs of Elvenquest. Splendid stuff. The last episode of series two is our favourite. 'Snoogle Time' indeed!
It might be even simpler than that given that the character of Ransom (a Cambridge philologist who served in the First World War) seems to be at least partly based on Tolkien himself (an Oxford philologist who served in the First World War). Or maybe the similarities are pure coincidence.
The other best example I can think of in fiction is Lord Peter Wimsey and his "man" Bunter, who had indeed been Lord Peter's batman in the war. Like Frodo and Sam, their relationship is very close, they trust each other absolutely, have saved each other's lives ... but it is not a relationship of equals, rather one where the class barrier is always firmly in place. Lord Peter would die for Bunter without a second thought but would never call him (or expect to be called) by his first name, nor consider having Bunter as best man at his wedding.
I think it's something of a bygone idea now (perhaps rightly so) -- that relationships, even friendships, can be deep and intense but still remain within a rigid social class structure where everyone knows his or her place. It made sense to the writers who wrote about it because they had lived in a world where that social hierarchy was normal, but it feels odd and jarring to modern readers, and we question the power dynamics in ways that neither the original writers nor their characters probably would have done.
There's a bit of that, but there is also subversion of the idea given that Frodo ultimately makes Sam his heir.
Sam was also a hero in the Shire. He might not have led the scouring like Merry or Pippin, but, he healed the land with the gift that Galadriel had given him. Frodo on the other hand was very much in the background in the scouring from the point of view of just about anyone except Merry, Pippin, or Sam.
'
Much is made about hobbits as being minor figures and yet fated to be pivots in history. They aren't elf lords or descended from the lords of Numenor. However Sam is a minor figure even among hobbits (Frodo, Merry, and Pippin are all well-off landed gentry) yet plays a pivotal roll in getting Frodo to Mount Doom. He is also the only figure (other than Tom Bombadil) who gives up the ring without even pressure (Bilbo had to be convinced by Gandalf).
I love it, myself. ❤️
But we are straying fro Tolkien, Sorry.
I know they're only fictional characters, but in real life the sort of experiences they'd had would have changed them, and they might well have tried to settle into normal life and found it didn't work as hoped for them. The Shire might have seemed a bit tame by conparison afterwards.
I like that Sam sprinkled the gardening dust Galadriel had given him over the Shire, but I sort of wish he'd kept some of it for Mordor, which could really have done with it.
Me to. My precious full length version, bought in the US many years ago (when only the inferior abridged version was available in the UK ) is falling apart.
Yes, although IIRC Aragorn (as King Elessar) gives Sauron's former slaves a good deal of Mordor to have as their own - the area around Lake Nurnen, for example - but one assumes that the desert around Orodruin would indeed remain an accursed desert for many years.