I wouldn't want Tom Bombadil in the movie

Tom Bombadil, illustrated by Tim and Greg Hildebrandt

Although Tom Bombadil does not appear in Peter Jackson's or Ralph Bakshi's movie adaptions, he is a widely known character among fans. A lot of people who have never read the books still know who he is, and a lot of those who have read the books like to point out that he should not have been cut out from the movie. Some even mean that it was the biggest mistake in the making of the script.

What I think about Tom's abcense is something I have been asked countless times and it seems like I am expected to hate Peter Jackson for it. Thing is, however, that I don't. I like the fact that Tom Bombadil is not in the movies, and there is good reason for it.

One of my favorite movie moments

Narsil was the sword of king Elendil. It broke as he died in the battle against Sauron in the second age, but its shard was used by Elendil's son Isildur to cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand. At the end of the third age the sword was reforged in Rivendell for Aragorn and was named Andúril or The Flame of the West.

Here, the books and the movies differs quite a bit. In the book Aragorn carries the shards of Narsil with him and has it reforged before the fellowship leaves Rivendell. In the movies the shards are on display in Rivendell until Arwen pleads Elrond to reforge it, and it is given to Aragorn as Rohirrim is riding to aid Gondor. I am someone who tend to get stuck in detail, for better or for worse. I can be very upset about details in books or movies that are so insignificant that my friends did not even notice them, but I can also be very happy about them. And detail is what makes me love this particular difference between book and script.

Gandalf is a maia – not a maiar

Okay, I know this is not a big thing and it is alright to make mistakes but this really bothers me. It should not bother me, but it does.

It is no surprise a lot of people do not know the singular and plural forms of words in Tolkien's universe. Why would they? It is obviously not something that would be considered necessary knowledge and since the books were written in English it would be reasonable to think that "maiar" is the singular form and that you simply add an -s suffix to make it plural. Clearly this does not work as most names in Tolkien's works are not English. To sort this out I made a small list with some of the words where these errors are common.

Singular – plural
Ainu – Ainur
Maia – Maiar
Vala – Valar
Istar – Istari
Palantír – Palantíri
Nazgûl – Nazgûl
Mûmak – Mûmakil

These forms are correct, use them!

Furthermore, you should not talk of a single creature as "uruk-hai" as the word "hai" refers to the species, just like "olog-hai". And finally, do not use "mellons" as the plural form of "friend". According to David Salo (author of A Gateway to Sindarin) the plural form should be "mellyn".

Tolkien Movie Review

Tolkien (2019) is a biographical drama about the life of young J.R.R. Tolkien. It was written by David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford and directed by Dome Karukoski. None of these were known to me prior to this film, which can be a good thing as you don't have any other works to form your expectations. To be quite honest, I didn't have high hopes for this movie and I was unfortunately not happily surprised.

According to The Guardian, The Tolkien Estate did not in any way participate in, or even approve the making of this movie. They also stated that they do not endorse its content, and their response was even backed up by John Garth (author of Tolkien and the Great War, which I highly recommend) who expects that the movie will give rise to "new misconceptions".

Time for a reboot!

After more than a year of inactivity I have decided to return to this barren blog in an attempt to start anew. As a starter, you can expect a review of the new movie Tolkien on here soon. I will of course also use this blog to share my thoughts on the upcoming Amazon series along with a whole bunch of other Tolkien-related stuff.
In the meantime, feel free to check out my instagram: @Tolkientokens

Some thoughts about Middle-earth in video games

I have noticed that when you talk about Middle-earth in video games you often talk about specific games and rarely the general use of Tolkien's works. Of course, it makes sense that you want to talk specifically about the latest game or the one you enjoyed the most. I have played most of the Tolkien-inspired games that have been released since 2002 and want to share my opinions about the different ways video games adapt the books of Tolkien (or the movies of Peter Jackson).

The size of Glaurung

I just wanted to share some of my thoughts considering Glaurung, probably known to anyone who has read The Silmarillion and/or The Children of Húrin as the father of dragons. His size is never clearly specified by Tolkien and different people seem to have widely different opinions on this. That being said I do not claim to have a correct answer to this, I just want to say what I think and why.