Thursday Thirteen

Nerdy Lord of the Rings facts

1. Arwen is Aragorn’s cousin (63 times removed). (No, I did not sit and figure that out.)

2. Aragorn is a descendant of Elrond's brother, Elros. Elrond and Elros were halfelves, which meant they could choose between being elves or living a human life (which is what Arwen ends up doing). Elros chose a moral life, while Elrond chose the elf life.

3. The above is the reason Aragorn is actually in his 80s at the time the movies take place. He is one of the Dunadain (men who live a long time).

4. Thranduil's dad was the elf who abandoned Dol Guldur. Dol Guldur is the fortress that Sauron took over in The Hobbit movies. The elves abandoned the place because of territorial disputes between the elves of Lorien and Moria.

5. No one knows what color Legolas's hair really was. Tolkien never describes Legolas's appearance in detail in the books.

6. An elf-lord named Celebrimbor actually forged three of the rings, the ones for elves. The rings were called Nenya, Narya and Vilya. Celebrimbor helped Sauron with the other rings, but he didn't trust Sauron so he forged the rings for the elves himself. That is why they don't hold power over the elves the way the nine rings did the men who received theirs.

7. Celebrimbor also designed the door to the mines of Moria. The doors could only be entered if you knew the password.

8. The balrog who appeared to take out Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring was named Durin's Bane.

9. Gandalf was part of a race of wizards called Maiar.

10. Morgoth was once the baddest and most evil thing in Middle Earth, not Sauron. Morgath is basically Satan, and Sauron was one of his demons, if you want to use Christian terms.

11. Shelob is not just a spider. She's the daughter of Ungoliant, a spirit that predates time.

12. The One Ring could not make Sauron invisible, because Sauron was a spirit-like thing that already lived in the other dimension/plane where the One Ring took a human when he put the ring on. (So it actually doesn't make people invisible, either, it sends them elsewhere.)

13. Orcs are corrupted elves, not a separate race.


______________

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 561st time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.