Lord of the Rings TV series gets multi-season order at Amazon

[William Cloud Hicklin]

On nomenclature:
This is an area which I thinks provides substantial evidence that this show is not "in good hands" at all, notwithstanding the comments of assorted podcasters whom Amazon lavishly junketed. Look at the names for their "Harfoot" protohobbits. It goes without saying that these names of Shire type would be linguistically impossible in the Second Age.

But it also seems at least as blatant, even if they want to roll with a conscious anachronism, that there is not a thought process involved with sufficient spark to understand even the nature of those names: just chopping and reassembling Brandybuck and Proudfoot- have these nimrods no idea where those names came from and why they are as they are? Was there no knife in the drawer sharp enough to go find a Warwick* telephone directory and pull some Hobbity names from the source?

Oh, yes- what the heck is a woman with the the Welsh name Bronwyn doing in Middle-earth?

*"West Midlands" (i.e. the Birmingham conurbation) wouldn't really work any more

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

On nomenclature:
This is an area which I thinks provides substantial evidence that this show is not "in good hands" at all, notwithstanding the comments of assorted podcasters whom Amazon lavishly junketed. Look at the names for their "Harfoot" protohobbits. It goes without saying that these names of Shire type would be linguistically impossible in the Second Age.

But it also seems at least as blatant, even if they want to roll with a conscious anachronism, that there is not a thought process involved with sufficient spark to understand even the nature of those names: just chopping and reassembling Brandybuck and Proudfoot- have these nimrods no idea where those names came from and why they are as they are? Was there no knife in the drawer sharp enough to go find a Warwick* telephone directory and pull some Hobbity names from the source?

Oh, yes- what the heck is a woman with the the Welsh name Bronwyn doing in Middle-earth?

*"West Midlands" (i.e. the Birmingham conurbation) wouldn't really work any more

I did a post on names in the Vanity Fair thread here and basically agree with you, though their Elvish language words (Arondir, Tirharad, possibly Carinë) are at least plausible.

In recent days the official Twitter account has been attaching more names to the posters. We have Harfoots "Poppy Proudfellow", "Marigold Brandyfoot", "Largo Brandyfoot", "Sadoc Burrows", and a mortal boy associated with Bronwyn named "Theo".

I feel like Theo has been discussed already - it looks like they've just grabbed a random Rohirric sound, just like they apparently did with Bronwyn. Really not fond of that.

The Harfoots are better. Largo is a bit weird to me because a song by that name was one of the first couple I learnt on the keyboard, but none of the forenames stands out as super unlikely (unlike Elanor/Nori). Burrows I think is straight from Tolkien, and Proudfellow fits right in with the English-language Hobbit names. It's kind of a shame their "bad in three different ways" name happens to be the lead Harfoot character.

Given how easy it is to get Hobbit names 'right' (literally just Flower Ruralphrase will do you), I don't think this indicates their name-game has gotten any better.

hS

[Tar Elenion]

The showrunners via the "Tolkien Professor" (OM&H 13), *Galadriel has PTSD. The "Tolkien Professor" says all her brothers (yes, though Amazon seems to be introducing a new brother) and her mother are dead.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Brothers? That's odd- because no matter which version of the Finarfinian genealogy you care to use, not one of them is mentioned in the Appendices, supposedly Amazon's only permitted source.

[Tar Elenion]

Finrod is:
"In Lindon south of the Lune dwelt for a time Celeborn, kinsman of Thingol; his wife was Galadriel, greatest of Elven women. She was sister of Finrod Felagund, Friend-of-Men, once king of Nargothrond, who gave his life to save Beren son of Barahir."
App. B
"Noblest of all was the Lady Galadriel of the royal house of Finarfin and sister of Finrod Felagund, King of Nargothrond"
App. F

I'm not sure whether Olsen was repeating the show-runners justification for *Galadriel having PTSD, or giving his own justification (he came across as very supportive of PTSD *Galadriel). Either way, though, Earwen was not dead, and claiming that she was is troubling, especially for a self-styled "Tolkien Professor".

Amazon has the rights to all of LotR and The Hobbit.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

I stand corrected. Still, there is no Appendices warrant for brothers, plural.

[Huinesoron]

The Numenoreans have dropped, and hoooo boy. It looks like Numenor is straight from the Appendices - and that's not a good thing.



Starting with the cast: second from left is Queen Regent[sic, sic, sic] Míriel. They gave her the accent in her name, but Regent? For her father? For her child? The first would just about work, the second is all wrong for Numenorean politics. Or do they just not know the word 'Regnant'? She shows up several times in the article in armour, at one point at the head of an army - which, I have to say, I'm all here for.

Front and centre in the image is Pharazôn, the Queen's counsellor. He is dramatically older than her, so I'm guessing the forced-marriage plot is off the table. The Appendices just say he usurped the sceptre, so they're likely doing that in a different way.

To the left is "Kemen", which is a Quenya word but can pass for Adunaic. He is Pharazon's son, so that's another strike against the marriage plot (he looks too old to be Miriel's kid, as has been suggested elsewhere). My guess is that he's gonna die to trigger his father's meltdown, but who knows?

Then on the right side of the image we have Team Faithful: Elendil, his daughter Eärien, and his son Isildur. Isildur is a young mariner; Elendil is also defined as a sea-farer. (Anarion, incidentally, is described as "off-screen".) I have no issue with Eärien: she fits neatly into the canon, and a stay-at-home woman character is something Tolkien used several times in his Numenor stories. I'm less happy with Elendil and Isildur being sailors and soldiers, rather than obvious nobility; but an early version of Isildur did talk about fighting in Pharazon's army, so there is canon justification.

Numenor is described as "opulent", a "seemingly idyllic paradise", but also as troublingly divided. It's confirmed that the ruling line are part-Elven, and the basics of the pro-Valar/pro-"independence" divide are discussed. So far so Tolkien, but it's bizarre that the article is claiming a coastal capital. They've literally used the map which shows Armenelos inland! I wonder whether the deep ravine we've seen leading to the city in the trailers is their solution to that? (To be fair, digging a canyon-deep canal in order to put a port in their capital would be very Numenorean.)

Perhaps the most irritating to some: there's a shot of Galadriel riding with Elendil on the Numenorean coast. My guess is that her "raft" sequence ends with her rescue by a Numenorean ship, rather than her being a deliberate visitor, but who knows at this point? Per the mini-trailer, this suggests her early plot is "worries about Orcs > gets on Swanship > falls in Sea > winds up on raft > taken to Numenor".

I'm getting a definite feeling that Galadriel is a major viewpoint character, and will be running around to the various plot areas to join in. So far, the story seems to have four locations: Eriador (the Lindon-Eregion-Moria plot, with Elrond linking them), Numenor (as discussed here), Tirharad (Bronwyn, Arondir, and Theo - judging by Theo's broken sword and Arondir's trailer archery, I'm guessing they encounter Evil), and the Harfoots ("HarFEET!"). Given that those can be glossed as North, West, South, and East, I guess that's pretty full coverage; and the Ents from the mini-trailer are right in the middle.

hS