Questions tagged [the-lord-of-the-rings]
Questions about the fantasy novel 'The Lord of the Rings' (originally published in three volumes in the years 1954-1955) by J.R.R. Tolkien. Use this tag with the [j-r-r-tolkien] tag.
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What is the population of the Shire?
In The Lord of the Rings, the Shire is essentially a provincial backwater within Middle-earth, where the people (hobbits) largely get on with their own very local business and remain blissfully ...
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How important are the songs in The Lord Of The Rings for the development of the story?
There are many songs sung by different characters at various occasions in the book. I normally skip them since I found they normally don't tell more about the story and to be honest I don't quite ...
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Is The Lord of the Rings particularly difficult for second-language speakers of English?
I am reading The Lord of the Rings. As a non-native speaker, I found it particularly hard
to visualize in my head the settings of the scenes and also the landscapes established by the author,
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Why does Tolkien keep referring to the Fellowship as "the Company"?
I noticed that the group making the journey from Rivendell is called "the Company" rather than "the Fellowship". The title of the book has "The Fellowship", yet he doesn'...
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What exactly makes Lord of the Rings "not a trilogy"?
Yes, I know that Tolkien, the author, originally intended to release it as one single book. But for practical/various reasons, it was instead split up into three ones (confusingly consisting of two &...
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Is it known why Tolkien made Sam be Frodo's servant rather than very close and trusty friend "on equal terms"?
If I have to find one "flaw" about The Lord of the Rings, it may be the fact that Sam is more or less the slave of Frodo, albeit a willing servant. This fundamentally bothers me, for some ...
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Why did Gandalf not have the Eagles simply transport Frodo almost straight to Mount Doom and drop the ring in there?
While thinking about "holes" in the wonderful, epic The Lord of the Rings story, I had a thought:
Why did they go through all this trouble of very slowly sneaking around with a whole ...
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What happened with the Fem-Ents?
While reading the third book, I was waiting constantly for the moment when the Ents would show up on the final battlefield, together with their newly found Fem-Ents, combining their powers into one ...
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Why did Tolkien take such extreme offense to the original Swedish translation of The Lord of the Rings?
I may be mistaken, but allegedly, Tolkien really took great offense to the first (and only, during his entire lifetime and decades beyond) Swedish translation of The Lord of the Rings. He called the ...
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Did Saruman exclusively want to mess with the Hobbits in the end of the third book?
As the hobbits are on the way home, they meet Saruman walking around, defeated and angry. When they finally get back to their home village(s), they find that they are utterly destroyed and turned into ...
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Why exactly did Bilbo, Frodo and Sam have to leave?
The reason I phrased the title like that is to avoid spoiling the story for somebody who might see it and haven't read the books. I've just finished the last one in the trilogy, minutes ago, but I don'...
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How could Merry know about who "Sharkey" was just before he showed up in end of The Return of the King?
Merry looked round in dismay and disgust. 'Let's get out!' he said. 'If I had known all the mischief he had caused, I should have stuffed my pouch down Saruman's throat.'
'No doubt, no doubt! But you ...
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What is the English name for "Bilbo Secker", and why is Bilbo Baggins apparently "alternatively" called that?
When Frodo is leaving Rivendell for home, Bilbo gives him a bunch of notes which are signed "B. S." (in the Swedish translation), or "B.B." in the English original, for Bilbo... S? ...
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Why is Aragorn so weird to Pippin when they make their final farewell before going back to the Shire?
But the Palantir of Orthanc the King will keep, to see what is passing in his realm, and what his servants are doing. For do not forget, Peregrin Took, that you are a knight of Gondor, and I do not ...
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Why is Minas Tirith called "Gondor" in Return of the King by king Théoden?
As I understand it, Gondor is the big country where a lot of important stuff happens.
Minas Tirith, with its series of walls going in circles, is simply the main city of Gondor. The capital if you ...
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What errand did Gollum think that the hobbits have in Mordor with the Ring?
Since he doesn't suspect that they are going to destroy it, just like the Dark Lord doesn't suspect this, what did he think? Why else would these mysterious hobbits be traveling to such a place, with ...
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Isn't Gríma Wormtongue a very revealing name?
