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0:00
I've heard some people attempt to argue that Balrogs could have vestigial wings.
0:03
This I find a very comical, uh, suggestion in the end.
0:07
As why would an immortal being who would manifest themselves in a body have a vestigial anything, right?
0:14
Like, seriously, would Balrogs be like, "What I really need for my form is decorative, non-functional wings"?
0:18
That just doesn't really make any sense to me.
0:25
Hi, this is Corey Olsen, the Tolkien Professor, and this is part two of Tolkien Support.
0:32
Loren asks, "Do Orcs just think all Elven weapons glow blue?"
0:38
Only the really scary ones.
0:38
It's not just an automatic property of Elvish weapons, but one of the things that we see in Tolkien is that great craftsmen, great and powerful craftsmen are able to invest the things that we make with something of their own spirit, something of their own desires to infuse some of their own spirit or will into what they do.
1:04
Now, obviously, the biggest example of this is Sauron and the Ring, but I don't even mean on that kind of level.
1:04
The Elves and their passionate, cold hatred of the Orcs and their opposition against everything the Orcs stand for is what is infused into those old swords from Gondolin.
1:04
The old smiths from Gondolin filled their weapons, uh, with their own anger against the goblins, and that's why those swords glow blue.
1:04
It's an expression of that spirit, so it's not an automatic thing.
1:04
So the Orcs won't think that all elf weapons glow blue, but they know what it means.
1:04
They are very aware.
1:04
They can feel the anger of the ancient Elves, the potent anger of the ancient Elves when they see those blue weapons.
1:04
That's why they freak them out so much.
1:04
Dan Roberts asks the classic question, "If Gandalf can summon Eagles, why didn't Frodo just hop a ride to Mount Doom and drop the Ring into the fire?"
1:04
Answer: because that would be an incredibly boring story.
1:04
I would add, Gandalf can't summon Eagles.
1:04
He doesn't have an Eagle summoning ring or an Eagle summoning moth.
1:04
Eagles are free agents, and indeed, there are some implications in the text that they are free agents who operate under the command of the Lords of the West, of the Valar themselves.
1:04
So, no, they don't intervene in the world at all times and under they are not a ferry service.
1:04
They are not a taxi service.
1:04
It's almost just like saying, "Why doesn't God just reach down and smite all the bad guys right away?"
1:04
Well, sure, he could do that, but there are reasons that he doesn't, and those same reasons apply to why the Eagles don't take them into Mordor.
1:04
I would add as a final note, it probably wouldn't work.
2:40
Sauron is an air force too.
2:42
Sauron could see the Eagles coming and he could personally get to Mount Doom before the Eagles that he sees coming in from a distance could, and, uh, that would probably not go well when they got there in that case as there's no open caldera at the top to drop the Ring in from the top.
2:56
So it wouldn't work, but most importantly, it would be a pretty bad story.
3:02
Alexander asks, "Why does the Ring not turn Sauron invisible? Is that explained somewhere?"
3:10
The reason it doesn't turn Sauron invisible is that he doesn't have a body in the normal way.
3:13
When Bilbo finds the Ring in The Hobbit and finds that it turns him invisible, that's kind of the way that he understands it, right?
3:19
He, he has this ring and so he's like, "Oh, it's a magic invisibility ring, that's cool."
3:24
And of course, when Tolkien wrote the story, that's kind of what it was, right?
3:27
When he decides that the Ring of Pat that the Ring is a Ring of Power and in fact it's it has more and different powers than merely the turning invisible, he kind of retcons, uh, the, uh, the invisibility thing.
3:44
And he decides that the invisibility is actually going to be kind of a side effect essentially of the larger power of the Ring.
3:44
The Ringwraiths exist and so there's this like, there's this, there's the physical world and there's the spiritual world.
3:45
A spirit in Tolkien's world can go around the world invisibly, right?
3:57
They don't necessarily interact with the physical world.
4:03
Some spirits can take on a body.
