🇸🇬 🇳🇴 Second Age gremlin. Elendil connoisseur. #1 Dúnedain defender. Writer. War historian. All views my own.
Feb 28, 2023 • 17 tweets • 4 min read
Hi I had no idea #tolkientrewsday was a thing but as a war historian I feel compelled to chime in on the Visions of War theme! I’d like to highlight the variety of ways Tolkien has explored war: geopolitically, strategically, and socially. 1/15
One thing Tolkien consistently features is alliances, both of good and of evil. The letter from Gil-galad to Tar-Meneldur in Aldarion and Erendis (Unfinished Tales) is a brilliant case study of how the Free Peoples maximise security: 2/15
Jan 7, 2023 • 25 tweets • 5 min read
The Second Age flashbacks in FOTR are among the best sequences ever put to film yet contain one of the worst adaptational changes IMO. I’m stuck on how Isildur’s pain, pride, + loss, subsumed by the corrupting influence of the Ring, was reduced to “No” and “Men are weak”.
This will be a VERY long thread. Because I get the need to condense things for adaptation, I really do. I forgive a LOT. But reducing Isildur’s decision to “weakness” fundamentally alters the power dynamic. It paradoxically implies exactly what Aragorn and Gandalf warn against:
