Looking forward to your videos every week! Always put them on when cooking, playing Snowrunner, going to bed. This format seems to help me make more sense and understanding of Tolkiens lore and works.
Hello, John. Just want to say thank you for your videos. Currently doing my first ever run through LOTR books, so that’s great to have such comprehensible source of information about the lore. Greetings from Serbia :)
I've seen behind the scenes footage and interviews with Peter J and Christopher Lee who both say the reason he wasn't Gandalf if because he was just more suited to playing Saruman. Christoper did say that he wanted to play Gandalf, but Peter convinced him that it would be better for someone else to do that. Perhaps the physicality came into play as well, but just wanted to bring that up.
I happened to have just watched The Return of the King yesterday, and thought the same thing about Legolas shooting Grima. But I think in the context of the scene it would make sense to the others that Legolas kills Grima. Gandalf had a moment earlier said that they needed Saruman alive so that he could talk, and up comes Grima spoiling that opportunity. When Legolas looses his arrow he is trying to save Saruman, not execute Grima.
Just stumbled onto this channel and I’m enjoying it immensely. Regarding the dragons not having free will, how do you reconcile Glowrung disobeying Morgoth and going out to try and break the seige of Angband a couple hundred years before Morgoth was ready?
Glaurung as an extension of Morgoth's will takes on his persona - and Morgoth is a rebel who doesn't go in for things like rules. Morgoth is chaotic, and so his creations are.
@@John-Sierra But if he’s an extention of Morgoth’s will deliberately resisting Morgoth’s will wouldn't that mean Morgoth was conflicted? That doesn’t seem right so I’m probably misunderstanding something fundamental here.
He didn't really resist Morgoth's will, he just went out earlier than he should have, before his armor was formed. Like Morgoth, he was impatient and chaotic.
@@John-Sierra Yeah that makes sense, thanks. Still seems a little like volition to me but I get the distinction. You’re becoming one of my favorite Tolkien commentators, I’ve been obsessed for about twenty years and you clearly have me beat, which isn’t easy lol.
@@John-Sierra My analysis of it is that I think he would have a choice to either remain old or return to youth, I think he would choose the former just because it's what defined him in a way, it makes him unique. Someone like Gwindor I think would look young again when he would be eventually reembodied, same would go for mutilations and scars, I think they would disappear. My reasoning for this is that if you take Gil-Galad for instance, he was brutally burned by Sauron and I think it is fairly safe to assume he would return without his burns lest he walk around Aman as a walking, talking charred corpse essentially, furthermore, someone who is so much as stabbed to death would have a nasty scar if someone could survive something like that. My point is, the differentiation between something like Gil-Galad being burned horribly and having those burns be reversed when he is reembodied and the aging of Gwindor seems arbitrary when you give it some amount of thought and that's why I think scars and aging would be gotten rid of for those reembodied. For Círdan, I think he would have this choice seeing as I believe he would be renewed if he were slain and reembodied, but I think he would decline being renewed.
I would say he wasn't faking it at all, and he lied to pippin. The line "don't worry about me, pip" is the key here - Pippin was very worried and he didn't want his friend to worry. In the book, Merry was pretty messed up and the slop the Orcs gave him actually worked, it was nasty but it revitalized him. Merry tends to look after Pippin (who is younger than he is) so in the film it seems he was pretending that it was "all an act".
I always felt like Eol got done dirty. He wasnt a savory character, but he was treated poorly and, unlike so many other characters who are treated in such a way, his malefactors never got their comeuppance specifically for the slights against him. His reaction before his death, while extreme and evil, was in response to treatment that flew in the face of how every other elf was treated to such a degree that I always found myself siding with him. What are your thoughts, especially on his unjust treatment before any of his eventual crimes were committed?
52:16 the question comes from the the fact that the Dragons clearly act as concious beings with a will on their own. We do have explanations for Orks and Trolls. Trolls are corrupted Ants. Orcs are corrupted Elves or humans or some mixture there of dependant on wich legend you look at. An explanation like that is missing for the Dragons.
