Possible inconsistencies in the legendarium

J.R.R. Tolkien paid a great deal of attention and detail in his Secondary world to preserve a realistic consistency.

However his work has been admired, studied and analyzed by "Tolkienists" over the years in various aspects and levels and unavoidably, some more or less obvious inconsistencies seem to have slipped the author's attention. Most are revealed after more than one reading of the book and possibly thorough study.

Fans of Tolkien usually accept that in any work there are usually plot holes. In a larger, far more detailed and realistic book we expect fewer (if any) plot holes, when in reality there is a far greater chance because of its complexity.

Still, at least some of the logical mistakes can be attributed to the characters themselves who said a contradicting phrase, since none of them is supposed to have the "omniscience" of the author.

Character mistakes

Mouth of Sauron

Aragorn mentions that the name "Sauron" (meaning "Abominable") is the name used by his enemies, and Sauron himself does not permit it to be pronounced. Therefore it would be problematic, if not logically impossible for a servant of Sauron to have a title or name that includes the word "Sauron".

Explanation

It could be that Aragorn was mistaken.

Galadriel's role

Galadriel tells the Fellowship, "I will not give you counsel, saying do this, or do that. For not in doing or contriving, or in choosing between this course and another, can I avail; but only in knowing what was and is, and in part also what shall be. Later she tells Frodo, "I do not counsel you one way or the other. I am not a counsellor." However, the rhyme she sends Aragorn advises a specific course: the Grey Company should come out of Rivendell, and Aragorn should take the Paths of the Dead. Likewise Legolas and Gimli conclude that Galadriel sent the message to the Grey Company telling them to join Aragorn in Rohan; this seems to be "contriving" and "choosing between one course and another". Incidentally, it is odd that they got this message without knowing who it was from.

Explanation

One could imagine that someone else (Celeborn?) made the decisions and Galadriel only sent the messages. Legolas and Gimli may have erred in thinking she was the source.

Galadriel's mind-reading

Galadriel tells Frodo and Sam that she can knows Sauron's thoughts that concern the Elves. It seems strange that they don't ask her whether she has any information they find useful and she doesn't offer them any. Also, she doesn't seem to have known about Saruman's betrayal some nineteen years earlier, though the defection of a member of the White Council might be thought to concern the Elves. At least, she didn't warn Gandalf in the messages he got from Lórien after reading the Scroll of Isildur, the year before he trustingly entered Orthanc. (Also, when Aragorn was serving in Gondor under the name Thorongil, he "often warned Ecthelion not to put trust in Saruman". It's strange that he knew not to trust but Gandalf didn't.)

Explanation

Conceivably Galadriel gained the ability to read Sauron's mind sometime after the messages went to Gandalf.

Tales of hobbits

Pippin tells Théoden, "I have wandered in many lands, since I left my home, and never till now have I found people that knew any story concerning hobbits." But hobbits live in Bree, Tom Bombadil knows many stories about hobbits, one would think the Rangers (who guard the Shire and Bree) and the Elves of Rivendell (where Bilbo has been living) would know some, and the Elves of Lórien have at least heard of hobbits.

Explanation

Pippin has just woken up from a nap, after a lunch that included wine, and is talking to a king for the first time in his life; he may not be thinking clearly.

Possession of the Nine Rings

In The Council of Elrond Gandalf says that the Nazgûl kept their Rings by saying "The Nine the Nazgûl keep". However in most other references, it is mentioned that Sauron had taken them. Furthermore, Frodo doesn't see any Rings on them on Weathertop, and it is believed that if they did wore the Rings, they would have given them full invisibility (the cloaks would be useless).

The line in the Council of Elrond represents Tolkien's earlier intention that the Nazgûl should still be wearing their Rings, but he later changed his mind and simply missed revising that sentence.

Explanation

The phrase can be also interpreted as "The Nine keep the Nazgûl [in Sauron’s thralldom]"; or as the Nazgûl are Sauron's slaves, his owning the Rings may be equivalent to the Nazgûl's keeping them.

Additionally, perhaps Gandalf was mistaken.

Feeling the mithril coat

The mithril coat that Bilbo gives Frodo is "almost as supple as linen", and Aragorn carries Frodo in Moria (after the orc chieftain spears Frodo) without noticing the coat. However, when Bilbo slaps Frodo on the back after giving him the coat, he says, "Ow!... You are too hard now to slap!"

Explanation

Perhaps Bilbo is joking.

Knowledge of the Palantíri

After Gandalf learns that the crystal ball he has recovered is the palantír of Orthanc, he tells Pippin the White Council didn't know any of the palantíri (presumably those of Gondor) survived disaster in Gondor (presumably the Kin-strife). However, after Denethor reveals his palantír, Gandalf claims to have known all along that the Stewards had it.

Explanation

Gandalf could have learned about Denethor's palantír by himself, after the last time the White Council met.

The peril of deep arts

In connection with the palantír of Orthanc, Gandalf observes to Pippin, "Perilous to us all are the devices of an art deeper than we possess ourselves." However, never in The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings does he warn Thorin or the hobbits against using their magic swords, and he returns the Phial of Galadriel to Frodo and Galadriel's box of earth to Sam. Also, there is no apparent danger in characters' using other products of elven arts (cloaks, hithlain ropes, lembas).

