My favorite novel in the world is Lord of the Rings. I’ve read it at least 20 times, in three languages. To anyone who has seen the movie or read the book, the basic plot is pretty well known. However, with multiple readings I started to notice little cool details which either aren’t emphasized or are easy to overlook. Here’s my list of such things. (By the way, this is about the book, not the movie.)
The One Ring was the only Ring of Power without a gem. [*]
![[*]](https://greenwalledtower.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/hobbits.jpg)
![[*]](https://greenwalledtower.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/aragorn-gandalf.jpg)
– faggot (Book 2, Chapter 3: “a bundle of sticks”)
– niggard (Book 6, Chapter 6 : “a selfish person”)
– boner (Book 1, Chapter 12: a nonsensical word in a song, rhyming with ‘owner’)
– bastards (Book 4, Chapter 9: “illegitimate children, used in the context of Shelob’s offspring)
Rivendell, by Ted Nasmith
4. Sam actually has five siblings but only mentions one of them in the Lord of the Rings: his younger sister Marigold. He mentions her in the chapter “Mount Doom” as someone he would have liked to see again, after he realizes they don’t have enough food to get back home.
copyright John Howe [*]
5. The high elves are telepathic and can have conversations with each other without speaking out loud (Book 6, Chapter 6)
![[*]](https://greenwalledtower.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/galadriel.jpg)
6. Gandalf has a telepathic link with Shadowfax and can call him mentally whenever he wants.
![[*]](https://greenwalledtower.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/shadowfax.jpg)
7. Nine women have speaking roles in Lord of the Rings. They are very ethnically diverse, although they usually don’t have many lines of dialogue. Here is the list, in order of appearance:
– Lobelia Sackville-Baggins – hobbit (2 lines)
– Mrs. Maggot – hobbit (1 line)
– Goldberry – Maiar (wife of Tom Bombadil) (10 lines)
– Galadriel – elf (many lines)
– Eowyn – human/Rohirrim (many lines)
– Ioreth – human/Gondorian (8 lines)
– Arwen – half-elf (2 lines)
– Rosie – hobbit (3 lines)
– Mrs. Cotton – hobbit (1 line)
There tend to be large gaps between them, however, and at one point, 17 chapters go by between women speaking.
![[*]](https://greenwalledtower.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/pelennor_fields.jpg)
The Green-Walled Tower 
July 2nd, 2013 at 3:29 pm
My favorite movie of all times. And the book too. This was nice insight David.
July 2nd, 2013 at 9:29 pm
Thanks. Glad to meet a fellow fan.
July 2nd, 2013 at 6:40 pm
I discovered Lord of the Rings in high school, though I had been somewhat familiar with it (and The Hobbit) throughout my childhood because of the cartoons. I used to re-read them again every couple of years, invariably in the fall. (I associated them with cool crisp autumn days for some reason.) I haven’t been able to make it through them since the films came out. Don’y get me wrong, I think the films are excellent, but they ruined the books for me. Like most readers, I always had my own ideas of what the characters looked like, but now, no matter how hard I try to find my own incarnations of Frodo, Sam and Gandalf, I can’t help picturing Elijah Wood, Sean Astin and Ian McKellan.
July 2nd, 2013 at 9:26 pm
I understand what you mean. The fact that the movies are so visual that they tend to override other mental images. Still, I found that once I get back into the books, my old conceptions of the characters comes back.
July 2nd, 2013 at 6:50 pm
Wow. I adore you for reading this series for many times. I’m afraid I am not a fan. Didn’t even finish a single book, sorry.
July 2nd, 2013 at 9:22 pm
Each to their own. 🙂 My mother read these books to me when I was young so they’re a part of my upbringing.
July 2nd, 2013 at 10:27 pm
Loved the movies, could not make it through the books, I’m sad to say. Maybe I’ll try again after I finish the newest Dan Brown. Also, you wrote boner!
