By-The-Bywater: A Tolkien Podcast: Recent Episodes
Ned, Oriana, and Jared @ Megaphonic.fm
All things J. R. R. Tolkien: his work, his inspirations and impact, creative interpretations in other media, languages, lore, ripoffs, parodies, anything we think is interesting!
Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Jared’s choice of topic: The Lost Road. In 1937, Tolkien agreed to C.S. Lewis’s suggestion to try to write the kind of stories they enjoyed but didn’t see good examples of to their liking. Lewis’s efforts turned into what has been termed the Space Trilogy, starting with Out Of The Silent Planet. Tolkien’s goal was a time travel story called The Lost Road, but outside of a few chapters and some potential outlines, it never got any further, with the success of The Hobbit and his resulting focus of attention being The Lord Of The Rings stopping any further development. It was eventually published in the Christopher Tolkien-edited series The History of Middle-earth, and was revealed to be a fascinating if very incomplete early conception of what Númenor was, including some of its key protagonists and antagonists at the time of its fall. How much does the story’s self-evident autobiographical angle play into how we should regard the surviving chapters, and what do his choices about how to refocus or rewrite the story of his own life suggest in turn? What import do the specifically metaphysical elements of the story have for both Tolkien and his own conception of not only the legendarium but how he regarded language? Building off our previous discussion of the specifically Númenorean chapter in our episode on The Fall of Númenor, what is it about that sequence that is so unusual for Tolkien’s general writing on Middle-earth, and how does it fit within the larger context of this story as it is told, or as much of it as we have? And finally, have you all pre-ordered Jared’s book yet? Really, you should.
Show Notes.
Jared’s doodle. I mean the whole skull thing is just plain rude.
Jared’s novel The West Passage is up for preorders! And you can see the cover art there as well, done by Kuri Huang – check out her work!
Elliott Bay Book Company is indeed a great Seattle bookstore, check it out if you’re ever there.
Deadline’s report about the rescheduled release of The War Of The Rohirrim, along with TheOneRing.net’s further report also noting the potential production crunch that had been previously looming. (As a compare and contrast, here’s Vulture’s piece on the production nightmare of Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse and Screenrant’s summary of a paywalled Insider article on the much more humane Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem production.)
A summary of Embracer’s money sillies. Well well well.
The musical revival does seem to have landed rather well! Here’s a fun little promo video, an engaging video review from an attendee, and TheOneRing.net’s own report. (And of course, once more, here’s our own episode on the original production.)
The Lost Road! It’s a curio, that’s for sure, but an interesting one even in all its flaws and lacunae.
C.S. Lewis’s space trilogy. It’s interesting…if a little uneven, let’s say.
As noted at various points, the Númenor chapter was already discussed on its own a bit in our episode on The Fall of Númenor.
Want to know something about the Lombardic language? Well there’s always Wikipedia…
As for Middle-earth metaphysics, our episodes on The Nature of Middle-earth and the Valar are there for you!
The Worm Ouroboros with the framing device with Lessingham. A common trope!
Sycld Shefing! He got around.
Corn? Maize? Here’s a little more about it.
So the actual Alboin was…not pleasant. And you better believe the skull thing was known by later artists.
Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Years of Rice and Salt, if you’d like to know more. (And then there’s Harry Turtledove and then etc.)
Our “A Secret Vice” episode, considering Tolkien’s compulsion to create languages.
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Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Oriana’s choice of topic: land. By default the Middle-earth legendarium is about a place that never was, however rooted in the actual planet we live on, and the range of details from sweeping mountains and vast continents to small roads and fields evident throughout the cycle of stories is a key part of what has made Tolkien’s work so vivid and loved. Both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are specifically about journeys as the key plotline, where characters move into spaces that they’d only heard about dimly or not at all as they seek to fulfill their aims. That said, there’s certainly more than this to how Tolkien considers and situates the geography of his creation, including the in-universe explanations of that creation to start with and Melkor’s marring of it. How has Tolkien’s grounding of Middle-earth in the feeling of Northern Europe in general shaped perceptions of fantasy worlds since, and what authors and traditions have worked against it? What are the senses of how layers of history have both informed and shaped the land and the peoples who were and are there in the legendarium, and how does that emerge along the way as the stories progress? Have the expectations and experiences of quick and easy travel shaped our reaction to understanding how slow journeys are, especially on foot, as was the case for most of human history? And did the stones of Eregion indeed actually speak?
SHOW NOTES.
Jared’s doodle. And who wouldn’t enjoy that view, we ask?
The WGA strike is of course still happening. And you should still support it! And the actors too!
And indeed, Andy Serkis’s The Silmarillion reading is out!
So yes, not only did a fan purchase the Magic: The Gathering The One Ring card by lucky chance, following the episode recording he sold it to hardcore MTG fan Post Malone. Truly this is a world we are in.
The promo performance of “Now And For Always” from the revival of the LOTR musical is pretty nice! Performances did start soon after the episode recording and an initial Guardian review was quite complimentary. More promo photos are available, and again there’s always our episode on the original production…
The Rings of Power Emmy nominations. Of course, when the Emmys themselves will happen is another matter.
The Society of American Archivists’ announcement of William Fliss’s award for his continuing work with the Marquette University Tolkien archive.
We meant to mention that fellow Megaphonic podcast The Spouter-Inn discussed The Fellowship of the Ring as part of a cluster of books about land, and then had Oriana on as a guest.
Much of the Christopher Tolkien-edited History of Middle-earth series is essentially about Tolkien’s decades-long process of setting down what Middle-earth actually was. Among the key books in the series in this regard are The Shaping of Middle-earth and Morgoth’s Ring.
I suspect most of us had our own Oregon Trail experiences.
No, we are not going to relitigate the Eagles. Just listen to our episode.
The article on Tolkien and Aldo Leopold is Lucas Niiler’s 1999 piece “Green Reading: Tolkien, Leopold and the Land Ethic.”
Who wouldn’t love the Glittering Caves? (And indeed, check out our dwarves episode as well as our Ghân-Buri-Ghân episode.)
Colonialism/imperialism and environmental destruction? Who could guess there’d be a connection. (Enjoy this book for some other light reading.)
Very light, but this piece on Roman ruins in the present day helps underscore this sense of persistence into the present Tolkien captures well. (In contrast, the Duwamish have had to fight erasure.)
If you want to go to Three Rivers, learn a little more about it.
A 2015 Vox piece on the invention and criminalization of jaywalking.
Peter Jackson’s vision of Isengard as industrial hellhole. (The tree being flung down is at 1:20.)
Earthsea is always a vibe but as Jared notes, check out Annals of the Western Shore.
A Thousand Thousand Islands is indeed no longer going, sadly, but you can get a taste of it here.
Guy Gavriel Kay’s had quite the career!
And indeed some younger authors to check out who aren’t doing Europe all over again include R. F. Kuang and Tasha Suri.
Fonda Lee has the Green Bone Saga to check out, aka the ‘Jade’ series.
And indeed the fan film Born of Hope about Arathorn is on YouTube!
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Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Ned’s choice of topic: The Fall of Númenor. Published in fall of 2022, The Fall of Númenor is the most recent posthumously published collection of Middle-earth writings, acting as an overall guide to the Second Age of Middle-earth, with its key defining moments in Tolkien’s legendarium being the fall of the titular kingdom of the Dúnedain and the subsequent Last Alliance’s temporary defeat of Sauron. Given that most of the material the book draws on comes from a wide variety of other posthumous Tolkien publications, it can serve as a guide and introduction for those unaware of this deeper history to get a sense of how Tolkien envisioned, however haltingly in some cases, this particular era of his creation. But at the same time, since there is no new material presented in the first place, it can be argued in turn that there is little more here for some readers to learn about, while the fact that it was published in tandem with Amazon’s Rings of Power series while not specifically calling attention to the general connection with that series’s setting raises further overall questions. Does the book do a service in bringing the story of Aldarion and Erendis back to the fore after some decades, given its particular detail in comparison with the rest of the material presented? Is the choice of Alan Lee to present more illustrations as with other posthumous collections an understandable point of continuity or a sign of relying too much on one particular artistic vision of Middle-earth? Are there any particular details or points of interest that have sometimes been overlooked in Tolkien’s conception of his world that come back to the fore more here as a result? And really…just what IS it with Elendil’s description of his son at a couple of points?
SHOW NOTES.
Jared’s doodle. Those birds have to be at least a little distressed.
News of the expanded edition of The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. 700 pages? Why not?
A detailed report on The War of the Rohirrim’s event at Annecy. Enjoy a separate interview as well.
The Fall of Númenor. It fell indeed.
Our episode on Aldarion and Erendis. Give it a listen, it’s one of our favorites.
Brian Sibley’s done a lot.
The Lost Road and Other Writings does have quite a lot to delve into.
C. S. Lewis’s space trilogy. It…goes places.
The New Shadow and The Notion Club Papers are indeed very unusual and interesting.
Nope, we’re still not over The Rings of Power.
Lebensraum, hoo boy. (We do not approve of the idea at all.)
Mary Renault is truly a vibe and we appreciate her. And we love that she loved Tolkien’s work in turn!
Strictly speaking California doesn’t have private beaches full on…but boy some try.
Further discussion of the physical body in Tolkien can be found in the essay collection The Body in Tolkien’s Legendarium.
Alan Lee’s illustrations of Sauron’s Temple and Moria from the book.
Mike Mignola would have been a fine addition for del Toro’s planned Hobbit films. (And indeed, episode 50 is there for you.)
Ah, David Brent.
Our episode on orcs.
