science

They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard

They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard rather than just read about it. In short: "They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard" is a video that was published in 2005 by Dutch musician and photographer Erwin Beekveld (1969–2022). The two-minute video composed of multiple fragments from the film trilogy The Lord of the Rings became an internet meme, and has obtained a cult status mostly among fans of the trilogy.

Key takeaways

They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

"They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard" is a video that was published in 2005 by Dutch musician and photographer Erwin Beekveld (1969–2022). The two-minute video composed of multiple fragments from the film trilogy The Lord of the Rings became an internet meme, and has obtained a cult status mostly among fans of the trilogy. The video edits dialogue from the first two films, most prominently the line "They're taking the hobbits to Isengard!" spoken by Legolas in The Two Towers and replayed many times in the video, into a comedy song using a remixed techno version of music from the films.

Origin

The video first appeared as Flash-animation on the website Albino Blacksheep and was mostly distributed via YouTube afterwards. The different uploads of this video have been viewed millions of times. The video is built out of scenes from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. In the video, actor Orlando Bloom is seen playing the elf Legolas, who repeats the line "They're taking the hobbits to Isengard!" He is occasionally interrupted by Gollum (played by Andy Serkis) with the words "What did you say?" and "Stupid fat hobbit!" and also by Marton Csokas who plays Celeborn, who repeatedly inquires the whereabouts of Gandalf. In addition, Elijah Wood, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd and Sean Astin are seen playing hobbits Frodo Baggins, Merry Brandybuck, Pippin Took and Samwise Gamgee, as well as Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, John Rhys-Davies as Gimli, and Cate Blanchett as Galadriel. The dialogue is rhythmically set to a techno version of music originally composed by Howard Shore for the movies' soundtracks, and contains among others the leitmotif of the song Concerning Hobbits. The song caught the attention of participants of a discussion forum sponsored by the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics, in which the dactylic quality of the song's prosody was discussed at length. In the book Fan Fiction and Copyright: Outsider Works and Intellectual Property Protection, "They’re Taking the Hobbits to Isengard" is mentioned as an example for the amendment on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, an American law concerning the author's copyright on digital media. The amendment from 2010 made it legal, under certain conditions, to use fragments from movies and television shows in personal videos. Musicologist Michael L. Klein (Professor at the Temple University of Philadelphia) mentions "They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard" in his book Music and the Crises of the Modern Subject as an example of a meme and mash-up as the pinnacle of creativity in the postmodern age. In 2013, after Orlando Bloom finished filming his final scenes on the set of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, director Peter Jackson published a video in which Bloom, dressed up as Legolas, sings along with "They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard." In an interview for Rude Tube published on Erwin Beekveld's YouTube channel in 2013, Beekveld says people love or hate him for making the video, due to its catchy tune, and that it made him very happy to see Orlando Bloom sing along with his remix eight years later, which he states is the "ultimate recognition." On 30 March 2022, Beekveld died of lung cancer at the age of 52.

References

External links The original on Albinoblacksheep.com Article on Know Your Meme with references and parodies. Goodbye Orlando, the parody by Orlando Bloom from 2013

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard

In research: They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Film and television memes, Internet memes introduced in 2005, The Lord of the Rings (film series), so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard in simple terms?

Why does They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard.