Most readers remember the Nazgûl’s screams as one of the great sounds of terror in The Lord of the Rings. A shriek in the dark.A cry above the battlefield.A voice that makes horses panic and men falter. But the screams were not just there to make the Ringwraiths seem frightening. They were part of what the … Read more
Everyone asks why Gandalf did not simply command the Eagles to carry the Ring to Mordor. But that may be the wrong question. The deeper issue is not whether Eagles can fly. They obviously can. They cross great distances. They rescue people from deadly places. They appear at some of the most desperate moments in … Read more
Most readers think Númenórean blood means greatness. That is not wrong. But it is not enough. In Middle-earth, the blood of Númenor carries some of the highest human dignity ever given to Men. It is tied to long life, wisdom, strength, memory, kingship, sea-power, and the ancient friendship between Men and Elves. It stands behind … Read more
At first glance, Galadriel’s Phial looks simple. Frodo is trapped in darkness. Shelob is coming. He remembers the gift given to him in Lothlórien, raises it, and light breaks through the horror. It feels like the natural shape of the scene: evil darkness against good light. But that is only the surface. The real power … Read more
When Gandalf falls from the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, the Fellowship believes the matter is finished. The whip of the Balrog catches him. He slips into the abyss. His final command is not an explanation, but an order: fly. And so they do. Aragorn leads them out of Moria. Legolas and Gimli are shaken. The Hobbits … Read more
At Weathertop, Frodo Baggins is almost overcome. The fire has sunk low. The other Hobbits are afraid. The black shapes of the Ringwraiths close in, and the world seems to narrow around the Ring. Frodo sees them more clearly after putting it on: pale faces, grey robes, and a kingly figure taller than the rest. … Read more
Deep under the Misty Mountains, beneath the noise and cruelty of Goblin-town, there was a black lake. It was cold.It was still.And in the middle of it was a small island. That island was Gollum’s world. For hundreds of years, he lived there in the dark, catching blind fish from the water and creeping through … Read more
The most disturbing thing about Annatar is not that he was Sauron in disguise. It is that his disguise answered a desire the Elves already had. By the time he came among them in the Second Age, Middle-earth was not the world it had once been. Morgoth had been defeated, but the wounds of the … Read more
When the Fellowship enters Lothlórien, it does so in grief. They have escaped Moria, but not whole. Gandalf has fallen from the Bridge of Khazad-dûm. The Company that left Rivendell as nine now walks beneath the golden trees as eight. And in Lórien, one of the wisest beings still remaining in Middle-earth receives them. This … Read more
The scene outside the West-gate of Moria is easy to remember as a monster attack. The Fellowship arrives at a dark, stagnant pool. The old road is gone. The stream of Sirannon has been dammed or blocked, and the water now lies against the Doors of Durin. Then, as the Company struggles to enter Moria, … Read more