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Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Jared’s choice of topic: Sir Orfeo. The Orpheus myth is one of the most mysterious ones in the open-ended collection of tales that make up what is termed ‘Greek mythology,’ something that Tolkien would have learned about by default as part of his standard late Victorian/Edwardian education. But his particular exploration of that myth wasn’t via one of those texts, but a translation of a Middle English poem by an anonymous author, itself based on a Breton source, that fused elements of the most famous Orpheus story – trying to win back the love of his life from the land of the dead – with elements of Celtic faery and myth as well as recent English history. Yet Tolkien’s work is one of his most mysterious efforts in turn, first presented by Christopher Tolkien along with the translations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Pearl, but, as the younger Tolkien explained, unaccompanied by any notes, introductory paragraphs or even an exact date of creation to determine what inspired him to make the translation or for what purpose it might have been intended. Can more be said about how old and familiar myths get reset and recontextualized across human history, reflecting the situations and biases of their times? Is there anything about the poem or the translation that stands out as uniquely or distinctly Tolkienian based on his other work? What about the land of the dead makes it such an unusual place all around, especially considering the fates of those who are there? And drawing on our separate news discussion about the continuing WGA strike and its impact on The Rings of Power season 2, how complicated is it to shoot a TV show anyway? (It’s very complicated.)
SHOW NOTES.
Jared’s doodle. Harps do have power in the right hands.
Support the WGA strike! It’ll help Oriana among many others. Lots of good pieces out there, including interviews with Michael Schur, David Simon and Hollywood Teamster leader Lindsay Dougherty, plus this barnburner of a piece from one of the striking writers, Ron Currie.
The Rings of Power cast talk about things. Kinda vaguely, but anyway.
So the WGA strike didn’t deter Amazon from getting the second season of The Rings of Power done, apparently.
Check out the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Here’s the page for The War of the Rohirrim.
Sir Orfeo! Want to try and read along in the original? Here’s one of the texts with some guidance as needed.
The Orpheus myth is indeed pretty darned complex!
David Graeber’s Debt: The First 5000 Years? Well worth your time.
The history of Winchester is a little involved…
There’s a fair amount out there about ‘the Greek tradition’ and Victorians – have a read here for some more of that.
As for the fairies/faery in Celtic tradition and the dead, there’s a lot there too. Here’s a starting point.
Hadestown! It was and is a hit indeed. (And if you’d like to hear the original version.)
Support By-The-Bywater and our network, Megaphonic. If you do, you can hang out with us in a members-only Discord and hear an exclusive interview with Jared.
Jared, Oriana and Ned appear live in Portland at Passages Bookshop to celebrate fifty episodes of By-the-Bywater and to talk about Oriana’s choice of topic: Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Hobbit. To say that there was almost immediate speculation about whether or when Jackson would also adapt The Hobbit following the smash critical and commercial success of his Lord of the Rings films is to understate; over the following years there were further lawsuits, broken agreements, studio questions, planned directorial choices that mysteriously fell through and more besides that seemed to indicate it would be the biggest case of developmental hell ever. But eventually the films did start coming out in a similar yearly pace starting in December 2012, and certainly earned a fair amount of cash. Yet to say that the films have had anywhere near the level of widespread love and cultural staying power than The Lord of the Rings films is to deny the fundamental truth of how poorly these films have aged on several levels, and the various resultant impacts since, up to and including a literal rewriting of a country’s laws to accommodate the production. What were the core differences between the two sets of adaptations on a structural level, and how did that play out in comparative terms? What technical achievements were made much of in the run up to the films’ release, and what impact did they actually have? How did what should be a core relationship between the characters of Thorin and Bilbo get set up as a near love story, and how was that all ultimately undercut in the final edits? And really…Alfrid Lickspittle. REALLY?
SHOW NOTES.
Jared couldn’t make a doodle for obvious reasons. But look here! Friend of the show and network Gabriel did sketch us!
Big ups to Passages Bookshop! Owner David is a fine fellow and you should all check it out next time you’re in Portland.
Not only was there our live episode but there was an associated live bingo game for audience members. (Some people got close but nobody got it exactly – pity, that would have been amazing if that had happened!)
Oriana’s old podcast American Grift. It may yet return!
Whitechapel! Steampunky, yes, but the drinks are great.
Our first episode! Different days…
The Hollywood Reporter story on Amazon Studio’s somewhat flailing ways, especially in terms of The Rings of Power.
That suit filed by the fanfic guy. Where to begin. And if you want the back cover of his totally original book The Fellowship of the King, here ya go. (Debutante ball. Really.)
Don’t forget Jared’s upcoming novel!
Our Silver Call duology episode – and our Rings of Power Season 1 episode.
RIP Barry Humphries, Jackson’s Goblin King.
The Hobbit movies. Yup. That’s them.
We’ve linked them before but the three parts of Lindsay Ellis’s analysis of The Hobbit films are really something special, a masterpiece of both analysis and reporting.
Nathan Rabin’s old Forgotbusters column for the Dissolve.
Ah the Denny’s menu. Testimony from one who survived
The whole framerate thing was hyped almost as much as the 3D. And it was countered at the time, not just retrospectively…
The opening sequence in Erebor is indeed a technical and artistic success. The escaping Goblin-town sequence…is not. The barrel escape definitely isn’t.
Dune and Goodnight Moon? Julia Yu has you covered.
Thorin and Bilbo fan-art on Tumblr? Wouldn’t know about that…
Thorin’s death scene with Bilbo? Very strong, very close in dialogue to the book too. The death scene after it? Well…
The Tauriel issue. There’s a lot.
Martin Freeman and James Nesbitt can indeed do something together with a sense of dramatic heft and charisma, as seen in this scene from the first movie. Nothing like it happens again.
Lee Pace really just needed to do this.
The Thorin charge to Azog down the flaming tree, yeah…and the music with it? Why did they do that?
Alfrid Lickspittle. Just, no. (We’re sure Ryan Gage is lovely in his own right.)
Yeah, Smaug the Golden was a nice touch.
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Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Ned’s choice of topic: the Rankin-Bass adaptation of The Return of the King. When Rankin-Bass’s 1977 adaptation of The Hobbit was shown on American network TV, the animation studio was already well into planning a further effort adapting The Lord of the Rings in some form as a sequel; the positive attention and ratings success of their Hobbit doubtless made them think they were on the right track. But when Arthur Rankin Jr. confessed in a 2003 interview that their version of The Return of the King was “not a very good film,” that was an understatement to say the least. While their Hobbit had flaws but was still a reasonably entertaining, focused translation of the story into a particular medium heightened by striking background work from their partners at the Japanese animation studio Topcraft, the Rankin-Bass Return of the King, which aired in 1980 and which continued to showcase work by Topcraft, was otherwise at best a muddled mess and at worst just a flat out disaster, with scattered positive elements not offsetting the series of baffling adaptation decisions that look even weirder following the success of Peter Jackson’s version of the book. What makes the pacing of the film so incredibly bizarre and frustrating, and how did the decision to tell which parts of the story in greater detail compromise the wider scope as a whole? How does the vocal casting and the respective performances end up underselling the flow of the story as a whole? Are there any good parts to the whole at all, and do they actually provide any upside to the end result? And why, why, WHY in the world are there so many bad songs throughout – even if there’s disagreement over whether “Where There’s a Whip” slaps or not?
SHOW NOTES.
Jared’s doodle – and it really is all that is deserved.
Come join us in Portland for our live episode recording if you can! April 22, 2023 is the date, we’ll be at Passages Bookshop, and we’ll be there with our fellow podcasts It’s Just a Show and Game Show 1939!
News of more Rings of Power casting. Good luck, everyone.
Ciarán Hinds really is all that. But as mentioned in a post-recording edit, Ned made a mistake and muddled two There Will Be Blood scenes – the confrontation scene he talks about is absolutely stunning for sure, but the one where for the first couple of minutes Hinds just very carefully watches, smokes and takes it all in is the one nearer the beginning where Paul Sunday first sits down with Daniel Plainview.
The UK National Archives post on the newly discovered letters by Tolkien.
The Rankin-Bass Return of the King! It sure did return.
Our earlier episode on the Rankin-Bass Hobbit. A lot of information on Rankin-Bass in general which also applies to this production is linked there, so we won’t repeat it all here. (And since we do mention Bakshi’s film a couple of times, here’s our episode on that.)
Oh I think we all know about the Star Wars Holiday Special. But the forthcoming documentary could be interesting.
The John Culhane New York Times piece from 1977 where Rankin’s quote about their plans for The Return of the King comes from.
The 1980 LA Times piece by Charles Solomon mentioned is available to read via Newspapers.com though only via a free trial; its first part can be found here along with the awesome Joan Jett photo.
If you really actually want to watch the Rankin-Bass Return of the King, don’t say we didn’t want you.
Rick Goldschimdt’s interview with Rankin; the quote about Return of the King is towards the end of the clip.
The one-album vinyl redaction of the movie from 1980.
Want a view of that Seattle Kraken tentacle? Enjoy.
Oriana’s fine with the orcs not being depicted in a racist fashion, Jared likes the design of Minas Tirith. We’ll take what we can get.
The Last Homely House does look like it should be snow covered in the Swiss Alps or something.
Ah the minstrel. Yes. Yes indeed.
Where there’s a whip! (But yeah, some love or at least nuance for the orcs, we love to see it, as we argued in our own episode about them.)
Barad-dûr is…odd.
Neuschwanstein Castle, if you ever want to check it out.
Sauron, though, that’s pretty interesting. And definitely not Mike Wazowski.
Our Silver Call duology episode. Still a very strange piece of work.
