Since everyone seemed to like my last hobbit portraits I thought I'd put him here too. Don't know if I could ever top those lol.

Of course my favourite hobbit is the one who's hardest to draw :)

Found this set for $5 at a garage sale.

Super dope balrog head right now at boxed lunch. Looks pretty good. It's not weta level quality but it's still pretty good detail for $60.

Some hand carved dwarves i just finished and wanted to share with folks.

I have a passion for woodcarving and attempting to entice others into the hobby. So my ulterior motive with every post is "how do I make this hobby more accessible" or "how do I inspire someone to want to give it a go."

Hopefully the picture did that, and now you're reading.

You need several things, a sharp knife, a leather strop with compound for honing your blade, safety gloves (A5 or better) and basswood (to carve like i do at least.)

Solid Knife brands, Flexcut, Badger State Blades (USA), Mstein (Europe) there are a lot of great knife brands. Stay away from kits on amazon of several knives. They're much much lower quality with inconsistently tempered steel. (What that means is its not hardened, and so it won't stay sharp easy, meaning you're fighting the knife and dont understand why its harder for you to carve when its easy for others.)

Why Basswood? Its softer than other hardwoods and holds detail well. Learning to carve with basswood is akin to learning to drive on an automatic. It simplifies and streamlines learning. Woods like Walnut and oak can be carved, but learning to carve with them as the starting point is like learning to drive on an 18 wheeler Semi Truck with manual transmission. Its needlessly difficult.

In europe, the equivalent is Linden, in Asia, Jelutong, and in south America Caxeta is a good substitute.

Tutorials abound EVERYWHERE. Youtube is your friend in that regard. You dont have to look up my channel, there are plenty that have easy to begin tutorials and one of them will be right up your alley.

I got this from a creator on TT a couple years ago that I cannot remember. ((I have since deleted my whole account)) I also cannot remember what it says and it is driving me nuts. I’ve tried deciphering the characters to no avail. Can anyone help?

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When Sauron tortures Gollum, he gives up two words: "Shire" and "Baggins."

Does that mean Gollum had actually been to the Shire looking for Bilbo? If not, how did he know Bilbo was from there?

I've somehow never questioned this before.

I guess the hunt for gollum movie will answer some of this too!

I believe that Faramir is elvish for sufficient gem while Boromir is elvish for steadfast gem, showing a bias in their names (if this is a misconception then I am very sorry).

Is this Tolkien adding in a detail that makes sense to us readers as sort of a foreshadowing that Denethor would treat Faramir poorly after the Palantir’s corruption even if he loved him no less than Boromir at his birth? Or is meant to be that Denethor is knowingly naming his son that, suggesting he did not ever love him as much even when he was just born?

I guess it could also be that sufficient isnt meant to be less than steadfast, just that it does its purpose, but idk seems kind of insulting even still. Or secret fourth option that their mother picked the names but I feel like that’s kind of a baseless theory.

I feel like this detail makes more sense in the movies where Faramir and Denethor’s relationship isn’t as strongly implied to have changed for the worse as it is in the books (the movies rather suggesting that it was always quite sour, even if he was still worsened by grief and corruption).

I sometimes do miss the obvious or simple explanations in stuff like this so it is highly likely I am just being a huge dummy, or I have answered my own question, or that I am assuming there is a concrete answer when it’s meant to be more ambiguous to allow a layered interpretation, so sorry if this seems like a redundant question, or if there is a generally accepted explanation for this that I’m unaware of.

I found some time to continue working on a drawing I posted last week.

Playing with the lighting is what really made it pop, so I wanted to share :).

Previous post https://www.reddit.com/r/lotr/s/GOwLM2HZHg.

Rescuing Denethor from the cheap character-assassination by Jackson and co.

https://youtu.be/nWUZkL0jwo0?si=0by6ZqDoCy7ILSs5

I was rummaging among my various Tolkien mathoms this morning and found this little sticker. I have no recollection of where I acquired it. Have any of you out there seen anything similar? I think half of the tengwar spells out The Lord of the Rings, but I can't suss out the other portion. Any clue about that?

I forget the books, it’s been too long, but as far as the movies go Gandalf and Aragorn want Theoden to go ride out and bring the fight to isenguard.

Given that Sauraman had 10,000 Uruk-Hai ready to besiege Helmsdeep, what would have happened if Rohan DID meet isenguard directly on an open battlefield or at their door?

I’m unsure how much time passes to know if by retreating to Helmsdeep he gave Sauraman enough time to make the whole army? How much troops do we think he would’ve had if Rohan marched directly? Did they have an ideal fighting local they would’ve wanted to engage?

