reading my bucket list 🧙🏻‍♀️ a new favourite book

what a wonderful experience (also SPOILERS, so many SPOILERS)
Mentioned
@CarolynMarieReads

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[sarahogborn]

Not men getting mad in the comments that you said that Sam and Frodo love each other?! Literally one of the BEST things about Tolkien and LOTR for me is how openly affectionate and loving the male friendships are in this book. It’s so beautiful and actually such a great representation of healthy masculinity and I it. Like truly, no one loves Frodo like Sam loves Frodo 🥲🥲

[nikkivenable]

Frodo's endless patience with Gollum showed itself at the end. Without Gollum, perhaps the Ring may not have made it to its destination. Somehow, Frodo knew that Gollum was essential to the journey. And in the end we understand why. So beautiful.

[hhenze]

I think the Scouring of the Shire is important because 1) it shows how nothing on earth is safe from destruction. Evil knows no bounds. The hobbits thought they were safe from the goings- on in the world, but even their home was tainted by the shadow they chose to ignore. The future hobbits will be wiser and much more grateful for what they have.
2) It is a chance for Merry & Pippin, who are now both knights, to use what they have learned in reclaiming their homeland. They have seen war, and they use their knowledge and experience to help their people. Frodo acts once more as the voice of mercy, insisting that no one be killed. He has changed forever, but he is still compassionate and merciful, even after seeing so much evil.

[Bubblet]

theres a video of sam's actor talking about frodo and sam's relationship and he just talks about how their love could mean so many different things and he just really acknowledges the fact that we dont know frodo and sam's relationship beyond sam and frodo's undefined love each other. and i just think its a really beautiful thing to acknowledge that kind of unknown ☺️☺️

[shilohpeterson]

I really feel like the Scouring of the Shire hits home for veterans/soldiers/ victims of war (Important to remember Tolkein was a soldier in the first WWI) The realities of the world and even home being changed/never the same again after war or a journey that changes you etc.
Also. The Aragorn bit was HILARIOUS

[maite.figueroa]

Girl please please read The Silmarillion 😭😭😭😭🙏🏻🙏🏻 it is very clear that you are interested in the whole lore of tolkien and The Silmarillion explains it all, like it starts in the creation of the world. It is absolutely gorgeous, one of my absolute favorite books ❤

[michaelsommers]

"The Scouring of the Shire" is my favorite part of the entire book. My favorite part of that chapter is when they show up at the gate, and the guards try to keep them out. It reminded me of stories of veterans returning from the Second World War who went to college on the GI Bill. The bureaucrats in the colleges tried to impose the petty rules they had always enforced on student, but the vets were not having any part of it. The had been through a war, and were not going to put up with curfews and other nonsense. And they didn't put up with it. Likewise, when Merry and Pippin are told they can't come in, they say, in effect, "Oh, yeah?", and climb over the gate.

[snowhitepp]

Also Scouring of the Shire is an incredibly important chapter for many reasons, some already mentioned in comments, one of them being to show how much the four characters grew during their quest. They were not the same hobbits that set out for an adventure at the beginning of the books. They would not be able to free the Shire otherwise. Even Saruman acknowledged that. Also the population of hobbits in Shire needed this lesson, they grew too comfortable (and therefore weak) for their own good. Also it was satisfying to watch how Shire rised from ashes, more beautiful & glorious than before. I hope that over the years you will also "grow" to appreciate this chapter more 😉

[Avamillette-zl]

Hi Emma! I’m a big fan of your channel and wanted to try and give an answer the best I can regarding your questions (im quite young and still learning so I’ll try me best!) I think the reason why Sauron and his creations are completely evil can mainly be drawn back to Tolkien’s worldview. Tolkien himself was a Catholic. As a Christian myself, both Christianity/Catholicism accept that there are purely good and evil forces such as God and Satan and angels and devils. What speaks to me about LOTR is that its themes are about men fighting this pure evil with good by their side. Also, I do realize that LOTR is not an allegory, but one cannot separate the author from his or her worldview. Tolkien quotes, “The Lord of the Rings' is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision.” This would also explain why men and creatures follow Sauron because Tolkien would have believed that men in real life would be swayed and tempted by Satan. My main point is that Tolkien would have believed in purely evil forces, so Sauron being just that makes sense in regards to his worldview.
I hope that this helps and thank you for inspiring me to think about pursuing English!

[elessar]

The Silmarillion focuses on the first age while the appendices are about the second and third age.

[MissLaceyDaisy]

I feel like Sauron/Mairon embodies "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions". He desired everything to be perfect, and he thought dominating the will of others was to their benefit. He ended up allying with Melkor/Morgoth in pursuit of perfecting Middle-Earth. He is a Maiar, which is sort of a lesser angel maybe? Eru would be God, Valar are Archangels, and Maiar are Angels. So he was already quite powerful before he became the Dark Lord.

