reading my bucket list 🧙🏻♀️ a new favourite book
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- čas přidán 6. 09. 2024
- what a wonderful experience (also SPOILERS, so many SPOILERS)
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Not men getting mad in the comments that you said that Sam and Frodo love each other?! Literally one of the BEST things about Tolkien and LOTR for me is how openly affectionate and loving the male friendships are in this book. It’s so beautiful and actually such a great representation of healthy masculinity and I looooove it. Like truly, no one loves Frodo like Sam loves Frodo 🥲🥲
I tell my male friends I love them........... 'cause its the truth........
I think most people assume when you say people love each other, that it is meant in a romantic way
I think the Scouring of the Shire is important because 1) it shows how nothing on earth is safe from destruction. Evil knows no bounds. The hobbits thought they were safe from the goings- on in the world, but even their home was tainted by the shadow they chose to ignore. The future hobbits will be wiser and much more grateful for what they have.
2) It is a chance for Merry & Pippin, who are now both knights, to use what they have learned in reclaiming their homeland. They have seen war, and they use their knowledge and experience to help their people. Frodo acts once more as the voice of mercy, insisting that no one be killed. He has changed forever, but he is still compassionate and merciful, even after seeing so much evil.
I came here to say this. The whole book talks about many of the aspects of war, and one of them is thinking that because "war is somewhere else is not going to affect my home land", and that's a big mistake. If you let darkness expand it will catch you. Merry and Pippin story lines are my favourite because they truely become fighters during their journeys, and coming back to the Shire to save it, is an extra layer to their growing and a chance to embrace who they are now.
Frodo's endless patience with Gollum showed itself at the end. Without Gollum, perhaps the Ring may not have made it to its destination. Somehow, Frodo knew that Gollum was essential to the journey. And in the end we understand why. So beautiful.
Its actually Bilbo not taking Gollums life that did it. A small act of kindness that ultimately destroyed the greatest evil.
@@nileshupadhyay13 Came here to say the same thing. Bilbo is the original hero for taking pity on Gollum and sparing his life. Frodo did this too, but in The Hobbit, there is a very significant moment where Bilbo makes the conscious decision to let him live.
I really feel like the Scouring of the Shire hits home for veterans/soldiers/ victims of war (Important to remember Tolkein was a soldier in the first WWI) The realities of the world and even home being changed/never the same again after war or a journey that changes you etc.
Also. The Aragorn bit was HILARIOUS
Yesss! It just makes it so much more realistic, less fantasy-like. Tolkien is not trying to give us comfort because he knows how wars go. We fell in love with the Shire in the Fellowship of the Ring and it makes it a thousond times more difficult when we reach the Scouring chapter. We needed to have a real loss like that in the book.
I think this is also an explicit critique of modern industrialization (of which modern warfare is a part), a theme that runs throughout the book.
theres a video of sam's actor talking about frodo and sam's relationship and he just talks about how their love could mean so many different things and he just really acknowledges the fact that we dont know frodo and sam's relationship beyond sam and frodo's undefined love each other. and i just think its a really beautiful thing to acknowledge that kind of unknown ☺️☺️
Hmm sorry but I dont think when Tolkien wrote this story had something else in mind than a friendship's kind of love, or brotherly.
He was catholic, and no woke thing or something similar is there...
Girl please please read The Silmarillion 😭😭😭😭🙏🏻🙏🏻 it is very clear that you are interested in the whole lore of tolkien and The Silmarillion explains it all, like it starts in the creation of the world. It is absolutely gorgeous, one of my absolute favorite books ❤
"The Scouring of the Shire" is my favorite part of the entire book. My favorite part of that chapter is when they show up at the gate, and the guards try to keep them out. It reminded me of stories of veterans returning from the Second World War who went to college on the GI Bill. The bureaucrats in the colleges tried to impose the petty rules they had always enforced on student, but the vets were not having any part of it. The had been through a war, and were not going to put up with curfews and other nonsense. And they didn't put up with it. Likewise, when Merry and Pippin are told they can't come in, they say, in effect, "Oh, yeah?", and climb over the gate.
I feel like Sauron/Mairon embodies "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions". He desired everything to be perfect, and he thought dominating the will of others was to their benefit. He ended up allying with Melkor/Morgoth in pursuit of perfecting Middle-Earth. He is a Maiar, which is sort of a lesser angel maybe? Eru would be God, Valar are Archangels, and Maiar are Angels. So he was already quite powerful before he became the Dark Lord.
Also, I think someone else mentioned it, but Orcs were created by Sauron. He (and Melkor) kidnapped Elves as they were first awakening, and tortured them into Orcs. Others that allied with Sauron was probably due to a mix of false promises and fear. The Harad had previously been dominated by Numenoreans, so they had no love for Gondor.
I was trying to write what you wrote but couldn't find the works, I think some of his lore is in the appendices, not sure though.
