Category Archives: Lord of the Rings

A New Day Will Come

On my desk at work, I have a hand crocheted figure from my wife. One she hasn’t shared on her blog. The pattern can’t be found online. It is mine alone, and it means a lot to me that it is only mine. The figure is Samwise Gamgee, one of my favorite characters in all of literature and film and stories in general. There is just something sweet and pure about him that I love, and I love looking at they little figure on my work desk and remembering him and what he means to me. 

My hand-crocheted Samwise from my amazing wife.

Sam means hope, to me. He is so full of hopefulness and optimism, even in the very dark trials and times he goes through. He never gives up, and it’s a big reason Frodo even makes it to the end with the ring and is able, eventually, to let it go. Sam is who I want to be as I face different trials and dark times, either in my personal life, or in a global situation like we find ourselves in now. I find myself turning to and leaning on his example, among others, to get me through. One of the most powerful speeches in the whole trilogy, is the one he gives toward the end of The Two Towers:

Frodo: I can’t do this Sam.

Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights, we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because, how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going, because they were holding onto something. 

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?

Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.

There is so much to unpack in this speech, and it is something that has stayed with me over this year. There is a lot of darkness in this world right now. A lot of fear and a lot of suffering. A lot of fighting and division. It is hard to see how any of this will end happily. And there is no way the world is going to go back to the way it was. In these stories, though, the ones that mattered, I suppose, the world doesn’t go back to the way it was. And it shouldn’t. 

I, like Sam, believe there is a lot of good in this world, and I do believe it is worth fighting for. I see it all around me, though sometimes it can be hard to find. But I am hanging on for that new day that he talks about, when the sun will shine all the clearer. That’s the day I am holding out for. Things will get better. We will make it through this. And on the days when I forget that, I look at my Sam, and it helps me remember.

The Two Towers may be my favorite of the three Lord of the Rings movies. The world is plunged into more and more darkness, but there is so much hope in this film. The people of Rohan at Helm’s Deep, Gandalf arriving at dawn, the Ents marching on Isengard, all of these things represent hope for the people of Middle Earth. And of course, at the end of the whole story, the happy ending, Sauron is defeated, Aragorn is king, the hobbits return home and begin their lives, but nothing goes back to the way it was. These stories never end with things going back to the way they were. 

It doesn’t work that way in the real world either. So many instances of hardship and trial, and it has ended happily, but it was a new world. Looking back on the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War II, all of these conflicts that were huge trials and burdens with much suffering, they all ended happily, but the world had changed. Hopefully for the better. 

I believe we are in one of those times now. The world will never return to what it was pre-2020. Too much has happened and too much has changed. We are going into the dusk of the old day and into the night, but the sun is going to rise on a new day. It will shine all the clearer. I don’t know what the rest of 2020 or 2021 has in store for us, and I don’t know how long the night will last, by I do know it is a passing shadow. Even this darkness must end. And I can’t wait to see what the new day will be like.

So, when I find myself feeling lost in all of this, I look at my Sam. I think of him and this speech. I think of him rationing out the food so they would have enough for the return journey. I think of him carrying Frodo the rest of the way up the mountain. And I think of him returning home and marrying the girl of his dreams and starting his family. I think of Sam, and I think of hope. Of all the languages and histories and mythologies and everything else Professor Tolkien created, Sam was his greatest creation, because Sam was a never ending source of hope and optimism that has helped to carry more that just Frodo through Mordor. He’s carried all of us at one point too. Maybe that’s a bit much, but I know he has helped cary me through some rough times.

When I look at the characters in Lord of the Rings, I often see Aragorn being similar to Jesus Christ, being a king, having that noble birthright, literally saving mankind. Aragorn in many ways could be like the Savior. Sam, though, to me represents the relationship on a personal level, that I want with the Savior. That friend that is always there to lift me up and carry me at times. Not in an overly simplified way like the Footprints poem. But in a real, constant way. Yes, at the very end, Sam literally picks up Frodo and carries him the rest of the way, but the reality is, he was a support to Frodo every step of the way. And I love him for that. And that is the very real and personal relationship I want with the Lord. 

So, today, as I thought about what I wanted to write, I looked at my Sam, and I knew. I needed to write about Samwise the Brave. Because like Frodo, I couldn’t have gone far without Sam.

