EL

master of arts in literature student

[chaoticaesthetician]

abnormally large trees please lend me some of your centuries worth of wisdom

[skribblegurl]

some people think writers are so eloquent and good with words, but the reality is that we can sit there with our fingers on the keyboard going, “what’s the word for non-sunlight lighting? Like, fake lighting?” and for ten minutes, all our brain will supply is “unofficial”, and we know that’s not the right word, but it’s the only word we can come up with…until finally it’s like our face got smashed into a brick wall and we remember the word we want is “artificial”.

[heywriters]

I couldn't remember the word "doorknob" ten minutes ago.

[bumblewyn]

ok but the onelook thesaurus will save your life, i literally could not live without this website

[breelandwalker]

REBLOG TO SAVE A WRITER'S LIFE

[myfairkatiecat]

LIFE SAVED

REBLOGGING TO SAVE ANOTHER WRITERS LIFE

[sirowsky]

I use this every time I sit down to write. It's the best tool in the world and I would be lost without it!

[old-habits-die-screaming]

oh to be immortal and be able to consume every piece of knowledge and literature ever

[charlesoberonn]

I spent my whole life thinking that Wiki comes from Wikipedia but it's the other way around. Wikis predate Wikipedia by 7 years.

[charlesoberonn]

It's Hawaiian for 'quick' and is specifically named after the Wiki Wiki shuttle service in the Honolulu international airport.

[confusedpaladin]

[rohirric-hunter]

"Fantasy authors don't know how long a thousand years is!!!!!! Knock a zewo off the end!!!!!!!111!!!1" Did you know that it's never too late to learn whimsy and joy

[rohirric-hunter]

And it's doubly ridiculous when people apply it to Lord of the Rings. Sure, a lot of fantasy does it for the Vibes -- which is a perfectly valid reason to do it that does not invite any criticism actually -- but in LotR there is a specific reason why Gondor has existed for four thousand years and hasn't had an industrial revolution and it's because Tolkien was extremely aware of and actively making a point about the large scale ecological harm brought about by large scale industry and technological progress for the sake of progress. Most of Tolkien's cultures are in a position where they could have kickstarted an industrial revolution whenever, but never did because they value trees and rivers and nature and natural beauty more than the small advantages granted by wide-scale production. And they did keep developing and advancing in some ways. Gondor canonically has a cure for cancer. Like Gondor's medical science is so much more advanced than IRL medical science. They didn't stop developing, they just developed differently and with different values. You know who's having an industrial revolution? Saruman. Discussion questions: what do we think Professor Tolkien's opinion on the industrial revolution is? Do we think that most of his cultures not having had one was perhaps an intentional choice driven by one of the core themes of his work? Are we going to examine at all our own preconceived notions that an industrial revolution is some kind of inevitable natural occurence, like puberty but for society?

[jodjuya]

Also Tolkien did have a society with advanced technological progress!

Númenor was a steampunk utopia until Sauron stoked their hubris into thinking they could start a war against the gods and seize elven immortality for themselves by force of arms. (they got themselves Atlantis'd for this tho)

[cyberpunknoire]

People who hate Frodo Baggins are my enemy. "He didn't do anything and was useless"--yeah, okay, so what you're not understanding is that he was the sacrificial lamb. He endured physical, mental, and emotional torment that got worse and worse as his will broke. Everyone knew this. EVERYONE KNEW THIS. That's why everyone was devastated about it. Because Frodo was the most innocent among them, that was the entire point. He represented ordinary peaceful people being destroyed by the horrors of war. And as a hobbit he also represented some of the last vestiges of magic in what was basically a post magic apocalypse.

Frodo was basically an innocent puppy thrown into the Torment Nexus so that EVERYONE ELSE could maybe have a hope of surviving. And he did that willingly. HE DID IT OF HIS OWN FREE WILL, KNOWING IT WOULD RUIN HIM.

