#lotr reread

[lotreaux]

The "Riders of Rohan" chapter is full of gems but one of those is that there were three horses that Éomer offered to give to the Three Hunters, and since Gimli plainly refused to "ride a beast", he ended up riding behind Legolas. The films present this as if there were only two horses so they made do out of necessity, but no, Gimli son of Glóin just didn't want to sit on a horse by himself and said as much proudly to the Third Marshal of the Riddermark. King.

#lotr #lotr reread #gimli #eomer #legolas #gigolas #sort of #the two towers #the lord of the rings

[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

[verkomy]

glóin looked at frodo and smiled. ‘you were very fond of bilbo were you not?’ he asked. ‘yes,’ answered frodo. ‘I would rather see him than all the towers and places in the world.’

#I love them so much #lotr #lotr reread #tolkien reread #the lord of the rings #the fellowship of the ring #many meetings #tolkien #gloin #frodo baggins #bilbo baggins #text

[galadrielspeaks]

legolas and gimli the true drinker vs smoker couple 🫶

#also gimli saying “And what of your companions?” then saying “What of Legolas and me?” is making me lose my mind rn #he’s distinguishing their relationships from the others… they are a duo set apart… #they are friends with merry and pippin and they are 👀 with eachother. #i am THINKING THOUGHTS. #gimleaf #gigolas #lord of the rings #lotr reread #i’m having sooo much fun with this read

[winwin17]

Before the Fellowship departs Rivendell, Sam is gloomily talking to Bill the Pony.

" 'Bill, my lad,' he said, 'you oughtn't to have took up with us. You could have stayed here and et the best hay till the new grass comes.' Bill swished his tail and said nothing."

😂😂

Tolkien's subtle humor tho.

#lotr #lord of the rings #samwise gamgee #bill the pony #rivendell #the fellowship of the ring #tolkien #jrr tolkien #jrrt #tolkien humor #lotr reread

[makeshiftdraco]

Rereading LOTR and found this detail amusing:

I just love that Sauron is so committed to his aesthetic that the Orcs only steal black horses.

#the dark lord is goth af #lord of the rings #sauron #lotr reread #the two towers

[modernmythic]

Soooooo I tried to do a LotR bookclub this year with some friends and all of them kinda gave up toward the end of The Fellowship but...I kind of want to try again. But I wanted to see if people who are actually into LotR would be interested.

Basically the idea is you can do a low commitment reading of the entire Lord of the Rings in a year by reading 3 pages per day (if you have a single volume edition, however I made a start/stop guide for people who didn't.) I wanted something that was pretty low commitment because I was annotating the book. Sometimes I'd read a week at a time, some days I'd actually just read 3 pages. It's really just preference or doing what works for your schedule. But every 2 weeks we'd have a discussion of the section we read. It was pretty fun and there were lots of details we got to dig into by breaking it down into these smaller chunks.

Would anyone be interested in doing A Year of LotR in 2024?

I'd probably try to have a similar format of biweekly (super chill and informal) discussions, but I'd work out the details with anyone who was interested.

#shut up hailey #lotr #lotr reread

[marietheran]

LotR reread - book 2, chapter 5 - The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm

"Frodo thought of... Balin's visit to the Shire long ago." -- did he already live in Bag End then? did Frodo know Balin??

Quick look on the internet: no, he wasn't yet born then.

Orcs having scimitars... oh, Tolkien, please don't do the eastern-coding; it feels weird... Saying this as someone who's country had been at war with the Turks more than once (though it was with grudging respect on both sides, I guess, but that's a digression)

Legolas and Gimli echoing the book of Marzabul... "They are coming!", "We cannot get out".... interesting...

The passage with Gandalf trying to hold the door closed, and the Balrog trying to get it to open (both through power, not physical force), and the door just bursting into pieces has always made me think that what happened with Beleriand isn't such a mystery.

Aragorn seems to take back his words that the hobbits would not survive a life like his upon learning Frodo is still alive. Frodo is, in all honesty, wearing the mithril shirt, but hobbits are indeed made of sterner stuff.

"of man-shape maybe, yet greater" certainly does not imply a Balrog is the size of a man, the opposite. I don't know why it's used as an argument to say they are.

Aragorn and Boromir not heeding Gandalf and trying to help him fight the Balrog never ceases to amaze me. I could excuse Boromir not understanding just how big a threat it is. But raised-in-Rivendell Aragorn?

