# How many mistakes can YOU find?



## Aulë (Sep 15, 2003)

*is still laughing*

I just found the funniest site today (although it attempts to be serious...).
http://www.frannasweb.com/elrond/main.html

How many mistakes can you find? 
Nóm, Beleg and I have found _quite_ a few already 

Here are a few highlights:



> Fëanor was enraged and almost immediately set sail on the Westron Sea and with his allies, landed on Middle Earth and made war against Sauron.


Wonder what happed to Morgoth? 



> There in Valimar The One gave The Two Trees, Telperion and Laurelin, to the Valar to grow and care for until the End of Days.


Poor Yavanna  All that hard work, and she doesn't even get the credit 



> the Nazgûl are different. They were first observed to be as normal horses but with a difference: Their eyes glowed even during the daylight, giving them an unworldly look. And after their apparent demise an the Ford of the Bruinen, they became or were replaced by flying Lizard-like beasts.


So the Nazgúl are horses now? 



> "Númenor was sunk beneath the sea and the Undying Lands were removed forever from Middle Earth. (Ed: This may be the only discrepancy in the story, for at the end of the Third Age, many sail again across the sea to reach the Undying Lands. This might be difficult if the Undying Lands have been removed to the stars; as stated in the Silmarillion.) "


*Still laughing*



> Balrogs - Large Lion shaped demonic beast with wings.


Roar! 

This is my personal favourite:


> "The Men of Gondolin were drawn into the conflict on the side of the Elves"


Hahahahahahahahahahaha
ROFL


And they seem rather determined that Dwarves were created by 'Melchar' (their variation of Melkor)... 



You will _not_ believe your eyes....


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## Confusticated (Sep 15, 2003)

*Let the ranting begin...*

I don't know how Aule is finding these sites, I never run into them, but they are out there. I can't even guess how many there are. I'd like to point out that people should be careful of sources, but how is one to judge how good a source is unless he knows more about the books than the source does? 

But the information about Middle-earth exist in Tolkien's own writings. Anything else was derived from that source, or just made up, or mistaken. Be careful when reading websites and books about Middle-earth, you may be getting false information. Just so long as people know there is a chance what they are reading is not correct. 

I would say in general if a site is giving all their information on Middle-earth from a book about Middle-earth not by Tolkien, the chances for error is double. Why are they using a book not written by Tolkien to provide basic information if they can use LotR instead? This is not to say all books about Middle-earth not by Tolkien are bad sources. I've never looked at any myself, but unless one knows as much as the author then he can't be sure if the information is correct, can he?


This is the second site Aule has shown me which claims to have used J.E.A. Tyler's _The Tolkien Companion_, and both sites are full of errors. 

I haven't looked at the book myself, nor do I know which information from these sites has come word for word form that book, and I am no expert but I did find this:

"The Tolkien Companion, by J.E.A. Tyler, is a sort of encyclopedia of Middle-earth lore. It is written to be enjoyable to read (a difficult task for an encyclopedia!), but in many cases that seems to have taken precedence over accuracy. Thus, the book is a very unreliable source of information about Middle-earth..."
You can read the rest here.

But I also found positive reviews, so decide for youself.

But Aule, the mistake that got to me the most at that website was this:


> ...The object of the war was the sole possession of the One Ruling Ring made by the Elven-smiths of Eregion for Sauron during the Second Age.



It boggles my mind how someone can know certain pieces of information and not others that seem far more obvious.

Reading that site one can get the impression the person who put that information up has not read LotR and The Silmarillion... 

While some of these errors are funny, I think it is not really a laughing matter. I only hope people remember the source of Tolkien's Middle-earth, that is J.R.R.Tolkien. That is the only pure source that exists. All other sources are either direct from the Tolkien book, for from a source that was direct from the book, or a source from a source that was from a source that was direct from the book. You get the idea. Each time information passed along by means other than from JRRT to the reader, it loses purity and can eventually be crap.

