some underappreciated Tolkien lore amoungest my personal gaggle of nerds is the Council of Elrond in the fellowship of the rings books. so this is me badly summarizing and explaining how much I love this chapter
Y'all do not understand how insane it is. And pardon me if I'm a bit rusty, its very, very late (or early, I suppose).
First of all, they spend like half an hour introducing people, w/ full legal names and then Tolkien is like "so much happened that even I don't want to write it, but shit was fucking discussed, you best know that." but like, in Tolkien speak so its super dramatic and poetic and we love it.
The first story we get is from Gloin (Gimli's father and one of the original dwarves in The Hobbit). Gloin starts off by basically explaining that Balin and some of the others left despite almost every other dwarf saying hell no, bad idea but this is of course accompanied by the history of Moria and stuff, which is really interesting and epic. And then like, at some point messages stopped coming and that was THIRTY YEARS AGO.
By this point, Sauron, whose kind of nosy despite literally only being a fuckign eye, has been sending his underlings to go like, do ambassador shit and talk to the good peoples of Middle Earth, and one of these messengers that came to visit the dwarves to ask about Hobbits, like wtf is that and where does it live in exchange for the three dwarven rings. but like, Dain knows hey, those were lost and basically tells the ambassador "the fuck is a hobbit? ain't nobody here but us dwarves" but he does it in a way where he's like diplomatic but we know what he's doing.
and Dain, being a fucking homie, sends Gloin and his crew to Rivendell, which is why they are there, to warn Bilbo that someone is looking for the ring.
Elrond proceeds to lore drop the last thousand years or something, people died, they explain Aragorn and he's an ~icon~, because Boromir talks about his dads crazy ass dreams and Aragorn throws the broken sword on the table and more eloquently says "HAHA, ITS MOI, I SOLVE THIS." but he's humble and chill about it because he's aragorn but its 2am you guys, chill.
Boromir is less of a jerk to Aragorn and the council in general in my opinion.
Bilbo, our main Hobbit, he summarizes how he got the ring and is like honest about it, but I think its funny because the people who haven't heard are like "wtf, I underestimated hobbits" and I think Tolkien has a line like "he recounted every riddle" like Bilbo spares us no details.
this is followed by Gandalf explaining to everyone what him and Aragorn did while looking for Gollum and him going to Gondor to read, says something in black speech, drama, dram, gollums in prison with the elves and then BAM! NOPE, HE ESCAPED, which Legolas tells us, which is actually one of the least dramatic things said at this council.
More info, basically like so much freaking info cause Gandalf in the books has spent like twenty years doing research and scampering about middle earth trying to figure out wtf is going on.
Erestor is like "give the ring to that dude who lives in the woods with his hot wife, he seems to be able to control this dumb jewelrey" and Glorfindel is all like, "nay, he just free spirited and has no master and so the ring has like zero influence over him", Erestor argues but then Gandalf is like "my bro, he does not give a frick, will probably lose it as soon as we give to him"
this is followed by a bunch of Elvish wisdom competition but its poetic and after that Elrond finally tells everyone how they destroy the ring and like two paragraphs down Bilbo is like "FInE, I'll do it." But Bilbo is old as fuck and Gandalf is like "bestie, lets not do that." and Boromir was about to laugh but then he sees everyone else takes Bilbo super seriously and he doesn't, so at least he can read the room ig?
everyone is super quiet after realizing they have to send somebody to Mordor and the one thing I do remember clearly that they kept in the movie is when Frodo volunteers he says "I will take the ring, though I do not know the way" Elrond gives a speech and Sam is like "Hell nah, he ain't going alone" and another quote they use in the movie is that he is basically like, I couldn't even separate you for a secret council and you came anyway.
They decide who else is going in the next chapter
This has been Tolkien badly explained by Muse
if nothing else, I hope this made you laugh.
