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<p>Wanna Save the World?</p> <p>When you read Tolkien's trilogy, which characters, if any, do you relate to? Do you want to be Tom Bombadil? Do you have a lot of things in common with Fanghorn? Aragorn? Frodo?</p> <p>Tolkien crafted his story in a very Christian way. The heros are unrelatable. Not for all people, but for most. One of the modern complaints that movie makers had to work around in producing their film is the completely unrelatable character of Arwen. She is the pure, immortality-sacrificing elf maiden who cannot marry any mortal lower than a king of all of the West. She doesn't have much in common with your average female viewer.</p>

A Tolkien Virgin: Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldorby Mark-Edmond The Journey ContinuesAt long last! The Silmarils! Tolkien titled this volume "The Silmarillion," so something tells me these little fellas are going to be even more important than Feanor. But, at the same time, since he created them, whatever happens, he will have a hand in it. For without Feanor there would be no Silmarils...and therefore no Silmarillion. Perhaps this great deed, the creating of the Silmarils, is his supernatural act. Perhaps, this is why he sapped so much strength and energy from his mother at...

A discussion of Bree's significance and probable history in the Third Age. [ Published prior to the first Lord Of The Rings movie ] Strange as news from Bree...Word has it that we won't see much of Bree in Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movies. Bree is the little village east of the Shire where Frodo and his companions meet up with Aragorn (who is known there as Strider). I expect most of the Bree scenes will deal with how the Hobbits come to travel with the Ranger, and the movie will just move on. Will we even see...

The Undefinable ShadowlandA Study of the Complex Question of Dualism in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the RingsLeif Jacobsen In memory of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, to whom I owe so much The Road ever goes on and on Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, And I must follow if I can Pursuing it with weary feet, Until it joins some larger way, Where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say. Introduction "I dislike Allegory - the conscious and intentional allegory - yet any attempt to explain the...

Who were the real heroes of Middle-earth?Probably the most moving story in all the Tolkien legendarium is that of Beren and Luthien. They are the true heroes of Middle-earth, the first and only people among Elves and Men to achieve any palpable result against Morgoth in the ill-fated War of the Silmarils. They are also the only heroes of the First Age to actually be given any significant consideration in the pages of The Lord of the Rings.Many Tolkien fans know that Beren and Luthien were a metaphor for the romantic relationship between Ronald Tolkien and Edith Bratt, but seldom...

A Tolkien Virgin: Of Feanor and the Unchaining of Melkorby Mark-Edmond The Journey ContinuesFeanor seems almost supernatural. Something is going to go down. It's going to be nasty. And Feanor is going to have his hand in it. That much is clear. But, is it just me, or is he supernatural? He's special. But the way his mother withers away and dies (as much as that is possible for an elf) after his birth, he would almost seem even greater (not in the "good" sense of great). We don't know why (his birth alone?), but we can tell he's an...

A Tolkien Virgin: Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalieby Mark-Edmond The Journey ContinuesAt this point, I'm hooked. The story of the Elves up to this point has been sweet and sad, but Tolkien has me, and I like it. He's addicted to complexity, and I like that too. He couldn't have had all the Elves pick up and go to Valanor/Aman, that wouldn't be Tolkien, and that wouldn't be interesting. All along the way some are lost. Some flee Orome at the very beginning and were lost. And as the Teleri finally arrive on the shores of...

    The door to the Mines of Moria Viking-era carvings on Sweden's Sigurd Rock   Viking ship post (circa A.D. 850)(Photograph from National Geographic Television) Stonehenge, one of the many ancient British ruins that inspired Tolkien(Photograph from National Geographic Television) A transcript of Tolkien's lecture “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics”(Photograph from National Geographic Television and Jane Chance) Akseli Gallen-Kallela's 1891 painting “Aino Myth,” which depicts a passage from the Kalevala, a compilation of old Finnish ballads and poems(Photograph courtesy Art Museum of Ateneum) Ian McKellen as Gandalf(© 2001 New Line Productions, photograph courtesy New Line Cinema)  ...

    Dominic Monaghan as Merry (left) and John Rhys-Davies as Gimli Grimspound ruins, Dartmoor National Park, England           World War I's Battle of the Somme (Photograph by Corbis)   Battle scene from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (© 2001 New Line Productions, photograph courtesy New Line Cinema)   Factory in Birmingham, England (Still image from National Geographic Television)   English countryside (Still image from National Geographic Television)   Mordor, seen in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (© 2001 New Line Productions, photograph courtesy New...

