h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Wagner and Tolkien draw from the same deep (Freudian) well. If you know Wagner and Anglo-Saxon poetry and Norse Saga and Finnish Folktales you don't have to bother reading Tolkien. (of course, if you do all that, then, in fact, you are Tolkien. [oops. my secret is out.])

I don't think Bombadil is very important, he was left out of the movie because he doesn't add to the story. He's much like Old Man Willow, just scenery, really.

I am going to add him....didn't I already say that?

While Tom is an important character, he doesn't really add much to the story, and can be removed without causing any major upsets. This also prevents the movie being over four hours long, which is why he was removed (though I heard a rumour he is in the deleted scenes on DVD).

One other point where the book and movies differ: In the movie, Denethor attempts to burn Faramir along with himself, as he believes that bothhis sons are dead. In the book, Denethor only burns himself.

JRRT did originally intend to publish LOTR as a sequel to The Hobbit, but first wanted to get his legends in order, which he did about halfway through The Fellowship of the Ring. This became The Silmarillion, but when his publishers pointed out that no-one would buy this, he reluctantly returned to LOTR. This, two, was originally going to be published as a single novel, but the publisher judged it to be too long, and so it was split into three books.

Greydesk - in answer to your question of the first page of posts - yes, the original title of the second one >was< The Two Towers, written about twenty years before Osama bin Laden was even born.

"While Tom is an important character, he doesn't really add much to the story, and can be removed without causing any major upsets."

Yes. As long as one believes that "story" = "plot".

A number of characters could be removed without causing any major upsets. The Bombadil episode provides the Hobbits with weapons: when he is removed from the first movie, Aragorn is seen to be lugging Hobbit weapons around on the off chance that he might bump into a few, which is not a terribly satisfying solution. If Galadriel, for example, were left out of the movies perhaps Jackson could have found a similar explanation for the few gifts that she gives the fellowship, which are, after all, the only major things she adds to the "story".

This has to be one of the most entertaining PR blogs I've read.

Last first: Denethor has Faramir doused with oil and placed upon a heap of kindling. Granted he hadn't got as far as actually striking a match when Gandalf intervened, but I'd have thought that this counts as attempting to burn Faramir - it's certainly what Denethor said he was going to do.

I think this is a well-structured character and plot summary and I hope the exams are over soon so you can come back to it for the tweaking!

I do think that the entry could use a "so what's the book actually about" analysis. It's a brilliant story, and it's packed full of memorable characters, but there's more to it than that, which is why many people re-read it every year and why it consistently scores highly in any poll of Best Books Ever. I think it's a book about profound loss - every character experiences this; a book that shows us a variety of multi-textured cultures, like our own but not like; a book about the part we know we play in the destiny of society, and the part we don't ... sheesh I could waffle on for hours here, but I won't, because I'm sure greater minds than mine have reached more meaningful conclusions. Over to you ...

Who says Aragorn was lugging the weapons about? He might have found them on or near Amon Sûl, and besides, he KNEW he was going to meet the Hobbits. He was waiting for them.

Ok, at risk of suddenly being bombarded with what to do, I've finished my exams...

oh well done, how do you feel?

so... what to do... apart from bashing the one up there who said that Bombadill could be left out....

er... do Bombadill... and what about Shadowfax?

The Silmarillion is also in Peer Review at the moment, at F48874?thread=429980.

I know, I saw your article and thought it was

Don't know if Shadowfax, while being important to those of us who know the book well, would contribute to the article too much

Ì don't think it is worth putting Shadowfax into the entry. But it might be worth putting a section on the baddies: Ringwraiths, Balrogs and Orcs. We don't want them indiviually named (Shagrat, Gorbag etc), but there should be some mention that Sauron has this enormous army of evil creatures. It is morally OK for the good guys to kill orcs left, right and centre.

Ok, I'll add that to the list of things to be done

Perhaps a small introduction to the people of Middle-Earth?

Wow, that's freaky, I'm actually writing that right now....I started it about ten minutes ago....

Great minds think alike.

Yeah, I'm making all the changes now...so if I don't get too many posts it might be updated today!

Right I have just made loads of channges so go and check it out, my only problem is that i can't figure out how to put links into GuideML without getting told I need to 'quote the attribute value'

If you want to put a link to another h2g2 entry, you do it like this:

Guide to sausages

If you want to put a link to an external website, you do it like this:

Guide to sausages

Thank you I will do that forthwith