#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

[entishramblings]

as this time of the year comes around, i would like the publicly thank tolkien for not putting santa claus in lord of the rings.

[dulaman-na-farraige]

I love your post Angband Maedhros drawings! I’m so excited to see the color version

-@outofangband

Thank you very much @outofangband ! <3 Here's the updated version

[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...

[feydrawings]

Tar Telperien, Second Ruling Queen of  Númenor

back to posting with some Numenor! this time, Tar-Telperien, second Ruling Queen of Numenor (and not simply queen consort). Little is told to us about her, but we know that she ruled on Numenor for 175 years, and she never married but ruled alone on her own. It was during her kingdom that the Rings of Power were forged in Eregion, and that the War of the Rings begun. She died without a heir, so it was her nephew Tar-Minastir who succeeded her. 

the stained glass windows are inspired by breath-art’s incredible stained glass art. 

Please do not repost my art on other sites without permission nor remove the trademark. Click to enlarge the picture. 

[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

[sweetiepie08]

Having finished Letters from Father Christmas, I can only conclude that Tolkien’s main gripe with CS Lewis’ Santa Claus is that he didn’t invent at least 2 languages to flesh out his North Pole lore.

[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.

[fateshurly]

yknow if you think about it, the existence of Tauriel was caused by the assassination of duke Franz Ferdinand.

[hibernobritonicdrunk]

This is weird as shit but I would still watch this.

[dulaman-na-farraige]

[TW: Blood] More healing Maedhros angst. Even angstier drawing below the cut

[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

[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.

[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.