How Did William the Troll Come to Own a Talking Purse in The Hobbit?
In response to my request for video topics, viewer mariayonde suggested I might have been a bit hasty in concluding that William’s talking purse in The Hobbit was just a fanciful embellishment by Bilb...
18 Sep 202319min
How Could Gandalf Have Survived Moria, and How Might That Have Changed the Lord of the Rings?
Before entering Moria, Aragorn tells Gandalf to “beware,” and later regrets that his premonition was accurate, which seems to suggest that the outcome of Gandalf dying was inevitable. But was it? Migh...
11 Sep 202328min
A Tale of Amdir and Estel: Aragorn’s Journey from Boromir to Gandalf
I’ve discussed the concepts of Amdir and Estel, the two kinds of hope in Tolkien’s world, and how they play out differently for different characters in The Lord of the Rings (https://www.youtube.com/w...
4 Sep 202337min
Smith of Wootton Major: The Culmination and Summary of Tolkien’s Life and Career
Smith of Wootton Major is one of the most fascinating stories Tolkien ever wrote, which seems to have tremendous depth despite its brevity and simplicity. On a recent reread I noticed that its autobio...
28 Aug 202331min
Tal-Elmar: Yet Another Story Tolkien Never Finished
The story of Tal-Elmar, reproduced in The Peoples of Middle-Earth by Christopher Tolkien, promised a story of dreams, adventure, and possibly some of the most explicit exploration of the ideas of race...
21 Aug 202330min
The Tolkien Geek Reviews “The Battle of Five Armies” Board Game
The Battle of Five Armies, made by the creators of The War of the Ring (my review of which is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knXfPlC6-KA&pp=ygUud2FyIG9mIHRoZSByaW5nIGJvYXJkIGdhbWUgcmV2aWV3IHRvb...
31 Juli 202353min
Why Did Morgoth Take Radically Different Approaches to Men and Elves?
In my recent video on the Tale of Adanel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcOISb-59rw&pp=ygUTdGFsZSBvZiBhZGFuZWwgZmFsbA%3D%3D) I discussed how Morgoth seems to have taken a very different approach to ...
5 Juni 202320min
Thursday Tolkien Thoughts: If Celeborn Is Such a Big Deal, Why Do We Know Nothing About Him?
Galadriel makes a big deal of Celeborn’s wisdom in The Lord of the Rings, but we actually get almost no examples of it and are left wondering what makes him so impressive. Could it be Galadriel’s real...
1 Juni 202310min
