WoodrowSkillson posted:

100% there is no way you skip that shot

quote:

Gollum looked at them. A strange expression passed over his lean hungry face. The gleam faded from his eyes, and they went dim and grey, old and tired. A spasm of pain seemed to twist him, and he turned away, peering back up towards the pass, shaking his head, as if engaged in some interior debate. Then he came back, and slowly putting out a trembling hand, very cautiously he touched Frodo’s knee – but almost the touch was a caress. For a fleeting moment, could one of the sleepers have seen him, they would have thought that they beheld an old weary hobbit, shrunken by the years that had carried him far beyond his time, beyond friends and kin, and the fields and streams of youth, an old starved pitiable thing.

But at that touch Frodo stirred and cried out softly in his sleep, and immediately Sam was wide awake. The first thing he saw was Gollum – ‘pawing at master,’ as he thought.

‘Hey you!’ he said roughly. ‘What are you up to?’ ‘Nothing, nothing,’ said Gollum softly. ‘Nice Master!’ ‘I daresay,’ said Sam. ‘But where have you been to – sneaking off and sneaking back, you old villain?’

Gollum withdrew himself, and a green glint flickered under his heavy lids. Almost spider-like he looked now, crouched back on his bent limbs, with his protruding eyes. The fleeting moment had passed, beyond recall. ‘Sneaking, sneaking!’ he hissed. ‘Hobbits always so polite, yes. O nice hobbits! Sméagol brings them up secret ways that nobody else could find. Tired he is, thirsty he is, yes thirsty; and he guides them and he searches for paths, and they say sneak, sneak. Very nice friends, O yes my precious, very nice.’

Sam felt a bit remorseful, though not more trustful. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry, but you startled me out of my sleep. And I shouldn’t have been sleeping, and that made me a bit sharp. But Mr. Frodo, he’s that tired, I asked him to have a wink; and well, that’s how it is. Sorry. But where have you been to?’

‘Sneaking,’ said Gollum, and the green glint did not leave his eyes.

Data Graham posted:

Always loved the Bakshi movie's fey Gollum rendering of that scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpyezvNC_c4

Sneaking? SNEAKing?!

Imagined posted:

After the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Aragorn draws Andúril and says, "You shall not be sheathed again until the last battle is fought." This always struck me as a somewhat comical mental image, since IIRC it's 8 days from then until the Battle of the Morannon. So... was Aragorn walking around for 8 days carrying his sword the whole time? Brushing his teeth, eating his breakfast, taking a dump, etc, all while holding an unsheathed sword?

sat on my keys! posted:

I feel like the Numenoreans, superhuman that they are, probably don't suffer from tooth decay like normal men do and therefore don't have to brush their teeth (just like they don't have to shave).

skasion posted:

Human sacrifice is a dark thing. Sauron introduced the Numenoreans to the practice. That’s probably what the remark is supposed to be alluding to

Gandalf posted:

"Authority is not given to you, Steward of Gondor, to order the hour of your death. And only the heathen kings, under the domination of the Dark Power, did thus, slaying themselves in pride and despair, murdering their kin to ease their own death."

Runcible Cat posted:

Denethor is deliberately performing an act of Morgoth-worship, killing himself and his son, in a traditional place for it, with Sauron watching.

I guarantee you Sauron is howling with laughter seeing that over palantir.

Data Graham posted:

I’ve just got to say, I’ve never been able to understand how to read the whole “PRAISE THEM WITH GREAT PRAISE” bit.

It’s so flippin awkward. What is he trying to pull off, linguistically? Why the repetition? The dullness of word choice? The weird commanding tone?

I get that there’s the whole “lol @ Findegil, King’s Writer” thing but what the hell

Tree Bucket posted:

I have to say, Denethor makes a lot of good points.

e: also re: praise him with great praise, I seem to remember it's interspersed with words in one of the elvish languages, I don't remember which one. So maybe it's a translation of words that sound much better in another language...
The repetition makes it sound like something from the Hebrew Psalms, maybe, so I guess it's going for a deliberate layer of extra archaism on top of LotR's already impressive levels of archaic-ness.

quote:

“Long live the Halflings! Praise them with great praise!
Cuio i Pheriain anann! Aglar’ni Pheriannath!
Praise them with great praise, Frodo and Samwise!
Daur a Berhael, Conin en Annûn! Eglerio!
Praise them!
Eglerio!
A laita te, laita te! Andave laituvalmet!
Praise them!
Cormacolindor, a laita tárienna!
Praise them! The Ring-bearers, praise them with great praise!”

euphronius posted:

