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.

Billboard only gives me current chart position (that's all I can find there anyway)- whereas I am looking for an educated guess as to total sales of the soundtrack albums.

Like I said - weird question - I just thought I'd ask.

Thanks sumi. Those are all traditional soundtrack albums - and not scores though I think. Maybe Titanic is a score.

Basically I am in a music nerd argument with somone who thinks the soundtracks are only for the Tolkien freaks and aren't big with the general public. I know he's wrong and I'm trying to find proof.

ROTK went as high as No. 36 on the Billboard chart - but I want a more solid basis for telling him he's a dumbass.

This goes double if your name is Leonardo DiCaprio.

t recasting all Leonardo's subsequent movies with a flamey eyeball

t notes little change to giant sucking sound

Huh. Turns out LOTR is just like a cross between Catch Me if You Can and Gangs of New York.

Isildur: "Who is this under moi knoife?"

Narrator: "In the upcoming feature, the part of the Witch-King of Angmar will be played by Tom Hanks."

Angmar would make a lovely girl's name.

Except for how it wouldn't.