The Lord of the Rings Expert Answers More Tolkien Questions From Twitter | Tech Support | WIRED

I don't think that a man couldn't kill the Witch King, it's that a man wouldn't kill the Witch King. I think Glorfindel has a vision of the future and sees the Witch King's eventual fate. In Appendix A, he says to Eärnur, the Captain of Gondor, "Do not pursue him. He will not return to this land. Far off yet is his doom, and not by the hand of man will he fall."

The question about the ring's invisibility is pretty understandable because the way it works in The Hobbit is quite different. The book explicitly states that the wearer does leave a shadow and can be seen "in full sunlight."

Need Stephen Colbert to do it

Brilliant…!
This man is brilliant.

i thought i had read somewhere that there was a significant time gap between when Gandalf left the shire, did research about the rings of power and then came back to the shire to send Frodo off on the initial journey to the Prancing Pony

Tom Bombadill is the Hobbit Maiar

He forgot to explain that Mithrandir actually means grey pilgrim.

Aren't the eagles demi-gods and the would effect them

Something that I never understood was: Why did Boromir wanted to Ring for Gondor ? He says in the books that he wants to use it to protect Gondor and to destroy the enemy. But if he or another men in Gondor would wear the ring, they would just get invisible. So how would that help them to defend Gondor against enemy armies ?

Not sure if I'm wholly right on this but its my own personal headcanon:
The ring doesnt necessarily draw one into the spiritual world it simply acts as a binding agent between a spiritual world presence and a physical world presence, so when a mortal puts on the ring its trying to bind a physical presence to a spiritual presence that doesn't wholly exist, if at all, and just kinda brings the physical form into the spiritual world.

But in the case of sauron who exists in a spiritual form and can make himself a physical one it kind of removes the effort it takes for sauron to retain connection to the physical world hence why it seems to give him a powerup. Putting it in example would be sauron without the ring could put a crack in a mountain wheras sauron with the ring could level the whole bloody mountain range simply because he doesnt need to expend so much of his strength and energy just to exist in the world.

Note those examples are not accurate its just a way for me to kinda explain how i think it works.

Tom Bombadil is an INFJ. That’s who he is.

I always felt that Tom Bombadil basically was…nature. Like nature and the natural order incarnate.

Theres no way this guy doesn't play dnd

My best answer to the classic eagle question is one word: felbeasts

Is he the same idiot who tried ( and failed) to legitimize the casting of black creatures in lotr ?

I always thought that sauron could wear the one ring without consequence because the ring had no power over him. Similar to the way tom bombadil was able to wear the ring and not be affected.

I read somewhere – maybe in Tolkiens letters or in the history of middle-earth – that Tom Bombadil is the spirit of the English landscape.

Lol now I imagine the Balrogs running away waving their arms around, eyes ide and screaming their heads off

I feel like Tom is essentially the spirit of Arda, but I could be wrong

About the eagle question. Tolkien made it clear that it is impossible for anyone to willingly destroy the ring, even Sauron himself. So the eagle could have brought Frodo to the edge but the same thing would have happened. Frodo would have claimed it for himself and not thrown it into the fire.