Answering Your Tolkien Questions Episode 55 - Why did Frodo never get married?

I am a Tolkien scholar who has been enjoying and studying the works of Tolkien since the 1980s.
If you wish to submit a question - the best place to do so is via my Quora account -
www.quora.com/profile/John-Si...
Every week I will choose the best questions to be featured in a video, though I will answer all that I can on there.
My Tolkien space - thegreyhavens.quora.com/
Thumbnail Art by MyCKs
0:00 Intro
01:39 Brief reading from Unfinished Tales
10:10 Who lived in Bag End before Bilbo did?
11:19 What is the difference between the Valar and the Maiar?
12:39 Why did the wizards look old and not young and muscular?
15:15 Why does The Lord of the Rings used archaic words?
19:13 Why did Frodo Baggins never get married?
20:32 Who is the "highest" Elf in Middle-Earth?
23:56 How powerful was Third Age Sauron without The One Ring?
26:14 Did Gandalf know about Frodo being captured?
27:41 Why did Elrond not send out a search party for Isildur?
29:31 Why was Sauron after The Hobbits?
31:02 Why did the Eagles not fly Bilbo to Erebor?
23:04 Did Gandalf have any adventures before The Hobbit?
33:55 Why are many of the villains described as "black"
36:40 Could the Valar destroy The One Ring, if it were brought to them?
38:19 Who was the first dragon in Middle-Earth?
39:06 Why does the weather control of Sauron break sooner than expected?
Music by Kevin Macleod and Adrian von Ziegler
I also have a gaming channel! - / necrovmx
And twitch as well! - / necrovmx
#tolkien #booktube #tolkientalk

Пікірлер: 31

  • @whyukraine
    @whyukraine2 ай бұрын

    GRANDMA! QUICK! JOHN CENA JUST DROPPED ANOTHER TOLKIEN VID!

  • @EdwardSnortin

    @EdwardSnortin

    2 ай бұрын

    Your icon is the most cringe shit I've ever seen. Are you trans too lol

  • @briandhaze5906
    @briandhaze59062 ай бұрын

    Always on the look for wholesome content. you deliver every time.

  • @therealmatthewsmith
    @therealmatthewsmith2 ай бұрын

    Keep em coming!

  • @John-Sierra

    @John-Sierra

    2 ай бұрын

    Will do!

  • @djsocialanxiety1664
    @djsocialanxiety16642 ай бұрын

    why did eru create unequal beings to begin with? and why did he intervene selectively like he destroyed numenor, but never did anything to just remove morgoth.

  • @John-Sierra

    @John-Sierra

    2 ай бұрын

    I don't know if we would consider men and elves to be unequal, and if they are - it's a matter of opinion which is the greater. the elves certainly thought that men had it better, they get to leave the world, and not linger and grow tired, while men thought they were passing to who-knows-where while the elves get to stay somewhere familiar. In the case of Númenor, Ilúvatar only intervened because he was asked to by Manwë - in this instance Manwë laid down his authority and allowed Ilúvatar to take over - and the result of course was cataclysmic - Ilúvatar wished to leave The Valar in charge of the world, and not intervene directly, so he did so very rarely. I also went into a whole question about this recently - the entire point of The World seemed to be to teach Melkor a lesson, that nothing he does can diminish creation or beauty, that he will only make it better - removing Melkor kind of defeats the purpose. He said that in The World, the Ainur will see the hidden thoughts of their mind, but Melkor will see all of his thoughts brought forward - he wanted him to see the consequences of his actions, until the very end.

  • @user-mb1hg4qu9f
    @user-mb1hg4qu9f2 ай бұрын

    👍🏻👍🏻 Subbed.

  • @John-Sierra

    @John-Sierra

    2 ай бұрын

    Welcome aboard!

  • @reesemilburn8193
    @reesemilburn81932 ай бұрын

    Incredible concept for a video, and great expert knowledge. Just subscribed! 2 things: you said Sauron didn’t know what hobbits were, but I am not sure this is true, or at least I don’t remember it being explicitly stated. I always figured that he knew of them but disregarded them for their lack of military use and he saw no advantage to them. I also like that this makes the battle of bywater even cooler, when the hobbits show thier strength, possibly in contrast to what Sauron thought of them. Second- I have a question to pose, that I could not find in the reading- Tolkien loved flowers and they make an appearance frequently. There are two yellow flowers that stick out though. Eleanor is given a good description, but we learn that it came to middle earth in the second age, so it’s not the same flower that is grown on glorfindels cairn, it also may or may not be the same golden flower that appears as a symbol of the house of Finarfin (appearing on the ring of barahir) I want to know of the difference and significance between the golden flowers of the first age and Eleanor of the second and third ages. Thanks!

  • @John-Sierra

    @John-Sierra

    2 ай бұрын

    Though Tolkien was unspecific in the Silmarilion about the flowers on Glorfindel's cairn, according to The Book of Lost Tales II (not canon, but likely the way the story was told by Men) the flowers may have been Celandine, which is a broad term used to describe poppies and buttercups.