Bring on The War of the Rohirrim! crossed fingers
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Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Jared’s choice of topic: worldbuilding. Tolkien is so heavily identified with the concept of worldbuilding that a map of Middle-earth represents the topic on Wikipedia, and his impact in both fantasy and beyond regarding how a world that is not this actual globe we live on is perceived and presented has continuing afterechoes that don’t look to disappear anytime soon. At the same time, what exactly worldbuilding IS is a hardly an agreed upon formal standard anywhere, and the amount of work that’s been put into developing a story setting in any number of media, not just that of fantasy novels much less novels in general, is vast, varied and takes many particular forms. Meanwhile, Tolkien’s own approach as to what worldbuilding is comes out of his own particular personal and philosophical conclusions, and doesn't always take the form of what a more stereotypical approach to the subject might be in the current day. What makes the idea of Middle-earth so compelling to readers entranced by his works, and what drives them to learn more about it or to elaborate on it in their own right? What other creators, in fiction and beyond it, successfully approach similar levels of immersion, and are there particular points of commonality to be found there? Are there particular points in Tolkien’s stylistic approach that signal notable strengths in creating the sense of Middle-earth as an actual place, and how much of that might lie in a difference between received perception and the reality of the work? And how much does Jared’s own forthcoming fantasy novel drive this discussion? (A lot – and we’re going to be talking about that novel a lot over time, don’t you worry – but also listen for initial news about our live episode in Portland in April!)
SHOW NOTES.
Jared’s doodle – makes you wonder what else is going on in this world shown here…
More about the HarperCollins Union contract. Well done, we say again.
The Lord of the Rings musical is coming back! We’re still scratching our heads a bit. (Listen in to our 2020 episode about it.)
The Watermill. It does seem like a nice theatre…
Variety’s report on the Embracer/Warner Bros. Discovery deal and the prospect of more movies.
A little more about Mike de Luca from 2011.
Still confused about the overall rights issues when it comes to Tolkien in the first place? A handy Gizmodo explainer.
The announcement of Jared’s novel! Due for release next year, and we’ll get you a preorder link when there is one.
More on that whole Doug Liman/Bourne Identity thing. Ah, Hollywood power politics…
Worldbuilding! Yup, Middle-earth, right there.
Terry Pratchett, rest in peace. One of the greats.
Sub-creation, how Tolkien thought of his own creative impulse ultimately deriving from his own belief in God as the ultimate creator.
Our episode on “A Secret Vice,” Tolkien’s lecture about creating languages.
NaNoWriMo! It’s a thing, believe us.
Our death episode! (Very early days for the podcast and the format’s a bit different but we were still figuring it out!)
The Chekhov’s gun principle.
Oriana’s Star Wars comments specifically refer to Solo.
Ioreth! There should have been more of her but we’re glad we have her.
The ‘whispering to date’ Twitter meme origin. (Forgot what Chappie is? So did everyone else.)
Ted Bundy – and yes we hope he’s not part of your narrative either.
Our Rings of Power Season 1 episode. That did feel good to do.
N. K. Jemisin and the Broken Earth trilogy – check it out. As well as: Frank Herbert and Dune! Ursula K Le Guin and Earthsea! Lloyd Alexander and Prydain! Steven Erikson and Malazan Book of the Fallen!
The Dark Crystal, still awesome.
“As you know, Bob…”
The cats of Queen Berúthiel and Carn Dûm.
Our food in Middle-earth episode.
Enjoy talk about Roman sewers. And Amsterdam’s canals.
M. R. James, so awesome.
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Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Oriana’s choice of topic: Gollum. For all the high adventure, heroics great and small and world-shattering consequences and much more that exists in Tolkien’s legendarium, arguably the most fascinating character he created in the end is his most racked, ruined and miserable, first encountered as a mysterious slimy creature living and lurking in a subterranean lake with only one thing of particular value to his name. Tolkien’s introduction of both Gollum and a magic ring into this world was, to borrow a phrase from the narrator of The Hobbit, a turning point in his career, the more when as he embarked on the writing that would result in The Lord of the Rings he realized he needed to rethink and redo the original, much more comically grotesque version of Gollum into a being living out any number of emotional and physical extremities at once. Arguably both this transformation and then the incorporation of this version of Gollum into his grand story became something he never quite got over, based on his various reactions over time as seen most clearly in his published letters on the subject. Why might the strongest scene for the entire Lord of the Rings be the simple gesture of Gollum tentatively reaching out to touch a sleeping Frodo on the way to Cirith Ungol? What is it about Tolkien’s self retcon of what Gollum is at heart that is fascinating still? Does the unspoken backstory of Sméagol and Déagol’s relationship suggest deep waters indeed, and how did Tolkien regard them both? And did Gollum really eat babies in the end or was that just something dreamed up by dirtbag elves?
SHOW NOTES.
Jared’s doodle – just waiting on some fish as the endless, timeless years stretch on…
Was there rain? There was rain.
The HarperCollins Union strike looks to be over! Here’s a press announcement.
Like we said, rumors, no more, about Embracer and Warner Bros. Who knows.
The BBC Repair Shop story is a treat.
Just hanging around Tolkien and Gandalf in Warsaw.
Lord of the Bins! Well, good luck.
Gollum’s touching of Frodo’s knee should be portrayed more in fan art, but maybe we’re not looking hard enough. But there is this at least.
All letters quoted taken from the standard Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien collection. The letter to Eileen Elgar quoted later in the episode can be read in full here.
Our episodes on Sam Gamgee and the Red Book of Westmarch.
Andy Serkis’s retelling on how he first considered the Gollum casting can be found in both the movie documentaries and his own book on the role.
Admittedly that Cat in the Hat fish is a punk.
Grendel? Fascinating and monstrous character…but not Gollum.
John D. Rateliff’s The History Of The Hobbit breaks down the history of the book from manuscript through its later editions, including the abandoned early 1960s rewrite.
The Third Man is a great, great film.
Were the elves spreading stories of atrocity propaganda? Well…
Serkis himself sees Gollum through the lens of addiction, but the evidence that Tolkien himself had that in mind is scanty at best.
The David Foster Wallace piece in question – one of several on tennis, his favorite sport – is “The String Theory.” (The exact quote: “It’s the sort of love whose measure is what it’s cost, what one’s given up for it.”)
Déagol, shadowy and still crucial.
Yeah sure, Midsomer Murders, but really it’s about Rosemary & Thyme as we say. And we do want that TV series we dream up.
Goofus and Gallant forever. If you like.
How associated is the phrase ‘unstuck in time’ with Kurt Vonnegut? Quite a bit.
And go go go Everything Everywhere All At Once! Surely it can win everything.
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Jared, Oriana and Ned start the new year with Ned’s choice of topic: the short children’s works Roverandom and Mr. Bliss. Tolkien has been described as a children’s author both with praise and disparagement over time, but a more accurate way to put it is that while he was busy working on his cycle of early Middle-earth stories with its high drama and tragedy in the 1920s and 1930s, he was also a loving father to four young children who often made up many stories and tales for them. The Hobbit itself has strong roots in this activity but whether it’s the Father Christmas letters, the original Tom Bombadil stories, the early versions of Farmer Giles of Ham or more besides, it’s a large creative part of his work in those decades. After The Hobbit was accepted for publication, Tolkien provided the manuscripts for, among other submissions, the stories Roverandom and Mr. Bliss for consideration, though the success of The Hobbit and the request for a sequel led him down other paths, with the two stories receiving separate posthumous publication instead. Is there ultimately anything more to Mr. Bliss than a series of random happenings that the titular character barely seems to be at the center of a lot of the time? How does Roverandom work in notable contrast to Mr. Bliss, with its deeper emotions as much as it has a sense of playful satire? How well does Tolkien’s art for both stories achieve a distinct resonance and beauty? And who wouldn’t want to get a newspaper called Ocean Notions, perhaps most applicable these days if you live in a pineapple under the sea?
SHOW NOTES.
Jared’s doodle – a beautiful and striking moment from an equally striking story.
Join the Megaphonic Patreon! And yes, The Greatest Story Ever Told…isn’t. At least not in that form.
As before, support the HarperCollins union.
A Silmarillion opera cycle exists! And has for years, who knew – not us! More about it, including a link to a fuller interview, via TheOneRing.net.
The Russian Silmarillion musical, whatever it is? There are clips.
Yep, pushing ahead with The Rings of Power. We’ll see…
Roverandom! Mr. Bliss! Very different to be sure.
Earlier episodes on Smith of Wootton Major and Tree and Leaf (with “On Fairy-Stories”)
The Wind In The Willows remains top flight.
“Goblin Feet”…does not.
Marcel The Shell With Shoes On was indeed a good movie.
We all know The Velveteen Rabbit. Surely.
Well we all DEFINITELY know Toy Story.
The Man in the Moon is everywhere!
News of the World was a thing. (They shut down because they were completely horrible. Of course Rupert Murdoch was involved.)
The tales of Baron Munchausen are wonderful things. (Gilliam’s movie is remarkable…but read this first.)
Tolkien’s illustration of Roverandom and the White Dragon, with Scull and Hammond’s commentary.
Our early episode on magic.
Oh man do we love Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea. (The Folio Society editions are remarkable.)
Uin the whale. (He’s in this reproduction of Tolkien’s original 1917 Middle-earth map on the left in the layer of water below the main continents.)
Tolkien’s illustration “The Garden of the Merking’s Palace” is a great riot of color in the best way.
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Jared, Oriana and Ned continue our own epic trilogy with a look at our collective choice of topic: Peter Jackson’s version of The Two Towers. Turning 20 years old this month, The Two Towers built on the success of the previous year’s The Fellowship of the Ring, becoming another holiday blockbuster and continuing the overall story, as well as introducing the wider world to a variety of striking performances, among them Bernard Hill as Theoden, Miranda Otto as Eowyn and most famously and indelibly, Andy Serkis’s compelling performance as Gollum, further interpreted by the Weta digital effects team to bring the character to life as an animation. All three of us have our own distinct memories and experiences of watching it for the first time and we’ve seen it any number of times since, but returning to it as a standalone film – as with our previous Fellowship episode, we went back to the original theatrical cut – made something clear to us: it’s not all that great. Many different moments are absolutely indelible as already noted and there’s no way something like The Rings of Power can even come close to it, but compared to the absolute triumph of Jackson’s Fellowship, his Two Towers is the odd one out of the series as a whole. What about the structure of the story as adapted, filmed and edited meant that this might have always been the weak center of the sequence? What moments in particular are absolutely perfect – and what decisions are baffling then and now? Exactly how much Helm’s Deep did there have to be in the first place – and do all the decisions that go into the making of that sequence as being central rest on the best foundation? And how great does Serkis’s performance and the realization of Gollum as a character remain overall? (Answer: utterly.)
