Category

Tolkien 101

Events, Tolkien 101
Happy eleventy-eighth birthday to ‘Lord of the Rings’ author JRR Tolkien
01.03.10 | Permalink | Comment?

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE, Oxford University professor, and author of the globally beloved fantasy epics The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, was born eleventy-seven years ago today, on January 3rd, 1892, in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State, a British colony and a province of the Union of South Africa.
Tolkien 101
Tolkien 101: Ringwraiths
09.30.09 | Permalink | 1 Comment

…Men were the perfect victims for the rings. Nine heroes, sorcerers and kings of Men accepted the rings, gaining seeming power and unnaturally long life. But after a few centuries, it became clear the rings were a curse rather than a gift. The nine Men were enslaved by the rings, and by the Dark Lord wearing the One Ring. Their bodies faded away, until the Men were nothing but invisible, undead shades enslaved by Sauron. They became the Nazgûl or “Ringwraiths,” the greatest of Sauron’s servants.
Features, Tolkien 101
Tolkien 101: How does one pronounce ‘Tolkien?’
08.06.09 | Permalink | Comment?

Type “pronounce tolkien” into Google, and you’ll find a lively debate on how to pronounce the surname of the beloved author of The Lord of the Rings. There are two main camps. One insists on “tol-kenn.” The other will argue that “Tolkien” is a German name, properly pronounced “Tolk-een.”

They’re both wrong.
Tolkien 101
Tolkien 101: Elrond Half-elven
07.08.09 | Permalink | 3 Comments

In Tolkien’s Legendarium, there were three great romances between and an Elf and a Man. (In Tolkien’s writing, “Man” is gender neutral, and is equivalent to “human.”) The first was Beren the Man and Lúthien Tinúviel; the second Tuor the Man and Idril Celebrindal; the third Elessar Telcontar (better known as Aragorn) and Arwen Undómiel, who marry at the end of The Lord of the Rings.
Tolkien 101
Tolkien 101: Sauron Gorthaur
06.29.09 | Permalink | 1 Comment

Sauron is the titular character and primary villain of The Lord of the Rings. He is introduced as The Necromancer in The Hobbit; and his origins and history are recounted in The Silmarillion. But who is Sauron? Why is he so evil? And how did he become so obsessed with locating missing jewelry?
Features, Tolkien 101
Tolkien 101: The Basic Cosmology of Tolkien’s World
06.09.09 | Permalink | Comment?

In order to give meaningful background information for characters like Gandalf, Sauron, Galadriel and Elrond, I will have to refer to cosmological and cosmogenic ideas laid out in The Silmarillion, which tells the early history of Tolkien’s world.
Features, Tolkien 101
Tolkien 101: Gandalf
06.02.09 | Permalink | 2 Comments

Although Tolkien’s fantasy novels are tales told by Hobbits, and tell the adventures of Hobbits, a case can be made that the real protagonist of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings is the wizard Gandalf. Except for Elrond Half-elven, Gandalf is the only character who plays a key part in the events of both those novels and The Silmarillion.
Features, Tolkien 101
Tolkien 101: Bilbo Baggins
06.02.09 | Permalink | 2 Comments

Bilbo Baggins is the title character of 1937’s The Hobbit, Tolkien’s first published novel that takes place in Middle Earth. The story is told from Bilbo’s perspective; in fact, although this is not indicated in the novel itself, it was Tolkien’s intention that Bilbo himself was the author of The Hobbit and the story’s narrator, with Tolkien himself only acting as the “translator” of an ancient document.