#lotr newsletter

[sindar-princeling]

aragorn's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week:

the fellowship breaks on his watch

forced to choose who to follow

runs over 200 kilometers in under four days

thinks merry and pippin are dead

meets the reborn gandalf (a rare win), immediately has to do a 180 and ride to edoras

immediately after that needs to ride to battle

takes part in a battle which takes place over the whole night

gets maybe 20 hours of sleep over the course of the whole week

and, I cannot stress this enough, this is all still very far from over

#lotr newsletter #aragorn #it's mine my own my precious

[ellieofthewoods]

it is a beautiful day and you are a horrible goose screaming at a ringwraith

#ellie talks #lotr newsletter #tolkien

[the-timelord-a-tardis-stole]

In 2021, I listened to So You Want To Read Tolkien. It's a very good podcast where these three women read the Silmarillion, The Hobbit and Lotr trilogy one chapter at a time and chat about each one.

But at one point they pointed out how Boromir has all these funny little Gondor sayings. And I think this entry has been the first time I've noticed it. Like, Boromir has

Well,' said Boromir, 'when heads are at a loss bodies must serve, as we say in my country.

and

'The wolf that one hears is worse than the orc that one fears.'

But then Aragorn, well travelled man that he is, comes in with

'But where the warg howls, there also the orc prowls.'

And I just love it. It's a little language worldbuilding type thing that makes the characters feel so tangible, which Tolkien is very good at. Like of course Boromir has some weird sayings bc he's from Gondor and he's proud of that

#i interrupt your 'legolas is a little shit' posts with some Boromir #lotr #lotr newsletter #my stuff

[thethirdromana]

I love the point where Tolkien stops pretending he's writing a mid-20th century fantasy novel and just fully writes in Old English half-lines:

Still she did not blench: maiden of the Rohirrim child of kings, slender but as a steel-blade, fair yet terrible. A swift stroke she dealt, skilled and deadly. The outstretched neck she clove asunder, and the hewn head fell like a stone. Backward she sprang as the huge shape crashed to ruin, vast wings outspread, crumpled on the earth; and with its fall the shadow passed away. A light fell about her, and her hair shone in the sunrise.

There are 3-4 paragraphs like this. It's great.

#lotr newsletter #old english #tolkien you big nerd

[emyn-arnens]

Tolkien’s writing style gets criticized so much because of his heavy use of descriptions and imagery, especially of nature, but I just adore how he conveys images. Each time I reread his works, I find myself amazed once again at how beautiful, lush, and evocative his writing is. These are some of my favorites I’ve noticed as I’ve been catching up on the newsletter:

“Away eastward the sun was rising red out of the mists that lay thick on the world. Touched with gold and red the autumn trees seemed to be sailing rootless in a shadowy sea.”

“The West wind was sighing in the branches. Leaves were whispering. Soon the road began to fall gently but steadily into the dusk. A star came out above the trees in the darkening East before them.”

“After a time, as the stars grew thicker and brighter, the feeling of disquiet left them, and they no longer listened for the sound of hoofs.”

“It showed grey and pale, a line of fading light through the wood. Above it the stars were thick in the dim sky, but there was no moon.”

“But at that moment there came a sound like mingled song and laughter. Clear voices rose and fell in the starlit air.”

“They passed slowly, and the hobbits could see the starlight glimmering on their hair and in their eyes. They bore no lights, yet as they walked a shimmer, like the light of the moon above the rim of the hills before it rises, seemed to fall about their feet.”

#lotr newsletter #lotr daily #lotr #fotr #i would catch up faster if i didn't have to reread every other sentence and savor how pretty the writing is lol #text #.txt

[caenith]

It's always been so funny to me that the Council of Elrond is literally just a meeting of people who have showed up in Rivendell with different problems and just happened to do so at more or less the same time. They didn't gather there to discuss the Ring, the future of the Middle Earth or the rise of Sauron.