Happy birthday, Emma!! And girl, not Careless whisper when Aragorn walks in 😂 (I completely understand and I wholeheartedly agree)
The scene with Aragorn has me HOWLING - same honestly. I'm also reading Return of the King and I started the trilogy because of your first video about it :) funny enough, I liked the split in two towers haha but I prefer the way the film was split back and forth
Hi Emma! I’m a big fan of your channel and wanted to try and give an answer the best I can regarding your questions (im quite young and still learning so I’ll try me best!) I think the reason why Sauron and his creations are completely evil can mainly be drawn back to Tolkien’s worldview. Tolkien himself was a Catholic. As a Christian myself, both Christianity/Catholicism accept that there are purely good and evil forces such as God and Satan and angels and devils. What speaks to me about LOTR is that its themes are about men fighting this pure evil with good by their side. Also, I do realize that LOTR is not an allegory, but one cannot separate the author from his or her worldview. Tolkien quotes, “The Lord of the Rings' is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision.” This would also explain why men and creatures follow Sauron because Tolkien would have believed that men in real life would be swayed and tempted by Satan. My main point is that Tolkien would have believed in purely evil forces, so Sauron being just that makes sense in regards to his worldview.
I hope that this helps and thank you for inspiring me to think about pursuing English!
The Silmarillion focuses on the first age while the appendices are about the second and third age.
Also Scouring of the Shire is an incredibly important chapter for many reasons, some already mentioned in comments, one of them being to show how much the four characters grew during their quest. They were not the same hobbits that set out for an adventure at the beginning of the books. They would not be able to free the Shire otherwise. Even Saruman acknowledged that. Also the population of hobbits in Shire needed this lesson, they grew too comfortable (and therefore weak) for their own good. Also it was satisfying to watch how Shire rised from ashes, more beautiful & glorious than before. I hope that over the years you will also "grow" to appreciate this chapter more 😉
Ahh man, I really love the scouring of the shire (even though it is totally jarring and heartbreaking) but I think it’s essential to the story. The whole point is that the evil and the darkness spread so far as to even touch the shire and now all four hobbits returning to their home are all now uniquely prepared and equipped, because of their experiences, to set it back to rights. If none of them had gone, the shire would never have been saved at all! Even though it’s much nicer in the films to have the shire untouched by war, I think it loses the reality and gravity that Tolkien intended of how war truly ravages and how we have to rebuild. They do have to fix things and repair, but “still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
The eye in the tower is just Peter Jackson's visualization of Sauron's ability to perceive things within and outside Mordor. The 'Eye of Sauron' isn't an actual eye. It's just his ability to perceive. Sauron is, essentially, a fallen angelic-type being who wants mastery over the world and everything in it because he wants power-- power in his own image. As for why various people follow him, well, why do people willingly follow dictators now? Some people think doing so will give them power, and others in those countries don't have a choice but to follow the tyrant.
Exactly
Also, a note about the relationship between Sam and Frodo. What they have is definitely not romantic love - Tolkien was a devout Catholic and nothing like that would have ever made it into his work. I think a much better and more accurate understanding of that relationship is that it is a bond of fealty, a form of love that seems more or less completely forgotten and unknown to most modern people. Fealty is more than just loyalty; it is a deep, deep dedication and commitment to service and attachment that elevates it above friendship. Just like friendship, brotherhood, and romantic love, fealty is a two-way phenomenon of reciprocal commitment and connection. The old Anglo-Saxon poem The Wanderer, one of Tolkien's favorites and the work from which he took the name "Middle-earth", is a beautiful and stirring example of what fealty and the loss of it can mean for a person. Frodo and Sam absolutely do love each other with a love that is real and true and untouchable, but it's just not the same thing as romantic love even though it may have the same magnitude. There are some people who have earnestly tried to argue in favor of Frodo and Sam's relationship being "queer-coded," but based on Tolkien's own worldviews and the evidence and historical context of his work, I don't think there's any basis for that interpretation.
I've read that the relationship between Frodo and Sam is an idealized version of one between a British officer in WWI and the soldier assigned as his personal servant, called a "batman". Tolkien experienced this during the war.
You must read the appendices! It mostly deals with what happens with the fellowship, Sam, Merry, and Pippin’s children, Aragorn and Arwen’s future, and so much more! It features a couple things that would be further explained in the Silmarillion or would be in the Silmarillion, but the appendices are still very important! Also, all the answers to your questions will be in the Silmarillion. I initially felt the same way with Scouring of the Shire, but Tolkien wrote that to depict what it felt like for soldiers, veterans, to come home, knowing it first-hand as he was veteran himself. A lot of themes from LOTR deal with the horrors and wounds of war, therefore, Scouring of the Shire had to be part of it. Although I think it would be ok with or without it, I think Tolkien included it as an extra detail to show how home would never be the same for those who return from wars. How it is changed, different in some ways, and may be unfamiliar to some degree. So, it was the same for the Hobbits, the home they left was not the same as the home they come back to, as how they were not the same hobbits who left the Shire. As much as it is sad, that chapter was needed and I’m glad Tolkien added it in. Another huge theme in LOTR is the concept of home and belonging. The hobbits who have always been at home, never beyond the borders of the Shire, innocent of the outside world, now go away into the unknown with a quest that would change their lives. Understanding the value of home is impossible if you just “stay” at where your home is. It is grasped by going away from it and coming back. You will only know the value of home WHEN you’re away from it. Tolkien understood this concept when he was away in the war and how much home had meant for him in his time there. LOTR, to some degree, was the love letter of Tolkien to his experiences in the battlefield and how wars are not to be taken lightly. It’s not the gist of it, but it is an important ingredient as to why LOTR is spectacular. ❤
"Sauroman has gone to the shire and hes crashing the housing market" 🤣
You need to read the Silmarillion! It’s basically the bible of Middle Earth and will explain Sauron and his downfall a bit better. There’s so much information in that book and it’s super interesting and complex but it’s an amazing read.
