[WIR] The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

[Parmandur]

I recently relistened to Robert Ingliss’s unabridged audio book of LotR. I cannot recommend it enough. It is really unabridged (he even reads the appendices).

The Serkis audio books are quite good, too, Tolkien's prose and poetry really lends itself to being performed.

 

[el-remmen]

Maybe I’ll try them someday. I just can’t imagine anything better than the Ingliss version. When you hear him doing his Pippin voice in an imitation of the Gandalf voice in the two towers, while the former is telling the story of the Ents attacking Isengard, you really understand the level of mastery involved.

 

[Parmandur]

Maybe I’ll try them someday. I just can’t imagine anything better than the Ingliss version. When you hear him doing his Pippin voice in an imitation of the Gandalf voice in the two towers, while the former is telling the story of the Ents attacking Isengard, you really understand the level of mastery involved.

Wouldn't say it is "better," both performances are their own distinct pieces of art. But Serkis does really deliver each character with a distinct performance. His Bombadil is disconcerting and amazing.

 

[Hriston]

[*]I don't know if I lost it in the mixture of elf names and world-building, but I'm unsure as to whether or not Frodo shouting "O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!" as he attacked the Ring-Wraiths was some supernatural insight brought on by the Ring or him calling upon elven legends he's heard to remain resolute against certain death.

I think he was remembering the song Gildor's company had been singing when he met them, which had driven away the Black Riders.

Eta: Reading the passage again, particularly "he heard himself crying aloud", it seems like an instance of divine providence working through him, as if the words have been put in his mouth to protect him. Thus Aragorn's statement when talking about the Witch King: 'More deadly to him was the name of Elbereth.'

 

[Hriston]

To add to what I posted above, there's Sam's description of the event:

He heard Frodo's voice, but it seemed to come from a great distance, or from under the earth, crying out strange words.​

This can be read as a description of Frodo's voice coming across from the wraith-world, but it also raises the question of where the words are coming from and underscores the Ring's involvement. I'm left with the impression that Frodo, in claiming the Ring's power, was in some way activated by the Ring as its new master and involuntarily did the most powerful and heroic thing he could do, which was to speak those words in Elvish. Although he is bolstered by the Ring's power, his action itself is good because he is good, and yet it's part of a battle with the dark powers for control of the Ring, which is a contest he cannot win and which plays into the hands of the Nazgûl.