July 2nd, 2013 at 10:50 pm
Hey, Tolkien wrote boner first. I couldnt make it through Angels and Demons, but i want to try that again sometime.
July 2nd, 2013 at 10:56 pm
That’s the best one! Haha. I guess we will always have Aftermath.
July 2nd, 2013 at 11:19 pm
I’ve been meaning to continue that. I have some good ideas, although I just haven’t gotten around to writing them. Maybe after the summer.
July 2nd, 2013 at 11:31 pm
I have one in my drafts folder about the “Black Eyes” which is about a group of people that defy the fact that the sun is dangerous to them…kind of like a cult.
July 2nd, 2013 at 11:12 pm
I’ve read the Hobbit several times and love it and I’ve seen the Lord of the Rings movies enough times to quote them. I’ve been meaning to re-read the books, but the first time I read them they were rather daunting (I think I was in early middle school). I must give them a second chance!
July 2nd, 2013 at 11:16 pm
They are pretty big, although I’d recommend them. I liked the movies, but the books (at least in my opinion) are a hundred times better.
July 2nd, 2013 at 11:28 pm
It’s funny because I’m usually ALWAYS a book-over-movie person (don’t even get me started on the Bourne series) but maybe I just got bogged down by the history when I was younger. I have them on my Kindle now, I believe, so there’s really no excuse!
July 3rd, 2013 at 10:49 am
While the Hobbit is an easy enough read, The Lord of the Rings isn’t, in part because parts of it is painfully slow, and while those of us who have read it several times know full well something will eventually happen, first time readers have no such assurance. As much as I love the books, they have always struck me as a bit self indulgent and in need of tighter editing. However, one result of the fact that they were not as tightly edited is that we get a deeper, more complete view of the world Tolkien had created than we likely would have otherwise, and that to me has always been Tolkien’s greatest strength anyway.
July 3rd, 2013 at 1:36 pm
He originally meant to connect all the stories into one great epic, spanning all the ages, which is why there are so many references to the older days in Lord of the Rings. You could have cut down parts of it (like a lot of the songs) but he did start out to create an epic story. No question though that it would be a very different story if it was written today.
July 3rd, 2013 at 6:44 pm
Like you I read this book multiple times, in fact I read the entire series including The Hobbit many times over a lifetime. All the words you pointed out were used in their original English meaning, they aren’t bad words simply properly used by the author.
I have always loved the entire series. By the time I read it the third time, somewhere in my early twenties I recognized it as allegory, thus begin my love a this specific genre.
July 3rd, 2013 at 7:17 pm
It is interesting how language has changed over time. I like his use of slightly older terminology, although I’m glad he didn’t go full Middle English like his contemporary E.R. Eddison in The Worm Ouroboros. If you haven’t read it, it’s quite a book, but the language is something else.
July 3rd, 2013 at 8:29 pm
wow 20 times
I’ve read it many times but not 20. I was really sorry that Tom Bombadil and his lovely Goldberry got overlooked in the movie
July 3rd, 2013 at 8:39 pm
I really like that part of the story, although I see why they took it out, since it already makes a pretty long movie. In a perfect world…:)
July 5th, 2013 at 5:22 pm
so that novel is absolutely male dominated barring the elf ladies? 🙂
thanks for sharing these things I have not read the novels but have loved the movies!
July 5th, 2013 at 6:15 pm
I don’t think Tolkien had anything against women; in fact, he probably put more powerful women in his stories than a lot of others at that time. In a lot of ways, it was a product of its time.
July 6th, 2013 at 3:11 pm
as I am not much aware of the novel, tell me, what was the period of its writing? and from which country was tolikien?
the movies are simply amazing!!!
July 6th, 2013 at 4:25 pm
They were written between 1937 and 1949. Tolkien lived in England (although he was born in South Africa) and so the Shire especially is supposed to be a lot like rural England.
August 2nd, 2013 at 5:04 pm
I love the book too!!
August 2nd, 2013 at 5:22 pm
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