Frodo haters won't see the light of heaven

[automatuck9]

[hychlorions]

generally you shouldn't write run-on sentences because they get confusing and it doesn't give the reader a break. that doesn't apply to me though my run-on sentences are fun and understandable and they have a rhythm to it that makes you want to keep reading

[fairyraptor]

Tolkien wrote this post

[bethanydelleman]

Want a Spreadsheet of all the named characters in Austen’s novels?

When I started writing Jane Austen Fan Fiction I kept trying to find comprehensive character lists so that I could grab random characters or use names that JA used. Well, it didn’t exist and so I followed Rule 34 of the internet and made it myself.

If you need or want Excel of PDF character lists for every Jane Austen novel, they are available for free here.

All names are from the text of the novels, not adaptations. I used a previously compiled list from the Republic of Pemberley website (it was in a horrible format) and of course Project Gutenburg.

[oatmealaddiction]

It's really interesting the way the ring moves between bearers and what their possession of the ring and the way they lose it says about each of them.

Gollum murders his best friend for the ring, and he has the ring the longest, for 500 years, and he literally does nothing with it. He just sits around and looks at it. The ring hates Gollum, it does everything to get away from him, by tricking him into leaving it in weird places, and eventually just making itself impossible for him to hold because Gollum can't even stand looking at it. Like the ring is actively trying to get away from Gollum, because Gollum is this sort of stalemate of someone who's selfish enough not to give the ring up, but not ambitious enough to use it or do anything with it. So the ring just kinda has to sit, until Bilbo happens upon it. It's interesting that Gollum never really gives up possession of the ring (and it's technically kind of stolen from him) but his holding onto the ring is in a weird way doing battle with it, and preventing Sauron from gaining power because Gollum is just not interested in using it, and doesn't even really seem to like it.

Bilbo spends a lot of time lying about how he came to own the ring because he's worried his trick on Gollum makes him a less legitimate owner of it, and he keeps trying to justify the fact he basically stole it. He also spares Gollum out of pity and empathy for him, making him the first guy to not kill someone for the ring. It's interesting how Bilbo is sort of judged as a less legitimate master of the ring in someways because he kind of won it on a technicality, and the previous owner of the ring is still alive and hunting for it. When Bilbo willingly gives the ring up (making him the first to do so), he does it because he feels unworthy of it, and keeps blaming himself for the ways the ring is influencing him to act. When Bilbo realizes the ring is evil, he tries to claim it again out of obligation to his loved ones because he wants to protect them—which makes sense for a character as selfless as Bilbo who is kind of characterized by his tendency to take pity on others, and to give precious things away. Once he finds out the ring is not actually a helpful trinket, he immediately tries to claim responsibility for it again, despite not actually wanting it.

Frodo is the only ring bearer to come by the ring through 100% honest means. Bilbo willingly gives it to Frodo, and goes so far as to put it in the same envelope that has his Will and Testament. Like Frodo might be the most legitimate owner of the ring besides Sauron himself. And people make a big deal that he couldn't throw the ring into the fires of Mt. Doom, but like, Frodo is *constantly* trying to give the ring away because he doesn't see himself as able to accomplish the errand (and because the ring knows he is in fact capable of accomplishing it). Whenever a more powerful and seemingly capable person shows up, Frodo's like "HEY, WANT A FREE RING?" He tries giving it to Gandalf, to Galadriel, and relinquishes it over to Elrond's keeping for like a whole five minutes. But the reason he ends up stuck with it, is the same reason Bilbo tried to take it back in the first place. He doesn't want the ring to hurt his friends, he wants to save others from being corrupted, and Frodo's attempts to isolate throughout the story reflect this. He sees the ring as only a burden, one he wants nothing but to be rid of, but he can't hand it over to anyone because that means they have to suffer through what he's currently suffering through. And as time comes on, he becomes so worn down with this responsibility, that it stops occurring to him that anyone else could help him carry it or that he could ever be free of it, such to the point that abandoning the ring becomes literally inconceivable for him, until the ring just destroys most of what's left of Frodo's identity and leaves him as just kind of the thing that's holding it.

