6) Tolkien’s hero was average, and needed help, and failed. This is the place where most fantasy authors, who love to simultaneously call themselves Tolkien’s heirs and blame him for a lot of what’s wrong with modern fantasy, err the worst. It’s hard to look at Frodo and see him as someone extra-special. The hints in the books that a higher power did choose him are so quiet as to be unnoticeable. And he wouldn’t have made it as far as he did without his companions. And he doesn’t keep from falling into temptation. A lot of modern fantasy heroes are completely opposite from this. They start out extraordinary, and they stay that way. Other characters are there to train them, or be shallow antagonists and love interests and worshippers, not actually help them. And they don’t fail. (Damn it, I want to see more corrupted fantasy heroes.) It’s not fair to blame Tolkien for the disease that fantasy writers have inflicted on themselves. […] Fantasy could use more ordinary people who are afraid and don’t know what the hell they’re doing, but volunteer for the Quest anyway. It’s misinterpretation of Tolkien that’s the problem, not Tolkien himself.

“Tolkien Cliches,” Limyaael

(via mithtransdir)

Oh, I like that idea! A good headcanon to have.

My explanation is coming strictly from textual canon and the premise that Tolkien was writing a mytho-historical work, i.e. that kingdoms will function in ways parallel to their historical counter parts. In the Complete Histories there is evidence in drafts by Tolkien (and it subsequent notes by his son, Christopher) that Dwarvish kingdoms were analogous to Norse kingdoms and possibly those of the British Isles during the early Medieval period (See: Peoples of Middle-earth, subsection on Dwarves and their language). Historically, these societies had male privilege for inheritance of property unless there were special circumstances (See: Norse saga history and divorce law, transition of property to women as inheritance, and gothi law).

That being said, it's important to note that physical appearance does not inflect gender or a gender role. From a purely canonical standpoint, we can't assume anything about gender binaries in the legendarium simply because the text does not exist. From a headcanonical standpoint, this is still not very vaild: simply because a society in which similar gender-specific appearances remove outward physical discrepancies between the societal genders, doesn't necessarily mean that there is a correlation between physical sex and inheritance law. "Looking male" does not equate to having a male role in a society.

This is a very neat headcanon though, and I would love to see someone explain it further and pose it for debate!

So it doesn’t make sense for Dain to have been crowned King Under the Mountain while Dis was still around………unless she died in Fili, Kili, and Thorin’s absences……………

He sees no stars who does not see them first of living silver made that sudden burst to flame like flowers beneath an ancient song, whose very echo after-music long has since pursued. There is no firmament, only a void, unless a jewelled tent myth-woven and elf-pattemed; and no earth, unless the mother’s womb whence all have birth. The heart of Man is not compound of lies, but draws some wisdom from the only Wise, and still recalls him. Though now long estranged, Man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed. Dis-graced he may be, yet is not dethroned, and keeps the rags of lordship once he owned, his world-dominion by creative act: not his to worship the great Artefact, Man, Sub-creator, the refracted light through whom is splintered from a single White to many hues, and endlessly combined in living shapes that move from mind to mind. Though all the crannies of the world we filled with Elves and Goblins, though we dared to build Gods and their houses out of dark and light, and sowed the seed of dragons, ‘twas our right (used or misused). The right has not decayed. We make still by the law in which we’re made.

- from Mythopoeia, by J.R.R. Tolkien. (via lintamande)

I think it’s because we all love to dream. We don’t live in a particularly attractive world. I don’t really remember, except as a small boy, anything but a pretty grim world. I’m old enough to have seen Hitler in the flesh. I’m old enough to have been in Munich in 1934, on the night of the long knives, when Hitler butchered so many of his own people. I’m old enough to remember the Second World War and all the other things. So I’m not being a Cassandra, who prophesied nothing but evil and misery; I’m simply facing reality. So, yes, let us not lose faith, let us be optimistic, let us believe in the good things, but we still have to face the world as it is. When you live in a world like that, what do you want? You want to escape, to get out of this world from time to time, into another world, a magical world, an enchanted world, where things happen we dream about, a world of fairy stories and wizards. It is like the conjurer, the enchanter, or magician who says, “Look, nothing up my sleeve. When I do this, you will come into my enchanted world!” Dreaming, escaping, that is what we’re talking about. I firmly believe that is why this kind of film is so universally popular, and always will be, because people like to get into another world.

