Afraid, are we?
 

Well, it's safe to say that the LotR may be held accountable for my nightmare last night. Stupid impressionable little me read Book 2 of the Two Towers before going to bed, and lo and behold, ended up dreaming about faces of dead Men and Elves staring up at me from the deep water in the marshes!
I must say, that part was especially horrific, particularly when it was implied that Gollum may have tried to reach the dead bodies in an attempt to feed on them! [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]
What parts of the book frightened you? Or am I the only weirdo cowering under her blanket here?

mmm...very interesting.

i didn't find that part of the book particularly frightening, but it did gross me out.

i'm waiting for the movie version to see if it will scare the be-jesus out of me.

the part that really spooked me was in book three when Aragorn led Legolas and Gimli and his entire dead army to war. i got goosebumps reading that.

OOohhh, yes I did find that part freaky! *shivers runs up her spine* The part that made my eyes as wide as beach balls was Denethor's death! [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] Ewww, that part got me! And the part when the enemies of Gondor were chucking heads over the walls. That was discusting also! [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img]

[ January 29, 2002: Message edited by: Mayla Took ]

You're going to be surprised at this, but what scared me was the fire and stewed rabbit. Set my teeth immediately on edge "no Sam, no, you fool!" When it looked like they were going to be captured (and we didn't know it was Faramir yet) my spine wilted.

I thought I replied to this
*they've come to take me away haha!*
but...I don't think I've ever really been scared by reading any part of LOTR-and I should have, coz some of it's incredibly frightening.
But unlike many other novels, those parts of it don't get to me? Perhaps my imagination doesn't work in that way with this book...but I cry in the Havens and in the Silmarillion when Beren and Luthien depart forever [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

*shiver* That part did give me the willies! I could picture it so vividly...and it didn't help that Grandma was watching "Law and Order" just then, either!

(spoiler! Not that any of you haven't read the books a dozen times or more, but just to be safe.)

The part that really scared me was Frodo standing at the Crack of Doom and claiming the Ring for his own. Yeeee! *shivers*

We cannot get out
We cannot get out

Nothing really frightened me in LOTR as I first read it as a teenager. But I read the Hobbit when I was about ten, and the passage through Mirkwood when they were attacked by the giant spiders definitely had me freaked out.

- Cirdan

I was kinda scared . . . Oh! I completely lost my line of thought!

I remember now! The one part that kinda had me slightly worried was right before the Balrog showed up, because you don't know what's gonna happen. Also, I was kinda freaked out by the Barrow-Wight (now, of course, I curse Frodo and Tom for hurting one of my kind [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] )

I am pround to say that I never have been truly frightened of anything in the books, but the attack on Weathertop always got me into kind of a scared mood. :eek: The shapes blacker than night ascended and Merry and Pippin were overcome by terror... Yeah other than that I thought the Orcs chucking the heads of dead Gondorians into Minas Tirith was a bit un-nerving.

I think I get the vote for "weirdo". I was sreaming about the orcs chucking heads over the walls, only the heads turned out to be my enemies! [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]
I am looking forward to TTT. Then again, I am the one at the movies who is fanatically cheering when the characters land a good wallop on some bad guy! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Shelob! [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

Shelob...scared the bejezzus out of me. I hate spiders. I also though Orcs launching burned heads at Minas Tirith was pretty disgusting. The movie was just scary as hell. The Eye of Sauron and the troll! Ugh...scared me half to death. Im not gonna watch any of the Shelob part.

Well, I never had any "nightmares" when reading the books. But I tell you what, I watched the cartoons(The Hobbit/LOTR), that came out years ago, and they gave me serious nightmares! I mean in the Hobbit, the elves looked like mutant aliens! [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

Ha ha! Eowyn! *To the Funny Farm...* I have to agree with you on the crying bit. I cryed on many parts in the book. I cried at the end of TTT when Tolkien was fooling that Frodo was dead! I was so sad! And I also cried when I thought Pippin was dead! Say-add!! I cried many more times also that I wont write. But, I guess that you could call me sencitive! *takes a romantic sigh*
[img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

I did, but not from an actual part of the book, really. I was on "Survivor: Mordor" and had to kill the Balrog as an immunity challenge. I don't know why the Balrog was in Cirith Ungol instead of Moria, but it was.

Hama wrote:
Oh yes, that one was scary. Or more terrifying than scary (not much of a difference, but...) Imagine the feeling of those dwarves!

And the crying part, I think I cried through the entire 'Beren and Lúthien'... (ok, I'm a wuzz). Actually, a lot of things in Tolkien makes me wanna cry. It's all so sad. More sad than scary, actually.

Oh, now I remember what really scared me, and this was so odd because I love dragons: Smaug. The whole time he was talking to Bilbo I was freaking out. The only dragon that's worse than Smaug is the Hide River dragon in Frank Peretti's "The Oath". *shiver* Smaug's got nothin' on him and he didn't even say anything!

