Do you think that when elves jump off of high places, that instead of shouting ‘Geronimo!!’ they should ‘Eooooollllll’? Just wondering :P

Haha, unlikely. The origins of the traditional “Geronimo!” when jumping off of cliffs (or out of airplanes) are pretty interesting (I’ve got some links below for the history buffs), but the basic idea is that it’s supposed to be recalling the reckless bravery of Geronimo (according to Hollywood’s version, of course.) As such, it’s really more…

This is an excerpt from “The Fall of Gondolin.” Though the story is part of the Silmarillion, this is a much older and more detailed version found in The Book of Lost Tales (Part 2.) If any of the name seem weird (like sometimes elves are called “gnomes”, and Morgoth is called Melko), that’s because it’s…

Gothmog and Ecthelion

I think it’s important to remember that Tolkien wrote the story of the Fall of Gondolin before he wrote almost anything else about Middle Earth, so in a lot of ways (even after years of revision) it helps to think of it as a more isolated story. Keeping that in mind, here’s why (I think)…

The Deadliest Elves in Battle

As I usually do with these questions, I’m going to give you a list of finalists, and let everyone choose for themselves who gets the #1 prize for deadliest elf to meet in battle. So, listed in alphabetical order: ECTHELION: The guy basically head-butted the lord of balrogs, okay? He took down four of the…