I believe rhotic tapped or even trilled is how Tolkien specified "R" should be pronounced in Sindarin, which was the main language used in the Second Age of Middle-earth. I didn't really see a need for having the Harfoots do Irish accents though. It made it seem almost as if a connection were being made with Irish travellers ("an lucht siúil" or the walking people?). sindarin/pronunciation.md at master · benchristel/sindarin · GitHub
That's actually precisely the problem for me, he is so legendary for his comedy and standup work I find it hard to take him seriously. I know he's done other serious roles as well but it's overshadowed by his funny man persona for me. This is very much a 'me' problem, I probably watched Bernard & The Genie one too many times as a kid, but it did break my immersion a little bit in the first two episodes.
I know Wheel or Time had a group called something like Tinkers which is an insulting term to the Travelling community and should have been changed for a for a 21st century show but I think the Irish accents here come from a more naive US perception where Irish or West Country English = Farmers the same as Northern English = rough medieval and posh English= regal medieval.
Speaking of being biased by previous works ... While not quite the same, I can't hear the score accompanying Elrond and not think of the "Flying Dreams" melody from The Secret of NIMH. Link - NIMH Link - Elrond
I think I'm having an easier time divorcing this performance from his other ones simply because outside of interviews and the like, it's been so long since I've seen him in anything other than a guest role, or just as himself co-presenting Comic Relief (and I can't even remember the last time I watched that!) Also aside from his stand up work, most of what I saw him back in the day was 'Chef!' and 'Hope & Glory', only one of which is even a comedy and in both of which he's essentially playing it straight and a little heavy. Also both are only vague memories of decades past, so that helps I suppose. As for the whole accents thing . . . eh . . . accents in the LotR and Hobbit movies were never exactly what you'd call consistent. While the Brits, Aussies and Kiwis coped just fine (more or less) the Americans in the cast were clearly trying their best but they were a little all over the place. The same seems to be true here, more or less. But you know what? They don't have to be 100% authentic because Dwarves aren't actually Scottish, Elves aren't Welsh, and the Shire isn't actually the West Country. They're only generalised stand-ins for a fantasy story. So yeah, Sir Lenny may be playing it a bit broad here, but that seems justified. Hobbits/Harfoots should be a bit broad and comical. It's part of their nature. Leave the stuffy formal stuff to the elves, what passes for the gritty realism to the humans . . . and the other comically exaugurated accents and personalities to the Dwarves and Orcs.
It usually annoys me when all fantasy is written like it's a UK centric map with Game of Thrones being the perfect example (north = north, true north = Scotland, east = middle eastern, far east = china and so forth) I mean it's a fantasy world so why can the north not be where the black people are from rather than from far south. Why can't Arabic style people be from the west. But Tolkien's work gets a pass as it's not leaning on tired tropes but invented them.
Well, yeah. Tolkien invented Middle Earth to give UK the kind of mythology he loved from the Norse cultures. Makes sense for its denizens to reflect various aspects of it. ETA: This is why when I wrote my own fantasy novel I chose New York State as a basis for its geography and people. I was tired of the European Medieval - flavored fantasy (elves, dwarves, dragons, sorcerers, etc). I mean, it's good. I quite enjoy it. But it's been done.
Mine are from the middle. Eh, UK has a good variety of details in its history. I used that as well as Tolkien's drawn influences.
I'm pretty much tone deaf but I assume a similar chord progression is being used. They do seem superficially similar but only broadly so.
There's plenty of Celtic mythology to make up a perceived Anglo-Saxon shortfall. I suspect the latter would have been pretty much similar to that of other Germanic languages. Tolkien borrowed elements from the mythologies of both language families and Finnish as well I believe.
^ Sure ... But Tolkien wanted to create his own unified mythology. Yeah ... I'm not accusing McCreary of deliberately aping someone else's work. It's just one of those similarities that, because the original work is so ingrained in me, I can't help but connect it to the new own. It's a bit like John Williams' flourish in "Anakin & Padme" being so similar to the "Cassiopia & Starbuck" track from the original BSG score (nevermind how the original BSG score attempted to capture the spirit of Star Wars - much like the show itself) Cassiopia AOTC It's just one of those things where prior experience colors current performances.
Yep, I do believe Lucas had "Mars" to accompany the working cut of the final battle in the original Star Wars before Williams went to work. Leastwise, the musical similarities are readily apparent.
Oh, there are elements of other parts of The Planets Suite scattered about Star Wars music if one knows where to look. There are several YouTube videos on the subject.
I enjoyed it but the Battle of the Wrath didn’t look as spectacular as I imagined. I thought that Blacksmith was Sauron in disguise but I forgot about the Shadow of Mordor games. Is that Gandalf who gave the Kal-El entrance?
If the show sticks to canon, Sauron should disguise himself as a charismatic being named Annatar who aids Celebrimbor in forging the various rings of power for Men, Dwarves, and Elves. It would be a pity if his name were changed but most people would probably not care. The versions of the story told in The Silmarillion or in Unfinished Tales will probably be off limits. I'm actually thinking Saruman at the moment. Wouldn't the most powerful Istari be sent first? One of the Blue wizards would be more acceptable to purists, however. The Cirth rune that he makes is "gh" I believe, not the "g" rune that Gandalf uses in The Hobbit. Perhaps he thinks Nori is a dwarf? I haven't gotten around to trying to make sense of the words he utters.