June 01, 2021

27. The Brita of Middle-earth.

1 hour 3 minutes

Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Jared’s choice of topic: Lothlórien.

Following the necessary but still disastrous journey through Moria, the

Fellowship of the Ring is able to evade pursuing Orcs to journey to this

forested Elf realm, itself thousands of years old as an organized society but

ruled in recent years by Galadriel and Celeborn. Their experiences there are

among the most personal and mysterious of their journey, at once a chance for

recuperation but also a stay in a place that is seemingly out of time’s

general flow—and, per various comments by Galadriel, increasingly out of time

in general. Aragorn firmly rebukes Boromir’s unease at their journey by saying

those who visit the land return ‘not unscathed but….unchanged,’ yet the nature

of such an experience and the land itself are among the most elusive moments

in Tolkien’s work. What does it mean that Tolkien himself, through the

narrative personae of the hobbits’ eyes (and, in one memorable sequence, their

other senses), seems to reach the limits of descriptive language when

outlining Lothlórien? How do the borders function in demarcating Lothlórien

from the outside world, and what do those elements suggest about the society

that has evolved there? What can be made of the suggestions of ecological and

political colonialism at play in the origins of Lothlórien, which Tolkien only

explored in more detail after completing The Lord of the Rings? And besides

his other seemingly amorphous at best qualities, why is Celeborn terrible at

place names?

Show Notes.

Jared’s

doodle. But

you’ll have to imagine Nimrodel’s voice yourself.

Sergio Agüero does indeed have tengwar on his arm. But Fernando

Torres

is the real nerd.

Lothlorien

Apartments! Flets not an option.

Charlotte Brändström joins the directing squad for Amazon.

This show is never coming out, is it.

Ludi Lin isn’t wrong, really.

Specifically, the pilot was called Babylon 5: The

Gathering, and it was

indeed a lot earlier than the full show.

Lothlórien indeed. A place,

a state of mind, somewhere neither here nor there?

Our episode on Galadriel (and

Celeboring).

The Tolkien zine Ned was talking about is the still-going Beyond

Bree. (The one he forgot to discuss further is

Vinyar Tengwar.)

Peter Jackson and team really did a great job with Caras

Galadhon, no lie. And again,

all hail Liz Fraser.

The earlier Lórien

(and yes, the Vala’s name is Irmo).

Kievan Rus is an intriguing

society for sure, but yes, that origin story seems...convenient.

The various Elf kindreds are their own involved tangle, and Silvan

Elves and the

Sindar and the

Noldor did all take different paths…

Ned got the forest in Beleriand wrong—that’s Taur-im-Duinath.

Maedhros, Amrod and Amras fan art showing off the red hair? Oh it’s

there.

Eurovision is great, Italy’s winning

entry this year was great, but yeah,

Ukraine. (And totally

separately, Iceland.)

Someone is WRONG on the Internet.

Mallorns! Or, as Tolkien (and Jared)

note, mellyrn.

Ecological or environmental

colonialism is no joke.

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By Jared Pechaček, Oriana Scwindt, and Ned Raggett

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