#lotr resources

[tlotrgifs]

Lord of the Rings Aragorn → PSD #35-46  ↳ 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8  - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12

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[tathrin]

Reblogging again to add @nocompromise-noregrets​‘s tags and the link to the site they mentioned:

#yes this #the twins are always described separately #it's really interesting once you start noticing it #also ansereg.com has compiled all their appearances in canon #i was delighted to discover that site was still there when i came back to the fandom! 

https://ansereg.com/

It's always weird when (some) people talk about the choice of the half-Elven as if they evolve like Pokémon upon choosing their ultimate fates.

Elros didn't become exclusively human. He chose to retain the gift of Men and to be counted among Men as far as that ultimate fate went, but he remained a half-Elf. He didn't gain a beard (even descendants as remote as Aragorn, Boromir, and Faramir can't because of Elros) or most Mannish qualities he didn't already possess and he lived half a millennium.

Elrond chose to be counted among Elves in terms of immortality, but he isn't exclusively an Elf. He's described as both Elf and Man, and as the eldest of Aragorn's people. Elrond's marriage to a full Elf produces peredhel children. Two of them are given names signifying Elf+(human)Man, names which Tolkien translated as "Elf-knight" (in Númenórean Sindarin) and "Elf-Númenórean." Elrond's sons are always distinguished from Elves in LOTR.

Arwen doesn't morph into a human woman when she swears her vows with Aragorn; she still looks like f!Elrond and ageless years afterwards, and she would be very long-lived even if you only counted her married life. She is probably the most emphatically Elvish of any peredhel, but she's still a peredhel. Elwing and Eärendil are, too. Peredhil are peredhil are peredhil.

[ianmckellen]

Legolas Headers (requested by @glorfindelfinarfin) - 6 headers (640x360) | 4 different border versions under the cut - all versions + 2 extra border options here - please like or reblog if you take one - credit isn’t required but it’s appreciated - requests are open for other headers!

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Word List: Arwen

Carcanet - archaic: an ornamental necklace, chain, collar, or headband

Celestial - ethereal, otherworldly

Coalesce - to unite into a whole

Eidolon - ideal

Eyewater - archaic: tears

Fulgent - radiant

Gossamer - extremely light, delicate, or tenuous

Lambent - softly bright or radiant; marked by lightness or brilliance especially of expression

Lavaliere - a pendant on a fine chain that is worn as a necklace

Lilaceous - of or resembling the color lilac

Numinous - appealing to the higher emotions or to the aesthetic sense; spiritual; mysterious

Perenniality - the quality of being persistent, enduring

Pur autre vie - for another's life

Recherché - exquisite; rare

Rivière - a necklace of precious stones

Rosewater - affectedly nice or delicate

Salutiferous - producing a beneficial effect; remedial

Scintillation - rapid changes in the brightness of a celestial body

Troth - loyal or pledged faithfulness; fidelity

Venust - archaic: beautiful, graceful, elegant

More: Word Lists

[daydreaming-cephalopods]

LOTR/The Hobbit Blinkies

…honestly they’re mostly Legolas blinkies.

image IDs in alt text

source: link, link, link, link, link, link, link, link, link this decor was sourced using gifcities, and links may include unsavory political opinions or content. enter at your own risk. I do not agree with any opinions featured unless specifically stated.

[physalian]

On eating your “Realism” cake and having it too

Inspired by another post I didn't want to hijack twice.

TL;DR, people are able to suspend their disbelief for many things, but once you invite them to start questioning things, if you have not done the groundwork, your lore might fall apart.

Example I love to use is Cars to Cars 2.

People were not nitpicking how car society works after Cars. It’s a kids movie about anthropomorphic vehicles, and for the most part, it kind of made sense. The courthouse in Radiator Springs was built for vehicles, Doc was a “doctor” but really a fancy mechanic, and the plot was about cars racing, doing car things.

Yeah you could wonder things like, how did they build the buildings? Why do they have both sentient aircraft (the helicopter and blimp) but also planes being piloted by cars (the flyover of the jets above the big race)? But these were negligible background details that didn’t matter to the plot.

Cars didn’t have to be ‘realistic’ and wasn’t pretending to be.

Cars 2 was when people got all up in arms nitpicking the hell out of every little thing, because in this movie, zero thought was given to the worldbuilding beyond “idk it’s earth but with humans instead of cars” except now it matters to the plot.