Heh, never had any Middle-earth nightmares but I did have a weird hobbit dream in the middle of my "Celbrity Dream Week." A friend and I were in the back of my Grandpa's truck and the four hobbits were driving (wich was odd because they couldn't see over the dashboard). Then my friend and I disappeard and it was just Sam, Merry and Pippin at a gas station. Frodo was off getting Cheetoh's and Merry and Pippin were asking questions about pre-packaged chocolate muffins. Sam said something really deep about the muffins and I wish I could remember what it was! Then I woke up...

Nonsense dreams are the best, no? [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

I've never been really scared by LotR, but I used to have a recurring nightmare when I was about 7 or 8. I dreamt that I was in our garden, and Smaug was flying towards me very slowly, and I was terrified, but I couldn't move to run away. He just kept getting nearer and nearer, and I would eventually wake up petrified. You know that feeling when you know you have to scream or run, but nothing works? I used to get so scared that my parents almost confiscated my copy of The Hobbit.

HEY! [img]smilies/mad.gif[/img] Watch who you're calling a fool!

Kidding--sounds like that scene would have freaked me out, too! [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

The first time I read TLOTR, the Barrow Downs and the Balin's tomb "we cannot get out" really scared me. When my brother was reading it for the first time, he stopped reading when Gandalf dies in Moria.

<skimming over the replies so as not to read what she doesnt want to know :O> my stomach was churning in shelob's lair...and then i cried when _____ - ahem <whispers> - died I also got 'little' nightmare after reading the whole part with merry and pippin being dragged around by the orcs. (part of it being - there was a group of people i knew around me, as well as the fellowship, and i was crawling on the ground, near merry, absolutely terrified that the orcs would get me.) <shivers> but i would have ten hundred nightmares like that if it means i get to be in middle earth [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] well...one or two [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img]

Well, I was misty-eyed pretty much all through Lorien, simply because it was beautiful. And I had tears in my eyes upon first reading Bilbo's song about the road, as well as Aragorn's reaction as he looks upob the pillars on the river.

We cannot get out
We cannot get out

AGH I just rememberd that. That scared me. Ive never had a LoTR nightmare.

This made me more sad than scared, I cried at this bit.

Lush, if I remember correctly from previous threads, you're reading the LOTR for the first time, right? Haven't you found out a few things that you haven't read about yet?
I hope not.

But while we're on the subject:
Shelob's lair and Moria scare me the most. I think it's the suspense, which is all too amplified by the immense darkness. Not knowing what's in front or what's behind...that stuff rules! When they run into the _ _ _ and Sam's sword won't cut through...

Rhud-the suspense of LotR was pretty much spoiled for me when, as we exited the movie, one of my friends said (loudly), "BUT DON'T WORRY, GANDALF IS COMING BACK! AND IN THE END OF THE SECOND MOVIE EVERYONE'S GONNA THINK THAT FRODO'S DEAD!!! BUT LATER, EVERYONE'S GONNA THINK THAT HE'S TURNED EVIL!!! ISN'T THAT COOL?" [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] Oh well. I read it mostly for the good writing.
I'm actually reading about Shelob right now (the book is sitting open next to me). *chills running down spine*

Shelob is one the most repulsive creatures in the Lord of the Rings. I hate to read her description in LotR and i think that unless i work up a olt of courage between now and when i see the Two Towers i shall i have to do some thing i rarely do during a movie: CLOSE MY EYES!!! aaaaaaah [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] wait thats openin them even wider... hmmmm [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] well that one kinda looks scared hehehe

What caught me the most in the Lothlórien part is the sadness; the Elves are fading, their splendour of old no longer exists, everything just seems so hopeless! 'Why even bother to save this?' Of course, then I discovered the Sil, and figured out the 'going into the west'. There was some reason and big scheme after all! 'Go Frodo! Let's get that Sauron b******!!'

Per Zinfab:
Ooh, yesss...yesss...my precious....erg. [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] Gollum freaked me out when I was little and saw that cartoon--and they drew him all green and glowing and slimy...(least that's how I remember him)...like some kind of mutant frog.
[img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

i've been scared by the LotR, but only the books. the movie was kinda mediocre. the books were a lot scarier.

*shiver* Gollum is scary! "And if it doesn't answer us, we eats it, yes precious!" Right before Shelob, when Sam yelled at him, was when he really started to scare me bad. I knew he was up to something, what with that morbid green light...

And he was spooky in the cartoons, too. "The Hobbit" was a good cartoon but I agree with Zifnab about "The Lord of the Rings": if you can help it, don't watch it! I dunno about the "Return of the King" cartoon, though, I've not seen that one.