The entirety of LOTR has such value when you experience it repeatedly over time, just in terms of what joy or pain you're able to identify with going through it.... Glad you made it all the way through!
These LOTR vlogs are my everything ❤ so amazing to have gone on this journey with the book club and to hear all your thoughts, it really felt like reading it again for the first time. Nothing will ever hit as much as the end of ROTK does :((
HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA💜💜 You are my forever favourite youtuber and I relate to you in so many ways. As a avid reader living in Ontario heading off to University next year to pursue my love for literature, you never fail to inspire me and make my passions feel valuable. I see myself in you in so many ways and always appreciate how open you are, you’re such a role model, inspiration and shining light
rewinding aragorn opening the doors at helms deep is so real
There's a bit in the tower of Cirith Ungol where we get the Orcs' perspective on why they fight - basically, while they hate and fear Sauron, they hate and feat the good guys more.
There's actually a pretty detailed philosophy/theology of evil behind LOTR, if you want details I can recommend Jess of the Shire's youtube videos on the topic
I loved the Treebeard chapter, you really feel their history and age more than you do in the books
Happy birthday Emma!! 🎉 So thrilled you loved LotR this much... excited to maybe see your Tolkien collection grow in the future because I just LOVE hearing people with an eye for theme and a respect for Tolkien's ideas talk about him 😊 I feel like he's kind of the ultimate 20th-century Romantic and I absolutely adore him for it
(Also a note on Sauron - yeah he does have backstory about how he was corrupted, some of it's in the Silmarillion and some of it's elsewhere - Tim Hickson from Hello Future Me has some good videos talking about this stuff as well - but personally my take is that in LotR specifically, Tolkien wanted a clear-cut, supremely evil villain because having that makes it easier to write a story that deals abstractly with the nature of evil itself instead of only focusing on character's motivations in a supposedly realistic way. His conclusion about what evil is/how it works has a lot to do with why Sauron's able to control the orcs and the Nazgul unilaterally while the Free Peoples can only defeat him through collaboration and friendship. The motivation stuff is also in LotR of course, but not so much in Sauron himself. Anyways I have lots of opinions on this lol but explaining them all would take longer than is probably reasonable)
Dammit I have so many thoughts about so many of your reactions just I feel like there's kinda too much for one comment 😭 anyway I'm going to non-intrusively put some of them down here just because
1. The Theoden-Denethor foil situation is maybe my favourite part of the whole book!
2. The Scouring of the Shire hurts a lot but I think it's such an important window into Tolkien's worldview/philosophy/historical outlook, both relating to industrialization and his sense of loss/decline (if you know anything about his work on Beowulf you know he thought a lot professionally about elegy in literature)
3. Embarrassingly I haven't read the Appendices all the way through myself, but having read the Silmarillion, the Unfinished Tales, and bits and pieces of other things, yeah there's a lot of repetition in the lore but also stories get told in different ways/with multiple versions of events/etc. so I don't think the Appendices are entirely compulsory, but they're still an important work with their own special value independent of Tolkien's other writings, and they do also have lots of stuff not found anywhere else (in fact if you mostly want answers to questions you had while reading LotR, then the Appendices are your best bet because the Silmarillion and other works have their own separate narratives/priorities/etc. that often don't have much to do with LotR).
Ok phew that's more or less everything important
ALSO also, I have to shout out the passage in RotK that describes the charge of the Rohirrim at the Battle of Pelennor Fields. I think it's my favorite piece of writing in the whole story - it's just breathtaking. It's also my favorite scene in the movies. I even found a video on CZcams that put an audio recording of Tolkien himself reading that passage aloud over that scene from the Peter Jackson movie. Heart-pounding and goosebumps every single time, both in book and film haha!
Happy birthday Emma! ❤ just finished watching your bucket list books video from 3 years ago so this video title threw me off for a second! Thank you for reminding me about the magic of books with every upload
Happy birthday, young lady! :-) Lord of the Rings is one of the greatest English epics of all time! As regards Sauron, in the The Silmarillion it explains he seeks order and the power to order things according to his own mind. And the eyeball thing is purely for the movies. In the books Sauron has a physical form, he just doesn't leave Mordor. And orcs were created by the original Dark Lord to serve him. When you finish Return of the King, read the appendices, and then maybe try The Silmarillion. More of a history of Middle Earth with lots of background info.
Sam and Frodos love for each other is like everything 🥺🩶
Happy birthday, Emma! Talking about friendship, I think Gus and Call from Lonesome Dove are also lifetime friends supporting and caring each other under any circumstance. Lonesome Dove is also an adventurous journey story. It's so good and beautifully written.
I finally finished the lotr and kept this vlog for when im done. I loved it sooo much! And just like you the parts with the ents have won my heart!!!
Also think the scouring of hobbington in the end was so important for merry and pippin especially (am curious though hoe much taller they are now)
I love the Fangorn part so much I literally cried. This is where I am now in the book.
"Very fair she was still in my eyes, when I had last seen her, though little like the Entmaiden of old. For the Entwives were bent and browned by their labour; their hair parched by the sun to the hue of ripe corn and their cheeks like red apples. Yet their eyes were still the eyes of our own people."
