# Fellowship of the Rings minor question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** middle-earth, movies\ **Created:** [May 29, 2023, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellowship-of-the-rings-minor-question/984715 "2023-05-29T00:43:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Jack\_Burden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Jack\_Burden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Burden)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2023, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellowship-of-the-rings-minor-question/984715/81 "2023-06-15T14:14:52Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Cite for that? I thought that the only cases of anyone slaying a Balrog were Glorfindel, Ecthelion, and Gandalf, and all three died in the process. From the 2018 book _The Fall of Gondolin_- “…yet of the leap of that axe Dramborleg that was swung by the hand of Tuor were [the Balrogs] still more afraid, for it sang like the rush of eagle’s wings in the air and took death as it fell, and five of them went down before it.” ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2023, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellowship-of-the-rings-minor-question/984715/82 "2023-06-15T15:27:13Z")
I think Feanor killed a few too, but I don’t rememember if the text explicitly says so, or just says “fought”. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2023, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellowship-of-the-rings-minor-question/984715/83 "2023-06-15T16:15:43Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Humans espousing Elves, on the other hand, that definitely counts as “marrying up” to me. That’s racist! (Sorry, of late I’ve been herding too many teenagers with hair triggers on social justice.) > [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Galadriel was quite notable long before she met Celeborn. Fëanor was obsessed with her when they dwelled in Valinor but she recognized his character flaws (including the fact he was her half-uncle) and spurned him. Galadriel was rather flawed herself. It makes for a good counterfactual story if she had married Fëanor. Would she have saved him as well along her redemption arc? Or, would he have led her to his fate? Or, perhaps she’d be a tragic widow in the Third Age. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2023, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellowship-of-the-rings-minor-question/984715/84 "2023-06-15T23:15:53Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I’ve never really understood how Elwe (Thingol), Olwe and apparently, Elmo could be brothers, anyway. Weren’t they first-generation elves? And if not, what happened to their parents? JRRT kept revising the backstory, and in the most recent book which collected his previously unpublished notes _The Nature of Middle Earth_ we learn much about the first generations of elves, and they weren’t Elwë, Olwë, and Ingwë. We also get TONS of tables about elvish reproduction rates, maturation rates, populations rises, etc. It made even my eyes glaze over. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2023, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellowship-of-the-rings-minor-question/984715/85 "2023-06-15T23:36:41Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Merry was related to the Master of Buckland, which if I recall correctly was a separate entity from the Shire. It was sort of a colonial plantation, owned and controlled by the Brandybuck family. It was. Buckland was on the other side of the Brandywine (Baranduin) River from the Shire. Hence the Brandybuck name. The family name in older times was Oldbuck, but later changed to adopt the river’s name. It had its own government and was very close to the Old Forest and the Barrow Downs, so it was in more general peril than the Shire. It had a huge hedge surrounding it like a wall to keep out bandits, wolves, and whatever creepy things might come out of the forest and ancient graves. Hobbits from there tended to be a bit more adventurous and worldly than their Shire cousins, since they didn’t live quite as sheltered lives. If you traveled from the Shire to Bree (the closest organized human habitation), you’d pass north of Buckland along the East Road. That same road eventually leads to Rivendell. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2023, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellowship-of-the-rings-minor-question/984715/86 "2023-06-15T23:40:59Z")
I have a geography question-how far from each other were Minas Tirith and Minas Ithil/Morgul. I know they were sort of sister cities, but could you easily walk from one to the other? See each other? The movie makes it that they were quite close, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2023, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellowship-of-the-rings-minor-question/984715/87 "2023-06-15T23:53:28Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > I have a geography question-how far from each other were Minas Tirith and Minas Ithil/Morgul. Luckily, someone did the research already. > It’s about 36 miles. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellowship-of-the-rings-minor-question/984715/88 "2023-06-16T00:24:56Z")
Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellowship-of-the-rings-minor-question/984715/89 "2023-06-16T00:28:52Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > The Nature of Middle Earth To act, as usual, as a obnoxious nitpicker, it’s _The Nature of Middle-earth_. This is the standard spelling of Middle-earth. Incidentally, the author of that book is Carl Hostetter. The author of some other recent Tolkien books is Verlyn Flieger. In 1994, I was on the committee that ran a convention about Tolkien (or, more precisely, about all of the Inklings). Carl Hostetter was another member of the committee. Verlyn Flieger was the scholar guest of honor for the convention. Madeleine L’Engle was the author guest of honor for the convention. And, um, I was the chair of the convention committee. Not because I know more than any of those people or worked harder than them. I was just the one who proposed having the convention in our area. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellowship-of-the-rings-minor-question/984715/90 "2023-06-16T00:31:17Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Madeleine L’Engle was the author guest of honor for the convention. Okay, that is really cool. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellowship-of-the-rings-minor-question/984715/91 "2023-06-16T00:43:58Z")
**Wendell\_Wagner** is not just a 99’er but also my idol when it comes to JRRT here on the board and elsewhere. I am a mere dilettante in matters of _Middle-earth_ while **W\_W** is the real deal. He’s also very, very wise when it comes to C. S. Lewis! 😲 ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellowship-of-the-rings-minor-question/984715/92 "2023-06-16T00:46:41Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Madeleine L’Engle was the author guest of honor for the convention. Was there a specific reason she was asked to attend? She’s a very good author, I was just curious if there was a Tolkien connection. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellowship-of-the-rings-minor-question/984715/93 "2023-06-16T00:49:32Z")
I’m something of a Tolkien nerd (my youngest daughter’s middle name is Bree) but even I forget how to properly write Middle-earth at times. It’s so unintuitive. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellowship-of-the-rings-minor-question/984715/94 "2023-06-16T01:24:34Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > Was there a specific reason she was asked to attend? Not really. One person on the committee knew how to get hold of her. She was available during the time of the convention. We just decided that she would make a good author guest of honor. Incidentally, I read _A Wrinkle in Time_ when it came out in 1962. 32 years later she was the author guest of honor at the only convention that I’ve been the chair of. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2023, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellowship-of-the-rings-minor-question/984715/95 "2023-06-17T18:07:19Z")
I’m re-reading the trilogy and yet another question has popped up. Pippin and Gandalf are riding to Gondor and they’ve just seen the signal fires go up. Gandalf wants to go faster, but Shadowfax neighs and three riders gallop past. Then Gandalf sets off again. Who were they? Does it come up later? ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2023, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellowship-of-the-rings-minor-question/984715/96 "2023-06-17T18:50:47Z")
Too late to edit-if I had kept reading I would have learned the answer to my question. ---
**Author:** ![Unforgiven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/7bcc69/32.png) [@Unforgiven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unforgiven)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellowship-of-the-rings-minor-question/984715/97 "2023-06-18T02:54:33Z")
For anyone else interested… I believe they were riders from Minas Tirith heading to Rohan with the Red Arrow. They do appear later before Theoden asking for assistance. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellowship-of-the-rings-minor-question/984715/98 "2023-06-18T08:40:50Z")
Yes, that’s who it was. I wonder why Tolkien chose to include that bit. Building suspense in the reader? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellowship-of-the-rings-minor-question/984715.md?page=4)