SHOW NOTES.
Jared’s doodle. If that seems familiar, look back a year…
Follow the HarperCollins Union Twitter feed for strike news.
Andy Serkis reading the Silmarillion? We are intrigued, we are.
Hail and farewell to Jules Bass.
We do recommend relistening to our Fellowship episode; plenty of relevant show notes too.
The Frodo Franchise is a very good read for sure.
The original teaser trailer attached to the end of The Fellowship of the Ring at the conclusion of that film’s theatrical run.
The first official trailer is good, no question, but the second one with the Requiem for a Dream music? Man oh man.
Kazaa! Ah Internet nostalgia.
Phew, that opening scene. What a way to start up again.
We do miss the Huorns, even if they showed up a little bit in the extended version – but not by name.
It’s a mix of perfect moments and ‘hmmm’ bits but the whole start to the Helm’s Deep battle definitely is key to the film.
Arwen was indeed filmed at being at Helm’s Deep and there are background images of her here and there. (Lindsay Ellis’s essay the other month has a bit more about that.)
Zulu, the British film from 1964 that inspired Jackson’s take on Helm’s Deep, is…a caution. (As stated, Zulu Dawn is more interesting in comparison.)
The look on Theoden’s face after he takes in the explosion – that’s good acting.
Edoras, an absolute triumph of set design, construction, visual effects and cinematography – so it was, so it remains. (Here’s a visit to the set area on Mt. Sunday from a couple of years ago.)
Feel free to pick up a copy of The Deadwood Bible by Matt Zoller Seitz if you like, and appreciate Oriana’s work helping make it happen!
Brad Dourif’s tear (and the scene overall). Wormtongue’s confrontation scene with Eowyn is in the Edoras clip linked above.
The Eowyn/Aragorn blade clash/confrontation scene? Good, good stuff. (The warg attack scene, less so.)
Where to begin with Gollum? Frustratingly the extended Two Towers documentary segment on Gollum doesn’t appear to be on YouTube but Serkis’s book on working on the character is easily available and a very good read.
Do you really want to know about the monkey from the 1997 Lost in Space? Do you? Fine. Enjoy a video tribute.
Now Gollum does act like a cat here, true. And the ‘yeees?!?’ moment remains awesome.
The self-confrontation scene. You know it.
“PO-TA-TOES.”
The buildup to Gollum snarling “My PRECIOUS!” at Faramir is truly striking.
David Wenham dealing with Van Helsing. The film that is. (And yeah yeah 300.)
Gandalf returns and Ian McKellen’s hair levels up.
The whole “give up the weapons/wink/’I TOLD you to take the WIZARD’S STAFF’” sequence – just a treat.
The meat was always on the menu, really.
“The Riders of Rohan” is one of Howard Shore’s most gripping pieces, still.
“Gollum’s Song” is really good if you haven’t heard it in a bit. (Emiliana Torrini’s website will be back soon, it seems.)
Sheila Chandra = next level. As is “Breath of Life.”
Isabel Bayrakdarian = also next level, and so is “Evenstar.”
“The Last March of the Ents” is another remarkable moment of music. “Release the RIVER!”
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Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about the inevitable: the first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Ever since By-the-Bywater began, the show’s creation, filming and buildup to its release has loomed large in our news reports and there were inevitable questions about it the more information was surfacing. But there was always hope that it could in fact succeed and add to the notable if admittedly varied canon of Tolkien adaptations already created over time. Suffice to say that there was a lot of heavy promotion, a whole amount of attention and there are definitely plenty of people out there who have enjoyed the series to one degree or another. The three of us…are not among them. Frankly, not in the slightest, outside of a few particular points and factors, and we try and bring them up as we can. But we’re not going to pussyfoot around the fact that we found this eight episode introductory season to otherwise be a near-unmitigated disaster and are still picking our way through the wreckage like the orcs after the ‘are you kidding us right now’ Mount Doom relighting trick. What choices were made by the showrunners to create incidents and particular character arcs, whether from Tolkien’s own creations or invented characters of their own, and why did so many of them fall so flat? What did the continuing use of non-standard English dialects mean for certain characters and how they’re meant to be perceived or understood? Who were the good actors who actually did something of note with their often confusing or underwritten or just poorly written character motivations? What if anything was in line with Tolkien’s general themes and approaches, and more importantly, what wasn’t? And once again, what in the WORLD with that scheme about Mt. Doom, good frickin’ grief.
SHOW NOTES
Jared’s doodle. See, if they’d cast a Celebrimbor who even LOOKED like this…
Yup, second season of The Rings of Power is happening. Yup, sure is. Great.
The HarperCollins union announces the strike. Again, please honor it.
We tend to favor the reactions that look at things with at least a slightly gimlet eye. James Whitbrook’s end-of-season episode recap at io9 had some good tart points, especially on the unnecessary approach making the entire season a prologue or pilot, in essence.
Published before the end of the season, Kathryn VanArendonk’s Vulture piece “The Fantasy Prequel Problem,” which also and understandably takes in House of the Dragon as well, also had some sharp observations.
Undone is a really, really good series that Amazon has, indeed. Check it out.
Repeating from the previous episode’s show notes: Ned’s Twitter threads on the time compression problem in the series with specific regard to Númenor.
The actual destruction of the Two Trees in this clip is truly marvelous, an excellent brief summary…and as we say, it immediately falls apart after that.
J. J. Abrams’s famous/infamous TED Talk about the mystery box/puzzle box approach he favors, which the ROP showrunners clearly have taken to heart. (We are not fans.)
A recent argument about how the Star Wars prequels became more embraced. (The point Oriana notes about having a vision is brought up as a factor.) See also Rian Johnson’s 2020 tweet.
The Bronwyn/Theo/orc duel in episode 2 and the Galadriel/Adar barn debate in episode 6 are very good scenes! But they were all too rare in comparison.
Our earlier episode on orcs.
If you want to delve more into the haphazard weirdness of 1980s/1990s D&D novels – and there are quite a lot to choose from – Rob Bricken’s irregular ‘Dungeons & Dragons & Novels’ series on io9 has been a treat; here’s the most recent entry.
Caroline Framke’s Variety piece on the show is much more positive than ours but zeroes in on an inescapable fact: the lack of traction the show has had in terms of wider discussion/interest, especially in comparison to House of the Dragon.
Star Wars: Andor! The Wheel of Time! The forthcoming Willow series! There’s so much more that’s just…better out there.
Our episode from last year on Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring.
Subscription required but we do indeed recommend Lindsay Ellis’s new video on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings adaptation choices, as well as the Like Stories of Old’s YouTube video The Rings of Powers Has a Narrative Momentum Problem.
The Spouter-Inn’s episode on The Two Towers – the bonus episode with Jared is forthcoming. (Their earlier Fellowship of the Ring episode, as well as the bonus episode with Oriana.)
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Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Ned’s choice of topic: cartography. To say that maps help define Middle-earth is to understate; besides the famous map featured in The Hobbit and also given as a key visual element with the book itself, one of two Tolkien drew for it, his own many other maps of Middle-earth he created over time, finalized for publication by Christopher Tolkien both before and after his father’s death, establish a visual sense of what Middle-earth ‘looks’ like in a broad sense, to the point of spawning numerous atlases, charts and online explorations of that wider world. But then again, cartography in a modern sense is a very Eurocentric proposition, and even the fantasy fiction cartography that Tolkien’s maps both drew on and then subsequently influenced in a massive way is very much a product of that wider influence, sometimes in very subtly skewed ways. How do maps function ‘in’ Middle-earth themselves, whether as plot device, something referenced casually or even seemingly not needed at all, depending on the character? What about the historical context of the British Empire and the sense of ‘discovering’ the world might have fed into Tolkien’s own views about how to create his own maps and charts, as much as his own knowledge of medieval manuscripts and maps in turn? How have the various visual interpretations of Middle-earth in other media used maps in turn in their efforts and to what purpose? And how is the long shadow of Middle-earth’s maps and their impact being interrogated by creative artists around the world as newer worlds are envisioned and explored? (And yes…we have some initial thoughts on a certain streaming TV series.)
SHOW NOTES.
Jared’s doodle. We cover the Middle-earth globe for you. (When it became a globe.)
Look we know, WE KNOW. For now we just recommend Gita Jackson’s piece “Whose Fantasy Is This?” Fuck racists and then some.
Ned’s Twitter threads on the time compression problem in the series with specific regard to Númenor.
Jared’s Patreon piece on the show a few episodes in.
Cartography! It’s got a history.
The Tolkien Estate’s map section on its website.
The Tolkien Society’s closer look at the annotations that Tolkien wrote for Pauline Baynes regarding her poster map.
Jonathan Crowe’s two excellent pieces for Tor: “Celebrating Christopher Tolkien’s Cartographic Legacy” and “Where Do Fantasy Maps Come From?”
Barbara Strachey’s Journeys of Frodo and Karen Wynn Fonstad’s The Atlas of Middle-earth both remain enjoyable reads, Fonstad’s volume being especially key.
Crowe’s Tolkien entries on his own blog, The Map Room.
Stentor Danielson’s articles on cartography at the Journal of Tolkien Studies.
Sally Bushell’s “Mapping Worlds: Tolkien’s Cartographic Imagination” from her book Reading and Mapping Fiction (you’ll likely need library or academic access to read it directly).
