Thanks for watching! For more juicy (soupy?) content, consider becoming a member on Patreon! www.patreon.com/verityritchie

"But what about second divorce?" "I don't think he knows about second divorce, Pippin."

If Ian McKellen says it's gay, then it's gay.

When I was ten I was reading and said "Mom what does 'queer' mean?" "uhhhh read me the sentence...... odd, yeah it just means odd." Then later I said queer in front of my dad and he was like "who taught you that word?" "The Hobbit" "it's an old fashioned word, it doesn't mean that anymore. Don't use it, you'll get teased." Oh to be an innocent bookish child in 1993.

I always thought the way males were portrayed in their relationships to each other was just a reflection of the normal interactions between male friends of the time. It seems (and ( could be wrong) that its only been in the last century that (the Western world at least) have made masculinity very toxic. The LOTR always felt like seeing good, positive examples of masculinity. Hugging, holding hands or expressing love for your friends doesn't have to be inherently romantic or sexual, except to the Western mindset, apparently.

I do really appreciate the lack of romance in these books as an aroace person. So many fantasy books now have a giant focus on romance and sex, and it can be hard a lot of the time to find them without. Having this book be largely about platonic relationships is just really nice to me when they are almost always pushed to the side in the favor of romance in every other piece of media.

fun fact: there is a 13th century old french version of the 'girl who pretended to be a boy' narrative (Yde et Olive) funner fact: they end up with a son called Croissant

If I may speak honestly. LOTR is one of my favorite books partially because it doesn't talk about sex very much. It's more comfortable for me to read stories that don't bring it up that much.

"Soup: the food that is juice" is now my favorite phrase, thank you.

Shout out to Leonora Blanche Lang, Andrew Lang’s wife, for actually doing most of the work compiling “his” Fairy Books. (Along with a team of other women.)

Wait wait wait wait wait, you did not just call Faramir “bootleg Aragorn”

As a cis straight woman, I've always loved Lord of the Rings because there's so much gentle masculinity and platonic love, and also because even though the women are just side characters, they're all really cool (Eowyn, Arwen, Galadriel).

An interesting fact to note about the Andrew Lang books is that he was primarily the editor. Leonora Blanche Alleyne, his wife, did most of the work. Lang himself writes in a preface: “The fairy books have been almost wholly the work of Mrs Lang, who has translated and adapted them from the French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Catalan and other languages.” She and a team of other writers, mostly women, did the translations and wrote the adaptations.

In defense of Eowyn and Faramir as a couple, and in defense of Eowyn’s story arc, I think you may have discounted Tolkein’s perspective in writing her and Faramir. I am someone who as a cis woman absolutely idolizes Eowyn and I have since I was a very young child. To me, her character never read as woman who wanted to be a warrior, but someone who wanted the freedom to do things that would make a difference and protect her loved ones. It’s not that she dislikes what is expected of her as a woman, it’s that in this time of crisis and war, she wants to ride out with her brother and uncle and protect the country and people she loves so dearly. I read her crush on Aragorn as not real love, but first as a desire to be like him and then as appreciation because he values and validates her bravery and desire to fight. In her life, hes the only person who thinks she’s capable of it and that endears him to her. Faramir is a scholar who deeply loves learning and a peaceful life. But with war looming, he was expected to be the perfect warrior archetype like his brother. So he puts aside his desires and dedicated himself to becoming that. Despite not being a natural warrior, Faramir still takes great pride in serving to protect his people and does so without complaint. Even if it wasn’t expected of him, I still think he would have chosen to do so anyway. When asked which character is the most like himself, Tolkien always said Faramir. Like Faramir, Tolkien is a scholar and bookworm with passion for peace, nature, and learning. But as a young man, he left his studies to fight in a horrendous war. When that war ended, he put down his proverbial sword and resumed as a scholar, as did Faramir. I think Eowyn finding her true happiness by also putting down her sword and becoming a healer is meant to mirror The characters with each other. It also has a parallel with many women of the time that served as military medics and nurses returning from war and resuming their lives and finding husbands. Some went on to continue in a medical profession, others not but they did not go back to war because that was never what joining up was about for them. When Eowyn and Faramir get together and become healers, it’s because it’s what they want to do in a world now free of war, they have the freedom to do so. Middle Earth doesn’t need warriors to serve and protect it anymore. It needs scholars and healers to help it recover from war. Tolkien wrote an ending for her that he himself desired idealized beyond all else for himself and he thought she was the soulmate of the character he identifies most with. I really love this ending for her because I live in a world where cataclysmic climate change and dozens of systems of brutal oppression threaten the life and freedom of myself and everyone else. In the year 2024 I find myself marching and protesting for rights my grandmother had. It’s not with a sword, but I fight as an activist against the proverbial hoards of orcs actively destroying my country. I cannot imagine a happier future than one where I don’t have to fight anymore and I can live in peace with my partner and not have to worry about climate change or my right to autonomy or my country’s military committing more war crimes or our prisons acting as slave labor camps or billions of animals being needlessly slaughtered every year. The fact that Eowyn’s character is rewarded with such peace and happiness in the end shows an Tolkein’s admiration and respect for her bravery and demand for freedom of choice in her life.

