# Fun, weird, cool, etc etc FACTs



## Isenho (Jan 16, 2003)

just decided here might be a good place to get some mad ramblings and lists about weird, cool, or "I never knew that!" facts on and about LotR.

so! got any?


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## FoolOfATook (Jan 17, 2003)

When Tolkien was very small- still living in South Africa- he was bitten by a tarantula in the family's backyard. He would have died if one of the family's hired help (a nanny, if I recall) was able to suck the venom out of the wound. One biography of Tolkien I read (not Carpenter's- it was the biography written for a series called 'Critical Lives') argued that while Tolkien probably did not clearly remember the event, the stories of it that his family told almost certainly is part of the explanation for the number of evil spiders who permeate Middle-earth.


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## Confusticated (Jan 17, 2003)

That would also explain Sam (the family's hired help) rescuing Frodo after the attack of Shelob


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## Isenho (Jan 17, 2003)

oo, good one. 

well, Galadriel is Arwen's grandma! i just thought that was interesting.


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## Deleted member 3778 (Jan 21, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Isenho _
> *oo, good one.
> 
> well, Galadriel is Arwen's grandma! i just thought that was interesting.  *




(yeah, and Aragorn and Arwen are actually related too...)

did you know that tolkien's son is called christopher robin?

anyway..some interessting facts...

Frodo falls down, on average, every 10 minutes in The Fellowship Of The Ring

In 1961, The Observer newspaper described "The Lord of the Rings" as "dull, ill-written and whimsical". *grrr*


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## Wynston (Jan 21, 2003)

Hehe that's right, Aragron and Arwen are related. He's descended from her great great, um removed about 30 something times?, uncle.


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## Isenho (Jan 23, 2003)

interesting!

well, Gandalf is actually supposed to be pronounced gOndalf


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## Deleted member 3778 (Jan 27, 2003)

WRONG!!!
*muhahaha i just love correcting ppl*

actually its pronounced "gONdahlV" with a V

(not gAndAlf like they say in the movie...  )


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## Lantarion (Jan 28, 2003)

Um.. No, it isn't. 
The name in one of the Eddass, from where Tolkien got the name 'Gandalf', is pronounced like that, but whoever pronounces Gandalf as in the LotR like how you say muust be high or crazy.


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## Deleted member 3778 (Jan 28, 2003)

is it?? oops *hehe*

i always thought it was pronounced "gandalv"...
hmm...ive been going around correcting people who've been saying "gandalf" all these years and ive been wrong...


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## Oren (Jan 28, 2003)

lol, whoops.... 
I found out that it took Tolkien about 11 years to complete his first copy of his first book!
Also, Tolkien had invented three or four languages by the age of 10!!


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## BelDain (Jan 28, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Ithilin _
> *is it?? oops *hehe*
> 
> i always thought it was pronounced "gandalv"...
> hmm...ive been going around correcting people who've been saying "gandalf" all these years and ive been wrong... *



Gandalf is not a Sindarin word so it isn't pronounced with the trailing '-v' sound. In the Appendices on language it does give the example of ending 'f' being pronounced as a '-v' as in Nindalf (or something like that).
I made that mistake too when I first read that.


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## Lantarion (Jan 29, 2003)

Yes, sorry; Sindarin words ending in 'f' are pronounced with more of a 'v'.


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## BlackCaptain (Jan 29, 2003)

Gweneth means "virginity" in Sindarian. I just thought that to be interesting because that's Gweneth Paltrow's first name. Coinsedence? I think so. hehe


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## Niniel (Jan 29, 2003)

I don't think so. Gwyneth is a Celtic name, and Tolkien loved Welsh particularly, and he has taken some other words and names from Welsh as well (In the Mabinogi, I noticed the word 'Teleri' as a girl's name, and it is also a branch of the Elves). Also the suffix -wen is Welsh for 'white', while it means 'maiden' in Sindarin.


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