fantasy cinema peaked. Shit does not get any better or even close to the same level as LOTR.
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Board. There are a lot of Middle-Earth fans here, but this thread is over 20 years old and many in it are gone from the board.
If you start a new thread, they* will come.
Here is a link to many of the Middle Earth related threads: middle-earth.
* They = Middle Earth fans.
But my recommendation in this thread hasn’t changed! 
Don’t feel like creating a new thread. This isn’t new, but it is new to me.
If you like Sea Shanties, and like LOTR/Silmarillion this hits the spot
Brian
That was pretty good.
OK, saving that one. Thanks, N9IWP
Me, watching the LOTR films: “These are great! I want more of these.”
Me, watching the Hobbit films: “Never mind - I’m good.”
I liked the first Hobbit, I disliked the second, I hated the third. Oh boy was that awful.
The LotR movies are close to perfect.
Rings of Power, overall very disappointing and at times frustratingly stupid. .
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. Way better than its reception and my expectations. I’m still shocked by the 49% on Rotten Tomatoes, though I see audience has climbed to 81% after starting low.
I loved the fact Miranda Otto (Éowyn) was brought in to narrate the movie.
But it was the scenes that were faithful to the book that you mostly liked about it, right? Like “An Unexpected Party” and “Riddles in the Dark” ?
Yes and that Martin Freeman was a near perfect pick for Bilbo. By the third movie, he was barely on screen.
Good point. Ken Stott was a great Balin as well. And to be fair, the flashback scene of the battle outside Moria was excellent - but that was faithful to the source also, just that the source was one of the LOTR appendices.
Oh, for the sweet, innocent days of 2004.
And I may get myself a copy of the Simarillion, and give it a go.
Do it!, do not be fooled by the “biblical” tone of the first 2 chapters, it’s just necessary to set the scene, the rest of the book is more engaging.
I was hoping this was the thread where you posted something so esoteric that another poster accused you of making fun of Tolkien fans.
My conclusion when I powered through the Silmarillion as a teenager was that it was the Old Testament of Middle-Earth.
Nothing in the intervening decades has shifted my opinion.
I disagree, as I said the first 2 or 3 chapters may give you that impression but the rest is more like Nordic Sagas than the O.T.
Exactly.
Makes sense to me 
Brian
Firstly I really enjoyed ‘Earendil was a Wellerman’ - very knowledgeable lyrics.
Secondly I agree that Jackson’s LOTR was a true masterpiece (my D+D group watched the Extended Edition over a weekend 
)
Finally I’ve spent the last 15 years in Middle Earth!
(I’ve been playing the mmorpg ‘Lord of the Rings Online’ all that time 
So has anyone else sung Sea Shanties on wooden sail boat?
Or even while skippering a wooden sailboat?
Or sat in shanty training sessions at music festivals and Mystic Seaport?