And Tolkien hid too much of his backstory because he was a NERD who liked dropping references readers couldn't quite get, like historians and linguists reading references with no other known sources.

[–] steventhedev@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago

My favorite is from reading through a military analysis of the siege of Gondor, I learned that Tolkien included a reference to the Song of Roland

[–] papalonian@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oromë is one of the Valar, essentially demi-gods in Tolkien's universe. He's like the huntsmen God.

The battle of the Valar might refer to the Battle of Powers, in which the Valar fought against Melkor (another Valar, but evil and very powerful) and his army for basically trying to take over the world, or it could refer to the War of Wrath, which was fought between the Valar, men, elves, and dwarves against Melkor (now named Morgoth) over the Silmarills (very fancy powerful gems made by one of the elves) and, well, the taking-over-the-world thing again.

None of this is referenced in the original book(s), so as a reader you just think, "Theoden (King of Rohan, a major city of men) is a badass, he's getting compared to some made up God." But when you've got the context, it's one of those inexplicable hype feelings.

[–] LeFrog@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Thank you so much for the details. Very appreciated!

[–] papalonian@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

I will always provide LotR information where I can!

[–] piconaut@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago

Orbital - Silmarillion + On + On

[–] emeralddawn45@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 month ago

Get your Silmarilli-on