1. An Introduction to Window on the West

We finally return to Tolkien’s First Age for a new deep-dive series on The Children of Húrin, starting with Christopher Tolkien’s introduction. We discuss why Tolkien considered Turin’s tale one of hi...

12 Mai 46min

The Kalevala is perhaps Tolkien’s earliest inspiration… In this episode, we dig into The Story of Kullervo the tragic Finnish myth (from the Kalevala)  that captured Tolkien’s imagination as a young m...

28 Apr 1h 7min

This episode tackles two more changes from Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring—Saruman orchestrating the storm on Caradhras, and the missing warg attack in Hollin. We break down how these adaptatio...

14 Apr 51min

In this episode, we examine the insertion of Boromir’s ring-handling scene on the slopes of the Misty Mountains–though it was completely invented, how close was it REALLY to the books? … and THEN we d...

31 Mar 54min

In this episode, we dig into two crucial scenes: the iconic formation of the Fellowship and the bridge-side tryst between Aragorn and Arwen. Drawing from both book and film, we examine what’s gained (...

18 Mar 0s

Here’s another episode in our series of interviews from the December 2, 2003 roundtable discussions! In this interview–just before The Return of the King was released–Sean Astin reflects on wrapping u...

4 Mar 23min

Orc pods and Uruk-hai origins: lore-breaking or the best possible changes? In this episode, we dig into Peter Jackson’s “orc pod” scenes and the cinematic invention of Lurtz, the alpha Uruk-hai, We al...

18 Feb 0s

In this episode, we look at two of the most unloved film changes from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings: Arwen replacing Glorfindel and making Arwen the only one with power and agency in The Flight to...

3 Feb 44min