Not sure if this goes here...

Boo!

Are you scared? Open Lord of the Rings and you will be. There are Orcs hungry to kill. Fell Beasts swooping from the skies with blood-curdling screams. Ringwraiths, faceless, cloaked, and who will relentlessly hunt you down. Giant spiders who will inject you with poison and slowly consume you alive. Wizards with dark intent. Trees that walk. Demons of shadow and fire.

Open this book and you will find horrors beyond your worst nightmares. Constant peril. And you will lap it up.

Tolkien's books have spawned a whole industry for readers truly enchanted by what they have read about. Dungeons and Dragons games where you can act the hero. Or the Dark Lord. Act out your darkest fantasies. Orcs stalk our imaginations; they are the Goblins, the pixies of the modern age and some of us want to understand them. Everyone dreams of being a Wizard, all-powerful with a magical staff. We buy swords and think they're cool. People ask about Dark Elves, hoping they are something more than just an Elf who has not seen the Light.

Whatever Tolkien's intent, he stirred rabid imaginations and dark dreams up in readers. Even the good guys inspire us to take up a sword and Hack! Slash! Kill! Do we want to be a diplomatic Aragorn seeking understanding and a peace treaty with the Orcs? No, we want to cut their nasty little heads off. The story of this really bad Wizard, Saruman, is built up and up until we're dying to meet him, and we do, and he's fascinating. What was he up to with his experiments? What are the five staffs? What magics can they do?

I picked up LotR and something stirred in me. I was swept away with this world of magic, of shadows, of peril and Dragons. Wow, I said in hushed tones. Every tree I saw was filled with chaotic intent. Would it try to eat me? And what about Gollum? Ergh! He's creepy! But cool, too. He sneaks around, just like I wanted to do. And Rings that make you invisible? What an amazing thing that would be. I'd use it for far more than to hide from the neighbours! For sneaking, in fact.

This world Tolkien created is incredibly seductive. We like peril and we like monsters. Why? What do you like?

Tolkien had a real taste for the Gothic, and he knew how to write Gothic too. When you read his most horrific passages they are written with a real relish, as though he can see and feel those horrors. Why did he love it so much?

Is LotR one of the greatest Gothic novels written? As for something else Gothic, I've never yet met a Goth who hasn't read Tolkien. And as for weird rock stars, who hasn't heard Jimmy Page's songs? Even Peter Jackson recruited the greatest star of Gothic Horror, Christopher Lee, to play Saruman with delicious glee.

Finally, here are a few passages to whet your appetite.

Torture
Quote:
He will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where thy flesh shall be devoured, and thy shrivelled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye


Blood Lust
Quote:
These staves he spoke, yet he laughed as he said them. For once more lust of battle was on him; and he was still unscathed, and he was young, and he was king: the lord of a fell people. And lo! even as he laughed at despair he looked out again on the black ships, and he lifted up his sword to defy them.


Thing
Quote:
He heard behind his head a creaking and scraping sound. Raising himself on one arm he looked, and saw now in the pale light that they were in a kind of passage which behind them turned a corner. Round the corner a long arm was groping, walking on its fingers towards Sam, who was lying nearest, and towards the hilt of the sword that lay upon him.


Werewolves and Vampires
Quote:
By the counsel of Huan and the arts of Luthien he was arrayed now in the name of Draugluin, and she in the winged fell of Thuringwethil. Beren became in all things like a werewolf to look upon, save that in his eyes there shone a spirit grim indeed but clean; and horror was in his glance as he saw upon his flank a bat-like creature clinging with creased wings. Then howling under the moon he leaped down the hill, and the bat wheeled and flittered above him.


Devil Worship
Quote:
The Men of Darkness built temples, some of great size, usually surrounded by dark trees, often in caverns (natural or delved) in secret valleys of mountain-regions; such as the dreadful halls and passages under the Haunted Mountain beyond the Dark Door (Gate of the Dead) in Dunharrow. The special horror of the closed door before which the skeleton of Baldor was found was probably due to the fact that the door was the entrance to an evil temple hall to which Baldor had come, probably without opposition up to that point. But the door was shut in his face, and enemies that had followed him silently came up and broke his legs and left him to die in the darkness, unable to find any way out.


