#reading lotr (again)

[legoflas]

aragorn, at the council of Elrond: it's such a relief that the creature Gollum is securely locked up in Mirkwood

legolas:

#lotr #the lord of the rings #aragorn #legolas #guess who's reading fellowship again #i just find this part so fucking funny #gollum #tolkien #also my phone will never stop correcting legolas to Legoland

[retellingthehobbit]

Retelling The Hobbit Chapter 15: Unattached First chapter / Previous / Next Read full comic on: Webtoon/A03 

Other blogs : Instagram/Tumblr Sideblog

Thank you for reading! The next chapter of this comic adaptation of The Hobbit will be titled (drumroll)....The Song of the Lonely Mountain!

Check under the cut for notes on the callbacks to previous chapters of this comic, and to Tolkien stories like the Unfinished Tales! —-

—-

One of my guiding ideas for this comic is that the story is being written/drawn by Bilbo Baggins, an  “unreliable narrator,” who has a biased way of recounting events. As the comic goes on, parts of the story get retold through new perspectives (or through the eyes of other characters), and you realize the initial version you read was incomplete. 

A lot of you probably noticed that this chapter features a ton of callbacks to the earliest chapters of this comic! We saw child Bilbo and Gandalf's friendship told from Bilbo's POV in Chapter 3.....but in this chapter we see it retold from Gandalf's POV. However, Belladonna Took is our biggest instance of that!   Not to overexplain my own writing, but Chapter 1 is an older Bilbo painting an idealized happily-ever-after fairytale picture of Belladonna, while Chapter 15 features a younger Bilbo telling a far less optimistic version of her life.  While there's truth to both of them, neither of them is the full truth.

In the Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo tells Frodo that ‘books need to have good endings,' like endings where everyone "lives happily ever after." If I were to continue this comic to the end of the novel, Bilbo’s habit of “rewriting things to be happier" would become a whole Thing. 

Second: Much of this chapter is taken directly from “The Unfinished Tales: The Quest For Erebor.” That story was Tolkien’s attempt to unite the tone of The Hobbit with LOTR, by having Gandalf explain what The Hobbit looked like from *his* perspective. The gay line about Bilbo feeling incapable of settling down into a Traditional Marriage with a Wife And Kids is taken almost directly from the Unfinished Tales. So are all the lines where Gandalf reflects on what Bilbo was like as a child, and the moment where Bilbo reflects that all of his desire for adventure has dwindled to a private dream.

Third: Obviously, the other big influence on this chapter (outside the original novel) was a similar scene in the PJ film. The little bit where Gandalf reveals the lore behind Bullroarer took monologue is the only dialogue I’ve directly lifted from that scene. ;3

Fourth: some of you may have caught that I used a quote describing Frodo’s wanderlust in the Fellowship of the Ring to describe Bilbo. The bit describing "the maps that only show white spaces beyond their borders" is also why I emphasized Bilbo’s canonical nerdiness around  maps in earlier chapters (chapter 5 especially, but also in Chapter 6, Chapter 7, and a blink-and-you-miss-it moment in chapter 14.) 

Fifth: one of my favorite things in the original book are all the scenes where Gandalf does fun Whimsical things with smoke/smoke rings. In the book he usually makes them change color or race around; in my comic he usually makes them turn into butterflies (he also does this in chapters 3 and 11.) you may have noticed that Butterfly Symbolism is a big thing in this comic.  But yeah, in another callback: Gandalf finally had time to blow smoke-rings with Bilbo, which he said he 'had no time for' in Chapter 2!

Thanks again for reading! I tentatively plan for the next chapter to arrive on November 13th.

#the hobbit #lotr #lord of the rings #the hobbit comic #retelling the hobbit #chapter 15 #bilbo baggins #belladonna took #gandalf the grey #YEEEEEEEEEEEET #anyways #thanks again for reading!!! #long post

[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

[violecov]

Tom Bombadil and Goldberry spending Yule together once again, taking care of lil Eeagles.

Hello @thalion71 I'm ur giftster as well this @ainursecretsanta XDD (hope u like it)

Goldberry, as every person, loves taking Tom's boots and cape if it's too cold. (There is no snow, because just like elrond, Tom has power over the weather. 100%sure. Trustme.)

Happy new year!!!!!

#i was thinking about doing uinien #but the moment i read in the mail about Goldberry and the eagles #the lord of the rings #i was completely sold to doing this #funny u have gifted to me and me to u XDDD #my art #silmarillion #tolkien #artists on tumblr #tom bombadil #goldberry #the great eagles #eagles #the hobbit #lotr #the fireworks are Gandalf and the hobbits having the time of their lives once again by yule #yule #ainursecretsanta #personal fav

[bluehourskyeli]

Bilbo leaving The Shire:

He paused, silent for a moment. Then without another word he turned away from the lights and voices in the field and tents, and followed by his three companions went round into his garden, and trotted down the long sloping path. He jumped over a low place in the hedge at the bottom, and took to the meadows, passing into the night like a rustle of wind in the grass.

