Current Events > Question for big LOTR nerds. Spoilers lol

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I've been listening through the audiobooks for a couple weeks now while I exercise. This morning I got to the part where they kick wormtongue out and save theoden. Then they rally their troops, and head off to war together. The chapter ends.

The next chapter seems to pick up far later- gimli had been wounded on his head, he was boasting about how many he killed, legolas compared his score with him, and then they kept talking about how much gimli was going to miss the caverns of helms deep, I think. A bunch of other stuff was said and I got confused- do the books just skip over the battle of helms deep or something and only talk about it in past tense? It's really throwing me for a loop, because I feel like nothing like that has happened so far, where we skip over major events concerning the main characters of that part of the story. Am I missing something?

I've never read through the books before, so it's a little bit new to me. and it's been a really long time since I've even seen the movies so my memory of the storyline is hazy anyway.

also if I misspelled anything, sue me- I'm listening to the audiobook so I have no idea how a lot of stuff is spelled lmao
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The books spend a lot of time on the Battle of Helm's Deep

mattymad posted...

Bro you skipped a chapter or something.

Gimli does separately from Legolas to suit their fighting styles, and Gimli does get all soppy over how great the halls are as he relays it to Legolas.

see, I remember that conversation, but I don't remember those things actually happening. I even rewound the audiobook to make sure that the chapter led directly into the next one. when I have a chance I'm going to have to look at the files on my PC and scrub through the audio to make sure that they're actually in order lmao
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I would check the book but not at home right now.

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As someone who has only casually watched the LOTR films, are the books worth reading? I've heard unfavorable things from a good amount of people not because of the story/content of the books, but because of Tolkien's writing style and how he takes pages to describe a chair or something like that, is that true to an extent?

Also, I just got to the part where gandalf, theoden, etc reach eisengard and find Merry and Pippin smoking. They don't seem perturbed by the fact that gandalf isn't dead, but shouldn't this be their first time seeing him since moria?

This copy of the audiobook must have the chapters out of order or something like that
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Timohtep posted...

Also, I just got to the part where gandalf, theoden, etc reach eisengard and find Merry and Pippin smoking. They don't seem perturbed by the fact that gandalf isn't dead, but shouldn't this be their first time seeing him since moria?

Yeah, they meet him first after he comes back, in Fangorn Forest.

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Well, when I got back to my PC I scrubbed through the files and found out that chapter 7 in my copy was ridiculously short. I think it somehow got sliced up and I missed the entirety of Helm's deep.

Gonna have to go find another copy of the audiobook to fill in what I missed, bleh. Or maybe just borrow a copy of the physical book and read it by hand. It shouldn't be that long, only a chapter or so.

It was particularly confusing because the part where it cut off in chapter 7 sort of flowed directly into the beginning of chapter 8, because they were both at a point where they were heading west through Rohan towards Isengard, IIRC. But they were all talking like they had done a bunch of stuff "offscreen".

Thanks for the info, y'all.

DavidZ2844 posted...

As someone who has only casually watched the LOTR films, are the books worth reading? I've heard unfavorable things from a good amount of people not because of the story/content of the books, but because of Tolkien's writing style and how he takes pages to describe a chair or something like that, is that true to an extent?

That's what stopped me from reading it when I was younger. It's hard to focus. But I'm finding great success with the unabridged audiobook narrated by Rob Inglis, listening on long walks in the mornings and at night. He even sings all the songs. It's far easier to follow without any distractions and with busy feet.
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i remember reading it and thinking that the writing style or prose was incredibly stuffy and longwinded.

found out only like a year ago that the translation i was reading, the translater had taken it upon himself to "improve" it by making every sentence much longer with more difficult words

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Translation? Were you reading in a language other than English?
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Timohtep posted...

Translation? Were you reading in a language other than English?

well, yeah, i read it as a kid, so i only read in my native Swedish at the time

i'll see if i can find the examples i used when i brought this up to someone else a while back

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found it.

so, original English:
"Indeed, few Hobbits had ever seen or sailed upon the Sea, and fewer still had ever returned to report it."

Swedish translation, then translated by me back into english:
"It was the case that the life of a sailor did not fit in at all with the general disposition of the Hobs. Very few had seen the sea, even fewer had sailed it, and of those who had really sailed, only a vanishingly few had returned and been able to tell about what they had experienced."

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If you're not sure, try Hobbit first. Super short read so if you don't like it then no need to try LotR. If you do, then give it a shot.