Lord of the Ring landscapes

[Lyta_Underhill]

Although it is not breathtakingly beautiful like other favorite landscapes, I always enjoy the description of the Plain of Gorgoroth, simply because it brings to mind the pitted and devastated terrain that I've read about in accounts of WWI. It strikes a resonance, especially with Sam trudging through it, dragging Frodo, who seems like many a soldier who has lost hope in the midst of No Man's Land, scrambling from trench to trench to avoid ever-present shells (or the Eye of Sauron and his orcs!)...very evocative!

I also love Henneth Annun, for its hidden quality and I can almost hear the water falling from the cool rocks. There are a lot of rocks where I live and many have small springs that trickle out from them, so that resonates too. It is amazing how Tolkien can grab personal images from deep inside so many diverse imaginations and give them a greater resonance with his own realm of Middle Earth! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Cheers,
Lyta

P.S. Can't believe I forgot to mention Fangorn! Ah, but I've run out time...it is indescribably alive! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] And before I run out of typing breath, Gilthalion's post reminded me of a favorite image from The Hobbit: the gathering of Elves feasting inside Mirkwood that Bilbo espies and who seem to disappear so quickly! (Real forest faerie feel to them! I was always amused at how Thranduil's folk were always so drunk, too! Makes me wonder if Legolas had a few snootfuls before he set out for Rivendell! Heh hehe! But that's not so on-topic! [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] )

[ August 03, 2003: Message edited by: Lyta_Underhill ]

[Alda]

There are times while reading Tolkien that I am swept away. In The Silmarillion, within Of The Voyage Of Earendil , one of my favorite landscapes is described. I think it is one of the most magical and beautiful portraits the gentle professor ever penned.

But some there were who saw him from afar, and the great light that he bore; and they went in haste to Valimar. But Earendil climbed the green hill of Tuna and found it bare; and he entered into the streets of Tirion, and they were empty; and his heart was heavy, for he feared that some evil had come even to the Blessed Realm. He walked in the deserted ways of Tirion, and the dust upon his rainment and his shoes was a dust of diamonds, and he shone and glistened as he climbed the long white stairs.

Thanks to Tolkien's considerable talents of description, I too have climbed that fair green hill.

[Guinevere]

A very beautiful and touching description of a landscape is given by Voronwë in U.T: the willow-meads of Nan-tathren, "lovely to heart's enchantment" where he nearly forgot his errand to the sea.

I love Tolkien's descriptions, they make me feel "inside" the scenery and the story, they are so real!
And not just the landscapes themselves, but the special mood in a certain moment is superbly caught.
e.g. in "The Riders of Rohan" :

Turning back they saw across the River the far hills kindled. Day leaped into the sky. The red rim of the sun rose over the shoulders of the dark land. Before them in the West the world lay still, formless and grey; but even as they looked, the shadows of night melted, the colours of the waking earth returned: green flowed over the wide meads of Rohan; the white mists shimmered in the water-vales; and far off to the left, thirty leages or more, blue and purple stood the White Mountains, rising into peaks of jet, tipped with glimmering snows flushed with the rose of morning.

[ninlaith]

I think Lothlorien would be incredible to see. It was breath taking on screen. I cannot imagine how it would look in real life. I am not one to stay in the dark for long but the darkness seemed to be a safe place when I was reading. It was comforting I guess.

[Bombadil]

I'm surprised noone's mentioned Gondolin yet. If you've ever read Of Tuor and his coming to Gondolin you know how breath taking it is. The seven gates he passes through, and the heavy descripition on their beauitiful architecture- the ravines he passes through, and eventually his coming to the beautiful white city, which a greater description of the city itself would be better found in The Silmarillion.

[Encaitare]

I agree with what someone said earlier-- many of my mental images have been overridden by movie images. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as I think they did a great job, but I wish I had gotten into LotR earlier, just so I could have compared!

Oh well, it leaves me plenty of time to dream about everything not in the movies! My favorite location (that's put in the movie) is Lothlórien. But I am also enchanted by Númenor, definitely Gondolin (as Bombadil said), and recently having read Book I again, the Barrow-downs.

[Osse]

The Forests of Brethil will always hold a special place in my heart, as does Doriath. I can smell the crispness of the streams, see the light as it flickers through the soft green foliage, and hear the russle of life. In fact, all of Tolkiens forests are special to me...