Which is your favorite race of middle earth?

[Billobob]

All races of middle earth apply, not just the children of Eru. The Ainur do count.
1. State which race you think is the best
2. Say why you like them
3. State how powerful the race is 1-10 1(small normal animal) 10(Ainur)
4. If you want to you can say which character is the your favorite of your favorite race.

Sorry for the formal sounding rules. But this thread is mean to be fun so it's cool if the discussion meanders a little but keep it about Middle earth.

[darthgandalf99]

Billobob, you cannot expect people to stay on topic when your OP contains inconsistencies and/or contradictions.

You state that "All races of middle earth apply, not just the children of Eru" and later you instruct people to "keep it about LOTR".

Well what is it? Do you want us to keep it about LOTR or can we discuss all the people of Middle-earth, including all the Ainur, the stone-giants from the Hobbit etc.

Clarification would be appreciated, in order that this thread can become an orderly success.

[oldtoby]

Personally my favorite race is the 100 yard dash

[Morwenna]

The race I Identify with the most is the hobbits. Tolkien did his job too well! They're meant to be the viewpoint characters, and they certainly are for me. I admire the other cultures and greatly enjoy learning about them, but count me among the Shirefolk.

[Billobob]

Billobob, you cannot expect people to stay on topic when your OP contains inconsistencies and/or contradictions.

You state that "All races of middle earth apply, not just the children of Eru" and later you instruct people to "keep it about LOTR".

Well what is it? Do you want us to keep it about LOTR or can we discuss all the people of Middle-earth, including all the Ainur, the stone-giants from the Hobbit etc.

Clarification would be appreciated, in order that this thread can become an orderly success.

Good point I'll edit that right now. I meant the middle earth universe not the trilogy. I'll always get that mixed up. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Billobob]

My favorite race are the Dwarves since it seems like they could have a much larger history in middle earth if more was told of them.

Personally my favorite race is the 100 yard dash

Do you want me to be more specific and say species ?

[Chariot Rider]

My favorite race was the beornings. They can go from bear to man and that alone is more interesting than any other race. Sorry hobbits the hairy feet don't quite do it for me. I feel the beornings would have been a bigger part of LOTR had Tolkien expanded on them more.

I give them an 8 due to the lack of history

[Billobob]

My favorite race was the beornings. They can go from bear to man and that alone is more interesting than any other race. Sorry hobbits the hairy feet don't quite do it for me. I feel the beornings would have been a bigger part of LOTR had Tolkien expanded on them more.

I give them an 8 due to the lack of history

Hmm interesting choice. There are a lot of features introduced on the Hobbit that were never expanded upon. The two most notable being the storm Giants and the Beornings. Maybe the reason they have almost no history is that they mainly kept to themselves on the woods. But yeah I love the idea of a huge bear-man yeah forget about werewolf I think Beorn as a werebear is a lot cooler.

[*yona*]

My favorites are the dwarves, probably because of how much I bonded to Bilbo's traveling companions... Thorin and Company will always be among my fondest friends.

Also, like another poster said, I wish there was more stories and songs about them, concerning their individual personalities, etc. like the Hobbit did.

Possibly I should make up for the deficit by treating them royally right in my own tales!!!

[Billobob]

I don't know the dwarves in the books kind of seemed self centered.

[*yona*]

I really enjoyed their characters... and I found their quirky, scrappy personalities hilarious and heart warming.

I was very sad when Tolkien killed off the Oakenshield family altogether... I really thought he could have at least let one of the nephew live, even if it was a good idea for Thorin to be an object lesson.
Still, I suppose they are on the whole no more or less selfish than the hobbits who only want to comfortably eat and gossip about "not quite RESpeCTable" neighbors... elves who look down their noses at mortals of all stripes and can't be bothered to slay even the ugly spiders of Mirkwood... or men who are driven by hunger for power or for riches.

Perhaps one of the things that makes Middle Earth feel so very, very realistic is that all it's peoples are so very like the ones we see in our every day; fairly selfish, mistrustful of strangers, eager to grab something that may not belong to them, get something for free, or turn hastily away if it looks like something may turn out to be uncomfortable.

[Billobob]

I don't know. In the movies the dwarves are heroes trying to reclaim their homeland while in the book they were just essentially craftsmen looking to retake their wealth. I'm not saying the dwarves were in any sense bad people they just weren't the fierce warrior like personalities you see in the movies.