Also, I think someone else mentioned it, but Orcs were created by Sauron. He (and Melkor) kidnapped Elves as they were first awakening, and tortured them into Orcs. Others that allied with Sauron was probably due to a mix of false promises and fear. The Harad had previously been dominated by Numenoreans, so they had no love for Gondor.

[svs]

Happy birthday, Emma!! And girl, not Careless whisper when Aragorn walks in 😂 (I completely understand and I wholeheartedly agree)

[sarahogborn]

Ahh man, I really love the scouring of the shire (even though it is totally jarring and heartbreaking) but I think it’s essential to the story. The whole point is that the evil and the darkness spread so far as to even touch the shire and now all four hobbits returning to their home are all now uniquely prepared and equipped, because of their experiences, to set it back to rights. If none of them had gone, the shire would never have been saved at all! Even though it’s much nicer in the films to have the shire untouched by war, I think it loses the reality and gravity that Tolkien intended of how war truly ravages and how we have to rebuild. They do have to fix things and repair, but “still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”

[Kim_Traveling_in_Books]

The eye in the tower is just Peter Jackson's visualization of Sauron's ability to perceive things within and outside Mordor. The 'Eye of Sauron' isn't an actual eye. It's just his ability to perceive. Sauron is, essentially, a fallen angelic-type being who wants mastery over the world and everything in it because he wants power-- power in his own image. As for why various people follow him, well, why do people willingly follow dictators now? Some people think doing so will give them power, and others in those countries don't have a choice but to follow the tyrant.

[TamilaSushkova]

The scene with Aragorn has me HOWLING - same honestly. I'm also reading Return of the King and I started the trilogy because of your first video about it :) funny enough, I liked the split in two towers haha but I prefer the way the film was split back and forth

[dominiquechua]

You must read the appendices! It mostly deals with what happens with the fellowship, Sam, Merry, and Pippin’s children, Aragorn and Arwen’s future, and so much more! It features a couple things that would be further explained in the Silmarillion or would be in the Silmarillion, but the appendices are still very important! Also, all the answers to your questions will be in the Silmarillion. I initially felt the same way with Scouring of the Shire, but Tolkien wrote that to depict what it felt like for soldiers, veterans, to come home, knowing it first-hand as he was veteran himself. A lot of themes from LOTR deal with the horrors and wounds of war, therefore, Scouring of the Shire had to be part of it. Although I think it would be ok with or without it, I think Tolkien included it as an extra detail to show how home would never be the same for those who return from wars. How it is changed, different in some ways, and may be unfamiliar to some degree. So, it was the same for the Hobbits, the home they left was not the same as the home they come back to, as how they were not the same hobbits who left the Shire. As much as it is sad, that chapter was needed and I’m glad Tolkien added it in. Another huge theme in LOTR is the concept of home and belonging. The hobbits who have always been at home, never beyond the borders of the Shire, innocent of the outside world, now go away into the unknown with a quest that would change their lives. Understanding the value of home is impossible if you just “stay” at where your home is. It is grasped by going away from it and coming back. You will only know the value of home WHEN you’re away from it. Tolkien understood this concept when he was away in the war and how much home had meant for him in his time there. LOTR, to some degree, was the love letter of Tolkien to his experiences in the battlefield and how wars are not to be taken lightly. It’s not the gist of it, but it is an important ingredient as to why LOTR is spectacular. ❤

[SirSpuddington]

Also, a note about the relationship between Sam and Frodo. What they have is definitely not romantic love - Tolkien was a devout Catholic and nothing like that would have ever made it into his work. I think a much better and more accurate understanding of that relationship is that it is a bond of fealty, a form of love that seems more or less completely forgotten and unknown to most modern people. Fealty is more than just loyalty; it is a deep, deep dedication and commitment to service and attachment that elevates it above friendship. Just like friendship, brotherhood, and romantic love, fealty is a two-way phenomenon of reciprocal commitment and connection. The old Anglo-Saxon poem The Wanderer, one of Tolkien's favorites and the work from which he took the name "Middle-earth", is a beautiful and stirring example of what fealty and the loss of it can mean for a person. Frodo and Sam absolutely do love each other with a love that is real and true and untouchable, but it's just not the same thing as romantic love even though it may have the same magnitude. There are some people who have earnestly tried to argue in favor of Frodo and Sam's relationship being "queer-coded, " but based on Tolkien's own worldviews and the evidence and historical context of his work, I don't think there's any basis for that interpretation.

[chloethow]

You need to read the Silmarillion! It’s basically the bible of Middle Earth and will explain Sauron and his downfall a bit better. There’s so much information in that book and it’s super interesting and complex but it’s an amazing read.

[Heothbremel]

The entirety of LOTR has such value when you experience it repeatedly over time, just in terms of what joy or pain you're able to identify with going through it.... Glad you made it all the way through!

[Penguinfighter]

"Sauroman has gone to the shire and hes crashing the housing market" 🤣