Who is Eru, the creator?
thanks!
an easy one: the wearer of luck
Last edited by Boraxxe; Jun 18 2019 at 09:01 PM.
Who was Ivy Goodenough (Boffin)?
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
- Will Rogers
What is Gondolin?
"Fenced" in by mountains and near-impossible to find?
Last edited by TheArtilleryman; Jun 24 2019 at 01:24 PM.
I recall reading some years ago how much Tolkien loved this line in Shakespeare: “Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him.”
Tolkien imagined walking trees marching in line, but was bitterly disappointed when Shakespeare had soldiers with leaves in their hair pretending to be trees. This apparently inspired Tolkien to invent Ents and Huorns, to do real justice to the idea of an army of trees.
So my answer is, Who are Ents?
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
- Will Rogers
You got it! Easier than I thought. The following is from Humphrey Carpenter's biography of Tolkien:
“... teaching of English literature. This subject scarcely featured in the curriculum, and when taught it was confined chiefly to a study of Shakespeare’s plays, which Ronald soon found that he ‘disliked cordially’. In later years he especially remembered ‘the bitter disappointment and disgust from schooldays with the shabby use made in Shakespeare of the coming of “Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane hill”: I longed to devise a setting by which the trees might really march to war.' ”
Take the stage, Mr Wolfhelm.
Thanks Artilleryman.
Ok, on a similar note, Tolkien also (reportedly) based another of his characters on a Shakespearean villain. Once again it was his dissatisfaction with a plot device that Shakespeare used to prophesise the demise of said villain that caused Tolkien to come up with a much more satisfying and fitting end.
Who is that character and which Shakespearean villain is he/she based on. Bonus points for giving the plot devise connecting the two.
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
- Will Rogers
Now that one is tricky. But the hints 'villain, prophesy of his demise, and a more elegant version' make me think.
Who is Eowyn?
If I am right, he took the MacBeth theme, where the protagonist - according to the witches - would not be killed by someone who is born by a woman. This made him believe that he was invulnerable, yet this person (MacDuff) existed. MacDuff was not born (the natural way), but cut from his mothers womb, by a caesarean operation.
Tolkien would have turned this motive into the famous 'I cannot be killed by a man' theme, which turned out to provide insufficient safety for the Witch King of Angmar, because he was killed by a combo of a Hobbit and a woman.
Greetings, Polymachos
Räuberhöhle auf Belegaer, Breelandsiedlung, Ochsbott, Lange Straße 5. Vorsicht, Fallen!
Awkward Anomalities Arena in Breeland Homesteads, 6 Long Street, Ersward (Landroval) - Elderslade under attack!
Scared people tend to follow the flock, no matter which shepherd it has
The character I was looking for was the Witch King of Angmar himself, not his killer, but I have to admit my clue was a little convoluted, and your reasoning was correct almost to the letter, so I'm going to pay Eowyn as the correct answer.
The riddle-stick is yours Polymachos
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
- Will Rogers
Âlright, let's try something.
This one is, as far as I know, not mentioned in LotR, but another text. It provided a temporary path from Aman to Middle Earth, which cost many lives.
Greetings, Polymachos
Räuberhöhle auf Belegaer, Breelandsiedlung, Ochsbott, Lange Straße 5. Vorsicht, Fallen!
Awkward Anomalities Arena in Breeland Homesteads, 6 Long Street, Ersward (Landroval) - Elderslade under attack!
Scared people tend to follow the flock, no matter which shepherd it has
Correct. It is your turn again.
Greetings, Polymachos
Räuberhöhle auf Belegaer, Breelandsiedlung, Ochsbott, Lange Straße 5. Vorsicht, Fallen!
Awkward Anomalities Arena in Breeland Homesteads, 6 Long Street, Ersward (Landroval) - Elderslade under attack!
Scared people tend to follow the flock, no matter which shepherd it has
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
- Will Rogers