#lotr book liveblog

[sluttycinderella]

sam and frodo dragging gollum across rohan is just every gay couple and their fuckass cat.

[communistkenobi]

I can’t stop thinking about near the end of return of the king where sam is trying to juice up frodo talking about all the beautiful parts of the shire and frodo looks at him and says I don’t remember the taste of food.

[aarchimedes]

👀🫵🏻🏳️‍🌈❓️

[rosyjuly]

friends i’m watching the fellowship of the ring for the first time

[findelyfantasy]

Beginning the Fellowship of the Ring

So, I haven't read any of the Lotr books yet, so I'm going to start. I'm going to be reading The Fellowship of the Ring and live blogging it here.

If anyone else has not read the Fellowship, I will have the tag, #finnreadsthefellowship (Finn reads the fellowship) for you to block so that nobody gets spoilers.

[radnaek]

i think i'm going to liveblog my experience reading lord of the rings for the first time in like seven (-ish) years, I do not remember anything that happens in the books but I have seen the movies a million times since then so who knows.

I'll reblog this with my reaction to stuff until it gets too long, after that I'll edit this original post with links to the new posts

[paradife-loft]

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A screenshot of an email containing text from The Lord of the Rings, where Merry is telling the other hobbits about the Old Forest. A highlighted section reads, "They do say the trees do actually move, and can surround strangers and hem them in. In fact long ago they attacked the Hedge: they came and planted themselves right by it, and leaned over it. But the hobbits came and cut down hundreds of trees, and made a great bonfire in the Forest, and burned all the ground in a long strip east of the Hedge. After that the trees gave up the attack, but they became very unfriendly. There is still a wide bare space not far inside where the bonfire was made."]

Well, here's a detail that sticks out to me as Pretty Interesting from the email newsletter LotR read-along going on right now. (Yes I'm a couple days behind, that's how these generally go for me.)

I don't know exactly what conclusions I'd draw from it (and if anyone else has ideas, please add on!), but it does feel significant in light of the entire Saruman/Isengard/Fangorn/Ents/Scouring plotline(s) later on? Like I think much tends to get made of the Shire as somewhere fairly idyllic/idealized/nostalgic in relation to the role of Industry and Technology™️ in LotR/Tolkien more broadly, so then... what sort of complications to that theme come up when we hear about hobbits of the Shire doing such a similar thing to Saruman's treatment of Fangorn, to their own nearby semi-sentient forest? (And for that matter, way way before Isengard's industry ever is introduced, in a context of "this forest is genuinely creepy and not something we want encroaching on our living areas" that give the reader the impression that this cutting and burning is thoroughly justified.)

On the other hand... to an extent could this suggest a symbolic-reparation angle to Merry and Pippin later building a relationship with Treebeard and helping take down Isengard? (Not in the sense of that being their intention, I don't mean; more in a narrative echoes sense.) It feels like an interesting possibility to me, the idea of part of Merry & Pippin's growth involving coming into a perspective that directly contradicts actions their ancestors (generally speaking) took to safeguard the borders of the Shire, especially since iirc they end up taking on leadership/authority roles when they return.

(Also, a bit of direct wording that strikes me - Merry says the trees "attacked" the hedge, but just hanging out there and leaning over doesn't feel very attack-ish to me? Something something biased perspectives and storytelling and who controls a narrative (it's probably not feral trees). Maybe they did certainly do something more threatening too; we don't actually know! But still - curious and indicative of some common hobbit attitudes, most likely.)

[yetanotherknitter]

I would kill for a sauron movie

[aetexe]

obsessed with how gandalf's first reaction to a minor inconvenience is to tell pippin to fucking kill himself

[tranny-man]

Whew they are moving way faster than the book

[daisyachain]

A very Southrons and Easterlings thing going on, which was sus in 1955 and hasn’t become any more creative of a solution

[communistkenobi]

I feel a strong desire to get deep into lotr lore, not because it’s fun or interesting (although I do think it’s both of those things), but because it’s a massive cultural text that people love arguing about and I enjoy having access to fine-grain discourse

[aarchimedes]

just finished two towers for the first time 💃🏻💃🏻

[mikkeneko]

Samwise Gamgee and the song at the end of the world

I first read LOTR at a young age, continued to read it when I became an adult, but it's really only with some critical context that I can go back and finally see some parts of the story for the first time. When I was younger, while I loved the books, there were parts I always found baffling. The Tom Bombadil interlude is one. The conversation between Galadriel and Frodo at the Mirror is another. That conversation at time seems kind of baffling, and in the moment leads nowhere -- until Frodo enters Mordor, and starts testing the limits of his mastery of the Ring, which culminates in his confrontation with Gollum. The conversation with Galadriel in Book 1 was a direct set-up for that moment in book 3. And the interlude with Tom Bombadil in Book 1 is a direct set-up for this moment, in book 3, in Cirith Ungol.

You see, Tom Bombadil -- as @astronicht pointed out in their wonderful LOTR liveblog -- is very clearly a scop, a bard from the old anglic tradition that Tolkien was writing from. He uses galdor, spells made of song, to work his will on the world. Tolkien is spelling it out very clearly for us here: yes, this world runs on the same rules as the old traditions. Yes, in this world, spells can be made of song. And two books later in the tower of Cirith Ungol, in his moment of darkest despair, Sam... sings.

"....weary and feeling finally defeated, he sat on a step below the level of the passage-floor and bowed his head into his hands. It was quiet, horribly quiet. The torch, that was already burning low when he arrived, sputtered and went out; and he felt the darkness cover him like a tide. And then softly, to his own surprise, there at the vain end of his long journey and his grief, moved by what thought in his heart he could not tell, Sam began to sing.