Christopher Lee on the fantasy genre (X)

‘The Lord Of The Rings’ is mythology, it’s a fairytale, it’s an adventure. It never happened. Except in our hearts. But there was The Shire, in three dimensions and smoke coming out of the burrows where they lived. And… I believed.”

Ian McKellen (via helenehp)

New sources and recs will be added to the Works Cited page soon

I'm currently at work and have a full day of Russian classes ahead of me, but when I get home I will update my Works Cited page for any curious readers who want to do their own research. My thesis has accumulated a lot of texts analyzing Tolkien, Grimm, Segal, Campbell, Eliade, Shippey, and much, much more. As I do more research on my own work I will add new titles under a variety of subjects. Also, if you've read anything and would like to have it included in my Recs page, just send me an ask.

Hey! I hope you don't mind me writing a response to this post--if you do, I'll delete my content (just send me an ask).

I think this a valid and intriguing question that a lot of fans have. The trick is that Dwarves in The Hobbit are based off a typical medieval system of inheritance, where titles can only be passed to male relatives. Fíli was first in line, followed by Kíli. Dain, being a lord in the Iron Hills and Thorin's cousin, becomes third in line. While the other Dwarves may be cousins to Thorin and Dís, they do not hold titles (and may be too far removed on the family tree).

I think it would have been amazing and curious if Dís had received the crown, but because she is a female relation she is more of an "emergency reserve" for the line of sucession. Then again, even if most of the main family tree were killed/died, the next available male heir with a title would have been crowned.

So it doesn’t make sense for Dain to have been crowned King Under the Mountain while Dis was still around………unless she died in Fili, Kili, and Thorin’s absences……………

Talking about the Battle of the Five Armies Extended Edition

Major PSA: BoFA EE is rated R and for good reason. Here is a list of trigger warnings I've compiled for future viewers. Spoilers are obviously ahead, but I think these TWs are more important: Extreme battle violence Animal death Gore Body horror (mutilation, loss of limbs, graphic hand wounds) Blood Death by choking Death by being eaten alive (this one is very strange and digusting) Any post about BoFA EE will be discussing scenes with these topics. If any of this makes you uncomfortable, please read with discression. When I saw the EE last night I was triggered and had a stress episode because of my PTSD. I almost had to leave the theater. I understand that this is a battle movie and that on-screen deaths happen, but this was over-the-top gore. This was nothing like ROTK--this was graphic mutilation and death. Most of the EE scenes are graphic battle scenes. The flow of the movie was better, but the content was worse. It disgusted me. The plot was not enhanced. The characters were only slightly more round. It was a bloodbath for a bloodbath's sake, and most of it was intended to be funny (I'll get to that in another post). So, I will be making some essays about the film in the coming days. I just want to make sure that any readers or viewers will be aware of the content before we get in too deep.

Back on track!

Hey guys, I’m back into my studies and thesis, so expect more posting. I’ve seen the BoFA EE and will be writing on it today/tomorrow. I’m open to questions and comments, as always!

Here we go.

I cant believe anyone wouldn't love ur blog, it's super great! Have an amazing day xx

Thank you! Hopefully I'll be getting some new content up soon.

come-chaos replied to your post “Anon is now off, permanently.”

I am so sorry you've had to deal with those assholes! :( Hugs offered if you want them.

This is much appreciated, thank you :)

It’s more than just assholes--I genuinely do not feel safe with having anonymous open anymore because they have promised physical violence on me for no reason. Hopefully things will calm down now that they can’t send me anonymous threats.

