cordeirooo said:

i would recommend you check out these little known topics onthe web, as id be the first to admit i have a limited knowledge ESPECIALLY of the 1st age as my interests tend to lie in the third age, and barring us actually getting tolkien back- we have to speculate alot

also its fine, i hoped that these would turn into debates anyways, and to anyone else who has a more informed idea of werewolves and vampires please chip in

note-i may have added some to the previous posts describing them since you posted your reply- i had to quickly fish out my encylopedia to make sure what i was saying was 1.true and 2. made sense

further note: 1. it is speculated that the spirits that inhabited the bat and wolf forms were in fact lesser maiar- though again i think this is specualtion

2.just like werewolves werent shapeshifters, vampires were huge bats in form, not the shapeshifters that we think of when we hear vampire

3.vampires are hardly mentioned in tolkiens works, in fact there are only two of what i can find- both of which were maiar taking that form- so it would be a far stretch to have them appear in numbers (or at all) in the third age

phew - that was some hasty research.....ive learned alot i didnt know about 1st age tolkien mythology in the last hour

and a final note- its been a long while since i read the silmarillion and lets face it- it isnt the most accessable of tolkien's work and certainly isnt easy to remember everything in it, so if anyone has found anything wrong with the previous posts, then please say so, so i know whats what :D

 I'm reading the Silmarillion right now. Actually, it would be more accurate to say I started it a couple weeks ago. I've only finished the creation story so far.

Budgernaut said:

i think i made the mistake of rushing through it when i was younger, its really not the same style of narrative as the hobbit and the trilogy however i was too young to really appreciate it and how crucial it is to explaining tolkiens universe, i am planning to read it properly when ive finished my current re-read cycle- im currently on the two towers

ive actually seen someone post that it should be listed as a cure for insomnia before- which suffering from this i can tell you 1.that it doesnt work and 2.thats so harsh!!!!!!! no work of tolkien can be considered boring, its just people like me go in to reading it after reading his other works, and dont realise its meant to be different, which of course now i know different

 Good thread. It's been twelve years since I've read the books. (They're on my list.)

gatharion said:

thank you

Great thread, rich!  I concur with the posters who would encourage you to keep it going.  It is neat to have a Tolkienologist contributor to these forums!

Thats a brilliant first episode Richsabre. I think players of the game will be interested to learn the history of the various character cards before them. One thing that has puzzled me though, after reading various books on the history of Middle Earth, is why Elladan and Elrohir remained there, resulting in being mortal. Obviously Arwen chose that life to be with Aragorn but why did Elladan and Elrohir decide to stay? Ive always thought it was to live out their lives as part of the Dunedain but was there a bigger reason?

Ted Sandyman said:

i think that you got it with the dunedain part- perhaps they hung around mortals for too long, though youd think theyd be keen to see their mother- so perhaps the departed after all, in fact i read somewhere that tolkien states in a letter that they 'remained in rivendell for a while' (not direct quote) so if this is correct then it implies they left

- remember also that their sister arwen stayed, and their adopted (and also in law....is that correct? i always get inlaws confused) brother aragorn was mortal, and lived on after the events of the trilogy

richsabre said:

Did Aragorn and Arwen ever have the son that Arwen saw in her vision? (I am assuming here that the movies offered an accurate portrayal of the book in this regard)

Yeh sounds like a choice between going home to live with mum and dad or staying in touch with Arwen/ being in the Grey Company. Being a Tolkien fan, like yourself, its frustrating knowing that there are a million more questions to be answered! Have you seen the 'Hunt For Gollum' on You tube? Theyve given it a good go and done it for the enjoyment of fans. Respect due.

Pericles said:

aragorn and arwen had a son eldarion telcontar (telcontar was the house name that aragorn's lineage became when he became king elessar of the reunited kingdom)- i would recommend reading the tale of aragorn and arwen in the trilogy appendices- its a few pages long and it actually almost brought me to tears.......i know laugh at me haha

Interestingly enough tolkien once had a plan to make The New Shadow- a book set in the reign of aragorns son, but dropped the idea!!! i didnt know that until recently, however i think it was probably the best descision of tolkiens life- reading the plot line, it sounded err.. (sorry master tolkien) terrible...even tolkien himself stated it as not worth doing

Ted Sandyman said:

i have seen it, and yes it was very entertaining, however it would have been nice for them to chose a different style, as it had peter jackson written all over it- im not sure if they meant to or not

I'm just posting here because each time I click on it, it isn't considered "Read" and my OCD in making everything on the first page marked as "Read" is interfering with my enjoyment of this forum.  This happens sometimes when posts are edited when another post has been made with a timestamp later than its original one.

Bomb said:

thats fine- it was doing the same with me