middle-earth-mythopoeia

[middle-earth-mythopoeia]

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

#Boromir #Merry #Pippin

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Today I listened to Nightfall in Middle-earth for the first time in a long time, and it was AMAZING. HOW DID THEY DO IT? WHAT WOULD I DO WITHOUT THIS ALBUM?

#Blind Guardian #*screams*

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Miranda Otto as Éowyn of Rohan THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS 2002 | dir. Peter Jackson

#Eowyn #Rohirrim #Rohan

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#Eowyn #Faramir

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The fearsome stronghold of Barad-dûr! No, wait…

That’s just my cat’s little triangle ears.

The Dark Lord herself <3

#lotr #tolkien

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Someone asked me to expand a little on a topic that was buried down in a big chain of reblogs, so I'm doing that here--it's about the use of the archaic "thee", "thou", "thy", etc. in LOTR and what it tells you about characters’ feelings for one another. (I am NOT an expert on this, so it's just what I've picked up over time!)

Like many (most?) modern English speakers, I grew up thinking of those old forms of 2nd person address as being extra formal. I think that's because my main exposure to them was in the Bible ("thou shall not...") and why wouldn't god, speaking as the ultimate authority, be using the most formal, official voice? But it turns out that for a huge chunk of the history of the English language, "thee," "thou," and "thy" were actually the informal/casual alternatives to the formal "you", “your”, “yours”. Like tú v. usted in Spanish!

With that in mind, Tolkien was very intentional about when he peppered in a "thee" or a "thou" in his dialogue. It only happens a handful of times. Most of those are when a jerk is trying to make clear that someone else is beneath them by treating them informally. Denethor "thou"s Gandalf when he’s pissed at him. The Witch King calls Éowyn "thee" to cut her down verbally before he cuts her down physically. And the Mouth of Sauron calls Aragorn and Gandalf "thou" as a way to show them that he has the upper hand. (Big oops by all 3 of these guys!)

The other times are the opposite--it's when someone starts to use the informal/casual form as a way to show their feeling of affection for someone else. Galadriel goes with the formal "you" all through the company's days in Lórien, but by the time they leave she has really taken them to heart. So when she sends them a message via Gandalf early in the Two Towers, she uses "thee" and "thou" in her words to Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli because now they're valued friends and allies. And--this is the big one, folks, that was already alluded to in my previous post--Éowyn starts aggressively "thou"ing Aragorn when she is begging him to take her along as he prepares to ride out of Dunharrow. She is very intentionally trying to communicate her feelings to him in her choice of pronoun--an "I wouldn't be calling you "thee" if I didn't love you" kind of thing. And he is just as intentionally using "you" in every single one of his responses in order to gently establish a boundary with her without having to state outright that he doesn't reciprocate her feelings. It's not until much later when her engagement to Faramir is announced that Aragorn finally busts out "I have wished thee joy ever since I first saw thee". Because now it is safe to acknowledge a relationship of closeness and familiarity with her without the risk that it will be misinterpreted. He absolutely wants to have that close, familiar relationship, but he saved it for when he knew she could accept it on his terms without getting hurt.

So, you know, like all things language-based...Tolkien made very purposeful decisions in his word choices down to a bonkers level of detail. I didn’t know about this pronoun thing until I was a whole ass adult, but that’s the joy of dealing with Tolkien. I still discover new things like this almost every time I re-read.

#I love this #thee and thou #linguistics

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you QUOTE Silmarillion? you quote Silmarillion like the epic? oh! oh! chills for reader! chills for reader for One Thousand Years!

#one of my best posts

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Bonus internet points will be awarded to anyone who actually tries this exercise before voting.

Assume you need to get the spelling at least somewhat close, and if a character has multiple names, only one counts. Also, if a character doesn't have a canonical name, I'm sorry, but "that guy's wife" doesn't count.

For reference, if you can name the 9 members of the Fellowship, the eponymous Hobbit and his 13 dwarf buddies, 3 prominent women, and the guy who runs the Rivendell B&B, that's 27 characters right there. And you probably also know the name of a dragon.

For further reference, Tolkien Gateway has 637 (!!) pages dedicated to Third Age characters. (Don't click that link until you've voted, of course)

Edit: Your humble pollmaker gave this a try, and got as far as 73 before deciding she was too tired to keep trying to remember dwarf and Silm names. If you also want to share (and don't mind people being incredulous at your having forgot ____), pastebin allows you to paste text and share it for free. :)

#polls #I wrote down 210 names before I stopped >:)

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ROTK ANNIVERSARY WEEK | Hope [6/7] ➼ "Hope is kindled."

#the beacons are lit

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#Tolkien quotes

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WHEN will people stop putting ROP gifs in the lotredit tag ???

#yet again #and it’s AI shit this time

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y'know. i have yet to see a Polynesian- or other Pacific Islander-influenced interpretation of the falmari and I feel like there's a lot of untapped potential there

#yessssss #Pacific Islands

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Rohan rides for Gondor 4k

#Rohirrim #not the biggest fan of 4k but these gifs are beautiful

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Get attacked!! ✨🌈SEND THIS TO OTHER BLOGGERS YOU THINK ARE WONDERFUL. KEEP THE GAME GOING🌈✨

Awwww thank you! I think you’re wonderful too! :)

#asks

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The vast majority of Eomer’s “Men”:

My headcanon is that due to the rural nature of Rohan and its overall decline, a huge number of the Rohirrim were actually women in disguise, not just Eowyn. And that it was an open secret that only the royal line didn’t know about that local lords fielded women riders to bolster their dwindling numbers

#Eowyn #Rohirrim #YES

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Then suddenly he beheld his sister Éowyn as she lay, and he knew her. He stood a moment as a man who is pierced in the midst of a cry by an arrow through the heart; and then his face went deathly white, and a cold fury rose in him, so that all speech failed him for a while. A fey mood took him.

#Eomer #Eowyn

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THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING 2001 | dir. Peter Jackson

#Aragorn #Boromir