"'Lie down to sleep!' said Treebeard. 'Why of course you do! Hm, hoom: I was forgetting: singing that song put me in mind of old times; almost thought that I was talking to young Entings, I did."
"Yet there are no trees of all that race, the people of the Rose, that are so beautiful to me. And these trees grew and grew, till the shadow of each was like a green hall, and their red berries in the autumn were a burden, and a beauty and a wonder. (...) Then the Orcs came with axes and cut down my trees. I came and called them by their long names, but they did not quiver, they did not hear or answer: they lay dead."
Happy birthday Emma! I actually finished return of the king today, so I can watch this without getting spoiled :) I must confess I rewatched the Aragorn scenes a little too often as well lol - Hope you have a great birthday
hahaha relatable
Happy birthday Emma
You deserve all the 5 star reads this year ❤🎉❤
Great to see you enjoying this. LotR has been my favorite book ever since my mom read it to me when I was a kid.
I'm sure others have already said this, but Sauron is NOT supposed to just be a giant eye in a tower in the book. He still has a physical, humanoid form, even though he never actually appears in the story. As for his motivations - there is actually an essay by Tolkien that touches directly on this. In origin, Sauron wanted to order the world for the good of all beings, and sought to control people and things for that purpose. But over time, the control itself became the goal, until that was all he cared about, and his original purpose was forgotten.
Happy birthday, Emma! I hope you have a lovely day ❤ thank u so much for being such a comforting and cozy company. Wishing you all the best
I know that your point about Samwise and Frodo was that you didn't mean they were romantically in love. But, that reminded me a really cool interview that Ian McKellen did around the time that the films came out. When McKellen and Peter Jackson were discussing the project before filming, Jackson said 'there's the old rumors about Samwise and Frodo, but we're going to steer clear of that' and Sir Ian McKellen pointed out that the gay subtext was an important part of gay culture in the middle 20th century. In a time when homosexuality was still an imprisonable offense, or in some places could get you dragged out back and beaten, a gay person could bring up those issues on the pretext of discussing popular literature through these books, and it allowed the person to feel out the general views of the other participants so that a gay person could safely learn who could be an ally and who wasn't safe to come out to.
happy birthday emma! youve been life altering!! love you💜💕I wish nothing less than peace and happiness for you
maybe I'm just pathetically emotional but seeing the booktuber who, to me, emanates all the calming and love-filled vibes of lotr (which is one of my favourite books) and makes me feel safe reading that same book and loving it, well just makes me so happy.
P.S. you should really read The Silmarillion as it is a mythological recounting of the creation of Middle Earth (like the Edda if you will) and many questions get answered there ❤
I *loved* the ending of The Return of the King. When I got to the last like ("Well, I'm back.") It made me just want to curl up and cry-- in a good way. Lowkey mad that it didn't make it into the movie.
huh? That's the last line of the movie, too.
happy birthday emma! I adore hearing you talk about LOTR it's my absolute favourite thing, usually watch the movies yearly lol
This is one of your best videos. I love seeing how you are overwhelmed by Tolkien's story. In a way it encapsulates why this book is so good. Because it maybe fantasy, but its written with the heart, and it captures the battle that resides in all of us, the decision between action and indolence. And not sugar coating the choices we make, not concluding with a typical ending to our decision to act, but how, in truth, things do turn out. Nothing stays the same, even if we try to do all we can to keep it that way. Tolkien knew that, knew that no true tale could end any other way. I read this book for the first time in 1978, and every inch of it still remains.
I wouldn't skip the appendices. They cover a LITTLE of the same territory as the Silmarillion but only a little and not nearly in the depth. Those books are a life-changing read certainly. Several generations have found them so now. Thanks for posting Emma you're quite a sweetie.
Reading the Silmarillion before heading to LOTR helped me to understand a lot of the history and culture and origins :)
Happy Birthday Emma! I've never read the LOTR series but these vlogs are definitely encouraging me to.
I finally finished the entire trilogy a few days ago so this came at the perfect timing! Hoping to watch the movies soon but it was definitely a journey. The writing felt meandering to me at times and the lore is so much that it’s confusing sometimes but the moments between frodo and sam were my favorites, I’ve come to love them the most :) it’s not my favorite thing ever (cue gasp) BUT reading a trilogy all at once builds a bond like no other..plus your love for the trilogy is so bright that I couldn’t not finish it 🥹
The book, especially "The Scouring of the Shire", has to be read in light of Tolkien's experiences in the world wars, especially the first one, in which he served in the trenches.
Happiest birthday, dear Emma! Thank you for existing ⭐❣
I think Tolkien gives a few glimpses into _why_ Sauron's armies work for him: lies and propaganda (just like in reality, which Tolkien would know all about as a WW1 veteran).
One place is when Sam encounters the fallen Southron soldier: "It was Sam's view of a battle of Men against Men, and he did not like it much. He was glad that he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man's name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart or what lies or threats had led him on the long March from his home; and if he would not really rather have stayed there in peace"
Another place I'm thinking of is when he describes the orcs talking and fighting amongst themselves in the Tower of Cirith Ungol, showing the dull bureaucracy of war. I don't have a specific quote to hand, but it's clear most of the orcs are just doing what they're told because they buy Sauron's story about wanting to bring order to Middle Earth.
