When Boromir arrives at Rivendell, he has travelled far from Minas Tirith because of a mysterious dream. Somewhere in the North, he has been told, lies a broken sword. There, important counsel will be taken, an ancient danger will awaken, and a Halfling will somehow become involved. For readers who already know Frodo Baggins and … Read more
The ships of Númenor once brought friendship to the shores of Middle-earth. Their mariners crossed the Great Sea carrying knowledge, skills, and goods from a kingdom whose people had been granted extraordinary prosperity after the defeat of Morgoth. Yet centuries later, ships from that same island kingdom returned to Middle-earth for a very different purpose. … Read more
Bilbo Baggins has done what seems almost impossible. Deep in Mirkwood, he has found his captured companions, driven away enormous spiders, and begun cutting the Dwarves out of their silken prisons. Yet the rescue immediately reveals another problem. The Dwarves are no longer securely bound, but they cannot simply gather themselves into an effective fighting … Read more
At the gates of Angband, where Morgoth guarded the Silmarils beneath the mountains of Thangorodrim, Lúthien faced a problem that courage alone could not solve. How could an Elven princess and a mortal Man approach the greatest fortress of the Enemy without being destroyed before reaching its master? The answer lay partly in something deeply … Read more
When Dorthonion fell, Barahir refused to abandon the land of his fathers. His resistance became one of the great doomed stands of the First Age: a shrinking company of hunted men surviving in the wild while Morgoth’s servants searched for them. Yet another act of courage was happening at the same time, moving in the … Read more
In the spring of the year 600 of the Second Age, a ship called Entulessë entered the Grey Havens of Middle-earth. Its captain was Vëantur, a Númenórean mariner whose voyage would reconnect peoples separated by the Great Sea for six centuries. The ship’s name meant “Return.” Yet what returned was not an army, a conquering … Read more
At the centre of Númenor rose the Meneltarma, the “Pillar of Heaven,” the mountain from whose summit the people of the island could look outward across their land and, in clear weather, far toward the West. Yet the most remarkable thing about Númenor’s holiest place was not what stood upon it. Nothing did. There was … Read more
In Doriath, Galadriel faces a question far more dangerous than any demand for names or dates. Melian wants to know why the Noldor truly returned to Middle-earth. Galadriel does not lie to her. That is what makes the scene so revealing. She admits that the Noldor came from Aman against the will of the Valar. … Read more
When Bilbo Baggins escapes the Elvenking’s halls in *The Hobbit*, he achieves something remarkable: he gets thirteen imprisoned Dwarves out of captivity without openly fighting their guards. Yet the escape contains a cruel little irony. The Dwarves are shut inside wooden barrels, unable to see where they are going or do anything to help themselves. … Read more
Deep inside Mirkwood, Thorin Oakenshield and his companions discover something almost impossible to resist: warm lights beneath the trees, Elven voices singing, and the promise of food after days of hunger and exhaustion. Yet whenever the travelers attempt to reach the woodland feast, the lights vanish. The singing stops. Darkness closes around them, leaving the … Read more