Second-guessing and Misunderstanding Tolkien

[Vorondil]

Besides, it's not so far-fetched. After all, look at all the dinosaurs they bred for Jurassic Park and sequels, and in the 4th segment they wanted to put the raptors to military use..!!

If we could breed all those raptors and such why couldn't Melkor and Sauron breed the dragons, Orcs and things?

Jurassic Park isn't actually... never mind.

 

[Deimos]

The first response to that in Quora by Fraser MacWilliams is brilliant - starting with:

Darker is not better

Tragedies are not the only ‘good’ stories

Gritty is not good

No... actually @Aethelwulf gave the best response ever:
"How about we push whoever asked this question into the fire."

 

[Radaghast]

Why couldn’t Free People of Middle Earth dig a tunnel from Minas Tirith to Mounth Doom to destroy the ring?

Why does this bring to mind The Rings of Power?

 

[Vorondil]

Why couldn’t Free People of Middle Earth dig a tunnel from Minas Tirith to Mounth Doom to destroy the ring?

That's like saying: ''Why didn't the Allies dig a tunnel from London to Berlin so they could assassinate Hitler''.

 

[Deimos]

 

[Radaghast]

Somebody, somewhere, just got an idea for a fanfic: "Middle-earth meets Eberron".

 

[Olorgando]

Why couldn’t Free People of Middle Earth dig a tunnel from Minas Tirith to Mounth Doom to destroy the ring?

Let's see, by Fonstad's map that's about 110 miles in a straight line. Detailed map in my 2002 RotK a bit less, but definitely more than 100 miles.
As they would have to dig under the Ephel Duath, the Gotthard Base Tunnel in the Swiss Alps would seem to be the best comparison.
But it's "only" 35.5 miles long. Took more than eleven years to dig (late 1999 to early 2011, operative 2016) digging from both ends with state-of-the-art tunneling equipment.

So ...

The GondMord tunnel is three time as long (about 105 vs 35 miles), would make it 33 years.
But the Gondorians are doing it all from one side, no simultaneous digging from the other side as with the Gotthard, so twice as long, 66 years.
They'd probably need to hire every single Dwarf in Middle-earth (very expensive), but even those are unlikely to match modern tunneling machine monsters (they're H U G E, making the thingy in Deimos's above post look like a product of the company Matchbox).
Let's assume the Dwarves could dig half as fast as one of those machines, that brings us to 132 years.
To beat Sauron to the punch, they'd have to start digging in 2887 Third Age.
Or 54 years before Bilbo found the One Ring.
I see a motivation issue ... 🤔

 

[Glorfindel Goldtress]

I see a motivation issue ... 🤔

One issue out of a thousand...

 

[Radaghast]

Did Gandalf become Olórin again after sailing West? If so, would it change the dynamic with others of the fellowship?

 

[Deimos]

Did Gandalf become Olórin again after sailing West? If so, would it change the dynamic with others of the fellowship?

"Olórin" has more vowels, (the middle one being "acutely" accented,) resulting in 3 syllables.
But "Gandalf" has more letters overall, yet only two syllables.
So yes, those two changes alone (more vowels, more syllables) would affect the dynamic with the other members of the Fellowship... probably adversely if they never learned Phonics.

 

[Olorgando]

"Olórin" has more vowels, (the middle one being "acutely" accented,) resulting in 3 syllables.
But "Gandalf" has more letters overall, yet only two syllables.
So yes, those two changes alone (more vowels, more syllables) would affect the dynamic with the other members of the Fellowship... probably adversely if they never learned Phonics.

Who knows, maybe they'd combine the two names 😁 ... but for Hobbits, four syllables are a mouthful, so maybe they'd shorten it to Og or Go ... 🤪

 

[Radaghast]

"Olórin" has more vowels, (the middle one being "acutely" accented,) resulting in 3 syllables.
But "Gandalf" has more letters overall, yet only two syllables.
So yes, those two changes alone (more vowels, more syllables) would affect the dynamic with the other members of the Fellowship... probably adversely if they never learned Phonics.

So the dynamic would come from the tension produced by the Fellowship struggling to pronounce his name? 🤔

 

[Deimos]

Who knows, maybe they'd combine the two names 😁 ... but for Hobbits, four syllables are a mouthful, so maybe they'd shorten it to Og or Go ... 🤪

Nah.... who would do that? Totally implausible....🙄😉

 

[Deimos]

So the dynamic would come from the tension produced by the Fellowship struggling to pronounce his name? 🤔

Well, yes, of course... what else could possibly affect it? 🙄
When you've got everyday occurrences like:
A man who changes into a bear
A man(?) who talks to trees and is unaffected by the Ring
People who live in giant trees and who have magical mirrors and glass Phials that contain Light
A ... person... (I guess) whose eye ball sits atop a huge edifice, swiveling around worse than The one Mad-Eye Moody wears
Giant walking (and talking) Trees
Bowling balls that glow and are means of transmission that most Communications companies would kill for.
Wizards! And now a wizard who changes into another ...wizard? So what else is new?
Then YES, changing the name of someone can be comparatively traumatic if you don't know how to pronounce it.
You've never mispronounced someone's name and gotten that soul-withering look from them?

 

[Deimos]

One issue out of a thousand...

Hey, the "Can-do" attitude can overcome all sorts of pesky obstacles.

 

[Radaghast]

You've never mispronounced someone's name and gotten that soul-withering look from them?

No, but my name gets mispronounced all the time 😕

 

[Olorgando]

Hey, the "Can-do" attitude can overcome all sorts of pesky obstacles.

Famous Last words - or they would be if we'd ever heard of them.
But we only ever hear the success-stories, never about the 9,999 failures per success. The old selective perception bugaboo ... 🫣

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Famous Last words - or they would be if we'd ever heard of them.

"They couldn't hit an elephant at this dista--"

Last words of Major General John Sedgewick, Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, 1864.

 

[Vorondil]

"They couldn't hit an elephant at this dista--"

Last words of Major General John Sedgewick, Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, 1864.

 

[Ent]

John Sedgwick​

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the American military officer. For the American author, see John Sedgwick (author).
Not to be confused with John Sedgewick.

John Sedgwick
Sedgwick in the 1860s
Nickname(s)	"Uncle John"
Born	September 13, 1813 Cornwall, Connecticut, U.S.
Died	May 9, 1864 (aged 50) Spotsylvania County, Virginia, U.S.
Buried	Cornwall Hollow Cemetery (Cornwall, Connecticut)
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Army Union Army
Years of service	1837–1864
Rank	Major general
Commands held	VI Corps
Battles/wars	Seminole Wars Mexican–American War Utah War Indian Wars American Civil War †
Other work	Teacher
Signature

John Sedgwick (September 13, 1813 – May 9, 1864) was a military officer and Union Army general during the American Civil War.
He was wounded three times at the Battle of Antietam while leading his division in an unsuccessful assault against Confederate forces, causing him to miss the Battle of Fredericksburg. Under his command, the VI Corps played an important role in the Chancellorsville Campaign by engaging Confederate troops at the Second Battle of Fredericksburg and the Battle of Salem Church. His corps was the last to arrive at the Battle of Gettysburg and thus did not see much action. Sedgwick was killed by a sharpshooter at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House on May 9, 1864, making him and Major Generals James B. McPherson, Joseph K. Mansfield, and John F. Reynolds the highest-ranking Union officers to be killed in the war. He is remembered for an ironic remark among his last words: "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."