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Aeglos has been a fan of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien for many years.
Being a fan of the Noldor, he had hoped to take the username Ringil when he finally registered an account on Tolkien Gateway. However, as that name was taken, he opted to go for the only other named weapon wielded by any of the High Kings. Happily, no one had taken that yet.
Funny (to me) thoughts
Pippin in *The Fellowship*: I’m scared, man. I’m starting to doubt that I’m actually related to old Bullroarer.
Pippin in *The Return*: This sword killed a troll, and it won’t have much trouble with you if you don’t get lost.
A moment that canonically happened in *The Return of the King*:
Imrahil: We’re marching on Mordor with an army barely the size of Gondor’s vanguard at its height? That’s hilarious. Sauron is going to think that’s hilarious.
Gandalf: No, he won’t think it’s hilarious.
Aragorn: Yeah, cause it’s not. *Starts talking to his glowing sword*
A moment that I like to think happened shortly thereafter:
Eomer: Don’t listen to them, man. It was hilarious.
Imrahil: (inwardly) If we live through this, I’m introducing this kid to my daughter.
Elrond: “…I will say that your choice is right; and though all the mighty Elf-friends of old, Hador, and Húrin, and Túrin, and Beren himself were assembled together, your seat should be among them.”
Me: “In fact, we’d probably want to kick Túrin out so you could have his.”
Another Ent idea:
Say Sauron sent a Nazgul to Isengard rather sooner than he does in *The Two Towers*. And say that to make sure Saruman sits up and takes notice, the Witch-king is the one sent. He gets there after Isengard is emptied, but before it’s been flooded. Landing at the gate, who should he find but Merry and Pippin.
Naturally, ol’ Angmar goes for our boys. Unfortunately for him, he jumps down from his fell beast to do so. And even more unfortunately, he happens to do so without being aware of the presence of Treebeard. And so, in an alternative solution to Glorfindel’s prophecy, the Witch-king doesn’t fall by the hand of man…
…but by the foot of Ent.
So I find it a bit messed up that when Faramir tells Frodo that he’s going to blindfold him and Sam, Frodo feels the need to bring up that Gimli objected to such treatment when it happened in Lothlorien. Like, what’d Gimli do to you, Frodo? All you had to say was “Oh, they do that in Lothlorien too; I get it.” There was absolutely no need to throw Gimli under the oliphant like that.
Eomer upon hearing the account of the Three Hunters:
Aragorn, bro, you’re too fire for a weaksauce handle like Strider. Imma call you Wingfoot.
Manwe: Zeus, if Zeus didn’t suck.
Varda: Hera, if Hera wasn’t terrible (though a lot of that may be on Zeus)
Ulmo: Poseidon, now with impulse control.
Yavanna: Demeter
Aule: Hephaestus, without the mommy issues.
Nienna: Hestia, minus the hearth motif.
Mandos: Pretty much Hades.
Vaire: …Athena, I guess.
Irmo: Apollo
Este: …doesn’t really line up with any of the big names from Greek myth.
Orome: Hermes
Vana: Persephone
Tulkas: Hercules
Nessa: Artemis
Melkor: Ares
A conversation I can imagine happened before the Fellowship left Rivendell:
Gandalf: Aragorn, Boromir, I have a favor to ask. I’m afraid I may be too busy keeping Legolas and Gimli from fighting to devote my full attention to the hobbits. Could you two keep an eye on them? Aragorn: Well, there’s four of them and two of us. Maybe we can each take care of two? Merry and Pippin: *Fall out of a nearby tree* Boromir: *pointing* I want those two. Aragorn and Gandalf: *muttering* You can have them.
Amazon: oh, we’ve got to show that the orcs aren’t all bad.
Tolkien: this sword’s name is Goblin-cleaver.
Sober Thoughts
I’ve had a thought-a bit of speculation, really-concerning the Valar for a while. I half wonder if Melkor, through his rebellion, may not have spoiled Eru’s intentions for relations between the group. Perhaps his desire for light, had it not become a selfish and perverse thing, would have led to him and Varda becoming a couple. Manwe would then have paired with Yavanna, and the other Valar would have married off in sequence, with Vana perhaps wedding Aule since there would have been nothing to attract Tulkas into the world.
But since Melkor had to go and rebel, things got thrown off. Varda ended up with Manwe, and Aule with Yavanna. All the other Valar are apparently happily married, with the glaring exceptions of Ulmo and Nienna.
Tolkien: Animals in Arda don’t have souls.
Also Tolkien: Fingolfin’s horse dies of a broken heart after returning from carrying him to Angband. And Thorondor, greatest of all the Grear Eagles, dares to strike at Morgoth himself in order to save the body of Fingolfin from an ignoble fate in the jaws of Morgoth’s wolves.
Huan follows Celeborn into exile out of love, then forsakes him in his wickedness out of love for Luthien and Beren. And it to Beren and Luthien that Huan speaks, as he can do only three times before death takes him.
