Happy Halloween from middle-Earth! In this episode we're exploring some of the season's traditional tropes as they appear in Tolkien's stories.

Show Notes

We conclude our discussion of Appendix A of the Lord of the Rings with the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen. We talk about what Aragorn is up to in the 30 years preceding the Hobbit, his tragic lineage, and his complicated relationship with the Lord of the Last Homely House.

In celebration of Tolkien Week, we're pleased to release our second episode two weeks early! In this, the first of two episodes about Appendix A of the Lord of the Rings, we discuss the first section "The Numenorean Kings", and how the appendix opens up the Lord of the Rings to the wider legendarium like the Silmarillion.

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (amazon link)

In this, our first episode, your hosts introduce themselves, and then dive right in as we explore Tolkien’s 1939 lecture “On Fairy Stories”, a fundamental work in Tolkien Studies, but one often overlooked by the wider Tolkien fandom. In it, Tolkien issues a sort of mission statement on why he considers fantasy important.

Where can you read OFS?

Show Notes:

Verlyn Flieger’s introduction to On Fairy Stories

Bibliography of Verlyn Flieger

Mythgard Institute

History of the Hobbit by John D. Rateliff