David Rowe (who has appeared on my channel in a criminally underwatched video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOHLbX0u8EI) recently noted on Twitter that while he understood the logic, he still wondered how Gandalf and Elrond knew that the Ring had to be destroyed in Mount Doom.  I thought this made for an engaging question and in this video I address what I think are the reasons for their certainty.

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Now that I’ve covered the basic rules for Elvish (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJNita-4Ujk), we can explore some other rules unique to other languages, like Khuzdul, Black Speech, and the tongue of the Rohirrim!

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Tolkien is famous for creating a sense of history in his Middle-earth Legendarium, but his references to ancient history is only the beginning of how he leads us to want to get more out of his imaginative worlds.

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Years ago I made a video about how to pronounce words in Tolkien’s Middle-earth which was...a bit flawed.  Now I’m redoing that in two videos.  This first video will cover the rules for Elvish words, which forms the groundwork for all the other stuff.  Next week I’ll cover rules for Dwarvish, Adunaic, and other miscellany.

For part 2, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMPIyVQUEPw

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For a story that focuses so little on eating and drinking (outside of the Shire of course!), The Lord of the Rings has quite a few important and seemingly magical beverages, each with its own effects and (often questionable) contents.

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One of Tolkien’s key themes throughout his work is subcreation, the idea that as beings created by a creator God, we (or his invented elves and other races) are also by nature creative.  But there are many hints that the pinnacle of this impulse is actually the simple act of bringing new life into the world.

For my video on subcreation as developed in “On Fairy Stories,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnMG5HhKK50

For my video on subcreation as a theme in Tolkien’s stories, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOpbrkRe3QY

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As a young reader my brain quite naturally correlated Aman, west of Middle-earth (Europe) with America, though I was aware that was not really Tolkien’s intent.  Imagine my surprise to find out he almost went there himself….

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The contrast between book Theoden and movie Theoden could hardly be more striking.  Some of that is related to some plot changes introduced in the movie, but those don’t justify movie Theoden’s whiny attitude and complete lack of sense.

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The Ruling Stewards of Gondor declined to use the standard of the kings and instead used a simple white flag.  What’s the significance of this choice?  Whatever it means, it definitely isn’t surrender.

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