I wonder what you think of the cast for lotr and who to replace them? I cant imagine other actors playing them. Especially sean bean as boromir i cant imagine a better cast.
I think Feanor would use the one ring to meet his ends, just as he used the ships of the Teleri. In the same token, I have to ponder whether the pride of Feanor would not regard the ring as something less than he himself was capable of crafting. He desperately wanted his Silmarils back, but would the ring be as captivating to him as those gems-and would it even make a difference against Morgoth? I don’t think so, and certainly, Feanor realized the futility of the elves going up against a vala before he died. He probably wouldn’t think any power of Sauron’s would be enough to overcome that futility. One of his sons might (I’m thinking Celegorm and Curufin because they tried to usurp Nargothrond, and attempted to abduct Luthien), but I tend to think Feanor would consider anything of Sauron’s craft to be less than his own abilities.
Which RPG has your favorite lore? (Specific to the RPG so if you say LOTRO it would have to be stuff contained within the game, but I don't want to say you can't branch out to books if you read WoW novels or anything, i think you get what I'm asking)
According to Manwë, Eru said that he heard all voices, so all of those things would still be in the world. Actually explains (at least to me) why there are so many things the Valar just don't understand.
I know there are two characters named Legolas and two Denethors in the Legendarium. Are there other examples of named characters who are unrelated but have the same name?
There's loads of them. For example Húrin could apply to the titular character in The Children of Húrrin, the first Steward of Gondor (who even had a son named Túrin), two other steward, or the guy who wast he warden of the keys in Minas Tirith. There's Gothmog the Balrog and Gothmog the Luitenant of Morgul. There's a Gondorian princess named Firiel, and an otherwise unimportant woman named Firiel who witnessed the last of the elves sailing to the West. Of course there's also Bill Ferny and Bill the Pony :P
Does Tolkien give any idea about the origin of Trolls? I've not read HOME so excuse me if the answer is there. I presume Melkor corrupted something to make them but the fact they turn to stone in daylight throws a wrench in the works. Unless they are corrupted rocks or something like that.
I believe regular Trolls were animated stone, products of necromancy, in mockery of the Ents. Olog-hai were theorized to be manifestations of Sauron's will, and all perished with the ring.
If going to the undying lands is unhealthy for mortals, what about bilbo and frodo. Wasnt bilbo extreme age? Also did frodo suffer yearly from that wound?
Balrogs likely need to eat as they're incarnate, and I'm sure there was no lack of food in Moria. It didn't have help, but it really didn't need it, it took the dwarves by surprise - kind of like Smaug attacking Erebor.
I was a member of your channel, but experience with a Member video is worst than free one. YT for some reason disables Background play on Members only video. I generally use UA-cam like a podcast app, I keep display off and listen to the audio via earphones. The moment I do that, Members only video stops playing. With heavy heard, I had to cancel my membership.. not just to you, but also some other channels as well. May be you should ask Google to stop screwing paying customers.
You just did! :P But seriously, you can in a comment, or you can on Quora, which is where i source the questions for videos from - there's a link to my quora account in the description.
@@John-Sierra Alright then I'll ask one here. It has been said that Melkor Desired the flame imperisable so as to create true life, and lacking that became spiteful leading into his path of evil if hypothetically he had been given this power do you think his descent into evil would have been stopped or at least delayed thus sparing middle earth some amount of suffering, or would things have been worse off with more dangerous horrible monsters?
@@John-Sierra good lord, no. I think I reacted to the speaking as it was going and was impatient and responded too quickly. I was being hasty. Hmmmmmmmm...
