Tolkien's 'ineluctable Wave' appears both in Faramir's dream in the LOTR book and as a recounting by Eowyn to Aragron in the movie LOTR. Thank you Jess for such excellent explanation and retelling of Tolkien mythos!

What the book is about, courtly life, is not interesting, but the way Tolkien talks about it, with Old English language and alliteration is interesting.

The barrel scene in the Hobbit brings me such giddy joy. Sure I know its dumb, I know its ridiculous, hell I know its completely inaccurate to the book! But dang it, its so much fun!

At 21:05, the role of the Eagles as messengers of God is seen in the Eagle that brings the news of the defeat of Sauron to Minas Tirith in language straight out of the Psalms of David.

I am starting to realize how well-read the people I went to school with were. I remember one person reading Dune in the fifth grade.

My favorite parts of the video are the things you say, your voice and you.

A really interesting analysis, thank you!

Tolkien did leave room for the original Fall of Man in the time before the Edain met the Elves.

Avalonë was also a name for the Elvish lands just offshore of Valinor, IIRC.

That's an impressive...outfit.

i always liked eowyn but i had a friend who absolutely despised her, and for the dumbest reason too. the friend was doing the whole swordfight thing so thinking back she should've liked her. the reason she didn't? she adored arwen and arwen with aragorn, and eowyn was crushing on him and "trying to get inbetween them". that's it, that was her reason. bonkers.

I really love your highly detailed comparisons of Tolkien characters, book vs. film. Always shows me nuances I had not noticed before. Thank you!

stop exploiting other peoples work

Worthy of being a king? That's a foolish notion - not Jess' alone, but a product of the myth of meritocracy. Nobody is worthy of being a king, something Tolkien recognized and reflected in Aragon's understanding that he has a role to play, one for which he's been trained and prepared.

I have to give you props, this is was really good, thanks!

Movie Aragorn was a mope. Book Aragorn was lighter and shows a sense of humour.

I have to agree that D&D 5th Edition disincentivizes players from playing their bards in a particularly bardy way. It has to do with the fact that 5e mostly only cares about combat. I mean, you can DO it, but you're kinda fighting the system. Third edition did bards a lot better. Third edition did a lot of things a lot better, actually.

I wonder if Tolkien was aware of The Sabres of Paradise. Herbert certainly was.

Will you be the Shelob to my Sauron?

I love both Lord of the Rings and Dune. They are both well written and amazingly complex and have a lot to teach us about humanity. They are both a joy to read. I think though that I like LOTR a little better just because I like it's more-optimistic worldview, and it's written in such beautiful language... Nevertheless, despite both of them having such different perspectives on human nature and the universe, I think we can learn a lot from both of them.

No, Frodo does not fail in the movies. He puts Gollum and the ring into the lava thus completing his quest. His quest was not to survive but to destroy the ring. And Gollum doesn't fall due to hubris but due to his obsession with the ring.

I believe 'Edain' is to be pronounced similar to 'Dunedain'. In Sindarin (and Quenya), vowel sets are diphthongs (pronounced in one syllable), so 'ai' should be pronounced like the vowel sound in 'aye' (to be clear that's the word for agreement/yes, rhyming with 'eye' or 'rye' in this case); similarly to how we pronounce the 'ai' in Maia/Maiar (Appendix E, RotK).

Jess, I have been watching you for some time now. Many of your videos are profound and moving (and, to be honest, some not so much) but this one is amazing, easily your best yet. Thank you for it.

Jess you are such a wealth of knowledge and I love how you compare and contrast Tolkien's work with the Greek myths and stories. If Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens ever need help you could definitely fit in. Or heaven forbid if the Amazon storytellers ever want to get any part of their story correct they could definitely use your help! 😁

That was hilarious. Thanks for showing it. Oscar level acting.

Excellent video, i like how u tell us stories in a calm way☺️ hope your channel keeps growing

I love much of you content - but - 1:57 - I think you misunderstand how oral history worked and underestimate the memories of those in pre-literate cultures. In most of those cultures the audience also knew the stories and they would call out a story teller who changed them - much the same as modern fans call out and reject creators who make changes to the stories they love. Of course it might not be that way in every oral culture but in many cultures the stories changed a lot less than we, who have little need to memorise much, would expect.

Years ago I read almost everything Tolkien had written - but only the Middle Earth stuff - so I missed this. Thank You!

The flesh creatures are carrots; basically the go-to background characters for veggie tales.