I must be on the internet too much, because when you started talking about food in the middle of the video, I assumed it was a segue to a sponsorship from HelloFresh

Calling Faramir an "offbrand Aragorn" is the biggest insult to his character 👎

One of the things that drives me crazy about the polygon article is that we actually know how 1950s novelists wrote about queerness. Giovanni's room was published in the same decade; The City and the Pillar was published in 1948; the Pied Piper of Lovers was published in 1935; The Western Shore in 1925 and Death in Venice in 1912. I... don't get the same vibes from LoTR

I liked learning about the Violet Fairy Book. I think Eowyn also kills the Witch King because Tolkien didn't enjoy how some of the prophecy works out in MacBeth. He liked the idea of a woman killing the one no man born of a woman can kill better than using a c-section as a work around for the term born. He also has the ents move the forest to Isengard to get the orcs rather than having guys in disguise like when Birnam Wood come to Dunsinane. Tolkien never said the Eowyn part straight out, but he did say MacBeth made him want to “devise a setting in which the trees might really march to war.” and he is on record being very critical of Shakespeare throughout his life.

I love your interpretations of LOTR so, so much. I met Sean Astin two weeks ago at a Comic Con, and my friend had him sign a painting of Frodo reading next to a tree. She asked him to put write a message on the tree that said "Sam loves Frodo," and while he did, he smiled and said, "It's true you know." Then at the Q&A, he was talking about how he loves that the queer community has latched on the relationship and there's nothing that says they didn't kiss each other more intimately. Sean Astin is the nicest human, and we need a billion more people like him in this world.

As an old lady Catholic woman myself. When I first read the book. Years before your parents were even dating. I never saw it as sexual. This coming from a women who saw 70s rock bands live. Your are right. If anything was sexual. It was the ring.

I am 77 and avidly read fairy stories as a young boy, including Andrew Lang's books. As with the Grimm brothers, these were oral traditions from several centuries earlier. Indeed. Tolkien, like many English Lit adcademics taught Beowulf and Norse folk tales. Well done on delving the connections, which I had overlooked when I first read LOTR. As a queer old fart (though not Catholic or any other religious persuasion) I have seen love between men (or between women) as fraternal, idealistic or heroic, in addition to being romantic or erotic. I often say "Love is love is love - and comes in many forms and varieties". Excellent video, my dear.

