[JameRetief]

Your Daily Tolkien Ping!

Coming from many sources, these articles cover many aspects of Tolkien and his literary works. If anyone would like for me to ping them directly when I post articles such as this let me know. Enjoy!

[Notforprophet]

Other than his rant about tobacco, this is a good review. BTW - who says the 'Shire weed' is tobacco, anyway? Didn't the Beatles claim it was pot? Maybe it is something else altogether.

[Destructor]

"Cry 'Havoc!' and let slip the wargs of fandom!"

More like: "Cry 'Sequel!' and let slip the geeks of boredom!"

[The Iguana]

If anything, it's a little too fast-paced for the first 30-40 minutes. But I couldn't see any way to tighten it up or slow it down. Peter had to give the audience the equivalent of "Meanwhile, back at the ranch" three times in a row. He tackled part of that problem by having Aragorn figure out what happened to Merry and Pippin (as in the book but with visual cues to the audience). I was very reminded of Prince Humperdink in "The Princess Bride". I almost expected Viggo Mortensen to pick up a bamboo phial and say, "Iocaine powder. I'd stake my life on it."

I immdiately whispered the same phrase to my wife at that moment. She just about lost it.

[The Iguana]

Let's take a look at one of my pet peeves: Peter Jackson's Middle-earth is way too much like Medieval Europe. Tolkien's Middle-earth bears little resemblance to Medieval Europe, and drew upon many classical (pre-Medieval) and modern (post-Medieval) influences, from Greco-Roman history and mythology to Victorian/Edwardian England.

I've argued this point before with Martinez.

I understand where he's coming from but the fact remains that Tolkien, for all his descriptiveness, really does not give us all that many clues as to the precise apparel and architectural stylings of much of Middle Earth.

We really have not seen enough of Gondor to know just exactly how its culture will be depicted - a classical flavor or a medieval flavor? Or something not quite in either realm?

Osgiliath certainly had the smell of Roman or Byzantine ruins - but we'll have to see what ROTk has in store for the living Gondor.

[BradyLS]

Of course, no one really cares what the purists think. Frankly, I don't, either. It's a good movie.

Don't let that line fool you. Based on my exchanges of arcane Tolkienalia with him in an on-line discussion group, Martinez is the text-book definition of "Tolkien purist." He's aware that the movies aren't the books AND that they're popular, so I'm willing to bet his amaiable tune would be different if the reviews were not so rosy.

[artios]

Tobbacco is critical for the return of the king - it explains why and how Sauraman gets his grip on the Shire. Why do we need to PC Tolkien? We don't. Light up and blow rings all you wizards, kings and shire-folk.

[KriegerGeist]

I can't get over how we know that this whole thing (the trilogy) could have been avoided had "Agent" Elrond snatched the ring from Isildur's hand and tossed it into the fires of Mount Doom when he had the chance in the first War of the Ring..."The War to end all wars"...

No more Ring of Power, no more Lord of the Ring (Sauron) and everyone would have lived happily ever after four (or was it two) thousand years before until the present.

Why did you not let Isildur keep it Elrond.? It would have been so easy to snatch it and toss it! It's all your fault. You failed as an Elf in Lord of the Rings just as you failed as an "Agent" in the Matrix.

[Argh]

Christopher Tolkien repudiated The Silmarillion? I thought he just repudiated the Elvish genealogy, or just part of that.