The Student Room Group

The Lord of the Rings: favourite books

My favorite book is The Lord of the Rings which has been made into a film, although there is a shed load of artistic license in the film. Saruman for example dies in the Shire after a failed attempt to rule over the Hobbits. He is called Sharkey or Sharku by his orc slaves. Which literally means Old Man. At Helms Deep men come to the aid of the defenders not elves I Could whang on but it would probably bore you senseless. The black speech is curupted form of Elvish that much is true and Tolkien wrote a 5 full languages and 5 more partial one.s. Like Khuduk Hobitish.and Khuzdul Dwarvish. Sindarin, and Quenya are all complete languages. One is the language of the grey Elves,and the other The High elves or Noldorine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLhypaRifcE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7_U6y8kJaY

I do know these are clips from the Hobbit by the way in case someone points that out, but that book is much closer to Tolkiens writing than LOTR. Although Legolas never appears in the book OMG I am boring myself now!

What's your favourite book and why.
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 1
I did like the very first one (Fellowship of The Ring) because it's when the group meet and we get to know about everyone, the start of the journey, etc...
The beginning of the film scared me... :cry2:
I was really young :sadnod:
Reply 3
Original post by Martian872
My favorite book is The Lord of the Rings which has been made into a film, although there is a shed load of artistic license in the film. Saruman for example dies in the Shire after a failed attempt to rule over the Hobbits. He is called Sharkey or Sharku by his orc slaves. Which literally means Old Man. At Helms Deep men come to the aid of the defenders not elves I Could whang on but it would probably bore you senseless. The black speech is curupted form of Elvish that much is true and Tolkien wrote a 5 full languages and 5 more partial one.s. Like Khuduk Hobitish.and Khuzdul Dwarvish. Sindarin, and Quenya are all complete languages. One is the language of the grey Elves,and the other The High elves or Noldorine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLhypaRifcE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7_U6y8kJaY

I do know these are clips from the Hobbit by the way in case someone points that out, but that book is much closer to Tolkiens writing than LOTR. Although Legolas never appears in the book OMG I am boring myself now!

What's your favourite book and why.


Havent read LOTR but i read the Hobbit when i was quite young and it bored me especially the beginning but i will try and read it again.
Reply 4
Yeah tbh the start of the lord of the rings is pretty boring also and Tolkien tends to have a knack of over explaining things at times. But I would suggest you keep at it, in the end you will thank me. I guarantee it.

You never said what your favorite book was btw? :smile:
Reply 5
I know what you mean it would definitely scary to anyone who was in the PG bracket, whether it was the book or the film

I read the Hobbit when I was seven but that's a children's book, I read LOTR when I was bout 9, and it was scary but that is probably why I liked it. The film who knows?
I enjoyed all the books, although I can understand why some people say that it drags in parts. There are a lot of parts of the book which are basically various characters travelling a long distance. They walk over hills and lots of description of landscape, then they eat supper and sleep. Then they get up and walk again with more description of landscape and then sleep. I guess Tolkien wants to give a feeling of the length of the journey which you wouldn't get if he just said "and then they walked for six days until they got to..." but it does drag.

Still, it was ok, I never got so bored that I lost interest in the plot, as enough happened to keep it going.

I think the first book is the best, especially the first half. There is a sense of looming danger and foreboding with the whole learning about the ring and Sauron, the sense that the ring bearer is now hunted, the entry of the ringwraiths, that is absolutely captivating. The rest of the books are good but maybe after the breaking of the fellowship it feels a bit different. There are a lot of other sub-plots that feel more standard in nature, this group fights that group and so on, and it takes away some of the foreboding of it.

Also I felt like the ending seemed to resolve itself a bit too easily to be honest. For much of the third book, the main characters seem to have accepted the hopelessness of their situation and are just fighting gamely till the end because there's nothing else to do. But then whenever there is a major battle it seems that the enemies aren't as formidable as they are built up to be. The orcs turn out to be bumbling fools and Sauron isn't as omnipotent as he's made out to be. Even the wraiths turn out to be a bit of a let down, including the Witch King. To some extent the biggest threats come from outside dangers like Barrow Wights, the Balrog and Shelob.

