#j rr Tolkien

[ijustkindalikebooks]

“Fairy tale does not deny the existence of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance. It denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat…giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy; Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien.

[enchantedbook]

From Tolkien's illustration by Roman Pisarev

[psychic-refugee]

When being delulu ruins your life, whew.

The writer not only has to destroy all his fanfiction and looks to be barred from publishing anything in the future, but he has to pay Amazon's attorney fees: $134,000 on top of his own attorney fees and $402 just to file his inane lawsuit.

Please think about that. SIX FIGURES for what I suspect is minimal discovery (emails and the fanfic in question) and probably decided by briefing (Summary Judgement) instead of a trial. Just to Amazon.

He did have representation, and the attorney looks like they have 16 years experience. I don't know their rate, but lets say amazon has the highest rate and this attorney the lowest for California (according to google), and they worked 263 hrs on this case (highest rate/award). That's $44,184 as a low, generous estimate. I suspect it's a lot more.

All together, ~$178,586.

When I tell you litigation is expensive...

[miss-mollys-ballet-blog]

The one thing I think Tolkien would despise about the movies is their treatment of Gimli and him being turned into the comic relief. It’s the exact opposite of Tolkien’s dwarves and I really dislike it and think he would too.

[ohtheylovetolietoyou]

“It all began with the forging of the Great Rings. Three were given to the Elves; immortal, wisest and fairest of all beings. Seven, to the Dwarf Lords, great miners and craftsmen of the mountain halls. And nine, nine rings were gifted to the race of Men, who above all else desire power. For within these rings was bound the strength and the will to govern over each race. But they were all of them deceived, for another ring was made. In the land of Mordor, in the fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Sauron forged in secret, a master ring, to control all others. And into this ring he poured all his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all life. One ring to rule them all. One by one, the free peoples of Middle Earth fell to the power of the Ring. But there were some who resisted. A last alliance of men and elves marched against the armies of Mordor, and on the very slopes of Mount Doom, they fought for the freedom of Middle-Earth. Victory was near, but the power of the ring could not be undone. It was in this moment, when all hope had faded, that Isildur, son of the king, took up his father's sword. And Sauron, enemy of the free peoples of Middle-Earth, was defeated. The Ring passed to Isildur, who had this one chance to destroy evil forever, but the hearts of men are easily corrupted. And the ring of power has a will of its own. It betrayed Isildur, to his death. And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the ring passed out of all knowledge. Until, when chance came, the ring ensnared a new bearer. The ring came to the creature Gollum, who took it deep into the tunnels under the Misty Mountains, and there it consumed him. The ring gave to Gollum unnatural long life. For five hundred years it poisoned his mind; and in the gloom of Gollum's cave, it waited. Darkness crept back into the forests of the world. Rumor grew of a shadow in the East, whispers of a nameless fear, and the Ring of Power perceived. Its time had now come. It abandoned Gollum. But then something happened that the Ring did not intend. It was picked up by the most unlikely creature imaginable. A Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, of the Shire. For the time will soon come when Hobbits will shape the fortunes of all...” Galadriel

[livingthewritelife-things]

Reading The History of The Lord of the Rings is SO fascinating.

Tolkien spent 15 years writing it, there were many many many edits and drafts made to the story. Christopher Tolkien collected as many as he could find, edited them, put them in order and put them into a four-part series.

It's so interesting to see how he came up with each character, what got cut, how he wandered into different plot points. Highly recommend reading.

[riversinmyblood]

you ask me whats in my pockets and i pull out these two fellas.

[0zeeraa0]

Tolkien fans and ASOIAF fans on critical views of the books

so i didn't know weather to put this on my tolkien blog or my asoiaf blog, so im putting it here and rebloging it on them.

i recently saw a tiktok of someone talking about how tolkien fans do not like to engage with the books in a critical way, despite the fact that they often see themselves as very intellectual for being tolkien fans in the first place.

she also brought up the point that asoiaf fans are significantly more willing to do so despite ironically being looked down upon by said tolkien fans.

and i just wanted to talk about why i personally think this might be the case

(also dont take this supper seriously. these are just shower though. literally. i just came out of the shower. my hair is wrapped up in a towel rn)

!! this post is specially about the book fans for each fandoms !!

!! i did not take into account fans of the lotr or hobbit movies, the fans of tr*p, and also not the game of thrones show fans or the hotd fans !!