Something which strikes me both while reading the book and watching the movie is the very striking name "Wormtongue". He might as well be named "Evil Dude".
He seems over-the-top ...
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If Sauron made The One ring, why couldn't he just make another, even better, instead of searching for the first?
As all of us who have read Silmarillion know, Sauron wasn't the original "Lord of Darkness". In fact, he is a much lesser, and later, one. Melkor (AKA "Morgoth") was the original. ...
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Was the title "The Lord of the Rings" picked on purpose to be ambiguous?
In one sense, it might refer to "the lord of" the rings, as in the person or entity currently in possession of The One ring.
In another way, it could (IMO) mean that The One ring is "...
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Why does Tolkien barely mention the Ring in terms of Frodo's physical handling of it?
As I'm approaching the end of The Two Towers, I'm increasingly frustrated by how, other than in the very beginning of the story in the first book, we never hear a single phrase such as:
Frodo ...
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How is it possible that Sam only realizes that Gollum wants the Ring so very late?
At roughly page 277 (I'm reading a translation) of The Two Towers, where Gollum is talking to himself as Frodo is sleeping, it says:
Sam had lain still, fascinated by this debate, but watching every ...
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Does Théoden actually say that he misses Gríma (his "old advisor") at one point in The Two Towers?
At roughly page 155 of The Two Towers, assuming that the English original follows roughly the same page numbers as my rather sloppy Swedish translation from 1970, king Théoden mentions that he now ...
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Why did Gimli think that Gandalf would sneak around their camp in the middle of the night, not say a word and scare away their horses?
I'm a quarter into The Two Towers. Just before Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli enter the Ent woods, they camp outside in the night as they suddenly see a sketchy, strange old man standing there, not saying ...
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How did the dwarves possibly "dig out" gigantic hallways in the mountains to create Moria with such "primitive" technology?
I've just come out from Moria with the Fellowship of the Ring. They didn't quite see or hear me, but I was hovering around there and mentally "saw" their journey through reading about it in ...
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What were the ages of Bilbo and Frodo for these six major plot points?
I recently begun re-reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I'm over halfway through The Fellowship of the Ring now. In spite of having the story in "fresh memory", I still can't remember the ...
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What exactly did the hobbits eat in the first half of The Fellowship of the Ring when journeying for many days?
Near the very end of the first part, it's mentioned that they now only have "old bread and dried fruit" left of their food, having wandered around for many days in the nothingness outside of ...
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In the middle part of The Fellowship of the Ring, how did Strider find and interpret that rock message supposedly from Gandalf?
Maybe this is explained later, and if so, please don't mention the resolution. However, if it's never mentioned again, I'd like to hear some reasoning.
Basically, Strider leads the hobbits and that ...
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Is there something I'm missing about the numerous songs in "The Fellowship of the Ring"?
I'm currently re-reading The Fellowship of the Ring (Swedish translation from 1971) after 20+ years. I'm 170 pages in.
One thing that strikes me, and which I didn't remember at all, is the numerous ...
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Bilbo’s song of Eärendil in “The Fellowship of the Ring”
In The Fellowship of the Ring, the character Bilbo Baggins recites a poem beginning with these lines:
Eärendil was a mariner
that tarried in Arvernien;
he built a boat of timber felled
in Nimbrethil ...
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How was Thangorodrim "broken" in "The Fellowship of the Ring"?
From The Fellowship of the Ring, book II, chapter II, page 273:
'And not so many, nor so fair, as when Thangorodrim was broken, and the Elves deemed that evil was ended for ever, and it was not so.'
...
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What did Elrond mean by telling the council "it is so ordered ..."?
This phrase has been taken from The Fellowship of the Ring, book II, chapter II, page 271:
Yet it is not so. Believe rather that it is so ordered that we, who sit here, and none others, we must find ...
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What does "cheek" mean in the following phrase below in "The Fellowship of the Ring"?
This is taken from The Fellowship of the Ring, book II, chapter 1, page 266:
If he had the cheek to make verses about Eärendil in the house of Elrond, it was my affair.
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What did Bilbo mean by telling Frodo that Aragorn "thought the whole thing rather above my head"?