Thank you for the support, and thank you for enjoying my blog!

call-me-smeagol replied to your post “Anon is now off, permanently.”

I am so sorry to hear that; your blog is awesome

Thank you.

I very much did not want to turn off anonymous because I wanted to keep this blog open and friendly for users who interact with it, but this has gotten to the point where in the last two weeks I have received six messages that threaten violence against me for unknown reasons.

Anyway, thank you for your support! I should have a new essay up before the week is out. :)

Anon is now off, permanently.

Due to an influx of unprompted threatening anonymous messages, the anonymous option for asking questions and making submissions is now permanently closed.

These messages have made me very uncomfortable, and I no longer feel safe having this person message me multiple times with threats of violence and death.

Sorry to those of you who would prefer to ask me Tolkien-related questions, have debates, or simply pose ideas on anonymous. I am doing this for my own safety.

Thank you all for understanding, and for your patience.

could you perhaps explain the significance of fili and kili's death in the hobbit book?

I love this question because the answer is very much not as distinguished as most people would hope it to be.

The thing about the deaths of Fíli and Kíli in the The Hobbit is that they don’t really matter much at all. The knot of The Hobbit isn’t the Quest of the Dwarves to reclaim Erebor, but Bilbo’s change as a Hobbit (or, as a person and character in general). On the second page of the first chapter we see that “This is a story about how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected” (10). Gain and loss is a major theme in the work, which is explored through characters doing things that are either presumed or never presumed of them. As the narrator goes on, “he gained—well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end” (ibid).

As any astute reader of The Hobbit will notice, Fíli and Kíli are sparse characters all throughout the text. We get their names and the color of their cloaks, but that's basically it. We see that they nearly drown near the start of the adventure due to mishaps with the ponies, and maybe have a word in edge-wise now again. Fíli and Kíli don't matter much: they are periphery characters that add to the depth of the story without needing to go into detail.

When Fíli and Kíli die the text becomes very medieval, and very jumbled. There is a shift in tone and lexicon, most likely because the narrator is now taking from other eye-witness accounts, as Bilbo is unconscious. Based on how the Company is grouped together by narrative influence, we can guess that this section of the text is either taken from the POVs of Gandalf of Balin. The characters of the Company with the most to say, and who are most commonly interacting with the scenes, are Thorin, Bilbo, Gandalf, Balin, and sometimes Fíli and Kíli.

So, when we read "Fíli and Kíli had fallen defending him with shield and body, for he was their mother's elder brother" we see the shift (303-4). This is information that would not have been known to Bilbo, but is known to either Balin or Gandalf. It's made more certain that this is reported by either those two because they are both present in the final chapter of the text, discussing with Bilbo the tale of the Quest. Perhaps this is when Bilbo is penning his book, and perhaps they are filling in some gaps in his memory (since he did have a tendency to be unconscious at the most inopportune times).

Because the story is about Bilbo and Bilbo's change as a character, and because Bilbo most likely did not know of Fíli and Kíli's relation to Thorin (or really any of the Dwarves' relations to one another), it becomes even more clear that their death is simply a matter of warfare. It is tragic and upsetting, because they were the liveliest and (perhaps) youngest of the Company, but it it wasn't significant that they died. What's significant is that Bilbo is changed, for he must abide by the rules of Perilous Realm. Once you traverse into Faerie, you do not come back the same, if you come back at all.

There are some medieval touches that can be seen in the way the death scene of Fíli and Kíli was constructed. To me, this passive sentence reads very much like a line out of an Icelandic family saga, or the Eddas of Saemundr the Wise or Snorri Sturlusson. It is brief and factual, like the reckoning of a family line that is the kernel of family sagas, and truly the beginnings of Old Icelandic literature. The trope of the maternal uncle is also very clear in this scene, when we learn that Thorin is their "mother's elder brother." Maternal uncles are a prominent plot figure in family sagas and Indo-European myth cycles. They are linchpins of texts, either vetting or misleading characters with advice, or simply by their blood relations.

