Earendil was not an elf; he was peredhil, half-elven. He was given the Choice as to be mortal or immortal. Whether or not old age would have affected him had he not had the opportunity to choose is unknown.
Further, there were three pure mortals on that ship, so I’m going to repectfully disagree.
Let me amend: by themselves. Frodo, Sam and Gimli were special circumstances and were taken there by Elves. (In three separate boats, btw, at different times)
I’d like to hear the story from an Orc’s viewpoint: history being written by the victors and all, were they really as black as they were painted, or did they just have the misfortune to be the wrong colour and on the losing side?
Hearing the term “EU” used in conjunction made me imagine what sorts of irreparable damage could happen to the LOTR world if that Anderson fellow were allowed to romp across the franchise.
Gandalf comes back and starts a wizard academy. Samwise’s children enroll and get into adventures. Creatures from the other side of Harad invade with their creepy biotech animals. Ick.
This reply is specifically for Case Sensitive, should s/he come back to this thread. Here’s a link to a hilarious parody, analyzing the FOTR movie from the downtrodden orcs point-of-view:
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2003/04/22fellowship.html
It’s the “Unused Audio Commentary by Noam Chomsky & Howard Zinn…for Fellowship of the Ring, Platinum Edition…” from McSweeney’s.
[There certainly are a number of good stories to be told inspired by JRRT’s Middle Earth. Of course I don’t want them told by hack writers anymore than the Tolkien estate does. But good writers…]
The fact that this does not exist is one of the reasons I am grateful that there isn’t a Middle-Earth EU. Tolkien said exactly as much about Bombadil as should be said. Who is Tom Bombadil? He is. The world needs a few unsolved mysteries, and the nature of Bombadil is one of them.
But as long as you stay away from that, there are a lot of other things which could be expanded upon. For instance, all we know about the Stone Giants is that they live in the Misty Mountains, they sport at throwing boulders, and at least some of them are more or less decent. Where did they come from? How do they live? What do they do, besides playing games and occasionally doing favors for wizards? Do they get along with Dwarves and Elves, perhaps trading with them? If so, why do we never see anything of giant manufacture? Or do we?
Well, I’m back. That is completely brilliant: thanks for the link.
“Aren’t you a little short for a Nazgul?”
My interpretation of the Stone Giants is that it’s a tale told to children to explain thunder, and a credulous Bilbo believed it.
wipes off monitor
Pretty much Tolkein’s take on Tom although there is still much speculation on who (or what) Tom Bombadil is. I always liked to think Tom was Ilúvatar’s embodiment in Middle Earth but then learned that Tolkein pretty clearly addressed that possibility as not the case at all.
If you want a good treatment of the possibilities relating to Tom Bombadil follow the link in the quote below. No definitive answer but a good collection of the evidence one way or another.