Nope. Each of them have faced An Issue and decided to ask Elrond for help.

Poor Elrond. He managed to avoid the kingship, but not becoming a parent figure for almost everyone in the Middle Earth.

#tolkien #lotr #lotr newsletter #'shit guys we fucked up Gollum has escaped - what now?' #'... let's ask Elrond' #'... DAAAAAAD? We have a problem...' #I understand the Lack of Screentime but it's so sad that the movies didn't include that #Elrond my love my sweet boy my perfect father figure to absolutely anyone <3 #Ofc the issues that they're all facing are related to the Main Problem - Sauron and his search for the Ring - but still

[roselightfairy]

Real Legolas stans can give you a baffled half-hour outburst about how we don't understand why the HECK Legolas was given all these increasingly ridiculous and absurd stunts in the movies while his single, beautifully-written, traditionally heroic (and much more plausible) moment was omitted entirely.

Legolas laid down his paddle and took up the bow that he had brought from Lórien. Then he sprang ashore and climbed a few paces up the bank. Stringing the bow and fitting an arrow he turned, peering back over the River into the darkness. Across the water there were shrill cries, but nothing could be seen.   Frodo looked up at the Elf standing tall above him, as he gazed into the night, seeking a mark to shoot at. His head was dark, crowned with sharp white stars that glittered in the black pools of the sky behind. But now rising and sailing up from the South the great clouds advanced, sending out dark outriders into the starry fields. A sudden dread fell on the Company.   'Elbereth Gilthoniel!' sighed Legolas as he looked up. Even as he did so, a dark shape, like a cloud and yet not a cloud, for it moved far more swiftly, came out of the blackness in the South, and sped towards the Company, blotting out all light as it approached. Soon it appeared as a great winged creature, blacker than the pits in the night. Fierce voices rose up to greet it from across the water. Frodo felt a sudden chill running through him and clutching at his heart; there was a deadly cold, like the memory of an old wound, in his shoulder. He crouched down, as if to hide.   Suddenly the great bow of Lórien sang. Shrill went the arrow from the elven-string. Frodo looked up. Almost above him the winged shape swerved. There was a harsh croaking scream, as it fell out of the air, vanishing down into the gloom of the eastern shore. The sky was clean again. There was a tumult of many voices far away, cursing and wailing in the darkness, and then silence. Neither shaft nor cry came again from the east that night.

Also, when I was first reading these books, I was going really really fast and I missed the couple of mentions of "Legolas and Gimli are friends now, isn't that weird?" and so I do believe THIS was the scene that bowled me over and strapped the goggles to my face:

'Praised be the bow of Galadriel, and the hand and eye of Legolas!' said Gimli, as he munched a wafer of lembas. 'That was a mighty shot in the dark, my friend!'   'But who can say what it hit?' said Legolas.

#lotr newsletter #lotr reread #legolas x gimli #legolas #also i say 'real' only as a joke in that first part i'm not actually trying to gatekeep i'm sorry

[draquus]

I saw someone a while back complaining that Aragorn stops being interesting in RotK because once he becomes king he's too lofty and remote and loses the humanity of his character, and I just...

Aragorn lets Beregond think he's being banished for a solid five seconds before telling him he's being sent to be Faramir's captain of the guard. He refuses to tell his friends that he's getting married because if they can't figure it out then they're just going to have to wait and see. Yes, he is a great and lofty king, but he is also still clearly a man whose best friends include Gandalf and Bilbo, and who consistently trolls people as a love language.

#Aragorn #tolkien #lotr newsletter

[sidhewrites]

various small belongings of his master's that Frodo had forgotten and Sam had stowed to bring them out in triumph when they were called for.

