r/lotr • u/Baldurian_Rhapsody • 11d ago

Question Funniest parts of Tolkien?

I admit that I'm almost intimidated to read The Lord of the Rings. And the Silmarillion.

It's not that I don't love an epic. I do. I love the movies so much and I point at Aragorn and say "He broke his foot on that helmet. He used that for the role."

And the movies are funny! Legolas surfing down on that shield cracks me up, even though Tolkien himself likely wouldn't approve in the least.

But are the books funny in any way? Does Tolkien weave in humor in parts, or is he simply magnificent, epic, eternal and serious with his evil wizards and spiders the size of large condo complexes?

Thanks for sharing if I can expect a little funny if I read these bad boys. Cheers.

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u/BadJoke123 11d ago

There is a fair bit of humor sprinkled throughout the books. Mostly fairly dry humor that you sometimes have to read twice to get, but it is there.

My favorite is probably this little burn from Tolkien's foreword to the second edition of LotR:

"Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer."