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Tolkien references in Chainmail
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Post Posted: Sat May 07, 2011 5:48 am 
 

Hello everybody! A friend of mine, a Tolkien nut  :D , would like to know what Tolkien references are inside the various editions of Chainmail (besides the halflings being hobbits and the Balrog as a monster, if I recall correctly).

  


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Post Posted: Sat May 07, 2011 11:57 am 
 

I believe there is also at least one reference to Ents, as opposed to the non-IP Treant.

  

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Post Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 12:04 am 
 

On Page 25 in the 2nd Edition there is a reference to "wraiths (including Nazgul)"
Those are the last words on that page.
Nazgul is also listed on page 30.

Nazgul is another name for Ringwraith/Ring-Wraith (there are also many other names for the nine Ringwraith).

Ents: Pages 25, 31 and 35.

Balrogs: Pages 25, 27, 28, 31, 32 and 35.

Hobbits: Pages 25, 26, 35

All of the above are on the Fantasy Reference table "Appendix D"
Balrog and Ents are on the Fantasy Combat Table "Appendix E".

FWIW: Elric of Melnibone is mentioned on Page 35 under the category "Combination Figures" headline (Being both Warrior and Wizard) and Under the Category of Dragons (Page 31) Red Dragons (Draco Conflagratio and Draco Horribilis) are mentioned as being typified by Tolkien's "The Hobbit".

I would not be surprised if I missed other references as well.
I am not that knowledgeable regarding Tolkien...
See qoutes below from Wiki...

Those who used the Nine Rings became mighty in their day, kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old. They obtained glory and great wealth, yet it turned to their undoing. They had, as it seemed, unending life, yet life became unendurable to them. They could walk, if they would, unseen by all eyes in this world beneath the sun, and they could see things in worlds invisible to mortal men; but too often, they beheld only the phantoms and delusions of Sauron. Moreover, one by one, sooner or later, according to their native strength and to the good or evil of their wills in the beginning, they fell under the thralldom of the ring that they bore and of the domination of the One which was Sauron's, and they became forever invisible save to him that wore the Ruling Ring, and they entered into the realm of shadows. The Nazgûl were they, the Ringwraiths, the Enemy's most terrible servants; darkness went with them, and they cried with the voices of death.

—The Silmarillion: "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age," pg. 289

http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Nazg%C3%BBl
Sauron's Ringwraiths were unusual in that they were normally referred to by their name in Sauron's Black Speech - Nazgûl - rather than being given an Elvish name.

The rarely used Quenya name for Nazgûl is Úlairi; from this it can be conjectured that the Sindarin term is Ulaer.

They are also called the Fell Riders and the Black Wings (when they ride the Fell beasts), and the Nine Riders and the Black Riders (when they ride the black horses). By the Orcs of the Tower of Cirith Ungol they are called the Shriekers.

Some Nazgûl are named or identified individually in Tolkien's works. Their leader was the Witch-king of Angmar, and his second in command was named Khamûl, the "Black Easterling" or the "Shadow of the East". Tolkien stated that three of them were great Númenórean lords. Khamûl was a lord of the Easterlings.


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Last edited by Gnat the Beggar on Thu May 12, 2011 2:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
  

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Post Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 12:01 pm 
 

Thanks! I guess my friend will stick to MERP books...  8)

  
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