4:05
Sauron is one of these; he can give himself a body and interact, uh, with the physical world.
4:09
The Ringwraiths are men who were drawn into the Wraith world.
4:16
Basically, they are, remember, uh, Bilbo is, uh, says that he feels like butter scraped over too much bread, right?
4:26
The Ringwraiths have been scraped over so much bread that there's nothing at all left of them.
4:27
They're almost completely immaterial, not completely immaterial in the sense that they can hold objects, right?
4:33
They can interact with the physical world, but they no longer really have physical bodies anymore.
4:42
They dwell at once in the Wraith world, in the physical world, and more and more as they are dominated, as they, you know, they get drawn into the Wraith world.
4:48
So when you put on the Ring, you're not just magically, it's not like you're affecting people's vision or the way light reflects off you or something like that, you are actually like going with your whole self into the Wraith world.
5:04
It doesn't affect Sauron this way because he doesn't have a body; he's not immortal.
5:07
The invisibility thing is a consequence of when mortals have because mortals are being drawn into Sauron's world, but he lives there, right?
5:14
Uh, and he's chosen from that world in which he lives to manifest a body, so that manifest body doesn't become invisible because he doesn't want it to be.
5:23
That's the way that Tolkien kind of constructed the whole or reconstructed the invisibility thing after he decided that the Ring was a Ring of Power.
5:31
Jenna J asks, "Is the Ring like a Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants situation?
5:36
Does it fit everyone?
5:36
What do you do if it doesn't fit you?
5:40
If not, are Sauron's hands the same size as Gollum and Frodo?
5:43
Please help me."
5:43
Okay, uh, the answer is yes, the Ring of Power is almost exactly like the traveling pants.
5:52
There are some differences, I admit, but Tolkien does explicitly say that the Ring does change size.
5:56
It change sizes to adjust, uh, to its owner, um, and this is important.
6:01
This represents the Ring has a kind of bond.
6:05
You have to claim the Ring, like you have to know what you're doing, you have to take the Ring and intend to keep it.
6:09
You don't have to know that it's a Ring of Power before you start, but if you claim ownership of the Ring, then it forms a kind of bond with you.
6:17
It can magically change its size so that it can fit any hand that takes it up.
6:24
It is willing to take any master who claims it, but it won't necessarily stay with him.
6:28
It can reject its master as it seems to have done with Gollum and as it seems to have done with Isildur.
6:36
Okay, Carrie Fry asks Lord of the Rings question.
6:36
"I'm too lazy to research, could Sam have carried the Ring?"
6:36
Yes, in fact, Sam did carry the Ring in both directly and indirectly.
6:36
When he thought Frodo was dead, he took it from Frodo's body, thinking that he was going to have to carry it into Mordor himself.
6:36
Uh, he only bore it for a short time, uh, before, of course, he found Frodo again and returned it to Frodo.
6:36
So he does carry it and therefore clearly could have carried it.
6:36
He also carries it indirectly in that in the last stages of the journey, of course, he carries Frodo who is carrying the Ring on his back.
7:09
So Sam does of course himself convey the Ring, you know, still around Frodo's neck, uh, to Mount Doom.
7:18
Could Sam have been the Ring bearer?
7:20
Could he have been the one?
7:21
Well, I mean, no, he couldn't without taking it away from Frodo and that would have destroyed Frodo.
7:26
Frodo would clearly have assaulted him.
7:28
So Sam does what he has to do.
7:30
Sam can't carry the Ring, but he can carry, uh, Frodo, uh, and the Ring with it.
7:34
Okay, Julie Decaro asks, "Why is the entrance to Moria in Elvish?
7:40
Isn't the Elvish word for friend Mithrandir?"
7:42
No, it might seem a synonym.
7:44
The Elvish word for friend is in fact Mellon.
7:49
The entrance to Moria is in Elvish because this was the door that faced the kingdom of the Elves.
7:49
So in the old days, before Moria fell, back in the Second Age of the world, Moria was the greatest of the kingdoms of the Dwarves.
