[TrashMan]

Originally posted by Kazan
trashman - Sauron was the greatest of the Ainur of the order Maiar, Saruman _was_ second until gandalf's ascention to White

Correction - Sauron was the strongest Maiar of Aule (angel of earth and forging in a way).
don't forget that every Valar had Maiars serving under him, and
Sauron was not the strongest of all.

The strongest Maiar was Eonwe.

What about Arien and Tilion (the Maiar who drowe the chariots with the leaves of the Two Trees of Valinor - the leave of Telperion was the Moon, and the leaave of Laurelian was the sun).

Not even Morgoth wanted to attack them.

[TrashMan]

Originally posted by karajorma
You do have to wonder what the other two were doing all that time don't you?

And what was Radagast upto during the War of the Ring?

Radagast was the Maiar of Yawana, who loved the trees and the animals.
Thus, Radagast humself was a bit taken away with them, especially in his human form...

[Clave]

I need more obscure Tolkien facts!!!

Who was the guy who turned into a bear?

[Mongoose]

Beorn.  He was almost straight out of old Germanic legends about were-bears.  He shows up in The Hobbit; Gandalf, Bilbo, et al.  stay at his house for a few days after escaping the goblins, and he later arrives at the Battle of Five Armies, where he kicks some serious goblin @$$ .

[kode]

if you stretch it, his name can in swedish be pronounced the same as the swedish word for bear does.

[Clave]

That's the guy!  

Now I kind of remember the description of his house and stuff, always stayed with me as a nice place to live....

[Vaelinx]

The books were great.  I was always surprised that not many of my friends picked up on the fact that Gandalf had the third ring.  If you go back and know what to look for, it's fairly clear that he has one of the three in how he deals with the One Ring.  But the fact that he had the fire ring is even more interesting.  Makes me wonder if that is why the Balrog was drawn to him, or if that is why he was so successful in fighting the Balrog.  Either way, too much intentional fire stuff to be chance.

The only thing that I truly dislike about the movies, is the undead army/thing.  It was so anti-climactic to see a bunch of rejects from Disney's Haunted Mansion run around and kill everything in their path instantly...  but aside from that, they were really good.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by TrashMan
Radagast was the Maiar of Yawana, who loved the trees and the animals.
Thus, Radagast humself was a bit taken away with them, especially in his human form...

You answered the wrong question. Apart from being Saruman's cats paw what did Radagast do during the war? Surely he didn't sit about doing nothing the entire time.

Likewise I'm still wondering what the other two wizards were up to. They were sent to middle-earth to help fight against Sauron but instead they buggered off into the east and were never seen again.

Now maybe they were involved in a huge struggle to prvent Sauron from getting all the easterlings to join under his flag and be an unstoppable army or maybe they just sat about with a palantir watching Gandalf do all the hard work.

[TrashMan]

Originally posted by karajorma


You answered the wrong question. Apart from being Saruman's cats paw what did Radagast do during the war? Surely he didn't sit about doing nothing the entire time.

Likewise I'm still wondering what the other two wizards were up to. They were sent to middle-earth to help fight against Sauron but instead they buggered off into the east and were never seen again.

Now maybe they were involved in a huge struggle to prvent Sauron from getting all the easterlings to join under his flag and be an unstoppable army or maybe they just sat about with a palantir watching Gandalf do all the hard work.

Actually I did. Becoause of his love for the animals he got sidetracked from the original mission and spent 99% of his time talking to animals.
 He did help both Saruman and Gandalf with passing of news and gethering information, but that's about it..

The two other wizzards went to the East with Saruman upon their arrival. Only Saruman returned. It was never clearly stated what happened to them. Did they fight against Sauron there? Did Saruman dispose of them or perhpas something else? Still haven't read the History of Middle Earth so I don't know if there even is an answer to that one..

B.t.w. - Gandalf sword is Glamdring, the sword of the elven king of Gondolin, the greatest elven city that ever was in  Middle Earth..

[Grug]

Hehehe, that sparked up again

Mongoose- yeah I was planning on doing the LOTR marathon with my friends too...
It would go for bloody ages though, from morning it would go well into the night... Crazy stuff.