It's all eerily similar to how Putin gets his soldiers to fight in Ukraine. They aren't evil for the most part either, and yet someone they are fighting for the evil side. They think they are fighting the Nazis, just like their grandfathers.
I love Treebeard! I literally cried when they said goodbye to him. Also Happy Birthday Emma, I hope it's a great one!
Hi Emma! I hope your birthday has been wonderful, full of things that make you smile. You've been making me smile and think, read and hope for brighter days, for four and a half years. I'm so grateful for you and your artful, thoughtful videos. Give your pets a gentle squeeze from all of us out here. 😊
So glad to see you enjoyed them. The part where the ring fell into Mount Doom in ROTK was so powerful for me I had to put the book down for 30 minutes to breathe again.
Happy Birthday, Emma!! 🎂
HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA!
The Scouring of the Shire is about what was being done to his beloved Oxfordshire during Tolkien's lifetime. You should visit one day, there are still traces of what the Shire would have looked like. You can even laze on the banks of the Withywindle on a hot summer's day. 😊
Ah, Aragorn. That scene was dreamy. Such a fun vlog and happy birthday!!
Happy birthday Emma! Wish you well and thank you for being you. So very grateful to have you on here. Hope you had a lovely day :)💕🎉✨
We studied the LOTR as the intro to my postmodern literature course, and our professor was looking at Sauron as kind of a representative of consumer capitalism, and the ending as sort of a despairing reflection on (arguably) the start of the Anthropocene in a sinister way (post atom bomb) in that humans are fundamentally and irreversibly able to change the planet now in a way we shouldn’t be able to
Very rambling sorry but thought I’d throw my two cents into the discussion :)
Happy birthday Emma!! Hope you're having a great day :)
I feel like a criminal for having yet to read the Lotr's trilogy. But thanks to you this might be the year Emma 😊
Context for LOTR: Tolkien fought in the trenches of WW1 so this is why we have an unseen/unknowable entity behind everything (who is evil). This accounts for the political leaders and generals who pulled the strings of the soldiers but weren’t present themselves for the fighting. Those who fight for Sauron “just because” account for those on the other side of the war who were conscripted and were fighting Tolkien and co “just because”. The representation of trauma/PTSD is what Tolkien witnessed in those around him during and after. Society really loved a straight “good vs evil” story at this time for justifications on why they were losing loved ones to the war etc etc etc
There’s so much more layers to LOTR and the decisions made by characters/Tolkien when knowing this tidbit. Even the love and camaraderie they have with each other is based on the bonds forged under duress during war. I wholeheartedly recommend looking up even a small amount of what he went through or would have seen in the trenches (if you don’t have much WW1 knowledge) because it makes LOTR that much richer and makes it even more incredible 🤍
This video is so much fun! I’ve been dying to reread the series and this is making me want to even more!
Yes! More Lord of the Rings! You can never have too much LotR. Listening to your LotR journey has been a joy, and I need to get back into that world again so I'm rewatching Fellowship tonight. Oh and happy birthday Emma! 🥳
I'm also reading LOTR for the first time, and I'm also on The Two Towers! I love them so much. It takes me so long to read though because I'm always just like HOW DO YOU WORD THINGS SO BEAUTIFULLY TOLKIEN (throughout) and then GOD I LOVE LOVE (when Sam and Frodo are being cute).
I wanna reread it soooo bad ❤ I love these books so much
This is such a beautiful reading vlog, thank you Emma!! ♥️ I so wanna read these books now
Definitely go ahead and read the Appendices - they enrich all that went before in LOTR, and will whet your appetite for the Silmarillion - every word is worth reading : )
I highly suggest "Nerd of the Rings" here on CZcams for lotr deep dives. They have a really effective way of presenting the vast information/world building/lore available in an easily digestible way.
Sauron is technically the same type of being as Gandalf and the other Istar. They are Maiar or lesser gods.
Sauron was the servant of Morgoth/Melkor or the Vala that created evil in Eä (the whole universe in lotr). Melkor could not control Arda (the world) or over power Iluvatar (god) and thus sought to reduce his (gods) creation and beings to a formless chaos instead.
When the other Valar finally conquer Melkor for the final time and cast him into the void outside of Eä, Sauron sees this as his opportunity to seize the power he would have never had access to with Melkor around.