Explanation

Maybe the palantíri are "devices" in a sense in which the other things named are not.

Factual mistakes

Doors of Durin

The name Moria means "Black Chasm" and was a derogatory description of the place which the Dwarves did not like much; it was given after Durin's Bane took over the city and it was overrun by Orcs. It is therefore a paradox why that name appears on the Doors of Durin (Ennyn Durin Aran Moria), made in the Second Age, and with the consent of the Dwarves.

Explanation

Possibly Moria was an older name than believed; also it is possible that the Dwarves could not read Tengwar.

Another "external" explanation is that since the translated Norse names Durin and Narvi are seen in the inscription, Moria may also be a "translated" name.

Eagles

One of the best-known alleged plot holes is why the Eagles came to carry Frodo and Sam back from Mount Doom but did not help them to fly the One Ring there. While there are many counter explanations, it is a logical gap why this idea was not proposed in the Council of Elrond.

Explanation

See here for a more detailed discussion.

Distances

The distances of the Dwarves' travel to Rivendell in The Hobbit seem to have different proportions than those in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien tried to reconcile the Hobbit description with the scale of the LotR map but couldn't find an appropriate solution.

While Frodo and his companions needed 28 days from Hobbiton to Rivendell (10.7 miles/day), Karen Wynn Fonstad calculated that Bilbo and Thorin and Company needed 38 days (17.5 miles/day). Andreas Moehn goes further and supposes that Thorin and Co. wanted two weeks from the Trollshaws till Rivendell (a distance which Glorfindel covered in two days), resulting in c. 48 days total..

Explanation

The distances and days are not described in the narrative and can be measured only by references such as the moon phases and other fan calculations; therefore there can be a margin of miscalculation.

In general, perhaps the Dwarves are by nature slower travelers than the Hobbits.

Moon phases

Tolkien was particularly careful about the phases of the Moon in the LotR. Yet some mistakes did elude him. See for example January 13, January 16, February 22, September 22.

In general, it is possible that Tolkien consulted a modern almanac to model the moon phases, and also possible that he confused the meanings of "New Moon": the astronomical (the moment when the moon is most dark) and the colloquial (appearance of the new crescent moon).

Another mistake appears in The Hobbit: Bard I killed Smaug "at the rising of the moon" when "above the eastern shore ... the waxing moon rose higher and higher". However according to astronomy a waxing moon rises only in the morning, after the sun.

Explanation

The moon could have been setting in the west (not rising from the east), helping thus Bard kill Smaug.

Shadow over Eregion

While the Fellowship of the Ring traverses Hollin, they see and feel a flying shadow over them, implied to be a Fell Beast. However later we learn that Sauron did not permit the Nazgûl to traverse west of the Anduin after their accident at Bruinen.

Explanation

Possibly it was a "lost" or "disobeying" Nazgûl who despite orders found himself prematurely west of the Anduin, or simply something wholly unexplained and unrelated to the Fell Beasts.

A choice of dangers

Aragorn tells the hobbits, as they prepare to leave Bree, "After Weathertop our journey will become more difficult, and we shall have to choose between various dangers." The ridges they have to climb after Weathertop may be more difficult than the Midgewater Marshes, but they encounter no dangers on the route Aragorn chooses, and Aragorn doesn't warn the hobbits of any dangers (except one they have no choice about: the chance that the Nazgûl will find them as they cross the Last Bridge).

Beater and Biter

The swords Glamdring and its "mate" Orcrist are found in a Troll hoard, said to belong to King Turgon of the First Age. They never appeared much in battle (Turgon fought only in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad) and they were witnessed only by the Orcs of Beleriand.

After the fall of Gondolin, the swords somehow were carried from the ruin of Beleriand to Eriador. It is however questionable how the Orcs of the Misty Mountains did recognize them by their names.

The Orcs don't seem to react similarly in the sight of Glamdring in LotR, nor do they seem to recognize Narsil/Anduril, which is much more "recent".

Explanation

There can be several theories and explanations of how the swords and their fames reach Eriador. The only problem is the narrative of the Silmarillion, which doesn't justify their significance to the extent of being remembered and recognized by the Goblins of the Third Age, even by tradition.

Corrected mistakes

"...there is much else that may be told." — Glóin This article or section is a stub. Please help Tolkien Gateway by expanding it.

Several mistakes were simply remnants of earlier concepts of Tolkien, which later escaped his attention when revising the book. Some of them were corrected in the 50th Anniversary Edition.

Bandobras' parentage

The Prologue mentions that Bandobras Took was the son (not grandson) of Isengrim Took II. This has been corrected in the 50th Anniversary edition.

Sam's birth

In the second edition of LotR, Sam Gamgee's year of birth was added to The Tale of Years as Third Age 2963. This contradicts both a later entry in The Tale of Years and the Appendix C given as Third Age 2980.

Gimli's Axe

Upon arrival in Edoras, Gimli mentions his axe has touched nothing but firewood since they left Moria. Yet he also claims he and Legolas killed several Orcs at Amon Hen.

Explanation

This discrepancy was noted by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull in The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, where they explained why they left it unchanged in the 50th anniversary edition. Amon Hen was a week before the Battle of the Hornburg; even for a stout Dwarven warrior, lamenting not killing an Orc for that short period would make him look too bloodthirsty.