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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Someone alerted me to the existence of yet another fan film called “One of the Seven,” which naturally enough tells a story about one of the seven rings given to the Dwarves.  But is that really what it’s about?  Or is it just an excuse to drop Easter eggs?

If you want to watch the film yourself, it's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljrq687h2tg

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A viewer asked about how Tolkien came up with Ents, and it’s actually a great example of one of his most-used creative tools.

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A viewer commented on the channel and asked a rather interesting question about how we can reconcile Eru Iluvatar’s essential goodness with the fact that he sank the entire island of Numenor and killed untold numbers of its inhabitants.  While I don’t intend to make a huge argument for theodicy (the defense of God as good in spite of things which might seem to contradict that), I do think I can point to some things which would at least help answer the question while staying true the Tolkien focus of the channel.

My video on The Lost Road is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYQ2ft3r8iA

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Tolkien rather famously based Luthien off of his wife, but there’s a subtle way in which he also inserted himself and Christopher Tolkien into The Lord of the Rings as the collaborative authors, Bilbo and Frodo.

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Suggested by a Discord member (join my Discord using the link below!), I discuss whether Gurthang speaking to Turin is actually a case of a magic, talking sword, or merely the hallucinations of a man whose mind has been broken by the tragedies of his own life.

For other interesting ambiguities in Turin’s story, check out my video on the curse of Morgoth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lROuU1RPDpU

GirlNextGondor also has a great video on the same topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju6KqQvsM9k

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When first encountering the Ring Poem, which lists groups of 9, 7, 3, and 1 rings, we might be tempted to wonder why there isn’t a group of 5, and what race they might have been made for, but this is based on a simple misconception regarding the making of the Rings of Power.

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In this video I review two fan films that both primarily relate to the story of Turin Turambar, but which take very different approaches than you might expect.

To watch Nienor Niniel, go here: https://youtu.be/mHsrCy9xKAE

For The Legend of Gurthang, go here: https://www.jaredbeltfilms.com/the-legend-of-gurthang.html

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