The other day I got into this conversation with a good friend of mine about the pronunciation of Sméagol. The're quite intelligent and having studied French for 2 years was in the process of saying to someone else that it is 3 sylablles and not 2.
Having heard that (I have this ability to detect anything LOTR related in an instant, anyone else have this uncanny ability?
) I promptly proceeded to tell them that they were mistaken and that it was only 2. They kept insisting that because there was an accent mark, there were 3 syllables.
After a few minutes of my trying to explane the basis of his name in terms of its Old English roots and her still insisting there were 3 syllables she finally said, "I shouldn't be arguing with you, you know more about LOTR than I do."
Not quite an A-A gripe, but it is quite funny when someone thinks they have the right answer when they don't. I think it's our job to correct those common things that we know people get wrong, like the whole Arwen/Glorfindel thing and the "love triangle" between Arwen/Aragorn/Eowyn.
I am always glad to meet people who are new to LOTR and help them when they are stuck. I don't profess to know everything about LOTR, it's quite impossible really, but for those of us who have read the books and understand them, we have the ability to help and should do so, without sounding and being snobbish, of course.
Sorry for my rant. I do that sometimes when I'm hyper.