Why is Mater able to eat wasabi? Why does wasabi exist? Why is there a car pope? Why is there a car queen? How do cars have parents? What was the point of that one car with their eyes in the headlights? Are sentient battleships born or made into a life of combat? Are all commercial planes forced to be pack mules for their whole existence? How does the car class system work? Why do lemons exist?

All of this taking away from the grand prix plot that made much more sense for the universe, instead of the spy movie. Now, to try and solve the mystery and engage with the story, we have to think about all those incongruous details. All those details, the car queen and car pope would have been funny background gags if the movie was just about the grand prix.

It’s still a kids movie, but now with all these details that don’t add up and cannot be ignored. Cars could be enjoyed by everyone. Cars 2 was made for money kids who weren’t supposed to think about all that.

—

If you as the author and your story take the tone of “this is for fun don’t think too hard” people will have a good time if they’re entertained and anyone who nitpicks can be met with, well, Dead Dove: What did you expect? It’s exactly what it says on the tin.

You can absolutely make shit up as you go along. I read a book that had dinosaurs on Mars. Why? Because it’s fun. There was a tiny scientific explanation given, but the plot did not rest on how and why these dinosaurs exist on Mars. The story never asked the audience to consider logic, nor did it have its characters questioning the worldbuilding.

You do not have to be “realistic,” in that way, to be good.

But once you start bringing attention to the elephant in the room, you need to have done your homework.

So, example.

I have a novel in which the sun does not shine, permanently, across the entire northern hemisphere of earth. This is fantasy, not sci-fi.

Option one: Ignore all the catastrophic consequences of such an apocalypse. How it works, why it happened, all that noise does not matter to the plot or the characters. No one ever questions it, no one’s choices ever depend on it. It’s just a fun aesthetic choice, in the same way that animals can talk to humans in Disney movies and no one questions it. Why and how they can talk does not matter, only that they can and we are now entertained by Mushu’s antics.

Option two: Okay, so I’ve taken the sun away from half the planet. I now need to think about the following: How does that affect the weather for the other half? What happens to all the plants and animals that lived in the North? How would one survive in that wasteland without easy access to food? What food could grow there without sunlight? By what other means can I get nutrients for plants and animals without sunlight, so people can eat, so communities can exist?

I went with option two. The plot of the book is very much tied to this lack of sunlight and the hazardous environment the characters are stuck in. The characters are wondering how it works and how they can overcome it constantly. I did my homework, I gave them a way to survive and even thrive up there. I am thus calling this post-apocalyptic setting “realistic”.

It’s still fantasy, so my explanation is still “because magic”, where the sun isn’t gone it’s just being blocked by a big magic blanket, to put it simply, but the consequences are based in realism. That way, my audience can follow along and understand how the world works and anticipate why characters do the things they do in their environment.

So if a geologist or climatologist reads my book and goes “um actually” and they point out that I’m wrong, I have to own that. I have to say “yeah I didn’t consider that, it’s a good point, but I can’t change the manuscript so to enjoy the book, try not to think about it.”

What I cannot do is protest all criticisms of my “realism” by going “it’s fantasy you’re not supposed to take it seriously” while turning around and also saying how smart I am and how clever and authentic my worldbuilding is.

Can’t eat your realism cake and have it too.

And this is only talking about the lore. I haven’t even touched escapist fantasy relationships.

A more famous example: Gandalf’s magic in Lord of the Rings.

Have not read the books in a hot minute so I’m referencing the movies as I’m more familiar with them.

Gandalf is a wizard. He can do an unexplained number of spells pretty much as the plot demands. What he cannot do is never given a hard limit, which tends to break most magic systems.

And yet. “Why didn’t Gandalf save the day?” isn’t a question that destroys the story.

Gandalf is a shepherd, not the hero. He can lead the race of Men to water, but he can’t make them drink. If he came in and started forcing all the power-hungry men to sit down, shut up, and cooperate, what magic Gandalf can and cannot do would be paramount to understanding the story. He can only nudge people in what he thinks is the right direction, but the choice to act is up to them.

Which is pretty heavily implied throughout the films.

As for his magic, Gandalf both never wins without consequence, and isn’t an aggressive character who resorts to his magic at every turn.

