#realised I've been writing Thrangorodrim with that additional r for years

[marietheran]

LotR reread - book 2, chapter 2 - The Council of Elrond

Tolkien once envisaged Galdor of the Havens as the same person as Galdor, Lord of Gondolin. He seems to have gone back on it, but I like that version a bit.

Mysterious Allusions Counter at 4.5

"And yet not so many, nor so fair, as when Thangorodrim was broken, and the Elves deemed that evil was ended for ever, and it was not so."

"The Spear of Gil-galad and the Sword of Elendil, Aeglos and Narsil, none could withstand" -- proof that what's important is a really really good sword, able to survive contact with evil beings?

"The blood of the Númenóreans became mingled with that of lesser men. Then the watch upon the walls of Mordor slept..." - hmmm... otoh, weird with the "lesser men", otoh, given the next sentence, it might mean less a racial change and more the Gondorians forgetting their heritage.

Boromir's (Faramir's really) dream: voice speaks out of the West. This seems important.

Another poem I learned by heart completely accidentally at 13.

Bilbo telling his story - "He did not ommit a single riddle" xdd

Mysterious Allusions Counter at 5.5

"In all the long wars with the Dark Tower treason has ever been our greatest foe"??? In the wars of the First Age, yes, but I can't really find any instances of treason later on, unless it's the Númenóreans' collective descent into evil idiocy. But the "Dark Tower" means Sauron. A slip? Or were there betrayals we haven't been told of?

"It is perilous to study too deeply the arts of the Enemy, for good or for ill"

Whatever one thinks the Valar would say about someone bringing the Ring into Valinor (LotR declines to elaborate on "they would not receive it"), the explanation that the road to the sea will be guarded against them seems very reasonable anyhow. "Too often the Elves have fled that way" and Sauron would not have forgotten how his predecessor ended.

"But if you take it freely, I will say that your choice is right: and though all the mighty Elf-friends of old, Hador, and Húrin, and Túrin, and Beren himself were assembled together, your seat should be among them" (!!!)

I used to not understand why Túrin and Húrin are held in honour so high. Now I get Húrin, because the Silm seriously undersells his bravery (he was long, umm, persuaded to give up the location of Gondolin, and you can guess what kind of methods of persuasion were used - and said nothing), but despite Túrin being a problematic fave of mine, I still feel like remembering the killing of Glaurung and forgetting everything else, which everyone in ME seems to do, is a bit weird. I have seen the interpretation that it is done specifically to spite Morgoth, and I guess it makes as much sense as anything.

But anyway, rest in peace, Túrin, and that praise Frodo was given was something.