The Atheist in Middle Earth; Podcasts from The Golden Perch: Recent Episodes
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Deep dives and arcane meanderings in and around the most exciting scenes of Lord of the Rings. Only with an Atheist's eye!
The only scene from Book One to make into the Golden Perch!
Finally we get Strider under our microscope in all his past, present and future greatness. And consider the deep philosophical theme he carries, that of Death. The Nazgul are ramblingly considered in all their terror in a great meander! And the Blades of Morgul and Barrow.
But more than this, the great pathos of the story is now revealed as a Christian lesson that the Atheist in Middle Earth examines and flips. God does not make us deathless, but death makes us gods! And still more philosophy.
The picture for this episode is of course Glastonbury Tor, as good a ringer for Amon Sul as you can get, close to the Mendip Hills close to the West Midlands and Cheddar Gorge, J R R and EdithTolkien's Honey Moon location!
Finally we see Gandalf the Grey uncloaked! In this electrifying scene Gandalf is rampant but is he truly victorious? There are many powers in Middle Earth and the Dark Lord's arm has grown long. And what of The White Wizard, what part does Saruman's treachery play in this scene?
In this Dive, magic its self is under the Atheist's microscope, as well as the enigmatic 'Words of Command'. Just how important are 'words' in Middle Earth and what do they say about good and evil? In this roaming visit to Middle Earth, panning Tolkien's earliest works to his last thoughts, myth-makers themselves are considered, as gate-openers for a spiritual world.
Let us mount up on our Eagles of the Imagination and fly a tad south of east, where on the knees of the mountains of Moria there stands a small hill with a broken ring of stones at the top and within, gnarly, wizened trees who have but one bloom and blossom left...
It is perilous to bring evil into Lothlorien. Frodo did not realise just how perilous!
Galadriel is revealed in all her awesomeness and a blasphemous history that best fits the conflicting sources. So powerful, but power takes many shapes and Tolkien offers a clever lesson that the power within is greater than the power without. Galadriel is magnetising.
Lines of smouldering fire, then flickering fencing blades! Such are the stares described between these 'two terrible old men' as they vie for primacy and knowledge of the other's thoughts, as they burn with suspicion!
But why? Where does the suspicion between these two derive?
On this deep dive the rivalry between these two powerful totems of faith and reason is analysed. The source of it considered and the terrible outcome when mere men mess where angels fear to tread! Gandalf fears treachery, that Sauron working via palantir is wreaking the very apex of the defence of the West. Denethor fears treachery, that Gandalf brings with him one who will claim the Kingship and usurp him. Yet both fully oppose Sauron, but would do so in different ways.
Gandalf is truely tested in these scenes, to defend his mad-cap plan of sending a 'witless halfling' to Mordor! And it takes a great man to so test Gandalf! But Denethor considers only Gondor, first and foremost. But Gandalf too is a steward - did you not know!
And further, these scenes probe even deeper questions, beyond Tolkien's Catholic framework. The atheist in Middle Earth, goes on to consider ideologies at war. And how Denethor does not just defy Sauron, even Gandalf, to determine the time and manner of his own death, but even Tolkien himself! As he will not give in to unreasonable faith. A great man indeed!
Full and compelling evidence, for the identity of The Witchking of Angmar!
His magic, his speech and his death, plus a tiny little gem of just seven words in an asterisk to Letter 243 of 1963. A new bright jewel that shines light on this, the identity of surely the most terrifying and cogent wraith of all.
And indeed, coeval to Gandalf, none other than Romestamo - The East Helper, the friend of Morinehtar, Maia of the Vala Orome, Wizards, sent by Manwe mid-way through the Second Age, clad in 'Sea-blue'.