He took down the Balrog, but the Balrog got him, too

He warded off the nazgul with the big light beam outside Minas Tirith, but a lot of Gondorian soldiers still died, and he didn’t do any damage to the fellbeasts

He likes fun times and magic tricks, like the fireworks, more than spells for combat

He’s forgetful, like with the password to the door of Moria

He is not all-powerful

All this means that in any life or death situation, the weight of the plot does not rest solely on his shoulders.

So Tolkein isn’t “realistic” in that he consulted physicists about every little thing, but he’s “realistic” in that all the worldbuilding decisions and lore realistically fit the story. The choices of the characters, the behaviors of the different kingdoms, the perspectives of the different races all make sense for the world they live in.

—

It is nearly impossible, as a lone writer, to cover every potential plot hole that a reader could point out. It’s fiction, after all, and sometimes characters make choices because that’s what’s entertaining and the other option of “just go home” or “X did this because they forgot Y” is not entertaining.

But if you have, say, the series that inspired this post, with a world where winter shows up when the plot demands and lasts for years, you can either say “eh that’s just a thing that happens, it’s not important I just thought it was neat and a cool setting” and people will shrug it off.

Or you can say “this is absolutely critical to the entire story and impacts every society within my world” but don’t do your homework on what those impacts are, people can and will call you out on it.

[outofangband]

Sindarin numbers:

Cardinal numbers In order of one to twelve:

Min, tâg, neledh, canad, leben, eneg, odog, tolodh, neder, caen, minib, ýneg

Meneg: thousand 

Minui: First

Tadui: second

Nelui: third

Canthui: fourth

Levnui: fifth

Enchui: sixth

Othui: seventh

Tollui: eighth

Nedrui: ninth

Paenui: tenth

nelchaenen: thirtieth

See also:

arnediad: countless

[sisterofthesouth]

signs of the shadow lord are all over noradz even before we see the brand on reece’s face because noradz has anachronistically modern technology such as:

industrial kitchens

glass jars

a system of metal catwalks above the kitchen

gloves that cling to the skin (latex gloves)

conveyor belts

[mushroomates]

what if the real reason the eagles didn’t take frodo to mordor from the get go is because no one bothered reaching out. like i know the real reason but just imagine if it all could have worked out in the end if gandalf had just sent that awkward text (scroll)

frodo: you couldn’t have done this in the first place?????

eagle: i mean, you didn’t ask 🙄💁

[signfrog]

person: hey qre you ok? youve seemed sp out of it recently

me: yeah its just... that time of the month

person: ...but wait, arent you tran-

THE BEACON IS LIT! GONDOR CALLS FOR AID

person: ah i see what you did t-

AND ROHAN WILL ANSWER

person: are you fucking fr right n-

MUSTER THE ROHIRRIM, ASSEMBLE THE ARMY AT DUNHARROW, AS MANY AS CAN BE FOUND

*puts hand on their shoulder* you have two days.

person: wh-what happens after the two days??

me: on the third we ride for gondor. and war. *puts on rohirrim rider helmet and horsegirl beard, rides into the sunset*

[tlotrgifs]

Lord of the Rings → PSD #47-58  ↳ 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8  - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12

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[okteavia]

The Hobbit icons - Bilbo Baggins icons - 300x300 - 12 DFD (download from dash) icons of Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbit - The Battle of Five Armies - The Lord of the Rings content - J.R.R. Tolkien) | Feel free to use them on any platform, but please like or reblog if you save any.

[pinglet]

Horn of Gondor, inspired by the Lord of the Rings

[ianmckellen]

Samwise Gamgee Headers requested by anon - 6 headers (640x360) | 4 different border versions under the cut - more lotr headers here - please like or reblog if you take one - credit isn’t required but it’s appreciated - requests are open for other headers!

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Guide: Hero's Journey

using the 3-act structure

ACT I

ORDINARY WORLD

Your hero and their everyday life are established.

Sample Synopsis: Bilbo Baggins, a very well-to-do hobbit of Bag End, sits outside his front porch. He smokes a wooden pipe, as usual.

Your Synopsis:

CALL TO ADVENTURE

An event or problem forces your character out of their comfort zone.

Sample Synopsis: Gandalf arrives and tells him that he's looking for someone to share in an adventure that he's arranging.

Your Synopsis:

REFUSAL TO THE CALL

The hero shows reluctance to leave their everyday life behind.