It feels a bit like Tolkein built up this formidable enemy and then realised he had to bring the book to an end so gave the good guys a load of rapid victories to bring the war to an end, and then just to show it wasn't all too easy he throws in the last battle at the Shire.
Reply 7
Ever wondered why Numenor the sunken Isle is called Atalanté by the Elves. :wink:

The ending if LOTR is ******** a bit like that meme where Frodo is carried by an eagle and simply tosses the ring into Mt Doom. There are several reasons why this would not work..

1) The Nazgul can fly
2) The Witchking of Angmar a military genius who is responsible for the downfall of Angmar, hence the name. and has over the years grown almost as powerful as Sauron. He is hence obviously not retarded
3) aside from Saruman, Gandalf is just about the only Istari (Maia who are also powerful wizards and serve the various Valar and ultimately Illuvatar aka Eru the one God) that remotely stand a chance against Sauron and he loses against him in The hoibbit. And that is not entirely artistic license either, because Sauron quickly moves to Barad Dur in Mordor after destroying all men in the area of Mirkwood and polluting Mirkwood AKA The Greenwood beyond recognition.
4) Sauron is an extremely powerful Necromancer and coulsd easily stop Frodo if he came to his attention. Hence when any powerful magic is used Sauron can see it, which is why magic is seldom used in either of the books.
5) Saurons entire will is bent on finding the ring, it is the one thing that can secure his absolute dominance over mankind
6) Sauron thinks humanity having free will is abhorrent hence his will to dominate all life and his betrayal of his original master Aulé "God" of the Dwarves AKA The Builder. Incidentally all Elves have no free will, which is why they can chose to end it or live forever, assuming they are not killed or die. Half Elves being half mortal also have this choice, Elrond choses immortality his daughter Arwen choses mortality and hence is not bound by fate like other Elves.
7) Morgoth the deciever Sauron's master aka Melkior to the Elves LOTRs devil is not a moron either

Even so this is pretty funny:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H11kCBhldbk

Incidentally The Balrog AKA as Durin's Bane is a Maia which is why Gandalf says this foe is beyond any of you, And also is why he fights it alone and dies. Gandalf carries the Elven ring of fire too given to him by Elrond,. It is invisible, so he cannot be harmed by fire, it also has the power to inspire all those around him.

Gandalf though is a servant of the secret flame (the power of creation), so he cannot technically die until his job on ME is done, although Eru has the ultimate say in live or die, being the creator and lord of all. Hence when Saruman betrays his masters he is cast into the void along with Morgoth and Sauron.

"I am the servant of the secret fire wielder of the flame of Anor, YOU SHALL Not PASS! Go back to the shadows flame of Urun (flame of the pits of Utumno where all balrogs served Morgoth in the 1st age.)

Incidentally both Morgoth and Sauron are not dead in the void, there are prophecies that say they will return just as The Devil and his son do in The Bible. Shameless plagiarism I know but then the story of Smaug is shameless plagiarism of Beowulf. So meh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To_RJ_mPNqM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXlVtk92HPo

I'll STFU now probably bored shitless. :tongue:
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by MagicNMedicine
I enjoyed all the books, although I can understand why some people say that it drags in parts. There are a lot of parts of the book which are basically various characters travelling a long distance. They walk over hills and lots of description of landscape, then they eat supper and sleep. Then they get up and walk again with more description of landscape and then sleep. I guess Tolkien wants to give a feeling of the length of the journey which you wouldn't get if he just said "and then they walked for six days until they got to..." but it does drag.



But as someone who likes walking over hills I liked that aspect :tongue:
Original post by ChaoticButterfly
But as someone who likes walking over hills I liked that aspect :tongue:


I like walking over hills but when I'm sat on a train reading a book I like something a bit more exciting than walking over hills.

There were also lots of journeys in the Hobbit but the pace seemed to be a bit quicker there, probably because that was written as a children's story.
Reply 10
I am a complete Tolkein nerd I even know how the Witchking camed to be named so. In the second age he fought a war against Arnor sundering it into three states Arthedain, Cardolan and Rhuadar.

