• tegs_terry@feddit.ukEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    How old are these kids? Because those books get impressively eloquent as they advance, not to mention disturbing:

    A creature of an older world maybe it was, whose kind, lingering in forgotten mountains cold beneath the Moon, outstayed their day, and in hideous eyrie bred this last untimely brood, apt to evil. And the Dark Lord took it, and nursed it with fell meats until it grew beyond the measure of all other things that fly; and he gave it to his servant to be his steed.

    Are kids gonna love that or wonder what the hell he’s talking about? I can’t decide.

    • Dlayknee@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      I just finished reading the LotR series with my now-11 yo son (we started a few years ago) and there were definitely plenty of sections like this that I converted to more understandable terms and concepts on the fly. Sure my son may not have heard this exact line, but he definitely got the idea that Shelob was old, bad, and Sauron had encouraged get 8 in exchange for a scary guard in the tunnels into Mordor.

            • threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              0·
              4 months ago

              Australian Nazgûl.

              “Come not between the bloody nazgûl 'n his prey! Or he will not slay thee in thy turn. He will beahr thee away ta the bloody houses of lamentation, beyond all dahrkness, weah thy flesh shall be devoured, ‘n thy shriveled mind be left nuddy ta the bloody lidless eye. Fahkin’ bloody oath cobber.”

  • sundray@lemmus.orgEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    As long as he isn’t busting into the room, screaming “IS IT SECRET? IS IT SAFE?” at all hours of the night.

  • BreadOven@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    My dad read the Hobbit for my sister and I like this. Even with songs at all those (many) song points in the book.

    I’ll always remember that.

  • TimewornTraveler@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    man my OED app has been giving bullshit words of the day like “frenzy” “prestige” “vacant” and stuff ive known since i was a kid, and here on twitter you get gems like “verve” which is an actual WotD

    • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      "frenzy” “prestige” “vacant”

      Wow I feel like almost all adult native speakers will have heard of a feeding frenzy, a vacant lot and a prestigious award. Those look like good words of the day for speakers of English as a second language of 2-5 years maybe.

      • TimewornTraveler@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        right? I had to check myself: "am i that pretentious that I use this many words average people don’t know?"and there’s no good way to ask that question without sounding even more pretentious

        • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          0·
          4 months ago

          Yeah no, you’re fine, I’m an ESL speaker (although for 17 years) so they can’t be that special. But verve and eyrie (seen elsewhere in this thread, from Tolkien) those I actually had to search up. Haha my browsers spellcheck even puts squiggles under eyrie.

  • florge@feddit.ukEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    How to differentiate from those who’ve read the book and those who haven’t.

    • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      What’s the catch? I’ve read the anthology a couple of times, albeit not in English, and I seem to miss the joke here.

      • ilinamorato@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        The speech in the OP is Théoden’s speech from the movie. In the book, he says,

        Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden! Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter! spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered, a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!

        and just a page or two later

        ‘To me! To me!’ cried Théoden. ‘Up Eorlingas! Fear no darkness!’

        (ROTK book 5, chapters 5 & 6)

        Now, Eomer does say something very similar to Theoden’s speech from the Charge of the Rohirrim, upon discovering his sister and assuming her dead:

        ‘Éowyn, Éowyn!’ he cried at last. ‘Éowyn, how come you here? What madness or devilry is this? Death, death, death! Death take us all!’

        and in the next paragraph

        ‘Death! Ride, ride to ruin and the world’s ending!’

        (later in ROTK book 5, chapter 6)

        The line “Forth Eorlingas!” is Theoden’s (though the Rohirrim also say it en masse), but it’s from the chapter about Helm’s Deep and the one preceding it. (TTT book 3, chapters 6 & 7).

        And, look, Theoden’s speech before the Charge of the Rohirrim at Pelennor is a cinematic masterpiece. And Bernard Hill (RIP) is probably the biggest reason why; his delivery is unimpeachable. In a lot of ways, the speech in the movie is better than what’s in the books at that moment; but honestly they are trying to do different things.

