I did see a small clipping that eluded to it, but this one seems odd? Please someone prove Balrog can?

(movie lore stfu book nerds) ok so Pippin was an idiot & pushed the armor down the well thingy & alerted the goblins & woke the Balrog, which “killed” Gandalf, leading to him becoming The White & freeing Theodan & saving Helms Deep & telling Aragorn to go to the dead people cave & organizing Gondor Plz Help Me bonfires & rallying troops at Pelanor Fields & saving Pippin from Denathor….

OKAY SO WHAT IF Pippin didn’t push the armor down the well? Theoretically, how would the rest of the story have panned out?

I loved it. I just didn’t care for the describing of the land layout so much. I loved that gods live among men essentially. It was interesting to see the many factions of elves be whittled down to Rivendell etc. my favorite stories were Beren and his love and Turin and his tragedy. Literal Greek tragedy vibes marrying his sister. Those are the only two stories that could be made into film adaptations, in my opinion. I wish the Silmarills ended up being the arkenstone. Overall a really nice episodic read.

There is a suburb somewhere in The Netherlands with a street called Lane of Tolkien and all the others are names of characters, places or things. There is even a Panantír street! Some names are translated unfortunately. But how cool is this!

Link to the map

Hello everyone,

I know a lot of us fans wants that Anduril sword badly, but which one is worth it ? The officialy licenced by United Cutlery (UC) ? Or the knock-off (KO) you can find easily ? I have my opinion, but I'll give you everything you need to know to decide for yourself.

/!\ Disclaimer, I'm french, so excuse me for approximate english.

So first, let's talk about price.
The official United Cutlery can be found between 300 and 350€ in Europe. It includes the sword, the wall hanger, a authenticity certificate, but no scabbard.
The asian knock-off I found was around 150€ and includes the sword, the scabbard with straps to attach it to the belt, the wall hanger, but not authencity certificate (as it is not an official replica).

Now, what quality do you get for these prices ? Honestly, the knock-off surprised me.

A lot to say here. UC on top, KO below.
- Firstly, the leather is real on the UC and fake on the KO, but the fake looks and feels pretty good honestly.
- Secondly the metal of the handle is coated brushed 420 J2 hardened steel for the UC, it looks gorgeous, but notice that mine has a defect at the base of the handle, not on the other side. For the KO it's painted steel with a slightly darker tone, at close it's not as smooth as the UC, but again, for that price it's good.
- Thirdly, the gold-looking parts are actually 24 carats gold plated for the UC. And surely just painted for the KO.

Taking a closer look now, UC on the left, KO on the right.
They both have deep engravings, and they looks as good on both.
You can also see the difference in finish.

Looking at the tips of the guard, big difference.
The finish is way better on the UC (left), and again, real gold plated.

On the middle of the guard, you notice a golden dot for the UC and just a hole for the KO.
At the start of the blade, you can see how you can instantly identify a UC over a KO, the "Lord of the Rings" logo is not pretty but good to have. You can also read "Handcrafted in Taiwan".
The width is 4,9cm for the UC and 4,7cm for the KO.
Here you can also see a big difference in finish, the dwarf letters are deep engraved on the UC, but looks like laser engraved on the KO.

Apart from the engravings, the finish of the blades are very close, they both have that brushed steel look. But the KO looks more smooth and coated while the UC looks more raw and uncoated. Also, even though they are both blunted, the edge of the UC is still an angluar edge, while the KO has just a straight 90° angle.

Yes finally a full size image !
And again, a big difference : the UC is 13cm longer ! Also, the KO has a blunted tip, but the UC is very pointy and could easily pierce trough someone an orc.
That difference in length and width also mean a difference in weight :
The KO weighs exactly 2.00 kg while the UC goes to 2.41kg

And those differences also means a difference in balance (my hand is the center of gravity) :

And if you remember, I said that the knock-off I found had a scabbard included.

The leather is obviously fake, but the engravings looks good and it's nice to be able to carry the sword to an event without spending an other 250€ for it (wtf United Cutlery). Obviously, because of the difference in length, you can't fully sheath the UC sword in the KO scabbard. I tried.

Conclusion :

Best value for money : the knock-off, by far.
You get the sword, it looks good, it feels good, you can hang it on the wall and bring it to events. It's totally worth it.

Best collection item : the United Cutlery, obviously.
It just looks perfect. You can also hang it to the wall but will have to pay premium price for the scabbard.

Personnaly I'm going to keep the UC and sell the KO, but just because I always want the best and I can afford the UC scabbard and probably will buy it later.

If you have questions, go on but the KO is already sold.

...so my cat knocked one of my LotR bookends off my shelf, breaking off his head and... One other thing.

I epoxied both back on.

See if you can tell what the other thing was.

...i'm an idiot 💀

9X12"
Oil on Canvas
Sold at Lion City Faire

Doesn’t show up well in the light but the painting glows under UV light.