[*yona*]

Ahahah!

I did not care for the movie version of the dwarves... the books come first in my mind, and so PJ's conceptualization didn't hit any magic buttons in my book.

I liked the more "personable" take on their personalities that Tolkien's writing brought across... and perhaps it's a special treatment of childhood imagination, but I've always connected with the motley-but-united crew that became more and more a cohesive unit as the journey went along, but that they still stayed very relatable as individuals (when even Fili and Kili couldn't' get a fire started and ended up arguing, and then walking off mad... comes to mind! Such a very true "brother moment"! )

And the "fierce warrior" types aren't that attractive to me... kind of a trope in fantasy, to my way of thinking! That's possibly one of the things I love about The Hobbit's dwarves, is that though they are great warriors but that aspect is hardly touched upon in the narrative, they are handled as people foremost, and a sort of slightly devoted-but-arguing family-group... which is totally endearing to me!!!

[heliona]

Yona, did you read "The Hobbit" when you were a child? I did, and I feel like you do about the dwarves. I'm still very fond of them, particularly Balin, Fili, and Kili. They were fierce warriors, it just didn't really come across in "The Hobbit" until the end.

Billobob, forget about the movies! This is the Books forum.

[*yona*]

Hahahah!! Yes, Heliona, I was introduced to them at the age of eight!!
One of my fondest family memories is of Mom and Dad taking turns reading The Hobbit to us kids in the evenings or afternoon.... When we were finished with that book a neighbor learned of it, and lent us their LoTR. By the end of the trilogy we weren't just reading in the evenings... they read it aloud every spare minute as the tension strangled us toward the climax and finally the Battle at the Black Gates, and then the Fires of Mt. Doom...
I think that last part got read aloud on one day solid, totally consuming Dad's day off work.

Then the sad ending came and my mom and older sister cried through the Grey Havens and then the "seas of the bent world fell away, and a light shone like that of a white star" ... (If my memory serves me correctly)

And I think my destiny as a fantasy author was set in stone from that day forth.

Yes, I can't really wrap my head around how people must see them who first watched the movies... it is beyond my mortal abilities.

But Balin, Fili and Kili are particular favorites!!! I still chuckle along with Balin "Crept along quietly and carefully, indeed. Crept along quietly and carefully, indeed!!!" as he begins to nap.
And Fili and Kili's lack of fire starting scene is probably their most memorable...

I do think the age at which one meets the books has a huge difference on how impactfully they impress you... we were talking with a new friend about the film adaptations of both Tolkien and Lewis's works, and he was very upset about the Narnia movies, and okay with the Tolkien ones; whereas I thought the Narnia films were fairly good, better than the books, and I was hotly indignant at PJ's treatment of the wonder that is LOTR & The Hobbit.

Turns out he was a child-reader of Narnia, but came to the Tolkien books later in life, bu WE had adopted Tolkien at an early age and not visited Narnia til our late teens.
Apparently the "magic hour" of childhood books was over, and so Narnia will never hold a candle to Middle Earth for me.

[Billobob]

Yona, did you read "The Hobbit" when you were a child? I did, and I feel like you do about the dwarves. I'm still very fond of them, particularly Balin, Fili, and Kili. They were fierce warriors, it just didn't really come across in "The Hobbit" until the end.

Billobob, forget about the movies! This is the Books forum.

I only mentioned the movies to show that the dwarves weren't very courageous or brave since I (mistakenly) thought that Yona was thinking of the movie dwarves. Sorry if IIwent off topic.

[*yona*]

No problem, Billobob! After all, if people didn't have differing opinions, or bring up different topics, then there wouldn't be much interesting conversation!

[Chariot Rider]

I can also agree with the points about what book you were read as a child. Growing up my father read me the Narnia book and I remember that I would ask him to reread the scene where Edmund first met the white which and she would make him the Turkish delight with her magic potion. I don't remember why I liked that scene so much but I did but I never had that experience with Tolkien. I first read the hobbit in fifth grade and I never had that "bedtime story" connection to it. Even to this day I read a lot of lewis. I have read his space trilogy, the Screwtape letters, and a lot of lewis. This certainly affected how I viewed the movies. When the Narnia movies came out it was fun seeing the adaptation and all of my favorite scenes from my childhood but when the hobbit came out I was much more upset about how it was done because I was viewing it from an analytical point of view as opposed to "my favorite childhood memories". I never had a "oh look they are going into rivendel!" moment quite like I had with Narnia. Ultimately my father never finished the whole series and he stopped after the voyage of the dawn treader. As much as I would like LOTR to be the most influential book in my life I feel that because of my early experiences Narnia has to take that spot. This thread has gotten sort of off topic though so maybe this would deserve a thread of its own.