  • @reesemilburn8193

    @reesemilburn8193

    2 ай бұрын

    @@John-Sierra thanks for the fast reply! I have yet to dive into the history of middle earth, I’ve always imagined that the flowers of glorfindels cairn and the flowers in the ring of barahir were the same, or at least very similar. I’m glad there is some info on what Tolkien thought they could be like! Thanks

  • @nickm2890
    @nickm28902 ай бұрын

    Thanks, man! I love your content! Would you be able to help clarify why the Simlarilli were created? Was it just because Feanor wanted to capture the light of the two trees? Or did they perhaps serve a greater purpose?

  • @John-Sierra

    @John-Sierra

    2 ай бұрын

    It really was just to show off Fëanor's craft, that he could do something that no one else could do. The Noldor were really big on gems, strewing them everywhere on the beaches of Aman. The Silmarils were really just the ultimate flex of gemcraft.

  • @whyukraine

    @whyukraine

    2 ай бұрын

    I think it was really to spite Galadriel over the hair thing.

  • @whyukraine
    @whyukraine2 ай бұрын

    What about the theory the Istari came to quifiwnen to hang with the quendi?

  • @John-Sierra

    @John-Sierra

    2 ай бұрын

    I think you mean Cuivienen? That's in The Nature of Middle-Earth, in which it was mentioned that the Guardians under Melian's leadership protected the elves during the Valar's war against Melkor, and they were the same as the later Istari.

  • @djsocialanxiety1664
    @djsocialanxiety16642 ай бұрын

    Great video John love it - I have a follow up question regarding why the ring couldnt be sent to the west and your reasoning (or Elronds respectively). You said that the Valar would not allow any part of saurons power into their lands. But I think that if this is really the explanation for this isnt this really just egoistic and stupid reasoning by the valar? Like arent they responsible for a big part of why sauron could rise in the first place? For instance they released melkor - saurons master and the best they can do is send a few diminished maiar, and some elves like glorfindel? Destroying the ring that would be even brought to them would be the least they can do. Just some thoughts I had regarding this - what do you think? Keep up the great work ❤

  • @John-Sierra

    @John-Sierra

    2 ай бұрын

    However flaccid the Valar's actions may seem in regards to Sauron - you have to admit it actually worked! A fellow scholar of mine by the name of Mark Gist suggested to me the other day that it may be possible that one cannot even sail the Straight Road with a part of Sauron - I think that while the Valar may be above the sort of corruption, the elves are not, and neither are the Maiar, the ring being in Aman seems like a bad idea, who brings it to Aulë, and is that person actually capable of handing it over? It would be another Bilbo situation, he can take it by force, and break that person's mind, which he will not do. The Valar are sort of a broadsword when what was needed was a scalpel. There's others reasons it couldn't be taken west, the road to the havens wasn't safe, the ring probably wouldn't make it there, and who could be trusted with bringing it? I think in the end, the Valar work in their own way, the direct approach always turned out badly, and they were sometimes a bit naive, but in the end, they chose the wisest path.

  • @djsocialanxiety1664

    @djsocialanxiety1664

    2 ай бұрын

    Thank you so much for the answer and explanation ❤

  • @ericbrown9520
    @ericbrown95202 ай бұрын

    Its because frodo already found the one, and let it slip through his fingers. Now hell never love again

  • @Chociewitka
    @Chociewitka2 ай бұрын

    I do think Frodo was already not able to marry long before, the gossip he heard about his parents as a orphaned child - the theories about them having killed each other - would have been enough to make him unwilling to enter any relationship at all.

  • @whyukraine

    @whyukraine

    2 ай бұрын

    Thats sad, because we now know it was Gollum.

  • @John-Sierra

    @John-Sierra

    2 ай бұрын

    Please don't spread that Gollum rumor.

  • @John-Sierra

    @John-Sierra

    2 ай бұрын

    While the Truama of losing his parents was very real, I don't believe it was the specific reason he never had any relationships - though you're right about not marrying before, he was seen as odd due to his aging stopping after he turned 33 "some people have all the luck" and was basically seen as another Bilbo. That isn't to say that he could not have found a wife, but I think he was too much like Bilbo.

  • @Chociewitka

    @Chociewitka

    2 ай бұрын

    @@John-Sierra It is not only the tauma of losing the parents but the trauma of hearing the speculation of either his father wanting to kill his mum or vice versa - hearing this gossiped about as a freshly orphaned child would have been far worse than just plain losing one's parents. He could not help but wonder and to grow up considering all relationships as potentially dangerous, toxic, unlikely to succeed, a source of pain and detrimental to one's reputation.

  • @whyukraine

    @whyukraine

    2 ай бұрын

    @@John-Sierra You don't think Gollum could have gone to the edge of the Shire years before, & attacked the 1st Baggins he could find?Timewise, its possible, if I'm not mistaken. It occurred in a river, & we know Gollum was an adept swimmer... I just think its a possibility Tolkien left for us to wonder about.

  • @fairyboy444
    @fairyboy4442 ай бұрын

    short answer: because he’s a dog, just like me😎😈 (don’t tell my gf i said this pls)

  • @GreenAshR47
    @GreenAshR47Ай бұрын

    See if you can begin a single answer without using the word "so". That's very annoying.

  • @John-Sierra

    @John-Sierra

    Ай бұрын

    So?

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