In some ways this feels like the turning point of the whole Quest, of the whole book, as much as the moment in the heart of Mount Doom or the Battle of Pelennor fields; this feels like the culmination of Sam's character arc, as much as the choice to go on after Frodo's death or the moment he shakes off the Ring's thrall.

Frodo is a scholar; he's well-read and speaks several languages, he knows more of Middle-Earth than almost any hobbit alive save perhaps Bilbo. (And arguably a kind of seer, though I won't go into that now.) But it's Sam who is heir to Bilbo's love of poetry. It's been Sam, throughout the whole journey, who is the most interested in poetry and song. He wrote the song about the Trolls; he is thrilled by the dwarven song of Khazad-dum; he wrote a new verse on the spot for Gandalf's eulogy; he recites the Oliphaunt. Sam has been enamored of poetry and song as much as he has been enamored of Elves, of the old legends and songs of heroism. Sam, like Tom Bombadil, is a scop, one who can weave spells through song. And now, in the darkest night in the heart of the Enemy's lair, Sam weaves a song.

His voice sounded thin and quavering in the cold dark tower: the voice of a forlorn and weary hobbit that no listening orc could possibly mistake for the clear song of an Elven-lord. He murmured old childish tunes out of the Shire, and snatches of Mr. Bilbo's rhymes that came into his mind like fleeting glimpses of the country of his home. And then suddenly new strength rose in him, and his voice rang out, while words of his own came unbidden to fit the simple tune:"

In this moment Sam reaches out for help, and something reaches back. Someone answers. Another voice joins his, and lifts his quavering song to something high and clear and strong, and Sam finds the strength to rise from his despair. And most of all, the song allows Sam to find Frodo in the dark.

 Though here at journey's end I lie in darkness buried deep, beyond all towers strong and high, beyond all mountains steep, above all shadows rides the Sun and Stars for ever dwell: I will not say the Day is done, nor bid the Stars farewell.

Who answered? Or perhaps the question should be, Who answered? I'm personally inclined to think that it is themselves the great elven heroes of old, the ones who have been through this darkness before and come out the other side through their own song, whom Sam always idolized and did not dare to dream that one day he might be counted among them, who reach back to Sam in that moment. It's already foreshadowed in his ascent through the Tower, where his form is overlaid by that of a greater power, one that makes the Orcs he encounters believe him to be an elf-lord. His tale is their tale, and their power, in this moment, becomes his power.

But one can't forget that this very world was created by a song, by the Lord of song, who exists in a place beyond all towers strong and high, a remote and clear power untainted by darkness. Did Tolkien's letters say that there was only one time, during Lord of the Rings, that this distant power interfered directly in the events of the War of the Rings? This has sometimes been proposed to be interference in Frodo and Gollum's struggle in Mount Doom, which led to Gollum's fall, but I never believed that; the geas accounts for that sequence well enough by itself. Maybe it wasn't in a battle at all. Maybe it was here, in darkness and despair, lending a little bit of his Song to his smallest singer.

[astronicht]

frankly your lotr liveblogging is making me want to minor in medieval literature (or something similar) so I can come back and reread the books.... this is all so interesting!!

Oh this makes me so happy haha!! Getting people enthusiastic about learning this stuff that I think is so fun and interesting is like, the coolest accidental side effect of the lotr liveblog.

[tolkien-feels]

Okay this here is quite possibly my favorite Elrond scene so let me ramble about it a little bit, because I don't think I did it when I liveblogged the book last time

Elrond, at this time in his life, is pretty much defined by his wisdom. He's the person people go to for advice. Even among the Wise his wisdom seems to be valued

And like, his assessment of the future here is right. Pippin spends pretty much the entire Quest terrified as the realities of it all set in. And the Shire is in danger, and Merry and Pippin are key in the efforts of the hobbits to save it. But they arrive too late, and possibly (?) they could have prevented a lot of the worst parts of the Scouring if they had been there

This isn't Elrond being afraid and imagining perils that aren't there or that are being exaggerated by Sauron to freak him out. This is Elrond quite literally accurately predicting the rest of the book!!!!

But Gandalf says "Yes, that is true, but nevertheless, you should trust love even above wisdom." And so Elrond does.

I... really don't know that I could do what Elrond does here. The amount of estel required to simply trust that there are maybe powers even Elrond, in all his wisdom and foresight, cannot reliably predict would be quite beyond me, even knowing he's in Arda, a place where estel tends to be rewarded by the narrative

Like, I'm nodding along as Elrond speaks of how strength of arms won't beat Sauron, and how the Fellowship should be chosen in part symbolically. That tracks with how I know Arda works.

But "the power of love is stronger than even accurate foresight wisely interpreted"? It makes me want to say "No!!!! Nothing can beat accurate foresight wisely interpreted!!!!!!!!" but even without having read LotR, I should know this is true; I have read the Silm too many times!!

"Love not too well the work of thy hands and the devices of thy heart."

It doesn't surprise me that Elrond wouldn't fall prey to loving too well the work of his hands, but that he doesn't love too well the devices of his heart surprises me, because frankly? If I were Elrond, I think I would!!!!! But he does not! You can see his temptation, but he turns away from it, and chooses true hope instead!!!

So yeah I really can't help but stop every time I read this and just feel the full force of Elrond's sigh while knowing full well I would never have chosen as he does here - even knowing how the story ends, which he does not. Just. Elrond is such an amazing character