Even though the Galadhrim armor was my immediate favourite costume aaaall the way back when the movies came out, I only made this cosplay this year, after 10 years of cosplaying Tolkien characters. I got the opportunity of a photoshoot in castle ruins and I couldn't resist. It was a very spontaneous decision though to make the costume so I had to borrow the scalemaille skirt from a friend. The sword and bow are prop replicas.

You can find more of my Tolkien cosplays (I think 19 characters altogether, including a few OCs though) on my Instagram account where I'm much more active than here.

delete if not allowed

I was looking at these images and just thought “These photos could be be a modern ‘Lonely Mountain from Laketown’”

This is probably my favorite Alan Lee illustration in the books I've read so far.

This statue is going to look ridiculously good.

I do clean Himalayas as a hobby and as a LOTR fan, I found this place in a great resemblance with Mordor. There is no filter except my camera settings and there was a dark cloudy sky.

Men of the House of Bëor had darker skin than those of the other houses; I am simply following what Tolkien wrote.

Does anyone know who portrayed this character? This scene will always give me the chills. Good chills. It makes me feel like I’m in the battlefield.

Having owned the Folio Silmarillion for a while and reading it twice I had to get the rear of the set. The art design took a bit to calibrate to but I have to say, I'm a forever fan now.

This edition is magnificent. The binding quality is heirloom-level, and the simple, austere design is exactly what I want. It doesn't have gorgeous Alan Lee artwork to coach my imagination, just simple old-world woodcut style chapter headings (with a cool story of their own).

They're, how do I say this, perfectly balanced in the hand, haha. All around just a joy to interface with, these are books made to be read over and over.

I'd love to see more of the posthumous stuff added to this set, and a version of Atlas of Middle Earth would absolutely slap.

I'm going to break in the spines and dive in now.

Well, most part of the book is fun to read out loud. Even the spider isn't that scary at all...Shelob is just evil. But..we just finished the battle at the pelannor fields. When eomer goes berserk, even my 7 year old was in tears and hyped like a little Pikachu.

I have to confess, even I had difficulty to keep reading it, there is a lot of emotions going on in that chapter. Reading it out loud makes it even more...vibrant.. damn..one of the best chapters I have ever read out loud.

Also...I know the movie had to make choices...but seeing eomer evolve in the book, is just magical and beautiful. It. Would have worked in the movie but then they had to add 30 minutes. Bring in prince imrahil..would love too see him shine with those swan wings...kinda like the polish hussars.

We all know Saruman's staff in the Peter Jackson trilogy, and how it's modelled to look like the top of Orthanc. But all in all, Saruman has only lived there, what, half a century by the start of the story, and he's been in Middle Earth almost two millenia.

One has to assume that he had a different staff before that, right? Obviously, this is only a matter for the movies, since almost no description is given to the staffs in the books beyond colour, and no real mention is made of Saruman having fashioned a new staff, as far as I know. But still, I cannot help but wonder what that first staff might have looked like.

Do you suppose it looked similar to Gandalf the White's staff in its design?

So it all just happened, 2 years ago I've read like a few chapters from The Hobbit but, so at one moment I was talking with my teacher about her book collection and she metioned the Lotr trilogy so I decided to give middle earth another chance and oh boy, for the next 3 months I'd find myself completely immersed into that universe. Now I'm to read The Silmarillion and The Hobbit (I'll read the entire book this time)

Handmade nostalgia, watercolor paper, watercolor, calligraphy dip pen and ink.

PJ’s version of this scene is by far my favorite scene in any movie, tv show, sketch, or any other type of media. It’s not close.

Starting from when the Fellowship is surrounded by orcs, continuing to the look Frodo gives Aragorn as Aragorn calls his name. This sequence has a huge impact on me.

From fear of “what happens now?” The fellowship is surrounded, then they’re not? The orcs are running away?

confusion, relief, anticipation comes in.

Then the light of the fire. Oh. Oh sh\t. “*This enemy is beyond any of you.”