Great stuff

Then suddenly Denethor laughed. He stood up tall and proud again, and stepping swiftly back to the table he lifted from it the pillow on which his head had lain. Then coming to the doorway he drew aside the covering, and lo! he had between his hands a palantir. And as he held it up, it seemed to those that looked on that the globe began to glow with an inner flame, so that the lean face of the Lord was lit as with a red fire, and it seemed cut out of hard stone, sharp with black shadows, noble, proud, and terrible. His eyes glittered. ‘Pride and despair!’ he cried. ‘Didst thou think that the eyes of the White Tower were blind? Nay, I have seen more than thou knowest, Grey Fool. For thy hope is but ignorance. Go then and labour in healing! Go forth and fight! Vanity. For a little space you may triumph on the field, for a day. But against the Power that now arises there is no victory. To this City only the first finger of its hand has yet been stretched. All the East is moving. And even now the wind of thy hope cheats thee and wafts up Anduin a fleet with black sails. The West has failed. It is time for all to depart who would not be slaves.’ ‘Such counsels will make the Enemy’s victory certain indeed,’ said Gandalf. ‘Hope on then!’ laughed Denethor. ‘Do I not know thee, Mithrandir? Thy hope is to rule in my stead, to stand behind every throne, north, south, or west. I have read thy mind and its policies. Do I not know that this halfling was commanded by thee to keep silence? That he was brought hither to be a spy within my very chamber? And yet in our speech together I have learned the names and purpose of all thy companions. So! With the left hand thou wouldst use me for a little while as a shield against Mordor, and with the right bring up this Ranger of the North to supplant me. ‘But I say to thee, Gandalf Mithrandir, I will not be thy tool! I am Steward of the House of Anárion. I will not step down to be the dotard chamberlain of an upstart. Even were his claim proved to me, still he comes but of the line of Isildur. I will not bow to such a one, last of a ragged house long bereft of lordship and dignity.’ ‘What then would you have,’ said Gandalf, ‘if your will could have its way?’ ‘I would have things as they were in all the days of my life,’ answered Denethor, ‘and in the days of my longfathers before me: to be the Lord of this City in peace, and leave my chair to a son after me, who would be his own master and no wizard’s pupil. But if doom denies this to me, then I will have naught: neither life diminished, nor love halved, nor honour abated.’ ‘To me it would not seem that a Steward who faithfully surrenders his charge is diminished in love or in honour,’ said Gandalf. ‘And at the least you shall not rob your son of his choice while his death is still in doubt.’ At those words Denethor’s eyes flamed again, and taking the Stone under his arm he drew a knife and strode towards the bier. But Beregond sprang forward and set himself before Faramir. ‘So!’ cried Denethor. ‘Thou hadst already stolen half my son’s love. Now thou stealest the hearts of my knights also, so that they rob me wholly of my son at the last. But in this at least thou shalt not defy my will: to rule my own end.’ ‘Come hither!’ he cried to his servants. ‘Come, if you are not all recreant!’ Then two of them ran up the steps to him. Swiftly he snatched a torch from the hand of one and sprang back into the house. Before Gandalf could hinder him he thrust the brand amid the fuel, and at once it crackled and roared into flame. Then Denethor leaped upon the table, and standing there wreathed in fire and smoke he took up the staff of his stewardship that lay at his feet and broke it on his knee. Casting the pieces into the blaze he bowed and laid himself on the table, clasping the palantir with both hands upon his breast. And it was said that ever after, if any man looked in that Stone, unless he had a great strength of will to turn it to other purpose, he saw only two aged hands withering in flame. Gandalf in grief and horror turned his face away and closed the door. For a while he stood in thought, silent upon the threshold, while those outside heard the greedy roaring of the fire within. And then Denethor gave a great cry, and afterwards spoke no more, nor was ever again seen by mortal men.

euphronius posted:

Then suddenly Denethor laughed. He stood up tall and proud again, and stepping swiftly back to the table he lifted from it the pillow on which his head had lain. Then coming to the doorway he drew aside the covering, and lo! he had between his hands a palantir. And as he held it up, it seemed to those that looked on that the globe began to glow with an inner flame, so that the lean face of the Lord was lit as with a red fire, and it seemed cut out of hard stone, sharp with black shadows, noble, proud, and terrible. His eyes glittered. ‘lol’ he cried. ‘lmao.’

Imagined posted:

I remember one of our hymns at church when I was a kid having the line "praise Him with great praise", so I'm sure that specific wording comes from the same Christian source.

Imagined posted:

One interesting historical fact I learned was that peasants used to have a side-hustle of yanking the teeth out of the battlefield dead to make a few bucks. Before synthetic dental implants and crowns and poo poo were common, the easiest way to make dentures was with the teeth of a cadaver, and all those young soldiers would have nice heads of healthy teeth just lying there going to waste.

webmeister posted:

Down With People posted:

Reread the Hobbit and LOTR recently cause my boyfriend started getting into it. The Hobbit was the first book I ever read and I remember it taking me a while but it took me like, two days of on-and-off reading this time. I forgot how 'kiddy' it is compared to LOTR.

This time around I really enjoyed all the orcs, especially the detour into office politics with Shagrat and Gorbag.

ChubbyChecker posted:

i think that it was my first one too

and yeah, it's a great children's book

skasion posted:

Nicol Williamson did a reading of The Hobbit which I really like. Eeriest rendition of “tra-la-la-lally” you will ever hear. Unfortunately abridged though