Pellaeon

Gotta love it!

Eh, not to denigrate The Children of Húrin, one of my long-time faves, but it’s no Lord of the Rings. I’m not so sure. The Lay of Leithian is about three times the page count of the Narn (the UT version), and it’s poetry, which takes considerably more effort to write than prose. The Lay (which extends to the escape from Angband) is more complete than the Narn (which is missing its middle—the fall of Amon Rudh, the Taur-nu-Fuin episode, and the Nargothrond episode entirely). Additionally, there are two very different prose versions (the Lost Tale and the Silmarillion chapter). The significance of this is not clear to me. The Lord of the Rings, for example, was VERY different from its conception to the form it ultimately took.

Yeah, I have to admit I find the Horner scores distractingly cinematic, and prefer the Rosenman score qua Star Trek score.

Naah… The Children of Húrin has a polished presentation, which I definitely appreciate, but that doesn’t make it the “only true narrative“ outside the famous two. That’s a most unfortunate attitude, and will rob you of the Lay of Leithian (the dearest to Tolkien’s heart of all his writings), the epic Fall of Gondolin, the nuanced Aldarion and Erendis, the majestic Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth, the incredible characters of Fëanor and Ulmo, and the continuing tales of Húrin and Mîm. The grand sea journeys of Ælfwine and the odd time travel of Elendil, so fantastic yet you sadly dismiss.

It is a magnificent journey indeed. But as you hint, for most people it’s an insurmountable task to undertake all 12 volumes, and they have no inclination to become “experts.” Which is why I put forward The Book of Lost Tales and The Lays of Beleriand as part of the semi-popular tier. If you ignore the footnotes, they are straightforward reads with very great literary merit. I mean they are not drafts of something else, they are some of Tolkien’s major works in their own right. If you are looking for something to blow the roof off your imagination the way LotR did, for me that would be BoLT.

I agree completely. I just like to encourage people to read more of the books (for enjoyment!) beyond the obvious Hob+LR, and since there are so many books, it’s maybe helpful to have a numbered short-list. I aimed to find a balance between the way the story unfolded for its audience (i.e., the publication order) and the way it might unfold slightly more naturally for the reader (i.e., satisfactory novels with beginnings, middles, and ends). The one I’m not so keen on is the 2017 Beren and Luthien. I think the Lost Tale and the full Lay as part of their proper collections work just fine, and the 2017 publication just ends up having too much explaining to do. That reminds me, though, there is a “forgotten novel” which I think would work very well slotted in before the (notoriously difficult) Silmarillion. There is a 1977 LP of The Silmarillion: Of Beren and Lúthien read by Christopher Tolkien. It’s a good listen, and I think it would make a nice little standalone book.

Growing up in the 90s, this was my reading order for the main writings — straight publication order: The Hobbit The Lord of the Rings The Silmarillion Unfinished Tales The Book of Lost Tales The Lays of Beleriand Today, there are a few new books which remix some of the writings in pleasing ways, so if you want to take advantage of them, here’s how I would go about it: The Hobbit The Lord of the Rings The Silmarillion The Fall of Númenor The Children of Húrin Unfinished Tales The Fall of Gondolin The Book of Lost Tales The Lays of Beleriand Here are the parts of the traditional books that you can (should?) skip if you read the new books: From The Silmarillion: Akallabêth Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age From Unfinished Tales: Narn i Hîn Húrin A Description of the Island of Númenor Aldarion and Erendis The Line of Elros From The Book of Lost Tales: The Fall of Gondolin I only recently finished The Fall of Númenor. It’s really enjoyable to sit down with one book and get the whole Second Age in chronological order. A very satisfying read. Anyone else here read it?

I’ve seen a lot of strange stuff, but I’ve never seen anything to make me believe there’s one all-powerful creative force controlling everything. It’s all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense.

The showrunners did say, “Season two has a canonical story. There may well be viewers who are like, ‘This is the story we were hoping to get in season one!’ In season two, we’re giving it to them.” If I were hoping for a turnaround, those are the sorts of words I’d like to hear.

I would guess they have greatly reduced the role, and he didn’t want a bit part.

Who’s the more foolish, the fool or the fool who debates him?

? He killed Luke’s father.

I assume Kennedy and Johnson are simply saving face by answering the occasional question about it when it comes up. “Oh yah, would love to do it, someday, schedule permitting.” Uh-huh. A Star Wars movie trilogy is a $1 billion prospect. I assume such things don’t happen lightly, in people’s spare time. And I don’t think that kind of money gets risked on something so contentious as another Johnson Star Wars foray is certain to be.

Same for me. The FYC album—both for the assembly and mix— is my go-to way to listen to the film score, plus Lights! Camera! Music! for the concert arrangements!

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy [novels] > Star Wars Trilogy [all formats] > The Lord of the Rings Trilogy [movies] So I voted for Star Wars across the board since the poll was framed as being about the LotR movies (those versions of the characters, etc.).

There’s one way of looking at Star Wars, based on the first two movies, which says the Empire is a Human Empire, and other spacefaring species have got other empires off the edge of the map, and that’s okay. And that’s why Mos Eisley Spaceport which is “farthest from” the “bright center” of the Empire has got all these alien pilots hanging out — it’s literally on the frontier. Imperial Center, then, would naturally be human-dominated (if not, indeed, the human homeworld). The franchise as it developed largely moved away from this, of course, throwing in ever more aliens. But there’s nothing wrong with one (out of dozens) of these Star Wars projects giving us a sensibility closer to the original.

The most striking addition by JW is the Main Title (concerto for violin virtuoso), which is just not present at all in the stage musical. I have seen the movie many times (love it), and I also saw it off-Broadway a decade or two back. Was nonplussed by the stage show. Tiny orchestra more like a band, nobody could sing, the acting was rushed and hokey. But then I saw it at Chicago Lyric Opera this year, WOW was it good. Tears streaming down my face the entire time. Large orchestra, of course, and absolutely magnificent chorus (full disclosure: my wife is in it). They really captured the pathos of the movie. And the dancing really is something else to behold in person.

Don’t you guys think the “gift” thing is mainly a reference to the famous Boromir meme? Likewise, Sauron simply walking into Mordor?

Olórin is mentioned in The Lord of the RIngs, so, presumably allowed. Also worth noting that the show does mention Armenelos (capital of Númenor) and Sigin-tarâg (Dwarvish for “Longbeards”), neither of which name originates in The Lord of the Rings. Make of that what you will.

Your own personal zeroes and ones.

The official talking point is that he’s a Wizard and otherwise it’s up in the air: The showrunners: https://movieweb.com/the-rings-of-power-showrunners-say-the-stranger-identity-open-question/ A writer: https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/is-rings-of-power-the-stranger-gandalf The actor: https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-gennifer-hutchison-interview-sauron-halbrand-the-stranger-gandalf-wizards-istar/ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