This week, adaptation. Tolkien originally envisioned his legendarium as a mythology to which other writers and artists could contribute. How, in the world of intellectual property and licensing agreements, are adaptations handled? What separates the good from the bad? Where do we go from here?

Thanks to William for the question! 

Show Notes

• "'Lord of the Rings’: Amazon and Tolkien Estate Win Copyright Lawsuit Over TV Show, Copycat Book" (Variety)
• The Hobbit Pub, Southampton
• The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024)
• The Hobbit (1977)
• The Lord of the Rings (1978)
• The Return of the King (1980)
• The Lord of the Rings (1981, BBC Radio)
• The Hobbit (1982, Melbourne House)
• Moria (1983)
• The Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale
• "Tolkien: The Monsters and the Fascists" (Tom Hillman)
• “An Incomplete Academic Fellowship: Excluding Queer Feminist Women from Tolkien Studies” (Robin Reid)
• “Of their women we hear less”: Pride and Prejudice in the tale of ‘Aldarion and Erendis.’ (Sara Brown)

Shire Reckoning is a Next Word production. For bonus episodes and to support the show, visit Patreon.com/NextWord.

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Music by Corvus from Pixabay.  

This week, we reach the turning point in Bilbo's career in Riddles in the Dark, Chapter Five of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. How is Gollum presented in the first and second editions? What can we learn from the riddles? How quickly does the Ring begin to influence Bilbo, and what are the limits of its power?

Unfortunately, the video from this week's live session was lost to a technical issue, but the slides are available for download by clicking here. You can see the images of Gollum, as rendered by artists from around the world, by clicking here.

Show Notes:

• Shire Reckoning Production Schedule
• The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
• Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit (Corey Olsen)

Shire Reckoning is a Next Word production. For bonus episodes and to support the show, visit Patreon.com/NextWord.

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Music by Corvus from Pixabay.

This week, the Aragorn, son of Arathorn. How was Aragorn first envisioned in the text? Why is he so influential as a character? Would he be even cooler with big wooden shoes?

Show Notes

• The Peoples of Middle-earth (Christopher Tolkien)
• The Seventh Doctor
• Severance
• Fringe
• "No One Listens to Melian: When Women Speak and Men Ignore Them in Middle-earth" (Sara Brown)

Shire Reckoning is a Next Word production. For bonus episodes and to support the show, visit Patreon.com/NextWord.

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Music by Corvus from Pixabay. 

This week, we face the greatest danger in the Misty Mountains in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. What are the qualities of the border between the West and the Wild? Why do the goblins sing? Are the giants real, really real, or just metaphorically real?

Show Notes:

• The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
• The History of the Hobbit (John Ratliffe)
• The Road to Middle-earth (Tom Shippey)
• Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit (Corey Olsen)
• Wagner And Tolkien: Mythmakers (Renée Vink)

Shire Reckoning is a Next Word production. For bonus episodes and to support the show, visit Patreon.com/NextWord.

Follow Shire Reckoning on YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.

Music by Corvus from Pixabay.

This week, the paradoxical comforts of the Shire. How did it come into being, and how did the hobbits settle there? How does if embody and reject the vision of a nostalgic, nationalist England? And how long is the High Hay anyway?

Show Notes

• The Pyrates (George MacDonald Fraser)
• The Return of the Shadow (The History of Middle-earth)
• Shire Reckoning
• "The Gods Return to Earth: C.S. Lewis’ Review of The Fellowship of the Ring"
• "Tolkien Tuesday: Tolkien, Landscape Archaeology, and the First Age of Middle-earth"
• “The Lady’s Gift! The Star-glass! A Light to You in Dark Places, She Said it Was To Be.”
• The Lord of the Rings Deluxe Illustrated Box Set

Shire Reckoning is a Next Word production. For bonus episodes and to support the show, visit Patreon.com/NextWord.

Follow Shire Reckoning on YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.

Music by Corvus from Pixabay. 

This week, we pause for prophecy at the Last Homely House in chapter three of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. Is Elrond who he seems to be? What are the elves singing about? How much magic is evident in the moon-letters?

Show Notes:

• The History of the Hobbit (John Ratliffe)
• The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Shire Reckoning is a Next Word production. For bonus episodes and to support the show, visit Patreon.com/NextWord.

Follow Shire Reckoning on YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.

Music by Corvus from Pixabay.

This week, the many mysteries of dwarves in Tolkien's legendarium. How do the dwarfs of Old Norse myth become the Longbeards of Khazad-dûm? What does the film trilogy get wrong about Gimli? How did dwarves become Scottish, anyway?

Show Notes

The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two
Three Hearts and Three Lions (Poul Anderson)
Magician (Raymond E. Feist)
"Dwarves are Not Heroes": Antisemitism and the Dwarves in J.R.R. Tolkien's Writing (Rebecca Brackmann)
Professor Tolkien in the Botanic Garden, Oxford, 1973
Tales Of The Shire: A The Lord Of The Rings Game
It's been a rough decade for Lord of The Rings games (Polygon)
Tolkien’s Greek Horsemen (Thoughts on Tolkien)
Society calls for Tolkien to feature on a new bank note (Tolkien Society)
The Rings Of Power Season 3 Enters Production As Amazon Teases Sauron’s Return (Empire)

Shire Reckoning is a Next Word production. For bonus episodes and to support the show, visit Patreon.com/NextWord.

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Music by Corvus from Pixabay. 

This week, we continue our discussion of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, looking at the second chapter: trolls and talking purses, the Took and Baggins fighting for control of Bilbo, and the form of the fairytale. 

Show Notes:

• The History of the Hobbit (John Ratliffe)
• The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Shire Reckoning is a Next Word production. For bonus episodes and to support the show, visit Patreon.com/NextWord.

Follow Shire Reckoning on YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.

Music by Corvus from Pixabay.

This week, heroes and heroism in The Lord of the Rings. How do we react to arcs, or the absence of arcs? Is success a means of measuring the worth of a hero? Who gets the best arc in the whole book? Is Merry more of a Squirtle, or a Bulbasaur?

Show Notes

• The Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins (Leonard Nimoy)
• Leaf By Niggle
• The Lord of the Rings Set, all 1st Printings of the 1st Edition (Abebooks)
• Pauline Baynes
• The Bovadium Fragments
• Burns & Co.
• The Mythmakers (John Hendrix)
• Goblins! (Adam Roberts)
• A Princess illustrates The Lord of the Rings: Ingahild Grathmer, Eric Fraser and the Folio Society 

Shire Reckoning is a Next Word production. For bonus episodes and to support the show, visit Patreon.com/NextWord.

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Music by Corvus from Pixabay. 

This week, we read the first chapter of The Hobbit, and discuss the introduction of Bilbo, the temporary permanence of The Shire, the value of the unreliable narrator, and the (speculative) adventures of Belladonna Took.

Show Notes:
Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit (Corey Olsen)
The Annotated Hobbit (Douglas A. Anderson)
The History of the Hobbit (John Ratliffe)

Shire Reckoning is a Next Word production. For bonus episodes and to support the show, visit Patreon.com/NextWord.

Follow Shire Reckoning on YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.

Music by Corvus from Pixabay.