66
votes
Did Tolkien give his son explicit permission to publish all that unfinished material?
Tolkien gave his son absolute and explicit permission to do with his unpublished papers whatever he saw fit. That includes finishing his works, editing his works, combining them or destroying any part ...
- 700k
28
votes
Did Tolkien give his son explicit permission to publish all that unfinished material?
Christopher was appointed literary executor by his father, with the intention that he would publish the Silmarillion, but with full control to do whatever he wanted with the material
There were ...
- 94.8k
11
votes
Is there any evidence that Tolkien thought of Samwise Gamgee as being particularly fat?
As I recently noticed thanks to Height of the LoTR Races, Tolkien apparently did comment on this:
These figures [of the Fellowship] are thus all too short. Gandalf even bent must have been at least 5 ...
- 3,162
10
votes
Why does Gandalf seem so fearless in the Siege of Minas Tirith?
I speak of Tolkien, not New Line.
Yes to Royal Canadian Bandit's answer, and also Gandalf the White is not vulnerable to ordinary physical weapons. From The Two Towers, Book III, Chapter 5, "The ...
- 3,873
8
votes
Accepted
Does LOTR have a shattered glass type alternate reality
The closest I can think of is The Last Ringbearer (1999) by Kirill Yeskov, which is essentially LOTR fan fiction even if it was published and is apparently well known in Russia (and has been ...
- 18.4k
3
votes
Was Gollum the key to destroying the Ring?
Gollum is indeed key. "The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many" - no doubt about that.
I have an alternate theory. It was the Ring (rather than Frodo) that threatened Gollum outside of ...
- 31
2
votes
Height of the LoTR Races
In the case of elves:
A tall people in general when compared to Men. By Eldarin tradition, at the time of the Great Journey, the Eldar (Future Vanyar, Sindar, Nandor, Teleri of Aman, Noldor) were ...
- 21
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible