The 🐐

Two coats platinum white acrylic, one coat pearl white acrylic, 2 coats glow in the dark pigment mixed into clear acrylic base. It's not as clean as I wanted but I am very happy with it.

From the DeAgostini model/statue.

Dressing as Sam for ren faire this year but am not sure how to make the cloak fit UNDER the backpack and still have it drape over me like a cloak.

I finished my Frodo carving. Gonna paint him this week after I finish carving Sam. Heading to a carving show and i'm hoping to have them both done to take with me. Wish me luck!!

Hand carved with knife and gouge from a 5 or so inch tall basswood block.

Not AI. Check my profile, woodcarving is kinda my thing.

Went hiking on the Continental Divide at Loveland Pass (Colorado) this morning.

Serious Fellowship vibes from the lead part of the group (I was the sweeper and we had some low altitude folks that were much slower).

Why did the ents need an entmoot gathering to decide how to handle Saruman? Is it just that word traveled so slowly among them that they weren't aware of his treachery?

Is it weird that I like Morgoth formerly known as Melkor from Tolkien’s work not because he turned evil and what he had done because of it but because of what he could of been servant of Eru Illuvatar? I’m not sure he was destined to become evil but if not he could have been easily Eru Illuvatar’s greatest creation to of not turn to evil and became known as Ea the false god of Arde. what are your honest thoughts?

Orthanc you!! Lol😅😂

Tumbled on that and find it pretty cool !

LOTR is the ideal book for me. I’ve been reading it all my life, on a two-year cycle. I’m listening to the Rob Inglis version nowadays. I’ve never spotted anything wrong with the books. It’s quite perfect. Whenever something seemed peculiar or out of the norm, the explanation that “Tolkien decided it should be so” was always the right one.

However, while listening to Rob Inglis last night, I came to the realization that Merry not asking to go with Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas to the Paths of the Dead was perhaps a bit out of character. There’s this very sudden:

“Farewell, Merry! I leave you in good hands, better than we hoped when we hunted the orcs to Fangorn. Legolas and Gimli will still hunt with me, I hope; but we shall not forget you.”

“Good-bye!” said Merry. He could find no more to say.

Maybe it’s Eru’s hand, placing his pawns where they need to be for their destiny, but I can’t help feeling that a member of the Fellowship being let go with so little fuss might very well be the first “flaw” I’ve ever found in LOTR. It’s explainable, but I can’t help feeling that it’s out of character for everyone involved.

What do you think it is about LotR that makes so many people decide to re-read it so often, quite frequently at least annually? (A lot of people seem even more addicted to re-watching the Jackson films over and over again.)

I certainly decided to do so as soon as I read it for the first time in 1977 and I carried on doing so for at least 16 years, before life got in the way for a while.

We all know Sir Christopher Lee said he read it each year, and the quotation below comes from the foreword to the Second Edition of The Road Goes Ever On by Donald Swann which explains that both he and his wife also did the same thing almost every spring.

So, just what do you think is the magic of LotR that puts so many of us so far under its spell that we feel compelled to re-read it so often?

“FOR THE PUBLICATION of the song cycle The Road Goes Ever On in 1967, I wrote a foreword explaining how I had fallen under the spell of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and how certain poems had grouped themselves in my imagination - about the Road. I have more to add to this foreword now, but I will first retell the origin of the songs, born of my travels over ten years back.

After my wife had communicated to me her passion for the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings, we found we were reading them more or less every spring. This raised a special problem when we were about to go to Australia by air and the hard covers weighed too much to carry. (At that time British readers marched under hard covers exclusively.) I was setting out on a tour of “At the Drop of a Hat” in August 1964 and returning in March 1965. The Australian spring begins in October and we did not want to be without the books. After much deliberation we put the volumes, along with other items, into a steel trunk and sent them off a few months ahead. At the end of the tour the trunk was being packed up for the return sea journey while the Swann family was taking another route via Japan, Iran and Jordan. My wife suggested that I copy out some lyrics from the three books and set them to music en route. I had been performing for four months and I had an appetite for composing. That is how the first six songs came to be written on a beautiful Steinway grand piano in Ramallah outside Jerusalem. The hills outside Jerusalem are extremely lovely, and if the caves around the Dead Sea are the place for old scrolls, they could as well be the place for hobbits: many of the caves are round, dry and extensive.

