the sting from shelob was a beauty, just from behind and just above Frodo (un-aware) and POW! sting in the gut,
It was sort of weird and cool how she spun the carcus into the web, also I found it very paculiar how PJ squeezed in the orc ot describe who shelob was.....hehe sneaky
Discos - still enjoys the good comebacks of Kitoky "nyah"
She's a descendant from a Maiar, and she falls into the catergory with Sauron, Saruman, and Gandalf. I didn't say she was a WIZARD now did I?Maiars are higher, blessed beings by the Valar. They're not always wizards. The elves are descendants from the Maiars as well....if my memory does not fail me.
About that Maiar-wizard-Shelob-thing -
Not all Maiar are wizards, only five of them - Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast, Pallando and Allatar (I think that were their names). They name doesnt mean that they have super-magical skills or something, it's rather thought as a translation for "istar" which simply means "somebody of high knowledge". They were sent to Middle-earth to help in the war against Sauron.
Shelob now is the last daughter of Ungoliant who WAS a Maia but no wizard; She always lived in the form of an enormous spider.
This does not automatically mean that Shelob also was a Maia (not knowing her father 😄 😄 ), but might be. Strange that Tolkien somewhere says that Maiar can't create new life (this statement gives lots of problems).
The Maiar and the Valar together are called the "Ainur" because they created the world together in a great song. The difference is that the Valar are the more mighty ones; and even among them there are even more mighty ones called the ?Aratar (I think... my mind is terrible for remembering names)...
Well however in this song (called the "Ainulindale", song of the Ainur)created an image of the world, and Ilúvatar the One brought it to life; and the Valar saw exactly what they had sung, except for some things that seemed strange and foreign to them - Men and Elves, the two races that are called the Eruchín or Children Of Ilúvatar for he had made them himself and given them the breath of life. Thus Elves are definitely NOT descendants of the Maiar, save some few (like for example the heirs of Melian The Nightingale - Her daughter Lúthien, and Dior Elúchil, and Elwing the bird and her children Elros and Elrond... )
Yes, it's a song, brought to life by the God.
That's why in LoTR you often find quotes like
"But mostly Ulmo speaks to those who dwell in Middle-earth with the voices that are heard only as the MUSIC of the water."
"... but of all these water they most greatly praised. And it is said by the Eldar that in Water there lives yet the echo of the Music of the Ainur more than in any substance else that is in this Earth; and many of the children of Ilúvatar hearken still unsated to the voices of the Sea, and yet know not for what they listen..."
ah I see,
Back to Valar, they didnt want Elves or Men but it was the Ilúvatar decided to add it themselve? Was it just Dwarves who were going to be the main living people in Middle Earth along with Hobbits?
Sorry for these simple questions but this information fascinates me somehow. Also Exa, you know that there is a Middle earth (lol erm, no!), but Smeagol mentions that the armies are being called to Mordor, Sauron is conjuring up an amy to go to war, which will cover all wars of the "world", I take it there is not just "middle earth" but a far bigger place ie, South earth? (lol probably no south earth but ya know what I mean)??
(finally some discussion that is not about "who is the sexiest person", "whos the best character" *happy*)
Exactly; when the Ainulindale was sung, the Valar always heard some strange melody calming the singer Melkor (the bad guy 😛 ) down if he came up with his unmelodious and dissonand accords; and the Valar didnt understand them. (they also dont really understand Men and Elves in after days, Melkor is perhaps the only one who even tries... with success, I'd say)
The Dwarves? Well, they were created by the Vala Aule who was quite fond of inveting things of his own and always wanted to be the best; so he decided he wanted to have a people listening to him and belonging to him, and made the dwarves (of stone, some say); but they did not live because the Valar cant create totally new life of their own, and Ilúvatar wouldve had to give them their spirit. But Ilúvatar did not want that some other people were on the earth before his own (because Elves and Men were still sleeping somewhere in middle-earth and awoke a lot later; first the elves, then after some (some very many) centuries Men), and so he asked Aule to make them sleep again, too, until after Elves had awoken.
He does not give exact information where the hobbits come from; I think he somewhere mentions that they are small humans, but there is also the theory that they might actually be elves that had become mortal.
If somebody in Middle-earth says "world", he usually means middle-earth. but the lands that are important are not the whole middle-earth.
Actually, there are two main parts in the geography of middle-earth - valinor and Middle-earth. Valinor is in the far west, and middle-earth, as the name says, in the middle of the world 😛 there's also some land across the sea in the east, but that one's not really important for anything.
In LoTR, we only see the northwestern part of middle-earth; it goes on in the east behind Rhûn, there are some more mountains (the orocarni), maybe rests of the sea of helcar (but I dont think so), i dunno exactly.
try to imagine the world of tolkien was like our world (well it actually is)... lordoftherings-middle-earth would only be like europe or even smalle (especially in the east)... you have another continent in middle-earth which looks a little bit like africa, and also more regions in the east, but smaller than asia.
Maybe this southern part was called south-earth 😄 but still a part of middle-earth though never mentioned in lotr.
Yes, something did live there.
Tolkien wrote manuscripts for an extended version of the Lay of Earendil and describes there that Earendil meets cannibal-ogres, tree-men (ents??) and of course Ungoliant (he kills her in this version instead of her devouring herself)... the Númenóreans also travelled there so I think somebody did live there apart from the Haradrim in Nothern Southern Lands ( 😛 )...