"'...she was inspired by this Valkyrie because......they were both women.......and both...had hair."' I LOLed out loud

I love when video essays suddenly become good pieces of investigative journalism

One thing I absolutely love about lotr is how characters can love and show affection to each other without it being sexual or romantic. That moment when Bilbo is crying and Frodo puts his hand on his shoulder is a really good example of this imo. I think making their relationships about sex ruins them for me. I think two men acting like this and it not being sexual is just very foreign to us. Before I say this I am not Christian or religious or anything, but the way people act in this story reminds me of Jesus in the Bible because he had a deep love for everyone around him and wasn’t afraid to show it, and it was obviously not about sex at all. Y’all can think what you want, but this is how I interpret the relationships and seeing how Tolkien was a huge Christ fan, I think I may be on to something with this one

I don't question the part about the violet fairy book, that was probably one of his inspirations, but the "I am a man" bit of Eowynn is usually accepted as coming from Macbeth, where the witches tell Macbeth no man born from a woman would kill him, and Tolkien thought after reading the scene, that making his killer a man born by caesarean was not elegant and he could do better ^^ It's also where the Ents came from, in that same prophecy, the witches tell Macbeth he would only be dethroned when the woods would walk to his castle. Tolkien was very upset that the woods walking were dudes hiding behing treebranches and not literally trees walking XD

idk if i've ever been this excited for a video essay before

Ummm, just, I thought that Eowyns whole thing was just that Tolkien was upset at Macbeth and was like “I’LL FIX IT!”

Hand holding is very cultural. American soldiers in Vietnam saw men holding hands as they walked down the street and assumed they were gay when often they were brothers or cousins. I’ve no opinion on Frodo’s sexuality, but I’ve always seen Sam as completely straight, considering his attention to his future wife.

ngl, one of my personal favorite interpretations of the "I am no man." bit is that Tolkin was reading Macbeth with the whole "no man of women born can harm Macbeth" with the answer that "I was a man who was from his mothers womb untimely ripped c-section baby)" and was like "that's bullshit and over complicated."

That one moment clip of Eowyn telling Theodin that she was going to save him, and him responding with "You already have" hit me so hard

Here's my contribution to this discussion: "...'How long is your rope, I wonder?' Sam paid it out slowly, measuring it with his arms: 'Five, ten, twenty, thirty ells, more or less,' he said. 'Who’d have thought it!' Frodo exclaimed. 'Ah! Who would?’ said Sam. '...It looks a bit thin, but it’s tough; and soft as milk to the hand’" (Two Towers, 595)

About the war analogy, I'll quote Sir Ian McKellen in the film Gods & Monsters "there may be no atheists in the foxholes, but there are occasionally lovers". That film was based on the true life story of gay WWI veteran, director James Whale...

1:35 I do want to point out that, from what I remember, Tolkien didn't intend to make it a Christian allegory either, despite being Catholic.

So that's what he meant we he said Frodo destroyed Sauron's ring...

“You there I see you sit down” Me slowly taking my hands off the keyboard. I’ve never felt so called out 😂

I'm glad we aren't accusing tolking of meaning to write it like that. Why can't men just be affectionate with each other.

Here's my take on Eowyn. Eowyn is a badass feminist hero who proves everybody (including Gandalf) wrong about what women can and should be expected to do. Eowyn is also desperately depressed and trying to die at the end of a sword just so that she can feel like she's done something worthwhile. Two things can be true. Her relationship with Faramir is not about Faramir, a man, convincing Eowyn, a woman, to know her place; it is about Faramir, a pacifist, convincing Eowyn, a warrior, that the war is over and she should find peace with that instead of continuing to chase death. It works for me. Faramir is pretty much the only guy in the book who really gets what's going on, so it feels true to his character.

I have no citation to back this up, but I can't help but feel like, master linguist, JRR Tolkien just fell in so much love with the "I am no man" pun that he was willing to twist both the logic of his world, and his worldview, just not to spoil it.

the obsessed "weird" part is exactly the content I love ;) It very much feels like the way I am obsessed about where some samples come from.

"They're not gay, they're hobbits!" is a line from Clerks 2.

Honestly it's so refreshing to see how much time and effort you put into researching your topics so as to present as accurately as possible the historical, societal and individual contexts at play that define the original intent behind the work, as well as the reasons why the work can be interpreted so differently as language and contexts have changed over time. So many people I see talking about LOTR (and other works similarly widely read/enjoyed) seem to confuse their interpretation of art as the original intent of the art and can sometimes get very hung up on/defensive about their interpretations being 'the only realistic way to view the work!'. It's important to understand an artist's intent, and it's also important to interpret works through your own lens, especially if it allows you to connect more strongly to that work. The two are not mutually exclusive, and it's great to see more people educating about this.

