Michael’s Comments (group member since Jun 10, 2010)

Michael’s comments from the J.R.R. Tolkien group.

Thanks, Connor

Aldean wrote: "Great quizzes, Michael, very well done!"

You smoked them both like a Hobbit with a pipeful of Longbottom Leaf!!

Hello, Hannah. The Hobbit is such a good book, which I'm due to read again myself quite soon. I first read it when I was age 9, 38 years ago!

I've created a quiz about the plants, trees and flowers of Middle-earth, which you can find here if you want to have a try:
http://www.goodreads.com/quizzes/by_u...


I think it's pretty difficult for the casual J.R.R. Tolkien reader, but for the experts in this group it should be easy!

Please do check, Zachary, and post back as I'd be interested to know just what he says.

Last night I dreamt that I had written The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, but I was just Tolkien in my sleep.

Hi, Elizabeth. That's a lot of Tolkien you've read :-)

Bilbo's Last Song

I've read this poem numberless times and have now decided to memorise it - it's short enough that my poor brain should be able to cope (eventually).

I love this poem: it's a song of yearning for both the future and the past. Pauline Baynes's illustrations beautifully complement the verse and are worth the price of the book by themselves.

According to The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth, Balrogs, "...were spirits of fire and bore whips of flame, but they were also cloaked in darkness." No mention of wings, but admittedly this is a secondary source.

In this edition of The Silmarillion, Balrogs are descibed at page 47, much as in the Guide, but no mention of wings. Quite a few other mentions in the Silmarillion, but no further description.

So, Tolkien's description is rather ambiguous and it is left to the imagination of the reader to give flesh to the spirit of the Balrog.

Personally, I think the cloak/wings of shadow are a used as a threat display, a means of instilling fear. There appears to be no canonical reference to Balrogs in flight.

This is all rather off topic for this thread - maybe somebody should start a Balrog thread if further discussion is wanted.

I'm not the biggest Tolkein fan as I'm only 4'2" - that makes me too tall for a Hobbit, but maybe a Dwarf? ;-D

I watched the LotR cartoon film when it came out and enjoyed it - however, I was only a halfling myself at the time! I do remember being disappointed that they ran out of money to complete the whole trilogy.

Crappilzed! My word of the day :-)

Thanks for the link, Sidhe. It's a shame Del Toro isn't directing, but I don't think Peter Jackson will drop the ball with finding a new director: it's obvious that he's a Tolkien nut and far too committed to the films to entrust The Hobbit to anybody without a similar passion.

Given how bad the LOTR films could have been, I was actually very relieved at how good they were. Film and print are very different media, so there was no way that the films were going to be exactly like the books. It was a question of whether the spirit of the books would make it onto the screen, not whether all the scenes we love would make it there - no Tom Bombadil :-(

Given that this was a Hollywood-financed film, I think we should be grateful for what we actually got! The scene where Galadriel manifested as the Dark Lady has the hairs standing up on my arms every time I see it!

The Hobbit movies may be a bit more problematical for me, as they are apparently making the story "darker" to fit the tone of LOTR. We shall have to see...

Hi, all. I first read The Hobbit when I was about 8 (1972!) and re-read and re-read it. Then got the deluxe boxed version of LOTR for Christmas 1978, I think. Have re-read that many times also plus many of the other works mentioned above.

I'm lucky enough to live in Lancashire and not far from Stoneyhurst College, where Tolkien stayed when visiting his son John, who was a pupil there. The surrounding area, the Forest of Bowland, is reputed to be the inspiration for the Shire, but then many places where he spent time make the same claim. It's interesting that Tolkien himself is becoming almost mythologised in the UK with many localities deriving a sense of history and worth from the association, rather like King Arthur and Robin Hood. Or, maybe it's just Tourist Board marketing!