Well, the title of what I am writing is: Errors, Potential Errors, Conflicts, Inconsistencies, Anachronisms, and Mysteries in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The examples given were mainly conflicts and inconsistencies. For genuine errors, we have as an example, in The Hobbit:
Page 150 – it is stated, “…since they started their journey that May morning long ago”, but it is clear that prior to this passage the journey began at the end of April. For example, on page 25, Gandalf states, “….your father went away on the twenty-first of April, a hundred years ago last Thursday”. Thus it could be no later than April 29 when the journey began the next day. Indeed, on page 12 of FOTR, Tolkien writes of Bilbo, “With them he set out, to his own lasting astonishment, on a morning in April”.
Page 299 – it is stated, “……Gandalf had been to a great council of the white wizards….”. As learned later when Tolkien fleshed out the mythos of Middle-earth for LOTR, there had only ever been five wizards in Middle-earth and only one of them (Saruman) was a white wizard. Thus there could not have been any council of white wizards. In LOTR, Gandalf states that this event was a Council of the Wise (which included elves). Further confusing the issue is the fact that the Council of the Wise was also known as the White Council.
For The Lord of the Rings, there are many errors but I am in the midst of cataloguing them. Also numerous are outright conflicts with The Hobbit. Here are some samples:
Dwarves in TH are armed with bows and arrows, mattocks, and swords but those in LOTR use axes exclusively.
Talking trolls with first and last names are unique to TH. Trolls in LOTR are mute and nameless.
Tolkien frequently refers to tobacco in TH, although in LOTR tobacco is mentioned only as pipe-weed. Pipe-weed as such is not mentioned in TH.
Tolkien did word some passages poorly such that their meaning is ambivalent. in FOTR, Frodo is said to be thinking about Balin's visit to the Shire long ago, giving the impression that he is remembering it from experience. But the timeline in the Appendices indicate that Balin's visit occurred about 20 years before Frodo was born. There are others and I will be collecting them as I go through the books again line by line.
Thanks, WTM
P.S. Stay away from Entmoot.com if you don't wish to be disrespected and called names. Tolkien fanboys aren't always reasonable. But if you haven't seen it, The Encyclopedia of Area is a Tolkien scholar's dream. http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/default.asp
Yes I have, on the site entmoot.com. It is pretty much as you have said. Here are a few tidbits from my ongoing review:
There still remain a number of canonical errors in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, original errors made by Tolkien that he never rectified and which publishers are now afraid to correct since they fear incurring the wrath of the Tolkien Estate, which holds practically his every written word to be sacrosanct. A good example of such is to be found on page 150 in The Two Towers, when Gimli saves Eomer’s life by beheading two orcs just prior to the battle of Helm’s Deep, stating afterwards that he had ‘hewn naught but wood since Moria’, completely ignoring the battle in which Boromir was killed and in which Gimli and Legolas had together slain dozens of marauding orcs.
From The Hobbit: Page 51 – It is stated, “The master of the house was an elf-friend”. The housemaster in question was the 6,500 year-old Elrond Halfelven, one of the greatest elves in Middle-earth, and not just a mere elf-friend, as were Bilbo and later Frodo. The title of 'elf-friend' was traditionally granted by the Elves to their allies among mortals.
Pages 42-43 – the ‘pots full of gold coins’ are subsequently referred to as ‘pots of coins’ and ‘pots of gold’. On page 301, these pots are called ‘the gold of the trolls’.
From The Lord of the Rings: Dwarves in TH are armed with bows and arrows, mattocks, and swords but those in LOTR use axes exclusively.
On page 49 of TH it is stated that elves tease and laugh at dwarves because of their beards. Yet, in ROTK, Cirdan, the oldest male elf remaining in Middle-earth, is described as having a grey beard himself. Tolkien does not say if Galadriel and Elrond were sniggering behind his back as they boarded ship at the Grey Havens.
This was from back when one could trust the content of newspapers and before they had comics and advertisements. We're talking about a really OLD newspaper here.
It's changed an awful lot over the last decade, so you have some catching up to do. A bat/hedgehog hybrid, a coup or two at Herd Thinners, and species-changing surgery from wolf to sheep are among the highlights.
