Free Republic

A discussion of Bree's significance and probable history in the Third Age. [ Published prior to the first Lord Of The Rings movie ] Strange as news from Bree...Word has it that we won't see much of Bree in Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movies. Bree is the little village east of the Shire where Frodo and his companions meet up with Aragorn (who is known there as Strider). I expect most of the Bree scenes will deal with how the Hobbits come to travel with the Ranger, and the movie will just move on. Will we even see...

A Tolkien Virgin: Of The Coming of Elves and the Captivity of Melkorby Mark-Edmond The Journey ContinuesThe thing that first struck me about this section is the creation of the Orcs. Tolkien has done something brilliant here. He established with Aule that none of the Ainor or Valar could create beings--things that exist apart from their creator. Illuvatar alone can truly create beings. So in order for Melkor to have a race of followers, he takes elves and breeds them into hideous creatures--the Orcs. For the Orcs to be descended from Elves is really a fascinating concept. If Tokien is...

A History of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, Part 2 [ Part three is the source notes as annotated in the article.  The appropriate source notes have instead been added to the end of the other two parts for consolidation]This is the final article concerning the war of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. The article was originally written for the Tolkien journal Arda. Part 1 covered events leading up to the war. Special thanks to Rick House, who provided comments and suggestions when the article was written in 1996. The actual war began with the assault...

A History of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, Part 1[ Part three is the source notes as annotated in the article.  The appropriate source notes have instead been added to the end of the other two parts for consolidation]In 1996 the editor of the journal Arda asked me to contribute some of my research to a twelfth volume which has, to my knowledge, never been published. I chose the war of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men as my topic because no one had really ever done a full treatment of the subject.It remains, to my knowledge,...

(Meena Apsa ho Ambarenya: Tyava ai Randa Lo Nelde)In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and a nasty oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy-hole with nothing to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. -- J.R.R. Tolkien (from The Hobbit) And that means food. Hobbits love to eat, six times a day if they can get it, and they love to have 'transportable' food, so as never to go hungry. There are desserts and beverages aplenty...

Speaking of Legolas... I decided to set myself a challenge and write something about Legolas which hasn't been said before. There seems to be a lot of curiosity about this Elf. People want to know all sorts of things about him, such as what color was his hair, who was his mother, when was he born, was he at the Battle of Five Armies?If someone were to produce a television series based on the Fellowship of the Ring (the company, not the book), they would have to come up with their own history for Legolas. The inevitable exploration of each...

Celeborn UnpluggedEvery now and then, someone asks me to speak up for Celeborn. He is, perhaps, the most maligned and misunderstood of Tolkien's characters. Many people consider the silver-haired Lord of Lorien to be oafish or even foolish. Why? Basically because of one sentence uttered by Galadriel.And now the sabers of rationalization begin to rattle in their sheathes. "Oh, but he doesn't actually do anything in the book!" his detractors say. Like, Galadriel gets off her royal duff and does something? Sorry. That Warg won't howl. Neither character accomplishes much in the story. They both accomplish a great deal in...