Frodo leaving The Shire, following Bilbo's steps:

'Good-bye!' said Frodo, looking at the dark blank windows. He waved his hand, and then turned and (following Bilbo, if he had known it) hurried after Peregrin down the garden-path. They jumped over the low place in the hedge at the bottom and took to the fields, passing into the darkness like a rustle in the grasses.

#lotr newsletter #lotr #lotr quotes #bilbo and frodo #i love how similar these two parts are #reading lotr (again)

[la-pheacienne]

reading the two towers and i Feel Things

#friend of friends #FRIEND OF FRIENDS #are we ever likely to need bread again #he did not kiss it #f u c k #frodo baggins #samwise gamgee #the lord of the rings #the passage of the marshes #the two towers #lotr #tolkien #quotes #aspa reads tolkien

[black-sapphire57]

Fëanor when he tries to take the Teleri ships:

#the lord of the rings #lotr #the silmarillion #silmarillion #feanor #fëanor #jrr tolkien #the first kinslaying #gone back to re read this all again #cause I forgot #lotr meme #silmarillion meme #elves #lotr elves #middle earth #tolkien memes #tolkien #tolkien elves #teleri ships #mandos coming was badass #memes #funny memes #humor #melkor #morgoth #mairon #sauron

[unavidas]

back to celrond posting ✨

#once again I am here to deliver celrond content #it is concerning how much I think about and draw them #I really read 3 lines of text and was like ah yes those two. those two are the ones im gonna hyperfixate on for eternity #celrond #elrond and celebrían #elrond peredhel #celebrían #elrond #lotr #silm #silm art #the lord of the rings #the silmarillion #tolkien #fan art #my art

[heathcliffgirl1847]

frodo with elanor!!! part 2 of fellowship with the babby!!!!

part 1

#lotr #frodo baggins #frodo and elanor is something that is so. its just so. #like hes in this house (HIS house) and theres this new baby #and he knows hes going to leave so its this person at the end of their life (in middle earth whatever) and this person at the beginning #someone who feels/is so corrupted he has to LEAVE vs perfect innocence of a baby #and the way frodo ended the previous age and elanor is a symbol for the new age and generation?!?!?!? #and then frodo leaves knowing that his childhood home will again be filled with a big family and light and laughter #just. oh my god. oh my god #sorry about the essay in the tags but im not good enough at expressing it to put it in the post #i cried while reading sams family tree in the appendices i have problems #my art

[mamawasatesttube]

<- experiencing shrimp emotions (listening to the return of the king ost: battle of the pelennor fields)

#rimi talks #the violin solo does things to me man... #you ever think abt that one throwaway line in yj98 that confirms kon's into lotr #they did that for me specifically. #i know in my heart that while he's primarily in wendy fandom... #kon has definitely written star wars. star trek. and silmarillion fanfic #he's one of those guys making scifi aus about the silm. girdle of melian as a cloaking device. thangorodrim black hole something something. #god fuck i want to watch/read lotr again. and the silm. and home. aakjshguarhgh #wheres my copy of the lays of beleriand i NEED to reread... #<- i experience this literally every time i listen to the lotr ost #lord the horn section before the violin solo. WAILS into my hands

[lesbiansforboromir]

If there are a million haters of Gildor Inglorion I am one of them, if there are three I am one of them, if there is only one then I am that hater and if there are none then I have been killed, possibly because I asked Gildor Inglorion for advice during my harrowing martyr's journey and he refused to give me any because he's way too special and busy to do so (he is literally having a picnic in the woods right now) (he just told me not sentences ago that he and his friends are straight up chilling before they have to sail to heaven) (his lackey also said I'm boring) and then I got sniffed out by an undead wraith hellbent on my demise and I was horrifically murdered, fully dooming the world to misery, enslavement and ruin.

#text post #gildor inglorion #erran vs tolkien #>:| #tolkien #lotr #I read that bit again...

[kierancaz]

I wish we got more of Legolas being weird in the movies. Like I haven’t read the books yet but I love the way the fandom describes him as being a little shit and like actually really fucking weird and I just wish we got more of that and also that it came across more in fanfics.

#lotr #lord of the rings #like pls I love love love all the Legolas fics I’ve read but also I wish they acknowledged how much of an apparent weirdo little freak #one post I read says that he would just stare into the woods and said goodbye to a river and I just ???? #In the movies he’s cool #and in the hobbit he’s kinda mean but still hot so I excuse it #in lotr I think he had most of this sass cut but then again I haven’t read the books so idk #but I wish in fanfics there was more of him being a weirdo instead of like a romantic #he is a weirdo and a shit and I love him and I don’t even know anymore #I need big dumbo dummy Legolas idk what to say #enough ranting #the hobbit #gandalf the grey #legolas x reader #legolas x y/n #legolas fic #legolas lotr #lotr legolas #legolas

[oldshrewsburyian]

The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapters 5-6: the Aragorn-Frodo friendship is everything to me actually?

#lotr lent #the fellowship of the ring #also that 'and came there never again as living man' just BODIED me when i was 13(?) and reading this for the first time #lotr emotions

[secretmellowblog]

So much internet analysis of media feels like……. if people were trying to criticize Chick-Fil-A, but refused to talk about anything other than the quality of the sandwiches. All that mattered was whether the product was good. So people just debated endlessly over whether the products were Good or not, and no one discussed how Chick-Fil-A donated to conservative homophobic hate groups.

