The Lord of the Rings Expert Answers More Tolkien Questions From Twitter | Tech Support | WIRED

About the eagles question, professor Tolkien has replied to it himself...😂Best reply ever!!

What a nerd.

This guy is great

About the balrogs.... I still think they have wings but cannot use them bc they chose Melkor and the evil path with it, made with smoke and shadow. Like a fallen Angel in biblical context. Or penguins (have you ever looked into a penguins beak?! Terrifying!).

this is awesome... do one with a Harry Potter expert, Game of thrones expert, etc.

Never know this could be an expertise!

For the record, I've never heard of anyone asking a lore question like "why not use the eagles" who enjoys the doylist "huur so story can happen" answer. It's just annoying. Authors who build their entire stories on "so the story can happen" are called "hacks", and that's definitely not what Tolkien was.

"Why would an immortal being who could manifest themselves a body have wings?"
Same reason mortal beings put n ipples on plate armor: for the ~*A*e*S*t*H*e*T*i*C*~

I always wondered if the invisibility qualities of the Ring (while clearly as he explains more of a plane-shift) were actually voluntary for most mortals (something they had to actively and consciously use the ring for) but involuntary for hobbits because of their inherent stealth magic. Nearly every time a hobbit goes to use the ring they are appealing to their nature of wanting to hide. If that were true Gandalf using the ring would be even more interesting (read: terrifying).

The reason Sauron does not turn invisible is that he already is, and his body was applied afterwards (like throwing painting on an invisible person).

Dude missed the point of the "do orcs think all elven weapons glow blue" question.

The joke was, they only glow blue around orcs, so it would be impossible for an orc to see one without it glowing blue, thus the logical conclusion is: Elven weapon glow blue.

Sorry but I still believe he is wrong about balrogs having wings. He quotes the famous shadow line, but chooses to omit a line later where Tolkien specifically says something about “it’s wings”

My thing with the eagles, the whole point is that they need to sneak in. Sauron would just see the eagles and shoot them down. They retrieve frodo and sam after it's all over.

Sam can carry the ring, but he never claimed it so we can't say for sure that he can actually*carry* the ring.

I think it's amazing that Tolkien didn't claim to know everything about his world, but instead discovered it while (and after) writing The Lord of The Rings

I think Tom is basically like Stan Lee is in Marvel comics (Jack Kirby aka one above all). Basically Tolkeins own character

Ive always felt Tom Bombadil was more like the essence of middle Earth, a part of creation, he is what everything is and is what you know

Wonder who he considers the hero of the story. Is it Frodo? Sam? Aragorn? Gandalf? Gollum destroys the ring in the end

The ring does what it can to find Sauron, or maybe power in general. Nobody has a ring sensor

Dear LaWren, YWNBAW

I think Tom Bombadil is, simply put, the listener. As long as Illuvitar has been singing, he's simply been enjoying the song. They existed alongside each other, formless ang ageless, and had only one way to entertain themselves.

I think Illuvitar loves to sing, and loves to make harmonious melodies because Tom enjoys them so, which is why, even for the sake of his melodies, he won't introduce a harmonic clash in the form of intervention

Well, the answer to the Beorn one is that he couldn't have killed the Witch-King, because Eowyn was fated to kill the Witch-King, and "no man" was a description of the future, not instructions to carry out.

Imagine if the Fellowship DID meet with the eagles early on, and the ring worked its mojo on one of the eagles, big bird snatches it up and becomes (cue drumroll) the Lord of the Wings! :D

Wasn't this the loser who tried to defend ROP and basically made a mockery of any credibility he has on knowledge of the Tolkien universe?

I know balrog doesnt have wings, but I dont think flying is an argument, having wings doesnt mean fly, there is plenty of animals in real life with wings that do not fly

Coolio

So wait... If the ring changes size depending on its owner... Could you just get progressively smaller and smaller owners until it's too small to reliably find?
Like get it to where a crow wants it because shiny so it gets talon sized, then coat it in sugar water so an ant wants it etc? Does the owner need a specific level of sentience?

Sam is the real MVP and a friend we would all strive to have.

Please do another of these!!

Why didnt they give the ring to a goblin or something and holding the goblin captive on their travel to destroy the ring? This would make the goblin ill right? And not frodo and sam

So Tom Bombadil is a sort of... anti-Ungoliant? Where she was a full on embodiment of malicious evil in the form of a spider, Tom was an embodiment of innocent good in the form of a man?

I have an interesting thought. Balrogs don't have wings. But because balrogs look so cool and intimidating with wings, might balrogs give themselves the appearance of having wings just because it looks cool and intimidates people, without actually being able to fly? Like Batman and his cape!

I never understood why ppl always ask the 1 about the eagles. I thought it was common sense that Sauron had, like, dragons & a BIG lookout tower with his eye on it.

the way I tend to look at change to Tolkien lore is this: I believe Tolkien saw his world as a pre-Norman (?) invasion mythology. Like a “what if” for the mythology if it hadn’t been influenced. Mythology is supposed to change over time and distance. So, in some telling’s, for example, Balrogs have wings. Seem fine to me.
This is my professional opinion as “some guy”. not an expert on anything.

They're really underselling this person's skills and qualifications

It's worth pointing out that even though Peter Jackson gave Durin's Bane shadowy "wings" in the movie, it never actually uses them to fly. Which would be a good idea when you're tumbling down a seemingly endless ravine after being bonked by a dude in a funny hat. Or when you're fighting that same dude on a mountaintop, an excellent spot to take off in flight, for 3 days and nights. So even if Durin's Bane has a shadow that closely resembles wings, they are not that in actuality.

This pseudo "Tolkien Expert" makes me sick. He talks so confidently about Tolkien's works, when Tolkien himself still questioned many aspects of his own writing. This guy is a wannabe riding on coattails that he couldn't hope to attain to himself.

Don’t forget this guy loved the rings of power.

The ring can also change sized when its not on a finger, or at least is implied in the conversation between Frodo and Gandalf right after Bilbo left the shire.

In my head cannon, the eagles will only intervene if the person they’re saving has already tried and failed.

LoTR’s really good elven blacksmiths and craftsmen are just high level elven artificers making magical items out of nowhere.

Look, Tolkien was not perfect. He simply screwed up with the Eagles and introduced a real problem, we need to stop making excuses for him. The Eagles DID intervene in the story THREE separate times. There is no reason why a carefully crafted plan using the Eagles to deliver the Ring would have been FAR more logical than sending a Hobbit to Mordor.

Tom Bombadil is an enigma. There is no one correct answer period. We are supposed to see him with a constant aura of mystery. A wonderful magical thing that cannot be explained.

My theory though is he's simply a manifestation of the spirit of Arda itself. An avatar of nature. He is to Arda/Nature what Ungoliant is to Unlight.

Great anti-trans argument there. Going to steal that one.

Orcs definitely fear Ukrainian drones, and they don't even need to glow.

Better question: Why is Tom Bombadil? Seemed kinda pointless.

this is missing the point about the witch king, it's not like he has the power to be unkillable to men, there's just a prophecy that he won't be killed by a man