Rings of Power Stuff

[Elbereth Vala Varda]

@Well-aged Enting , Thank you for the insight and clarity. You never fail to comprehensively draw my attention into reading every last word of your posts, despite the fact that I intended only to briefly scroll.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Tolkien scholar T.A.Shippey has this to say about what might be called the "Tolkien etymology" of wargs:

There is a word in Old Norse, vagr, which means both 'wolf' and 'outlaw'. In Old English there is a word wearh, which means 'outcast' or 'outlaw' (but not 'wolf'), and a verb awyrgan, which means 'to condemn', but also 'to strangle' (the death of a condemned outcast), and perhaps 'to worry, to bite to death'. Why did Old Norse feel the need for another word for 'wolf', when they had the common word too, ulfr? And why should Old English give the word somehow a more eerie and less eevidently physical sense? Tolkien's word 'Warg' clearly splits the difference between Old Norse and Old English pronunciations, and his concept of them -- wolves, but not just wolves, intelligent and malevolent wolves -- combines the two ancient opinions.

J.R.R. Tolkien, Author of the Century

He goes into an even fuller investigation of other words used by Tolkien, BTW; his discussion of 'wraith' is especially enlightening.

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

Tolkien scholar T.A.Shippey has this to say about what might be called the "Tolkien etymology" of wargs:

J.R.R. Tolkien, Author of the Century

He goes into an even fuller investigation of other words used by Tolkien, BTW; his discussion of 'wraith' is especially enlightening.

Have a link to his wraith discussion?

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Um . . .

I just typed that out, one-fingered, from my copy of the book. I'm definitely not going to do that for 'wraith'! 😳

But I'll look to see if it's online.

 

[Ent]

How curious, thank you.
I have this book in my digital pile, but have not yet even perused it. It never occurred to me it might be usable as an explanatory resource for specifics within the Lore.
Yet now that I open it and enter many key words/phrases that I have in my ever-extending research list, there isn't a one of them that isn't spoken to in some way or another. (yet).
Thank you.
Perhaps I should make sure I peek into other resources I've been ignoring because I thought the title wouldn't lend the book to specific research issues and values.
There it is.
The Enting may see and hear a lot from his shelf as he looks out upon the world, but he doesn't always grasp the importance of what he sees..!

 

[Ent]

Have a link to his wraith discussion?

If you happen to have the book digitally, wraith is in it 48 times.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

I'd also recommend his The Road to Middle-earth. There's a third edition, often cited by Mr. O.

 

[Ent]

Have a link to his wraith discussion?

It looks like his most direct discussion of 'wraiths' at large covers pages 137 to about 148... and on a very brief scan the context may be important to 'get it' all - what he's trying to say. but i could be wrong.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Which explains why I'm unwilling to wear out my finger. 😄

 

[Ent]

I'd also recommend his The Road to Middle-earth. There's a third edition, often cited by Mr. O.

OK i'll review that too.. its in my library but I'm not sure which edition.

OK i'll review that too.. its in my library but I'm not sure which edition.

Ah. The third edition it is....
and wraith is only mentioned in it 21 times.
I gots a lotta work to do on wraith..!!

Have a link to his wraith discussion?

I'd also recommend his The Road to Middle-earth. There's a third edition, often cited by Mr. O.

Interestingly, in both books it appears he discusses the "wraithing process"... i'll be very curious to see what he has to say about that issue..

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Here's a short article where someone cites a bit of it:

Page Not Found

But I'd certainly recommend acquiring copies, which can be found on ebay and various other places for cheap.

After all, EA, what else are you going to spend all that sweet Amazon cash on? 😉

 

[Aldarion]

Hope hath indeed been renewed...I am glad that opinions are (finally) beginning to change.

Not really. Most of my friends/acquitances who had watched think first episode is rather bad. I'm planning to watch it myself, but from what I had both heard and read so far, I don't think my opinion is going to change either.

And that article basically talks about how much money had been thrown into production and how pretty it looks... yeah. Some of the best shows ever had some of the worst CGI and design ever.

 

[Olorgando]

And that article basically talks about how much money had been thrown into production and how pretty it looks... yeah. Some of the best shows ever had some of the worst CGI and design ever.

That at least is one thing PJ did: the bar for such efforts is quite high. But then, especially the CGI, can be overdone. Viggo Mortensen was critical of what he saw (I paraphrase) as "CGI overkill" in PJ's TH trilogy. And wowing the audience with spectacular images could be a way of distracting from weaknesses in dialogues and plot.

 

[Aldarion]

That at least is one thing PJ did: the bar for such efforts is quite high. But then, especially the CGI, can be overdone. Viggo Mortensen was critical of what he saw (I paraphrase) as "CGI overkill" in PJ's TH trilogy. And wowing the audience with spectacular images could be a way of distracting from weaknesses in dialogues and plot.

Precisely.

Andway, I'm watching the episode now. Seven minutes in and I had already found about a dozen contradictions of lore - and I don't mean "stuff made up because Tolkien was unclear or did not provide background", I mean "outright contradicts what Tolkien had written".

It is a disaster, though I guess a person completely unfamiliar with Tolkien's writings will not have noticed anything.

And I'm far from being a Tolkien expert, so I can only imagine the kind of headache this stuff will have caused the experts. Anyway, back to torture now. Still about an hour to go through.

 

[Ent]

back to torture now. Still about an hour to go through.

Great Halls, 9th floor aisle F, 3rd shelf from the bottom of the 10th tier... right front corner.
"Carters Little Torture Relief Pills."
They're in the Great Halls because what they do to people is leave them a bit Hazy.

 

[pippin le qer]

maybe we can just play like it's some token recovered from a troll cave somewhere at some point by someone, passed along and eventually stuck in this old historical archival room for memory's sake.

It might be "inspired" by the star of Feänor but it differs in the unequal length of the rays and it is more or less used as e general sigil for all Elvenhood.
( I use the term "inspired" loosely)

 

[Berzelmayr]

Annatar is currently trending on Twitter ...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1585420506974519296

 

[Berzelmayr]

Amazon's Rings of Power is the fourth most popular tv series of this year according to imdb-com:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1602855067366866947

 

[d4rk3lf]

Popular - how?
Back in the day, Genghis Khan and Hitler were popular too.

 

[Halasían]

Popular - how?
Back in the day, Genghis Khan and Hitler were popular too.

I'm sure the anti-RoP internet parasites have bumped the statistics a little.
Anyway, I've enjoyed most of the 1st season and rated it accordingly.
Plan in giving it another binge in the new year.

(Cue the usual BS)