I'm thinking of finding the most comfortable bean bag I can before attempting it though. Otherwise my bum will be as dead as a door-mat. =/

Should be greats to see them all consecutivily though...

[karajorma]

Originally posted by TrashMan
The two other wizzards went to the East with Saruman upon their arrival. Only Saruman returned. It was never clearly stated what happened to them. Did they fight against Sauron there? Did Saruman dispose of them or perhpas something else? Still haven't read the History of Middle Earth so I don't know if there even is an answer to that one..

I didn't know they went with Saruman. Although back then Saruman was still good wasn't he? It was only when he studied Sauron too much that he started to think of emulating him wasn't it?

[Clave]

I think when Sauron got hold of a Palantir things started to go wrong.  Any comms system can be abused if you have the wrong people hooked up to it.

[TrashMan]

Yes. That's why I think the other two Istari remained in the East, since Saruman didn't have no reson to do anything against them back then, but I cannot be sure...

Any other questions?
Aboout the Valar?
the Creation of Ea?
The Maiar?
The Two Trees of Valinor?
The Sun and the Moon?
Gondolin?
Sillmarill?
Earandil?
etc..etc...

[Clave]

I don't know much about them, but I do remember having a calender with a picture of 'The Fall of Gondolin"  It was pretty cool, there was a huge city wall with fires burning and a massive army attacking, including several Balrogs

[Ghostavo]

Seeing that I haven't read the Sillmarillion or The Hobbit, nor will have a chance to read about them soon, can someone fill in about the whole Battle of Five Armies thing and the history behind it? Not from a chronological point of view (the 6th book of LoTR has an index about those sort of things)

EDIT: Thanks Clave

[Clave]

Was the Battle of the Five Armies in the Hobbit?  (I'm get hazy on this now)

[Mongoose]

Yes, the Battle of Five Armies occurs at the end of The Hobbit.  Chronologically speaking, this battle happens about sixty years before the start of Lord of the Rings.

Spoiler:

Basically, Thorin and Co.  have been denying requests by Bard of Lake-town and the elven king Thrainduil to share out some of Smaug's treasure.  Tensions escalate, and Thorin prepares to lead the Dwarves into battle, along with his cousin Dain and an army of Dwarves from the Iron Hills, against the Men of Lake-town and the Elves of Mirkwood.  Just as it looks like war is about to break out, Gandalf stops everyone and draws attention to the fact that a large army of gobilins is converging on the Lonely Mountain.  These goblins are seeking revenge for the death of their king at the hands of Gandalf.  Anyway, the three groups join together to fignt against the goblins and are soon reinforced by the giant Eagles of the Misty Mountains.  Eventually, Beorn joins the battle.  The end result is that the goblins are defeated, but at the cost of Thorin's life.  After the battle, Dain takes up leadership of the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain, and Bard re-establishes the city of Dale near the Mountain.

Ghostavo, I'd highly recommend finding/making time to read The Hobbit and The Silmarillion.  You won't regret it .

P.S.  I've never thought about this before, but since this battle involved Thrainduil and his people, it's likely that Legolas fought in it.

[TrashMan]

The battle of the five armies? that little Skirmish?

Boy, there are battles in Sillmarillion that make the Batle at Pelenor from LOTR look like a kids playing in a sandbox.

Dragons, kazzilions of Orcs (LITERARY!) hundered of Balrogs, Trolls and various beasts of all kinds and some humans on the side of Morgoth.
Elves, Dwarfs and Men, Ents and Great Eagles and Maiaras and elves from Valinor for the Valar.

EDIT: Did I mention that the second war against Morgoth  was so intense, that the whole north of Middle Earth broke apart, and a the whole lanscape was changed - practicly the whole west Beleriand was gone!

[Clave]

I want to read it now.  I did try before, but found it so hard to get into....

[Grug]

Maybe have someone to read it to you?

Hehe, they should teach this stuff at school. I'm sure that I would of been more into english if Tolkien's works were included.