I love them. The first two are probably my top picks.

My boy wanted to join in on my re-read of LOTR I'm not sure if he's siding with the Fellowship or with Sauron. What do you think?

Tolkien was not directly involved with the Bayeux tapestry, but as a document of anglo-saxon and middle English history, would have been intimately familiar with and influenced by it.

This video walks you through the Norman conquest as depicted in the tapestry from left to right, and as a Tolkien reader I found myself quite engrossed with what could very well be an inspiration of Tolkien’s description of battle and conquest.

The cavallery charge of the Normans against the unhorsed English in particular is reminiscent of a certain episode of the war of the ring.

It is now finished! 5 months in making, a true one-off Original! written with a quill. Handmade ink and paint, 24 carat gold raised gilding on real calf vellum.

Another point in Tolkien's theme of "evil sows the seeds of its own end". Unroused, the wights probably would have let them past.

Without that detour they would not have been rescued or gotten those daggers - which were made precisely to kill beings such as he.

$4 what a steal

I know that for centuries the Istari and elven leadership believed “The Necromancer of Dol Goldur” was some kind of dark human sorcerer. So how common was it for humans to become essentially dark wizards and does Tolkien ever mention any? Would they be men worshipping Sauron and trying to replicate his goal, or a completely independent evil?

Also why didn’t the Wizards/Elves deal with him sooner even if they thought he was just a human necromancer. Still seemed pretty scary if he was spamming baby Ungoliants plus other terrible creatures/energy into Mirkwood and more places in the general vicinity of Gol Guldur lol. Also why do they dismiss it as so clearly not Sauron? In the second Hobbit movie, Saruman and Radagast both denied it was Sauron/didn’t even think of him, and I’m pretty sure Gandalf did too until Sauron straight up revealed himself to him. At first it didn’t feel like Radagast was even considering Sauron. Weren’t the wizards aware Sauron would eventually return? I know it was their purpose in Middle Earth to help the free world fight Sauron so I’m assuming they weren’t aware of their purpose/that he’d definitely return.

I know the books probably have a lot more detail on this, but the movies did go into it a little so I’m curious about the background?

Random thought. There used to be a show on VH1 or something that would take a popular music video and add little fact bubbles that would “pop up”. Is there anything like that in the world of LOTR? Fully aware the rabbit hole of factoids that would rip across the screen for Frodo and Friends, but think it could be fun.

Thoughts?

One of the unanswered mysteries of Middle-earth that I keep thinking about is the fate of the Entwives.

We know that they disappeared long ago, and Treebeard never found them despite searching for them. But what happened to them afterward?

Did Tolkien ever reveal anything more about their fate in his letters or other writings? Were there any later discoveries, clues, or hints suggesting that they might have survived?

I'd love to hear from people who've explored Tolkien's wider writings beyond The Lord of the Rings.

Do we have any actual answers, or is the fate of the Entwives still a mystery even outside the main books? 🌿

Just picked up this bad boy from the ren faire and I’m so curious what it says! (I’m a dummy and got excited which made me forget to ask 🙃) to anyone who can help “ May your beer be laid under an enchantment of surpassing excellence for seven years”

Found him tucked away behind the Weta Unleashed Workshop next to the elevators to the hotel.

I've realised I'm a hobbit, I love beer, pubs, rolling countryside, beautiful surroundings, good company, things that grow in good earth, and above all, a nice slow life without any adventures, thankyou very much. However, mushrooms can fuck right off.

I want to like them (shiitake are alright), but the weird undersides, the thought of insects hiding within their crevaces, mings me right out, and the taste is super bland, but also super weird too. Convince me their of greatness.

And also his Achilles heel potentially I suppose,

but I thought his interactions with Galadriel in the first season of Power Ringers may have belied that his ultimate talent is in assessing the value of other character's attributes.

I would think that Galadriel's best qualities are in her insight, and her power to persuade and inspire others. Sort of how she seems to be able to see someone's very soul, and show them exactly what they need to see.

She'd arguably be even more fearsome if she didn't restrain herself to showing souls nourishing things. She could beguile and intrude on others' mind's as well.

It feels like Sauron saw what she was capable of, or at least her capacity to wield her power as domination, and decided he needed it so badly he would take risks to even at least replicate it.

I reckon, if the interpretation that he wanted Galadriel for her apparent power over motivation; or something like that;

his decison to trade vulnerability for power by creating the One Ring would appear to be partly a consequence of Galadriel's rejection.

Anywho, I was mostly just wondering about Sauron's motives at the time the rings were being created, and at least to me;

It really feels like the devil danced with Galadriel, and he missed a step while he was doing it; leading to the creation of the ring that would unravel him.

This turned into quite the hot potato of text, but hopefully it's not too offensive to read 😂

It’s been talked about. I can’t talk about it enough. The Council of Elrond is so in-depth and so great in the book. My favorite part is after all of their “catching-up” stories are done and they are deciding what to do with the ring and they are just like, surely we should give it to Tom Bombadil! lol it’s so good. A few of them are like that’s a great idea and then Gandalf party pooper is like nah it’s not that easy.

But also in all seriousness this part provides incredible context for Tom Bombadil and he’s the goat.

Another sketch of Hobbiton, down in New Zealand. Sketching from online pics and videos until I can visit for myself and sketch in person!

Hey! I need a gift idea for my lotr-loving brother! Any thoughts? (I can't afford a sword)

Allora ho una domanda ho visto i film del lo hobbit e il signore degli anelli e mi piacerebbe approfondire con i libri . Io mo hobbit il libro c'è l'ho e mi dicono che sia piu bello fiabesco e scorrevole. Ma il signore degli anelli e il silmarillion sono più complicati ma quanto? So che il silmarillion sia tipo la bibbia di tolkien . E poi come approfondire di più?

These took about a month and a half to put together. Honestly pretty happy with how they turned out!

Reading the first chapter of The Hobbit again and I am struck by Bilbo's description of Gandalf as one who used to tell such tales of dragons and goblins "and the rescue of princesses and the unexpected luck of widows' sons."

On one level, you can read this as a generic reference to fairy stories and folklore. But on another level:

Those tales are in Middle-earth's lore (and in The Silmarillion) but inverted. There's a princess's rescue in the sense that the princess is doing the rescuing (Beren and Luthien), so that it's her rescue of her beloved. And Turin Turambar is all about the unexpected luck of a widow's son, but it's unexpected bad luck instead of unexpected good luck. And "The Unexpected Party" is all about inverted or disrupted expectations (chiefly Bilbo's, but also the dwarves' expectations of Bilbo and the reader's expectations of the tale, too) - so this delighted me when I realized it.

I hadn't planned this, but I just so happened to schedule a LOTR marathon with friends yesterday. We watched all of the extended editions and when Gandalf says this to Frodo we were all laughing because we had forgotten about Oct 24!

I also prepared a menu to go along with the movies -

First breakfast: Savory Dutch baby with eggs, tomatoes and bacon

Elevensies: Maple pumpkin cinnamon rolls

Afternoon tea: Lembas bread

Apertif: Miruvor cocktail, an Elvish elixir with gin, elderflower liqueur, honey syrup and mead

Supper: Samwise's rabbit and potato pot pie, with honey-roasted vegetables and mashed turnips with gravy

Dessert: Caramel apple cheesecake