September 01, 2022

42. This Isn’t Freaking Redwall!

1 hour 2 minutes

Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Jared’s choice of topic: food in Middle-earth. As Jared says in his introduction, he was reminded of the subject

when a semi-viral Tolkien tweet went around again claiming that The Lord of

the Rings is in its various parts like the stereotype of recipe blogs: a

lengthy and seeming rambling introduction to an eventual meal. But that’s not

in fact the case, and the wider question of how food – and appetites and

hunger in many different forms – is described by Tolkien in Middle-earth as a

whole raises some interesting questions in turn. (We didn’t even talk about

Smith of Wootton Major, come to think of it!) Where did the idea the tweet

incorrectly claims come from and why do people apply it to Tolkien when it

seems much more apt for the works of other writers? How does evil in general

intersect with questions of appetite and destruction, and are there

differences in how that is applied both in a literal and metaphorical sense?

How does hunger play out in Middle-earth and where, and is it more apparent in

some works than others? And what would be your preferred meal to join in on if

you were given the chance? Also, we have another rather lengthy news section

this time out because a certain series is literally about to premiere mere

hours from now…

Show Notes.

Jared’s

doodle.

Lembas and stew, who wouldn’t want that?

The By-the-Bywater Kitchen

Party! It was great. (Catch

Jared on the next Kitchen Party live on Megaphonic’s Twitch

channel.)

One last Rings of Power

trailer. And it’s

cluuuuuunky. (At this point there are endless features and promo pieces out

and if we tried to track them all we’d seize up.)

TheOneRing.net’s

report about how Alex Jordan has

joined the Warner Bros anime.

The Embracer rights

news, also from TheOneRing.net.

The Marquette University exhibition J. R. R. Tolkien: The Art of the

Manuscript’s home page. Absolutely go if you can get the chance; here’s links to

the three associated lectures and other programming that’s happening.

If you just want to buy the exhibition catalog, here ya

go.

Milwaukee magazine on the exhibition, plus

two

local TV news reports on it.

Bear McCreary’s Rings of Power soundtrack is streaming on all services;

unsurprisingly Amazon’s includes extra

cuts.

The J. A. Bayona interview with io9 with the weird ‘elves are

political, men are melodramatic’ comment.

Insider’s speculation/semi-behind the scenes

piece on Amazon’s financial interest and stances

in the series.

There’s endless recipes for things ‘inspired by’ Tolkien and Middle-earth

online. Tolkien Gateway has a few specific

entries on actual food in

canon, including lembas of course.

Does Redwall have food? Does it

ever.

Kumis!

Ma’amoul! Squid-ink

pasta! Try ‘em all.

Peter Jackson’s Aragorn with the

deer moment from Fellowship.

(It’s at 2:07 in this clip.)

There is indeed a lot out there on fairy tale food as temptation – this 2013

thesis

is almost titled that!

Lembas, Tolkien’s Catholicism and the Eucharist – plenty out there as well!

Here’s an essay/podcast

episode on the matter.

A good chunk of Jackson’s Unexpected Party

sequence from the first Hobbit

film. (Bilbo’s defeated look in his empty pantry is also at 2:07.)

No, really, John Carter

was a very entertaining film.

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By Jared Pechaček, Oriana Scwindt, and Ned Raggett

4.8

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