[heliona]

Billobob, I wasn't being entirely serious (hence the winky face) but it something to bear in mind when reading topics in the Books forum. I've seen other people make the mistake of thinking about the films and it can lead to a lot of confusion!

Also, don't worry about going off topic. As I've said many times before, "osgilliation" or the process of a thread veering away from the original topic due to how the conversation is going is what makes reading the threads so interesting, and keeps them alive. We are not rigid in what can and can't be posted in terms of topic. However, as Chariot Rider said, the topic of childhood influences is interesting enough that it is probably worthy of a thread all by itself (in fact, there probably already is one somewhere ).

[WesternSeas]

For me, my favourites were the people of Rohan. I do love the little Britishness of the hobbits, but Rohan just tops it for me. I kind of feel they aren't pretentious at all, like the men of Minas Tirith, who sometimes come across as a little superior, whereas the men of Rohan are just proud of who they are. They also seem a little more female friendly, Eowyn was allowed to train as a shieldmaiden and though was forbidden to go to war, it was to take on a position of great power and responsibility. Plus, I adore the songs, they are so beautiful and stirring - the part where the Eorlingas show up at the battle of Minas Tirith and turn the tide of the battle is my favourite part in the book.

(I also have similar feelings about PJ's dwarves - although the Unexpected party scene was great, I think the films went downhill from there, especially the dwarves. To me they were always wanting their home back, but I felt they kind of got dragged into the whole Battle of the Five Armies thing by Thorin, and kind of became reluctant warriors.)

[*yona*]

Yes, WesternSeas, I agree with you about the Eorlingas!!! Rohan is probably the most similar to what is possible to actually find historical peoples doing, horse lords of the plains, living on their flocks and herds, and having their main emphasis military-wise be a swift cavalry.
In fact, I think the Magyar of the Hungarian plains may very well have been a possible inspiration for Tolkien's creation of the Rohan people.

And who can ever forget the first sight of Meduseld, Golden Hall of Theodin King! (Not I, certainly!!! )

One of my favorite Tolkien lines to quote is "Forth, Eorlingas!"
It just applies to so many day to day challenges!!!

[WesternSeas]

"For morning came, morning and a wind from the sea; and darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them. And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and they sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the city." The Siege of Gondor, The Return of the King

Sends shivers down my spine every time I read it, and the chapter building up to that part I always find myself reading faster and faster!

I've never heard of the Magyar - thanks *yona* I think I shall be googling away tonight!

[*yona*]

Always happy to help! The Magyar and the Hungarian horse culture is a fascinating field of study!

[TheGreenWizard]

So much to love about all the races! The Elven race is majestic and always fills me with a sense of wonder when I come across them in the books. Hobbits are folksy and humorous. The resolve is a Dwarf is always impressive. Yes, this is a cop out, but I would say that I like each race differently and for different reasons.

Now, if we want to divide the race of Men into subcategories, I would feel comfortable choosing a favorite there. The Men of Rohan have always held a special place in my mind.

[Billobob]

Yeah Rohan is cool but honestly I prefer the Dorwinions, now those guys know how to party! (Wow I haven't posted in a while.)

[Thor 'n' Oakenshield]

All the Races are wonderful, even the Uruk-Hai (well, maybe not the Uruk-Hai), but I would say the Silvan Elves are my favorites: so fair and free, and distant from the dangers and troubles of Middle-earth, more so than the Eldar. The Wood Elves of Mirkwood are more fey and dangerous, so I'd give them maybe a 6 on the power scale, but the other Silvan Elves, like those of Lorien, seem more like a 4 – innocent and rather friendly, and not adept with weapons like other Elves. And my favorite character from this race would be Nimrodel; such a mystery, fleeting and too soon gone, vanished into the mists of the White Mountains without a trace. The Silvan Elves are so Celtic, maybe that's why I like them; after all, I've got lots of Celtic blood in me.