Happy Birthday, ‘Lord Of The Rings’

cognoscenti.wbur.org ^

[left that other site]

Or Melville! LOL!

(JFTR, I have just finished reading “Moby Dick” for the fifth time.)

[FourtySeven]

Oh wow, thanks.

[left that other site]

With LOTR, Tolstoy, and Moby Dick, the RHYTHM of the writing is as important as the story.

I just finished reading MD again, and experienced once more the rolling unresolved cadence of that ceaseless main, rocking , like a cradle teeming with life, through my feverish, restless heart. And that was just through the boring parts! LOL!

[Caipirabob]

Old? No, it makes you “classic” and a “collectible”...lol!

[Alas Babylon!]

Dang! Who peed in your cornflakes this morning?

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

The world needs more good books like those for sure.....so many novels today are lame, predictable, and poorly written.

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

lol

[don-o]

Hostile commentators sensed something they simply did not like in The Lord of the Rings (3 vols., 1954-5) and Tolkien’s other works: something that appealed to tradition, rightful authority and the high role of virtue as an element of lawful authority, as well as the goodness of earthy lives lived close to the soil, in close community and on ancestral holdings. It is a tale in which the corruptive nature of unlimited power is illustrated, in which ethical distinctions are made, and in which humble people take up arms to defend their land. To the liberal imagination, this is all reprehensible; and such writers as Edmund Wilson, John Le Carre, and Germaine Greer smelled the transcendent element in Tolkien’s works the way a dog smells death—and with the same response. Only they called it not the the transcendent, but craven escape and fascism—apparently believing that the taking down of weapons from the wall to defend one’s home and land is the first step on the road to becoming a goose-stepping worshipper of the total state.

[CAluvdubya]

It is unfortunate FR hosts such garbage as this.

I'll never understand the posters that think FR articles should be geared for their own personal likes and dislikes........

Did it ever occur to you to just pass the article on by if you don't want to read it?

[left that other site]

Ha Ha ha!

[The_Victor]

It is unfortunate FR hosts such garbage as this.

Everyone here is free to pick and choose what we read, and what we ignore.

[left that other site]

I agree.

[papineau]

There’s quite a bit actually and The Silmarillion is a good place to start but like other’s have said, its not in the “novel” style of LOTR.

Even denser are the dozen or so volumes of “The History Of The Peoples Of Middle Earth” compiled from JRR’s notes over 50 years by his son Christopher. It’s like poring through 100,000 pages of heavily annotated academic text, but great for the true fanatic.

There’s also “Lost Tales” and “Forgotten Tales”, also compiled by Christopher, more like The Silmarillion in style. “The Children of Hurin” is a fuller version of some of the stories in the Silmarillion about men.

There’s a ton of stuff on the web too, it’s been a huge subject since the early days of the Internet. The flame war over “Do Balrogs have wings?” in the usenet newsgroups is still talked about.

Try http://tolkien.slimy.com/ , the Tolkien meta faq for some interesting stuff.

[Resolute Conservative]

He created his own languages for the stories as well. Trekkies are still jealous with their attempt making Klingon a language.

[FourtySeven]

Cool thanks.

So what’s the consensus now? Do Balrogs have wings?

[Hegewisch Dupa]

most definitively

[Hegewisch Dupa]

clown. Grow the hell up

[papineau]

Nope, no wings.

[Hegewisch Dupa]

i think there is a line that mentions it spreading its wings as it approaches that “you shall not pass” guy

[Hegewisch Dupa]

Found the line:

"drew itself to a great height, and its wings spread from wall to wall"