Which of Tolkien's Stories Are Part of the the Middle-Earth “Canon?”
The question of what counts as "canon" in Tolkien's Middle-earth writings is thorny and convoluted, and devolves pretty quickly into guesswork, but let's see if we can narrow things down a bit. Hello ...
2 Touko 202230min
Anglachel/Gurthang and Narsil/Anduril: Twin Sword Brothers from Different Mothers
Anglachel, the black sword of Turin which he renamed Gurthang, has many interesting parallels with Narsil, the Sword that was Broken and renamed Anduril by Aragorn, but despite their parallels they ar...
25 Huhti 202228min
Book Review | The Science of Middle-Earth: A New Understanding of Tolkien and His World
This book came out in 2021, and is a compilation of essays covering a wide variety of topics where Middle-earth and modern science intersect. Or at least, that’s the theory. How scientific is this b...
18 Huhti 202219min
Why Peter Jackson Was Right to Cut Tom Bombadil from The Lord of the Rings
I have my problems with Peter Jackson, but on this decision he made the right call. Not because Tom Bombadil is a bad character, but because in the medium PJ was working in, he no longer serves the s...
11 Huhti 202219min
Who Really Killed Sauron in the War of the Last Alliance? And Why Does It Matter?
Peter Jackson’s and even Ralph Bakshi’s movies give the impression that Isildur single-handedly took down the Dark Lord Sauron, and while this isn’t exactly accurate, it turns out they did get one det...
4 Huhti 202216min
Tolkien’s “Fundamentally Catholic” Mythology: The Christian Foundations of Middle-Earth
In a letter, Tolkien stated that The Lord of the Rings was a “fundamentally religious and Catholic” work, which seems strange given the lack of obvious religion in the story. A close look, however, r...
28 Maalis 202226min
Merry & Pippin: Fast Friends in a Foreign War | Tolkien Reading Day 2022
The theme for this year’s Tolkien Reading Day is “Love and Friendship,” and a unique view of that comes from Merry and Pippin, cousins who endure hardship and separation from each other and their frie...
25 Maalis 202219min
The Characters of LOTR: The Relatable, the Admirable, and the "Warning to Others"
With so many characters, the Lord of the Rings is bound to have some you relate to, some you look up to, and some you recognize as real world villains.... You can check out my half-serious personality...
21 Maalis 202222min