Sample Synopsis: Bilbo turns down the overture but makes the mistake of inviting Gandalf for tea the next day — unwittingly putting himself on the path of the journey.

Your Synopsis:

MEETING THE MENTOR

Your protagonist meets a mentor who can help them face the challenges ahead.

Sample Synopsis: Gandalf comes to tea with a gang of dwarves. They sing an ancient song of the treasure in the Lonely Mountain, making Bilbo dream of adventure.

Your Synopsis:

— 33% through your story —

ACT II

CROSSING THE FIRST THRESHOLD

The hero fully commits to their journey into the Special World. There's no turning back.

Sample Synopsis: Bilbo packs his bags and leaves Hobbiton behind, crossing the threshold into the Special World.

Your Synopsis:

TEST, ALLIES, ENEMIES

As the protagonist enters the unfamiliar world, they encounter obstacles and enemies. New allies appear to help.

Sample Synopsis: Bilbo faces trolls, bloodthirsty spiders, unfriendly Wood Elves, and a Gollum — but he befriends elves from Rivendell and the bear-man, Beorn.

Your Synopsis:

APPROACH TO THE INMOST CAVE

The hero approaches the place where they'll encounter their biggest foe (but they don't enter it yet).

Sample Synopsis: The dwarves and Bilbo get closer to the Inmost Cave: the Lonely Mountain in which Torin's treasure lies.

Your Synopsis:

ORDEAL

Your character confronts their greatest fear and the biggest threat. This is where they become a true hero.

Sample Synopsis: Up goes Bilbo to face Smaug, the dragon who jealously guards the gold within the Lonely Mountain.

Your Synopsis:

REWARD (Seizing the Sword)

Your hero sees the light at the end of the tunnel, finding the tool (or belief) they need to finish their journey.

Sample Synopsis: Smaug dies and the dwarves gain control of the Lonely Mountain once more — plus all its treasure.

Your Synopsis:

— 75% through your story —

ACT III

THE ROAD BACK

The protagonist begins their journey home, although more dangers appear along the way.

Sample Synopsis: Bilbo gets caught up in the conflict between the dwarves and the Lake Men, who demand compensation for their aid in the fight against Smaug. Thorin refuses.

Your Synopsis:

RESURRECTION

Before getting their happy ending, your character faces a final test they must survive.

Sample Synopsis: The Battle of the Five Armies breaks out and Bilbo loses consciousness.

Your Synopsis:

RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR

The hero returns home changed for the better with an "elixir" — an insight or a literal prize.

Sample Synopsis: Bilbo returns home to Hobbiton with his share of the treasure and a lot of wisdom gained.

Your Synopsis:

Note:

Use this outline to define all 9 of your story's major plot points.

You can then use the 'Scene-by-Scene' guide below to plot out your entire story.

As you write, revise, and edit, return to this guide and update the structure to reflect your latest draft.

Scene-by-Scene Guide: Hero's Journey

Scene Number (1, 2...):

Act (I, II, III):

Step (Ordinary World, Call to Adventure...):

Location:

Date/Time:

Characters in Scene:

Synopsis (What action takes place in the scene?):

Changes (How are the characters or situation now different):

Source ⚜ More: Worksheets & Templates ⚜ Story Plot ⚜ The 3-Act Structure Plot ⚜ Character ⚜ Worldbuilding ⚜ Tips & Advice ⚜ A Guide: 3-Act Structure

[physalian]

Evil MacGuffins (Or an excuse to gush about Lord of the Rings)

It’s kind of crazy how so much of Tolkien’s worldbuilding has defined fantasy. The default for Elves and Dwarves, fantasy kingdoms, character archetypes, themes, and motifs come from Tolkien’s works.

But you know what’s rarely ever redone in modern fantasy? The One Ring. Probably because works piggybacking off the success of their predecessors rarely understand the themes of what made the original so legendary *cough* teen dystopia *cough*.

So—the One Ring.

Addressing the infamous Eagles “plot hole” once again for any stragglers who still think *gotcha* for this masterpiece: 1) The Eagles were busy. 2) The Eagles are not subtle at all and this mission required absolute stealth, because the one place the One Ring can be destroyed is in Sauron’s house, thus the closer they get to destroying it, the closer Sauron gets to just reaching out and taking it. 3) There were 9 Nazgul and Fellbeasts in the way. 4) The Eagles are basically gods, second only to the actual gods of the world. This makes them deeply inadvisable to go anywhere near the One Ring.