That Careless Whisper song caught me off guard 😂
Happy Birthday Emma! Same week as Oscar’s first F1 win 🧡
I was so happy to see this vlog, LOTR is so special. I actually took a course during college that was Tolkien Mythology, which was learning about the religion and mythology of Middle Earth. We read The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, TLOTR, parts of Unfinish Tales of Numenor and Middle Earth, and some essays by Tolkien. I would not consider myself an expert but I can talk about a few things I got from the course. First, I would just do the Silmarillion and then parts of the Appendix. They were originally added to the end of the LOTR because Tolkien did not think that he would ever be able to have the Sil.. published, so I believe there will be a bit of overlap. Your question of the concept of evil stuck out because I also find "well they're evil' to be an unsatisfying answer. The OG baddy Morgoth (Sauron was Morgoth's lieutenant) was -- as I interpret it -- less outright evil and more unnatural and therefore against what we would consider good. Middle Earths religious beginning is literally 'music in harmony.' There is not light, and it is all the sound of the Ainur/ Valar being harmonized. Morgoth choses isolation and darkness and separates from the other gods. It's not evil to be evil, it's more 'goodness in this world is harmony, community, and nature' so evil is what destroys that or is the opposite (Gollum/ Smeagol is a good example of this concept) (also Uruk-hai are desecrations of elves, so the destruction of something to make it unnatural is 'evil'). I am on the same boat as you when it comes to the Shire -- I understand it as a concept that things must change to bring about this new age (our sadness over this change is an amazing creation of empathy through our love of a place because of the characters love of it)) but I also didn't really enjoy the chapter. I was actually very surprised when I cried at the end. I knew the ending having seen the movie many times, but actually the part of Gandolf with Mary and Pippin is what got me. Going back to the concept of good in this world being "fellowship' and community, Gandolf at the end says several times that his work on Middle Earth is finished and will not help with the shire etc. But he can't help himself. He has lived among the people of middle earth for so long and cared so much, that his literal last act among them was the simple, kind choice to go get Mary and Pippin so that Sam did not have to make the journey home alone, which makes me cry with joy over the concept that of all the great battles fought and enemies over come, Gandolf knew the importance of support and community and friendship was the last lesson he had to give when welcoming in this new age of man. I could RANT for days (my love of Theoden actually knows no bounds) but loved how much you enjoyed the books.
I first read the LOTR as a young teenager and, like you, didn’t care for the Scouring of the Shire and basically how Tolkien did that part. Even when I read it a second time as an older teenager I felt the same way. Since then I have reread it twice as an adult in my 30s and I can honestly say that I probably appreciate that part now more than any other aspect of the book. I think Tolkien was reacting to what his own experiences fighting in a war (WWI) had been, and then witnessing his son and many others fighting in yet another one (WWII) and what they experienced. The understanding that he shows that there are “walking wounded” who are physically fine but emotionally and mentally not okay after a war is I think one of the most beautiful things about the book. I also think Tolkien was reacting to how his own nation changed so much after the end of the war. So while I completely understand how you feel (I was very curious actually to see how you would react to the end), here’s to hoping that with future rereads maybe you’ll make your peace with it! 😊
Emma! Since you loved the books so much, you should definitely watch the extended versions of the movies. There are so many scenes from the books which were deleted in the theatrical release and added back in the extended cuts!
I loved you sharing your experience with reading The Lord of the Rings. I feel that so much! On Saturday I saw a dark gray Jeep Wrangler in front of a used bookstore that had the name TOLKIEN on both sides of the hood where it slightly curves. It made me smile and I took a photo of it. LOL. I love The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings so much. The old mass market set I have from the '70s has pride of place on my book shelf with newer special editions. ☺
"'Well, I'm back,' he said."
The weight of meaning and story-history behind that tiny sentence is just astonishing. Greatest story-ending words I've ever read.
Since today is your birthdayyyy HAPPY BIRTHDAYYYY!!!! Also I have been WAITING for this vlog I am sooo happy that it's here!!
Also in response to your questions, I HIGHLY recommend the channel Jess of the Shire, she does so many videos on Tolkien and LOTR, and she has definitely made videos about your questions!
Literally came here directly from Carolyn's NY bookstore vlog with Leon, where she talked about liking avocado on a bagel. Opening shot of Emma's video? Avocado bagel! 🤣♥️
Omg please read The Silmarillion!! It's all about the lore, worldbuilding, the histories and myths of Arda and Middle Earth! It recounts Sauron's backstory, as well as that of the elves and the first Dark Lord, Morgoth! So much drama! I read it earlier this year and absolutely loved it, one of my favourite books ever.
If you do decide to pick it up, just know The Silmarillion isn't a novel, it reads more like a history book/collection of stories, and I would suggest pairing it with an audiobook
Ps. Tolkien never settled on a clear origins story for the Orcs, but they were literally created by Morgoth (who was Sauron's master back then!!!), so they were made to follow dark forces I guess 🤷
anyway, The Silmarillion is excellent because it gives a lot of context that makes LOTR make more sense ahahha I'm itching to reread it now that I have all the information
Ah, I was just thinking of you! 😍 And really needed this! 🫶🏽
Newsflash! You can just love people ❤
Listening to you read some lines in English I must say it is much more beautiful, lyrical and epic than Italian. It is still very good in Italian too, but in English it is something else.
Please read the appendices, you'll find some of the answers to your questions, and especially read the story of Aragorn and Arwen, it is one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking love stories ever told.
Thanks for making me read the Lord of the rings again.
Motivation for Sauron is that he craves power and is prideful and arrogant. In modern fantasy books villains are usually "my feelings got hurt, therefore I turned evil" type of people, in Tolkiens world villains are much more archetypal. A lot of his lore is ispired by Christian imagery (Morgoth - Lucifer, Sauron - Satan). Also Tolkien wrote that dark creatures are naturally attracted to darkness & other dark creatures. Keep reading everything what Tolkien wrote, appendixes, Silmarillion & all the rest, and you get much better and in depth insight to not just Sauron but all other characters you meet along the way. Happy you loved the trilogy so much!
