The Tolkien Lore Podcast

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 Bilbo to make his story more appealing to a younger audience. Instead, what if the purse was a Dwarf-made magical purse that came to the trolls the same way as the rest of their hoard, which contained famed swords from Gondolin? Here are my thoughts on this theory.

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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? Might Gandalf have survived Moria? How would that have altered the course of the rest of the story?

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 autobiographical elements were much more pronounced than I previously realized.

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/ethnicity in any of Tolkien’s works. Unfortunately, as with so many of Tolkien’s barely-begun stories, we can only guess at what might have been.

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 reason for thinking him wise is highly personal?

My video on Galadriel’s various backstories is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8c33_qTQ_E&t=25s&pp=ygUZY2hhcmFjdGVyIHN0dWR5IGdhbGFkcmllbA%3D%3D

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00:00 Intro

02:44 Game Overview

06:53 Mechanics and Gameplay

38:58 Likes and Dislikes

52:39 Theming and Lore

A subscriber recently shared a possible plot hole that someone else brought up: How could the minstrel who sings of Frodo of the Nine Fingers at the Field of Cormallen know Frodo and Sam’s story past when they left Faramir? I think there are three possible explanations.

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The Christian Scriptures of the New Testament have many passages dealing with the idea that God uses the weak and foolish to accomplish His ends and put to shame the strong and wise of the world. Tolkien uses this same theme pretty frequently in his own works, but why should weakness be a virtue? I think I can give an answer.

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Jordan Rannells, editor of the Prancing Pony Podcast, has put together a soundscape for the Lord of the Rings, and it’s amazing!

I recently noticed an interesting parallel between how Gandalf “punishes” Sam for eavesdropping and how Aragorn “punishes” Beregond for his deeds in defense of Faramir. But perhaps the most interesting thing about the parallel is that it answers a doubt Aragorn has about himself.

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Demetrious Polychron, author of “The Fellowship of the King,” has filed suit against Amazon, the Tolkien Estate, and others claiming that the Rings of Power TV show stole his ideas and thus violated copyright, and it only gets more hilarious from there.

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One of my Elf Friend tier supporters has submitted a question for me to address in a video about the nature and origins of Tom Bombadil. It’s certainly a unique theory with some interesting points, so let’s take a look!

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In Volume 10 of The History of Middle Earth (Morgoth’s Ring), we encounter the “Statute of Finwe and Miriel,” which lays out rules for when elves can remarry if their spouse somehow “dies.” Given Tolkien’s theology as a Catholic, it’s hard not to see some strong parallels with Jesus’ commentary on the same general topic….

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Tolkien takes cues from the Beowulf poet and finds value in pagan virtues and Christianizes them in his fiction.

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Many people find Tolkien’s long descriptions of landscapes, scenery, and other features of his world boring, but pay a little attention and you begin to realize Middle-earth is more than a place, it’s a character unto itself.

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Tolkien gives us a pretty clear timeline of the major events of the Second Age, including when construction of the Barad-dur, Sauron’s fortress, was begun. Elrond tells us the foundations were made with the power of the Ring. The only problem is, the Ring was made 600 years later….

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Peter Jackson did some interesting things with Elves in his movies, and Legolas’ personality is the main victim. Far from the always-steady, joyless stoic portrayed by Orlando Bloom, Legolas was much more emotional and humorous.

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I have one final theory about wizard staves to share, and this one is much more speculative and likely not true, but hinges on some...interesting words that Saruman has for Gandalf.

I know I’m late to the party on this, but at long last here’s my review of The Fall of Numenor, edited by Brian Sibley and illustrated by Alan Lee.  Do you need to get this book?  Probably not, but you might still want it.

For my video on The Lost Road, check here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYQ2ft3r8iA

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Earlier this week (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1GRzWjH_V4) I took a look at whether the Istari, or wizards, of Middle-earth actually needed their staves to perform magic.  In this follow-up, I explain my theory as to why exactly they need them.

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The Wizards we meet in The Lord of the Rings always seem to be carrying a staff, and those pieces of wood sure seem important, but are they actually necessary to the Wizards’ use of magic?

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A viewer suggested this topic, and particularly asked for any lessons we moderns could learn from the Numenorean’s folly.

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Tolkien is famous for creating a sense of history in his Middle-earth Legendarium, but his references to ancient history is only the beginning of how he leads us to want to get more out of his imaginative worlds.

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Years ago I made a video about how to pronounce words in Tolkien’s Middle-earth which was...a bit flawed.  Now I’m redoing that in two videos.  This first video will cover the rules for Elvish words, which forms the groundwork for all the other stuff.  Next week I’ll cover rules for Dwarvish, Adunaic, and other miscellany.

For part 2, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMPIyVQUEPw

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For a story that focuses so little on eating and drinking (outside of the Shire of course!), The Lord of the Rings has quite a few important and seemingly magical beverages, each with its own effects and (often questionable) contents.

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One of Tolkien’s key themes throughout his work is subcreation, the idea that as beings created by a creator God, we (or his invented elves and other races) are also by nature creative.  But there are many hints that the pinnacle of this impulse is actually the simple act of bringing new life into the world.

As a young reader my brain quite naturally correlated Aman, west of Middle-earth (Europe) with America, though I was aware that was not really Tolkien’s intent.  Imagine my surprise to find out he almost went there himself….

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The contrast between book Theoden and movie Theoden could hardly be more striking.  Some of that is related to some plot changes introduced in the movie, but those don’t justify movie Theoden’s whiny attitude and complete lack of sense.

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The Ruling Stewards of Gondor declined to use the standard of the kings and instead used a simple white flag.  What’s the significance of this choice?  Whatever it means, it definitely isn’t surrender.

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Someone alerted me to the existence of yet another fan film called “One of the Seven,” which naturally enough tells a story about one of the seven rings given to the Dwarves.  But is that really what it’s about?  Or is it just an excuse to drop Easter eggs?

If you want to watch the film yourself, it's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljrq687h2tg

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A viewer asked about how Tolkien came up with Ents, and it’s actually a great example of one of his most-used creative tools.

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A viewer commented on the channel and asked a rather interesting question about how we can reconcile Eru Iluvatar’s essential goodness with the fact that he sank the entire island of Numenor and killed untold numbers of its inhabitants.  While I don’t intend to make a huge argument for theodicy (the defense of God as good in spite of things which might seem to contradict that), I do think I can point to some things which would at least help answer the question while staying true the Tolkien focus of the channel.

My video on The Lost Road is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYQ2ft3r8iA

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Tolkien rather famously based Luthien off of his wife, but there’s a subtle way in which he also inserted himself and Christopher Tolkien into The Lord of the Rings as the collaborative authors, Bilbo and Frodo.

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Suggested by a Discord member (join my Discord using the link below!), I discuss whether Gurthang speaking to Turin is actually a case of a magic, talking sword, or merely the hallucinations of a man whose mind has been broken by the tragedies of his own life.

When first encountering the Ring Poem, which lists groups of 9, 7, 3, and 1 rings, we might be tempted to wonder why there isn’t a group of 5, and what race they might have been made for, but this is based on a simple misconception regarding the making of the Rings of Power.

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In this video I review two fan films that both primarily relate to the story of Turin Turambar, but which take very different approaches than you might expect.

I despise the scene in Peter Jackson’s “Return of the King” (extended edition) where the Witch King shatters Gandalf’s staff, but it can’t be denied that there is at least some textual basis for the idea.  What does this tell us about the Witch King and his other encounters?

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