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rainbow
10-16-2002, 04:03 PM
y arent there unicorns in lotr?

they wld b a perfect character-wise mysterious etc etc

was tolkien being lazy????
sun-star
10-16-2002, 04:08 PM
was tolkien being lazy????

That's probably about the one thing you can't accuse Tolkien of being :D
Radagast The Brown
10-16-2002, 04:15 PM
Maybe Tolkien didn't wanted unicons in his books? I can;'t blmae him about that, I don't like unicorns either. And I don't think he was lazy, too. :p
Earniel
10-16-2002, 05:02 PM
I guess for the same reason that there aren't any:
chimaeras
griffons
minotaurs
mermaids
selkies
pegasus (Is there actually a plural for this?)
manticores
roks
...
in LOTR. :)
Tar-Elendil
10-16-2002, 06:12 PM
maybe it would take away the gloss of shadowfax?;)
Treebeard's apprentice
10-16-2002, 08:33 PM
pegasus (Is there actually a plural for this?)

I think it would be pegasi. Right? Or wasn't there supposed to be just one Pegasus?

Anyway, it wouldn't be as much fun and creative with a mythical creature from 'real' earth.
webwizard333
10-16-2002, 10:00 PM
Though unicorns in LotR would be interesting, LotR always struck me as a type of story in which there is less of a fantastic element, and more of a realistic or "grounded" feel. Hmmm, that doesn't say it right, but it's the closest I can think of to verbalizing it. I'll get back to this when I think of a better way to say it.
Sminty_Smeagol
10-16-2002, 10:30 PM
well said webwizard. Middle-earth was more of a "history" than a fantasy, and didn't contain any of the obviously fantastical elements... for one thing, the magick is much more subtle and deeper than the magic in many of books with fantastical elements.
Ñólendil
10-16-2002, 11:52 PM
"And the wayfarer, his words shall be forever lost on the mossy stones."

Quoth the learner.
UnStashable
10-17-2002, 04:37 PM
There may be but they would all be in Valinor. never brought over to middle earth.
Fred Baggins
10-17-2002, 07:12 PM
As much as I love unicorns, I agree that it would kill the story to have them in LOTR. Unicorns are TOO fanciful.
Tar-Elendil
10-17-2002, 09:04 PM
as webwizard said.. it does have some realistic feel. to me that is what possibly makes it seem more like a fantasy..

yea..i know..that didnt make sense;)
Linarryl
10-19-2002, 08:57 AM
TOLKIEN WAS NOT LAZY!!:mad:
I don't think unicorn would fit anywhere in the book.
Besides Tolkien probably wanted something new! Because too many fantasy books have unicorns!
Ñólendil
10-19-2002, 04:52 PM
Whoops. My earlier post was supposed to be in the Fastasy or Reality thread.
Sailor Saiya-Elf
10-20-2002, 11:40 PM
I agree with the whole 'unicorns spoiling the story'. Maybe Tolkien didn't include them because they are more fairytale like things rather than the sort of 'real' feeling he was trying to create. By farytale like I kind of mean the whole damsal in destress and the dashing price who comes to rescue her sort of thing.
Renille
10-21-2002, 05:48 PM
Okays...what would unicorns DO in LOtR, anyway??? Except maybe for each one of the Fellowship as a parody of the Nazgul's black horses. That would make sense. But I think that, while Lord of the Rings is very fanciful, it's also written as a parallel to our world. Unicorns wouldn't fit, because they don't really fit in our world. Dwarves, elves and hobbits are imaginable as humans. Maybe Tolkien didn't look into horses quite as deeply as he did our race.
Sailor Saiya-Elf
12-04-2002, 08:33 PM
Maybe the unicorns could do the whole 'drink my blood for eternal life' thing from HP. Or they could have one sitting in on the council in Rivendell...
Elfhelm
12-04-2002, 09:05 PM
Tolkien was creating a mythology for England because he felt they didn't have one. Germany had all their Teutonic myths, Greece had Homer, Rome had Virgil. England is made up of people from all over Europe and it had fragments of each of theirs in the folk tales of the countryside. So he mixed some Old English epic poetry (to make the Rohirrim) with folk tales (to make the elves) and turned the "little people" into the more dignified hobbits. I believe unicorns are eastern and middle eastern in origin and thus do not enter into a mythology of England.
WallRocker
12-04-2002, 09:31 PM
~posted by webwizard333~ LotR always struck me as a type of story in which there is less of a fantastic element, and more of a realistic or "grounded" feel.

I'd have to agree with webwizard. also, C.S. Lewis, who was a friend of Tolkiens, had Unicorns in has book "The last Battle". Maybe Tolkien was trying to not compete with Lewis.
Firekitten2006
12-05-2002, 07:09 PM
There was only one pegasus :) I used to know the story, but all i remember is someone put the golden (or was is silver?) bridle on him and they could ride him. I think he was Athena's horse.

And Unicorns would just be too much :) although I do like them, they would just make it tooooo fatasy, fairy tale.
Elfhelm
12-05-2002, 08:18 PM
Maybe Tolkien didn't look into horses quite as deeply as he did our race.

You might want to look into the Mearas, the race of horses that Shadowfax is descended from.