I first saw Greater Tuna in Midland in 1982, which featured other actors, and was impressed as to how good it was. I later saw it at the 1894 Opera House in Galveston, with the original cast of Sears and Williams, and was blown away, along with a raucous full house. Loud and prolonged laughter is its hallmark, and one has to see it several times just to hear all of the dialogue. Sadly, the three sequels, each of progressively lesser quality, do not live up to the original.
Errors, Potential Errors, Conflicts, Inconsistencies, Anachronisms, and Mysteries in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The examples given were mainly conflicts and inconsistencies. For genuine errors, we have as an example, in The Hobbit:
Page 150 – it is stated, “…since they started their journey that May morning long ago”, but it is clear that prior to this passage the journey began at the end of April. For example, on page 25, Gandalf states, “….your father went away on the twenty-first of April, a hundred years ago last Thursday”. Thus it could be no later than April 29 when the journey began the next day. Indeed, on page 12 of FOTR, Tolkien writes of Bilbo, “With them he set out, to his own lasting astonishment, on a morning in April”.
Page 299 – it is stated, “……Gandalf had been to a great council of the white wizards….”. As learned later when Tolkien fleshed out the mythos of Middle-earth for LOTR, there had only ever been five wizards in Middle-earth and only one of them (Saruman) was a white wizard. Thus there could not have been any council of white wizards. In LOTR, Gandalf states that this event was a Council of the Wise (which included elves). Further confusing the issue is the fact that the Council of the Wise was also known as the White Council.
For The Lord of the Rings, there are many errors but I am in the midst of cataloguing them. Also numerous are outright conflicts with The Hobbit. Here are some samples:
Dwarves in TH are armed with bows and arrows, mattocks, and swords but those in LOTR use axes exclusively.
Talking trolls with first and last names are unique to TH. Trolls in LOTR are mute and nameless.
Tolkien frequently refers to tobacco in TH, although in LOTR tobacco is mentioned only as pipe-weed. Pipe-weed as such is not mentioned in TH.
Tolkien did word some passages poorly such that their meaning is ambivalent. in FOTR, Frodo is said to be thinking about Balin's visit to the Shire long ago, giving the impression that he is remembering it from experience. But the timeline in the Appendices indicate that Balin's visit occurred about 20 years before Frodo was born. There are others and I will be collecting them as I go through the books again line by line.
Thanks,
WTM
P.S. Stay away from Entmoot.com if you don't wish to be disrespected and called names. Tolkien fanboys aren't always reasonable. But if you haven't seen it, The Encyclopedia of Area is a Tolkien scholar's dream. http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/default.asp
Yes I have, on the site entmoot.com. It is pretty much as you have said. Here are a few tidbits from my ongoing review:
There still remain a number of canonical errors in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, original errors made by Tolkien that he never rectified and which publishers are now afraid to correct since they fear incurring the wrath of the Tolkien Estate, which holds practically his every written word to be sacrosanct. A good example of such is to be found on page 150 in The Two Towers, when Gimli saves Eomer’s life by beheading two orcs just prior to the battle of Helm’s Deep, stating afterwards that he had ‘hewn naught but wood since Moria’, completely ignoring the battle in which Boromir was killed and in which Gimli and Legolas had together slain dozens of marauding orcs.
From The Hobbit:
Page 51 – It is stated, “The master of the house was an elf-friend”. The housemaster in question was the 6,500 year-old Elrond Halfelven, one of the greatest elves in Middle-earth, and not just a mere elf-friend, as were Bilbo and later Frodo. The title of 'elf-friend' was traditionally granted by the Elves to their allies among mortals.
Pages 42-43 – the ‘pots full of gold coins’ are subsequently referred to as ‘pots of coins’ and ‘pots of gold’. On page 301, these pots are called ‘the gold of the trolls’.
From The Lord of the Rings:
Dwarves in TH are armed with bows and arrows, mattocks, and swords but those in LOTR use axes exclusively.
On page 49 of TH it is stated that elves tease and laugh at dwarves because of their beards. Yet, in ROTK, Cirdan, the oldest male elf remaining in Middle-earth, is described as having a grey beard himself. Tolkien does not say if Galadriel and Elrond were sniggering behind his back as they boarded ship at the Grey Havens.
And a LOT more to come.
Thanks,
WTM
No more feature articles though. :-(
As can be seen, the SJW are already all over this. I feel sorry for Frank Oz.