Hail fellow Tamriellians,

Have you guys noticed how much Skyrim is relevant to LOTR (Lord of the Rings for those silly 10 year olds that are far too young to play this game)?
Whiterun looks like Rohan, the tundra (whatever it is called) looks exactly like the landscape in Rohan. The Robes for mages are belted the same way as Gandalf's (you can see by watching Fellowship of the Ring when there's a good belt-shot when Gandalf and Bilbo are chatting in his house) there is a Nightingale reference (Saw that in the first volume of the first book or the second volume of Fellowship of the ring, I cannot remember.) That's all the references I could make out.

There are a few others that others have spotted and heard, such as "My precious" when you do some quest to get a ring for someone, then the Eldergleam tree or whatever in Whiterun has a story like the White Tree in Minas Tirith (I have not much clue on the lore, but I hope I am correct), And there are a few others that others have found.

Please comment other references you have found! It'd be awesome!

The Daedric armor looks similiar to Saurons armor in the opening scene in first movie of the LOTR trilogy.

when playing Skyrim i did think of LOTR now and then, also abit of WoW here and there. There probably wasen't alot if any intentional references made by Bethesda and its all just probably influenced writers and artists.

I agree, although Whiterun is undeniably VERY alike to Rohan no matter how you put it. The stairs leading to Dragonsreach is similar to that of when the Steward of gondor gets kicked out of Rohan, and the front bore some relativity to it. And Elven armor, that is what I forgot. The Elven armor in the opening scene in Fellowship of the Ring is highly related to that of the Elven armor in Skyrim.

The more i think about it, the more it makes sense , I might roam skyrim on my main save and see if i notice anything LOTR-Esque. The giant spiders seen in the dungeons are the exact same as the Giant spider that almost kills frodo.

And Falmer vaugely resemble Gollum/Smeagle. conspiracies! O_O

I havent done the thieves guild questline in any playthru so I may be wrong on this. The Nightengales are the top tier of their power right?

Luthian Tanuviel is the elven wife of a human king; and the only elf to have ever truely died as she chose to never be reborn in the elven realm. She is the mother of Elrond and the first Numanorian king. While the thievs guild uses hre name for their top tier I don't see a corelation. For those how do not know Tanuviel translates to nightengale. The title was given to her by her husband on their first meeting as her voice when raised in song was beautiful.

The white tree is not quite the same. Yes in the beginning of the book in which it is first mentioned it is dead, but it is not "restored" it is uprooted and a sapling is put in it's place. The saplings are very rare as the fruit that produces seeds only blooms once. But in that the tree itself can live for milennia.

One of the options for the Whiterun tree's quest is to replace it with a sapling.

Must have missed this. Let me guess the dude who wants to follow along (and died in every playthru) suggests it?

I don't get that dude, he ownes a bow, and runs into melee barehanded like a moron. In three playthrues I have yet to make it to the grove w/o losing him along the way.

You have to be careful with the sapling though. Sometimes it glitches and the sapling grows inside the old tree.

The Night to remember quest has the 'my precious hagraven' There is also abroken steel sword with just the handle and a gold ring next to it in Ansilvund I think.

it's not that the sapling grows in the tree, but the tree itself don't get removed.

I only see tangential similarities. Nothing big. But alot of these types of games and stories are influenced by Tolkien and LotR.

But

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The Steward of Gondor is never in Rohan. You are likely thinking of Grima Wormtounge, a completely different character. Sorry, just felt like I had to point that out.

Yes, the devs at Beth all have a strong fondness for Tolkein's masterpieces, it's safe to say.
There are many, many little hints here and there, things and scenarios you encounter etc...

@ Heraske
Friend, you should really be referring to the books - LotR is not, after all, movies.
The movies are just Peter Jackson's (sometimes unfortunate) interpretation of the magnificent books.

@ Thunder Dragonbane
I'm impressed! I thought I was the only one who owns The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales...

Another bit of homage is the court wizard at Whiterun named "Secret-Fire." Gandalf tells the Balrog that he is a servant of the secret fire, which I have read was Tolkien's code for actions of the Holy Spirit.

Nope, you're not the only one.

I find it funny that your reference to LotR is only to the movies made by Peter Jackson. There are books you know, those of us old enough remember books.

I did think of Riften as sort of version of Laketown from The Hobbit (don't worry OP, you'll see that in the next movie).

<sup>Ive heard this kind of talk a million times before,so lemme answer for the one-thousand-and-first time:
Skyrim is not just influenced by LOTR.
It is influenced by NORSE/SCANDINAVIAN history,lore and mythology,the same influence in everything related to Rohan in LOTR.
The design of Whiterun is not taken from LOTR but from medieval Norse city layouts.
They both took from the same historical source.

If you're gonna look at all the content that looks like its taken from LOTR,then we'd be busy a while.
LOTR is so far stretching and omnipresent in the fantasy genre there will be very FEW things 'fantasy' that CANT be traced back to it.</sup>

And usually those books are even (far) better than the movies that they've "inspired".. well, perhaps with some "popular" exception (The Shining)

Both LOTR and this game are influenced by the same source - Norse lore and fact. While Bethesda game designers are surely aware of LOTR, you can't rightly confuse which derives from which and in this case, both products line to the same source.

Been like 20 years sense I worked my way thru the book. Only ever read it once, cause lets face it it was convoluted, but some of it stayed with me aparently. Some of the lay of Luthian made it into the LoTR books, or am I mis remenbering things. I need to read the whole set again.

At the end of the quest to get Ring of Namira, the player have the option of saying "That's a lot of work for such a little thing...", which is rather close to Boromir's line at Caradhras.

I found a broken sword somewhere that reminded me of Aragorn's sword before it was reforged. You can't fix it though, and its not considered a weapon either.

I keep thinking the massive Dwemmer ruins are a reminder of Moria. I want to think 'Blackreach' but it isn't anything like Moria. Other ruins are closer to it.

These threads come up from time to time. Are there similarities? Sure. Direct references? Maybe a few. Then again, there's a Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back reference as well so anything is possible. Don't assume that everything you see is directly inspired by LotT, though.