I think you are contradicting yourself in your different answers. If Eru IS the god of Abraham and the Ainur ARE angels, how come only "god" can create any form of life in our Abrahamitic universe and not angels? You miss the part that the legendarium is certainly influenced by Christianity etc, but it isn't the same. The Ainur are co-creators and in that sense they have something in common with "gods" in pagan religions/mythologies, from where Tolkien drew a lot of inspiration. I still hold it to be a basic mistake to say Eru = God and Morgoth = Satan. In fact, it is quite interesting to hear you quoting Tolkien and his disdain for allegory, and then go on to misunderstand it.
The Silmarillion contradicts the bible the same way that all of the abrahamic religions contradict each other. One god, several interpretations. I guess you could call it a mistake, but this is literally what Tolkien said. That's also not what an allegory is.
@@John-Sierra No abrahamic religion has angels as creators of life. That is a concept from pagan religions. There are apocryphal texts of them breeding with humans, though. But you are correct in that it is not allegory. It is one step further than that. "The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like “religion,” to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism. However that is very clumsily put, and sounds more self-important than I feel."
Looking forward to your videos every week! Always put them on when cooking, playing Snowrunner, going to bed. This format seems to help me make more sense and understanding of Tolkiens lore and works.
Glad you like them!
This guy is very well spoken and professional time to subscribe
Hello, John. Just want to say thank you for your videos. Currently doing my first ever run through LOTR books, so that’s great to have such comprehensible source of information about the lore. Greetings from Serbia :)
Glad to help!
I've seen behind the scenes footage and interviews with Peter J and Christopher Lee who both say the reason he wasn't Gandalf if because he was just more suited to playing Saruman. Christoper did say that he wanted to play Gandalf, but Peter convinced him that it would be better for someone else to do that. Perhaps the physicality came into play as well, but just wanted to bring that up.
I happened to have just watched The Return of the King yesterday, and thought the same thing about Legolas shooting Grima. But I think in the context of the scene it would make sense to the others that Legolas kills Grima. Gandalf had a moment earlier said that they needed Saruman alive so that he could talk, and up comes Grima spoiling that opportunity. When Legolas looses his arrow he is trying to save Saruman, not execute Grima.
Great stuff again. Intros with epic readings are always cool
Glad you think so!
Just stumbled onto this channel and I’m enjoying it immensely. Regarding the dragons not having free will, how do you reconcile Glowrung disobeying Morgoth and going out to try and break the seige of Angband a couple hundred years before Morgoth was ready?
Glaurung as an extension of Morgoth's will takes on his persona - and Morgoth is a rebel who doesn't go in for things like rules. Morgoth is chaotic, and so his creations are.
@@John-Sierra But if he’s an extention of Morgoth’s will deliberately resisting Morgoth’s will wouldn't that mean Morgoth was conflicted? That doesn’t seem right so I’m probably misunderstanding something fundamental here.
He didn't really resist Morgoth's will, he just went out earlier than he should have, before his armor was formed. Like Morgoth, he was impatient and chaotic.
@@John-Sierra Yeah that makes sense, thanks. Still seems a little like volition to me but I get the distinction. You’re becoming one of my favorite Tolkien commentators, I’ve been obsessed for about twenty years and you clearly have me beat, which isn’t easy lol.
What do you think happened when Círdan went west? Do you think he was de-aged or would he would have stayed the same?
I think he would have stayed old.
@@John-Sierra My analysis of it is that I think he would have a choice to either remain old or return to youth, I think he would choose the former just because it's what defined him in a way, it makes him unique. Someone like Gwindor I think would look young again when he would be eventually reembodied, same would go for mutilations and scars, I think they would disappear. My reasoning for this is that if you take Gil-Galad for instance, he was brutally burned by Sauron and I think it is fairly safe to assume he would return without his burns lest he walk around Aman as a walking, talking charred corpse essentially, furthermore, someone who is so much as stabbed to death would have a nasty scar if someone could survive something like that. My point is, the differentiation between something like Gil-Galad being burned horribly and having those burns be reversed when he is reembodied and the aging of Gwindor seems arbitrary when you give it some amount of thought and that's why I think scars and aging would be gotten rid of for those reembodied.