8:00
Their next door neighbors in Eregion, right?
8:04
There, Celebrimbor and the Elves of Eregion were friends with the Dwarves of Moria and they worked together a lot.
8:04
They traded with each other a lot.
8:04
So that gate was built there basically in order to be the liaison between the, the Dwarves of Moria and the Elves of Eregion.
8:21
So that's why the inscription is in Elvish and that's why the command word was in Elvish because it was designed to be the Elves' private entrance basically, uh, into the kingdom of the Dwarves.
8:32
Kind of Computer Jawa has asked, "No living man may hinder the Witch-king, but does Beorn in bear form count?
8:39
Surely not, as he is a bear, not a man, and thus free to maul the boss Ringwraith?"
8:39
That is an interesting exploit, uh, Kind of Computer Jawa.
8:39
I think it wouldn't work because there's a question, of course, there's an open question in The Hobbit about what Beorn is.
8:39
Is he a man who can turn into a bear or is he a bear who can turn into a man?
8:39
Right, ultimately what is he?
8:39
In the text, it's not really clear.
8:39
Gandalf gives his opinion that Beorn is a man who has the power to turn into a bear and Tolkien seems to basically think that Gandalf is probably right about that.
9:12
So I don't think that the shape that he takes ultimately changes like his identity.
9:16
He is a man in bear form.
9:19
He may be a bear, but he's really a man in bear's shape.
9:23
It's a change of shape, not a change of essence, so I think he would not be able to get off on that technicality.
9:32
And they couldn't just call it, of course, apart from the fact that Beorn is dead at that point, but I don't think they could have sent Beorn to hunt down the Witch-king, but it's an excellent suggestion.
9:37
Haley Parr asks, "If the Ring is constantly being sought out by Sauron and the Eye of Mordor, how did it end up in a lake for 2,000 years?"
9:49
What river?
9:49
Technically not lake, but great question.
9:49
A lot of people assume that Sauron has a kind of like Ring detector or at least like Ring proximity detector.
9:49
I think there's plenty of evidence in the text that Sauron cannot detect the presence of the Ring from a distance.
9:49
If you look at the maps of Middle-earth, the spot where the Ring was in the river for thousands of years, more than 2,000 years, is actually pretty close to the place where Sauron set up his headquarters, um, Dol Guldur in Southern Mirkwood.
9:49
He was quite close to where the Ring was for quite some period of time.
10:28
If Sauron had a Ring proximity detector, it would certainly have been going off at some point.
10:33
And even, of course, the evidence of The Lord of the Rings itself, he can't tell when it's there in Mordor.
10:38
It's just miles away from him at that point, far closer than it's been for a really, really long time.
10:46
I think it's pretty clear from the text that Sauron cannot sense the Ring's presence and the Ring approaching.
10:52
Tony McDonough asks, "If it hadn't rained at Helm's Deep, would the battle have gone differently?"
10:59
That's a fascinating question.
11:00
I think it's probably to the advantage of the defenders that it was raining, especially since they would be on firmer ground.
11:06
We know that there's a river that's emerging through there and so the whole area would probably have become muddy and a great deal of running water through there.
11:17
It's actually an element that Peter Jackson didn't really include, which I'm not saying it would have washed them away like the flood of Isengard or the deluge at the Ford of Bruinen, but it certainly would have made the movement of armies a little bit inconvenient.
11:30
So I think if it inconvenienced anyone, it certainly would have inconvenienced the Orcs more than it inconvenienced the defenders.
11:30
So if anything, probably the rain was definitely a net gain there.
11:30
If it would have gone differently, I think it would have been harder for the defenders, but it is possible to see the inclement weather there as being a kind of mercy on the part of the defenders.
11:30
Okay, Matt Daniels asks, "In the 1937 version of The Hobbit, how did Bilbo come into possession of his Ring?"
11:30
Answer: actually in exactly the same way.
11:30
That's not one of the things that Tolkien changed.
