Why are the names Sauron and Saruman so dang similar?
If Gandalf was the Grey, Saruman the White and Radagast the Brown, who was the puce, pink and purple?
Aye, there are queer folk here abouts. Queerer than most, I reckon.
From the way the Gondor army is marshalled, can you comment on the political and social structure of Gondor and perhaps its demographic make-up?
Forget these two. How about Algaeleg, 'Alfaleg, 'Alfagill, 'Alfaful, Mouthaful, Araphore and Semaphore? He was taking the piss by the time he moved onto Aragorn’s bunch: Arayawn, Arahead, Araheel, Achilesheel, and his bastard son Arasole.
With all his names - The Fool, The Simple, The Bird-tamer - Radagast was clearly trying to compensate for his very small part.
I always figured Bombadil was like a retired … whatever those musical dudes that created the universe are called. Not of midle earth and possessed of power far greater than a mere spiritual slave of Morgoth that any of Sauron’s creations would have affected him no more than a charm bracelet out of a Happy Meal.
I’m probably wrong though.
Ainur (singular: Ainu). Yep, almost certainly. It looks like he came to Arda not with any particular purpose in mind but just to live in quasi-mortal form (except for being ageless) and enjoy the place. Sort of a “Maia-without-portfolio”. It was Gandalf’s opinion that if Sauron could conquer enough of the rest of the world then he could hand Bombadil a smacking, but not otherwise.
I want to know why you think Sam is C.S. Lewis.
Hey, even JRRT wouldn’t state that TB was one of the Ainur. He wasn’t sure whereBombadil came from.
Must’ve been something he was smoking.
Next question! Mana tárë antuva nin Ilúvatar enyárë i metta pella, írë Anarinya queluva?
Um…42?
Crap. I used to know this one. Hold on, hold on, it’s on the tip of my tongue …
It’s ok! We have meat here in ze building!
“Romans go home?”
Agh! I replied to the wrong one. Y’all knew what I meant, right?
Right?
Actually, Lewis’ big deep voice and powerful stride were used for Treebeard.
I second that.
You know, after pondering awhile about it, I think you’re probably right.
What has it got in its pocketses?
Okay, so it’s not LOTR. It’s the Hobbit. Close enough.
Do you fold down the corners, use a bookmark, lay the open book over, or just remember where you are?
Tolkien says that Lewis didn’t influence him but was a great source of encouragement to him, which is quite a backhanded compliment when you think about it. As you all know, Tollers was around six years Lewis’s senior, and achieved much at an early age. Even a Professorship at Leeds counts for something when achieved in one’s early 30s! Now, of course they both fought in the war, and the affect of that on them cannot be underestimated. Tollers also had a less than ideal childhood. But after the war Tollers had quite an easy path career-wise, and indeed marriage-wise.
I think a lot of this closetedness and remoteness from ordinary life comes through in Lord of the Rings. He was a bit like Lord Denning (famous English judge from Hampshire). Denning was a terrific judge in my opinion but he had notorious blindspots that may be traced to the closetedness of his lego-judicial (plus rural) background. Famously, he just couldn’t believe that police beat up suspects, when the whole of the rest of Britain (except the other judges he met at the Atheneum Club or wherever) and its dog knew what went on.
Without Lewis - simple. No LOTR. He was the fellow who kept encouraging Tolkien and let him read chapter after chapter at the Inklings’ meetings, even though others must have thought “Oh, my God! not more traipsing through the countryside - let’s listen to and debate some real literature!” Of course, some Inklings thought and said more or less exactly that. And having reread the book, I can sympathise. Tollers wanted “long”, and in the end he got long, though only because of Lewis, I think.
I mentioned blindspots earlier. Anyone who could have spent around 30 years in Lewis’s company and not have seen his genius must have one. If it is true indeed that Tolkien wasn’t influenced by Lewis, then more’s the pity. The loss was his. So, that is why as I made my own journey recently, I felt that the relationship between Frodo and Sam was akin in T’s own mind (to which of course I have no access - but it’s fun to speculate) to that between him and Lewis. Of course, Sam is very important to Frodo, but at the end of the day of an entirely different nature. Definitely NOT a leader of men, a higher being. It’s significant that the book ends with Sam saying “Well, I’m back.” Yes, back where he belongs, with the soil.
The more I read the book the more I could sense (perhaps wrongly) that Tolkien was investing himself in Frodo, Aragorn and Gandalf. Perhaps, indeed, Treebeard was based on Lewis too, but I’m not so sure. Lewis was loud, yes, but he was certainly not ponderous. That was Tolkien, especially in terms of amount of literary output, meticulousness, etc. After all, it was T who invented three Elvish languages, not Lewis. His fantasy world was kind of tossed together as he went along, as Tolkien noted.
I feel the relationship between T and L was quite a complex one (which relationship between two such able men wouldn’t be?), and that there might have been an element of jealousy on T’s side.