Middle Earth

Bombadil wrote:

Greetings to what has been a very inactive region of late, not that I help that much, we need a ring thrown into the Mt Doom of conversation..

I think I have read your message as a song. Is this normal?

Lagaronians wrote:

I think I have read your message as a song. Is this normal?

Well I'm known for being a jolly old fellow, I don a lovely blue jacket, and my boots are yellow

Bombadil wrote:

Well I'm known for being a jolly old fellow, I don a lovely blue jacket, and my boots are yellow

A wonderful jolly time, always.

Bombadil wrote:

Greetings to what has been a very inactive region of late, not that I help that much, we need a ring thrown into the Mt Doom of conversation..

I will take the ring, though I do not know the way.

We can try to talk for things outside Middle Earth?

How about some less than scholarly debate to increase engagement? I will start with some hot takes:

Orcs weren't green-skinned
Tom Bombadil is older than Treebeard
Balrogs didn't have wings
Elves didn't have pointy ears

Not sure about Orcs, where they described in the book, I'd have them as brownish-grey. For sure Tom is older than Treebeard, he's part and parcel of the formation of Arda. The wings of Balrog, I did watch something on that, it's more they were shadows than solid wings, I think the films did a decent job of portraying that.

Elves.. dunno.

I suppose we suppose that The Book is the only reliable source?

Tom Bombadil is a difficult subject. ;-) He isdescribed as the 'Eldest', but it is also written somewhere that Treebeard was walking around in Middle-Earth before anyone else...
Balrogs, hmm. Gandalfs Balrog falls down, together with Gandalf, and climbs steps, together with Gandalf. That doesn't sound as if he had wings... But at some point, he also jumps out of a high window; that would surely be a strange move, without wings?
About orcs: I also picture them as more or less grey, but I don't know why.
And about the elves: I don't think their ears are mentioned at all in the books, pointed or otherwise? It would surely be interesting to know where the idea of the pointed ears comes from. (Maybe the Vulcans have something to do with it?)

Frodo wrote:

I suppose we suppose that The Book is the only reliable source?

Tom Bombadil is a difficult subject. ;-) He isdescribed as the 'Eldest', but it is also written somewhere that Treebeard was walking around in Middle-Earth before anyone else...
Balrogs, hmm. Gandalfs Balrog falls down, together with Gandalf, and climbs steps, together with Gandalf. That doesn't sound as if he had wings... But at some point, he also jumps out of a high window; that would surely be a strange move, without wings?
About orcs: I also picture them as more or less grey, but I don't know why.
And about the elves: I don't think their ears are mentioned at all in the books, pointed or otherwise? It would surely be interesting to know where the idea of the pointed ears comes from. (Maybe the Vulcans have something to do with it?)

Treebeard is described as the oldest living thing, but Tom is not ‘living’ in the same sense - he is other yet part of Arda - a bridge between ‘other’ and ‘of’ - Treebeard is of the world, Tom is between other and of, not a living thing of the world but not seperate either.

He is older though.

As I said: Tom Bombadil is a difficult subject. But we agree: whoever or whatever he is, he must be older than Treebeard.