There is also the the trope of "cleansing the sickness" from a family line. Thorin is not the only descendent of Dúrin, as we can see by Dáin's ascension to the throne; that wouldn't be possible unless Dáin also had a "divine" right to rule, based on his ancestry. But Dáin also doesn't have the gold-sickness, the dragon disease that Thorin was privy too. And if Thorin fell to the sickness, wouldn't Fíli and Kíli also fall to it? We do know that the younger Dwarves were against Thorin's brash actions at the siege gate, against the Elven King, but we don't see much of how they act otherwise. Like everyone else in the company they pick up golden harps and dance among the gold once Smaug has left: no one is the wiser. Killing the heirs along with the king isn't an uncommon medieval trope. It is tragic and it is harsh because his line is ended, but, again, it's not the heart of the story.

It's somewhat difficult to admit that their deaths didn't matter, but textually this is true. To Bilbo's story, it is unimportant to his plot that periphery characters died alongside the king--for why wouldn't they? It would be unbelievable if only the tainted king died in the battle. So their deaths become a part of the "fictive dream" that we require.

It also rings with a deeper narrative, a story outside of Bilbo's own: the story of the Dvergatal, the "Catalog of the Dwarves" in the Poetic Edda. Many scholars (including myself) debate about what the purpose of this list of Dwarf names is, seeing as it is "superimposed" (argued by some, but not by me) in the midst of a poem for no "apparent" reason. The names must mean something if they are placed in a spot near the end of the creation of the universe but also near stanzas that talk about the destruction of that said universe. Those Dwarves did something to make their names go into the mythological codex. Tolkien might have spied them and thought that perhaps some died heroically, perhaps some found the lost kingdom of the Himinbjorg. By Norse tradition, which the Dwarves are based and enmeshed in, Fíli and Kíli die in a manner preferable to warriors. You are slain in battle, valiantly, instead of cowering, instead of losing only to live and be debased. In modern terms, we'd say something like "going out with a bang." And for the Norse, this a great thing. It's the desired means of departure.

So, while the deaths of Fíli and Kíli aren't so much significant, there are dozens of interweaving strings that make the thick cloth of their textual depth. Tolkien wasn't lazy when he wrote their deaths, as they are complex things that connect to myths and cultural texts all over the northern region of Europe, even reaching back into Indo-European tropes. But, he was careful enough not to overshadow the place that he set for himself and Bilbo when he started the text. The Hobbit is a story about a Baggins having an adventure, and being changed from it. What happens along the way is something that's part of a much greater culture and scheme, one that comes to life the more the reader becomes acquainted with the medieval texts that Tolkien held so dear.

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Works Cited:

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit, Or, There and Back Again. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966. Print.

Hello all! I want to welcome all of my new followers, and say that I appreciate all of you and your comments, questions, and counter-arguments. Now that I've gotten my vision issue fixed, I'm prepared to start writing again. Though I'm still caught up on what to write about! Elves? Dwarves? Hobbits? It's up to you, so don't be shy to visit my askbox.

Also sorry to bug you but did you ever write a bagginshield fic abt Bilbo having a split personality called Bo? Or have you read it and what is it called? :) thx

I'm sorry, but I do not write nor read Bagginshield fanfiction. I would also like to clarify that while I welcome all asks, comments, and submissions, this blog is aimed at discussion of meta, textual canon, film canon, and the expressions of headcanon. There will be no fanfiction recommendations posted here. I am open to fanfiction being discussed because it is valid canon altering/filtering/what-have-you, but this is only possible if context and quotations from source fanfictions are provided. Thank you for coming by!

Wait... do you do writing prompts? 0.o

I'm not sure what you mean. Do I give writing prompts for people? No, not necessarily--users to respond to what I've written, but I don't post questions by themselves.

Do I take prompts from users to then write essays on them? Most definitely. Half of my blog is me writing on what people want discussed. So please, send in all your prompts and inquiries! Otherwise this blog would be slow to update.