Tolkien 4.0 (A dark and hungry sea lion arises)

[Arakan]

On 2/6/2022 at 11:28 PM, The Marquis de Leech said:

I can report that I've just finished a mammoth (14,000 word) look at the implicit historical bias within the Akallabeth:

Elendil the Insufferable Lying Bastard - Part One
Elendil the Insufferable Lying Bastard - Part Two
Elendil the Insufferable Lying Bastard - Part Three

Elendil the Insufferable Lying Bastard - Part Four

Awesome . I know that it’s all a bit tongue in cheek but to be honest the condescending self-righteousness of the Numenoreans always rubbed me the wrong way since reading the UT back in the 90s as a 14/15 year old. At best I considered them as „well-meaning“, benevolent colonizers, which still made them insufferable. And Elendil indeed is a bit of a hypocrite as he and his successors are still very much proud of the „great host“ landing in Umbar and cowering Sauron, all the evil shit the Numenoreans were already up to at this point in time notwithstanding. This would be analog of me being super proud of the initial military success of Operation Barbarossa 1941 or the conquest of France 1940…
 

[Nabarg]

No, it is more like russians being proud of the battle of Stalingrad.

Edited February 16, 2022 by Nabarg

[The Grey Wolf Strikes Back]

On 2/6/2022 at 4:28 PM, The Marquis de Leech said:

I can report that I've just finished a mammoth (14,000 word) look at the implicit historical bias within the Akallabeth:

Elendil the Insufferable Lying Bastard - Part One
Elendil the Insufferable Lying Bastard - Part Two
Elendil the Insufferable Lying Bastard - Part Three

Elendil the Insufferable Lying Bastard - Part Four

This was fun to read but it also reminds me that no one since Tolkien has really tried to write something in the same sort of mythical/biblical tone and that's a shame.

[Ser Drewy]

New JRRT photographs, letters, paintings & drafts have been released

https://www.tolkienestate.com/

Edited February 26, 2022 by Ser Drewy

[Werthead]

On 2/16/2022 at 4:32 PM, The Grey Wolf Strikes Back said:

This was fun to read but it also reminds me that no one since Tolkien has really tried to write something in the same sort of mythical/biblical tone and that's a shame.

Scott Bakker did, but how successfully is a completely different matter.

Also, Guy Gavriel Kay arguably did in some of his earlier work (perhaps still buzzing from his work on The Silmarillion).

[The Grey Wolf Strikes Back]

4 hours ago, Werthead said:

Scott Bakker did, but how successfully is a completely different matter.

Also, Guy Gavriel Kay arguably did in some of his earlier work (perhaps still buzzing from his work on The Silmarillion).

I have some of Bakker's books but have yet to read them though from what I've heard he's closer to The Children of Hurin than the rest of the Silmarillion tone-wise. I haven't read any of GGK's works yet either so which ones are you referring to exactly and which would you consider your top 3?

[Werthead]

5 hours ago, The Grey Wolf Strikes Back said:

I have some of Bakker's books but have yet to read them though from what I've heard he's closer to The Children of Hurin than the rest of the Silmarillion tone-wise. I haven't read any of GGK's works yet either so which ones are you referring to exactly and which would you consider your top 3?

The Fionavar Tapestry was his first and most Tolkien-like series. His later books are much more historically-rooted, and he doesn't so obviously follow the Tolkien model.

[Ser Drewy]

Sad news. Priscilla Tolkien has died: https://www.lmh.ox.ac.uk/news/memory-priscilla-tolkien 

She was the youngest of J.R.R Tolkien's children. 

R.I.P 

[The Grey Wolf Strikes Back]

13 hours ago, Werthead said:

The Fionavar Tapestry was his first and most Tolkien-like series. His later books are much more historically-rooted, and he doesn't so obviously follow the Tolkien model.

Thanks. Which of his books would you recommend most?

[Ser Drewy]

Lost drafts of the script for the BBC radio drama of LOTR discovered.