The horses of the Grey Company are willing to face the terror of the Paths of the Dead out of love for their riders. When Arod, horse of Rohan, is too fearful to do the same, Legolas is able to move him to undertake the journey.
When the Witch-king enters the city of Minas Tirith, Men and horses alike flee in terror. But Shadowfax, lord of horses, stands unmoved.
And last, but certainly not least: Bill the pony.
I think it goes without saying that some of Tolkien’s best moments and most beloved characters are those who act in the face of despair.
Fingolfin sees the cataclysmic end of 400 years of peace in Middle-earth, and can no doubt foresee the ruin of all that he, his kin, and their friends have built. He knows now that the Noldor cannot defeat Morgoth without the aid of the Valar, which they have forfeited. And yet he rides to Angband, beats upon its doors, and calls the coward Morgoth forth to single combat. He has no hope of winning, but in spite of that he intends to fight.
Thorin Oakenshield sees his people and their enemies turned allies giving way before overwhelming odds. The kingdom of his forefathers, so lately regained, seems doomed to fall again. He has only twelve companions to lead into battle, and that is nothing in the face of the hosts already on the field. But still he charges, for it is better to die with his kin and those who always should have been his friends than atop a mountain of gold.
Boromir has betrayed the trust of his companions and dishonored everything he has always stood for. He faces too many enemies to hope that he can survive, let alone win. But for all that he fights until his sword is broken, his shield is cloven, and his horn lies in pieces. Because although “Gondor wanes…Gondor stands.”
Theoden has lost his son and many of his comrades and people, and all now seem doomed. The land of his mother, the land where he was born, is burning. He has come “too late”, and “too late [is] worse than never!” He is “the lesser son of great sires”, and he is old.
But Theoden does not “quail, bow his old head, turn, and slink away to hide in the hills.” Instead, he heeds his own call to arms: “Forth now, and fear no darkness!” Though “Spear shall be shaken, [and] shield be splintered”, he rides. And not, as is feared, “to ruin, or the world’s ending.” But to “a glad day, and a golden sunset!”
This doesn't really need to be said, but I'm gonna say it anyway:
The charge of the Rohirrim at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields is easily one of the most, if not THE most, epic moments in Tokien's legendarium. Regardless of whether you're reading the original text, listening to one of the audiobooks or the BBC Radio production, watching the Peter Jackson films or even the Rankin/Bass one, this moment is one of the most stirring things in the entire story. The Rohirrim have arrived at Minas Tirith, by all appearances, too late. The city is burning, the gates are broken, and the hosts of Mordor stand ready to rush in. Every sense tells Theoden and his riders that to charge now will be an exercise in futility, an act of virtual suicide.
They charge anyway.
Theoden tells his hosts to fear no darkness. This man, who has so recently lost his son, and now sees what looks sure to be the end of the world of Men, rallies his people. Though so far as he knows only death awaits them, he knows that to face that death bravely is better than to than to wait until it finds them in spite of efforts to flee and hide. And so the king so recently consumed with despair leads his people in what he must fully expect will be their last charge.
And though it is indeed Theoden's last charge, his heroism is such that he is only the second known of the Children of Illuvatar to be compared with Orome, the huntsman of the Valar and the member of that high order most revered by the Rohirrim themselves.
Now if you'll excuse me, I've made myself ugly cry.
Felt like giving a shout out to one of my favorite minor-dare I say obscure-characters from the legendarium: Forlong, Lord of Lossarnach in Gondor.
In case you can’t recall him, here’s a bit of a refresher. Forlong is one of the lords and captains of Gondor’s outlying provinces who comes to join the defense of Minas Tirith in the War of the Ring. By this time, Forlong is somewhat advanced in age and prodigious in girth. Bergil, son of Beregond the guard, even refers to him as “old Forlong the Fat” in a somewhat bizarre display of affection. Makes me think of Frye from <#1056403607227994142>
Many of the men of Minas Tirith, as Forlong rides in with what force he can spare from his own land’s defense, call out to him. “True heart, true friend”, they say, and it cannot be doubted. Though he might well have sought excuse from such service based on his age and fitness, he did not do so. And he died, far from home, but in a matter befitting the mightiest and noblest of Men.
A little head canon of mine:
After word got back to Rivendell of what happened at the Pelennor Fields, either Bilbo or Glorfindel took the pieces of Frodo’s barrow-blade to the smiths. Then, when Glorfindel went to Minas Tirith as part of Arwen’s escort to her wedding, he brought the reforged blade with him. At some point after arriving, he presented it to Merry as a replacement for the one Merry used to wound the Witch-King.
Glorifindel also said whatever Noldorin lords say when they mean “Good job, kid.”
A little scene I like to imagine:
Many years into his reign, King Elessar is visiting his realm in Arnor. Finding himself with some spare time, he decides to visit an old haunt incognito. So it is that Strider the Ranger is found at the Prancing Pony again. And he finds that, just as Merry long ago said in jest, the worthies of Bree are still discussing the events of Frodo’s visit.
One hundred years later.