Recent content by Steve Melisi

Just occurred to me as I work my annual way through Two Towers -- is it LUG-burz, or lug-BURZ? Because there is an accent over the second U, which with Tolkien usually means the accent goes there. I have been doing the former forever, but I guess I'm wrong? I had a similar realization with...

What is said missing paragraph?

I've been thinking about the discussion of Gandalf's choice of Shadowfax for his horse, and how it's a bit ingracious of him to take the best of the best. We never hear the full dialogue with Theoden over the giving of a horse -- Gandalf choosing that moment to shorten his tale (hmph!) But since...

Very timely, I just listened to ep 159 at the same time as I was wrapping up my annual LOTR read. Hit this passage in Homeward Bound, with Gandalf talking to the hobbits and he in essence gives his job description. "My time is over: it is no longer my task to set things to rights, nor to help...

These are reactions to ideas discussed in Ep 154. First, I think it’s obvious that Thranduil was anti-dwarf. He knows the history of elves and dwarves – whatever that may be at this point in the telling – and to him, the dwarves were interlopers into their domain as well as their feasting. Bad...

One of the topics in Ep 154 was the “fact” of The Hobbit and how that is to be reconciled with world we get in The Lord of the Rings. One thing that wasn’t discussed is the timing – which is to say, the “when” that The Hobbit is being told from. LOTR is effectively written much closer to the...

Apropos of this, I am doing my annual reading of LOTR now, and it occurred to me that the sword that Frodo uses to stab at the Witch King at Weathertop is the same kind of sword that Merry uses against him at the Pelennor Fields. It’s a sword of the Barrow downs, work of Westernesse – of which...

Posted this yesterday, but i dont see it, so posting again I’ve been wrestling with the idea of the orc killing in LOTR, and I have to wonder -- ARE orcs being treated as automata there, or are they simply the enemy? Or more specifically, representatives of the Enemy. Either way, they are a...

I’ve been wrestling with the idea of the orc killing in LOTR, and I have to wonder -- ARE orcs being treated as automata there, or are they simply the enemy? Or more specifically, representatives of the Enemy. Either way, they are a force that must be stopped at all costs so that the Enemy...

This is a bit of a larger question -- how does anyone who is not a Ringwraith know what a Ringwraith experiences on that side while wearing their rings? Can we take for granted that Isildur put on the Ring more that one time while trying to escape the Orcs at the Gladden Fields. We have to think...

The news that Exploring the LOTR will be going on til 2030 is certainly incredible -- but how many of us really want it to end? Knowing that it will always be here for us is extremely comforting. And of course we never did do the Prologue, so right there should be another 7-8 weeks! Meanwhile...

I've always had a soft spot for the Bakshi version, even though i was among those who saw it when it first came out and was sadder than sad when it ended after Helm's Deep. It hits a lot of right moments. Still would have loved to see the Sam as drawn here taking on Shelob.

I know there's not a lot of love for the Bakshi Lord of the Rings, but check out this clip from the movie. Cut to 00:45 to see exactly. This is how I always envision the two Ringwraiths who "rode toward Frodo" in the flight to the ford.

I was thinking similarly as I was just reading the Houses of Healing in ROTK, and Aragorn wishes he had Elrond with him, whose skill is so much greater. It made me think how Aragorn learned his skills in healing. Yes, he IS the king to be, and the hands of a king are the hands of a healer, but...

I hear you, Jim Deutch. I think i always thought of that other voice in Frodo's head as being the better part of himself, telling him what he should do. I never picked up Gandalf's references in the White Rider or if I did, never connected it back. Which then makes the reference to the Palantire...