Nicholas Tam’s “Here Be Cartographers: Reading the Fantasy Map.”
The British Library’s “What Is a Fantasy Map?”
A 1999 New York Times piece summarizing the increasing study and work being done throughout the decade working against the Eurocentric cartographic approach.
A 2019 undergrad paper by Luke Maxwell on imperialism and Eurocentrism in fantasy cartography.
The 2021 Dream Foundry panel discussion, “Fantasy Maps and Worldbuilding from a Non-Eurocentric Perspective,” archived on YouTube.
Our episode on the Red Book of Westmarch, a putative source of the Lord of the Rings maps.
There are indeed many online Middle-earth maps and atlases – including as mentioned the Minecraft Middle-earth. Other examples include LOTRProject’s Interactive Map of Middle-earth and Arda Maps.
On a psychogeographical tip, Nowhere and Back Again might be of esoteric interest.
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Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Jared’s choice of topic: food in Middle-earth. As Jared says in his introduction, he was reminded of the subject when a semi-viral Tolkien tweet went around again claiming that The Lord of the Rings is in its various parts like the stereotype of recipe blogs: a lengthy and seeming rambling introduction to an eventual meal. But that’s not in fact the case, and the wider question of how food – and appetites and hunger in many different forms – is described by Tolkien in Middle-earth as a whole raises some interesting questions in turn. (We didn’t even talk about Smith of Wootton Major, come to think of it!) Where did the idea the tweet incorrectly claims come from and why do people apply it to Tolkien when it seems much more apt for the works of other writers? How does evil in general intersect with questions of appetite and destruction, and are there differences in how that is applied both in a literal and metaphorical sense? How does hunger play out in Middle-earth and where, and is it more apparent in some works than others? And what would be your preferred meal to join in on if you were given the chance? Also, we have another rather lengthy news section this time out because a certain series is literally about to premiere mere hours from now…
SHOW NOTES.
Jared’s doodle. Lembas and stew, who wouldn’t want that?
The By-the-Bywater Kitchen Party! It was great. (Catch Jared on the next Kitchen Party live on Megaphonic’s Twitch channel.)
One last Rings of Power trailer. And it’s cluuuuuunky. (At this point there are endless features and promo pieces out and if we tried to track them all we’d seize up.)
TheOneRing.net’s report about how Alex Jordan has joined the Warner Bros anime.
The Embracer rights news, also from TheOneRing.net.
The Marquette University exhibition J. R. R. Tolkien: The Art of the Manuscript’s home page. Absolutely go if you can get the chance; here’s links to the three associated lectures and other programming that’s happening.
If you just want to buy the exhibition catalog, here ya go.
Milwaukee magazine on the exhibition, plus two local TV news reports on it.
Bear McCreary’s Rings of Power soundtrack is streaming on all services; unsurprisingly Amazon’s includes extra cuts.
The J. A. Bayona interview with io9 with the weird ‘elves are political, men are melodramatic’ comment.
Insider’s speculation/semi-behind the scenes piece on Amazon’s financial interest and stances in the series.
There’s endless recipes for things ‘inspired by’ Tolkien and Middle-earth online. Tolkien Gateway has a few specific entries on actual food in canon, including lembas of course.
Does Redwall have food? Does it ever.
Kumis! Ma’amoul! Squid-ink pasta! Try ‘em all.
Peter Jackson’s Aragorn with the deer moment from Fellowship. (It’s at 2:07 in this clip.)
There is indeed a lot out there on fairy tale food as temptation – this 2013 thesis is almost titled that!
Lembas, Tolkien’s Catholicism and the Eucharist – plenty out there as well! Here’s an essay/podcast episode on the matter.
A good chunk of Jackson’s Unexpected Party sequence from the first Hobbit film. (Bilbo’s defeated look in his empty pantry is also at 2:07.)
No, really, John Carter was a very entertaining film.
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Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Oriana’s choice of topic: Legolas Greenleaf. Not originally planned as a member of the Fellowship – the honor was going to go to Glorfindel, who helps Aragorn and the hobbits evade the Nazgûl en route to Rivendell – Legolas ended up as a classic retcon character, introduced as the son of Thranduil, the Elvenking featured in The Hobbit, even though no such character was ever mentioned or described in that book. A brilliant archer who makes light of burdens, literally can walk on snow and isn’t above teasing his suffering companions – but someone who can react badly if his own privilege is ever questioned – he’s at once fascinating and more than a little infuriating, though his unique relationship with Gimli is one of The Lord of the Rings’s more intriguing subplots. What kind of universality can be read into the character as maybe representing what Elves are like – or is he simply his own individual self? How does he come across to the hobbits, who are the ones ‘telling’ the story in Tolkien’s own construction of it, and is he truly relatable to them at all? What does his profound change of mood when he nears the sea say about Tolkien’s deeper conception of not only Elves but how they considered time? And just what do we think of Orlando Bloom’s performance of the character in the Peter Jackson films? (And separately: did we have thoughts on various The Rings of Power trailers? Oh did we ever.)
SHOW NOTES.
Jared’s doodle. Legolas would do that as often as he could, truly.
Jared and Ned did indeed meet for the first time in Seattle for lunch at a Vinason location.
COVID’s still a thing – don’t sleep on it. And yes, if you get it, get yer Paxlovid.
So, The Rings of Power trailers? Which do you want? This one, this one, or this one?
The EW story introducing the Númenoreans.
Want to see the SDCC panel on The Rings of Power? Go nuts.
Bear McCreary conducting at SDCC. (We still think this might be his masterwork.)
Support the Harper Collins Union.
A typical interview with the showrunners. Mm.
The 1951 letter to Milton Waldman with the ‘other minds and hands’ passage.
Our episode on Dwarves and the attendant stereotypes.
We’re not saying this kind of thing is what WILL happen with Ar-Pharazôn but you know…
Irish fairies and their kid-stealing ways.
Adûnaic! If you’d like to learn more.
Legolas…we’ve heard of him.
Ms. Marvel was indeed a pretty good show.
Our episode on friendship.
Legolas shoots down the Winged Messenger.
The Ask Middle-earth Tumblr on sea-longing.
Orlando Bloom’s Legolas in The Return of the King. Just that.
That ‘stars are veiled’ moment. The sidelong look happens a bit later.
Yes, yes indeed, they are taking the hobbits to Isengard.
Shout out to DayQuil!
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Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Ned’s choice of topic: Tolkien’s essay “A Secret Vice.” Originally prepared as a lecture called “A Hobby for the Home” for an Oxford literary society in 1931, “A Secret Vice” is now regarded as one of the two most key essays, along with “On Fairy-Stories” of Tolkien essentially reflecting on his own work and what drove his creative interests. His training and work as a philologist grew out not only an interest in languages in general but in creating them for his own interest, and it’s long been clear that his early development of the Elvish languages in particular are what led him to start creating poetry and prose set in his legendarium to begin with. At the same time, the time and place of the essay’s creation demonstrates that a lot of his stance involves assumptions that wider linguistic scholarship has since moved on from. What was the popular impact of constructed languages such as Esperanto on Tolkien’s own belief in how such languages could thrive? Why is it important to distinguish between Tolkien’s favored belief in sound symbolism and the separate school of structural linguistics? What were some of the evident biases that Tolkien’s own favored languages – not to mention his native language, English – created in terms of what he wanted to create himself with his own original tongues? And just what was it with his way of dancing around actually talking about what interested him in the subject instead of simply flat out stating it?
SHOW NOTES.
Jared’s doodle. To see the stars is to name them.
We do not recommend getting into an accident with a forklift, but if you do, watch MST3K, listen to It’s Just a Show, and sing along with a song.
The Tolkien Society’s report on the new forthcoming Tolkien book The Fall of Númenor. (And as we say later, check out our Aldarion and Erendis episode.)
Amazon promos ahoy.
There were a variety of Empire magazine stories; this was the main one online, plus Lenny Henry on the Harfoots. (And Celebrimbor…the newscaster?)
Leith McPherson on being the dialect coach for The Rings of Power.
Jamie Wilson and Lindsey Weber on the Orcs in The Rings of Power. (Relatedly, our episode on orcs.)
Deadline’s announcement of the major voice casting for The War of the Rohirrim.
Philippa Boyens interviewed by TheOneRing.net on The War of the Rohirrim, including discussion of the new character Héra.
The critical edition of A Secret Vice, as listed on Dimitra Fini’s site. (Plus the informal launch, as she describes it, of the book at Oxford.)
Oriana’s 2019 Vox piece on conlangs.
You might have heard of GoldenEye. But are you invincible?
Constructed languages have been a thing then and now. Esperanto! Volapük! Novial!
Gertrude Stein and James Joyce: Modernists par excellence.
Sound symbolism and structural linguistics.
Finnish is very much its own thing.
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Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Jared’s choice of topic: the Red Book of Westmarch. It’s hinted at at the end of The Lord of the Rings when Sam reviews some title pages – a device carried over into the Jackson movie adaptations – but the appendices and part of the introduction both make it clear that the published story is meant to be a translation from Bilbo and Frodo’s own handwritten memoirs, covering The Hobbit as well, and thus Tolkien in this conceit is not the author of the text but its translator and editor instead. It fits within Tolkien’s own life as an academic and an interpreter and presenter of texts, as well as being part of a lengthy tradition in numerous societies over millennia where writers employ the creative tool of claiming their work as that of others, be they found documents, unearthed manuscripts, discovered letters and so forth. It’s something that many readers may simply find an intriguing amusement when it comes to The Lord of the Rings, but it does introduce further questions about perspective and authorial intent worth the consideration. How does framing the story through the lens of certain participants only shape what we might consider a ‘true’ history of the events of the book, and what would it mean if other perspectives were shared instead? What other times had Tolkien used this framing in his own creative work as a way to present a tale in a different context, and with what intent? Is Tolkien’s work in fact the first postmodern fantasy as such, a self-conscious creation that plays with tropes even as it also establishes new ones in turn? And just what are all those memes about how the main protagonist of the story is really a Maura Labingi about?
