LOTR -DVD Info

[steveh11]

Yes, 'The Silmarillion'. There's also a bunch of other stuff that his son published after his death. My own view is that these are unnecessary, that the original trilogy + the Hobbit stand alone, but Tolkien was creating a whole mythology, and these later works were the publication of his 'backstory' and notes.
YMMV of course.

Steve.
What's this got to do with SEIV?

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by steveh11:
Steve.
What's this got to do with SEIV?

Not a thing. But this is a community. Our central point of commonality is SEIV, but we all have other interests.

Although there has been talk of a "fantasy mod" for SEIV, but that's out there a bit IMHO.

Geo

EDIT: Maybe I could make some sort of quest type scenario for SEIV. Call it "The Fellowship". Along the lines of my Voyager scenario, but for multiplayers. Where each player controls a single ship and you have to get across the galaxy or somesuch to win.

[ August 13, 2002, 19:37: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[Singollo]

Actually, I am of the opinion that LotR cannot be properly (read: entirely, accurately) appreciated without a solid knowledge of The Silmarillion and the other material. LotR is an amazing story in and of itself, one of the finest fantasy tales ever spun, without a doubt. But it is only the tip, the very tip, of the iceberg that is Tolkien's extended mythology, and like an iceberg, you cannot possibly imagine the grandeur and size and power of the whole if you've only seen the tip. Things like Aragorn's relationship with Arwen, the nature of Gandalf and Saruman, the true stature of the Elves, and the overall point of the story are revealed only by the larger context in which it is set.

Oh, and I agree that the movie is fabulous, a work of art. Too bad it should never, ever have been made in the first place.

[Growltigga]

Geo, take it from a man who knows, the movie is excellent and beinga complete tolkien nutter, I think it probably the best a mortal film director can do...

read the Hobbit, and then read LOTR and thene x-pand your mind with the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales...

and then read 'em and weep

[Trajan]

Gentlemen,

My wife has forbidden me to watch the LOTR unless she is out of the house, or away on travel. Having seent he movie 4 times in the theater, she is not interested in seeing it anymore.

I of course could watch it over and over and over and over ad infinitum.

Cheers!
Trajan

[Fyron]

The Silmarillion was mostly written long before LotR and The Hobbit.

[Singollo]

The Silmarillion was mostly written long before LotR and The Hobbit.

Actually, that's not technically true. The most basic forms of the legends found in The Silmarillion (and Unfinished Tales) existed before LotR, yes, but the final Versions of the stories were not created until after LotR (long after, in most cases). Those final Versions differed considerably from the pre-LotR Versions, too.

The pre-LotR Versions of the stories are available, in the History of Middle-earth series of academic/historical novels written by Christopher Tolkien. They make for very interesting reading, too. In fact, some of the more fleshed-out Versions of tales only exist in the HoME; Tolkien died before he finished the final detailed Version of the fall of Gondolin, for example, and Unfinished Tales only brings the story as far as Tuor's emergence from the Gates. A complete Version of the Fall is found in The Book of Lost Tales, Volume II (I think it's volume 2), and although it is much earlier and very different from what the final Version of the story would have been, it does offer some insights into where Tolkien was going with the story.