Oh my god, this is actually huge if the coloured Fairy Books connection hasn't been discovered before! With the amount of Tolkien research that exists, it's crazy that this kind of thing has remained hidden for so long - because I think the similarities with the invisibility ring especially are way too big to be just coincidences. And it makes so much sense that he'd include ideas from these books he loved as a kid! Also, I wonder why seemingly no-one had suggested the legend of Hua Mulan as an inspiration for Éowyn, that's probably the most well-known iteration of the 'woman disguised as a man in order to go to war' theme. (Also, as a Finn, I take strange pride in the fact that the version of the story where the girl gets an enormous schlong seems to be Finnish :D)

Great essay as always!! One thing I will say about the discussion at 4:24 is that the context of the word "mate" matters. Speaking in terms of "creatures" and animals, the word mate is generally meant as a life companion. The other example you pull out of Tolkien using the word mate definitely reads as the very casual British/Australian use, as in friends or comrades. They're not really equivalent examples of the word imo. One is a dramatic scene comparing Sam to a small creature defending its mate. The other is referring to a "ruffian" and his "mates". Very different tone and context. The ruffians are kind of written as simple, working class blokes, they speak a lot more colloquially than the majority of the book's characters so it makes sense to use the word mate in that casual way for them. It makes for a less impactful simile if you talk about a small creature fighting fiercely to defend its "mate" in that context. It's too casual a use of the word, I don't think Tolkien would have chosen that for such a dramatic scene. But an animal (creature) fighting for their life partner, their whole world, evokes a much more intense emotion to the scene. Obsessed with this essay though, it couldn't have come at a better time for me. Thanks again for another great piece!

One thing I would add to the bit about the intimacy of WW1 soldiers, the world wars were the first time a LOT of people found out they weren't the only gay people on earth, which was a big catalyst for the queer liberation movement that followed. Sometimes two boys in the trench who love each other IS gay

I don't really like that all and any physical touches between men showing affection must fall under the category of "gay suspicion". I think it reinforces the clichés that masculinity must be manly man punching his bro on the back rather than a less toxic, gentler one that can say "I love you" the same way a girl can say it to her best friend. I find it beautiful that it is this sort of masculinity that got soldiers out of the inhuman hell of trenches, and that men don't have to wait to be gay to experience this kind of love.

Exceptional video!!!! When someone asked Sean Astin whether Sam and Frodo should have kissed, he said, "First of all, how do you know they didn't?"

"The princess suddenly felt she was the man she had been pretending to be" Literally me 🎀

loved the vid!! this channel is definitely my favourite place to go for video essays, the way they're written and how you present them is immensely engaging as well as being informative! thanks for making what you make :)

This popped up in my recommended and I am so happy, entranced and enthralled by your interpretations. It's clear that you have put a lot of research and thought into these readings and I love your delivery too. Fantastic work, thank you for your service 🙏

i love the acknowledgement of, yes, putting the words as written in their original context while also understanding our modern interpretation is its own context that can be appreciated. love your videos

As someone who was working at The Story Museum in Oxford in 2017 I'm shocked I didn't hear about what you reveal toward the end of this video at the time! I did get to speak to Priscilla once or twice tho!

What I find really interesting about the topic is the fact that i’ve always admired LotR as one of the few pieces of media that actually represents positive masculinity in a thoughtless, genuine way. It was really surprising to me when I realized most people just interpreted it as somewhat gay or affeminate. Really made me think about how easily people accredit whatever isn’t “traditionally masculine” to homosexuality. It is so insane we have been conditioned (as a culture) to react this way whenever we see a different display of love and affection between men. I think LotR unintentionally became a highly progressive artpiece and a slight moral test,; the way you decide to interpret the message defies much of how you view the world imo, which is what all great art should do. edit: I just finished this video and, ohmyghodddddd, the way you so carefully worded an extremely complex web of topics, That was beautiful. What an amazing script i am shocked. Proves that art really goes beyond the creator. Amazing, I needed to see this, thank you Love your videos btw! banger as always, Love from México.

