Questions tagged [tolkiens-legendarium]
For questions about any works in J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium - The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and other works set in the same universe - or about that universe as a whole. Questions about movies, games, or other media set in the same universe should also use this tag. Questions about Tolkien himself or works by him which are not part of the Middle-earth universe should NOT use this tag use [j-r-r-tolkien] instead.
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In Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Films, what is the eventual fate of Samwise? [closed]
Reference this related question for context.
In the film adaptation, the ship that Frodo and Bilbo took was the last ship to leave for the Undying Lands.
So, in-universe of the films, what eventually ...
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Why were they called the Corsairs of Umbar?
In Tolkien's Middle-earth, the region of Umbar is some distance almost due south of Gondor. It's inhabited by a fierce seagoing people, descendants of evil Númenóreans and Haradrim, feared for their ...
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Are elves born in Valinor after the year of the trees Calaquendi?
Calaquendi are the group of elves in Tolkien’s Legendarium that beheld the light of the two trees in Valinor. It consists of the Vanyar, Noldor, Falmari, and Thingol out of all Umanyar.
Can the status ...
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Why didn't Frodo tell the others that Boromir would try to take the One Ring?
In the movie LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring, I am wondering why Frodo didn't tell Aragorn, or one of the others in the fellowship, that Galadriel had told him that Boromir would try to take the One ...
user143126
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What was the first official film adaptation made of J.R.R. Tolkien's work?
Peter Jackson has made six large budget films adapting The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and before that there were the animated Rankin Bass and Ralph Bakshi films.
However those films began in ...
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Did Orcs retain any features of elves?
From the Lord of the Rings Fandom wiki article on Orcs:
Before Oromë first found the Elves at Cuiviénen, Melkor kidnapped some of them and cruelly tortured them, twisting them into the first Orcs.
...
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If the House of Elrond is the Last Homely House east of the Sea, what are the others?
As the books call it, Elrond's house is the Last Homely House east of the Sea. But if Rivendell is the last homely house, what are the other homely houses east of the sea? Or does Rivendell count as ...
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Why is it hard to get the Ring to the Grey Havens?
At the Council of Elrond, the idea of dropping the Ring in the Sea is raised. One of the objections is that the Sauron would expect them to do it, and that it would be impossible to get it there:
‘...
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Were elves inspired from Celtic/Irish mythology or Germanic mythology? [closed]
Celtic mythology has the Tuatha Dé Danann, druids, Arthurian legends, Camelot and Summer Isles of the Divine, things associated with wood elves.
Germanic mythology has light elves (Ljósálfar) who ...
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What did Sauron hope to become?
Sauron is the Dark Lord, and he dwells in a dark land with foul creatures and horrible smells. But does he really hope to be a hopelessly Evil Dark Lord sitting on an ugly throne above just a big ...
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How did the Rangers of the North make a living in the Lord of the Rings?
How did Aragorn and other Rangers make a living? Were they employed by some kingdom? If so, which one?
Or if not, did they just eat what they found/hunted in nature? In that case, was the motivation ...
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Which did Tolkien create first, Utumno or Angband?
In the First Age, Melkor had two fortresses, first Utumno and then Angband. Utumno was the older and greater fortress, but it was destroyed by the Valar in the War for Sake of the Elves. Later, ...
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Why is the number of orcs thousands instead of millions in "The Lord of the Rings"?
I know that Tolkien served in World War I, in which more than 20 million died. And he also witnessed World War II, in which more than 70 million people died.
So why did Tolkien limit the number on ...
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Why was Gandalf unsure if Bilbo's ring was the One Ring if he had seen an image of Sauron's Eye when he was about to pick it up?
In the movie LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo drops the One Ring on the floor and then leaves his house. Gandalf then goes to pick it up but just before he touches it, he sees an image of ...
user143126
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Why did Aragorn let Frodo keep the One Ring after Weathertop?
After Frodo is stabbed with a Morgul-blade on Weathertop, a shard of the blade remains inside the wound, slowly turning him into a wraith.
Aragorn knows that Frodo as a wraith would be enslaved under ...
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Which font have they used for the 2020 paperback release of "The Lord of the Rings"?
