TheTolkienist.com - Latest Comments

Re: Not a Tolkien quote: It simply isn’t an adventure worth telling if there aren’t any dragons

Marcel R. Bülles — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 08:22:13 -0000

Anytime - that's what these posts are for! :)

Re: Not a Tolkien quote: It simply isn’t an adventure worth telling if there aren’t any dragons

Kiirsi Branham Hellewell — Sat, 03 Aug 2024 20:23:58 -0000

Thanks so much for this! I came across the quote on Pinterest and I immediately thought, "this doesn't sound like Tolkien at all." Thank you for providing the correct source!

Re: Not a Tolkien quote: “Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory”

Marcel R. Bülles — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 04:33:20 -0000

Thank you for mentioning it; I have corrected the post accordingly.

Re: Not a Tolkien quote: “Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory”

Michael_J_Walsh — Sun, 22 Oct 2023 23:21:33 -0000

It's Le Guin, not LeGuin.

Re: Black Pine Whisky – soon available

Marcel R. Bülles — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 06:44:59 -0000

My apologies, Scott, but I am not privy to that information. The last offer I would have had to enter on the 30 bottles auction was well over 500 pounds, though. I checked - and did not buy any of those bottles :)

Re: Black Pine Whisky – soon available

scott stevens — Sat, 14 Oct 2023 03:26:06 -0000

How much did the thirty bottles in wooden boxes go for? More than the £150 for the regular ones?

Re: What to look forward to in 2023 if you like Tolkien and all things Tolkienian

disqus_AIc3kaLK3J — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 18:31:07 -0000

I am going to Oxonmoot.

Re: What to look forward to in 2023 if you like Tolkien and all things Tolkienian

Bonnie Marques — Sun, 29 Jan 2023 00:54:09 -0000

Your plans sound great and I'm happy to support you in this new space.

Re: The nonsense that was “10 J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes to Live By”

Marcel R. Bülles — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 07:15:22 -0000

So there is no difference to you between these two lines?

Re: The nonsense that was “10 J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes to Live By”

Sarah Allen Smith — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 16:58:45 -0000

I’m confused… you have quotes crossed out in that original list, and then say the exact same thing when you give the “real” quote

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. The Fellowship of the Ring

1. Not a Tolkien quote. The correct quote is:

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

The Lord of the Rings. The Fellowship of the Ring.

…………………. ???

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the adaptation

Marcel R. Bülles — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 11:43:44 -0000

Absolutely, yes, even though I personally am not overly fond of the term "retconning" when it comes to what Tolkien did here but that is just my personal opinion. More on why and when Tolkien did this can be found in Rateliff's THE HISTORY OF THE HOBBIT.

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the adaptation

Medieval Girl — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 03:27:33 -0000

Interestingly enough, Tolkien had to do some fairly extensive rewrities for The Hobbit just before the release of the Lord of the Rings in the 1950s. In the original version of the novel, as I understand it, the Ring that Bilbo finds has nothing to do with Sauron and Gollum relinquishes it willingly.

One of the in universe explanations for his retcons was that Bilbo (who was the narrator of the The Hobbit) had remembered events incorrectly

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the adaptation

Marcel R. Bülles — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 19:57:33 -0000

I am glad you like Phil's piece, it was my pleasure to share it here!

Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love the adaptation

Jac — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 19:27:39 -0000

This is excellent, well said, and mirrors my thoughts on adaptations (of any book). I am very much looking forward to The Rings Of Power. My great hope is that it is very good storytelling, beautifully filmed, with characters I care about. That's most important to me. That plus in a world that fits Tolkien for me (Jackson's Lord Of The Rings trilogy certain did). I won't be making up my mind before I see it and it's simply nice, and exciting, to have something new re Middle Earth (and an age not previously explored on film) to look forward to.

Re: Tween from Tolkien: 15 words you never knew came from literature

Marcel R. Bülles — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 07:51:51 -0000

I can easily believe this as in quite a few cases such infographics do have their weaknesses - but would you have a source for your assumption? If so I am happy to add it to the post!

Re: Tween from Tolkien: 15 words you never knew came from literature

nemwas — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 20:50:55 -0000

Hemingway may have made the term “cajones ” more popular among gringos, but he wasn’t the first to use it , or coin it.

Re: When and where was J.R.R. Tolkien born?

Marcel R. Bülles — Sat, 06 Nov 2021 11:44:52 -0000

😁😁😁😁

Re: When and where was J.R.R. Tolkien born?

Tom Hillman — Sat, 06 Nov 2021 10:16:06 -0000

clicking my heels

Re: Tolkien 2019 in Birmingham: day 1, a report

Marcel R. Bülles — Fri, 05 Nov 2021 13:12:28 -0000

Great time was had. What's gin? 😁

Re: When and where was J.R.R. Tolkien born?

Marcel R. Bülles — Fri, 05 Nov 2021 13:08:43 -0000

Oh, please, do not forget to turn around, counter-clockwise, four times, and clap your hands saying 'I will find Maitland Street!' 😁

Re: When and where was J.R.R. Tolkien born?

Tom Hillman — Thu, 04 Nov 2021 23:06:39 -0000

I will make sure to look for it in the last moments of sunlight on Durin's Day. I figured it had to be near the town hall.

Re: When and where was J.R.R. Tolkien born?

Marcel R. Bülles — Thu, 04 Nov 2021 20:22:12 -0000

An absolutely excellent point. It is no longer possible to find the street today - although it is still "there" but it has been renamed for Charlotte Maxeke.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

Maitland Street is the ONLY not named street on that map - it is the one branching off to the right from the GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS above St. Andrews Street. In the postcard you can see the President Brand Statue at its very end. The bank building was on the corner Maitland/ West Burger Street, adjacent to the Town Hall you can see on the postcard.

The building itself, the Bank of Africa branch, I believe, was destroyed in a flood.

Incidentally, I just realised there is an excellent article on this in Mallorn 55 by Boris Gorelik. Nothing is left of Tolkien's years in Bloemfontein except for the grave of his father and the font he and Hilary were baptised over.

Re: When and where was J.R.R. Tolkien born?

Tom Hillman — Thu, 04 Nov 2021 10:52:13 -0000

Interesting. I don't see Maitland Street on the map -- perhaps I have missed it -- but I do see a Bree Street.

Re: Tolkien 2019 in Birmingham: day 1, a report

disqus_AIc3kaLK3J — Sun, 25 Jul 2021 23:09:43 -0000

Yeah a great time in the old Burlington Arcade, in the Summer of Gin.

Re: The nonsense that was “10 J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes to Live By”

Marcel R. Bülles — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 06:52:09 -0000

Hi Julie, thanks for asking!

Thanks to the success of the film trilogies - that used Tolkien's words to some extent and in many cases subtly changed them - many quotes have made an appearance that _seem_ to look like something JRRT would have written when it is obviously not the case.

The source material I am working from is the published text as is, that is, the original. Any deviation from the published texts is either a shortening, a lengthening, a re-wording, corruption etc. And that's where I come in :)

But I have to return your question - where do I mention that a quote has been "shortened"?