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Gandálf The Old
Gandalf is a protagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. He is a wizard, one of the Istari order, and the leader of the Company of the Ring. Tolkien took the name "Gandalf" from the Old Norse "Catalogue of Dwarves" (''Dvergatal'') in the ''Völuspá''. As a wizard and the bearer of one of the Three Rings, Gandalf has great power, but works mostly by encouraging and persuading. He sets out as Gandalf the Grey, possessing great knowledge and travelling continually. Gandalf is focused on the mission to counter the Dark Lord Sauron by destroying the One Ring. He is associated with fire; his ring of power is Narya, the Ring of Fire. As such, he delights in fireworks to entertain the hobbits of the Shire, while in great need he uses fire as a weapon. As one of the Maiar, he is an immortal spirit from Valinor, but his physical body can be killed. In ''The Hobbit'', Gandalf assists the 13 dwarves and the hobbit Bilbo Baggins with their q ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sun
The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light and infrared radiation with 10% at ultraviolet energies. It is by far the most important source of energy for life on Earth. The Sun has been an The Sun in culture, object of veneration in many cultures. It has been a central subject for astronomical research since Ancient history, antiquity. The Sun orbits the Galactic Center at a distance of 24,000 to 28,000 light-years. Its distance from Earth defines the astronomical unit, which is about or about 8 light-minutes. Solar radius, Its diameter is about (), 109 times that of Earth. solar mass, The Sun's mass is about 330,000 times that of Earth, making up about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System. The mass of outer layer of the Sun's atmosphere, its ''photosphere'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hobbit
Hobbits are a fictional race of people in the novels of J. R. R. Tolkien. About half average human height, Tolkien presented hobbits as a variety of humanity, or close relatives thereof. Occasionally known as halflings in Tolkien's writings, they live barefooted, and traditionally dwell in homely underground houses which have windows, built into the sides of hills, though others live in houses. Their feet have naturally tough leathery soles (so they do not need shoes) and are covered on top with curly hair. Hobbits first appeared in the 1937 children's novel ''The Hobbit'', whose titular Hobbit is the protagonist Bilbo Baggins, who is thrown into an unexpected adventure involving a dragon. In its sequel, ''The Lord of the Rings'', the hobbits Frodo Baggins, Sam Gamgee, Pippin Took, and Merry Brandybuck are primary characters who all play key roles in fighting to save their world ("Middle-earth") from evil. In ''The Hobbit'', hobbits live together in a small town called Hobbito ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rohan (Middle-earth)
Rohan is a fictional kingdom of Men (Middle-earth), Men in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy setting of Middle-earth. Known for its horsemen, the Rohirrim, Rohan provides its ally Gondor with cavalry. Its territory is mainly grassland. The Rohirrim call their land the Mark or the Riddermark, names recalling that of the historical kingdom of Mercia, the region of Western England where Tolkien lived. Tolkien grounded Rohan in elements inspired by Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon tradition, poetry, and linguistics, specifically in its Mercian dialect, in everything but its use of horses. Tolkien used Old English for the kingdom's language and names, Pseudotranslation in The Lord of the Rings, pretending that this was in translation of Rohirric. Meduseld, the hall of King Théoden, is modelled on Heorot, the great hall in ''Beowulf''. Within the plot of ''The Lord of the Rings'', Rohan plays a critical role in the action—first against the Wizard (Middle-Earth), wizard Saruman in the Battle of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moria (Middle-earth)
In the fictional history of the world by J. R. R. Tolkien, Moria, also named Khazad-dûm, is an ancient subterranean complex in Middle-earth, comprising a vast labyrinthine network of tunnels, chambers, mines, and halls under the Misty Mountains, with doors on both the western and the eastern sides of the mountain range. Moria is introduced in Tolkien's novel ''The Hobbit'', and is a major scene of action in ''The Lord of the Rings''. In much of History of Arda, Middle-earth's history, Moria was the greatest city of Dwarf (Middle-earth), the Dwarves. The city's wealth was founded on its mines, which produced ''mithril'', a fictional metal of great beauty and strength, suitable for armour. The Dwarves dug too greedily and too deep for ''mithril'', and disturbed a demon of great power: Durin's Bane, a Balrog, which destroyed their kingdom. By the end of the Third Age, Moria had long been abandoned by the Dwarves, and was a place of evil repute. It was dark, in dangerous disrepair, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Balrog
Balrogs () are a species of powerful demonic monsters in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. One first appeared in print in his high-fantasy novel ''The Lord of the Rings'', where the Company of the Ring encounter a Balrog known as Durin's Bane in the Mines of Moria (Middle-earth), Moria. Balrogs appear also in Tolkien's ''The Silmarillion'' and Tolkien's legendarium, his legendarium. Balrogs are tall and menacing beings who can shroud themselves in fire, darkness, and shadow. They are armed with fiery whips "of many thongs", and its early drafts speak frequently of the whips of fire. ''The Lays of Beleriand'' describe Morgoth's prisoners tortured by Balrogs with scourges; and the Balrog in Moria (''The Fellowship of the Ring'', "The Bridge of Khazad-dûm") is armed explicitly with a "whip of many thongs" or strands. and occasionally use long swords. In Tolkien's later conception, Balrogs could not be readily vanquished—a certain stature was required by the would-be hero. Only Dr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Council Of Elrond
"The Council of Elrond" is the second chapter of Book 2 of J. R. R. Tolkien's bestselling fantasy work, ''The Lord of the Rings'', which was published in 1954–1955. It is the longest chapter in that book at some 15,000 words, and critical for explaining the power and threat of the One Ring, for introducing the final members of the Company of the Ring, and for defining Quests in Middle-earth, the planned quest to destroy it. Contrary to the maxim "Show, don't tell", the chapter consists mainly of people talking; the action is, as in an earlier chapter "The Shadow of the Past", narrated, largely by the Wizard Gandalf, in Flashback (narrative), flashback. The chapter parallels the far simpler Beorn chapter in ''The Hobbit'', which similarly presents a culture-clash of modern (mediated by the hobbit) with ancient (the heroic Beorn). The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey calls the chapter "a largely unappreciated ''wikt:tour de force, tour de force''". The Episcopal Church (United States), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mordor