I've finally started reading The Lord of the Rings, and noticed that the new 2020 paperbacks (the Mariner edition from publisher HMH) use a different font than the 2001 book I owned. I really like the ...
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Possible Dwarvish Orc?
I've read many posts and discussions on the origin of the Tolkien orc, yet in everything I've read, not once has this idea I've wondered about been answered with any wisdom, or references to add ...
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What is Tolkien's name for the language of Rohan?
Does Tolkien ever supply the name for the language that the Rohirrim speak, and if so what is that name?
(In the books this language is "translated" into Old English, but it should still ...
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What monetary system did Hobbits use in the Shire?
In Book I, Chapter 3 of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien wrote, "Just why Mr. Frodo was selling his beautiful hole was even more debatable than the price."
After appreciating this example of (...
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Why did Christopher Tolkien think the idea of Bilbo's marriage was never going to work?
On page 36 in Return of the Shadow (The History of Middle-earth vol. 6), Christopher Tolkien writes:
We come now therefore to a further stage, where the 'long-expected
party' is still Bingo's, not ...
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Is it known why Tolkien extended the pre-First Age timeline so much in later revisions?
The later timeline material given in The Nature of Middle-earth has a much longer timeline for the Years of the Trees era events than what's published in History of Middle-earth (and implied or stated ...
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Why wasn't the complaint of Mîm published?
It seems that J. R. R. Tolkien wrote a short poem, accompanied by a more extensive prose text, about the petty-dwarf Mîm.
Oddly enough, a German translation of the poem was published, but the poem ...
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Is the unpublished prose version of Beren and Lúthien accessible to the public?
In vol. 5 of The History of Middle-earth, Christopher Tolkien writes:
[A]t the time when he turned again to the Lay of Leithian (see III. 330), The Lord of the Rings being finished but its ...
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Why is Merry called "Holdwine"?
Following the destruction of the ring, when the hobbits are preparing to return home we learn that Merry is known as "Holdwine" to the Rohirrim:
Éomer and Éowyn came to Merry and they said &...
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What if two Hobbits just steal some lava from Mount Doom and use it to destroy the Ring in Shire?
Would it make a target obfuscation for Sauron? I mean, Sauron only watches the Ring but not lava right?
If lava cools during journey, would it work if they re-melt it before using?
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Why was there no technological progress between cutting the Ring from Sauron's hand and destroying the Ring? [duplicate]
If there are more than two thousand years between Isildur cutting the ring from Sauron's hand and Frodo's mission to destroy the Ring, why was there no technological progress? E.g. Saruman had some ...
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Is the Timeless Void the same Void outside Eru's Timeless Hall?
Is the Timeless Void the same as the Void outside Eru's Timeless Hall before the creation of Eä? Or are they connected as a continuous empty Space?
In the Silmarillion, it is said that Valar thrust ...
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Did Tolkien indicate that any adult male Elves have short hair?
@Taylor17387 asked Do male elves have long or short hair? regarding Tolkien's male Elves. The question and its answers focus on examples of male Elves with long hair. I want to ask about the converse:
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What (if anything) do we know about the orcs who fought against Sauron?
So, in this question, I saw that it was mentioned that all the races of Middle-earth, save the Elves, fought both for and against Sauron during the War of the Last Alliance.
The Silmarillion states:
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What is the role and related lore of Andrast in LOTR?
I have been looking over the beautiful map of LOTR located here. In doing so, I came across this region called Andrast. There's one other reference to Andrast on this forum, but otherwise both a ...
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Why did Saruman try to "turn" Gandalf and thus reveal he's evil?
Up until Saruman imprisoned Gandalf in Orthanc, everyone (except Sauron, I guess) seems to have believed that Saruman was on the side of good - while his influence was growing in Rohan. It seems like ...
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Why didn't the Stewards of Gondor ever claim the throne?
Are there any explanations ever given why the stewards of Gondor never tried to claim the throne officially? It was nearly 1000 years after Eärnur died before Aragorn eventually claimed the throne.
I ...
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Did Man-Hobbit marriages ever happen?
