Spoilers What do people get wrong about Tolkien?

[Chaltab]

And that boy's name?

Albert Einstein.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

And that boy's name?

Albert Einstein.

Is that the same Einstein who published his paper on the photoelectric effect aged minus 22?

 

[GreyLord]

Is that the same Einstein who published his paper on the photoelectric effect aged minus 22?

You realize Einstein was born in 1879...

At least if it's the one I'm thinking you are thinking they are thinking of...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You realize Einstein was born in 1879...

At least if it's the one I'm thinking you are thinking they are thinking of...

Yes, but the ten year old who read the Hobbit must have been born around 1927.

 

[trappedslider]

 

[Wolfram stout]

Some people (GRR Martin) should know that the professor was writing mythology not historical fiction and as such tax tables in the Fourth Age are not really called for.

 

[Rune]

View attachment 417923

I guess no one there read the Hobbit?

 

[Mannahnin]

I guess no one there read the Hobbit?

No kidding!

From Chapter 7, Queer Lodgings:

“Good gracious heavens, no, no, NO, NO!” said Gandalf. “Don’t be a fool Mr. Baggins if you can help it; and in the name of all wonder don’t mention the word furrier again as long as you are within a hundred miles of his house, nor rug, cape, tippet, muff, nor any other such unfortunate word! He is a skin-changer. He changes his skin: sometimes he is a huge black bear, sometimes he is a great strong black-haired man with huge arms and a great beard. I cannot tell you much more, though that ought to be enough. Some say that he is a bear descended from the great and ancient bears of the mountains that lived there before the giants came. Others say that he is a man descended from the first men who lived before Smaug or the other dragons came into this part of the world, and before the goblins came into the hills out of the North. I cannot say, though I fancy the last is the true tale. He is not the sort of person to ask questions of.

“At any rate he is under no enchantment but his own. He lives in an oak-wood and has a great wooden house; and as a man he keeps cattle and horses which are nearly as marvellous as himself. They work for him and talk to him. He does not eat them; neither does he hunt or eat wild animals. He keeps hives and hives of great fierce bees, and lives most on cream and honey. As a bear he ranges far and wide. I once saw him sitting all alone on the top of the Carrock at night watching the moon sinking towards the Misty Mountains, and I heard him growl in the tongue of bears: ‘The day will come when they will perish and I shall go back!’ That is why I believe he once came from the mountains himself.”

(bold mine)

 

[Staffan]

Some people (GRR Martin) should know that the professor was writing mythology not historical fiction and as such tax tables in the Fourth Age are not really called for.

 

[Baron Opal II]

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Beorn (?) served milk, bread, and honey to Bilbo and the dwarves, too, didn't he?

The Nameless things in the depths of the Earth interested me too. Along with the Blue Wizards, the people of the East, and everything else that was mentioned only enough to wonder at.