SHOW NOTES.
Jared’s doodle. Who wouldn’t want the real Red Book of Westmarch?
Aw, crypto turned out to be a hype scam market, who knew. (Everyone with sense, of course.) As for Lonely Ape, puh-leez.
Do check out Oriana’s other podcasts! American Grift and Mission: Recall, both great.
The bit from John Howe in Empire – we’ll talk about the issue covers that were released next episode.
Reports from the Amazon promo event for the hyperfans are…to be expected. (Again, the ones with the cautious optimism are the ones we appreciate more over the raves.)
The LOTR on Prime tweet confirming Tyroe Muhafidin as ‘Theo’ aka the one with the broken blade.
IGN speaks with the scientist who named the most distant star yet found in the universe Earendel.
Alan Lee in LitHub on illustrating The Lord of the Rings.
Den of Geek tries once and for all to untangle the whole rights question. It’s still unclear.
Tolkien Gateway’s entry on the Red Book of Westmarch.
We don’t quite use the term in the episode but the concept of the frame story, as discussed on Wikipedia, is a broader category that can include the kind of stories where authors are presenting works they’ve supposedly found and presented rather than simply written. A key example as Jared discusses would be the epistolary novel, and don’t forget the unreliable narrator.
Maura Labingi! It is Frodo’s real name.
Postmodernism in fantasy is a thing and has been discussed in various ways – back in 2010 Brandon Sanderson and Jeff VanderMeer had an exchange on the matter.
Thomas Pynchon’s written some good work. Or found it, if you will.
The Red Book of Hergest, Tolkien’s real-world model.
Our Farmer Giles of Ham episode. And our Nature of Middle-earth one.
How well known was David Foster Wallace for footnotes? This should give you an idea.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell definitely has a LOT of footnotes.
The Message Bible, as not recommended by Jared.
The Book of Mazarbul in Tolkien Gateway, including Tolkien’s own created pages from it, planned as a possible inclusion for the initial printing of The Lord of the Rings.
Laurence Sterne, literary badass.
John Darnielle interviewed by the New Yorker. (We highly recommend Devil House.)
The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, and its 1965 Polish adaptation for film, The Saragossa Manuscript.
We forgot to give Nate Thatcher a mention in the episode but he was the listener who pointed us to the lecture Jared mentions watching, Michael Drout’s “Lord of the Rings: How To Read J. R. R. Tolkien.”
The Cats of Queen Berúthiel! And that’s about all we know.
Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson – worth a read!
The 1987 US one-volume edition of The Lord of the Rings designed to look like a Red Book of Westmarch, part of a series of such editions.
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Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Ned’s choice of topic: Ralph Bakshi’s animated film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. A heavily promoted effort at the time due it being both the first ever version of Tolkien’s work done for film as well as due to Bakshi’s notable reputation as the most well known American animator since Walt Disney and Chuck Jones, the 1978 movie was a reasonable success but not a smash, and the fact that it was only the first half of a planned two-film sequence – but not marketed as such – led to confused audiences and an upset Tolkien reader fanbase. At once a surprisingly faithful if still heavily redacted version of the book and a very unusual mix of animation styles that grew out of Bakshi’s earlier movies, the film has retained a cult following since, and the resulting contrast with the later Peter Jackson movies has proven illuminating to both. What makes the sequences like the Flight to the Ford both compelling viewing and something of a slog? Which voice actors bring a notable depth to their characters along with the script and animation efforts – and which ones end up undercutting their characters completely? How does the shifting between particular animation styles, even within scenes, both act as intriguing experiment aiming to solve particular problems and yet also a confusing mess? And what is up with that incredibly generic musical score?
SHOW NOTES.
Jared’s doodle. Jackson riffed on this scene for a reason.
And Jared did bake a cake for Megaphonic’s Kitchen Party! Check it out.
The new Tolkien Estate page, worth a poke around.
The Tolkien Society’s announcement of Priscilla Tolkien’s passing.
Ralph Bakshi’s site. The specific Lord of the Rings page has a variety of stills, behind the scenes shots and preparatory work from the production.
The IMDB entry for Bakshi’s production. (The film is available for streaming from a variety of services.)
The AFI catalog entry for the production.
Ralph Bakshi: Forging Through the Darkness, a short documentary.
The Tolkien Experience, Episode 32: Ralph Bakshi, an extended interview by Luke Shelton.
An Exhaustive History of Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings by Dan Olson of Folding Ideas. (And as we spoke about in the episode, Olson’s two hour plus video on NFTs and crypto is an absolute must-watch.)
Three Rings For Hollywood, Janet Brennan Croft’s short comparative study of various film script adaptations of The Lord of the Rings up through Bakshi’s adaptation.
‘Will the Video Version of Tolkien Be Hobbit Forming?,’ John Culhane’s late 1977 New York Times story on the Rankin-Bass Hobbit which also includes separate quotes from Bakshi on his then-forthcoming adaptation.
Vincent Canby’s review of the film for the New York Times.
Roger Ebert’s review of the film for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Mythlore 19, Winter 1979, which contains two reviews of the film from Steven Walker and Dale Ziegler.
Information on Amon Hen 39, published in June 1979, which contains four separate reviews of the film, including the Mythlore review from Steven Walker.
‘Hobbits On Film,’ Glenn Gaslin’s 2001 retrospective consideration of the Bakshi production for Slate, written in the run-up to the release of Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring.
Bakshi’s 2015 interview with TheOneRing.net.
Austen Gilkenson’s extended 2018 study of the film for Tor, part one and part two.
Ned’s own 2018 piece about the film and other Tolkien adaptations of the time, published in the Quietus.
A TV ad for the film.
The Electric Company Magazine! And like Ned said, there was a tie-in issue.
As for the board game, it had Shelob at least.
You know the Spider-man meme. As for Bakshi on his Spider-man experience, he’s not thrilled…
That Legolas reaction. It’s a choice.
The Flight to the Ford scene – well worth watching even if you don’t know the full film, it sums up both the strengths and oddities of the adaptation.
An example of the intriguing angular design of the Shire woods in the Shadow of the Past Goes Outdoors sequence. (Compare to Eyvind Earle’s work on Disney’s Sleeping Beauty.)
The full Lothlorien sequence, with Galadriel’s fashion sense, the strange elf choir, the training montage as such and the Mirror of Galadriel highs and lows.
Two notable sequences showing how Bakshi’s Aragorn is as Jared puts it ‘his’ Aragorn (costume aside): his meeting with the Hobbits in the Prancing Pony parlor and Boromir’s death, especially with the wordless reaction from Aragorn near the end of the clip.
The Council of Elrond sequence definitely is a moment. Not a GOOD moment…
The Shadow of the Past sequence, with the quick cuts of the seasons, Gandalf being crabby and stagy, Frodo’s agape reaction to the Ring being tossed into the fire and so forth.
Gandalf meets Saruman – or Aruman, depending on the line. Orthanc’s design and Saruman’s MANY COLORS! included.
The hobbits first encounter the Nazgul, and it’s a truly creepy moment.
Ah yes the Balrog. We agree with the title of this clip.
Aside from the opening credits, the prologue sequence is really impressive as we note. But yeah that one Elves bit.
Our episode on Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring. And our orc episode.
Gollum being Gollum. And almost being redeemed towards the end of this clip. (Per Jared’s comparison, here’s Quentin Crisp on Letterman.)
Grima petting Theoden. Can’t put it any plainer.
Sam, Sam, Sam. Where to begin? So many examples. And then there’s that ‘moment.’
Aragorn takes a tumble.
Helm’s Deep here is not exactly Jackson’s.
That’s one big skull in Moria. Meantime, is Rivendell a lamasery?
If you REALLY want to hear the soundtrack… But yes, just listen to Rosenman’s Star Trek IV soundtrack instead as Jared suggests.
The heroic ending! Sorta. Maybe. If you squint.
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Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Jared’s choice of topic: the Valar. For a legendarium that is clearly monotheistic at base, down to the opening lines of The Silmarillion essentially being a variant of the Book of Genesis, Tolkien’s creation – and account of creation – has a class of similarly immortal beings present from the beginning as well, and while you can call them a version of angels, in many ways they are absolutely not like such beings as theologically understood. Indeed, for all that they are termed as ‘the Powers’ in Arda, much of what we know about them seems to derive from the limits of their power or their inability to comprehend deeper truths – a question that Tolkien himself felt needed explaining at a certain point. What does it say that Varda aka Elbereth is regarded by the Elves with more reverence and love than her partner Manwë? Why is it that beings with an essentially plastic form of existence, not bound by physical form, take on certain specific forms and identities even before the Children of Ilúvatar first awoke in Middle-earth? Is there something to be said for the fact that so much of what the Valar do over time turns more and more into outsourcing of a kind? What’s with the moment of bemusing domestic snark between Aüle and Yavanna like it’s a sitcom? And – separate from all this, but it took up half the episode – what do the three of us think about all the news and trailer and more about a certain Amazon series that finally dropped? Oh, we have thoughts…
SHOW NOTES.
Jared’s doodle. Nienna really does have a lot to feel sad about the more time goes on…
Thanks, Princess Quill!
The teaser trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, if for some odd reason you haven’t seen it yet. (The initial Jackson Fellowship of the Ring teaser trailer if you’d like to compare, plus the overall three movie teaser.)
The various character posters are kinda scattered over the LOTR on Prime Twitter account.
Not one, not two, but three Vanity Fair stories! They say…a lot. And yet.
The Origo Gentis Langobardorum, with the women-with-beards story.
The new news about the anime The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim film.
TheOneRing.net’s case for the mûmakil hanging around in Rohan.