This is why The King of Arnor is also The King of Gondor, because they were one land. It's also why there is a Steward of Gondor. the line of kings was supposed to have died with Aragorn but his family survived. In fact he is the third king named Aragorn. Being of Numenor as well he is blessed with a longer life than most humans because he has Elvish blood hence in the film he 90 years old but only looks about 40.

This is also why a prophecy arose that no man could kill him


" I am no man!"

Self fulfilling prophecy much. lol

Of course as long as the ring exists they are effectively immortal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLhypaRifcE

"You should have stayed dead"

lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQnx8xWS3IU

"you will give me what is mine Celebrimbor!"

:tongue:
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by MagicNMedicine
I like walking over hills but when I'm sat on a train reading a book I like something a bit more exciting than walking over hills.

There were also lots of journeys in the Hobbit but the pace seemed to be a bit quicker there, probably because that was written as a children's story.


The worse bits for me were like the the Council of Elrond. :yawn:

I agree the first book is the best. I like the party on an adventure set up and agree with the ring wraiths and sinister nature of it all. Also Gandalf the Grey is best Gandalf and the Mines of Moria are the best place in the books.
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 12
Original post by ChaoticButterfly
The worse bits for me were like the the Council of Elrond. :yawn:

I agree the first book is the best. I like the party on an adventure set up and agree with the ring wraiths and sinister nature of it all. Also Gandalf the Grey is best Gandalf and the Mines of Moria are the best place in the books.


Do you know why the mines of Moria were abandoned it's actually fairly obvious, the Orcs became a nuisance to such an extent even the Dwarves thought it useless to stay, despite the vast wealth contained in the mountain. In fact The Balrog is called Durin's bain because he is the slayer of the Dwarven King Durin.

"We cannot get out, we cannot get out! There are drums in the deep,,, they are coming" :redface:

"Balin."

Here lies Balin son of Húndin Lord of Moria. :tongue:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HPeNPOOamw


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyevhryWKHk

"orcs!"

Legoland the Elf. :tongue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkNWF_75dWM

"Orcs from Aukland!"

:wink:

"What's this, what's this? That's typical of Elf work!"

I an Mackellen AKA Gandalf.
(edited 7 years ago)
Read all of Tolkien's works when I was younger: LOTR, The Unfinished Tales, The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and even the Tales of the Perilous Realm just for the poem about Tom Bombadil. And literally only played LOTRO so I could see Enedwaith and Rhovanion. Literally drew family trees of the kings of Numenorean heritage starting with Elros Tar-Minyatur on the back of my exercise books in 5 years ago. Pretty pathetic, but if I hadn't read LOTR I wouldn't have discovered cartography and GoT so....
the very hungry caterpillar because i've not had lunch and i can relate
Reply 15
Original post by rustyldner
Read all of Tolkien's works when I was younger: LOTR, The Unfinished Tales, The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and even the Tales of the Perilous Realm just for the poem about Tom Bombadil. And literally only played LOTRO so I could see Enedwaith and Rhovanion. Literally drew family trees of the kings of Numenorean heritage starting with Elros Tar-Minyatur on the back of my exercise books in 5 years ago. Pretty pathetic, but if I hadn't read LOTR I wouldn't have discovered cartography and GoT so....


Of course Tolkien was an expert map drawer as well as being an emeritus professor of ancient languages at Oxford. Ie he had tenure and was basically unsackable. :tongue:

In fact Oxford is actually the basis for The Shire because outside of the city confines it is all hills and farmland. Write what you know I suppose...


Original post by Zargabaath
the very hungry caterpillar because i've not had lunch and i can relate


LMAO. :biggrin:

I know how you feel I have not had any breakfast and all I want to do because of my blood sugar levels is kill all humans!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien

This is an interesting read. I know it is wiki but it is actually pretty accurate. :biggrin:
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 16
Original post by rustyldner
Read all of Tolkien's works when I was younger: LOTR, The Unfinished Tales, The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and even the Tales of the Perilous Realm just for the poem about Tom Bombadil. And literally only played LOTRO so I could see Enedwaith and Rhovanion. Literally drew family trees of the kings of Numenorean heritage starting with Elros Tar-Minyatur on the back of my exercise books in 5 years ago. Pretty pathetic, but if I hadn't read LOTR I wouldn't have discovered cartography and GoT so....