This phrase is taken from The Fellowship of the Ring, book II, chapter 1, page 265 (emphasis added):
"You needn't," said Bilbo. "As a matter of fact it was all mine. Except that ...
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What is the meaning/significance of Aragorn putting a green stone into Bilbo's song?
This poem is taken from The Fellowship of the Ring, book II, chapter 1 (page 265):
As a matter of fact it was all mine. Except that Aragorn insisted on my putting in a green stone.
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Meaning of lines from Bilbo's "Song of Eärendil" in "The Lord of the Rings"
This poem is taken from The Fellowship of the Ring, book II, chapter 1 (page 263):
Through Evernight he back was borne
on black and roaring waves that ran
o'er leagues unlit and foundered shores
that ...
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Meaning of "the throbbing air about him" in "The Fellowship of the Ring"?
This phrase is taken from The Fellowship of the Ring, book II, chapter 1 (page 261):
At first the beauty of the melodies and of the interwoven words in elven-tongues, even though he understood them ...
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Why did Bilbo tell himself "Wake up, indeed"?
This phrase is taken from The Fellowship of the Rings, Book II, Chapter 1 (page 258):
Why, sitting and thinking. I do a lot of that nowadays, and this is the best place to do it in, as a rule. Wake ...
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What does "other light" mean in "The Fellowship of the Ring"?
This phrase is taken from The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter 1 "Many Meetings" (page 258):
The doors were thrown open, and they went across a wide passage and through other doors, ...
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Meaning of "the morning will speed you upon your way" in “The Fellowship of the Ring”
From book 1, Chapter 8, of The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien:
"There you'll find an old inn that is called The Prancing Pony. Barliman Butterbur is the worthy keeper. There you can ...
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What's the meaning of 'Spring' in "The Fellowship of the Ring"?
From book 1, Chapter 6, of The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien:
Then another clear voice, as young and as ancient as Spring, like the song of glad water flowing down into the night from ...
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What's the meaning of Tom Bombadil's poem?
From book 1, Chapter 6,of The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien:
Tom Bombadil's Song
Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo!
Ring a dong! hop along! fal lal the willow!
Tom Bom, ...
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What is the meaning of "Yet the way of the Ring to my heart is by pity, pity for weakness and the desire of strength to do good."?
From Book 1, Chapter 2, of The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien:
Don't tempt me! For I don't wish to become like the Dark Lord himself. Yet the way of the Ring to my heart is by pity, pity ...
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What's the meaning of " leave him open to the summons " in The Lord Of The Rings?
From book 1|Chapter 2 of The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Ring of the Enemy would leave its marks,too, leave him open to the summons.
What is the meaning of the phrase in bold?
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What does "once removed either way" mean?
From Book I Chapter 1 of The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien:
Mr. Drogo married poor Miss Primula Brandybuck. She was our Mr. Bilbo's first cousin on the mother's side (her mother being ...
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What does "set out fair and square" mean in the characterization of the Hobbits?
This is taken from from The Fellowship of the Ring prologue where JRRT lays out some of the characteristics of Hobbits:
The genealogical trees at the end of the Red Book of Westmarch are a small ...
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What do "nothing that lived" and "doughty at bay" mean?
The following quote is from the chapter "Concerning Hobbits" in The Fellowship of the Ring:
Though slow to quarrel, and for sport killing nothing that lived, they were doughty at bay, and at need ...
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What does "rough handling by grief" mean in "The Fellowship of the Ring"?
From the Prologue ("Concerning Hobbits") to The Fellowship of the Ring (1954) by J. R. R. Tolkien:
Nonetheless, ease and peace had left this people still curiously tough.
They were, if it came to ...
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What does "they were in name his subjects" mean?
While there was still a king they were in name his subjects, but they were, in fact, ruled by their own chieftains and meddled not at all with events in the world outside.
What does "they were in ...
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What does "reckoning of years" mean?
About this time legend among the Hobbits first becomes history with a reckoning of years.
What does "reckoning of years" mean in this passage from The Lord of the Rings?
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What is Tom Bombadil's importance in The Lord of the Rings?
Tom Bombadil is definitely one of the weirdest characters in all of The Lord of the Rings, he just comes out of nowhere, stumbling upon Frodo and Sam while singing. His actions are just incredibly ...
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