The initial Variety report and follow-up regarding the rumored plan of Saul Zaentz’s company selling their adaptation rights.
Our episode on the Rankin-Bass Hobbit, if you missed it last year!
The Valar, in sum.
Our The Nature of Middle-earth episode. The book really does give us a lot more to think about the Valar. (Separately, regarding Manwë’s emissaries, our eagles episode.)
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Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Oriana’s choice of topic: the Shire. The homeland of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins and many of Middle-earth’s hobbits in general, and the entry point for nearly every reader to Tolkien’s imaginative geographical and creative landscape, the Shire often seems like an idyllic and nostalgic English utopia, an untroubled land where the beer is good, the family trees are all spelled out carefully and there’s not much to worry about aside from the occasional wolf or Orc raid over the centuries. Yet Tolkien himself said he didn’t view it as a utopia, and both as sociopolitical organization and as physical location, the Shire has more going on with it than might be seen at first glance, even by some of its most well-known inhabitants. What is the sense of history among the hobbits of the Shire, and how do they regard their land and their sense of who they are? What does the Shire being a seemingly safe place truly reveal when the Scouring is necessary at the end of the grand story? Who are the authorities, if there are any, that keep this seeming anarchist fantasy going as a functioning concern, and does that cover monetary issues as well? And is that the only linguistically blessed fox in the Shire, much less Middle-earth as a whole?
SHOW NOTES.
Jared’s doodle. A party of special magnificence indeed.
Amazon’s title announcement video – FINALLY. (And yes we know there’s more but that happened after recording this episode – next time!) TheOneRing.net got some behind the scenes shots from the creation of said video, pretty cool.
The formal Haggerty Museum of Art announcement about the “J. R. R. Tolkien: The Art of the Manuscript” exhibition in Milwaukee, running from August 19 to December 12.
Douglas Trumbull is rather well known in the field.
The Shire: a basic overview.
Some of our relevant past episodes on the Scouring of the Shire and Sam Gamgee.
Karen Wynn Fonstad’s Shire map, as with all her work, is very great. (Pick up The Atlas of Middle-earth if you haven’t.)
What is utopia? Everywhere and nowhere…well, nowhere, really.
Golf is canon!
English gardens are indeed a thing.
Asterix rules, the end. The specific volume in question – and here’s the lawn joke.
Merry England, or rather an overview of the stereotype.
A recent article on Tolkien and satire in the context of the Shire.
Air traffic controller memes!
The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien by John Garth – well worth picking up. Here’s the Birmingham map mentioned – Sarehole is location 1.
Britton Hill – Florida’s highest point. (In contrast Ned climbed Mount Marcy once.)
Who doesn’t love a Shire fox?
Watership Down and The Plague Dogs, both very good reads and often harrowing movies.
The feast with Gildor at Woodhall as depicted by Alan Lee.
Lovely Crickhollow.
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Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Ned’s choice of topic: Tree and Leaf. Published in 1964 in the UK and the following year in the US, Tree and Leaf was Tolkien’s first major post-Lord of the Rings publication but was itself a republishing of two earlier non-Middle-earth pieces: “On Fairy-Stories,” an essay on the subject revised from a 1939 lecture and 1947 anthology, and “Leaf by Niggle,” a short, explicitly religious story for a Catholic publication in 1945. Anthologized and separately published since, they’re at once totally separate but sometimes strangely complementary pieces that serve to illuminate Tolkien’s interests beyond Middle-earth itself, while at the same time often casting reflections back on it or suggesting how dominant his legendarium was to his creative life and beyond. What makes “On Fairy-Stories” key as a way to consider Tolkien’s overall creative aesthetic, even as it contains some of his most dense, allusive prose? How does his framing of fairy-stories as not simply being for children itself lead to other interesting conclusions about not only children but other cultures? What makes “Leaf By Niggle” the closest Tolkien ever got to C.S. Lewis’s fictional approach, but where also does it differ? And how telling is it that once again Tolkien features an idealized friendship – perhaps more – between men in his fiction?
SHOW NOTES.
Jared’s doodle. (Kinda makes Ned think of the cover of Led Zeppelin IV but not really.)
Andy Serkis’s readings of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are quite good indeed.
The Daily Mail photo story – those are some lovely shots and the story’s cool too.
The Tolkien Society photo announcement…and the fallout.
Rosamund Pike has her way with a pineapple.
Absolutely check out Costa Botes’s behind the scenes documentaries about Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. Here’s Botes’s own memories about it. As for the films, as noted they’re on the original Blu-ray set and elsewhere but then again it’s weird where they might all turn up.
Tree and Leaf, the most current version of same. As noted, the two original pieces are also now available separately with more material: On Fairy-Stories and Leaf By Niggle.
Andrew Lang’s impact on the general field of fairy tales and more remains pretty big. (The Andrew Lang Memorial Lectures continue to the present day.)
Max Müller’s had his own general scholarly impact too.
Our Smith of Wootton Major episode.
The ancient Egyptian Tale of Two Brothers.
We didn’t mention it in our discussion but Tolkien’s referencing of the sophistication of supposedly ‘primitive’ people has a resonance with the character of Ghân-buri-Ghân – check out our episode on him.
If you want more on Carl Jung and how Joseph Campbell built off him, read on.
The Juniper Tree, as told by the Grimms.
M. R. James – so great. A Thin Ghost presents all the stories plus info on the many adaptations over time, including Mark Gatiss’s recent adaptations for the BBC.
R. L. Stine – also so great. The Snowman is there for the reading.
Hayao Miyazaki – great great GREAT again. A recent NYT profile, and yes watch Ponyo. And everything else.
The Dublin Review, the publication where “Leaf By Niggle” first appeared.
So you’re wondering about Purgatory in a Catholic context…
CCD aka Confraternity of Christian Doctrine.
Phantom Thread! Great film. Very not-Tolkien.
The Great Divorce, That Hideous Strength, Till We Have Faces, there’s plenty of C. S. Lewis out there.
Niggle and Parish, a fraught friendship but with more to it there. Here’s our episode on friendship.
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Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about our collective choice of topic: Peter Jackson’s version of The Fellowship of the Ring. Released twenty years ago this month, there’s simply no question regarding the sheer force of the impact that the first part of the massive effort to create a three-film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings had. It squarely placed the story directly into more mainstream popular culture, transformed the nature of the longtime fandom and appreciation around the books, and became the anchor point of any number of adaptations and interpretations since. But besides fond memories of a suddenly wild and exuberant time, looking back with a more critical but still appreciative eye is useful in acknowledging flaws and curious decisions as well as reflecting once more on just how striking a film it is. What does a wider consideration of that time in history tell us, not least of which was the shattering impact of 9/11 three months prior, as well as being caught in a continuing new wave of sf, comic book and fantasy adaptations? Are all the various casting choices that the team made for the film successful, as well as the adaptational choices themselves? How does the film succeed as a film straight up, and what are its best moments? And is Legolas really a mink stole? (Admit it, you’d love to see it.)
[Thanks to Michael Collins from This Is Your Mixtape for editing this episode!]
SHOW NOTES.
Jared’s doodle. This was exactly what he looked like, no question.
Will Poulter, via a larger GQ feature, on why he couldn’t make the Amazon series. No biggie, it happens.
The Daily Mail (yeah, we know) story on Christopher Tolkien’s will. We hope everyone was happy and there were no Succession-style shenanigans.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. You KNOW. Stream it if you don’t. (But NOT the remastered version, as we say later in the episode.)
Yes, true, a certain first Harry Potter film a month beforehand did cast a shadow…
That first web-only featurette from 2000. LOTS of questions resulted among the fans. Then there was the first overall trailer…
LordOfTheRings.net isn’t around any more but the Internet Archive turns up things. (TheOneRing.net is eternal.) As for Ain’t It Cool News…never mind.
Elijah Wood really was inspired casting, and darn if he didn’t deliver, eyes and all.
Ian McKellen, goddamn. Enjoy some diaries.
And indeed, Bob Shaye. Thanks for that call.
Ah, AOL Time Warner.
The ‘pity and mercy’ scene as filmed. So, so necessary.
Andrew Lesnie was truly a craftsman and artist, and is much missed.
Polygon’s yearlong series on Jackson’s original trilogy is well worth a read, and the horror movie essay is one of the best.
The ‘Boromir trains the hobbits’ scene is a delight. (And yes, Ned did a little spoonerism with the names there…)
If you want Arwen’s hero moment, come and click here.
Cate Blanchett fully arrives in the film and we’re all in awe.
The mirror of Galadriel scene, what a moment. “I know what it was you saw…”
Saruman summoning the storm is a great film moment, no lie.
For more thoughts on Gimli, our dwarves episode.
Howard Shore, indeed. And not just him: the piece of music Jared refers to with his memories of cranking the movie up so he could hear it better is “The Passing of the Elves,” a quite lovely number recorded for the film by the Plan 9 sound/music team in NZ.
The Aragorn temptation scene. (And the Uruk-hai, which, again, consider our orc episode.)
Frodo leaves the Fellowship – it all builds up to this, and it lands.
Mission: Recall! Give it an ear!
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Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Oriana’s choice of topic: Sam Gamgee. For all that Frodo Baggins is the Ringbearer and makes something close to the ultimate sacrifice for the fate of the world—at least right until the very last moment—it’s Sam, son of Bag-End’s gardener who seems to only join Frodo at first to help take care of a new house in Buckland, who ends up being the key figure in The Lord of the Rings that helps Frodo on the quest and who remains most grounded in the whirlwind of fates surrounding his steps, down to having the book’s last words. Thanks to a variety of notable performance interpretations over the years, especially and most indelibly Sean Astin’s marvelous turn in the Peter Jackson films, he might just be the most warmly regarded character as well even beyond the book readers. What is the full meaning and understanding behind Tolkien’s well-known comment about Sam being a tribute to his batmen during World War I, and who were the batmen and private soldiers in general in that conflict? Does the understandable characterization of Sam as ‘just’ a simple hobbit belie a notable depth evident even from the start of the book, and how did Tolkien conceive of Sam as distinct from hobbits in general? What fully went into Astin’s portrayal of Sam in particular for the films, and how much of it was also something provided by other key creative forces? And what was the American radio production team from 1979 exactly thinking when they cast Lucille Bliss as Sam?