This was brilliant, I appreciate the effort behind producing such a thoroughly researched, thoughtful and entertaining video. Thank you!

As a kid watching the behind the scenes for the movies, the parts where viggo mortensen is kissing billy boyd and talking about how he’d been wanting to do that is largely what made me first start coming to terms with my own sexuality. It was really the first time in my life i’d seen men kissing and it wasn’t played off as a joke or anything. Sure they joked about it, but in those interviews everyone felt safe to talk about how often they had all kissed each other without feeling ashamed at all Just in general how the whole cast (especially ian mckellen) and even the characters within the story were so open about their feelings about themselves and each other really resonated with a timid me who was scared of how i felt. Never been able to see the series in the same way since

Verity how DARE you insinuate that bit about finding the paper trail back to the Violet Fairy Book was weird and no one would want to watch it, that is exactly MY SHIT Well done with this one, this was super fun ❤

The hand part showed that after all that hardship they were still gentle. In my mind it also implied Sam sat at his bedsight holding his hand. The fact his hand is now warm means it was cold earlier. Frodo was pretty close to dying, cold hands can be a sign. Elven medicine logic probably meant: Okay he is either going to wake up soon, or never.

ok so: hearing “horse spice” sent me to the grave but “the elf barbara” brought me back to life, tysm 💕🙏✨

i’ve been absolutely obsessed with lord of the rings lately and i’m just so grateful for another one of your videos because they are so funny and smart and perfect!! i love everything you have to say-especially about this series.

Also thank you for making some of my favorite video essays on KZfaq! Your work is always well researched and thought provoking as well as funny. Horse spice had me cracking up. I look forward to the next video

I believe "They're not gay! They're hobbits!" Is a quote from Clerks 2

A superb exploration of the nature of the relationships. Particularly good about framing the portrayal of platonic male relationships in terms of the First World War, something too often overlooked. Thankfully you left open Legolas and Gimli. Don't even try to deny it. In the undying lands theirs is the undying love.

Goosebumps ....! I absolutely love your essays. They're some of the best things on KZfaq. Thank you, thank you. Please keep researching and making stuff

This is amazing!! very very glad I got to witness your investigations- you did an absolutely thorough and fantastic job that I highly doubt anyone else would have ever thought up

you have an incredible skill for researching and I am always SO amazed by your work my goodness

As a Barbora who was in love with Viggo's Aragorn as a child - thank you 😂

“The girl who pretended to be a boy“ description made me think of Mulan

I have to say, this is my new favorite of your videos. Definitely feels like a breath of fresh air. I love the video and the analysis of LoTR, makes me wanna revisit the books and movies again 😊

I love your Lord of the Rings videos! Your examinations of the history and themes indirectly featured throughout Tolkien's works and how they read today is very eye opening. You are a huge inspiration for what I what I want to do in my KZfaq videos and I look forward to every video you make!

well now I'm just gonna have to read through all these fairy books and be the equivalent of "Is this a Jojo reference" every time I see something clearly inspiring Tolkien's own writing. Loved this video, it's so wonderful seeing potential inspirations for people's works and seeing how it leads to a tapestry of appreciation for these stories and where they come from!