30Days30Characters: Day 4- Samwise Gamgee

November is starting to fly by for me. I think going through this list of characters I put together and listing why they have meant something for me has been a lot of fun and has contributed to the month going so quickly. It will be Thanksgiving before I know it. It has also been fun to start seeing some of the reactions to my list of 30 characters. Starting tomorrow, each week will have a specific medium from which the characters will be drawn. This upcoming week will be comics. To finish out this week, though, it’s one of my all time favorite characters of any medium.

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Liz’s Goodbye: Some Spiritual Lessons from Fandom

If you haven’t heard by now, Jake has decided that The Geeky Mormon needs to go in a new direction, and as me contributing articles does not fit with his vision for the site, I will no longer be writing. For the time being, plan on me still writing, but exclusively for my personal blog, The Jedi in Jeans. It was a pleasure writing for The Geeky Mormon and sharing all of my geeky thoughts with you. Before I go, here are a few things I want to share with you that I have learned from both my interests in sci-fi and fantasy, and from my faith as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in other words, from being a Geeky Mormon. I won’t elaborate on some of the themes too much. A picture’s worth a thousand words, so I will include pictures/quotes from our favorite stories as well as appropriate scripture references. I may very well have addressed some of these themes in my other posts. Other than that, I will leave the interpretation to you.

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A Shout Out to Underrated Supporting Characters

Like I’ve said before, I don’t put the ‘Mormon’ in The Geeky Mormon very much, but last week in one of my Sunday meetings we had a discussion on people in the scriptures who play supporting roles. The message was that the part that every person plays in God’s plan is important, even if compared to others’ parts it appears minor. I went home and thought about characters from my favorite books, movies and TV shows that play important supporting roles and, perhaps, deserve a little more credit than they normally get. If most of these heroes have been recognized by their fandoms, then they are worth mentioning again. The characters that speak to our hearts, no matter how big or small a role they play, are the ones who make a difference.

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13 Fandom Deaths That Will Always Be Too Soon

Here’s a short tribute to the saddest deaths in some of our fandoms, to the ones who die without being likely to come back.  None of these are necessarily in order, and I don’t have time to discuss the hows and whys of all their deaths today. But see if you can make it through this post without crying. Also, spoilers for just about everything.

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The Importance of Being Funny

Part of this essay is based on a term paper I wrote for my English 333 class at BYU

This is mainly about The Hobbit but I cite Steve and Bucky as an example because Civil War is still on everyone’s minds.

Steve: Remember that time we had to ride back from Rockaway Beach in the back of that freezer truck?

Bucky: Was that the time you used our train money to buy hot dogs?

Steve: You blew three bucks trying to that stuffed bear for a redhead.

Bucky: What was her name again?

Steve: Dolores.  You called her Dot.

Bucky: She’s got to be 100 years old right now.

Steve: So are we, pal.

(source: Pinterest)

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Is The Book Really Better?

I grew up hearing that The Lord of the Rings films were actually pretty close to the books.  When I finally watched them, however, I found out that the films were actually quite a bit different. True, there were some things I liked better, and some of the changes were understandable or more interesting, but on the whole, I liked the books better.

That’s actually all I’m going to say about LOTR for this post, but it serves as an introduction to an important discussion. I am a book geek.  I have been since the first grade.  I will be until I go blind in old age. But that doesn’t mean I a hundred percent hate movies that are based on books.  I don’t always read the book first, but I am the kind of person who prefers to. This is the case especially when I’ve heard good things about the book as well, for instance, Life of Pi. On the other hand, sometimes I refuse to read the book because the film/television version I grew up watching is completely different and I don’t want to tarnish my feelings for the film (a lot of Disney movies I like are this way).  But if the movie is based on a book that I have read and liked, then I am going to hold it to a certain standard.

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10 Geeky Ways to Get Into the Holiday Spirit

(I’m writing my Christmas post now because my next post is most likely to be my reaction to The Force Awakens)

This is a bit of my OCD talking: I’m a skeptic when it comes to mixing sci-fi and fantasy with Christmas. I was raised in a family where the religious side of Christmas was always observed, and I’ve continued that in my adult life. Mixing Christmas with Disney princesses or superheroes or so forth can make me a little uncomfortable. Holiday specials featuring these characters can get a little on the cheesy side so I tend to avoid those. Storm troopers in Santa hats? I’ll have to tell you no. If we’re talking fan art, I might be a little more receptive. Yes, I believe that Christmas is “magical,” but I don’t like to mix it with other people’s definitions of that magic. Christmas should be about Christmas! I’m not a total purist, I’m just really picky.