SHOW NOTES.
Jared’s doodle. What can you see on the horizon, indeed.
Wanna be like Oriana? Here’s how to apply to the Warner Bros.’ Writers Workshop.
A summary of the Lenny Henry radio interview with some key quotes.
Willow does have its fanbase, and this planned new series could be good.
The Wheel of Time is coming and we await with interest...
Dune, yes. We quite like it. (Tolkien himself did not.)
Letter 246 to Eileen Elgar, which has a lot of background information on Sam and other characters and their motivations and personalities.
You can find plenty of Sean Astin clips of him portraying Sam out there. As for the others? Some samples: Roddy McDowall for Rankin-Bass, Bill Nighy for the BBC, Michael Scholes for Ralph Bakshi and Lucille Bliss for NPR/The Mind’s Eye (skip ahead to 7:15 in that one).
The famed Tolkien/Sam Gamgee correspondence. Who knew, indeed?
Shakespeare’s rustic characters were something stock, and indeed were often termed ‘clowns’ rather than fools or jesters. Here’s a little more about that.
The Marx quote was from the Communist Manifesto, and indeed, ‘the idiocy of rural life.’
Our episode on friendship.
More on that hand-holding moment.
John Garth’s Tolkien and the Great War is well worth a read.
Batmen are a thing, and nothing to do with DC.
Sean Astin’s autobiography There And Back Again is a very key read for anyone interested in the Jackson films.
There’s RP, there’s Cockney and there’s a whole LOT else.
You know the potatoes meme. And you know the Sean Bean meme too.
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The Istari, a.k.a the Five Wizards, a.k.a Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast, and those other two.
The Father Christmas Letters: Literally a hundred years ago this month, Tolkien began what would be a running series of letters into the early 1940s where he wrote to his children in the guise of Father Christmas at the end of each year.
Éowyn, likely the most prominent character in The Lord of the Rings who’s a woman (certainly the most prominent human woman).
This month: Tolkien’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
This month’s topic: fanwork!
A look at Tolkien’s short mock-medieval novella, Farmer Giles of Ham.
Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Jared’s choice of topic: magic. It may seem strange given that one of Tolkien’s most central and indelible characters, Gandalf, is a wizard, but magic plays a more understated role in Middle-earth than it might seem on first blush. Starting with the famed exchange between Galadriel, Frodo and Sam about whether her mirror is magic—a question Galadriel seems not to understand—we consider magic’s role as an at once strong and yet sublimated element throughout Tolkien’s Middle-earth work. What does it mean that Gandalf often seems reluctant to do anything magical to start with? Is magic something intrinsic to certain characters, things and places, or is it a matter of craft and study? How does Tolkien’s use of magic differ or resemble magic as portrayed in other fantasy authors’ work? Does the off-hand mention of Queen Berúthiel in The Lord of the Rings contain a larger clue to how widespread magic itself might be? And which of us confessed to trying to use Gandalf’s fire-creating spell on the slopes of Caradhras to set sticks on fire in their backyard when they were 12 years old?
Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Oriana’s choice of topic: Tom Bombadil.
Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Ned’s choice of topic: Ghân-buri-Ghân. Briefly featuring in The Return of the King as a leader of ‘Wild Men’ who offers to help the Rohirrim on their ride to Minas Tirith, Ghân-buri-Ghân is on the surface seemingly little more than a caricature on several levels: a stoic ‘tribesman,’ perhaps even a noble savage with all that implies. But in both his sharp, sometimes very darkly sardonic responses to the Rohirrim and in the further backstory that Tolkien then created for Ghân-buri-Ghân’s culture as a whole, Tolkien explores some very deep waters indeed. What might be the connections between Tolkien’s depiction of small powers in the shadow of an empire and the realities of the British Empire he grew up in? What do Tolkien’s writings on the Drúedain show in terms of how he viewed them in the grand scheme of Middle-earth’s design? And on a final note, what does the little known story “Tal-Elmar” show in terms of imperialism, colonialism and conquest during the era of Númenorean dominance?
Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Jared’s choice of topic: friendship! Friendship in Middle-earth is a key part of many different characters’ lives, and how it both plays out in stories and simply exists in its own right is well worth considering, from the primary friendship of Frodo and Sam to many other examples throughout the legendarium. How does Tolkien’s own socialization in Edwardian England shape both the friendships of his own life and his portrayals of it in his writing? Is his near-exclusive focus on male-to-male friendships potentially alienating? What are some counterexamples of the strong friendships he portrays—friendships that end in disaster, or false friendships that never were? Perhaps above all else, what makes Tolkien so open to portraying deep visible emotions in his male friendships, and how does that contrast with how male friendships are often shown in modern American creative arts?
Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Oriana’s choice of topic: Galadriel. Even if she’s not actually Cate Blanchett in platform heels, she’s tall and blonde, and she seems to have a total drip of a husband in Celeborn. If he’s wise, she’s definitely wiser, and once introduced into the legendarium, Tolkien himself didn’t seem to know exactly what to do with her backstory, quite literally changing details just a month before he died. Among our discussions: what did Galadriel and Celeborn do all that time when they were hanging out at the Elf havens in Gondor? Is Galadriel in fact really talking to Sauron in the famed sequence viewing her mirror? Why didn’t Galadriel return to Valinor sooner when it seemed she had numerous opportunities to do so? And of course: what is it about her hair? Bonus appearance by a thunderstorm!
Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Ned’s choice of topic: “Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner’s Wife.” An incomplete effort written in the 1960s and edited by Christopher Tolkien for 1980’s Unfinished Tales, “Aldarion and Erendis” is possibly the most unique story in Tolkien’s Middle-earth legendarium: a serious and ultimately sad domestic drama about a failed marriage, mixed with the origins of world-changing events.
Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Jared’s choice of topic: Melian. The wife of one of the three original Elves in the legendarium, she herself is not an elf but a Maia, one of the divine figures in that universe. So what exactly does that make her? An emo kid with a fondness for dark forests? An alien figure looking around at all the Children of Iluvatar that surround her? Or does she really just like nightingales a lot?
Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Oriana's choice of topic: death. Not all of it, but a fair amount. Where exactly does free will come in for those in Middle-earth? What lies behind Tolkien's conception of death as ‘the Gift of Men’ which the Elves lack? What happens in the philosophical dialogue between Finrod and Andreth on death and fate? And just what is Tuor’s deal anyway? Plus, a mention of when a dragon and a farmer thought death was just a bother. Also we had some thoughts about the Tolkien biopic. It...could have been more memorable.
Jared, Oriana and Ned kick things off with an introduction to the podcast, recent developments in Tolkien news and adaptations, and how they all learned about Tolkien to start with.
Coming soon: A podcast about all things J.R.R. Tolkien: his work, his inspirations and impact, creative interpretations in other media, languages, lore, ripoffs, parodies, anything we think is interesting! Hosted by Ned Raggett, Oriana Schwindt, and Jared Pechacek.
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By-The-Bywater
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May 2, 2022
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The Rings of Power Broker.
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Apr 4, 2022
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They’re Just Some Solarized Dudes.
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Mar 1, 2022
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Divine Background Radiation.
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Jan 18, 2022
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I Ain’t No Big City Philologist!
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Dec 17, 2021
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Perry and Mippin.
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Nov 1, 2021
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He's Being Ganged Up On By These Mean Little Jerks!
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Oct 4, 2021
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There Was So Much Math!
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Sep 7, 2021
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The Family That Fights Together Stays Alive Together.
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Jul 30, 2021
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Always Around to Do the Bare Minimum.
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Jul 2, 2021
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Is He Hot Or Is He Tall?
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Jun 1, 2021
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The Brita of Middle-earth.
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May 4, 2021
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The Work of Repair After the Storm.
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Apr 5, 2021
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You Can Have Well-Written Music in a Kid’s Movie!
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Mar 15, 2021
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Radagast is Scrappy-Doo!
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Feb 8, 2021
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Hella Problematic in So Many Ways.
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Jan 12, 2021
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Not Just Because I Like Cooking and Eating!
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Dec 4, 2020
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The Princess Bride But with Santa.
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Nov 2, 2020
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She Does It All!
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Oct 12, 2020
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A More Robust Line of Succession.
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Sep 11, 2020
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Speak Softly and Be a Big Stick.
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Aug 10, 2020
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A Bad Thing That Bad People Do.
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Jul 9, 2020
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Turn Off the Dark Lord.
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Jun 12, 2020
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A Weird Faerie Sex Game.
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May 7, 2020
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But...Faramir! He’s such a good boy!
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Apr 10, 2020
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That’s Why You Have Scrolls!
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Mar 16, 2020
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Things You Can Snag Your Mind On.
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Feb 11, 2020
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I Found that Personally Upsetting.
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Jan 20, 2020
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The Wheeler-Dealer Dragon!
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Dec 16, 2019
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This Flash, This Sublime Thing.
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Nov 13, 2019
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Who Let This Happen?
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Oct 22, 2019
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Crypto-magical in Their Own Way.
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Sep 24, 2019
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“Strider! What’s Up, Man?”
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Aug 26, 2019
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This Mysterious Færie Queen.
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Jul 30, 2019
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A Series of Small Wounds.
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Jun 27, 2019
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Manwë, You’re Not My Dad!
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May 24, 2019
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Tuor Is JUST a Guy!
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Apr 29, 2019
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It’s Finally Out in the World!
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