Alas, not me

At the beginning of Book 4, in the chapter called "The Taming of Sméagol," there's a beautifully subtle little touch, a single...

Recently I was asked to present a 30 minute talk on the first five chapters of Book 4 of The Lord of the Rings . (When? Later in the summer....

The 2026 Tolkien Conference Switzerland , organized by the University of Zurich, the University of Lausanne, and Friedrich Schiller Universi...

I was reading Charles Williams' 1945 novel All Hallows' Eve  yesterday morning. It's a rather spooky story, the first chapter of...

So I was reading Tolkien et la mémoire de l'antiquité , or Tolkien and the Memory of Antiquity . It's a recent very interesting book...

At the end of last year I shared a post on how The Digital Tolkien Project helps my work, in particular in studying the story of Túrin as ...

In The Book of Lost Tales  the narrator of Túrin's story says of his choosing to pursue the orcs who had taken Failivrin (Finduilas) cap...

 ‘I cannot read the fiery letters,’ said Frodo in a quavering voice.  ‘No,’ said Gandalf, ‘but I can. The letters are Elvish, of an anc...

The scene in The Two Towers where Gollum comes back down the stairs of Cirith Ungol to find Frodo and Sam asleep is remarkable for many reas...

Tolkien speaks of (some of) the names the island we mostly call Númenor in three different versions of "The Fall of Númenor," and ...

Lately, I've spent a fair amount of time reading, outlining, and thinking about Tolkien's famous letter (# 131) to Milton Waldman of...

  War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor...

Upon meeting Merry and Pippin, Treebeard exchanges names with them. As he does so, he teaches them about the connection between the name of ...

Before I retired I listened to several podcasts while driving back and forth to work. For me, driving seemed the best time. Now I don't ...