I have a Lord of the Ring poll for you all

[Restola]

im wondering just how many people saw the movie but never read the book, or read the book and havent seen the movie.

thanks

[zvanut]

other, none of the above

[irbodden]

Never read the book, watched the movie, and LOVED it. I am planning on reading the Hobbit, and than the LOTR triology sometime soon.

[edweird]

Firstly there are far more than 3 books of the most well known are of course the hobbit and the similliton among countless others. I havent seen the movie yet and I am dying to as are my friends. it is not due here in korea until mid febuary. We have gone as far as attempting to download cam versions off the internet but all so far are hoaxes. Do you realize how long it takes to download 290,000 K when you are connected at 33.6 and are half way accros the freeking globe??? Argh. I hate Korea!

[Restola]

The Hobbit
The Lord of the Rings (6 Books)
often split into three:
-Fellowship of the Ring
-The Two Towers
-The Return of the King
The Silmarillion
Unfinished Tales

Other books edited by Christoper Tolkien:
The Book of Lost Tales, Part One
The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two
The Lays of Beleriand
The Shaping of Middle-earth
The Lost Road and Other Writings
The Return of the SHadow
The Treason of Isengard
The War of the Ring
Sauron Defeated
Morgoth's Ring
The War of the Jewels
The Peoples of Middle-earth
History of the Lord of the Rings

Maybe someday we'll have a movie of all of them.

[irbodden]

I had no clue that there was that many, mind explaining how they fit into each other? A fellow AO member told me it was,

The Hobbit
LOTR Triology.. and your done.

Are those all good books? Should I read those others before or after the ones listed above?

[Riot[Z-Grip]]

I have read the Hobbit and the Trilogy too many times to count. And the movie was great. The only thing that troubled me is that I thought Aragorn had gotten Narsil re-forged at Rivendell (According to the books), but in the movie, he leaves it there (or appears to)...?

-Riot

[Xzion]

Read all three a several years ago in school, reading them again once I finish my current novel, also saw the movie and loved it

[PowderdToastMan]

i actually fell asleep 20 min into the book and the movie

[Restola]

The only thing that troubled me is that I thought Aragorn had gotten Narsil re-forged at Rivendell (According to the books), but in the movie, he leaves it there (or appears to)...?

I thought his sword was reforged sometime around the return of the king... Im reading the book for the fourth time and am just about to get to the rivendell part. i could have sworn it didnt happen there though.

[MantisMag]

i thought the sword was named anduril. or is that something else? it's been a while since i last read the books.

ibrodden you're basically right. those are the original books. most of the other stuff is only coming out recently. they are all the background stories that pop up during the series. if you've read any of them then you realize that tolkien created an entire world with an expansive history and culture. all the other books were unpublished bits of that history that his son found.

if you either haven't read the books or haven't seen the movie then heres a little something to put the two in perspective. the movies follow the books fairly accurately. there are very few changes. but a LOT was cut out. think of the movies as highlights. the books are unedited. tolkien was very into details. a lot of those details may seem very boring. look at all those books. some of those books resulted from the need to create background information that would be be mentioned on a single page during the trilogy. another personal gripe i have with the movie is that it explains too much. in the books you're left in suspense as to what is going on and the nature of the ring for a large portion of the book. also gandalf's ... well i don't wanna give anything away for those that haven't seen it. the situation with gandalf isn't explained until they reach rivendell in the book. i hope that's sufficiently vague. sorry to anybody who thinks that's a spoiler.

other than that i really like the movie. it's very true to the book. all the changes were minor and i actually liked some of the things they did better in the movie. i feel that in the movie some of the character development was better than it was in the book. although how arwen came about i don't know. i didn't even remember her. i reread the first book and found out she only gets mentioned. yeah that chick standing next to aragorn is arwen. that's about all she gets in the first book. i think she does more in the other books but still not that much. i'm curious to see what they do with her in the other two movies. i also like the way they added a few minor touches so that people who read the books would know that they didn't forget about the things that didn't make it into the movie. oh and yes it does end abruptly but that's because it's not meant to be a standalone movie. it's kinda like empire strikes back. the end of empire strikes back was bad. they left all the main characters in a bad situation but they promised that they would fix it in the next movie. that's the way the book ended. and if this one pisses you off the next one is gonna kill you haha. the people who read the books know what i'm talking about. the end of the two towers leaves you hanging so much more than this one.

ok that's enough for one post. i just got back from seeing it so i could talk about it for hours. i better stop now.

[tsc]

Where's the option for reading all of the book and not seeing the movie? Are you discriminating against those of us who actually take time to *read* the dang thing?

[Restola]

sorry i am stupid

[edweird]

**quote** irbodden
I had no clue that there was that many, mind explaining how they fit into each other? A fellow AO member told me it was,

The Hobbit
LOTR Triology.. and your done.

Are those all good books? Should I read those others before or after the ones listed above? **end quote**

most of the other books are filler story on the other cultures of middle earth and its history. I forget how many languages Tolkein singlehandedly created, but it is alot like the Trekkies who learn klingon and romulan. For instance the elvish languange seen on the "one ring" was once borrowed by the military for secure communications. ~or so ive heard~ Much like the Navajo language. You can also find more of then mildly annoying folk songs strewn throught the rest of the books. I know of a group of "Filkers" (sci-fi folksingers *beware*) who admire these books in an truly unholy way.

[PyRo]

Saw the movie and walked out half way through because it was horrible.