(fair warning: this post has become a bit of an incoherent monster so just bear with me)

a large part of this in my opinion could be the fact that tolkien's work is often considered to be "perfect" and "flawless" and "the best there is", something that a lot of the superfans tend to take to heart and internalize. and because they think tolkien's work is perfect, and because they are huge fans of that work, they seem to come to the conclusion that they have perfect taste in literature. so whenever that is criticized in any way they take it as a personal attack. like they're taste and they're personality is being criticized instead of, you know, a book.

this is also why i think asoiaf fans avoid this issue. it is no news to anyone that asoiaf has a.... reputation..... and a very large majority of people are already very well aware of that reputation before they even start reading the books. they already hear the criticism before they can get emotionally attached to what is being criticized. that way even after reading the books and becoming fans despite those criticisms, they are a lot more accepting of having their favorite book be criticized. and are a lot more willing to do it themselves.

another aspect of this uhhh phenomenon is the "mortality" of the books i suppose

tolkien's work is often seen as "pure" and (most importantly for this case) "unproblematic". another aspect fans very often seem to internalize, and may play a role in how little self awareness they have when they have a crash out over criticism. they cant possibly be rude and full of themselves when they're fans of such unproblematic literature!! how dare you!! this could also play a role in the superiority complex i often see from these types of tolkien fans, especially towards fans of other books, namely asoiaf.

as for the aforementioned asoiaf, as we made it clear, it has a reputation. fans know what they're getting into. they know about the sex and the violence and the incest, its hardly a secret. they also know they'll likely be looked down on for liking the books and are prepared for that too. kinda hard to sit on your moral high horse when its literally galloping through the "incest fandom"...

the way the story is presented could also be an aspect in the way the fandoms handle, not "criticism" necessarily, but more like a critical view of the books and the stories and characters within it (if you get what i mean)

tolkien's work can be pretty black and white. lange aspects of the stories is good vs evil. the evil morgoth vs the good valar. the evil sauron vs the good gandalf. the evil orcs vs the good elves blah blah blah you get it. it can be argued that this doesn't really encourage critical views of the characters and storylines. some are good and the others are evil. (please note that its been a long time since i last read these books so my memory might be a bit hazy. like pre pandemic) im not saying theres absolutely no moral ambiguity to be had, but there absolutely are many characters that we are meant to see as unquestionably good or evil. and we definitely are meant to see certain actions in a certain way. theres not a lot of speculation to be had in the canon material (but hey thats what fanfics are for right?). this paired up with the moral superiority mentioned before can lead to being told that you're "excusing" evil characters actions just because you questioned their actions and didn't take them at face value. this is especially bad with the silmarillion, which is supposed to be a biased retelling of events but many people seem to forget that and treat everything it says like its the holy bible. you cant talk about certain actions being presented differently than how they might have actually happened because then you're "making excuses" for the characters and you're very problematic for that btw :/ sometimes it feels like the idea that tolkien's work is perfect and genius is the only thing that's stopping these kinds of people from just saying "it aint that deep bro"

asoiaf in the other hand is aaaallll about moral ambiguity. instead of "evil characters" and "good characters", we have cruel actions and kind actions. both of which are done by every character. yes, some lean more towards kindness or more towards cruelty, but there are very few who cant be said to have at leats a little bit of both (one of these few would be someone like ramsay). even extremely cruel characters like joffrey and cersei have motivation or reasons for their behavior that can be seen as understanding or sympathetic despite them still being inexcusable. asoiaf actively encourages you to think deeper into the motivations of the characters. the pov format of the books making this even more apparent, since we see the world through the eyes of one character at a time. were shown their biases and how they may be contradicted by the povs of the other characters.

now, because as i said these were just shower thoughts so sorry if its a bit of a mess or that it ends abruptly. i just kinda ran out of things to say. if you have more ideas on why this might be the case feel free to drop it in a reblog or in the comments.

[lyriawhitethornnomore]

It makes my blood boil everytime I see people on booktok accusing both Lauren Roberts and Rebecca Yarros of plagiarising Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen series, but they would gloss over Sarah J Maas's plagiarism calling it inspiration.

It's easy to call Powerless trilogy a Red Queens ripoff and saying that Violet Sorrengail is Mare Barrows copycat but somehow it's hard for some people to admit that:

Erawan (one of togs antagonists) is Sauron 2.0.

Manon Blackbeak = Targaryen copycat (specifically Visenya)

But you know in sjm's case they are just fantasy tropes that you can find in other books

[miss-mollys-ballet-blog]

Disclaimer: I do love A Song of Ice and Fire and GRRM and everything else, I promise.

BUT.

The more I'm reading/paying attention to Lord of the Rings and Tolkien, the more I'm realizing that compared to Tolkien, Martin is an absolute amateur when it comes to world building. He seems so cliche and overdone and unoriginal. Tolkien is the Babe Ruth of world building and GRRM is a minor leagues hopeful. I would trade the entire ASOIAF universe for just one more Tolkien book based in Middle Earth.