#lotr reread #the professor's mythopoeia #lotr #original post

[moonshinemagpie]

One of the things that's striking me as I get older is how extraordinary Frodo's friendships are. You don't really appreciate it when you're a kid because you don't yet know that a lot of people drift away from their BFFs and your friends won't see you every day when you're no longer in school and it is very likely that, if you should ever have a gardener, the gardener won't give a s*** about you. But Frodo is 50 years old and all of his friends are immediately willing to leave home forever and risk their lives for him.

Something Weird and Bad is happening to Frodo, and immediately people in his community are like, "Let us lighten your burden." Even his farmer neighbor, who definitely can't understand what's going on, nevertheless senses that Frodo needs help and offers him some dinner with his favorite mushrooms.

#lotr #lotr reread #it's the inverse of the first act of Midsommar

[cottagecorefroggyfairy]

I was thinking that I’ll forever be grateful to little me for being so constant in learning English.

Reading Lotr in ov with just little help needed made me realise how far I’ve actually come and how much I own to my nerdiness and neurodiversity.

For being a 13 yo with nothing but the deep urge to watch the next season of Merlin even if it hasn’t been dubbed yet marked the beginning of my journey through fandom - and consequentially my journey as a fanfic reader and writer.

First in my own language, then shifting towards a more “international approach” when I’ve discovered Ao3.

Maybe I’m not always as fluent as I’d like to be, but I am still able to connect with a lot of people and for that I’ll always try to remember with more kindness my younger self. Because without her every fanfiction I’ve ever written wouldn’t be there. Without her I wouldn’t be able to watch a 45 minutes long video essay about queerness in the lord or the rings. Or enjoy bondi rescue. Or watch that weird movie that only has English subtitles. Certainly I wouldn’t be so much into 20 men racing without understanding English.

I see you, baby me. Now I really do.

#fandom #ao3 fanfic #ao3 writer #ao3 author #fanfic authors #f1 #f1 fandom #lotr #lotr reread #fangirl #bilingual #learning english #english #english as a second language #english as a foreign language #note to my past

[lotreaux]

The relationship between Sam and Sméagol is underrated. They greatly dislike each other of course and would rather be rid of the other (sometimes even in a most final way) but in between that they do acclimatise to each other a little bit in some funny ways. For example, that part of the book when Sam talks to Frodo in Gollum-speak, saying 'O precious' and whatnot. Endearing. Linguistic specialities are always to my delight in any Tolkien writing no matter how small.

I love how Sam makes Sméagol fetch him things (water, coneys, herbs) as if Gollum were a dog, and Sméagol being good and poor and pitiable and loyal and all that he claims to be, does bring 2/3rds of these to Sam, and only refuses to bring the herbs because Sam was rude! And that's true, Sam was (I'll say) unduly rude to poor Sméagol (maybe I'm buying into Gollum's propaganda but I don't care. he's a poor meowmeow!) Anyway Sam comes to this conclusion too after a while and tries to make peace by repeatedly offering a portion of their stew to Sméagol (who refuses, because he's offended). Of course after that the barely existing trust is further ravaged when Frodo "betrays" Sméagol in Henneth Annûn, but I wonder what it would have been like if they had more time together, more time for Sméagol to be a normal hobbit, more time for Sam to understand Sméagol's plight.

Gollum pretending to be a normal person is great and hilarious because he's a hobbit too and they're all so similar but Sam would be the last to admit that. Sméagol channelling that 500-years-buried jolly hobbit attitude is 👌👌 'Wake up sleepies!' 😂 Can you imagine socialising with people with utmost confidence even though in the past 500 years the only beings you spoke to were yourself and a ring (not counting the agents of the enemy who tortured you). No problem, good Sméagol will get on wonderfully with nice hobbits, tell riddles, joke about, have profound moments with them like any hobbit of the shire would. 10/10

#not to mention that i LONG to see a dynamic between the 3 of them #where frodo and sam show a bit of reverence towards smeagol on account that he's quite literally the oldest living hobbit #an elder hobbit walking out of the pages of history #love how his stories about his old hobbit life match up with what theoden says about the holbytla peoples #ahhhh these books are so good #lotr #the two towers #sam gamgee #sméagol #gollum #hobbits #lord of the rings #lotr reread

[roselightfairy]

