the rescuing army with Gandalf is *memfault* and the men of the Westfold

Memfault would be Erkenbrand. And since that's the only thing Erkenbrand gets to do in the whole book, one doesn't particularly mind allowing someone cooler to be the guy who comes zooming in to the rescue.

t wallows in the joy that is a whole bunch of Tolkien-geek Buffistas

Atlantis = Númenor.

There were some kings. It's to be taken that while Strider's kin were yukkin it up in Atlantis, there were a bunch of petty kings rolling around Middle-earth, and they were the ones that got corrupted. So when Atlantis did the Atlantis thing and foundered, and Strider's kin came along refugee-like to create what is now the kingdom of Gondor, there was effectively a huge leadership vacuum in Midle-earth, due to several of the major mannish kings being undead.

Not entirely true, this. The corrupted kings that Sauron gave the rings to included 3 "Black Numenoreans". While the Numenoreans were living in Atlantis, they also sailed to Middle Earth and established colonies. (Originally, their settlement was fairly benign, but later, they got greedy and dominated the non-Numenorean men who were already living in Middle Earth). (There's a whole tangent that can go on about the different tribes of men, but I'll pass th is time).

Anyway, as the colonies in Middle-Earth were established, some of the greedier Numenoreans in Middle-Earth became allied with Sauron, who at that time was not in flaming-eyeball guise. Most of them lived in the south and were centered around Umbar, which is where the black pirate ships that Aragorn hijacked in ROTK came from. Three of these "Black Numenoreans" received rings of Men, doomed to die. Shortly after the forging of these rings, Sauron created the One Ring, which was the starting point of the war that we saw at the beginning of FOTR. At that time, the Numenoreans sailed to Middle-Earth and captured Sauron (their army was immense), and dragged him back to Atlantis. In time, though, Sauron became an advisor to the King, and led to the whole Atlantis capsizing portion of the tale. Sauron himself was caught in the flood, and afterwards could only be seen as the flaming eye.

All that to say "yes" to the first question.

Don't forget that Numenor would still be there if it weren't for the stuck-up Numenorians being so convinced that they could control Sauron after they beat him back in the Second Age, so they took him home with them. He managed to play with their minds while he was in captivity and ended up convincing them to invade Valinor.

Result: Pissed off gods, big wave, no more Numenor.

(X-post with the end of Jeff's post.)

OK - Weird question.

Any rough guesstimate of how many copies the LotR soundtracks have sold - or how they rate in sales compared to other original movie scores (as opposed to soundtracks that are culled from popular music).

Appreciated.

Would they have that info at Billboard?

"Black Numenoreans". While the Numenoreans were living in Atlantis, they also sailed to Middle Earth and established colonies.

Okay, yes, but when you get called 'Black _____', then (a) you no longer count as related to the hero, even though you technically are; although (a.1.) really technically speaking everybody in the story is first cousin to everbody else; and (b) point remains, some dudes, we don't know who, but in Middle-earth, were kings and then got addicted to their Froot Loops, and then got undead. (Sugar kills!) I was trying to make it nice and clear what with there being kings, but they're not the cool kings that you get when you are a virtuous Atlantis refugee. If you, like, left Atlantis because you were in a snit, or got arrested and skipped bail, you do not count as special; you are hoi polloi of kingship.

Sauron himself was caught in the flood, and afterwards could only be seen as the flaming eye.

I love how nobody questions this logic. You were an evil, corporeal lord, and then you became a [still corporeal] slimy-nice advisor to the king, and then, when you drowned? Reincarnated as a flamey eyeball. (Okay, a spirit of flamey evilness that is represented for shorthand as an eyeball. Or a vulva.) I think the moral of this story is, if you drown, stay dead.

This goes double if your name is Leonardo DiCaprio.

Okay, they do have that information but you can only access it if you are a subscriber (and I am not.)

But I did find a list of top-selling soundtracks.