Rook, motherfucker. And preferably Rivendell, but definitely rook. I understand why you made Gimli a bishop, but the makers of a Lord of the Rings chess set should at least know the names of the pieces. Perhaps Galadriel could have not been Aragorn’s queen, too.
You don’t know your chess, your Lord of the Rings, or your woodworking as this is shoddy merchandise. Shame on you, Tolkien Entertainment Inc.
OMG, you’re a dork! 
Aragorn is the king? I mean, in LotR he’s the heir/king, but he’s not well represented by a king in chess.
I just realized that Aragorn and Elrond are more than just cousins, they are both kings who have not accepted coronation until Aragorn does. Elrond is the next closest heir to high kind of the Nolder when Gilgalad and Elendil are killed in the battle with Sauron. He leaves the throne empty. Arwen has daddy issues because Elrond never fulfilled his destiny, so she marries mere mortal Aragorn who accepts being a real king to mess with daddy.
“Castle” is a perfectly valid term for the piece in question. When was the last time you saw a crow in the corner of a chess board?
Screw your sword-and-sorcery bullcrap fandom. The greatest chess adapatation abomination remains the Star Trek Commemorative Chess Set:
King: Captain James T. Kirk
Queen: Lt. Uhura
Bishops: Commander Spock and Dr. Leonard McCoy
Knights: Lt. Cmdr. Montgomery Scott and Lt. Hikaru Sulu
Rooks: The USS Enterprise
Pawns: Starfleet security officers
Why is Uhura the most powerful piece in gross misrepresentation of her role on the show? If the manufacturer had any guts, it would have renamed the pieces and analogized their roles accordingly:
King equivalent: Ship - The USS Enterprise (if you lose this, you lose the game)
Queen equivalent: Captain - James Kirk
Rook equivalent: Commanders - Spock and McCoy
Bishop equivalent - Scott and Uhura
Knight equivalent - Sulu and Chekov
Arguably, Scott and Sulu should be paired as “Bishops” (reflecting their seniority) but since Sulu and Chekov work closely together, I’m ambivalent. Since Scott and Uhura both wear red (and Sulu/Chekov both wear gold), I’m prepared to accept pairings based on aesthetics.
The USS Enterprise is the only thing on your list capable of FTL travel and you make it the least mobile piece? Pfffft.
Disclaimer: I know next-to-nothing about Star Trek and my knowledge of chess is a few doors down. Therefore, my opinion should be ignored.
ETA: I expect the Star Trek version is one of the best when it comes to pawn assignment.
Are you talking about this one? Pretty as anything, but, whoa, $450?
(I’ll just print out little pictures of the characters and mount them on cardboard. Same overall effect, and I save a ton of money!)
I’m carving a LotR chess set, too (and have been for many years-- It’s a long and sporadic project). I’m going with a lineup of K: Aragorn, Q: Arwen, B: Galadriel and Gandalf, N: Eowyn and Eomer, R: Rivendell and Minas Tirith, with pawns Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippen, Fredegar Bolger, Lobelia S-B, and Farmer Maggot.
For black, it’s K: Sauron, Q: Shelob, B: Balrog and Saruman, N: Witch-King and Khamul, R: Barad-Dur and Orthanc, and assorted orcs as pawns.
Yes, I know that this means leaving off Legolas, Gimli, and Boromir, but there’s really no good place to fit them in. If I ever actually finish the main set, I might just make extra statues for them, too.
There’s a Sting letter opener (Bilbo’s sword, not that other guy) advertised on that website. I wonder if it glows in the presence of bills.
Uh, not even. Elrond is certainly of great lineage, but he’s barely a Noldo at all, being mostly of human, Teleri, and Vanyar heritage, and his paternal line being the house of Hador. Galadriel recognized Gil-Galad as High King, but his line ended; Elrond, to her, was a young cousin (later son-in-law) - wise and powerful, sure, and a valued ally, maybe even beloved, but not her equal, and not her king.
Missed the edit:
It’s not at all true that Aragorn didn’t “accept coronation” - he had to go out and earn it (unless you buy what Jackson was peddling, which to me was the second most off-pissing thing about the movies).
For pawns you use nameless redshirts.
Reminds me of one of my favorite Nancy Buttons:
If you haven’t encountered Nancy Buttons, Nancy Lebovitz sells buttons and bumper stickers with wickedly clever sayings on them, which she sells at SF conventions. Here’s her website. But be advised that it’s only slightly less addictive as TVtropes:
But as heir to Elu Thingol and Melian the Maia, Elrond is lord of all non-Noldor Elves in Middle Earth, and as such is at least her equal. And don’t go on about how she’s older than him - if age counted for anything, then Galadriel would bow to Cirdan the Shipwright.
If Gilgalad leaves no heirs, title demises to the next nearest living heir. Elrond is the son of Earendil, who is son of High King Turgon of Gondolin. Grandson of a previous High King is a pretty strong claim, unless Orodreth or Finrod or Gilgalad have closer living heirs. Perhaps Elrond chose not to press his claim for the reasons you stated or because there were insufficient Elves to be king of, not that such stopped Thrandruil.
Great grandson of a previous High King. Earendil was Tuor and Idril’s son, and Idril was Turgon’s daughter. On the other side, he’s the great-great grandson of Thingol and Melian.
Eärendil was the grandson of Turgon - the son of Tuor and Idril, Tuor being human, and Idril Turgon’s daughter. Similarly, Elrond is the son of Elwing, the daughter of Dior, Elu’s heir. While descended from these Kings, however, he was in no sense their heir, since they had nothing to pass on by the time he was born.
However, it’s neither lineage or age that makes Elrond not Galadriel’s equal (though she is the grand-daughter of Finwë himself, and the daughter of the REAL King of the Noldor) - it’s the fact that she is the greatest survivor of the First Age in Middle-Earth, she’s breathed the air of Valinor, and she was something pretty damn special even there. She acknowledged Gil-Galad because - though he was younger - he had everything going for him that she had, and more.
I was responding to Second Stone, who said that *Elrond *was Turgon’s grandson and that Eärendil was Turgon’s son.
When a chess player who insists upon the “rook” terminology performs that move involving the king and the rook simultaneously, is it still called “castling”? In so, could someone explain the derivation of the name for that move?