For Círdan, I think he would have this choice seeing as I believe he would be renewed if he were slain and reembodied, but I think he would decline being renewed.
In the movie The Two Towers, when the orks carried Merry and Pippin, why did Merry feign sickness? What was gained?
I would say he wasn't faking it at all, and he lied to pippin. The line "don't worry about me, pip" is the key here - Pippin was very worried and he didn't want his friend to worry. In the book, Merry was pretty messed up and the slop the Orcs gave him actually worked, it was nasty but it revitalized him. Merry tends to look after Pippin (who is younger than he is) so in the film it seems he was pretending that it was "all an act".
Great!
I always felt like Eol got done dirty. He wasnt a savory character, but he was treated poorly and, unlike so many other characters who are treated in such a way, his malefactors never got their comeuppance specifically for the slights against him. His reaction before his death, while extreme and evil, was in response to treatment that flew in the face of how every other elf was treated to such a degree that I always found myself siding with him. What are your thoughts, especially on his unjust treatment before any of his eventual crimes were committed?
I have a hard time sympathizing with someone who got his wife via kidnapping.
@@John-Sierra I've heard that said, but the wording implies that, even though he was a bit creepy about it, she wasn't unwilling
"It is not said that Aredhel was wholly unwilling, etc."
Morgoth took a Barlog and a lizard and smooshed them together.
"now kiss"
52:16 the question comes from the the fact that the Dragons clearly act as concious beings with a will on their own. We do have explanations for Orks and Trolls. Trolls are corrupted Ants. Orcs are corrupted Elves or humans or some mixture there of dependant on wich legend you look at. An explanation like that is missing for the Dragons.
Free will doesn't mean acting freely, it means being able to choose good or evil.
@@John-Sierra your reading does not quite fit the story about the creation of the draws.
I wonder what you think of the cast for lotr and who to replace them? I cant imagine other actors playing them. Especially sean bean as boromir i cant imagine a better cast.
I think Feanor would use the one ring to meet his ends, just as he used the ships of the Teleri. In the same token, I have to ponder whether the pride of Feanor would not regard the ring as something less than he himself was capable of crafting. He desperately wanted his Silmarils back, but would the ring be as captivating to him as those gems-and would it even make a difference against Morgoth? I don’t think so, and certainly, Feanor realized the futility of the elves going up against a vala before he died. He probably wouldn’t think any power of Sauron’s would be enough to overcome that futility. One of his sons might (I’m thinking Celegorm and Curufin because they tried to usurp Nargothrond, and attempted to abduct Luthien), but I tend to think Feanor would consider anything of Sauron’s craft to be less than his own abilities.
I agree that he would see it as a lesser draft, but the last thing he needs is ideas on how to improve such a thing.
Did celebrimbor go to the hall of mandos when he was killed, like the games did he became a wraith?
Absolutely went to Mandos.
Which RPG has your favorite lore? (Specific to the RPG so if you say LOTRO it would have to be stuff contained within the game, but I don't want to say you can't branch out to books if you read WoW novels or anything, i think you get what I'm asking)
I don't play online RPGs like the ones you mentioned. I'm rather fond of Elder Scrolls Lore, though.
What happened to the things of arda created by ainur who decided not to enter the creation ?
According to Manwë, Eru said that he heard all voices, so all of those things would still be in the world. Actually explains (at least to me) why there are so many things the Valar just don't understand.
I know there are two characters named Legolas and two Denethors in the Legendarium. Are there other examples of named characters who are unrelated but have the same name?
Also the various Galdors and the two Gothmogs
There's loads of them. For example Húrin could apply to the titular character in The Children of Húrrin, the first Steward of Gondor (who even had a son named Túrin), two other steward, or the guy who wast he warden of the keys in Minas Tirith. There's Gothmog the Balrog and Gothmog the Luitenant of Morgul. There's a Gondorian princess named Firiel, and an otherwise unimportant woman named Firiel who witnessed the last of the elves sailing to the West. Of course there's also Bill Ferny and Bill the Pony :P
Also Grond the battering ram, named after Grond, Morgoth's war hammer 😀
I imagine you’ve been asked this question before, but I’ve never seen your response: what would you ask Tolkien if you had a chance to speak with him?