I know it's a joke, but I feel you're doing a disservice to Gimli when he asks for a single hair from Galadriel's head. The Farewell to Lórien reads as follows: “‘And what gift would a Dwarf ask of the Elves?’ said Galadriel, turning to Gimli. ‘None, Lady,’ answered Gimli. ‘It is enough for me to have seen the Lady of the Galadhrim, and to have heard her gentle words.’ ‘Hear all ye Elves!’ she cried to those about her. ‘Let none say again that Dwarves are grasping and ungracious! Yet surely, Gimli son of Glóin, you desire something that I could give? Name it, I bid you! You shall not be the only guest without a gift.’ ‘There is nothing, Lady Galadriel,’ said Gimli, bowing low and stammering. ‘Nothing, unless it might be - unless it is permitted to ask, nay, to name a single strand of your hair, which surpasses the gold of the earth as the stars surpass the gems of the mine. I do not ask for such a gift. But you commanded me to name my desire.’ The Elves stirred and murmured with astonishment, and Celeborn gazed at the Dwarf in wonder, but the Lady smiled. ‘It is said that the skill of the Dwarves is in their hands rather than in their tongues,’ she said; ‘yet that is not true of Gimli. For none have ever made to me a request so bold and yet so courteous. And how shall I refuse, since I commanded him to speak? But tell me, what would you do with such a gift?’ ‘Treasure it, Lady,’ he answered, ‘in memory of your words to me at our first meeting. And if I ever return to the smithies of my home, it shall be set in imperishable crystal to be a heirloom of my house, and a pledge of good will between the Mountain and the Wood until the end of days.’ Then the Lady unbraided one of her long tresses, and cut off three golden hairs, and laid them in Gimli’s hand.” The significance is only understood when you read the Silmarillion and the eternal bastard Fëanor repeatedly harassed Galadriel for her hair, 3 times to be exact, and each time she refused because she knew Fëanor was up to some bullshit. Gimli was by no means weird or creepy. He was a poet and and appreciator of beauty for its own sake, as dwarves are want to be, what with being great miners and craftsmen of the mountain halls. Gimli is a beautiful soul and deserves to be honoured as such.

I must have watched your video at least half a dozen times since finding it 6 months ago, I love it so much ! I Whenever I feel like listening to something fun and fact-packed I just go back to your videos :)

obsessed with your video essays!!! so well made ❤

I agree that the polygon article is probably wrong that Tolkien intended anything gay, but it’s broader point was that there is space for queer readings of Frodo and Sam. On the one hand because the faux Red Book translation gives us space to make our own reading of the story as it ‘really happened, and on the other because there is something queer, something radical, about the mere fact of structuring the entire saga around the transcendental love between two men. The unpublished epilogue demonstrates the primacy of their relationship. You touched on this a bit but I think you could have explained/explored it further

"Galadriel just hooks up with a bootleg aragorn she hardly know." 😂

The research that went into this is mind boggling. Like i struggle to understand how you came over all this stuff, and everything so genouine and interesting. Never really seen anything just like it, and ive seen quite alot of content on tolkien. Like, a lot. And you approach it so uniquely, so freshly. It is a delight to listen to. Saying "well done", wouldnt do it justice. Just breathtaking

I'm not really sure why this video ended up in my feed, but this was one of the best videos I've ever listened to on this website, unironically. Ty for this.

I love all of your essays on Tolkien so much! Fans often have the urge to downplay how catholic and old-fashioned Tolkien was but that itself is also an interesting point of analysis. It is so telling about the Victorians, modernity and contemporary views on masculinity that Tolkien's male friendships can be read as very gay. I have seen people try to dismiss the queerness of these relationships on that account but I think there is much more ambiguity in these 'romantic friendships' than Tolkien might have noticed himself. Your deep-dive into the Andrew Lang Fairy Books is very fascinating and seems a much more plausible inspiration than Hervör or any other random woman from Old Norse stories. Tolkien also uses Éowyn defeating the Witchking to give his twist on the "no man of woman born shall harm me"-prophecy from Macbeth, so that seems a similar approach to me. Éowyn is much more nuanced than people often make her out to be. Her story might not be one of feminist liberation, but I also don't think that her becoming a healer and tending to a garden is meant to be just a return to a traditional role but her overcoming her desperation and very unhealthy obsession with dying a glorious heroic death. Tolkien loved gardens after all. Faramir is not just off-brand Aragorn but a thoughtful history-nerd character that Tolkien himself heavily identified with, so I don't think he is meant to be a downgrade at all :D

I cannot overstate how much I appreciate your curiosity and attention to detail throughout your videos but ooooooooh my did I LOVE THIS ONE!!! THANK YOU!!

thank you for making this video. i appreciate your dedication to researching these topics, your findings are incredible!