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Gifts from Middle Earth

As promised, here is my next Holiday gift guide. This time we will be looking at 10 gifts that are perfect for the special LOTR or Hobbit fan in your life. Just like the previous gift guides, if you see something you like, click on the picture and it will take you right to a site where you can purchase the item. I am not sponsored or affiliated with any of the sites, so I gain nothing from this, just here to help. So, let’s start our journey, our gift giving journey through Middle Earth.

1. The Precious

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One gift to rule them all…

It’s a pretty hot item in Middle Earth. Everyone seems to want to get their hands on it. Now it can be yours. Granted, “One Ring” replicas have been around for a while, but if your favorite LOTR fan doesn’t have one, they probably want one. This particular one is available on ThinkGeek.com for $99.99 and is made of tungsten, plated in gold and available in various sizes. Beware: If you get this for a loved one, you may become only the second most important thing in their life, as this will obviously be number one.

2. Map of Middle Earth

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They don’t have GPS in Middle Earth, so make sure you have a map.

If you don’t know where you are going, you could end up anywhere. This map will help if you ever find yourself in Middle Earth and you need to find the shire. The truth is, one of the coolest things about fantasy novels is the maps that are almost always included in the book. Like everything else in the Fantasy genre, Tolkien set the standard for this. Now you can have a version of that map to hang on your wall at home. This particular one is available at ThinkGeek.com for $39.99 and is already mounted on wood, and would like nice on any wall.

3. The Lord of the Rings Card Game

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Card Game for the Ages

Folks who love fantasy books and movies are also usually folks who love board games and card games (not like Uno or SkipBo). When you can find a game that combines both, you usually have a hit on your hands. This is the Lord of the Rings Card Game. It is a cooperative game in which 2 players work together to win the game. A great game for game night when the kids go to bed. One where one side won’t feel bad because the other side is just so extremely smart and good at everything she does so there is now way I can ever beat her at any game, EVER!…I mean, generally speaking, and of course not from experience. This is available from Amazon.com for $31.95 and is prime eligible.

4. Gandalf and Saruman Salt and Pepper Shakers

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Because why not?

Nothing says “I am a really big fan” like having Salt and Pepper shakers modeled after what you love. These are great. The cooler schemes work out perfectly, because obviously this was when Gandalf was still the Gray (he’s the pepper) and Saruman was the White (Salt). They are also magnetic. I suppose this keeps them in this stance when not being used. These are available on Amazon.com for $19.50 and are Prime eligible.

5. Gandalf’s Pipe

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Make any cosplay complete

Now I don’t condone smoking of any sort, but if I did it would be pipe smoking. Quite a lot of people buy pipes online or elsewhere as they find something more refined about it, and it smells better. This is a fully functional pipe, so if you would like to use it for that, you can. It also makes a great conversation piece for any LOTR collector. This is available from ThinkGeek.com for $64.99, and Bilbo’s pipe is also available. If you don’t have access to that kind of money right now, you can find out how to make a homemade pipe on this website.

6. Lord of the Rings-50th Anniversary Edition

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One book to rule them all

Bringing the 3 volumes together into one volume, just as it is intended to be read, this beautiful edition of the Lord of the Rings would be ideal for any fan of the movies or books. This is a hardbound copy with a nice slipcover. It contains all 3 volumes of The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship, Two Towers, and Return of the King. It is available on ThinkGeek.com for $79.99 (which would include free shipping!)

7. LEGO The Hobbit Video Game

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LEGO + Hobbits= Awesome!

If you have not yet tried out the LEGO video games yet, then you are missing out. They are hours of good clean fun. Once you play through the story, then you need to go back and keep playing the levels until you have unlocked all the characters and secret sets and so on. It is a lot of fun. Plus, they are well-known titles like Marvel and DC and LOTR or Hobbit, so your kids will be into them too, and you won’t have to worry about too much violence or sex or language. This title is available on Amazon.com and ranges from $15 to $30 depending which platform you purchase it for.

