When Gimli stood before Galadriel in Lothlórien and was commanded to name the gift he desired, he asked for something astonishingly small: a single strand of her hair. He did not demand it. In fact, he carefully said that he was not truly asking for the gift at all. He had been ordered to name … Read more
When Sam finds Frodo in the Tower of Cirith Ungol, one of the first practical problems is almost absurdly ordinary: Frodo has no clothes. The Orcs have stripped him. His possessions have been searched, divided, fought over, and carried away. The mithril coat that Bilbo gave him is gone. His grey Elven cloak and its … Read more
Death does not mean the same thing for an Elf that it means for a Man. When an Elf is slain in Middle-earth, the body can be destroyed, but the spirit does not escape the world. The Elves are bound to Arda for as long as Arda endures. Their death is therefore a separation: the … Read more
Glaurung’s first appearance is one of the strangest victories of the Noldor. A dragon comes out of Angband, the Elves flee before a creature they have never faced, and then Fingon rides against it with mounted archers and drives it back beneath Thangorodrim. The reason is crucial: Glaurung is not ready. In the later form … Read more
When Sam Gamgee leaves Lothlórien, one of the gifts that delights him most is not a weapon, a jewel, or anything obviously enchanted. It is rope. That is perfectly in character. Sam knows something about rope-making, and the lack of rope has bothered him since the Fellowship left Rivendell. The Galadhrim give the travellers coils … Read more
The Brandywine Bridge looks like an ordinary piece of geography: an old stone crossing carrying the East Road over the river at the edge of the Shire. Yet by the Fourth Age, it has become something much more unusual. It is the place where a king stops. That matters because King Elessar is not prevented … Read more
The Sons of Fëanor Could Repent — But They Could Not Undo the Oath At the end of the First Age, the most terrible thing about the Oath of Fëanor is no longer that Maedhros and Maglor want the Silmarils. It is that they scarcely seem to want them at all. Morgoth has fallen. Beleriand … Read more
When Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took meet Treebeard in Fangorn, one of the strangest transformations in The Lord of the Rings begins with something remarkably ordinary: a drink of water. Or at least, something that looks like water. Treebeard gives the hobbits an Ent-draught at Wellinghall, drawn from one of the tall stone jars kept … Read more
When Frodo puts on the One Ring at Amon Hen, he expects escape. Boromir has tried to take the Ring from him. Frodo has fled, invisible, up the wooded slopes above Parth Galen. Eventually he reaches the summit and finds an ancient work of the Men of Númenor: a paved circle, ruined battlements, and a … Read more
The secret door into the Lonely Mountain seems, at first, like the sort of obstacle a burglar ought to solve. Thorin possesses the key. Thrór’s Map identifies a hidden entrance. Bilbo has specifically been brought on the Quest of Erebor because the company needs someone capable of getting into places where thirteen Dwarves cannot simply … Read more