11:30
So Bilbo putting his hand accidentally on the Ring in the dark while he's crawling around is how he finds it in the original as well as later.
11:30
The changes that Tolkien made to the 1937 version are primarily to the end of the, um, the terms of the riddle game and the end of the riddle game.
11:30
And actually one of the other interesting trends that you can notice, he makes Gollum creepier and a little bit scarier by adding more sounds, like the hissing, sibilant sounds that Gollum makes are much more pronounced in the later version.
11:30
Like he's going out of his way to make Gollum a little creepier in the second version than he was in the first, but the actual, the original story of the finding of the Ring is the same in the '37 version.
12:49
Jeremy Simmons, uh, asks one of the all-time classic questions, "What is Tom Bombadil?"
12:55
He says it's his first question for Tolkien in the afterlife.
13:07
Hopefully by then he'll have an answer.
13:07
Of course, Jeremy referring to the fact that, uh, Tolkien was, well, not shy on this point, but doesn't answer it straight out.
13:07
One thing we know for certain is Tom Bombadil is not an Elf, he's not a Man, he's not a mortal creature, that's perfectly clear.
13:15
We know this because in his speech that he gives to the hobbits when he talks about how long he's been here, he says he saw the little people arriving, he saw the men come, he saw the elves come through.
13:30
He's been there since before the Elves awoke in Cuiviénen and he predates Elves, the existence of Elves, right?
13:34
So he's not one of the Valar, they're in Valinor, they have other jobs.
13:37
Tom has established himself in his little domain and this is where he lives with his wife, Goldberry.
13:44
Goldberry is also a spirit, she is a spirit of the river actually.
13:46
So Tom Bombadil is that kind of thing, he is a spiritual being, he's a kind of nature spirit, but he's different, he's not like quite like Goldberry.
13:57
He clearly did descend into Arda from outside.
14:00
He says he was there from the beginning before Melkor arrived in Middle-earth.
14:04
I know that there are some people who really like this sort of semi-conspiracy theory that Tom Bombadil is actually God himself, is actually Ilúvatar in physical form.
14:04
That's a charming idea and there's a lot of things that I love about that reading, but it's clearly not true.
14:04
The proponents of this theory point to Goldberry's response when Frodo asks her, "Who is Tom Bombadil?" and she answers, "He is." And a lot of people are like, "Hey, it's like the name of God in Exodus, right?
14:31
'I am that I am.'"
14:34
Tolkien actually explicitly addressed this, like he knew of this theory and he responded to it very clearly.
14:38
And he said, "Actually, first of all, there's a big difference between 'He is' and 'I am that I am.'"
14:44
And he points to the context, right?
14:47
Goldberry says, "He is," and then she pauses and then says, "He is as you have seen him."
14:52
What she's talking about is labels, names, what does it mean?
14:55
Right, as Tom addresses exactly the same thing himself later when Frodo asks him the question, "Who are you, master?"
15:03
And Tom Bombadil says, "Eh, what? Don't you know my name yet?"
15:10
And he says to Frodo, "Who are you alone, yourself and nameless?"
15:10
Right, "You are your name, your name is a label, like how do you capture who you are and what it means to be you?
15:17
So what are you asking of me exactly?"
15:22
And Tom goes on and that's when he gives that speech I was just talking about about how long he's been there and how much he's seen.
15:28
He gives even a kind of answer to that question, "I'm not a hobbit, I'm not a human, I'm not an elf, I have been here since essentially the creation of the world, so draw your own conclusions therefore, Frodo, about what and who you think I am."
15:43
But he's definitely not identifying himself as God, that's pretty clear.
15:52
Greg Maletic asks, "How much time passes between the start of Fellowship and the end of The Return of the King?"
15:55
Answers: a little more than a year.
15:57
So when, well, okay, the start of the Fellowship, of course, is Bilbo's party, right?
16:01
And that's 17 years earlier.
16:03
So you got Bilbo's party and then he goes away and then 17 years pass until Gandalf shows up to Frodo, uh, for chapter two, right?