[oh-good]

Tom Bombadil makes perfect sense actually when you find out he was based on a doll one of J RR Tolkien kids had

He is kind and entertaining

he chases away the bad dreams

he cannot be corrupted by even the strongest evil

he was there at the beginning of life and has been there ever since

he would not have any interest in taking the ring to Mordor because he has more important things to look after

He was the doll that stood watch over JRRT's children

he is a father's love

A wish for safety and comfort and joy for his kids

[inky-duchess]

Fantasy Guide to Creating Your Own Language

When writer's set out to world-build, language has a huge role in creating new cultures and lending a sense of realism to your efforts. A world and people just feel more real when language is involved. As the old Irish proverb says "tír gan teanga, tír gan anam”. A country without a language, is a country without a soul. So how can we create one?

Do Your Homework

First things off, you should start by studying languages. Nobody is asking you to get fluent but it's important to understand the basic mechanics of language. You will start to see certain tricks to language, how verbs are conjugated and how gender effects certain words. It will be easier to make up your own when you know these tricks. For example, in Irish one doesn't scold but "gives out to" - "a thabhairt amach". In German, numbers are arranged differently to the English with the smallest digit arranged before the tens for example 21 - Einsundzwanzig. By immersing yourself in an array of different languages (I recommend finding ones close to how you want your language to sound), you can gain the tools necessary for creating a believable language.

Keep it Simple

Nobody expects you to pull a Tolkien or channel the powers of David J. Peterson (hail bisa vala). You're not writing a dictionary of your con-lang. You will probably use only a handful of words in your story. Don't over complicate things. A reader will not be fluent in your con-lang and if they have to continually search for the meaning of words they will likely loose patience.

Start Small

When you're learning a language, you always start with the basics. You do the exact same when writing one. Start with introductions, the names of simple objects, simple verbs (to be, to do, to have for example) and most importantly your pronouns (you will use these more than any other word, which is why I always start with them). Simple everyday phrases should always be taken care of first. Build your foundation and work your way up, this is a marathon not a race.

Music to the Ears

If your creating a new language, you're more than likely doing it phonetically. Sound is important to language and especially a con-lang because you want to trick your reader into thinking of a real language when reading the words on the page. I suggest sitting down and actually speak your words aloud, get the feel of them on the tongue to work out the spelling. Spellings shouldn't be too complicated, as I said before the readers aren't fluent and you want to make it easier for them to try it out themselves.

Also when you're creating the con-lang, it's important to figure out how it sounds to an unsuspecting ear. If a character is walking down a street and hears a conversation in a strange language, they will likely describe to the reader what it sounds like. It might be guttural or soft, it might be bursque or flowery. It's always interesting to compare how different languages flow in the ear.

Writing in Your Language

Now that you've written your language and created some words, you will want to incoperate them into your story. The way most writers do this is by italicising them. As a reader, I generally prefer authors not to go too overboard with their con-lang. Swathes of con-lang words might intrigue a reader but it can leave them confused as well. It is better to feed con-lang to your readers bit by bit. In most published works writer's tend to use words here and there but there are few whole sentences. For example in A Game Of Thrones by George RR Martin, has actually only a handful of short sentences in Dothraki despite the language being prevalent throughout the book. Daenerys Targaryen pronounces that "Khalakka dothrae mr’anha!"/"A prince rides inside me!" and it's one of the only sentence we actually see in actual Dothraki.

There's also nothing stopping you from just saying a language has been spoken. If you're not comfortable writing out the words, then don't make yourself. A simple dialogue tag can do the trick just fine.

Know your Words

I do recommend keeping an actual record of your words. Make a dictionary if you want or a simple list of words you need. This is one of the most entertaining aspects of world building, have fun with it, go mad if you like. Also here's a short list of questions you can ask yourself about language in general which might help your juices flow.

[riversinmyblood]

chillest guy in the world award goes toooo..

I bet after Aragorn became king he would continue to be Just Some Chill As Fuck Dude. You go to the market and there’s the king of Gondor. Buying turnips.

[dyke-terra]

Tolkien’s world building is far more fleshed out and realistic that J RR Martin’s and I’m not afraid to say it

[riversinmyblood]

oh fool of a Took how i do adore thee...sighs dreamily

[a-ramblinrose]

A Weekly Reading Journal 1.20.25

Whoops I'm a day late and honestly this entry is almost identical to the last. That's what reading but not finishing does I guess.

Currently Reading:

Fiction:

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott

Black Thorn, White Rose by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

The Silmarillion by J. R.R. Tolkien [RR]

Poetry:

The Collected Poems of Denise Levertov

The Apple That Astonished Paris by Billy Collins

Nonfiction:

Tolkien: A Celebration by Joseph Pearce

The Letters of Emily Dickinson

Just Finished:

Dream Work by Mary Oliver ★★★★★ [RR]

General Reading Thoughts:

Lost myself in a pit of fanfiction and just now managing to crawl my way back to my bookshelves!

Happy Reading!!!

Current Reading Tag || General Original Content || 2025 Reading Page