Something that’s long struck me as being worthy of investigation and consideration is the subtle and quiet character journey that Aragorn undergoes throughout The Lord of the Rings. It’s something I might dip into a few times this year, as (despite the not infrequent criticisms that he is a flat and uninteresting character in the books) I truly believe there is much of merit to be gleaned. Aragorn may seldom serve as the point of view character, and is undeniably already fully realised as a hero when he meets the hobbits in Bree…yet he does have an arc, I think.…
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It is a truth universally acknowledged that a blog with any sort of Tolkien adjacency is in want of a Tom Bombadil theory. The Bombadil Question is not only a perennial fixture for Tolkien’s readers, it may well be the original Middle-earth enigma. Where other Legendarium mysteries are relatively recent preoccupations (how were Orcs first made?) or have been repeated to the point of parody (do Balrogs have wings?), the Bombadil issue remains not only pertinent (if now itself somewhat parodied), but possesses an ancient lineage. Even before The Lord of the Rings was published, Tolkien found himself fielding questions…
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I had a stray thought recently, inspired by Sam’s reluctance to give the Ring back up to Frodo in the Tower of Cirith Ungol. For anyone who needs a refresher, this occurs in Book VI, following Shelob’s Lair and Sam’s taking of the Ring from Frodo’s (seemingly) lifeless body. When Sam finds and rescues Frodo in the tower, he has a moment of hesitation in giving the Ring back: Sam fumbled for the Ring and its chain. ‘But I suppose you must take it back.’ Now it had come to it, Sam felt reluctant to give up the Ring and…
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Last year, for the month of September, I did a little blog miniseries, focusing on The Hobbit and some of its less-appreciated themes and aspects. And, since I really enjoyed writing those posts, and having a theme to work towards…I decided to do it again this year! So, over the next few weeks, we’re going to be looking at three stories by Tolkien…stories which, actually, aren’t under-appreciated in the same way that The Hobbit is. But they’re also stories that a lot of Tolkien fans might not pay much attention to, or even know about…and that’s a great shame, because…
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I was flicking through the Appendices of LOTR the other day, on an unrelated mission, when something really curious caught my eye in the Dwarvish genealogy tree. It’s a really small detail, almost insignificant – but the more I thought about it, the more it intrigued me, and the more intrigued I became, the more I realised that it’s actually a whole lot of details all packaged up in a single detail. Namely, Durin VII. When was he born? When did he reign? And, perhaps most pressingly, how did he obtain that epithet? From the perspective of Tolkien as author,…
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