Answering Your Tolkien Questions Episode 41 - What myths did the films create? - And More!

[@whyukraine]

Excellent! You made a playlist! Now I can play you on repeat 24\7.

[@franciscordon9230]

Thank you, always enjoy your content!

[@John-Sierra]

Glad to hear it!

[@ZephyrOptional]

I love the deep lore study but also love just listening to someone readings their favorite parts of the text. Listening to stories is our most ancient form of entertainment & fellowship. Thanks!!

[@John-Sierra]

I'm very glad to hear you enjoy the readings!

[@ZephyrOptional]

Totally agree the PJ movies dropped the ball on depicting elves. They are haughty, arrogant, and aloof in the films. In the books they are vibrant, tragic, joyful, passionate, and terrible. Hugo would have made a perfect Denethor. Elrond should have a kind face and a smile as warm as summer.

[@Heather-Br]

Please do keep doing these readings. I really enjoy them.

[@John-Sierra]

Will do!

[@KatarzynaMatylla]

Istari were a thing in Years of the Trees? Wow. I'd love to learn more about that. It's possible that in his later years Tolkien would say there were no trees before the Two. From what I know he started leaning towards evolution at some point and rewriting the natural history of Middle Earth to include it... it's quite posslible the early Arda was covered in ferns and other Cambrian-style plants. Or at least that this would be the canon if JRRT had more time to rewrite.

[@John-Sierra]

They weren't called Istari at that time, but Guardians, there were six of them, though they were called the Five Guardians. Melian, Tarindor, Olorin, Hravandil, Palacendo and Haimenar. They protected the elves from the War of the Valar. Melian sort of abandoned her job when she fell in love with Elu Thingol, which may be why they were counted as five.

[@saberhamlinconmaverickknud4821]

@John Sierra Not only is the film dialogue and lore unrecognizable, to me, from the books, but so are other things. And, please, forgive me because, while I’ll make the list brief, I can probably go on for hours while ranting about the films:

[@John-Sierra]

That was an exceedingly brief list :P (you forgot to post the list!)

[@jackruby6696]

Add: I know that the hobbit was just a children’s story and Tolkien changed the lore but he never did go back and get rid of the talk about ogres and giants. So just for fun what is ur head cannon about what they are and if they still exist? Are they just big trolls? Also what do you think about werewyrms and the watcher bieng nameless things? You can answer this In a video if you want instead of having to type out an essay to answer me if you like. Thank you sir

[@John-Sierra]

He never really revisited Stone Giants, but as I mentioned in my other reply, Ents are another variety of giants - which of course he gave an origin for in The Silmarillion. Ogres did not make it into the legendarium - Bilbo mentions hearing of them in stories, but Tolkien did not include them, though he originally did. Believe it or not, in early versions of The Fall of Gondolin, Gothmog was the son of Melko (later Melkor/Morgoth) and his mother was an Ogre, but later Ogres were written out of these stories.

[@jackruby6696]

Could you do some of ur favorite head cannon theories? Also what do you think the original creatures meklor/Sauron corrupted aka what were the original trolls and dragons?

[@John-Sierra]

I have a whole head canon about the origin of the hobbits, that has been written out (it's the pinned answer on my Quora) but not yet made it into a video, I might have to do a video on it. Dragons were probably just lizards enhanced with necromancy, and then further experimented on later on to create the winged variant. Trolls are probably animated stone, created in the darkness in Middle-Earth, which explains why they are destroyed by the sun, and why they become stone.

[@HVSJR-n5q]

The myth before IMO and there’s Many. But the Elves joining the battle of the Hornburg.

[@John-Sierra]

I do see that one a lot, I'm often asked how many elves survived. I always tell them the elves had a 100% survival rate, because only Legolas was there!

[@Nottz4Lyf18]

I have sooooo many lote questions

[@John-Sierra]

I'd be happy to answer them.

[@Nottz4Lyf18]

@@John-Sierra this is just a few not sure if you can answer them but thank you. Are fell beasts bred in angmar? baradur? Minas morgul are they bewitched or bred, where are the ringwraiths when they arent off being nazgul, do we know what they do or mdo they just cease to exist until they are needed, do they have other jobs to do. Was Sauron “physically”materializing in the books and why did it happen. Was sauron just passively looking for the ring until gollum was found and mentioned who had it? Do we know which kings the ringwraiths were and their stories before (seen a few youtube videos about this but not sure theyre canon) How did boromir think he could wield the ring and use it What is the purposse of the wraith world that frodo goes to when he puts on the ring Why did sarumen suddenly change sides or was he always waiting for the opportunity, what power did he hope to obtain by claiming the ring and why did he betray sauron. What power does the ring have when sauron uses it, he put in a will to dominate but he couldnt stop even men from arming up against him, what was he hoping to achieve or was it pure genocide out of jealousy.

[@jackruby6696]

I just discovered ur channel and you’ve probably already answered these questions but where do you think the men of carn dum are from? Do you think they still exist? Do you think the giants still exist? Are mewlips just a middle earth cryptid?

[@John-Sierra]

The Men of Carn-dum are from Arnor, more specifically the region that was Angmar when the Witch King was in charge. Their existence is probably as the Barrow Wights in the later Third Age. Giants are interesting - there are two types, Tree Giants and Stone Giants, both Tolkien originally were evil, one one of the Tree Giants was Saruman's minion Treebeard in the early writings. Later on, he based Treebeard more on his friend CS-Lewis and the "Tree Ents" (Ent is old english for Giant) became more benevolent. The Stone Giants are mysterious, we only hear about them once in The Hobbit, and they seem dangerous, but not overtly malevolent. Gandalf mentions he might speak to one of the more decent stone giants to block up the entrance to Goblin Town. Tolkien never wrote anything else about them! Mewlips are probably memetic version of Orcs, they only appear in Hobbit stories. It's sort of similar to Bilbo's more fanciful tales of the Perilous Realm/Faerie - as he heard tales of the First Age from the elves, and did not take them seriously, and wrote fanciful stories based on these experiences such as "Errantry" from The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. Mewlips are pobably hobbit-folk's stories of Orcs grown mythological in the retellings.

[@Elbereth95]

Doing Iluvatar’s work out here man. Love how concise yet expansive your explanations are. Ain’t got many burning questions at the moment but I’ll let you know when I do! Namárië 🫡