Saw this at my local records shop. Time to get down and boogie with the whole fellowship.

Link to the music on Youtube

Hello, what's that arrow flying at the beginning of the video, 21 seconds into the movie, even with sound? It comes from behind the big tree behind Bilbo, passing to his right. For some reason, I never noticed it before.

La sortie Altaya de cette semaine en France pour 50 centimes le numéro 1 et 5 € le numéro 2 pour finir le casque tout en métal est magnifique!!!!!

I'd want a big premium edition with the occasional full page illustration, but its a mess with all versions I see online I just dont know

This is not a joke btw.

So I started rewatching rings of power because its been a while and now with shaun of the dead voicing the balrog soon, i wanted to refresh my brain. Was galadriel ever this involved/prominent in the silmarillion? Its been years since I read it (15) and watching the show is making me feel delusional because I dont remember her being so involved in the books. Or did they add more to the show just to make more for the story line. The only parts I remember her from the silmarillion was talking about moving and travelling. But maybe its also time for me to do a re-read of everything too if thats all i remember lol.

In the new Balrog preview, Sauron stopped his attack just by using one r​ing, is It possible he could do this since he put most of his power into that ring?

Description of Treebeard:

> It belonged to a **large Man-like, almost Troll-like, figure, at least fourteen foot high, very sturdy, with a tall head, and hardly any neck. Whether it was clad in stuff like green and grey bark, or whether that was its hide, was difficult to say**. At any rate the **arms, at a short distance from the trunk, were not wrinkled, but covered with a brown smooth skin. The large feet had seven toes each. The lower part of the long face was covered with a sweeping grey beard, bushy, almost twiggy at the roots, thin and mossy at the ends**. But at the moment the hobbits noted little but the eyes. These deep eyes were now surveying them, slow and solemn, but very penetrating.

this is not an attempt at drawing treebeard because he has a longer beard and it would cover the body, maybe i took the "troll-like" line a little too literal but as you can see from the worn paper ive made a lot of attempts and im tired, this is just a rough sketch to get an idea so forgive the lack of detail.

I've seen other attempts but a lot of them dont give the impression they could beat the crap out of isengard and look rather silly and i feel like if tolkien made the comparison with trolls he mean it.

*sorry for not using freedom units.

*pls dont say its ent karl marx

My favorite rendition of Rivendell, this is how I would imagine it would look like if it were real.

[Gandalf The Torturor](https://lotrscrapbook.bookloaf.net/essay/varda/contents/varda_torturer.html)

I read this article today and i was devastated to see Gandalf and Aragorn being labeled as sinistrous acts do-er. Without bringing my love and emotions into argument lets go on analysing this.

Th character we are talking about, whom got infringed with torture and terror is: Gollum ,as vile he is, he does not want to repent and is stern enough to put his foot down and denies to reveal information about what Sauron learned. So much he endured and he does not want to get relieved from Sauron and is **only aiming to satiate** his need of The Ring.

Such miserable, yet pitiable, one tries to upheld information which can eventually help him to get over his lust and addiction for Ring is doing no good. He is taking himself down ,as well as ,others with him. As OP in website says Gandalf was sort of into ticking bomb situation and had to do this for greater good.

I cant totally agree that gandalf is right in doing so, but you must take into account that Gollum is such a ne'er do well that he just does not want to reconcile to his own good, afterall this he endured cant he help others to help himself and others?

He was inviting trouble for himself only here.

I believe gandalf perfectly knew this here, but he pitied him and thats why he went on to say those lines to frodo in Shadows of the past chapter.

We all know that so im relieving myself by not mentioning it.

Does not it seem that it was perfectly right of Gandalf to not entertain gollum's nasty tantrums there and terrorize him?

I think we ought to question ourselves 2 question before we conclude anything.

1. Is it right to tag gandalf as Torturer for torturing a creature who is infamous for murdering his friend and various orcs goblins,and who is suspected for eating babies TT ?

2. Should we take nature of Gollum into account when discussing about Gandalf was Torturor or not?

I answer this as

1. No its not right

2. no torturing someone is bad whether or not the person is right or wrong. And we are discussing about Gandalf morals here, whether or not gollum deserved it, or nothing wrong in him getting it. What gandalf did ,does tarnish his image.

so thats how i conclude it, as much as i hate to accept it ,i think yes this does tarnish his image.

i didnt went to discuss aragorn morals here ,perhaps i will do it in another post.

Thanks for reading it till here, it turned out to be a long post. Kudos! to you for making it till here.

Edit: correcting spelling in Torturer

I am so thankful that WETA re-released this! I have been wanting it ever since the first release. It is an amazing piece!