Now that is what i call a fantasy book classic! Your views on it and what are your favourite parts and characters?

Fav character: Gimli

Fav bit: the battle in the mines of moria and the battle in Minis Tirith

And remember, i read this when i was about 12...i feel proud...

Fav character: Brandywine (beer would be better)

Fav bit: all of them

You say you have read it last year!?

Hm... I vaugely remember that one; a cute little story... ;)
It's been a bunch of years since I read it, though. Read it twice, because I couldn't find the English version the first time.

MHO: Overall, it's a great story, but it is really looooong, and parts of the book, like the Tom Bombadil bit, were kinda lengthy and boring. I'm glad I read it, but I'm going to wait another bunch of years before reading it a third time...

Fav char: Boromir

Fav bit: the mines of Moria


[This message has been edited by Seric Exz (edited April 13, 2001).]

What's wrong with Tom? If there wasn't him who would get a dagger to kill Nazgul?

They say he's blasted away from the movie they are making. Bastards!

[This message has been edited by Extremist (edited April 13, 2001).]

They cut Tom out of the cartoon-version, too. (The Ralph Bakshi (forgive any misspelling) version that was never finished)
I have nothing personally against Tom, btw, but while reading it, I felt like I was being detoured. (I was young, naive and impatient at the time, I guess...)

I've read Lord of the Rings twice and enjoyed it both times. Will wait some years before reading it a third time.

Favourite character: Faramir - for his loyalty to his father even though he wasn't the favoured son and was treated badly.

Second favourite character : Samwise - again for his loyalty, this time to Frodo.

Favourite part : Nazgul slain by the valiant Lady of Rohan (can't recall her name at the moment) and Merry. Nazgul was prophesied to be invincible to Man but was instead killed by a woman and a halfling.

Best fantasy book I've ever read. Come to think of it, best book overall!

fav character: The one and only Elrond.

Fav Battle: Gandalf's defeat at the hands of the Balrog.

Fav Hobbit: Bilbo Baggins

Fav Villian: Balrog

Fav Book: Fellowship

It's the book that spawned fantasy as we know it today...Read it again!!!!!

Fav Character: Strider (I can't remeber how to spell his "royal" name - read it in Jr. High!)

Fav Battle: Running from the Ring Wraiths into the elven realm. River turns into horsemen and chase their black bottoms back to Mordor!

Fav Villian: Gollum! (What does he have in his pocketses, hmmmmm?) I like the way Sam gets to push him around. In fact, I think he's the only thing besides weeds in the Master's flower garden that Sam gets to push around.

Fav Hobbit: Sam. I think he's the main character of the book. Tolkien wrote the rest of the story to show-case how the "common-man" can surpase his limitations in non-magical ways.

fav. battle: Gandalf vs that thing on the bridge

fav. Character Sean bean

Strider's name is Aragon, isn't it?

strider=Aragorn

Thanks Shura!

I think Aragon was the first fantasy Ranger. Very cool character, even with a broken sword!

Extremist, i'm 16...

gandalf is my fav! i love when he battled the gorgon on the bridge!

Favorite Character: Strider/Aragorn also called Elvenstone if me head hasn't decomposed. And His sword was reforged ya know. Elrond was like his Foster Father like Gorion in BG!

Favorite Part: Slaying of the Nazgul

Favorite Villian: Suruman, nothin like a corrupted mage, he also took contorl of the shrine for a period of time.

strider=aragorn=dunadan(man of the west)

fav char - gandalf

The Dunedain are a different race, with much longer lives than the common man. Strider was the name he used as a Ranger. His royal Dunedain name was Aragorn son of Arathorn. When he was under the care of Elrond, he was also given the elven name of Elessar the Elfstone. His ancestors included an elf on the maternal side, which makes him part elven. At the end of the story, he married Arwen, daughter of Elrond.

(Some of the spelling above could be wrong - will have to check when I go home)

Ah, it's been a while I read it last time...

Aren't Dunedain related in some way to Numenor?

Fav Chars: An Elf and a Dwarf buddies (forgot the names - could someone refresh my memory)

Fav place: when the party stayed in the elven forest (Lothlorien IIRC)

Legolas and Gimli IIRC.

Aragon's Sword was Named Enduril...I believe...spelling could be wrong.

Don't know about the sword, but you (and many others) have certainly spelled Aragorn's name wrong often in this topic. :rolleyes:

I am or better I was a little bit possessed from this book. I read it 4 times in german and twice in english (the last time 'bout 15 years ago) have most of the secundary literature (maps, almanachs etc), own (=did not read all) almost everything Tolkien or his sons made public, did my final exams in english on it......

fav char Gandalf
fav scene Sam defeating the huge spider

Ahh, the memories.

It is without doubt my all time fave book. I read it first time at about 12 and have re-read it once every 2/3 years since. (Makes quite a few times by now.....) Reminds me that it's now at least 3 years since last time, so must dig it out again.

Lots of good characters, but particularly like the Ents - Treebeard rocks! Ho-hum. Sam and Merry are excellent too.

Favourite passage - Sam's searching for, finding and rescuing Frodo from the Orcs in the tower.

My only real criticism of the book is that it's too short. Always seem to leave a void when I've finished it.



[This message has been edited by Viking (edited April 17, 2001).]

