The Lord of the Rings/Trivia


 * Shout-Out: There are several to Macbeth, all taken from Act IV, Scene i, when the Witches tell Macbeth their prophecies of his death. First of all, the phrase "Crack of Doom" was coined by Shakespeare in this scene. The Ents' besiegement of Isengard and the Witch-King's defeat by Éowyn are references to two of the three prophecies—namely, that it will not happen until "Great Birnam Wood...shall come against him" and that "none of woman born shall harm" him. Of course, the trees do come to the castle when Macduff's army uses their branches as camoflauge, just as the Ents come to Isengard, and Macbeth is killed by a man who was not born, but removed from his mother's womb, just as the Witch-King, who can be killed by "no living man," is killed by a woman.
 * To "Arabian Nights", oddly enough. Compare this tale from "1000 and 1 night" and chapter "The voice of Saruman" and try to find the differences.
 * What Could Have Been: Previously unpublished materials have a lot of examples of what could have been. Aragorn being a ranger hobbit named Trotter was one of them. Later, he was a man whose name kept changing back and forth between "Trotter", "Elfstone" and "Aragorn".
 * The History of Middle-Earth has many of these, including the above example. Others include:
 * Treebeard being a villain
 * Eowyn being Aragorn's love interest (before Arwen was created)
 * Eowyn dying on the battlefield defending Theoden and not getting to kill the Witch-King
 * Anywhere from two to five hobbits setting out on the quest instead of four
 * The original hobbit names were Bingo (Frodo), Odo (Sam), Marmaduke (Merry), and Frodo/Faramond (Pippin)
 * A Fellowship that consisted of seven instead of nine members (Legolas and Gimli were later additions, and at one point, another elf was supposed to go as well)
 * Treebeard and the ents appearing at the last battle in front of the Black Gate (and this is after they act as The Calvary for Lothlorien)
 * Boromir arriving at Minas Tirith and completely going over to the dark forces partway through the siege.
 * Denethor surviving the siege of Minas Tirith (but still suspicious of Aragorn)
 * Denethor originally being less harsh towards Faramir - in fact, in the first draft, it was Faramir's idea to retake Osgiliath, and Denethor reluctantly agreeing, but Tolkien eventually switched this around to make Faramir more sympathetic.