Quote:
|
And what precisely is the 'pteradactyl' you are referring to? I know a 'pterodactyl' is a Triassic/Cretaceous Period winged reptile, but are you referring to the 'Fell Beasts' the Nazgul rode?
|
Yep. As not infrequently, Tolkien liked to keep some
ambiguity, and wasn't against contradicting himself.
For example, this article about the subject in Wikepedia:
Quote:
In book V, chapter 6 of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien describes the Witch-king's mount thus:
"...it was a winged creature: if bird, then greater than all other birds, and it was naked, and neither quill nor feather did it bear, and its vast pinions were as webs of hide between horned fingers; and it stank. A creature of an older world maybe it was...."[2]
A few paragraphs later it is said to attack with "beak and claw".[2]
Tolkien once wrote that he "did not intend the steed of the Witch-king to be what is now called a 'pterodactyl'", while acknowledging that it was "obviously ... pterodactylic and owes much" to the "new ... mythology of the 'Prehistoric'", and might even be "a last survivor of older geological eras."[3]
|
So to change wording:
1. Lobelia vs. Bilbo
2. Samwise Gamgee vs. Farmer Maggott
============================
3. Eowyn vs. Shelob
4. Balrog vs. Witch-King.
============================
5. Eomer vs. Haldir
6.
Fell Beast vs. Gollum
============================
7. Tom Bombadil vs. Galadriel
8. Saruman vs. Mouth of Sauron
============================
9. Gimli vs. Legolas
10. Beorn vs. Boromir
============================
11. Bard vs. Thranduil (a dispute over a certain treasure)
12. Smaug vs. Azaghal
============================
13. Ugluk vs. Grishnakh
14. Gorbag vs. Shagrat
============================
15. Theoden vs. Denethor
16. Perhaps Thorin Oakenshield or Dain Ironfoot ??? vs. Azog???