The fellowship gets across the bridge. Gandalf, being the introduced as the leader, the powerful wizard, makes his stand. that’s right, Gandalf will save the day.

The hero falls, then the music as the Fellowship exits Moria.

Obv as lotr fans I don’t have to put in every detail and explain to you what happens. That said, every detail from this start to end is perfection.

All of this. This is, imo, the single greatest series of events to ever be put on screen. Is there another scene in the movies that is more impactful?

I'm reading The Hobbit to my 6 year old boy for the first time. When we got to the Misty Mountains song, I wanted him to hear it, so I showed him the clip from the film, which he's asked to see again and again. That started a thing in which after each cool scene, like the three trolls, I show him that scene from the movies. So far, aside from the song, his favorite is Goblin Town.

This has given me a chance to reconsider the movies, or at least much of them. Here's what I think worked really well:

Bilbo, Gandalf, and the dwarves - all had great performances and mostly fit the parts from the book very well.

Smaug and Gollum were terrific.

The Dwarven history shown was excellent.

The treasure and kingdom under the mountain were excellent.

Thorin's heel turn, then back to face, was well done and poetic.

The music was terrific.

What didn't work so well:

The necromancer seemed out of place.

The various elf cameos, and Saruman, seemed pointless.

The forced romance was silly.

I didn't like most of the Laketown stuff.

I was really disappointed with Beorn. I loved him in the book.

Azog and Bolg were nothing villains.

The ending battle was tedious, in my opinion.

What else worked and didn't work?

Late night thoughts that prevents me from sleeping lol

My boyfriend is a huge Tolkien nerd. I am an oil painter. I really want to paint him something awesome, and Tolkien related, but I am not sure what to actually paint. I would love suggestions on characters, scenes, or anything that he would love. Thank you!

Reading RoTK and just now getting to the siege of Gondor and the Minas Tirith battle. But damn do I love the standoff and battle of wills between Denethor and Gandalf. You can feel the tension between them. Denethor is so much better in the book than his quite literally insane character from the movie. I would’ve loved to have seen a strong and defiant Denethor who had no problem talking back to Gandalf in the movie as he does in the book.

The argument between the two of them and the “item” has been one of the best dialogues in the book.

First of all, I am amazed at the depth, the beauty, and the level of detail in this story and mythology. I thoroughly enjoyed the Silmarillion and never found it boring or dull, only that the names of characters were sometimes hard to remember, and I returned to the index ever and anon to recall the details. After a while the map sunk in, and an overall recollection of the grand scale of events is retained.

But I have two questions, that might have been answered in part by Christopher Tolkien's foreword that makes clear these stories were never finished in their totality and some parts were developed later and may contradict others.

An important part that I feel needs to be made clear is whether or not Isildur truly had it in his power to destroy the One Ring. I can't remember if it was in Tolkien's letter to his publisher at the start, or a part of the Silmarillion wherein he makes it clear that no one, not even Sauron himself, could willingly cast the ring into the fire because of the power it wielded, and that was one of the reasons that Sauron dared create the ring in the first place; he knew that even if his enemies found it, they would not have the strength to destroy it. However, in the ending chapter "Of the rings of power and the third age" Elrond tells Isildur to cast it into the fires and it is implied that Isildur simply chose not to because of some personal fault, or the fault of men's weakness such as in the movie. Is this simply one of those contradictions that are never truly resolved or did Elrond simply not understand the true nature of the Ring's power?

Also I wonder at Galadriel who at the end sailed to the west. She was banished from Valinor, as were all the Noldor, but at the end she was welcomed back. I've read in other places that her final test was the temptation of the ring when Frodo offered it to her in Lorien, but this is not made clear in the text. I can't remember if it was in the LOTR-books, but I don't remember it being there. And I can't remember clearly now, but other Noldorian elves were also permitted back? So when was this ban lifted, and was the rejection of the ring important in this ban being lifted for Galadriel or not?