Does Sam know I love him

#text post #lotr newsletter #lord of the rings newsletter #100 #200 #300 #400 #500 #1k

[sindar-princeling]

mixed feelings about Tolkien making people of the east and south come to Aragorn for pardon like he's actual jesus christ on judgement day, but I really appreciate that Tolkien's idea of a good king is 1) realising that the true enemy is defeated, and not making the war last longer that it needs to last 2) sending free the people who used to be on the other side of the war, but now come to you in peace 3) freeing slaves 4) giving people their land (the woses's land is their own and no-one is allowed to enter without their permission, same for the shire, rohan does not become a part of the Reunited Kingdom, slaves of mordor get land of their own)

#lotr newsletter #aragorn #it's mine my own my precious

[ellieofthewoods]

gimli taking frodo to see the mirrormere makes me want to cry

“this is one of the most important places in my people’s culture and i want to share it with you” STOP IM ALREADY EMOTIONAL

and aragorn! recognizing how important it is to gimli! and telling him to go look even though they’re under pursuit and arguably don’t have the time!

#ellie talks #lotr newsletter #lotr #tolkien #gimli #frodo baggins #aragorn

[fluentisonus]

interesting to note here that when aragorn does this:

it's not necessarily just a random gesture of affection but may be implied to be a specific gesture of farewell used in gondor, at least based on what we're told when faramir says goodbye to sam and frodo later:

("after the manner of his people")

which would imply that aragorn is actually deliberately saying goodbye to boromir as he dies in a specific way that would be familiar & culturally appropriate to him

#sorry I haven't been keeping up to date w the newsletter but I really wanted to point this one oit since I never see people mention it!! #thoughts #tolkien #lotr newsletter #lotr spoilers #<- for the faramir bits ig #tbf I don't think tolkien really thought this one through. it's def not consistently done w kisding brows in his works agjfshjdsfhk #but it's a neat detail all the same

[wanderer-clarisse]

some lotr doodles! here's Boromir, Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn. I've been rereading the trilogy and it's fun getting to visualize the characters on paper!

#reading lotr but I still haven't moved on from the silmarillion if I'm being honest #also i am once again leaving a note here for the peeps who requested drawings! #I'm working on them! sorry it's taking a while. but i'll get there eventual #ly #clarisse doodles #lotr #tolkien #sketches #character design #lord of the rings #boromir #legolas #gimli #aragorn #he looks like he hasn't showered in days and that's always how i've imagined him to look #meanwhile i am trying to make legolas as Friendly as possible because that's the impression I get from him #movie!legolas is cool and all but book!legolas is so. funny. in his weird way #lotr newsletter #lotr doodles

[buggreawlthys]

So desolate were those places and so deep the horror that lay on them that some of the host were unmanned, and they could neither walk nor ride further north. Aragorn looked at them, and there was pity in his eyes rather than wrath...

- thinking about how in his wwi service tolkien probably heard of or personally witnessed shellshocked soldiers being court martialled & even executed for desertion when their trauma disabled them. in his stories he gives them the mercy they were denied in life.

#lotr newsletter #aragorn #tolkien #lotr meta

[cyraniadebergerac]

(Paraphrased from Elrond) "I would rather that the youngest remain here for my heart forbids him going."

Clearly, this would have been foreshadowing of Pippin's death in the final battle since Tolkien originally planned for him to die and Elrond is meant to have some ability to see into the future.

Thankfully, Tolkien changed his mind on that. But the line still is so layered that it works despite that aspect. Elrond has seen too much of war and evil and wants to spare the one who's barely even an adult from it if he can. His fatherly instincts simply forbid sending Pippin without fighting to keep him safe. He's already grown fond of all of them but especially Pippin and wants to keep one loved one alive. If I recall rightly, Elrond was the older twin, so Pippin may remind him of his younger brother and he wants to keep this one safe.

So many ways this could be taken.

#lotr newsletter #elrond #pippin

[cornerful]

Treebeard and his friends bashing up Isengard into smaller and smaller bits and unmaking all of Saruman's ordered little world...call that ENTropy

#😎 #lotrn305 #lotr newsletter