That is very nerdy, well done, All you have to do to earn the promotion to ultra nerd from uber nerd is learn Sindarin or Quenya fluently then you will be an ultra nerd.

I would be careful though it's not like Klingon, some people actually can speak it without dislocating their jaw first...

:wink:



"There is only one Lord of the Rings and he does not share power!"

Gandalf the frighteningly patronising and trite istari.

No really mate? Is that why he keeps leering at anyone who finds any sort of magic? Or is he just a gigantic perv? Or like, maybe he's both? :tongue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HPeNPOOamw

:tongue:

"Fool of a Took! Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity!"

Gandalf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXlVtk92HPo

"Sauron speaks a corrupt form of Quenya or high Elvish known as Black Speech, few understand it outside of Men, and fewer still among the supposedly "good" races". Although in general he is not known for long winded diatribes. :wink:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To_RJ_mPNqM

Incidentally: nerd fact :The Mouth of Sauron (his diplomatic envoy) is actually a Black Numenorian of indeterminate age, the only reason he has bad dentistry is because even the very words of Sauron corrupt the speakers mouth, causing disfigurement at best and insanity at worst, leaving them like a sort of living puppet.

"Is there any of this rout with authority to treat with me? Who would have thought one so small could endure so much pain, and he did Gandalf!"

The Mouth of Sauron.

Incidentally the entire scene is artisitc license as Sauron's envoy has diplomatic immunity so he just returns to Mordor, there's none of the ******** cutting his head off, because that would be against the rules of war. And men at least still follow them. In fact that's what happens in the book he rides into the city of Gondor, lays out Saurons terms and then leaves. To be perfectly honest, no one would dare harm an appointed envoy of your friend let alone your foe; it is expressly forbidden under the articles of war (yes men do honour this, believe it or not), which makes the whole thing ludicrous. It's not so much artisitic license as some weird ******** imagined by Peter Jackson, that makes absolutely no sense at all. At least it only appears in the extended edition I suppose, but it is nonsensical.


Jesus just buy a toothbrush mate! :wink:
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 17
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLhypaRifcE

When Saruman is still on the side of good, before he conspires to take The ring of power for himself and become The Lord of Middle Earth. :smile:

Each one of the nine is actually immortal so battling them is pointless, but it does at least give Gandalf the chance to flee Barad Dur.

Nine rings for mortal men doomed to die! :wink:

I know this is subtitled but what Sauron says is:

"It has begun, The East has fallen! So shall the kingdom of Angmar rise! The time of the Elves is over, The age of the Orc has come! You cannot fight the shadow, even now you fade!"

Sauron the Black.

"You have no power here servant of Morgoth! You are nameless, faithless, faceless, formless and accursed! Go back to the void from whence you came!"

Galadriel.

There's a reason the leader of the Nazgul is called The Witchking of Angmar, it's because he is a military strategist without parallel. :redface:

Sauron's hope rests on his military kudos. I suppose if you have lived for thousands of years, you pick up a trick or two. What this doesn't explain however is the dummard tactics that The Witchking uses on Gondor. I mean it's like he wants to lose: I know Instead of using more advantagous tactics such as siege engines or mining the walls, I'll just mindlessly throw orcs at the gate in the hope it might break and I'll just rinse and repeat because I am a bit stoopid. Sure worked last year mother****er... :wink:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuEEiLOTfs4

"Whatever comes through that gate, leave it to me: yeah alright Greybeard, I was planning on running like a girl anyway, but it's nice to know it is actually under orders.

I'll like just go have a crafty fag, while you deal with the trolls etc eh, cya mate. Besides those doors are just made out of polystyrene so if it's all the same to you, Ima **** off now gl" :tongue:

Corporal Whatsitsface. :wink:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLhypaRifcE

"Three for the Elven Kings under the sky
Seven for the Dwarf-Lords in their halls of stone
Nine for mortal Men doomed to die!
One for the dark lord on his dark throne
in the land of Mordor where the shadows lie.
one ring to rule them all one ring to find them one ring to
bring them all and in the darkness bind them,
in the land of Mordor where the shadows lie!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLhypaRifcE

:wink:
(edited 7 years ago)

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