I could spend the rest of my life trying to narrow down and name the elusive emotion that explains why “he stands not alone” hits so hard - I think it’s something about how abrupt it is, how dramatic, how line-in-the-sand. When I first read these books, I was racing through them, plowing from scene to scene in the eager desperation to find out what happened next (the saga of my First Read still remains to be told online but one day I will dramatize it, for any who may care to hear); Legolas and Gimli’s friendship hardly struck my notice at all, for reasons I have sought to articulate elsewhere. Even once you recognize that they’re friends, it’s still just a compliment here, a discussion there. It’s a lot of quiet spending-time-together that doesn’t strike the notice of the casual reader who is desperate to find out what is happening to Frodo and Sam, Merry and Pippin, and the Three Hunters chase is just a means to an end. Now I love it for the opportunity to linger in the character moments, but when I first read, it was just a distraction. The Riders, too, were a distraction - just more words, just more characters entering the scene, here to show how much Aragorn knows about the world, useful only for what information they might be able to deliver about the hobbits. And then - all of a sudden here’s Eomer insulting Galadriel (and Gimli’s love for Galadriel was standout enough that I noticed it), and Gimli responding in anger, and then all of a sudden like a lightning bolt straight to the butterfly-pit of the stomach here’s Legolas, “bending his bow and fitting an arrow with hands that moved quicker than sight” - quicker than sight, and quicker than my own ability to emotionally calibrate what’s happening. Here’s that devastating line, “he stands not alone,” so simple and yet such a bold declaration of commitment, of togetherness; here’s “you would die before your stroke fell,” threat met with threat, violence with violence, bright and gleaming as the flash of sun off the point of an arrow; this friendship mostly seen in empty spaces and quiet disappearances all of a sudden a matter of blood, of boldness, of words that can’t be taken back. And it’s a boldness we haven’t seen much from Legolas before, either - he’s been pretty quiet and in the background, generally acquiescing to what others say, commenting on or interpreting the world, serving as the voice - when he is one at all - for their surroundings or the very mood of the world. Speaking for it, describing it, responding to it, never changing it. And here he is with a bow bent, with an unignorable threat, streaking across our consciousness like an arrow from the very bow of Eros, and I am absolutely, irreversibly lost.

#legolas x gimli #lotr reread #legolas

[verkomy]

“‘no living man am I! you look upon a woman. éowyn I am, éomund’s daughter. you stand between me and my lord and kin. begone, if you be not deathless! for living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him.’” I love women so much you have no idea

#I love her #eowyn #eowyn of rohan #lotr #the lord of the rings #the return of the king #lotr reread #tolkien reread #tolkien #text

[homosexual-having-tea]

I'm sorry but the absolute SCANDAL when Frodo sells Bag-end and doesn't offer Lobelia tea???? MAKING BILBO PROUD I SEE, YOUNG MAN

#i love that its its own little sentence #'he did not offer lobelia any tea' #LMAOOOOO GET HER TRASHY ASS FRODO AVENGE THOSE SPOONS #lotr #the fellowship of the rings #lotr reread

[winwin17]

Okay, just one more note on my current LOTR re-read (for now).

When the Fellowship is stuck on Caradhras, Gandalf abbacadabbras some of that mystical Rivendell liquid that gives everybody extra stamina or whatever. (Okay, so he actually got it out of his pack, whatever).

Anyway, Gandalf tells everyone to pass the flask around so they can all benefit from its strengthening properties. And I just want to imagine between the lines here and envision Gimli and Legolas having a spat about refusing to drink after an Elf/Dwarf (depending on whoever went first). And finally Aragorn or Boromir or Gandalf gets so fed up and exasperated at them that they have to intervene and keep them in line like stubborn bratty children.

#this is absolutely not canon but no one said it didn't happen so #lotr #lord of the rings #lotr reread #lotr books #gandalf #aragorn #legolas #gimli #caradhras #the fellowship of the ring #lotr headcanons or whatever #lotr headcanons #imagining between the lines of lotr #tolkien

[astrikonaou]

Oh hey now that I’m re-reading

I’m pretty sure that Tom Bombadil is a manifestation of Eru Ilúvatar

~ Ooorrr Manwë, considering his love for Goldberry/Varda, but I’d say Eru and potentially Goldberry symbolizing his love for the world that was created -

no one knows about, that would explain everything Tom does, down to the “he’s the only person who would be 100% able to care care of all problems as he’s not affected by it but he can’t do it and it’s not something he is in control of” (hi Christian themes of free will)

#lotr #lord of the rings #tom bombadil #eru iluvatar #goldberry #manwe #varda #lotr reread