Which brings us to Sam, who's the only other ring bearer besides Bilbo to fully relinquish the ring. People treat Sam being able to drop the ring as Sam being wholesome and humble, but Sam is maybe more vulnerable to the ring than Frodo or Bilbo or even Gollum in that Sam probably has the least sense of self, and the least sense of his own weaknesses. Sam takes the ring because the ring leads him to believe Frodo is dead and that Frodo would *want* Sam to complete the errand, even when Sam's instincts are telling him that the right thing to do is stay by Frodo's side even in death (or Spider Coma in this case.) When Sam realizes Frodo's in trouble, he immediately puts on the ring and runs right into trouble, and he accesses way more of the rings powers than we even knew were there, maybe because he's so deep in Mordor, but also maybe because he's so desperate to rescue Frodo by any means. The ring begins affecting Sam's visibility even when Sam isn't wearing it, which is troubling, and it literally makes him look like a hulking monster. Then when it comes time to return the ring to Frodo—it's rightful owner—Sam starts to cave a little bit. He starts arguing that the ring is going to be too heavy for Frodo to carry, that it's hurting him, that it'll kill him, that Sam just wants to lighten Frodo's load and to protect him. Just like Bilbo and also to an extent Boromir, Sam would take the ring if he believed it would save someone he loves. And like, he's right. The ring *is* going to kill Frodo. If Sam took the ring and carried it the rest of the way, he'd be doing Frodo an inarguable favor. He'd be selflessly sacrificing himself for his friend. He's trying to protect him the same way Bilbo tried to protect Frodo, and the same way Frodo has been trying to protect his friends and Middle Earth. In any other story, he'd be a hero. It's only when Frodo makes it clear that Sam would have to fight him to take the ring, that Sam caves and he gives it back to Frodo, which is like, an act of Herculean strength and true love honestly, and I probably wouldn't be able to do the same if I knew it was going to kill someone I loved. Like, I think it's interesting that the awful catch-22 of the ring, and part of the reason it is so hard to give up, is because it means that somebody else is going to have to carry the ring, and basically all our hobbit friends would be able to walk away from it without any issue if it didn't mean saddling someone else with the burden.

And in the end, the only ring bearer who can actually destroy the ring and save everyone, is the one who has zero desire to be a hero or to save anyone. The guy who literally does not care about jack shit besides having the ring just so he can fondle it in his fish cave, is the only one who manages to actually get the job done.

[velvet4510]

It took the Ring two seconds to make both Isildur and Gollum claim it as their own.

It didn’t take much longer for it to make Bilbo do the same, as he kept it as the key “trick up his sleeve” during the Quest for Erebor and never considered harming it.

But in 17 full years and 6 months, it couldn’t make Frodo claim it. It took being inside Mt. Doom, the place where its power was absolute and drowned out all othere, to get Frodo to claim it.

Inside Mt. Doom, no bearer can resist the Ring. They will inevitably claim it there. But literally ALL of the other Ring-bearers who ever claimed it did so outside of Mt. Doom.

The Ring never needed to apply its utmost, Cracks-of-Doom-level pressure to make any previous Ring-bearer claim it. Frodo was the only one who resisted it so long and so well that it had to force itself upon him and break him just to get him to regard it as his own.

Frodo Baggins is the strongest mortal in the Third Age of Middle-Earth and no, I am not accepting questions at this time.

(Remember our beloved Samwise Gamgee never claimed the Ring, and didn’t have it long enough for it to really sink its teeth into him as deeply as it did into everyone else. I’m talking about those who actually claimed the Ring at some point in their lives.)