The sites I have found that I judge to be good sources like to give their sources, sometimes down to the page number. I use web sources (Ardalambion, for example) and personally I view the sources that I trust as places to find out where at in the books I can read certain information for myself, but I think it is best to read something straight from the books before passing it along to another person on a public website.


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## Arvedui (Sep 15, 2003)

Aaaargh! The Link won't work! 
I would love to read that. I'll have to try again later, I presume. It sounds totally hilarious.
But as Nóm says: it really is no laughing matter.

How about this: We hold a debate, using only such sites as reference. Could be interesting......


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## Aulë (Sep 15, 2003)

Hmmm.
That's odd.
Must be your ISP.

Anyway, I have emailed the Webmistress of the site, and told her of a few of the things which are wrong, and given her the URL to EoA and TTF (WM would be pleased with me  ). So hopefully she'll get it sorted out some day.


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## Starflower (Sep 15, 2003)

oooooooohhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!






> Very little is said about the origins of the Dwarvish Race and it is not a good idea to ask a Dwarf about it. But in the Elvish Histories it is said that Morgoth Himself 'created' the Dwarves as a counter to Man, but that the noble Dwarves rebelled and left their would-be master





and what about this :



> Dwarves were very clannish, not associating with Elves or Man. The only contact they had was through various Wizards or prearranged meetings.



Various wizards? Since when have there been various wizards at any given time?




> The first tragedy was Melchar, later called Morgoth, who was tempted by a bauble and fell into Evil.



hmmm .. I wonder what was Morgoth tempted by ?





there are plenty more.... oh my sides hurt from all the laughing!!!!



Starflower


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## Starflower (Sep 15, 2003)

> For their desecration of the Ban of the Valar: Númenor was sunk beneath the sea and the Undying Lands were removed forever from Middle Earth. (Ed: This may be the only discrepancy in the story, for at the end of the Third Age, many sail again across the sea to reach the Undying Lands. This might be difficult if the Undying Lands have been removed to the stars; as stated in the Silmarillion



Has anyone seen it mentioned in the Simarillion that Valinor was removed to the STARS? gheesh

and here's a novel take on the Battle of Helm's Deep:


Starflower


> The enemy, who were primarily infantry, fled in disarray into a large patch of forest near the end of the valley. When the Rohirrim reached the forest they were suprised to find it alive and devouring the Orcs and men alike with a seeming joy. This so shocked the Rohirrim that they rode away with great haste and oath-taking.


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## Niniel (Sep 15, 2003)

> No chronological time was kept for the First Age as the Valar and the Elves being immortal, saw no reason...


 So why did Tolkien go through all the trouble of making many versions of the Annals of Valinor and of Beleriand, taking particular care to the dating of events?


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## Aulë (Sep 15, 2003)

lol.
I wonder what all the Men in the First Age thought of that 
And I'm sure Arien and Tilion didn't mind being ignored


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## Lúthien Séregon (Sep 15, 2003)

Oh oh oh, here's another one:



> Barliman Butterbur < Hobbit > During the time of our story Barliman Butterbur was the Innkeeper at the Prancing Pony, the chief hostelry of Bree. His family had owned the Inn for many years...



Barliman, a hobbit? OMG has the author of that site read the book at all? 

There are quite a few name errors as well...Farimir, Bombor...



> Balrogs - Large Lion shaped demonic beast with wings.



I think they may just have taken Bakshi's interpretation just a little bit too far there...


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## Confusticated (Sep 15, 2003)

Well, I think the Webmaster there ment well, an amount of effort went into that site. Just a bad source if you are looking for information on Tolkien's Middle-earth.

Could be the person just hasn't read LotR in a long time and hasn't read The Silmarillion, and is not aware of any wrong/outdated information that might be in The Tolkien Companion, or innocently misinterprets things. Could also be a 10 year old, for example.


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## Inderjit S (Sep 15, 2003)

Maybe it's a joke?


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## Aglarthalion (Sep 17, 2003)

lmao

Intended humour or not, that's a hilarious site.  GJ Aulë for finding it.


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