It's just great to see you loving these books so much! It's almost like I'm reading them for the first time a second time. If you take my meaning ^^
a little note on the ending, since you mention how you were expecting something else: I believe the whole idea Tolkien was trying to lay out there was how, when you've been through deeply traumatic experiences, you're no longer yourself. Your take on things, reactions, expectations....there's not much you react to. Frodo was feeling happiness, no doubt, but also many more things. And that didn't leave space enough in his heart to fully let the all that happiness show, because it would've been a murky happiness. That's why he left Middle-earth. Because there are certain things you can never come back from.
In this reread I was really taken with the descriptions of the land by the Black Gate after Frodo and Sam left the Dead Marshes - it really felt like something straight from Tolkien's WWI experiences. Also listening to the movie soundtracks while reading is top tier
*bumping the Lord of the Rings series to the top of my summer reads list*
happy birthday Emma!
happy birthday emma!
One thing that really made me tear up when reading The two towers, was at the end of the chapter ‘the stairs of cirith ungol’ when Frodo and Sam were sleeping and Sméagol found them, and it says if one of them saw him they would have thought him an “old weary hobbit, shrunken by the years that carried him beyond his time, friends and kin, and the fields and streams of youth, an old starved pitiable thing.” It made the way Sam treated him quite harsh. I do understand why he did, but it’s still sad to me :( he was so close to being fully free of Gollum and living the rest of his days free from the ring/sauron
I just discovered your two Lord of the Rings videos, and very much enjoyed watching them; I almost teared up myself as you discussed some of the most moving parts of the book. I have read the Lord of the Rings around 16 times, and I just finished re-reading it a few days ago, for the first time in about 25 years (I'm 50). I would definitely recommend reading the appendices (at least Appendix A and B), since they contain information not found elsewhere. The Silmarillion is absolutely wonderful, but just go into it knowing that it is a VERY different book than The Lord of the Rings. For me, the gateway to The Silmarillion was reading Unfinished Tales, which contains material pertaining to the Silmarillion, as well as much material related to The Lord of the Rings. One of the tales from that book, the Narn i Hin Hurin, was later published in a fuller form as The Children of Hurin, and I highly recommend that book; I think it contains some of Tolkien's finest writing (it was mostly written in the 1950's, shortly after he'd finished writing The Lord of the Rings, although he'd worked on earlier versions of the story as far back as 1918 or so). The writing style is somewhat in between that of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. Just be forewarned: it is a heartbreakingly tragic story. In addition to Tolkien's Middle-earth works, you may enjoy some of his short fiction not related to Middle-earth: I highly recommend Smith of Wootton Major, Leaf by Niggle, and Farmer Giles of Ham. The first two are relatively serious, but Farmer Giles is a light-hearted comedic tale, and highly entertaining. Smith of Wootton Major is a fairy tale and the last piece of fiction published in Tolkien's lifetime. Leaf by Niggle is a short allegory about a painter that Tolkien wrote in the 1940's (during the period he was writing The Lord of the Rings), and contains Tolkien's musings on life and the works of an artist.
the aragorn sax music caught me so of guard 😂😂😂
"Now Sauron's lust and pride increased, until he knew no bounds, and he determined to make himself master of all things in Middle-earth, and to destroy the Elves, and to compass if he might, the downfall of Númenor. He brooked no freedom nor any rivalry, and he named himself Lord of the Earth. A mask he still could wear so that if he wished he might deceive the eyes of Men, seeming to them wise and fair. But he ruled rather by force and fear, if they might avail; and those who perceived his shadow spreading over the world called him the Dark Lord and named him the Enemy; and he gathered under his government all the evil things of the days of Morgoth that remained on earth or beneath it; and the Orcs were at his command and multiplied like flies."
-The Silmarillion, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"
Yes but WHY.... Ultimately the answer is that he, along with his master Melkor, wanted to escape the service of Eru Iluvatar and live for himself. Much like humans in our own universe...
@@penultimateh766-the “why” is in the first sentence: his “lust and pride increased, until he knew no bounds“
And yes, VERY much like many humans today
@@penultimateh766 Melkor didn't do it because he wanted to escape the service of Eru, he didn't do it because he wanted to live for himself, he did it for pride, arrogance, will to power and to dominate and create life in his image. And that's exactly why Sauron did it too: pride, arrogance, and will to power. And this is very clear in the Silmarillion, in which it is also stated about Sauron that "was only less evil than his master in that for long he served another and not himself."
@@Augustus_Imperator Not sure how our answers are different. Living apart from Eru's service DEFINES arrogance.
Yahoo!!! I love you and Caryoln's love for the books
Emmie Extended versions are the only way to watch Emmie videos
Emma is making me want to read these books even though I'd given up on them ages ago
yes please read the appendix - it's part of the book!! 💝💝 There's a lot of stuff in there you need to know! (So you haven't actually finished it yet! 😉)
The first time I read Lord of the Rings was when I was 8, I've read it multiple times since then. Sam and Frodo definitely love each other.