Re - Eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. It's a bloody stupid story! It's like a brain-damaged version of Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (but then again, so is Joseph Heller's Catch-22)... By which, I mean - They're told "Hey! Don't do this thing!" But until they do that thing, they don't understand the difference between Good and Evil. So how can they know whether or not they should do it? The idea of punishing Adam and Eve for their acts is as brainlessly stupid as punishing a newborn for pooping in its nappy! Gods aren't terribly intelligent, ESPECIALLY the God of the Bible, so I wouldn't expect it to understand these things. But when people- people who have the capacity for intelligent thought- hold this story up as some kind of lesson... It's just painfully thoughtless! The only "lesson" to be found in such a story is how dumb Gods are!

I see parts of the Book of Kings, like Solomon building of temples to other Gods. The Wound in Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth is more akin to Genesis.

re Irish Mythology I'm sorry to say so, but your mangling of the pronunciation left me wondering what the hells you were talking about... When you said "... and got rid of the Fir Bolg," I was able to understand what you were trying to say, but man... That's some wild "interpretation" of how to pronounce Irish mythological names...

The biblical flood story may be a memory of when the Mediterranean Sea rose after the last ice age and spilled over the Bosporus to form the Black Sea or perhaps a similar event that formed the Red Sea. And of course future apocalyptic floods due to climate change are a common trope in science fiction and fantasy. Sadly, it may not be many more years before such events become all too real again.

Nice try

Ok, I haven't watched the vid, yet, but since you mentioned Atlantis... You know that the Quenya term "Atalanta" refers to 'The Downfall' more specifically 'The Downfall of Man,' right? Though with the prefix 'Ata' I suppose it's more accurate / more encompassing to refer to it as 'The Downfall of The Fathers of Man.' And that's hardly the only nod to Atlantis, either. That place was supposedly full of wonderful technology (Druedain on Numenor and their "Stone-Singing," etc, being able to do 'magical' things to stone), until they offended the Gods (the Valar and, of course, Iru Eluvatar), whereupon the island was swallowed up by the sea! And now to watch the video, where I expect you;ll probably mention all of these things, anyway (with the possible exception of a discussion of whether the prefix of Ata refers to Father [Ata] or Man [Atani] in Quenya).

Once more a wonderful video. Enjoy your time, replenish your batteries and till later. Cheers 😍

You are nice

I'm admittedly late to the game; and I really haven't anything to add that would justify a comment, except to say: The Silmarillion in C?! Is it more appropriate to rate A Story based on the best or on the worst it has to offer? (And, yes, this precludes the idea that we can somehow average out a book's highs and lows, and thereby pass judgement on it.) For myself, I will say only that The Silmarillion contains many of what I consider the most deeply moving and spiritually-resonant arcs in the entire legendarium, notwithstanding that it was "rounded out" after Tolkien's death. And this latter invites questions about the nature of "canon" and authorship with respect to designedly fictional and metaphorical texts, and to the notion of paratexts, of which there is no shortage in Tolkien's world.

Jess starting beef with the History Channel 😂

I would argue that Dune worldbuilding is much more mature than in LoTR universe - it is based primarily on cold, calculated logic and realistic analysis. Almost every facet of reality in Dune universe feels like a mathematically determined outcome of processes that happened throughout the backstory. The traditions, names, biology, political mechanisms, economy... whereas LoTR follows the logic of myth, ancient song or religious allegory, which are EXACTLY what Herbert portrays as deceptive tools of control over humanity. I think Tolkien might have felt defied, undermined or even unsecure seeing the blatant (and very well executed) critique of what were his core fascinations and beliefs

I'm sorry, Jess, but I'm boycotting Pearson because they're a horrible company that make at-best-mediocre educational materials. They're a big part of the reason America has such a problem with student debt, and I won't buy any of their products.

I almost forgot the Avalon connection. One of the other names for Nunebor was Avallone. Love it.

Beautifully done as ever Jess, thank you. I have to admit that I groaned when I got to the last sentence. Atalante. Cheesy!

And yet, he had no idea how to make his characters seem anything but flat

Awesome vid as always! You have a real talent for this format. Request: Please do CS Lewis' "Space Trilogy"!!! 🙏That would be amazing.

As much as the great dragons are presumed to be extinct, their lesser kin is very much alive in the withered heath, that’s why the far north is still a bad place to find yourself in. That’s at least what i got from Gandalfs inquiry on the matter, btw this documentary is cursed, i busted a couple good laughs watching it a while ago.

I hope you do more research on Atlantis. There are so many other neat places to find information on the topic than the History Channel. Love your channel :)

Wow, you just brought back memories of Classics, Oedipus the King was one of the tragedies we studied. Great video.

I've been reading, listening to or watching fantasy stories as long as I can remember. I didn't discover fantasy, for me it was always a natural part of fiction.

People refuse to enjoy life and try to paint over everything with their opinions and modern politics. If having not enough female characters bothers so much then there's plenty of other fantasy works that feature heroines. Or perhaps create your own.