Eight Legged Freaks
Quote:
she served none but herself, drinking the blood of Elves and Men, bloated and grown fat with endless brooding on her feasts, weaving webs of shadow; for all living things were her food, and her vomit darkness. Far and wide her lesser broods, *beep* of the miserable mates, her own offspring, that she slew, spread from glen to glen, from the Ephel Duath to the eastern hills, to Dol Guldur and the fastnesses of Mirkwood. But none could rival her, Shelob the Great, last child of Ungoliant to trouble the unhappy world.

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I'm a Lotr-Fan, and i love Hip-Hop and Rap. They don't mix, i know.

Great post Angrod Alcarin.

You address several perspectives; our natural curiousity of what we can not see or do not know, our darkest fears and desires and our need to be heroes.

Mankind is greedy and power-hungry, we seek to dominate. From the earliest societies only the strongest survived - and we want to be winners! Therefore we are drawn to the (white) wizards and the elves. The powerful heroes who will secure peace and the maintenance of the world as we know it.
Yes, we do flirt with the darkness as well, but for some reason it was never fully accepted to take out in the open, blame it on history or dogmatic religious dominion. In societies where people must function and live together, we are dependant on each other and a certain level of peace and stability. We cannot allow individuals to go about and cut down others at will. But that doesn't mean we can't have our dark desires. I don't know where the dark side of man comes from, but the truth is that the lighter side, the charitable side, has been favored for thousands of years - and the darker one oppressed. Taboos are always a lot more interesting. I believe we channel all our forbidden feelings and emotions into the dark world. That's how we create demons and wampires. Also the fear of the unknown makes our imagination roam free. What is hiding in the dark corner, that we cannot see? It's gotta be something big.. and evil.. otherwise we wouldn't be afraid of it, right!

We all have a need of being heroes!
Heroes in different ways, not necessarily the sword-slashing kind of hero, but any kind of hero. Frodo is a hero too and he has got as many fans as Aragorn. In our imagination we can be anything we want. Tolkien created a whole new universe to be our playground.

I know very little about Goth and I can't watch horror movies, but these are some of my thoughts after reading your post.

[and actually I think the thread would have fitted as well in Misc. Book Discussion on LotR]

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Ohhhhh....I like the way you put things into perspective. I think a person who craves horror would be satisfied by reading LotR but they'd have to use their imaginations since many of Tolkien's references can be a bit subtle.

Ahh.. gotta love Tolkien!
His language still gets me awe-struck. (Thanks for posting those bits up, I thoroughly enjoyed them ^^)

One thing I seem to get out of his works is the fact that nothing beautiful, or, in general - 'good', lasts forever, even if it is made or meant to be immortal. And for some sad reason, I love that fact.
Is sadness not a beautiful thing in its own way?

- I have! dozens actually! My friends are goths, and their friends, are goths (I'm not.. not in the 'fashion' sense anyway).. and, I tell you, only 3 or 4 of them have read Tolkien.

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Bloomin hell, you all have gone ratehr philosophical on me! I like all the writings of rolkien and think that he wrote stuff that most of humanity can relate to in it''s moral content but he was a bit gothic bt it helps to balance the book out an dstops them becoming TOO cheerful lol.
Namarie!!!

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"This is the hour of the Shire-folk, when they arise from their quiet fields to shake the towers and counsels of the Great. Who of all the Wise could have foreseen it? Or, if they are wise, why should they expect to know it, until the hour has struck? "

that was a freaky post.

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- married fingon fingolfinion 6/4/13 -
~art credit~

Freaky???? How so? I was only expressing what I thought. I do like philosophy but that post was one when I first started. Now I am a bit less freaky *crosses fingers and hopes*

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"This is the hour of the Shire-folk, when they arise from their quiet fields to shake the towers and counsels of the Great. Who of all the Wise could have foreseen it? Or, if they are wise, why should they expect to know it, until the hour has struck? "

I think that Tolkien was trying to create a world much like our own, so even though it is fantasy we could connect with it. And he wanted us to see distinct differences between good and evil.

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