16:12
And has the conversation about the Ring of Power.
16:16
So there's a 17-year gap there in the very beginning, but after that 17-year gap, it's in the late spring when Gandalf shows up to Frodo and he delays for some time.
16:20
He doesn't leave until Bilbo's birthday, right, is when he moves out of Bag End and September when he moves when he leaves the Shire.
16:30
But remember when they're coming home in The Return of the King after the whole adventure has happened and they're on the homeward road, he's inside of Weathertop when the one-year anniversary of his being stabbed at Weathertop comes in.
16:42
So the whole story takes a little bit less than a year essentially, oh, I should say a little bit more than a year actually until they get back and then some more time passes when they get back home.
16:53
So the last chapter, uh, has a few years, uh, passing before Frodo and Bilbo then depart on the ship, um, but the primary action from 'The Shadow of the Past' when Gandalf comes and has the conversation with Frodo until the Scouring of the Shire is maybe 16, 17 months, something like that.
17:10
And Mog asks, "Dare we do the Balrog wings thing?"
17:17
Okay, yes.
17:17
So do Balrogs have wings?
17:24
This is probably the most classic internet Tolkien question of all time and the answer is no, Balrogs definitely, clearly, authoritatively do not have wings.
17:33
There are no wings on Balrogs.
17:37
This is extremely clear in the text.
17:40
The Balrogs are like the great bad guys, um, they are the primary lieutenants of Melkor, they're basically on a par with Sauron essentially.
17:50
Sauron is the brains of the operation, the Balrogs are kind of thugs, but still they are the heavy infantry, the really heavy infantry, infantry I stress, not air force of Melkor in the First Age.
18:03
They are always described as running and they are on the ground.
18:03
In fact, Tolkien makes a big deal about the fact that Melkor does not have an air force, he does not have any winged support at all until the winged dragons are revealed at the very end.
18:03
In every battle that the Balrogs are described as participating, they are running in front of the armies, they are climbing walls, they cannot possibly fly.
18:03
Also, the fact that more than one Balrog meets its end by plummeting off a cliff is also highly suggestive that the Balrogs do not in fact have wings.
18:03
There are only two reasons why anybody thinks that Balrogs might or should have wings, and the primary one is the description that Tolkien gives of it at the the Bridge of Khazad-dûm.
18:03
He says that as the Balrog steps out, shadow spreads around it like two vast wings, right?
18:03
So he uses a simile comparing, it's just, it's just darkness.
18:03
The Balrog is so powerful, it's so intimidating that darkness itself spreads around it and so in order to try to convey visually what that looks like, he compares the darkness to like two wings.
19:13
There's one other line people who are really kind of grasping at straws to try to prove that Balrogs have wings will point to a sentence in Appendix A which says that the Balrogs flew from Thangorodrim in the old days.
19:32
That means ran away very fast, like they fled from Thangorodrim.
19:32
So, and, and you'll notice, of course, in the very Bridge of Khazad-dûm scene, Gandalf uses the word in exactly that, he says, "Fly, you fools!"
19:32
And I don't think that he is under any illusion that Frodo and Aragorn and Boromir have wings, he's telling them to run away very fast and that's what the Balrogs did from Thangorodrim at the end of the First Age.
19:32
Visual artists universally find that Balrogs look much cooler with wings and you know what, they're totally right.
19:32
There's no question that a Balrog with like huge demon wings is totally scarier looking than a Balrog without huge demon wings, like I get it, they look super cool with wings, but in the text, no, Balrogs do not have wings.
19:32
I'm Corey Olsen, the Tolkien Professor, and this has been Tolkien Support.
20:40
Thanks for your awesome questions.
20:45
I imagine sort of Tolkien's mind back in the 30s when he was first getting The Hobbit published and what he would have thought to imagine us having these kinds of discussions by Twitter and YouTube as we're still thinking about and engaging with his world all these years later, uh, thanks for your time and interest and energy and I hope you learned something about Tolkien today.