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Tag: Legendarium

Wait…how exactly does the One Ring make you evil?

There are few more infamous passages in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy than when Faramir, Captain of Gondor, elects to take Frodo, Sam and Gollum into his custody, and to bring them and the Ring to Minas Tirith.  For movie fans, it is a slightly baffling diversion – Faramir’s change of heart and release of the hobbits comes swiftly, and the episode results in few consequences to him or to Frodo and Sam.  To lovers of the book, though, it is an outrageous change, a sign of everything wrong with the films, a complete bastardisation of one of…

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‘The work of the hands which thou hast made’

Of Aulë and Yavanna: Tolkien’s Odd Couple ‘Nonetheless they will have need of wood.’ With that brilliantly offhand one-liner, Aulë and Yavanna cemented their status in the minds of many Tolkien lovers as being Eä’s first and best odd couple.  He, a rash craftsman, master of forge and hammer, lover of stone and gem and that which is imperishable and unchanging.  She, a lover of beasts and plants, the bringer of growth and giver of sustenance, who cherishes all that sprouts and blooms and flowers, all that lives.   Given Tolkien’s interest in the themes of nature and industry, it might…

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Triskaidekaphobia and fortune in ‘The Hobbit’

It’s been a moment between posts, alas, the end of the year’s always a hot mess for me and completely killed the momentum I was slowly building in posting – and I’ve been completely unmotivated to do anything extracurricular at all for quite a while, blog writing included. I did notice a little detail that can be covered relatively quickly, though, and figured that I might as well jot it down and that it might get the creative juices flowing again!  Namely, the detail of Bilbo being chosen (at least in part) to join Thorin’s Company to avoid their number…

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