When the Fellowship enters Lothlórien, Galadriel does something far more unsettling than simply welcome them. She looks into each member of the Company and tests what lies within. Later, the companions compare what they experienced. Sam admits that he felt exposed and confronted with the possibility of abandoning the Quest for something he deeply wanted. … Read more
A coat of mithril made for an Elven-prince, worth more than almost anyone in the Shire could imagine, once ended up in a Hobbit museum. That detail is easy to treat as a joke. Bilbo Baggins returned from Erebor with treasures out of legend, and among them was the extraordinary mail-shirt Thorin had given him. … Read more
When the Fellowship enters Moria, it finds a dead kingdom: black halls, abandoned chambers, shattered gates, and memories of a greatness that seems almost impossible to recover. Yet Khazad-dûm had once been more than the ancient home of Durin’s Folk. At the beginning of the Second Age, it became the refuge of Dwarves whose own … Read more
When Aragorn finally surrendered his life, Arwen discovered something that even centuries among the Eldar could not make easy to understand. Aragorn was going somewhere she could not follow by any road through Middle-earth or across the Sea. His death was not merely the ending of a body. It belonged to the strange fate given … Read more
Arwen does not ride into the War of the Ring beside Aragorn. She does not pass through the Paths of the Dead, fight at Pelargir, or stand upon the Pelennor Fields. Yet one of the most important objects accompanying Aragorn on that desperate road south is something she made with her own hands. It is … Read more
Few substances in Middle-earth sound more like a fantasy “supermetal” than galvorn. Eöl the Dark Elf devised it in the deep shadows of Nan Elmoth. It was black and shining like jet, as hard as the steel of the Dwarves, yet capable of being made thin and supple while remaining resistant to blades and darts. … Read more
One of the most memorable images of the Battle of Helm’s Deep is Gimli standing upon the Deeping Wall beside Legolas, axe ready while the armies of Saruman gather in the darkness below. It seems exactly where he ought to be. Gimli likes the stonework immediately. He stamps upon it approvingly and declares that the … Read more
Gondor could preserve a tower, a tomb, or a royal tradition for thousands of years. Its calendar was treated with much the same conservatism. That makes one detail in the history of the Dúnedain surprisingly revealing: their calendar occasionally needed extraordinary corrections. Not because Gondor casually redesigned the year, but because a tiny astronomical error … Read more
Bombur’s fall into the black water of Mirkwood looks, at first, like one of the stranger comic disasters in The Hobbit. A deer appears during the Company’s difficult crossing, Bombur tumbles into the Enchanted Stream, and almost immediately he falls into an unnatural sleep. The obvious consequence is physical: the others now have to carry … Read more
How Rómenna Became the Last Stronghold of the Faithful After Andúnië Was Lost For generations, the western haven of Andúnië represented almost everything the Faithful still loved about Númenor. It faced toward the Undying Lands. Ships of the Eldar had once come there from Tol Eressëa. Its lords belonged to a noble house descended from … Read more