Has anyone made a complete list of Tolkien references in Knightmare, as The Eye Shield did with
Camelot /
Robin Hood /
Greek mythology? These are the ones I remember noticing...
~ Golgarach's first two questions in episode 310:
"In another legend, who was the first hobbit to hold the ring?" (
Bilbo Baggins*)
"In the same legend, what were goblins called?" (
Orcs)
*(Indeed, the whole concept of "answer some riddles or be eaten" may have come from The Hobbit!)
~ Pickle in episode 511: "Hmm. Not exactly the
Last Homely House, master. Can't believe there'll be much of a welcome here." A very nice reference to Elrond's home in the Elven settlement of Rivendell, where the adventurers rest for a while in both The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings.
~ Pickle in episode 606: "Surely only Elves cross the great ocean, and when they do, it's never to return!" Refers to the Elves departing Middle-earth and sailing to the
Undying Lands. Again, a nice line for Pickle!
~ Captain Nemanor's name is surely a corruption of "
Númenor", the island realm of Men which was destroyed as punishment for attempting to conquer the Undying Lands. (Nemanor himself is being punished for something, though I don't think they specified what he'd done?)
~ Lord Fear in episode 608: "Someone has stolen my ring of power!" (I wonder if Lord Fear is somewhat based on Sauron in general. He seems to have quite a few
rings of power. Sauron has a volcano called
Mount Doom; LF has a volcano called Mount Fear. Sauron has the
Dark Tower of Mordor; LF has the Black Tower of Goth. Sauron is called the
Necromancer; LF is called the Technomancer. They both use goblins to defend their territory from small intruders. And then there's Pippin spying on Sauron through a
palantír, which is very dangerous but ultimately helps their quest...)
~ Series 7 features a Level 2 location called the Rift of Angar, which is only one letter away from
Angmar, a similarly mountainous region in Middle-earth where bad things dwell.
~ Grimaldine accepts the gift of an "
Arkenstone" in episode 703 - the name of the precious stone that was highly valued by Thorin in The Hobbit. Grimaldine's "Arken shield" (used by Julie to defeat Lord Fear in episode 712) might be similarly inspired by Thorin's epithet, Oakenshield.
~ Was the green gem previously called an "Elfstone" at some point? In LOTR, one of Aragorn's names is "
the Elfstone" because of the green gem he wears (a gift from Arwen).
~ Majida calling Treguard "
Treebeard" at the start of Nicola's quest in episode 703! The name of an Ent who aids the Fellowship.
~ Smirkenorff in episode 705: "A strange but
fell beast hunts for me." I suspect there's a subtle LOTR reference here, as Tolkien used the term "fell beast" to describe the Ringwraiths' winged mounts (so that's what the creatures are often called).
~ Treguard's rhyming recap in Series 8, "
Through dungeons deep and caverns dark", is very similar to a
dwarf song from The Hobbit (featuring the lyrics "
To dungeons deep and caverns old" and "
To dungeons deep and caverns dim"). Coincidence, I think not.
~ Maldame to Lord Fear in episode 802: "You have
two towers." No further explanation required, really!
~ If we're counting Knightmare VR, the awful new version of Lissard sounds rather more like
Gollum, with the whole "orcssesss" bit. I'm surprised he didn't start muttering about his "precious" and wondering what the dungeoneer has got in its pocketses... (Speaking of Gollum, I suppose his tendency to argue with himself might even have inspired Bhal-Shebah!)
These ones are a bit more tenuous:
~ Ariadne, possibly (dare I say "probably"?) inspired by
Shelob. Both have a perilous lair that must be journeyed through, and are famous for having many descendants.
~ Oakley, possibly inspired by the
Ents? (It's not a hugely original idea, though.)
~ Stiletta's cloak of invisibility? Again, not a very original idea, but the
Elven cloaks gifted to the hobbits in LOTR have similar properties. (Sam gets a
magic rope, too!)
~ The Pool of Veracity? Not entirely unlike the
Mirror of Galadriel... but I'm stretching it now, I think!
~ Treguard to Majida in episode 808: "Some small people are often remarkably fierce and tenacious, you know." Probably not a Hobbit reference as he seems to be talking about Majida herself, but it did make me wonder.
So... did I miss anything?