The Hall of Fire

Well, we know that Galadriel remained visible while wearing her ring, so that would make sense. However, Dwarves and Men were mortal and the rings they wore granted them wealth and power respectively. Did the Nine and the Seven make their wearers invisible? Gandalf's words would suggest so, otherwis...

The second book has the children returning to Narnia after much time has passed, to set things right. The third book brings in the next child, Eustace, and is a wondeful ocean voyage. (As the children reach a certain age, they are told they will encounter the Lion as Lamb in this world, but will no...

I have read the assignment, but not any of the other opinions on it. As to style, I very much enjoy Austen's prose but I find her conversations difficult to follow when there are more than two people involved. Since the characters (for the most part) are difficult to differentiate between on the spe...

New York Times Review (Crossposted from B77) Two Wars of Good and Evil By A. O. SCOTT In the weeks leading up to the release of "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," the entertainment press has sometimes seemed so preoccupied with matters of allegory as to resem...

truehobbit wrote: I think it was pretty obvious. She came right into the enemy camp to claim the fulfillment of the law. It would be treacherous and cowardly to attack in that situation, irrespective of any formal laws and rituals of truce.

*cough* mouthofsauron *cough*

I like the Kandisky but only in the "Art is what matches the drapes" sense.

Hoping to bring the kids to this tomorrow. So far my favourite quote is from the supertrailer:

Peter "Well, he said he knows the Faun"

Susan "It's a beaver! It shouldn't be saying anything!!!"

Are we ready to move on?

My impression is that orcs speak in Black Speech, which was devised by Sauron, and a debased version of the common tongue. I have no idea what they would have spoken in Beleriand when Sindarin would have been the "common tongue" and Black Speech was not yet devised. Perhaps HoME has some i...

Din, the later books by Pratchett are indeed excellent, in particular the Vimes novels. I think Nightwatch is probably his best book yet. I love it when a comedy author knows how to set you up with comedy, then pull out the rug to provide genuine emotion. You don't expect the emotional hit, and it's...

I could scarcely bear to watch what PJ did to her, but that's another story. I've explained this before!!! Ok, it's just another excuse to post this... :) [The beast growls and approaches Théoden. Théoden looks up and is afraid. Éowyn leaps between them.] Éowyn: Begone, foul dwimmerlaik, lord of ca...

Well, not necessarily "good" authors. We're not just looking at Austen and Dickens here :) What I mean is books by Authors whose books you normally enjoy that have disappointed you. Current example (and the inspiration for this post): "State of Fear" by Michael Crichton. I like M...

At the risk of annoying everyone... It seems there is a lot of discussion here of themes of good and evil, predestination and overarching metaphysical discussions. While these are all valid discussions in relation to the Silmarillion it seems to me that many of them deserve their own threads where t...

The famous opening line is about the best thing going in English literature. If you "get" that, you "get" Pride and Prejudice, and you "get" Jane Austen. When she says "in want of a wife", the word "want" had the meaning of "stands in need of&q...

Voronwë, if you have a performance that has been videotaped, I can help you convert to a web friendly format...

Thanks Hobby, but I'm making a point of reading this as I would any other book. What sticks, sticks and what doesn't I expect to become apparent as I progress. It's part of the experience of reading for me. If I was to go back and check, that would be like studying, and I'm reading this book from an...

Unfortunately Hobby you can't always know what resolution people are using. I would never use less than 1024x768 and I'm currently at 1280x1024 both at work and at home. At those resolutions I never have to scroll to view a pic.

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I don't suppose you'd like to teach us Eru?

Padme, please feel free to jump in at any time. No previosu knowledge is required. We're simply reading a chapter at a time and exploring what parallels we see with Tolkien. The link to the text is in the first post.

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Is there anyone here who could give me a grounding in Sindarin? Following along with TTBKs score discussion has reawakened my desire to understand a little Elvish. I'm not looking to be fluent, merely to be able to translate the poems in the books and also the lyrics used in the Soundtrack. Bear in ...