Welcome to the Tolkien Sarcasm Page!
J.R.R. Tolkien, in writing his extraordinary books about
Middle-earth, has succeeded in creating a world so
finely-detailed and fully-realized that even now, over forty
years after The Lord of the Rings was first published,
linguists and scholars still continue their avid research and
debates about the world Tolkien has created. The Tolkien Sarcasm
Page is here to help Middle-earth historians everywhere take a
break from those heated arguments about Glorfindel's bloodline
and whether or not Thingol was a wise King. Instead, stop and
relax for a little while with one of the following strange
activities:
- Follow this link to the Tolkien
Art Gallery, a display showing Tolkien's influence on
the world of classical and modern art. (Note: the gallery
may take a minute or two for your browser to fetch,
particularly with slower modems.)
- The Lord
of the Rings Board Game is still extremely hard to
find in most stores. Odds are it will continue to be. You
might enjoy taking a look at this curious new addition to
the Middle-earth gaming world.
- Good, objective information about the enemies in Lord
of the Rings is hard to come by. With this in mind,
here is some research describing one group of enemies in
sharp detail: the swarthy People of Dunland.
- For those of you who are doing research for a book report
on Tolkien, but don't want to be bothered with reading
volumes and volumes of his work, you may find this Synopsis
of The Lord of the Rings to be helpful. A brief
summary of The Silmarillion, and a selection of
possible term-papers topics, are included here as well.
- More advanced students of Tolkien might want to try their
hand at the Middle-earth
test available on this server. Be warned, however,
that the advanced questions can be somewhat difficult
even for Tolkien experts.
- I was fortunate enough to have relatives who uncovered a
rare, almost-unknown Tolkien manuscript in 1995: Saruman's
Diary. I've duplicated it for you here, complete with
the accompanying footnotes.
- The magic and depth of Tolkien's works has, so far,
eluded the filmmakers who have tried to reproduce it.
Sadly, this review of Ralph
Bakshi's Lord of the Rings Part One describes how one
filmmaker was particularly eluded.
- Lastly, allow me to introduce the new Tolkien
Crackpot Theories page: a compendium of some of the
less-likely suggestions about the history of
Middle-earth.
By the way, if you're completely unfamiliar with J.R.R.
Tolkien's work, all this may seem a little mysterious to you.
However, a look at the rec.arts.books.tolkien
FAQ might be of some help in illuminating you until you get a
chance to read the actual books.
It should be noted that, however much sarcasm they may
inspire, the books are superb and well worth reading.
(Indeed, they're much more worthwhile reading than this web-page
is.)
(Click here if you're interested in the copyright information,
disclaimer, photo credits and other such legal grot.)
Coming soon: Keebler's Elves: The Avari
Turn To Evil.