From trustworthy companion and member of the Heren Istarion, The Order of Wizards, The Most Excellent in Middle Earth, to the fell spear in Sauron's hand, The Black Captain. The Witchking's story starts in hope and success for The West, but treachery and deceit, ever the enemies of the wise, perverts this great spirit to renounce his former values. In fourteen points his divine and diabolical nature is considered, until, the silver bullet of a mere seven words of an asterisk puts paid to the ambiguity surrounding his identity and he is, electrifyingly revealed!
PS This dive also has an interesting post script itself on the matter of Narya and Ring Lore!
The crux and crucible of J R R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, at the very Cracks of Doom in the Chamber of Fire, Frodo is still as stone... Here we consider what happens when the will of a small hobbit from The Shire contests with the will of Sauron, Dark Lord of Mordor and would-be God-king of All Middle Earth.
Using the classic gum-shoe analysis of Who, What, Where, and When. Plus the Why and How of it, we ride our eagles to the very door Sauron himself made, and plunge in to the darkness.
Pitted against an out of scale, vast demonic spirit, what can a mortal hope to achieve? Frodo came to destroy's Sauron's own Master Ring, the epitome of evil and all Sauron needs to cover the world in a new darkness and assure him of victory over all. Yet Frodo is not alone. Sam is our witness to the final contest for the Ring, where finally Gollum's fate is revealed. Sinner or Saint? This double length dive covers the scene in intense detail. From the old chestnut of the absence of a guard at the door to Sammath Naur, to the silence of Frodo as finally Ring Wielder and would be Master of The One Ring to rule them all.
The ring is destroyed, yes, but we the reader gain something even more precious. This dive discovers just how much more. And why this gold deserves to shared not hoarded. We scrape the butter of Catholicism off the bread of Humanism to discover the intense and profound moral message, under-pinning Tolkien's master-piece.
Pull up a chair, the fire is bright and the tankard full, for this extra long session at The Golden Perch! Where you are most welcome.
A more rustic and rambling offering to the patrons of the perch here! The breaking of Saruman's staff is the end game for the White Wizard, but what of the beginning and middle?
And how did it come to this?
Drawing from 'Letters' and 'Unfinished Tales', Saruman is examined in a non-canonical light, the light of reason. Swiftly we are drawn down on the deepest of dives to the great spiritual forces at the base of Tolkien's creation and his mighty avatars of Faith and Reason - Gandalf and Saruman and their inevitable clash.
But the first shout out for brilliance goes out to Orthanc, Isengard and the Nan Curunir, it is a short winter's afternoon as the sun sinks below the high rim of that deep cleft and the great clash of ideologies is brought to an end game...
Hear the story behind the story of the departure of this ghoul of Sauron's design and manufacture.
In Tolkien's cataclysmic battle between good and evil, The Battle of the Pelennor Fields, the chief tangible foe of the West, the macabre and terrifying Witchking of Angmar, is over-come by perhaps the two strangest persons on the field other than the Witchking himself. Their three stories converge to perhaps one of the most exciting parts of the whole story. But how did each character get there, so armed, psychologically and actually. And who was the Witchking, an ancient and powerful sorcerer of old? And whose was the spell of the famous Barrow-blade that broke the Witchking's spell?
The Atheist in Middle Earth looks deeply at the drivers of all three and then slips below and beyond Tolkien's own Catholicism to find something deeper, than even he was aware of!
The deepest dive you can do on this iconic scene. Where magic swirls and eddies about the slender bridge, upon which two champions, titans of their of opposing ideologies, good and evil, battle it out.
But magic is another word for the manipulation of the spiritual dimension and so we journey right to the roots of J R R Tolkien's imaginary universe. Along vectors such as the great music at the creation of the universe and Gandalf's mighty sword Glamdring, the Holy Spirit -weaponised!
Before we get there, we start off in the snug bar of the cozy Inn of the Golden Perch, settled comfortably in The Shire, its dark outside, work is happily far off and there's time for a good tale. Pip throws another log on the fire... "So, I expect you want do know, who am I, and what do I know." Settle in and be whisked away to the Black Pit of Moria and beyond!