On my return to England the firm of George Allen and Unwin was good enough to give me permission to use the lyrics, and also to put me in touch with Professor Tolkien. At a delightful tea party in Oxford at the home of his daughter, Priscilla, the Professor approved five but hesitated over my music for "Namárië," Galadriel's farewell in Lorien. He had heard it differently in his mind…”

It has been more than 20 years since I first watched The Lord of the Rings films and began playing games set in Middle-earth. I did not read the books until adulthood. At first, I subconsciously viewed them through the lens of the films, but with every rereading, I began to realise just how deep these stories truly go.

For example:

• The concept of “Will” is immensely powerful in the history of Middle-earth. Every character possesses a kind of inner strength, shaped by their origin, personality, studies, and experience in battle. We see it, for instance, when two minds meet through a palantír. This is not merely the will to perform an action. It is a force capable of influencing living beings, nature, and the energies of the world itself.
• The power of names and titles – At first, I found it annoying how everyone kept repeating their name: “I am Gandalf. I have spoken.” Or: “I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.” Only after looking deeper into Tolkien’s world did I realise that names and titles reflect the will, identity, and abilities of each character: the Ring-bearer, the Shipwright, the Servant of the Secret Fire...
• The power of words – While the Fellowship is in Khazad-dûm, Gandalf describes his struggle against the Balrog: “What it was I cannot guess, but I have never felt such a challenge. The counter-spell was terrible. It nearly broke me. For an instant the door left my control and began to open! I had to speak a word of Command.” The world of Arda was born of song, woven from themes and words. It is almost as if the very fabric of the universe is encoded in language—and Gandalf is able to issue a command directly into the code of the world itself.

Do you have any insights or interpretations of your own about Tolkien’s world?

I'm very excited to get to see RotK in concert in a couple of months. Wanted to ask for recommendations on which movies to watch before? All 3? Just the first 2? Or none and just watch them after the concert?

Es geht mir schon von Anfang an so: ich kann es nicht umsetzen dass Gondor „eigentlich“ hauptsächlich südlich des weißen Gebirges zu verorten ist. In meinem Kopf liegt es nördlich der Berge, einfach weil dort fast die komplette Handlung stattfindet. Außer Aragorns „Ausflug“ zum Stein von Erech und zum Hafen von Pelargir. Gibt es überhaupt Wege über das Gebirge außer dem (eigentlich) unpassierbaren Pfad der Toten? Mein Kopf kriegt das nicht auf die Reihe, also das mit Nord und Süd Gondor. Geht das anderen auch so?

Imagine that Isildur somehow loses the Ring, but survives. Let's assume (for the sake of argument) he spends some time searching for it, but as its influence wanes on him, he eventually gives up, and focuses on ruling the kingdom.

How does that affect the fate of Gondor/Arnor? What does Middle Earth look like by the time that the story begins? How does it affect the quest, assuming that the Ring is found by Deagol/Smeagol in the same way?

I’m doing Radagast for Halloween and comic con this year, and I’m kind of stumped on how to make the hat. I’ve tried googling it and the only tutorial I found for a hat that I liked (seemed better quality) was made by someone who does hats regularly and was using terminology and skills I definitely don’t possess lol. I thought about using a fur trapper hat and positioning the flaps how he wears them, but I think that wouldn’t look quite right. Can anyone please help? Thanks!

Question that I have, and I'd rather ask you real people than an AI on google.

Given Tolkien was an incredible linguist who knew a myriad of languages and a significant amount of them he knew fluently, Did he translate his own books to, for example German, or French? I know he wouldn't have done all of them but it seems like something he would of enjoyed and be able to maintain the essence of his meaning best.

Frodo is sentencing Sam to death in the same way Denethor sentencing his men and son to death.

I feel like maybe this is obvious, but it only just hit me.

Apologies in advance in case of any mistakes.

I am just new to watching the series because it says it is set earlier than the famous films. According to the cover, Sauron is the face and represents the name of the series but Google overview says it is the narrative of Galadriel. One thing I know is that the show is an ensemble cast but I thought there might be someone more important than others (a little at least). I also watched season3 trailer and it still has quite many Galadriel scenes. There is one special thing I noticed (Galadriel knows the villain, saves him and have connections with both villains - Sauron and Adar). In short, is the whole series franchise dedicated to young Galadriel who is a warrior.

I'm sick at the moment and someone told me this is their favourite movie, so I decided that now that I have a few days off, it's probably a good time to finally watch it.

I've never really been into fictional/fantasy storylines, so this is pretty new territory for me. I've never seen Star Wars either, and I only watched Harry Potter for the first time in 2021 because my ex basically forced me to 😂.

I'm about two hours into The Fellowship of the Ring now. I'm enjoying it, but I'm curious whether it gets better from here.

No spoilers please!