“Is this Disney product Good and does it have good gay representation?” Does Disney still donate to homophobic republican politicans!!!??? Do they still actively censor any queer content during production, cancelling gay projects and actively forcing their writers to cut gay content, to the point where every sad scrap that makes it onscreen is a miracle? Can you meaningfully make any statements about “gay rep at Disney” without bringing in that larger context?

It’s not a perfect analogy— because art shouldn’t be a product, and a movie is theoretically trying to Say something in a way that a sandwich is not. But Idk I feel like the reason we fixate so much on media analysis is because it is Fun. It is fun to talk about lord of the rings and the owl house and Steven universe. It is not fun to talk about the horror and exploitation that is baked into the “entertainment industry;” it’s not fun to research and analyze the systems that created the horrifically expensive movies you love.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately because amazon is releasing the most expensive tv series ever made, a spin-off series based on lord of the rings. I have no interest in watching it despite my lifelong love of lotr but the thing is—

I have no doubt the series will be good! It will be fine. Lots of money has been thrown into it, and I have enough friends in the entertainment industry to know that on every massive corporate product there are hundreds of writers and artists sincerely trying their best to create good meaningful art. The Amazon series will be Fine. It will be good.

But my question is: Does it being good actually matter? Does it matter if a chick-Fil-a sandwich is good? Does it matter if this vile evil horrible media monopoly run by a villainous CEO that works its employees to death creates a good product?

I feel like I’m going crazy when most of the criticism of Amazon’s lotr is conservatives and people who act like conservatives ranting on about how “I can’t believe they gave Blorbo GenericElf a personality! That’s so out of character—he didn’t have a personality in the book! Tolkien, our lord and savior who we must worship as an authority, would be infuriated (because we still are bound to submit to this dead guy’s opinion apparently!) Everything would be better if everything stayed exactly as it was in the past, in the Sacred Original Canon. Any attempt to transform Tolkien’s work is morally reprehensible and a sign of the fall of the civilization.”

Sometimes I just want to shake those people and say “PEOPLE ARE DYING! people are dying in Amazon warehouses, and you’re treating your petty fandom opinion about blorbo genericelf’s personality as if it has this laughably enormous moral weight.”

I know that’s unkind, and that people can care about more than one thing; but I don’t know. I used to have this really naive idea that adaptations were a conversation with the original work, and every reinterpretation was a beautiful addition of meaning. I still believe that on some level. I think every author should be free to reinterpret stories however they want, should be able to argue with the original author and set their work on fire if they need to. there’s a lot about Tolkien’s work specifically that deserves to be disrespected, like his vicious racism and sexism. I LOVE transformative work—especially transformative work that meaningfully argues with the original author.

But like….you really can’t talk about these big media franchises without talking about the systems that created them.

Yes, people can sometimes create great beautiful sincere emotional art within these exploitative systems! I love the original lotr films and books. The new Amazon series is so expensive that it will be perfectly Fine.

But creating good art doesn’t change the fact that these giant media monopolies do so much real, constant, tangible harm. Warner Brothers caused massive harm to New Zealand while making the lotr/hobbit films, essentially strong arming the country’s government into changing their film industry laws to benefit massive foreign corporations. And Amazon is a vicious violent exploitative mega monopoly that is literally overworking its underpaid employees until it kills them.

It’s hard because I believe that good art can be very meaningful to people, and that media analysis can be important and valuable.

Its just that— not to swing a bat at a hornet’s nest— sometimes I wish people would stop hyperbolizing about how [petty fandom opinion] will cause lasting harm to the world, while not engaging with the things about the media property that are causing immediate tangible physical objective harm.

#idk if this is coherent but yee #;-;;;; #anyway thank you for reading! i know I haven’t been active here lately #i just wanted to throw this out there before anyone asked me about rings of power #I’ve just become so disillusioned by the entertainment industry and the active tangible harm these giant franchises cause #that I just . don’t #XD #like it’s probably good! it’s probably a good fine show #and lots of marvel movies are good! #and I found meaning in the original lotr trilogy #but I don’t know #i kinda just. am disgusted with the way these mega franchises work #and the way the entertainment industry works #it’s the ‘art school student with entertainment industry friends’ life lol #but yee #anyway I’ve been inactive here but I’m back to be sad about stuff again XD

[librarydate]

There and back again.

#currently reading it and falling in love with it #bilbo my beloved #the hobbit #there and back again #j r r tolkien #jrr tolkien #tolkein #lotr #books #fantasy books #fantasy #classic #classics #bookblr #reader #my post #litblr #light academia

[bluehourskyeli]

'And I will come, too,' said Gimli. 'The matter of the Lady Galadriel lies still between us. I have yet to teach you gentle speech.'

'We shall see,' said Éomer. 'So many strange things have chanced that to learn the praise of a fair lady under the loving strokes of a Dwarf's axe will seem no great wonder. Farewell!'

one of the most sentences ever

#lotr newsletter #éomer #gimli #reading lotr (again)