That's a tough one, but I would likely focus on The Fall of Gondolin and Tuor in particular. Basically I would want to know if my thesis was correct.
Does Tolkien give any idea about the origin of Trolls? I've not read HOME so excuse me if the answer is there. I presume Melkor corrupted something to make them but the fact they turn to stone in daylight throws a wrench in the works. Unless they are corrupted rocks or something like that.
I believe regular Trolls were animated stone, products of necromancy, in mockery of the Ents. Olog-hai were theorized to be manifestations of Sauron's will, and all perished with the ring.
If going to the undying lands is unhealthy for mortals, what about bilbo and frodo. Wasnt bilbo extreme age? Also did frodo suffer yearly from that wound?
Do balrogs eat?
And when durins bane woke, it took on the whole population of Moria and won. Did it have help?
Balrogs likely need to eat as they're incarnate, and I'm sure there was no lack of food in Moria. It didn't have help, but it really didn't need it, it took the dwarves by surprise - kind of like Smaug attacking Erebor.
@John-Sierra What if they all fought back? A dragon has range but could a balrog be overwhelmed by sheer numbers?
Balrogs could even be killed in single combat - as happened a few times, but it always took a great hero's life to do this.
I was a member of your channel, but experience with a Member video is worst than free one. YT for some reason disables Background play on Members only video. I generally use UA-cam like a podcast app, I keep display off and listen to the audio via earphones. The moment I do that, Members only video stops playing. With heavy heard, I had to cancel my membership.. not just to you, but also some other channels as well.
May be you should ask Google to stop screwing paying customers.
I don't have control over that, members only videos are considered "private" for some reason. once the videos go fully public, that issue vanishes.
How does one ask a question here?
You just did! :P But seriously, you can in a comment, or you can on Quora, which is where i source the questions for videos from - there's a link to my quora account in the description.
@@John-Sierra Alright then I'll ask one here. It has been said that Melkor Desired the flame imperisable so as to create true life, and lacking that became spiteful leading into his path of evil if hypothetically he had been given this power do you think his descent into evil would have been stopped or at least delayed thus sparing middle earth some amount of suffering, or would things have been worse off with more dangerous horrible monsters?
The secret of fire refers to the spark of life, not literall fire.
Somehow I knew that. Did you think I said otherwise?
@@John-Sierra good lord, no. I think I reacted to the speaking as it was going and was impatient and responded too quickly. I was being hasty. Hmmmmmmmm...
I have premium.
I think you are contradicting yourself in your different answers. If Eru IS the god of Abraham and the Ainur ARE angels, how come only "god" can create any form of life in our Abrahamitic universe and not angels? You miss the part that the legendarium is certainly influenced by Christianity etc, but it isn't the same.
The Ainur are co-creators and in that sense they have something in common with "gods" in pagan religions/mythologies, from where Tolkien drew a lot of inspiration. I still hold it to be a basic mistake to say Eru = God and Morgoth = Satan. In fact, it is quite interesting to hear you quoting Tolkien and his disdain for allegory, and then go on to misunderstand it.
The Silmarillion contradicts the bible the same way that all of the abrahamic religions contradict each other. One god, several interpretations. I guess you could call it a mistake, but this is literally what Tolkien said. That's also not what an allegory is.
@@John-Sierra No abrahamic religion has angels as creators of life. That is a concept from pagan religions. There are apocryphal texts of them breeding with humans, though.
But you are correct in that it is not allegory. It is one step further than that.
"The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like “religion,” to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism. However that is very clumsily put, and sounds more self-important than I feel."
First.