About

"Cast It Into the Fire" is a memorable quote uttered by the character Elrond in the 2001 fantasy film Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Online, people have recontextualized the scene through object labeling to express opinions about things they know they should discard but willingly keep.

Origin

On December 19th, 2001, the film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released in the United States. In the film's prologue, the characters Elrond and Isildur (portrayed by Hugo Weaving and Harry Sinclair, respectively) discover an all-powerful ring that must be destroyed in the fires of a volcano. However, when Elrond tells Isildur to "cast it into the fire," Isildur refuses, succumbing to the ring's power.

About nine years later, on December 9th, 2010, YouTuber uploaded a clip of the scene to YouTube. Within a decade, the post received more than 76,000 views (shown below).

Spread

On March 28th, 2018, Redditor ^[1] Weqols combined the scene with a series of images from Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith. The post received more than 130 points (99% upvoted) in about 15 months (shown below, left).

Two days later, on March 30th, Redditor^[2] posted a version of the scene in which Isildur destroys the ring and the film ends. The post received more than 200 points (99% upvoted) in a little more than a year (shown below, center).

Weeks later, on May 6th, Redditor^[3] gobblecok posted an image of Randy Jackson from reality singing competition American Idol responding to Elrond's request. The post received more than 740 points (99% upvoted) in one year (shown below, right).

On October 26th, 2018, an anonymous 9GAG ^[4] user posted a version of the scene in which the ring is labeled "Money I Found." The post received more than 175 points in less than one year (shown below).

The following year, on May 27th, Imgur ^[5] user newtle posted a variation in which the ring is labeled "cheese" and Isildur is labeled "vegetarians," a joke on the differences between vegans and vegetarians. The post received more 136,000 views and 4,700 points in less than one month (shown below, left). Three days later, Redditor^[6] eee444lelo posted a variation of the meme on the /r/me_irl subreddit, where it received more than 62,000 points (94% upvoted) and 1,300 comments in less than one month.

The post seemed to inspire a revitalized version of the series, focusing primarily on object-labeled variations (example below, center).

On June 12th, Redditor^[7] FriedL1verAttack posted a variation in which Isildur refuses to throw away a small pencil. The post received more than17,000 points (98% upvoted) and 120 comments in less than one week (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References