Tree Bucket posted:

Arc Hammer posted:

Is it written anywhere how long Elf adolescence lasts? Do they grow up into adult form on a human scale and then cease to grow or are they more akin to Hobbits who still have their tweens in their thirties?

quote:

The Eldar grew in bodily form slower than Men, but in mind more swiftly. They learned to speak before they were one year old; and in the same time they learned to walk and to dance, for their wills came soon to the mastery of their bodies. Nonetheless there was less difference between the two Kindreds, Elves and Men, in early youth; and a man who watched elf-children at play might well have believed that they were the children of Men, of some fair and happy people. For in their early days elf-children delighted still in the world about them, and the fire of their spirit had not consumed them, and the burden of memory was still light upon them.

This same watcher might indeed have wondered at the small limbs and stature of these children, judging their age by their skill in words and grace in motion. For at the end of the third year mortal children began to outstrip the Elves, hastening on to a full stature while the Elves lingered in the first spring of childhood. Children of Men might reach their full height while Eldar of the same age were still in body like to mortals of no more than seven years. Not until the fiftieth year did the Eldar attain the stature and shape in which their lives would afterwards endure, and for some a hundred years would pass before they were full-grown.

quote:

They reach maturity at about the age of 20, and remained in full physical vigour till about the age of 60, after which the fea and its interests began to assume command. After about the age of 90-96 one of the Quendi had reached a stage similar to that of a vigorous and hale Mortal of high age and wisdom. The normal period, therefore, for marriage and the begetting and bearing of children and their nurture (which were one of the greatest delights of the Quendi in Arda), was between about the ages of 20 and 60.

SHISHKABOB posted:

A 1 year old elf dancing sure would be a sight.

quote:

Though we cannot with complete candor state, as does Professor T., that ''the tale grew in the telling'', we can allow that this tale (or rather the necessity of hawking it at a bean a copy) grew in direct proportion to the ominous dwindling of our bank accounts at the Harvard Trust in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This loss of turgor in our already emaciated portfolio was not, in itself, cause for alarm (or ''alarum'' as Professor T. might aptly put it), but the resultant threats and cuffed ears received at the hands of creditors were. Thinking long on this, we retired to the reading lounge of our club to meditate on this vicissitude.

quote:

Aragorn was the tallest of the Company, but Boromir, little less in height, was broader and heavier in build. He led the way,
and Aragorn followed him. Slowly they moved off, and were soon toiling heavily. In places the snow was breast-high, and often
Boromir seemed to be swimming or burrowing with his great arms rather than walking.

Legolas watched them for a while with a smile upon his lips, and then he turned to the others. ‘The strongest must seek a
way, say you? But I say: let a ploughman plough, but choose an otter for swimming, and for running light over grass and leaf,
or over snow – an Elf.’

With that he sprang forth nimbly, and then Frodo noticed as if for the first time, though he had long known it, that the Elf
had no boots, but wore only light shoes, as he always did, and his feet made little imprint in the snow.

‘Farewell!’ he said to Gandalf. ‘I go to find the Sun!’ Then swift as a runner over firm sand he shot away, and quickly overtaking
the toiling men, with a wave of his hand he passed them, and sped into the distance, and vanished round the rocky turn.


The others waited huddled together, watching until Boromir and Aragorn dwindled into black specks in the whiteness. At length
they too passed from sight. The time dragged on. The clouds lowered, and now a few flakes of snow came curling down again.

An hour, maybe, went by, though it seemed far longer, and then at last they saw Legolas coming back. At the same time Boromir
and Aragorn reappeared round the bend far behind him and came labouring up the slope.

‘Well,’ cried Legolas as he ran up, ‘I have not brought the Sun. She is walking in the blue fields of the South, and a little
wreath of snow on this Redhorn hillock troubles her not at all. But I have brought back a gleam of good hope for those who
are doomed to go on feet. There is the greatest wind-drift of all just beyond the turn, and there our Strong Men were almost
buried. They despaired, until I returned and told them that the drift was little wider than a wall. And on the other side
the snow suddenly grows less, while further down it is no more than a white coverlet to cool a hobbit’s toes.'

Mike N Eich posted:

Continuing my read of LOTR, I’m sad because my estimation of Jackson’s trilogy keeps falling the more I re-read the books. Still think they’re fabulous adaptations with all their faults but there are bits that really stray from the material for the worse. Just read the Voice of Saruman chapter and man… it is a shame that the theatrical editions just…ignore Saruman but it’s honestly better than the extended edition scene. Jackson lifts much of the dialogue from the book but the context is totally different. Tolkien really makes Saruman seem like a seductive character, and it’s a real struggle for the party to refuse him. In the film, Christopher Lee just impotently insults them until Wormtongue kills him and he falls on that weird big spike thing. Those kind of gratuitously violent deaths clash with the rest of the tone (Denethor gets one as well).

keep punching joe posted:

The faramir changes still get me mad to this day. That and making Aragorn a reluctant leader, like the dude knows who he is in the book, he's all action.

quote:

...he looked at the slain, recalling their names. Then suddenly he beheld
his sister Eowyn as she lay, and he knew her. He stood a moment
as a man who is pierced in the midst of a cry by an arrow through
the heart; and then his face went deathly white, and a cold fury rose
in him, so that all speech failed him for a while. A fey mood took him.

‘Eowyn, Eowyn!’ he cried at last. ‘Eowyn, how come you here? What
madness or devilry is this? Death, death, death! Death take us all!’
Then without taking counsel or waiting for the approach of the
men of the City, he spurred headlong back to the front of the great
host, and blew a horn, and cried aloud for the onset. Over the field
rang his clear voice calling:

‘Death! Ride, ride to ruin and the world’s ending!’

And with that the host began to move. But the Rohirrim sang no
more. Death they cried with one voice loud and terrible, and gathering
speed like a great tide their battle swept about their fallen king and
passed, roaring away southwards.

euphronius posted:

Movie theodan is really good. Can’t complain. Although now I can’t remember what we’re extended edition scenes

Data Graham posted:

it almost feels like this whole scene is a deliberate study in showing us as little as possible about one of the most graphic and visual scenes we'd ever yet seen described in the story, purely (presumably) to heighten the sense of unknowing, the whole atmosphere of misery and trepidation among the hobbits and Gandalf and Gimli who are left alone up under the snowy ledge, just waiting, with nothing else they can possibly do.

Mike N Eich posted:

A lot of the huge dramatic moments in the books are told to the reader by characters telling each other about it. We don't "see" the Ents destroying Isengard, but we get the whole story from Merry and Pippin. And it still is dramatic and riveting.

Arc Hammer posted:

Movie Theoden is pretty much perfect and Bernard Hill is a severely underrated actor.

Winifred Madgers posted:

As much as I dislike a few parts of them, the good parts are so good that I can't help loving the PJ movies.

Arc Hammer posted:

Okay but how would Tolkien feel about Blind Guardian?