Edited March 12, 2022 by Ser Drewy

[dog-days]

2 hours ago, Ser Drewy said:

Lost drafts of the script for the BBC radio drama of LOTR discovered.

Slightly horrified that the fifties adaptation tried to squeeze the whole thing into seven and a half hours. Compare to the famous eighties version, which took thirteen (and still rushed TRotK, imo). 

[Ran]

I'm guessing someone in the group was a Tolkien fan and knew the origins of Eärendil..

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

1 hour ago, Ran said:

I'm guessing someone in the group was a Tolkien fan and knew the origins of Eärendil..

I was coming to link about this discovery.  Isn’t Eärendil the light of hope and notice to the world that we are not alone?  In any event… it is aptly named.

[fionwe1987]

On 3/30/2022 at 1:15 PM, Ran said:

I'm guessing someone in the group was a Tolkien fan and knew the origins of Eärendil..

I thought that too, but the article says not quite:

Quote

The far-away star system takes the official name WHL0137-LS, but the astronomers who found it nicknamed it “Earendel” from the Old English word meaning “morning star” or “rising light.”

I'm guessing this Old English word might have inspired Tolkien, though?

[Ran]

5 hours ago, fionwe1987 said:

I thought that too, but the article says not quite:

I'm guessing this Old English word might have inspired Tolkien, though?

Well, yes, but the likelihood of a random astronomer not having learned of the word by way of Tolkien seems really low.

[fionwe1987]

12 hours ago, Ran said:

Well, yes, but the likelihood of a random astronomer not having learned of the word by way of Tolkien seems really low.

Astronomy is definitely full of Tolkien geeks, but the PR department (in line with The Martian, amusingly ) seems to have nixed the Tolkien reference, because I've seen multiple articles refer the Old English meaning, but not Tolkien.

 

Edited April 2, 2022 by fionwe1987

[Ran]

2 hours ago, fionwe1987 said:

Astronomy is definitely full of Tolkien geeks, but the PR department (in line with The Martian, amusingly ) seems to have nixed the Tolkien reference, because I've seen multiple articles refer the Old English meaning, but not Tolkien.

 

From Sky and Telescope's piece, a quote from the lead scientist in what looks like a post-publication footnote apparently added when people pointed it out:

Quote

Tolkien fans may recognize this name, though spelled slightly differently as Eärendil, the half-elf mariner who carried a heavenly jewel into the sky in The Silmarillion. Tolkien found inspiration for his works in the 10th century poem Crist, one line of which (translated from Old English) reads: “Hail Éarendel, brightest of angels, sent over middle-earth to mankind.” The nature of Éarendel is debated but it is commonly identified as the “morning star.”

“I'm a huge Tolkien nerd, so that was one of the first name ideas that came to mind for a distant star,” explains Welch. “When I looked into it further and found that the old English word Earendel actually refers to a morning star, I was pretty much sold on the name.”

 

Edited April 2, 2022 by Ran

[DMC]

21 hours ago, fionwe1987 said:

The far-away star system takes the official name WHL0137-LS, but the astronomers who found it nicknamed it “Earendel” from the Old English word meaning “morning star” or “rising light.”

Interesting that earendel means morning star, which I most closely associate with the devil/lucifer.

[Larry of the Lawn]

3 hours ago, DMC said:

Interesting that earendel means morning star, which I most closely associate with the devil/lucifer.

I guess it makes sense from a "light-bringer" context which fits pretty well with both pre-Christian Lucifer but also with Milton's Satan as a Promethean figure.  

[Ran]

6 hours ago, Larry of the Lake said:

I guess it makes sense from a "light-bringer" context which fits pretty well with both pre-Christian Lucifer 

Right, the Roman "Lucifer" was just the name for the morning star, and than in Germanic tradition it had its own associations which persisted into the Christian era. Basically the association of the morning star with the Devil didn't exist in Anglo-Saxon England.