Stefan’s Comments (group member since Mar 01, 2012)

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

Carina wrote: "All i can say is that I really just got into Tolkien last year, and I've read the Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings books, the Silmarillion, the separate books for The Children of Hurin, Beren and Luth..."
Impressive!!! Sounds like you are building a lifelong passion very quickly!

https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

Sad news, thought that I needed to share. He brought us so much of his father's works, who will take up the mantle now?

I was planning it for an online play by post group but it never panned out.

I was actually recently toying with putting together a Middle Earth campaign set after the War of the Ring. Something focused on the rebuilding of Gondor. Hunting down and eliminating remaining pockets of orcs and such, quests to recover lost/stolen artifacts, etc.

I played this a bit in the 80s.

I'm sorry to hear that. I personally enjoy the films and the books. I like the books better than the films overall, but the films are well done and really helped to opened up the fantasy genre to the general public.

Regardless of what their actual relationship is, I think that at its base these two are the best of friends. Whether or not their relationship is platonic or more than that, we as readers are certainly not given specifics on. As a heterosexual male, I certainly have friendships with other men that if put under the strain of extreme outside events I would assume would certainly resemble the relationship that we see between Frodo and Sam. Does this reveal a homo-erotic tone (not that it would be a bad thing if it did)? I certainly don't think so. Going through stressful situations together (even in examples such as sports) leads to individuals bonding in a way that transcends the normal bonds of friendship and builds a deeper trust and understanding with one another that some looking in from the outside could read as a romantic involvement.

I have seen it written in one of the histories that orcs had a short lifespan in comparison to the Numenoreans so they weren't immortal, but they were definitely long lived as evidence in the writings shows that Bolg was well over 100 years old.

I'm not nearly as far into this as I would like to be, but I'm really enjoying the leisurely pace to this point. I think that it will make that quicker pace really stand out more when it happens.

Awesome! Thank you for sharing this!

I'm with you, Pickle. No need to feel awkward.

**Not totally true, I guess. I'm still waiting on the Battle of the Five Armies Extended Edition.

Sounds awesome!

Glad to have you on board!

I've actually only read the first. The rest are on my to-read shelf waiting for me, but I need to re-read this one before I dive into the rest of the series. When I read it the first time, I didn't realize that it was not a stand-alone novel. (WAY before there was an internet to find these things so easily)

As we all are too well aware, there is only so much Tolkien available. So, for our next group read, we're going to try another "Book that I'd recommend to Tolkien." I know that Tolkien was not a fan of reading fiction, but I try to look at selecting books that have enough merit that I would recommend them to him if I had the chance.

This quarter, we have chosen The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams. Taking a guess, I think that I first read this novel in 1991 (when I was a junior or senior in high school.) Honestly, I was drawn to it by the fantastic cover art, as I often am. Whomever first said "Don't judge a book by it's cover," has been wrong many times in my experience and The Dragonbone Chair is no exception. I have often wandered back in my mind to the quest of Simon, the castle scullion, and his friends and the evil of the Storm King. It's a fun adventure and I'm sure that I will enjoy reading it again and hopefully you all will enjoy taking the journey along with me!

I actually liked The Battle of the Five Armies much better than the second (although, the second was much better in an extended edition than the theater version.)

Was actually working on this when I saw your comment! New challenge is posted! Enjoy!!

Had to share this interesting article discussing Middle-earth origins: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014...

Awesome! I'll have to get a copy soon. Thanks for sharing!

No problem, I was just being contrary.