        So technically, the movie version is a bit heightened from the book version, and cobbled together from a few different sources. To put it all together:

        Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!

        Verbatim from Theoden’s speech in ROTK chapter 5. Correctly placed in the narrative.

        Spear shall be shaken, shield shall be splintered,

        Also from Theoden’s speech in ROTK chapter 5, but not quite verbatim (they added a “shall” in there, presumably for flow…or maybe just Bernard Hill forgot the exact line). Correctly placed in the narrative, though they left out “Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!” before this line.

        a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!

        Verbatim from Theoden’s speech in ROTK chapter 5. Correctly placed in the narrative.

        Ride now, ride now, ride!

        Also from Theoden’s speech in ROTK chapter 5, with an extra “Ride!” thrown in. Correctly placed in the narrative.

        Ride for ruin and the world’s ending! Death! Death! Death!

        Transplanted from Eomer’s speech in ROTK chapter 6, with “to” replaced with “for,” the order of the lines reversed, and the mood changed from despair to defiance.

        Forth Eorlingas!

        Right character, wrong moment. Transplanted from Theoden’s speech in TTT chapter 7 at Helm’s Deep.

        So Kelly, from the original tweet, probably overheard her husband reading Chapter 5 of ROTK, and her brain filled in the movie version of the quote while she was writing the tweet.

    • sunshine@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      I assume OP just did their best to make up an example. She doesn’t say anywhere that she is a superfan herself or even has read the books at all.

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    Ngl, this was a problem for me too.

    It wasn’t lord of the rings, because the kid wasn’t into that level of vocabulary yet. It was Harry Potter. But apparently, me booming out every line of Hagrid’s in a faux Scottish accent was “going to keep the kid and the entire neighborhood up all night, you damn nerd.”

  • halyk.the.red@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    When I have kids, one of the greatest challenges I’m anticipating is going to be keeping all the voices of the dwarves in the Hobbit diverse yet consistent.

    • ilinamorato@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      Yeah…If I recall correctly, I think I picked a voice for Thorin, and then everyone else got “generic dwarf voice.”

    • MajorHavoc@programming.devEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      Weirdly, I’ve given this problem some thought.

      I like to go for famous people with memorable delivery styles and as much variety as possible:

      • Ed Wynn
      • John Wayne
      • Bob Hope
      • John Fielder
      • Noel Fielding
      • Kumail Nanjiani
      • Peter Capaldi
      • Richard Ayoade
      • Stephen Fry
      • Steve Buscemi
      • Peter Cullen
      • Jonathan Frakes

      This is also a useful reference group for ad-hoc NPCs when running a game of Pathfinder.

      • Absolute_Axoltl@feddit.ukEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        Mine are old enough, we’re over half way through The Deathly Hallows and I’ve already told the The Hobbit is next.

        I’m in trouble

        • MindTraveller@lemmy.caEnglish
          0·
          4 months ago

          Have you made sure to tell your kids that owning slaves is wrong, even if you’re a “good” slaveowner like Harry or Dumbledore?

          • Absolute_Axoltl@feddit.ukEnglish
            0·
            4 months ago

            That and we talked about how the “good guys” only seem to want to maintain the status quo and who that benefits.

    • the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      Don’t forget to pick some characters you admire for vanity’s sake.

      What i mean to say is my canon Sherlock Holmes headvoice is father’s, who loves Holmes and it would tickle him pink if he knew

      • MajorHavoc@programming.devEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        What i mean to say is my canon Sherlock Holmes headvoice is father’s, who loves Holmes and it would tickle him pink if he knew

        That’s delightful! Thank you for sharing it.

      • Bilbo_Haggins@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        I didn’t know I needed Andy Serkis singing the songs in the Hobbit until I heard it, but it turns out I did. Dude has an amazing singing voice.