8. The Desolation of Smaug: Extended Edition

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When you just can’t get enough of that Middle Earth goodness

You might think it is a little overkill to turn a single novel into 3 really long movies. If you think that, then you might think it’s a lot of overkill to then release extended version of those movies on home video. But for fans of the franchise, it is just more Hobbit to love. Just in time for the final installment, this extended edition comes out. It is available from Amazon.com for $19.96 and is Prime eligible. You can also get it through their video streaming.

9. Arwen’s Pendant

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A shining star

I always really liked this love story from Lord of the Rings. Aragorn needed Arwen and she needed him, and their love would out live either of them. This pendant symbolizes the love between them, as she gave it to Aragorn and he wore it proudly. Now you can give it to your loved one for Christmas and let them know that your love is as eternal as theirs. This is available at ThinkGeek.com for $199.99. To new fans of Tolkien’s work, these names may mean nothing and so they may wish to brush up on the characters and lore here on the Tolkien forums.

10. Thorin’s Key

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Give your loved one the key to your heart…or something like that.

Now you can have your very own key to adventure and treasure. This is a great replica of the key that started the whole adventure. If Thorin hadn’t had this key, he would have never gone after their treasure, so they would have never needed Bilbo, so he would have never found the ring, and then given it to Frodo, who would have never needed to go to Mt. Doom. This key is the key to the whole adventure. Available at ThinkGeek.com for $29.99.

That will wrap up our Middle Earth list. Join us again, later today for our next gift guide: Star Wars. Also check out our first list, Doctor Who. Share this list with others that might be looking high and low for some great geeky gifts.

What Made Tolkien so Amazing

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The other day my family and I were at our local public library (if you don’t find yourself occasionally at a public library you need to examine your geekhood), and my wife was looking for a new book to read.  She is an avid reader, and has kind of taken an interesting turn in what she reads.  When she was growing up, she didn’t read any kind of fantasy or SciFi or anything like that.  If it couldn’t really happen, she wasn’t interested.  To the point that she refused, REFUSED, to read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  In her mind there was no way that you could go to the back of a closet and end up in some fantastical land called Narnia.  She preferred historical fiction, grounded in reality and actual events.  Fast forward a few years, and somehow she ended up marrying the biggest geek she had ever met.  I only read fantasy and SciFi.  Ok, maybe not exclusively, but that is my first choice.  I have attempted to open up her world a little bit, and have made some promising progress.  I have gotten her to read the Narnia books, and she enjoyed them.  I think now that she’s older she understands more of the symbolism.  I also helped convince her to read the Harry Potter books, and she finished the sixth just in time to wait anxiously for number seven.  We almost had to buy two copies so we could read it at the same time.  Lately, she has been reading a lot of young fantasy- Fablehaven, Percy Jackson, The Hunger Games, etc.  I have been waiting for the right moment to try to get her into the hard stuff.  The good stuff.  I have been thinking a lot about that as I have been reading the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (I am only on the 4th book, which feels like an accomplishment, until I look at how far I still have to go). So, in this situation we find ourselves at the library and she is looking for a new book to read and she has no idea what to read. I jump at the chance and search high and low for the perfect book to introduce her into the world of Fantasy.  I know exactly what I am looking for, I just have to hope the have it and I can find it.  Don’t get me wrong, I can find my way in a library, but they try to classify everything so much nowadays.  At first I couldn’t find it, and I was disappointed, but then I looked in the “teen fiction” section, and bingo, there it was.  The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien.  There is no better way to introduce someone to the world of Fantasy Literature than Tolkien, the man who practically invented the genre.  I felt like The Hobbit was a good place for her to start.  It is a small book, not intimidating at all.  It’s not part of some extremely long series and can stand alone if she decides she does not want to read further.  More than that, it is well written.  It wasn’t written to be a bestseller, appealing to the lowest common denominator of any given group.  It was written the only Tolkien could write, as a masterpiece.