In Tolkien's Middle-earth, Men and Hobbits lived together amicably at Bree, but I recollect no suggestion in The Lord of the Rings that the Big and Little People ever intermarried despite sharing a ...
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What in Aulë´s nature caused both Sauron and Saruman to become corrupted?
Both the Maia Mairon (who became Sauron) and Curumo (embodied as Saruman) served under the Valar Aulë. Both eventually became corrupted, and turned to evil.
Was there any particular thing about the ...
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What did the Dwarves do during the first reign of Sauron, and why weren't they at The War of the Last Alliance?
As the question states we hear that Sauron fell during The War of the Last Alliance where Men and Elves united to take down Sauron and his forces.
But what about the Dwarves of Middle-earth? What did ...
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Do we know anything at all about Hobbits in the First or Second Age?
From "Prologue: Concerning Hobbits":
It is plain indeed that in spite of later estrangement Hobbits are relatives of ours: far nearer to us than Elves, or even than Dwarves. Of old they ...
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How old is Círdan at the end of the Third Age?
It seems likely that Círdan is the oldest living Elf at the end of the Third Age, see here.
Can we estimate how old he is?
I don't think we can get an exact figure, since we don't know when exactly he ...
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Did Tolkien intend to expand the Ents' role in The Silmarillion?
It seems that Tolkien came up with the Ents as he was writing The Lord of the Rings, and then inserted them into his work on the Silmarillion.
In the published form of The Silmarillion, the Ents' role ...
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Did Tolkien come up with the Ents as he was writing Lord of the Rings, or before?
Ents play a pretty important role in The Lord of the Rings. However, they existed as far back as the First Age.
I expected them to have a pretty big role in The Silmarillion when I started reading it. ...
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How did Drogo Baggins and Primula Brandybuck-Baggins die? [duplicate]
Are there any details on the events that lead to Frodo living with his uncle Bilbo?
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How many posts did Sauron write in his blog?
There used to be a Tolkien fanfiction, in the form of a blog that Sauron was writing, since the beginning of time. You can find the first twenty entries here. At some point the person who was writing ...
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Are the 'Undying Lands' America?
Tolkien has said that Middle-earth was meant to represent Europe, with the Shire representing England.
When Frodo sails due West to Valinor, is he actually coming to America?
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What are the prerequisites for each volume of The History of Middle-earth?
There are volumes of The History of Middle-earth that interest me more than others, and I wonder what the dependencies between them are. Suppose I want to read Morgoth's Ring, will I be able to follow ...
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Is there a difference between the various 3-volume sets of The History of Middle-Earth?
Throughout the years, a few 3-volume sets of HoMe were released. The latest was released in 2020.
In the past, I have checked pictures and comparisons of these sets with one another and with the ...
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Why wasn't Thorin aware about the state of Mirkwood and the Old Forest Road?
In The Hobbit, in the "Queer Lodgings" chapter, Beorn explains to the company the dangers that they might face through Mirkwood:
“But your way through Mirkwood is dark, dangerous and ...
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Did Peter Jackson (or his production team) explain why Legolas' eyes changed color between The LoTR and The Hobbit?
In Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King Orlando Bloom's Legolas has brown eyes (much as the actor portraying him does, although I am unsure if the ...
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How come Balin and Dwalin never mention their travel with Thrain II in The Hobbit?
I'm re-reading The Hobbit and I was wondering why there was no reference to Balin and Dwalin accompanying Thrain II on his attempt to go to Erebor. It seems to me that in The Hobbit they act as if ...
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Does The Nature of Middle-Earth contain new stories or just lore?
Recently a new book containing material by J. R. R. Tolkien was published, edited by Carl F. Hostetter.
From looking at the table of contents in the Amazon preview, it seems the book contains mostly ...
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Did Anglachel intentionaly prick Túrin's foot?
In the story of the children of Húrin, Beleg is granted a gift by King Thingol, and he asks for the sword Anglachel. Melian warns him of the evil of the sword, and says that it will not love the hand ...
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Was Mîm trying to perform some kind of magic?
In The Children of Húrin, there is the following interesting passage:
They led the old Dwarf away to their dismal camp, and as he went he
muttered in a strange tongue that seemed harsh with ancient ...
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