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional continent of Middle-earth, Mordor (; from Sindarin ''Black Land'' and Quenya ''Land of Shadow'') is a dark realm. It lay to the east of Gondor and the great river Anduin, and to the south of Mirkwood. Mount Doom, a volcano in Mordor, was the goal of the Fellowship of the Ring in the quest to destroy the One Ring. Mordor was surrounded by three mountain ranges, to the north, the west, and the south. These both protected the land from invasion and kept those living in Mordor from escaping. Commentators have noted that Mordor was influenced by Tolkien's own experiences in the industrial Black Country of the English Midlands, and by his time fighting in the trenches of the Western Front in the First World War. Tolkien was also familiar with the account of the monster Grendel's unearthly landscapes in the Old English poem ''Beowulf''. Others have observed that Tolkien depicts Mordor as specifically evil, and as a vision of industrial enviro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dol Guldur
Mirkwood is any of several great dark forests in novels by Sir Walter Scott and William Morris in the 19th century, and by J. R. R. Tolkien in the 20th century. The critic Tom Shippey explains that the name evoked the excitement of the wildness of Europe's ancient North. At least two distinct Middle-earth forests are named Mirkwood in Tolkien's legendarium. One is in the First Age, when the highlands of Dorthonion north of Beleriand became known as Mirkwood after falling under Morgoth's control. The more famous Mirkwood was in Wilderland, east of the river Anduin. It had acquired the name Mirkwood after it fell under the evil influence of the Necromancer in his fortress of Dol Guldur; before that it had been known as Greenwood the Great. This Mirkwood features significantly in ''The Hobbit'' and in the film '' The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug''. The term ''Mirkwood'' derives from the forest ''Myrkviðr'' of Norse mythology; that forest has been identified by scholars as repr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smaug
Smaug () is a dragon and the main antagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel ''The Hobbit'', his treasure and the mountain he lives in being the goal of the quest. Powerful and fearsome, he invaded the Dwarf kingdom of Erebor 171 years prior to the events described in the novel. A group of thirteen dwarves mounted a quest to take the kingdom back, aided by the wizard Gandalf and the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. In ''The Hobbit'', Thorin describes Smaug as "a most specially greedy, strong and wicked worm". Critics have identified close parallels with what they presume are sources of Tolkien's inspiration, including the dragon in ''Beowulf'', who is provoked by the stealing of a precious cup, and the speaking dragon Fafnir, who proposes a betrayal to Sigurd. A further source may be Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1855 poem ''The Song of Hiawatha'', where Megissogwon, the spirit of wealth, is protected by an armoured shirt, but whose one weak spot is revealed by a talking bird. Comme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lonely Mountain
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Lonely Mountain is a mountain northeast of Mirkwood. It is the location of the Dwarves' Kingdom under the Mountain and the town of Dale lies in a vale on its southern slopes. In ''The Lord of the Rings'', the mountain is called by the Sindarin name Erebor., book 5, ch. 9 "The Last Debate" The Lonely Mountain is the destination of the protagonists, including the titular Hobbit Bilbo Baggins in ''The Hobbit'', and is the scene of the novel's climax. The mountain has been described as the Psychological journeys of Middle-earth, goal of Bilbo's psychological quest in ''The Hobbit''; scholars have noted that it and ''The Lord of the Rings'' are both Quests in Middle-earth, structured as quests to a distant mountain, but that the quests have very different motivations. Further, the mountain is a symbol of adventure in ''The Hobbit'', and of Bilbo's maturation as an individual, while to the Dwarves, it stands for the gain of beauty in return for l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quests In Middle-earth
J. R. R. Tolkien's best-known novels, ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'', both have the structure of quests, with a hero setting out, facing dangers, achieving a goal, and returning home. Where ''The Hobbit'' is a children's story with the simple goal of treasure, ''The Lord of the Rings'' is a more complex narrative with multiple quests. Its main quest, to destroy the One Ring, has been described as a reversed quest – starting with a much-desired treasure, and getting rid of it. That quest, too, is balanced against a moral quest, to scour the Shire and return it to its original state. Tolkien superimposed multiple meanings on the basic quest, for example embedding a hidden Christian message in the story, and marking the protagonists Frodo and Aragorn out as heroes by giving them magic swords in the epic tradition of Sigurd and Arthur. Context J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) was an English Roman Catholic writer, poet, philologist, and academic, best known a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bilbo Baggins
Bilbo Baggins (Westron: ''Bilba Labingi'') is the title character and protagonist of J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel ''The Hobbit'', a supporting character in ''The Lord of the Rings'', and the fictional narrator (along with Frodo Baggins) of many of Tolkien's Middle-earth writings. The Hobbit is selected by the wizard Gandalf to help Thorin Oakenshield, Thorin and his party of Dwarf (Middle-earth), Dwarves reclaim their ancestral home and treasure, which has been seized by the dragon Smaug. Bilbo sets out in ''The Hobbit'' timid and comfort-loving and, through his adventures, grows to become a useful and resourceful member of Quests in Middle-earth, the quest. Bilbo's way of life in the Shire, defined by features like the availability of tobacco and postal service, recalls that of the English middle class during the Victorian era, Victorian to Edwardian eras. This is not compatible with the much older world of Dwarves and Elf (Middle-earth), Elves. Tolkien appears to have based ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