As I suggested the book to her, I was almost envious of her reading it for the first time.  Experiencing Middle Earth for the very first time.  It would be an amazing thing to find a way to recapture that.  Amazing, but impossible for me, so I plan to live now vicariously through my wife.  As she began reading it, she read part of the introduction aloud to me.  It was discussing how there are spelling errors in the book, like the term dwarves.  At the time, the correct spelling was dwarfs and dwarfish, but when describing the dwarves in his book, Tolkien purposely used dwarves.  My wife was confused by that.  “Isn’t dwarves right?”  It is now, because of Tolkien.  Think about, the best example I have pre-Tolkien is the Disney masterpiece, Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs. That’s the title. For your convenience, you can click here and go to the IMDB page and see for yourself.  I always thought that was funny to me.  Was Disney just trying to be cutesy?  Turns out, that was the correct spelling pre-Tolkien.  Now though, dwarves seems to be more common, if not more correct.  We say dwarfish, not dwarfish.  Was that all really started by Tolkien? Why not?  The man practically invented and cemented our modern images of dwarves, elves, orcs, hobbits, wizards, etc.  Where would we be without Tolkien?  I wouldn’t be in the middle of the Wheel of Time series, or really be interested in fantasy very much at all.  HBO wouldn’t have a huge hit with Game of Thrones, so they would have to find some other way spew forth gratuitous sex and violence (somehow, I think they’d manage).  Salt Lake would not have just had their first successful FantasyCon. Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom may still be waiting for their big breaks, while Elijah Wood and Sean Astin would be remembered only for the younger roles (like Huck Finn and Goonies respectively). No one would have ever heard of Peter Jackson or Weta or New Zealand.  I might even go so far as to say that the Fantasy Genre as we know it would not exist.

Why was Tolkien so amazing?  Why would his books be the first ones I run to in order to introduce my wife to Fantasy literature?  I think Tolkien did more than just tell a story.  He created a whole world.  A world full of history, full of ancient myths and stories, many of which have never been published, but he knew them.  A world full of languages.  Dwarvish, Elvish, the dark tongue or Mordor.  He created them all.  It wasn’t enough to just throw in an occasional word or rune here and there.  He made them real.  When you read his books, you find references to other stories and myths and characters and histories that may only be mentioned, but with such authority that you know that Tolkien has them written down somewhere.  He knows the legend or the myth or the story.  There is a completeness to his stories that aren’t found in many other series.  All of that makes Tolkien’s work superb and wonderful.

More than that, his stories were real.  Not real in a “they really happened” sort of way, but real in a “I really identify with what this character is feeling” sort of way.  That was the real genius of Tolkien.  I remember reading The Return of the King for the first time.  I remember the way I just felt hopeless, like there was just so much evil in the world and the men were so outnumbered, and Sam and Frodo were on their own, and there was just no way they would overcome everything and make it out.  How many of us feel that way personally sometimes?  How many of us can look at the world today and say, “there’s just too much, we can’t win.”  I heard once that that was the reason Tolkien set out to write what would become the Lord of the Rings series.  He wanted to define what evil was.  He and Lewis and others he associated with had all experienced darkness and evil firsthand as they survived WWII.  They all lived through the air raids and the constant fear.  The war that was fought in Britain was very different from what we experienced here in the U.S.  He wrote this story to come to terms with what he saw in the world.  I can imagine that there were times when it all seemed hopeless, like the light would never come.  Like Frodo and Sam would come so far, only to collapse at the foot of Mount Doom, and not make it any further.  But they did.  You feel the despair, but you feel the hope that is always there sometimes.  Even in the darkest of times, there is always a little bit of hope. And the hope wins out.  In the end, the darkness fails, light prevails.  I always loved Sam.  Merry and Pippin were funny and kept things light.  Frodo was all of us, the regular guy thrown into the middle of everything unexpectedly.  Aragorn was just really cool, and unattainable (he may have a little bit of a Messiah complex going on).  But Sam, Sam was my favorite.  He was the hope.  He was always there.  Even when he went away for a while, he was not really gone.  He is the embodiment of hope, and without him, Frodo would not have made it to the end.  I love the works of Tolkien, because I felt it all.  I know that we don’t live in a world of wizards and magic and giant eagles, but we do live in a world with Sams out there.  I want to be one.  That part was real, as real as anything else I have ever read.  Tolkien took this idea of Fantasy and elevated it above just fairy tales and made it real and deep and worth reading.

So I envy my wife.  I envy that she eta to experience all of that for the first time.  I hope she will understand why I love the realm of fantasy so much after she is done reading it.  I’m sure she will.  If Tolkien can’t win her over, no one can.