[assiraphales]

ppl who think frodo is a weak/bad character r so boring like that little man went MONTHS carrying the most dangerous and insidious item in middle earth. ancient beings (elves, gandalf, etc) were taunted and tempted by it. boromir was corrupted within weeks. men and hobbits turned against their brethren for it. killed for it. and frodo, with a wound from a morgul knife, bore it’s weight when no one else could. had it been anyone else, middle earth would have fallen. his mental strength, coupled with the support of his beloved, won

[ahobbitstale]

Think it’s also good to note that even if he was so strong, it would have been impossible if Sam or Gollum weren’t alongside him. Even the strongest can fail, and that doesn’t make them any less weak. The ring was at it’s full compacity in Mount Doom for influence, if it wasn’t for Frodo listening to Gandalf and pitying Gollum, they wouldn’t have succeeded. Every little action mattered!

[fragiledewdrop]

WHERE NOW THE HORSE AND THE RIDER-Aka how I just had a Tolkien related freak out on the train

I can't believe what just happened to me. As in, it's such a weird chain of events that it has left me a little dizzy.

I was reading "Les Nourritures Terrestres" by Gide, and I got to a point he cites parts of a poem which I liked very much. The notes informed me that it's a French translation of "an 8th century saxon elegy called 'The Wanderer' "

That intrigued me, and, being on a train with a lot of time to pass (plus being a little tired of reading in French), I took out my phone and searched for the poem.

I found it here. It's the lament of a warrior in exile who has lost his lord and mourns the joy and glory of a world that has now disappeared. I was enjoying it a lot.

And then I got to this point:

And my mouth actually dropped open, because what?

Are you telling me that the Lament for the Rohirrim, one of my favourite poems in LOTR, which I learnt by heart at 13 and later took care to learn in the original English, which I sing when I do the dishes and which routinely makes me cry, is Tolkien's translation of an 8th century Saxon elegy?

Well, the notes at the end of the page confirmed it:

"Tolkien's rendition is hard to resist" I bet it is. I love that professional philologists add notes to their work saying "yeah, by the way, this bit here? It's in your favourite fantasy novel, and I am kinda jealous of how well it was translated, but it's Tolkien, the man spoke Old English, what can you do? Carry on, xoxo"

I mean, I had gathered that the Tolkien poem played on themes used in medieval literature, but I had no idea it was based on an actual, specific text. That makes it a hundred times cooler!

Maybe it's common knowledge, but it was a delicious tidbit of good news to me. Especially since I wasn't expecting it in the least, so I was blindsided by it.

Cherry on top? I had ignored the Old English text, since I don't understand it, but at the end I gave it a cursory read , and the line "Alas for the splendor of the prince"? "Eala þeodnes þrym!"

Now, I have never studied Old English, but I know roughly how to pronounce it (what kind of Silmarillion fan would I be if I didn’t recognize the thorn?). þeodnes has to be where "Theoden" comes from, right?

Apparently yes. I googled the "Lament for the Rohirrim", and Tolkien Gathaway has a nice little parapraph in which they explain all this. I don't know why I had never read it before, but it was a lot more fun learning it as an unexpected detour from my French practice, not gonna lie.

Bottom line: Tolkien was a both a nerd and a genius and continues to make my life brighter, and this is one of those moments in which I am very happy I have spent years of my life learning languages.

Thanks for coming to my impromptu TedTalk.

[musicofthe-ainur]

Am I the only person who thought this was really fucking funny

[eleemosynecdoche]

A lot of the really funny moments in Lord of the Rings come from Tolkien playing with language like this, where we have relatively formal, archaic, “high” language responded to with informal, modern, “low” language. 

[modernclaire]

another hilarious example:

[lotrmusical]

my absolute favorite example of tolkien switching registers in this way is

[dukeofbookingham-deactivated202]

[i-am-pinkie]

Professor Tolkien and his gift for language! 😅

[stunfiskz]

there’s another fucking week this week

[fairycosmos]

i just love being lazy i’m sorry i can’t help it like unless a it’s life or death situation why are we expending an insane amount of effort. we could be laying in the grass watching the word go by. take my hand

[bigandlong]

If you see this on your dashboard, reblog this, NO MATTER WHAT and all your dreams and wishes will come true.

[jae-felidae]

Oh hey! Haven’t seen this in forever! Didn’t reblog it when it came across me before, not gonna skip it this time, I need some good vibes.