Do you like to re-read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings over and over again, or constantly revisit the on-screen versions of these books? Is Gandalf's horse your favorite fairy animal? Do you know why Tom Bombadil is not in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings? A possible marriage between Pippin and Sam's daughter is an insignificant trifle to you?
If you answered “no” to all these questions, then the following text will not be of any interest to you. And to everyone else I have to say that I'm a Lord of the Rings superfan; read The Silmarillion and its supplements; I learned a lot of interesting points, which I want to tell you about.
1. Arwen - Aragorn's cousin
Aragorn is a descendant of Elros, who had a brother, Elrond. The brothers belonged to a race known as "half-elves", which gave them the opportunity to choose between the fate of a mortal man and an immortal elf. Elros accepted the fate of a mortal. Elrond chose immortality and founded a hidden refuge in Rivendell for elves like him. Aragorn, being a descendant of Elros, retained the ability to live longer than an ordinary human, but not forever as an elf. This is probably why Elrond allowed his daughter to have a close relationship with Aragorn.
2. Thranduil's father is to blame for the abandonment of Mount Dol Guldur, on which Sauron later settled
This place was abandoned by the elves in due time due to territorial differences between Lorien and Moriah. In truth, much of The Silmarillion tells of the dirty deeds that elves have done towards each other. Therefore, you should not buy into the myth of a certain divinity of the elven race. Any search engine for the query "The Silmarillion Massacre" will give a lot of information about how the elves brutally killed each other.
3. Legolas most likely was not a long-haired blonde, as it is represented in the film by actor Orlando Bloom
We know that Thranduil, Legolas's father, had golden hair, like most elves, with the exception of the Elrond clan. But as for Legolas, Tolkien never described him in detail. Which is very strange, given that the writer paid a lot of attention to describing other prominent representatives of the elven race, and did not say anything at all about the main forest archer. From all this I draw only one conclusion: Legolas was red-haired. And nothing will convince me otherwise.
4. Three elven rings, Nanyu, Naryu, Vilyu, were forged not by Sauron, but by the elven ruler Celebrimbor
In addition, he helped Sauron in making the rest of the rings, except for the main one. Probably Celebrimbor thought: "I do not trust Sauron, so I will help him with rings for the dwarves and humans, but for the elves, the rings will be made secretly." As a result, the main ring of omnipotence has power over all rings except the elven ones.
5. The gate to the underworld of Moria was also created by Celebrimbor
On this gate, seven stars are depicted, symbolizing the seven sons of the great elven master Feanor. It was they who acquired the infamous fame during the fratricidal war between the elves. Feanor was a very powerful elf. He created three magic stones of the Silmarill. Palantirs, magic stones that allow you to see the past and the present in different places, were also the work of Feanor.
6. The ancient demon of the underworld Balrog, who fell into the abyss with Gandalf, probably had wings
Maybe he just forgot to use them. And by the way, he was not the most terrible creature in the dark world. Much more powerful was Gothmog, who commanded a united army of orcs, dragons, and balrogs under the evil lord Morgoth. But about him a little later.
7. Five magicians from the Mayar race could change appearance
This means that Gandalf, one of these magicians, did not always look like the sad-faced actor Ian McKelen who played him in the movie.
8. Sauron was not the greatest evil in Middle-earth
Sauron was once subordinate to Morgoth, who was one of the powerful representatives of Ainur, which in the Elvish language of Quenya means "sacred". (Quenya is one of the fictional languages Tolkien created specifically for his books. This language is spoken by the high elves in Tolkien's world. Quenya is based on Finnish. Most of the elves speak another language - Sindarin. It is based on the Welsh language. native to British Wales).
From a Christian point of view, Morgoth is the same as Satan. And Sauron was the guide of his sinister plans in Middle-earth. To protect Middle-earth from Sauron and Morgoth, one of the sacred Ainur groups called the Valar sent Gandalf.
Fun Fact: The Balrog, also known as Curse of Durin, was probably descended from the Maiars, good spirits. And Morgoth eventually pulled him to the side of evil.
9. Shelob is not an ordinary spider
This spider is descended from the dark spirit Ungoliant, who has taken corporeal form in the form of a giant spider. Ungoliant appeared long before the time of Tom Bombadil. True, it is unclear why Ungoliant chose the dark side and decided to incarnate precisely in the form of a spider. After all, for this it took him a long time to earn the favor of Sauron. All large spiders in Middle-earth are descendants of Shelob. Mating with male common spiders, Shelob then ate them. However, how and why this happened is not explained in detail.
10. "The Silmarillion" is a rather controversial book
After Tolkien's death, his son Christopher compiled a collection of his father's unpublished works known as The Silmarillion. However, the information contained in The Silmarillion is sometimes very different from other stories of the writer. For example, there are several explanations for the origins of the orcs. And no matter what we write about "The Silmarillion", our "botanical friends" will always say that we are wrong.
The real author of this article is Sidney Jones. She works in education and enjoys knitting. She has a cat named Gandalf, and she often imagines herself carrying a backpack somewhere in the Misty Mountains of Middle-earth.
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