I think this is my favorite video of yours you've made yet. So heartwarming and interesting and rich! I love discovering some of the history of things I love with you ^^

"Soup: The food that is juice, and sometimes ideas." I cannot describe how much I love this XD I'm excited to see how my friends react when I tell them what soup *really* is.

I wonder if The Violet Fairy book’s author (or Tolkien) read Ovid- and if the story of Iphis and Ianthe influenced the stories at all. It’s the earliest “woman pretends to be a man and then is magically transformed into a man” story that I know of.

You earned this subscription 100 times over! I’m so excited to listen to you again!

Verily, this video is so fascinating and entertaining, I'm falling in love with your Tolkien essays!

So, I have a notebook that's intentionally designed to look like the Violet Fairy Book. I bought it to be my editor's notebook for a queer secret agent novel spin-off series I'm developing, and y'know, fairies and violet (to be fair, in the original pulp series, a fairy was their seal). Now I'm very happy to learn there's way more queer context to it with that story.

Ursula K. Le Guin mentioned!!!! I love her writing and her ideas about storytelling

As you started talking about the faerie books by Andrew Lang, I was dusting my poetry and collectors shelf. I realized I had the very books you were talking about. I had no idea of their connection to Toilken, despite my wife being a huge LoTR fan. Life is very strange.

Loved this video! Equal parts serious literary scholarship and saucy humor, best part of my day so far. Breathy "Hello Aragorn, I luv you so mutch" had me crying

Yeah, as a fan of both Tolkien and CS Lewis the Lang Colored Fairy Books were a huge inspiration to them both (now which story in which book inspired which scene is of course open to interpretation). There is a huge Academic bias against ‘childlike’ or ‘unserious’ inspiration for literature when the creative process often PRIORITIZES the influences of our childhood. Especially Fantasy stories which are basically just taking childlike wonder and influences and treating them seriously. Fantastic scholarship!! Wonderful video!

One thing interesting about Faramir and Eowyn is how they mirrored each other in being almost fatalist to prove a point; Far wanting to earn his dad's respect and Eo wanting a kind of general respect, both are willing to die in grim ways. Even while we hear Aragorn and Gandalf saying throwing your life away for some lofty principles is ultimately a waste and there's no glory in it.

Seriously doubt Tolkien wrote anything gay in his stuff, you know cuz he was a “devout catholic”

Ugh, I just love a really long video about some niche thing. You are so amazing!

As a librarian I was surprised to hear that the library had released Tolkien's borrowing history. Confidentiality is one of the core values of the profession - if people are worried about others finding out about what they've been reading, they might not feel comfortable borrowing the books they really want to read. In my province it's the law that public libraries can't share this information, and in the US libraries went to court over the Patriot Act when it would have required them to release people's borrowing history. Anyways, that has very little to do with this excellent video.

One of your best videos ever, I laughed, I cried, it has the best sponsor. Also it's ridiculous but that 'I am no man' was so formative for 12 year old me in the cinema that even just a repeated clip 20 years later gives me chills, and it's so great to know so much more about all that there is behind it.

i am late to the party, but it have to say this is an amazing video. even as someone who has read most of tolkiens works and especially the silmarillion a gazillion times, i have learned many new things, your way of researching topics and then presenting them in such a pleasant way is really outstanding.

No mention of Legolas and Gimli living the rest of their lives together.

I love your video especially because you do ACTUAL research on what you are talking about. This is a video essay, this is how you talk about a topic

I have only just discovered your channel through this video, and you are now one of my absolute favorite KZfaqrs 😂❤

Wow, this video is amazing, great work! I enjoyed going down the rabbit hole with you!

Excellent video essay, thank you for serving juicy Le Guin's quotes as always