Why? Yes the Ring gives you some random powers like invisibility and slower aging but its purpose is temptation and political power. As you can see in the movie’s prologue, all the Rings of Power were subservient to Sauron’s master ring, the One Ring, to bend to his will… to varying degrees of success.

The power of the One Ring is proportional to the power of its wielder, giving you social and political influence over all your followers. So if you’re, say, a king of men, and you become Sauron’s minion, you’re going to lead your kingdom to ruin doing his bidding whether you realize you’re doing it or not. If you have no political or social power, like, say a hobbit? The Ring doesn’t have much use for you and you, seeing no benefit to world domination, are more resistant to its beguiling.

All this to say: The story makes it very clear that Frodo has to be the ring-bearer because he’s impervious to the Ring’s wiles. Anyone more competent, like Aragorn or Legolas, or Gandalf, are more susceptible to its power. The more power you have, the more destruction you will wreak under the Ring’s influence, and everyone bends to the Ring’s will eventually, no matter how good your intentions.

Eagles are great. Evil Eagles would be very, very bad.

Gandalf is great. Evil Gandalf looks like Saruman, and we all saw how that went.

That is a built-in plot armor I never see in modern fiction—Why?

—

One of the many messages of LOTR is not “good always triumphs” but instead “evil always loses”. The difference being here that it’s not necessarily the Power of Friendship that defeats evil, it’s evil’s selfish and self-sabotaging nature that eats itself to its own demise.

Example: Neither Frodo nor Sam strike the killing blow on Gollum. Gollum falls fighting Frodo for the Ring and can't let go of it to save himself. The Power of Friendship saves Frodo, but it doesn't destroy the Ring.

The One Ring is a MacGuffin like no other in that it’s not just a cool inanimate and useless object that only holds meaning to the characters that want it—the Ring is its own character enticing all these people to lust after it and fall on their own swords doing so.

Obviously, if you find the enemy’s magic weapon in your possession, you’re going to want to use it against them, which is exactly Boromir’s argument. Any other story and you’d have a difficult time justifying why your characters wouldn’t seize this golden opportunity. In this story, by the weapon’s very nature, trying to use it is exactly what it, and its creator, wants.

The point of the Ring, and at least my interpretation of its meaning, is this: When you’re going up against the evil and corrupt, you cannot let yourself become corrupted trying to defeat it, or else the cycle will never be broken. Or, “Hate can­not dri­ve out hate; only love can do that.”

I almost wish we had seen it seriously tempt the more powerful characters—like seeing Aragorn forced to use it in an emergency the way Frodo does several times. See what it does to him and how hard it is to resist this beguiling weapon’s siren song.

“Evil weapon is super conveniently powerful and would solve all our problems but alas, it has some nasty side effects” has been done before, frequently in anime. Usually, though, that weapon isn’t the centerpiece of the story. It’s the edgy side-character’s Hail Mary when things have gone Very Wrong.

—

Most LOTR copycats focus on the cool species and the magical lands and the magic systems and a generically evil villain who wants world domination. Yes, Sauron is, by modern standards, pretty one-note. He wants to rule the world. Why? Because he’s Evil and Prideful. There’s nothing wrong with a pure-evil villain, they can be highly entertaining without angst dragging them down.

However, Pure Evil villains work best when either they’re incredibly charismatic, like Disney Renaissance villains, or they’re just the face of the metaphor. Ozai from ATLA does not need character development, Netflix. He may be the face of the Fire Nation, but it’s his regime and this one element’s unbalanced crusade for world domination that’s the “villain”.

Sauron isn’t even a giant, corporeal eye in the book. He’s just this disembodied entity represented by the eye in visions. His influence and how it motivates legions of orcs, humans, and anyone else tempted by power, is the “villain”.

The One Ring serves as his thematic proxy. It’s not just a magic ring, it’s a cosmic mousetrap waiting to spring on anyone proud enough to think they can overcome it.

And I just never see that in modern fantasy.

—

TLDR; There is no MacGuffin quite like the One Ring and no, the Eagles aren’t a lazy or forgotten deus ex machina. When you’re coming up with your heroes and villains in fantasy and sci-fi, consider something like the Ring as this double-edged sword that has everyone gunning for it either unknowing that it’s exactly what the villain wants, or too proud to think they can fall victim to it.