I agree about the book being to short. As far as a favorite battle I'd have to say the battle of Helm's Deep but all of book 5 was great.

Hey Egg! I'm not trying to be a smart-ass here, but wouldn't you mean the Balrog?

Favorite character: Gimli

Favorite scene: Aragorn riding through the dead city.

fav char = sam gamgee

fav bit = the whole lot

My favorite character was Gimli too, I just love that stubborn dwarven pride. Though Gandalf provides some heated competition.

My favorite part would probably be the whole Battle of Helm's Deep - storming of Saruman's tower part.

And yes, the Dunedain were of Numenorean descent.

Well Tolkien himself complained in the preface about the book being too short, so there you go...

I especially missed the part where the army of the undead came marching in without enough background on how they captured all those ships. I don't remember the details, but it seemed to be all explained in like half a page when it could have been explained much more thoroughly. I liked the shudder when reading about all the undead. Actually made me feel uncomfortable.

Fav Character: Theoden or Boromir

Fav Battle: Helm's Deep or Theoden's Charge!

Fav chick: Eowyn or Goldberry

Fav Horse: Shadowfax

Fav Ent: Quickbeam

Fav part of book: The Healing of Theoden or the Council of Elrond

Fav tavern: The Prancing Pony

Fav enemy: oliphants

I havent read it yet but I am gonna.I wanted to know where the hobbit fits in with lord of the rings.Is it a prequel or is it after lord of the rings?

read hobbit first helps to define some of the charaters.

Narsil is the name of Aragorn's sword.

my favorite characters are Aragorn and Legolas. Legolas was wicked with a bow!

my favorite part was when Galadriel gave a gift to each member of the Company (minus Gandalf) before they left Lorien.

The Hobbit preceeds the Lord of The Rings, by about 50/60 years or so. It gives a good background to how the Ring was found, and some good charcter grounding. You should read it first.

I think you're both right about Aragorn's sword; was it not renamed when it was forged anew?

Named Anduril - flame of the west or something like that? It was previously called Narsil.

Hey hey!! the movie's coming, what do ya think about it?

Good it will save me the trouble of reading that whole series.

But using your own imagination is always better than letting somebody chew it up for you.

Fav character- Sam
Fav bit - Shelob

LoTR was voted best book (not just fantasy book) of the 20th century by UK readers.
So much of D&D is based on LoTR, including the whole concept of gaining 'experience' and 'levels'
When Frodo and Sam left the Shire they were 1st level, scared of their own shadows.
When they returned, they kicked butt!

PS If you cannot be bothered to read it but still want to use your imagination there's a set of ~10 audio tapes from the BBC. Good actors used. I think you can get them thru Amazon.

[This message has been edited by Erran (edited April 19, 2001).]

LotR is easily the best trilogy of all time, with 'Return of the King' or 'The Silmarillion' as best book (okay, so TS isn't LotR, who cares!) Of course, I've only read it four times ;) I think I'm about due for a fifth...

Best Character: TREEBEARD! Gollum is a close second followed by a character from 'The Silmarillion', namely Thingol.

Best Battle: Well, it's been said, but definitely Moria. It's the only battle in LotR between two Maiar :)

Best Villain: Gollum! "Yessss, my precious, what has the Bagins got in it's pocketses! GOLLUM!"

And might I add best guest-Deity: Tom Bombadil, aka Aule ;)

I can't believe they are going to leave goodberry and Tom out of the movie...

I read lord of the rings approx 8 times (in german) and once in english, I guess I like it

fav chars: Gandalf (& Glamdring), Aragorn aka Strider (& Anduril) followed by Elrond, Gimli, Legolas and Sam

fav fights: Helm´s deep, siege of Minas Tirith and - of course - the battle of Moria with the final fight of Gandalf and the Balrog

fav villain: Balrog, followed by gollum

As I come from Norway some of the names of the chr are not familiar to me.
Maybe someone could give me the names and a short description so I'd know who you were talking about.

I got these covered: Gandalv, Gimli, Aragorn, Legolas, Boromir.

But I don't know If the names of the Hobbit's are correct.

I first read LOTR & The Hobbit when I was in my twenties - I am a LOT older now! I read them again about once a year, so I reckon I have read them about 30-40 times.
Fav good character: Gandalf
Fav baddie: Gollum
Fav bit of action: The stabbing of Frodo with the Nazgul dagger and the race to Rivendell to save him. 2nd fav: Killing the Nazgul king.
:)

Hobbit names for our Norwegian friend:

Frodo - Bilbo Baggins' nephew (the Ringbearer)

Samwise - Frodo's servant & friend

Merry (Meriadoc Brandybuck)& Pippin (Peregrine Took) - Frodo's best friends, who go on the journey with him

What are their names in the Norwegian version of LOTR?

From memory it's only the surname of the Hobbits that have been changed in Norwegian?

Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin first names are all the same I think. Some of the more minor characters have probably been translated, but I can't remember now. Haven't read it in Norwegian for about 10 years.

Sorry, just remembered - Merry = Munti (?) or something like that, at least in the version I read. I think this was done to keep the "Happy" connotation in the name when translated.

Hey Dragonslayer, I would recommend reading it in English, not Norwegian. Better to read the original Has a better feel to it if you know what I mean. Alwasy dodgy when it comes to translating Poems and Songs for example.

Whatever you do though, read it many times. :)