Gollum isn't particularly frightening; he's on some peculiar see-saw between loathsome and pitiable. On the other hand, some people might feel a moment, just a moment, of exquisite panic if, when lost and alone in a dark place, they felt a clammy and vice-like grip about the throat and heard a hissing intake of breath... (we feeds, precious, yesss).
Thank goodness for that poor soul, one might argue, that Smeagol doesn't play with his food. Other fictional people-eaters wouldn't be so kind, for all that education can bestow.

I do think Tolkien had a nice line in gothic horror, but for me his horrors are like Wilfred Owen's sentry and mental cases(1): they don't frighten, but sadden or sicken.

Having said that, there is a concept used by Tolkien that once terrified me, although not in the context of one of his books: eternal life. This may seem odd, but to me eternity is just too big. Most people just think of it as a very long time, but the difference between infinite gulfs of time and a life-span is the same as that between a normal journey and just walking around in circles (albeit large circles). The phrase "A thousand ages in thy sight are like an evening gone"(2)is no comfort, since if time never ends, the speed of its passage is ultimately meaningless. (They're developing a "cure" for death, kids: don't take it) [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

(1) In general. Not always true, but there's something of the Great War in Gollum and Shelob nonetheless, not to mention the Nazgul.

(2) This, for anyone not familiar with nineteenth-century religious music*, is from the hymn O God, our Help in Ages Past

*Godless heathens [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

AAAAAHHHHHH!!! I'd do more than panic if that happened to me!

Are you still afrain of immortality, Squatter of Amon Rudh? I'd be afraid immortality on earth but the Heavenly version suits me, since we'll all be changed and won't have to worry about the things we do here. I once had a vague idea for a character who had been taking a drug for a few centuries that made him live longer. The downside of it was that his brain was slowly decaying...

I don't quite understand what you mean by this. Do you mean you don't much care for immortality and will await your turn for judgement day at the Gates of Heaven? Meaning that you believe in God, and will rather be in Heaven, then what happens to Elves in Tolkien's world. That seems fine to me, but what about the "since we'll all be changed and won't have to worry about the things we do here." That is the part I don't understand to well, I don't want to seem naive but could you explain this part? [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Whoops! Sorry about the unclarity, Zifnab.

I do mean that I'm happy to wait for judgement day (and yes, I do believe in God). That part about not worrying about what we do here I got a little wrong; of course we should think about what we do down here while we're here. I think I meant that up in Heaven, the things that concerned us on Earth won't matter so life would be better up there. I'd still hate to be immortal on Earth because you'd have to watch all your friends die and you'd never age a bit.

I don't know if I'd want to go to Valinor. I'm still reading about it in "The Silmarillion" and the whole concept confuses me. It seems like there's more than Valinor for heaven in Middle-earth but it won't come until the end of days. (Did that make any sense?)

Hey, does anyone have any idea if Tolkien created a heaven-ish place for his other races? We know what happens to Elves and kind of what happens to Dwarves, but what about Men and Hobbits?

maybe we should start another thread for this topic....

Anyways. i think that eru's gift to men is like heaven. It says that the Men go to the Halls of Mandos and later go to where the Eldar know not, but that is the Gift of Iluvatar. The dwarves i think it is saif that they go back to the stone that they were made from. (Aule made the dwarves from stone) as for hobbits, perhaps they have the same fate as Men. They could be an obsure branch of Men that were small and stuntded for some reason. But that also is another topic....

That's what the Elves in Middle Earth thought. As far as those dwelling in Valinor, I don't think it's ever said if they had any thoughts on the matter.
The dwarves themselves said that their souls go to Mandos where they wait. After The End they will help Aule rebuild the world.
I don't remember if Tolkien ever said which is true, but I personally suspect the latter. :)
It seems like there was a thread floating around recently dealing with this topic, but I don't have time to find it. :(

Sorry I'm late! I read the trilogy for the first time when I was about ten. The Ringwraiths would come into my room every night for weeks, and the only thing that maybe protected me was throwing the covers over my head - I don't know why they couldn't get me that way - and maybe they did and this is all a nasty negative reality.

The Black Riders chasing the hobbits all over the Shire then Bree right up to the Fords of Bruinen set me shivering.

Frodo's vision of the one eye on Amon Hen freaked me out, and so did Shelob. One real big scare that nobody else has mentioned yet is when Frodo and Sam (was Gollum with them?) were sneaking their way up toward Cirith Ungol and the Witch King and his armies come marching forth from Minas Morgul. I was so scared they were gonna get caught!

Hi Littlemanpoet, welcome to the Downs! Grand Rapids, eh? I was originally from Union Lake (outside Pontiac).

It's too bad Strider didn't know the protection blankets could be from Black Riders. The Hobbits could've got a good nights sleep in their beds at the Prancing Pony. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]