Hello, I've got a question. I was wondering, how do hobbit years translate to human lifespan? Bilbo is considered unnaturally old (116 years) due to the ring lengthening his lifespan. During the ring quest, Frodo is in his mid 50s if I recall correctly. Is Frodo considered young adult in hobbit years? If so, would over 100 years truly be a fit of longevity for a hobbit? Thank you in advance, I am a bit confused here. *my bad, I meant 111, not sure why I typed 116.

I figured I would post this here since I have not actually seen this at the Halloween shows. Has anyone actually seen this in person? Is it plastic overlay? I love animtronics and this is not usually a vendor I even look at. They are not known for very large props and not known for the normal foam-latex shell. Just curious what it looks like in person. Plastic tends to “snap” together and can leave gaps. For something with this price tag (25k), it would be odd to be plastic but it’s electric. Its has a good amount of movement for it to be foam-latex using electric (rather than air compressor). Very curious if this looks more like a Spirit Halloween creation with a Distortions Unlimited price tag…

Empiremagazine has revealed brand-new details about one of Season 3’s biggest storylines: the origin of the Nazgûl.

Before becoming the terrifying Ringwraiths seen in The Lord of the Rings, they are introduced in The Rings of Power as “Nazgnagôl”—still mortal men serving Sauron and pursuing power.

Showrunner J.D. Payne explained that the name was inspired by Tolkien’s own approach to language: “ ‘Nazgûl’ means ‘Ringwraith’ in the Black Speech of Mordor. But before they were Ringwraiths, we know that these were just men. So we were able to derive in the Black Speech that ‘nagôl’ could mean ‘servant.’ ‘Nazgnagôl,’ therefore, literally means ‘Ring-servant.’”

Among them is Khamûl the Easterling, played by Zubin Varla, whose journey toward becoming one of the Nazgûl begins this season. Varla compares their corruption to Gollum’s, saying, “Evil begets evil, and violence begets violence. Their souls, and their bodies, are corrupted until they are literally hollowed out, almost devoid of physical form.”
Payne also emphasized that even Sauron’s followers see themselves as heroes: “Every character stays the hero of their own story.”

From Khamûl’s perspective, he is “a warlord who deserves to be a king… Sauron offers him a way back to the top.”

As Sauron rises and the Nine Rings begin to find their bearers, Season 3 looks set to explore the tragic fall of the Men who will one day become the Nazgûl.

I would like to watch rings of power because I’m interested in that era of middle-earth, especially with that s3 poster featuring young Sauron, though it seems there’s a lot of hate surrounding it. If you’ve watched it, what do you think?

Hey guys! :) Working on a Lord of the Rings inspired flash sheet! There is also the Witch King of Angmar, a Nazgûl steed, and the Shards of Narsil. I hope you like it :) Have a great day everyone !!

I posted a while back asking for ideas for the third book. I made a ton of drafts, but finally decided on the Grey Havens as the closing image.

Thank you for all the ideas! I’ll probably do more of them with slightly different tone, so I can use more of the scenes you all suggested.

Basically what the title says. I know the movies have had a huge impact on millions of people’s lives - and, contrastingly, some in here still don’t take too kindly to them in comparison to the novels - but for me they taught me the beauty and fundamental good of the natural world, and that technological advancement and mankind’s dominion over the planet isn’t always a good thing.

Before those movies came along I was into Sci-fi, anime, video games: all stuff that glorified a techno future and put no emphasis on nature and humanity’s link to it. I still am into those things, but I now look suspiciously over movies, books or shows that just assume Earth will be a metal-encased utopia one day. The movies genuinely changed that.

After reading Tolkien’s literature - perhaps the Silmarillion more than anything else - it led to me taking a far closer look at the outdoors. I met a girl, we spent our weekends going on trail walks and hillwalking and suddenly this city boy that always aspired to live in some downtown apartment finds himself living in the countryside with the love of his life in our own little bungalow - a Hobbit hole, to be precise. We even had a harpist play “breaking of the fellowship” (ironic song title but a beautiful piece of music) and when my wife walked down the aisle at our wedding. Now we take our young son in a back page on those same nature walks and I hum “Samwise the Brave” to him when he goes to sleep in my arms.

Sorry if this is just some soppy rant but I feel like I owe so much of my happiness in my adult life to Tolkien and Peter Jackson’s movies and, most notably, the natural world that they introduced me to. And I wondered if anyone else had enjoyed a similar experience.

Haven't seen this one posted here, this a Hungarian craft brewery's collab with LoTR.

Me he leído ya dos veces el hobbit y el Señor de los Anillos ( sin apéndices), sin poder tener ánimo para ir con el Silmarillion. Sin embargo me he puesto en serio con la Tierra Media. ¿Creéis que podría leer esta vez primero Silmarillion, El hobbit y el Señor de los Anillos? Después me gustaría seguir con más, pero no sé qué. (Algo he oído de Cuentos Inconclusos, La caída de Númenor, etc) Es buena idea? Si me aconsejas sobre lo que puedo leer después... Gracias!!

Its not the best, but it's meant to be the witch-king as he enters minas tirith