I can answer a couple of your questions about some of the lore stuff, but right off the bat you should know that mostly everything you have questions about is explained or explored somewhere in The Silmarillion. THAT book isn't even a "book" in the way that LotR is, or in the way that novels are. The Silmarillion is essentially a sequential retelling of history in the form of an epic - "epic" not primarily in the modern colloquial sense (though it absolutely is), but "epic" in the way that the grand myths of human legend are structured, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh from ancient Sumer, the Journey to the West from ancient China, and the Illiad and Odyssey from ancient Greece. The Silmarillion tells the story of creation from before time began, before creation had been created by Eru Illuvatar, the God of Tolkien's legendarium, and goes through many ages of the world up until the end of the War of the Ring, the final destruction of Sauron, and the beginning of the Fourth Age of the World. If you thought the LotR trilogy was exceptional, The Silmarillion will knock you over by the sheer magnitude of its density, imagination, and connection to every aspect of the human condition.
Anyway, some brief summarized info from The Silmarillion about a couple of your questions!
Sauron's origins - As you know, Sauron is a Maiar, one of the "lesser gods" of creation and more akin to the angels of Christianity, as is Gandalf (or Olorin, his true name). Sauron had always desired order and deliberateness in creation as opposed to spontaneous creative chaos, and his desire was inflamed to obsession by his own master, Melkor, greatest and most powerful of all the Valar (higher gods) under the One, Eru Illuvatar. Melkor, much like Satan, became prideful and greedy, and his refusal of repentance is the source of all evil in Ea (the proper name for "reality" or the universe in Tolkien's writing). Sauron, corrupted by Melkor, became the dark god's chief lieutenant. Melkor was eventually defeated (as related by The Silmarillion; that's why he's not in LotR), but Sauron escaped and refused to repent. His evil is the evil of pride and hatred of life and light. He wishes to take control of all Middle-earth in order to destroy it and remake it in his own image, denying the truth and righteousness of creation that was the purpose of Eru Illuvatar. So, he's not really evil for evil's sake - he's an avatar of all that is prideful in this world that rejects the true Master of Creation. Thus, the efforts of Frodo and Sam to resist the One Ring (the vessel and locus through which Sauron wields power over mind and matter alike) are all the more utterly heroic in that what they are facing is essentially what can be described without exaggeration or hyperbole as the concentrated essence of the culmination of all the possible evil of all of creation, bound together in the form of the Ring.
The Orcs - As Saruman alluded to in The Two Towers (both movie and book if I remember), the Orcs are not a natural creation. Exemplars of one of Tolkien's overriding literary themes that evil cannot create anything truly new and can only destroy or corrupt that which others have made, the Orcs were originally part of the first generation of Elves. Melkor, many long ages before the Sun and Moon were made to grace the heavens, ensnared and captured many of the then-young and naive Elves that had just manifested in Arda (the name of the created world within Ea, like how planet Earth is a world within the universe). Melkor took these captives and tortured them over centuries, inflicting all his might and power over creation against them to twist and mutilate them into their own form of abominable life. From there, they multiplied. They are loyal to evil not because of some rational decision, but because they are fundamentally and irrevocably evil creatures that are not capable of any other way. Melkor's mutilation of the Elves into Orcs is considered by Eru and all the wise of the world of Arda to be by far the greatest and most vile of his many dark sins.
The Men who join Sauron - Unlike the Orcs, the Men who ally with Sauron do so voluntarily, either because of threats to their existence or because of lies and deceits sown among them by Sauron and his agents. In the Third Age, especially during the War of the Ring, the Haradrim people of the far desert south and the Easterling people of Rhun east beyond Mordor go to war under Sauron's banner because the dark lord had spent a couple thousand years manipulating their civilizations from the shadows in the time between the destruction of the isle of Numenor and the finding of the Ring by Bilbo Baggins. Harad and Rhun are their own separate societies and cultures, both of whom were on-and-off at war with each other and with Gondor during the Third Age after the defeat of Sauron and the death of Elendil father of Isildur. Sauron had spent almost the whole Third Age twisting the minds and culture of Harad and Rhun to serve his purposes, helped along by the fact that as mortals subject to death whether they want it or not, Men are more vulnerable to manipulation via fear of death than Elves or Dwarves (even though Dwarves are also not immortal like the Elves). Harad and Rhun ally with Sauron on the promise of expanding their territory and of settling their ancestral score with the remnant of Gondor, their old enemy. It must be said, however, that according to ancillary writings from Tolkien, there were those in both Harad and Rhun who never fully fell under the sway of Sauron, and that there was strength of will to resist true evil even in broken and corrupted environments like those two nations.
I'm not exaggerating when I say I'm not even scratching the surface of what The Silmarillion and other works like the Unfinished Tales have to offer. I myself still have so much of Tolkien's work that I haven't explored yet, and doing so properly is going to take years. But I highly recommend that you begin The Silmarillion next! Taken together with The Hobbit and LotR, it is in my opinion the greatest work of fiction that the English language has ever produced so far. Have fun exploring more of it; I know I will!
Also read the Silmarillion!!! It shows kind of the creation myth of middle earth and more about Sauron etc :)
Hi! This is written two weeks after m y first comment, below. I watched the rest of this stream, and have to tell you that it was SUCH an enjoyable, emotional experience! It was a great time to hear your impressions, and to be taken in to share your responses to some of the best, most beautiful writing anywhere!
The only, ONLY, time I felt bored reading LOTR was during the Black Marsh bit but it's very short in the grand scheme of things.
That said, I've been avoiding these vlogs because I CAN'T read this book again, I'm in a slump afterwards every time and I reread it only last year for my birthday.
I miss Faramir, my beloved man.
Watching someone read this for the first time is truly a joy though, lucky you😭