A Tolkien Virgin: Of Thingol and Melianby Mark-Edmond The Journey ContinuesHere we have Tolkien's first take on love in the Silmarillion. Thingol is drawn by the beauty of her singing, but it isn't love till he sees her. Love at first sight. She's indescribably beautiful, sings wonderfully, and has the light of Aman in her face, but what does she see in him? Tolkien doesn't really say. She's a type of goddess, a Maia, existing before Ea, while he's an elf, born in Middle Earth. It seemed strange to me that she would "stoop" to the level of a Quendi....

`Lord' of racism? Critics view trilogy as discriminatory `Two Towers' film reflects tone of book Happily for fans of J.R.R. Tolkien, director Peter Jackson stayed true to the fantasy author's artistic vision in "Fellowship of the Ring," the first film in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Unhappily, in "The Two Towers," Jackson may reflect the "Rings'" racial view of the world as well.

The most important cultural event of the past decade is the ongoing release of the film version of J R R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. No better guide exists to the mood and morals of the United States. The rapturous response among popular audiences to the first two installments of the trilogy should alert us that something important is at work. Richard Wagner's 19th-century tetralogy of music dramas, The Ring of the Nibelungs, gave resonance to National Socialism during the inter-war years of the last century. Tolkien does the same for Anglo-Saxon democracy. Tolkien well may have written...

A Tolkien Virgin: Of The Coming of Elves and the Captivity of Melkorby Mark-Edmond The Journey ContinuesThe thing that first struck me about this section is the creation of the Orcs. Tolkien has done something brilliant here. He established with Aule that none of the Ainor or Valar could create beings--things that exist apart from their creator. Illuvatar alone can truly create beings. So in order for Melkor to have a race of followers, he takes elves and breeds them into hideous creatures--the Orcs. For the Orcs to be descended from Elves is really a fascinating concept. If Tokien is...

Tolkien teaches us to take courage Tom ShippeyThe Daily Telegraph Monday, January 06, 2003 J.R.R. Tolkien was not a professional author nor, for much of his life, even a much-published one. He had a certain success with The Hobbit in 1937, when he was 45 -- enough for his publisher, Stanley Unwin, to ask for a sequel. But though Tolkien dutifully began to write one almost immediately, it was 17 years before the first volume of The Lord of the Rings was published, by which time Tolkien had almost reached retirement. For much of his life he was haunted by...

ON TOLKIEN Growing up with language The Shakespeare of model languages is J.R.R. Tolkien. His best-selling fantasy novel, The Lord Of The Rings, now considered a literary classic, achieved much of its believability from the depth of its invented languages: Quenya, Sindarin, Adu^naic and others. The following article provides a broad overview of Tolkien's seminal work with model languages. Tolkien was exposed to languages to a remarkable degree. He learned Latin, German and French from his mother. At school, he learned or taught himself Middle English, Old English, Finnish, Gothic, Greek, Italian, Old Norse, Spanish, modern Welsh and medieval Welsh....

A History of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, Part 2 [ Part three is the source notes as annotated in the article.  The appropriate source notes have instead been added to the end of the other two parts for consolidation]This is the final article concerning the war of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. The article was originally written for the Tolkien journal Arda. Part 1 covered events leading up to the war. Special thanks to Rick House, who provided comments and suggestions when the article was written in 1996. The actual war began with the assault...

A History of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, Part 1[ Part three is the source notes as annotated in the article.  The appropriate source notes have instead been added to the end of the other two parts for consolidation]In 1996 the editor of the journal Arda asked me to contribute some of my research to a twelfth volume which has, to my knowledge, never been published. I chose the war of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men as my topic because no one had really ever done a full treatment of the subject.It remains, to my knowledge,...

A Tolkien Virgin: Of Aule and Yavannaby Mark-EdmondThe Journey ContinuesWow. So, the Elves and Men--for all their differences--are the Children of Illuvatar, but the Dwarves were made by Aule. This passage is short, but amazing. When Aule raised up his hammer to destroy the Dwarves he made, but Illuvatar gave them life instead, it actually caused me to get misty-eyed. This act of kindness and compassion is truly beautiful.In this section, we also have our first taste of dissention among the Valar (excluding Melkor). Yavanna fears that Aule's Dwarves will destroy her living things, and when she gets word from...

I wanted to write about the latest Lord of the Rings movie today. But as I scoured the Web reading what other people had to say, I realized I had nothing new to offer. I love Tolkien. It’s a good movie. A bit too long, I thought, but I will see it again, regardless. Anyway, while trying to figure out what to write, I kept stumbling on articles about how Tolkien was a racist and/or about how The Lord of the Rings is pro-war propaganda. Both of these ideas have dedicated adherents. For example, John Yatt says in the British...