By-The-Bywater: A Podcast about All Things J.R.R. Tolkien

Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Jared’s choice of topic: Beowulf. The famed Old English poem, the longest extant poetic work in general preserved in that language, almost accidentally survived over the years until it became more widely recognized in the 1700s, including surviving a fire. It has since become a cornerstone of studies of English literature, telling the story of a heroic Geat warrior who defeats two monstrous presences on a visit to an afflicted Danish kingdom, and who in later years as an aging king slays a dragon at the cost of his life and, it is strongly implied, his kingdom’s. Tolkien knew the work thoroughly and regularly taught it in his academic career, leading to both a prose translation and various notes and commentaries that Christopher Tolkien presented and edited for a 2015 publication. But besides the notable connections that can be made between the poem and elements of his own legendarium, Tolkien has a further place in Beowulf scholarship thanks to his most famed academic work, the 1936 lecture “Beowulf: The Monsters and The Critics,” which single-handedly reframed the poem from being primarily seen as a historical document to being considered as a remarkable work of imagination. What are some of the key differences between Beowulf’s world and ethos and Tolkien’s own reworking of it into his legendarium, in terms of character, society and more? What points does Tolkien bring up in his lecture that provides a deeper insight into how he was not only arguing for the Beowulf poet – whoever it might be – but also placing his own work into that lineage? How do the portrayals of the various monsters Beowulf faces differ, and what in particular makes Grendel’s mother such a fascinating character? And how many moments per episode are points raised and then suddenly realized to be maybe not accurate? (Sorry about that.) Show Notes. Jared’s doodle. Gotta be careful with dragons. Ooooooh boy, the angst this Fellowship of Fans post unleashed in some corners when it came to Rings of Power rumors. (On a side note, RoP’s Morfydd Clark is in the new two part Agatha Christie Murder is Easy adaptation on Britbox and is unsurprisingly really good!) The whole Matthew Weiner spoiler-war thing re Mad Men was a thing. Was it ever a thing. Here’s a sample. Beowulf! You might have heard of it. Plenty of translations freely available, and of course there’s Seamus Heaney and Maria Dahvana Headley and etc. And yes there’s Tolkien’s too. “HWAET!” (Tolkien allegedly really loved to get his students’ attention by delivering this full on.) If you haven’t read “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics,” we really do encourage this. (And picking up the full essay anthology too, key pieces like “A Secret Vice” and “On Fairy-Stories” are included among others.) Kennings are very cool. (But please avoid ‘whale road.’) Imagining Tolkien delivering this to the other Beowulf critics is something wild to think about. There’s a wide variety of pieces about the women of Beowulf out there; here’s one that provides a general summary and consideration about them. If you’d like to see the Nowell Codex, head on over to the British Library, physically or virtually. We’ve mentioned E. R. Eddison before. Definitely NOT Tolkien. The full historical background that Beowulf draws on is definitely there, though treating the poem as a history itself is not the way to go. Here’s a useful piece tackling the history as such. The Geats aren’t around as such anymore, and there are reasons for that… It’s not directly mentioned in the episode but Tolkien did write and lecture about one of the ‘side’ stories in Beowulf, with the results published in the book Finn and Hengest. Did we mention we’re not impressed with Silicon Valley’s take on Tolkien? Grendel’s mother is, no question, awesome. Kenneth Grahame’s “The Reluctant Dragon” – definitely not Smaug. “Sellic Spell” really is interesting, and may be the most notable part of the volume it’s published in. Michael Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead! (But avoid The 13th Warrior.) A last little bonus: didn’t bring it up in the episode but Ned remembered seeing Robert Macneil’s 1986 documentary series on PBS The Story of English back when it first ran, and the second episode, “The Mother Tongue,” has a brief bit discussing Beowulf and how it might have been performed as a song, as well as a separate section on the impact of the Viking invasions on English as a language led by noted Tolkien scholar and academic descendant Tom Shippey. Support By-The-Bywater (and our network) on Patreon, and you can hang out with us in a friendly Discord.

Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Oriana’s choice of topic: Silicon Valley’s misinterpretation and fetishization of Tolkien. Tolkien of course lived in a time where computers were mostly huge rooms containing one machine or two that he doubtless considered little more than another example of why the industrial age didn’t suit his mindset on many fronts. But in the half-century since his death the PC era up through smartphones and TikTok have made the industry one of the biggest and most influential in the world – which is the problem. The issues discussed are hardly limited to them but two of its most well-known and notorious avatars in recent years, Peter Thiel and his protege Palmer Luckey, have among other things named various businesses of questionable use and worth (at best) after characters and terms from Tolkien’s legendarium as part of their general quest to own everything and be everywhere whether one likes it or not. There is, however, the small problem that they think they might be Aragorns when it’s much more accurate to call them Saruman and Wormtongue. What are the roots of Thiel’s own particular worldview in particular, shaped by colonial legacies of the kind that Tolkien himself notably loathed? What are the various poisonous ironies of naming particular businesses after certain Tolkien-derived terms considering their original meaning and what they now represent? Can the Tolkien Estate themselves actually do anything about the use and misuse of such terms to start with? And why in the world did Thiel think that a good choice of quote from Tolkien was in fact a quote from an original Rankin-Bass song instead? Show Notes. Jared’s doodle. Remember, the idea is to NOT be this kind of person. Queen Margrethe bows out, and hey, why not enjoy retirement? One of various pieces on Margrethe’s Tolkien illustrations, with some relevant samples. We share TheOneRing.net’s piece mentioned for reasons of completeness. Our eyes remain gimlet. Never invent the torment nexus. Peter Thiel. Great. Just great. The biography Oriana and Jared read for the episode was Max Chafkin’s The Contrarian. Techno-fascism! RETVRN! Terms that should not exist but here we are. Umberto Eco’s “Ur-Fascism” is worth your time. Palantir Technologies. Oh, how lovely. Human rights, what are those! And why are they even slightly involved with the NHS? (Beyond Tories being Tories.) Palmer Luckey. Another piece of work, for fun! Founder of Anduril Industries, about which this 2018 Wired article reveals more maybe than anyone involved intended. Ah, Ready Player One and Ernest Cline. We’re…not fans. If you want to know our thoughts on “The Greatest Adventure” and more besides, enjoy our Rankin-Bass Hobbit episode… That whole taking your money with you when you die thing, jeez. Mother Jones with the details. As Ned said, go the Chinese burial money route instead. The Last Ringbearer aka the Russian LOTR revamp, as we’ve referred to before. Wicked the book is not Wicked the musical. (Soon to be Wicked the movie musical.) Tim Alberta’s book, which probably isn’t light nighttime reading, is The Kingdom, The Power and the Glory. This excerpt mentioned focuses on his father’s church; the further anecdote recalled is from another piece elsewhere, possibly by Alberta. Tolkien Gateway has some of the further details from Unfinished Tales on palantir technology as such. The TechCrunch article about Anduril Industries’s rather paranoid geopolitical dreams. Quick reminder about our orcs episode and the various issues that crop up with them. (Plus the Scouring of the Shire episode.) Blood in the Machine by Brian Merchant takes a proper historical look at the Luddites as part of a meditation on labor and Big Tech in the present. Thiel buying his New Zealand citizenship was not great! At least James Cameron put in the time and actually did stuff. Support By-The-Bywater through our network, Megaphonic, on Patreon! You can hang out with us in a friendly little Discord if you do.

Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Ned’s choice of topic: The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Following the publication of his official biography of Tolkien, Humphrey Carpenter worked with Christopher Tolkien to edit and present a selection of Tolkien’s letters across the decades, originally appearing in Containing both a large swathe of personal detail about his life as an aspiring academic and young father, then an established professor and finally an increasingly popular author, it also presented a large amount of background information on Middle-earth via his exchanges with publishers, writers and readers, including some long letters that have remained touchstones of information on his creative process since. In late 2023, a new edition was published, which featured the entirety of the original selection that Carpenter and Christopher had created but had to trim down for initial publication, revealing various new facets of interest in particular about his own personal beliefs and philosophies across time. What areas of Tolkien’s life remain relatively undiscussed or absent from the presented letters, and what can we deduce from the estate’s choices to possibly not let that material be shared out? How do the ‘new’ letters in particular fill out our understanding of Tolkien’s Catholic beliefs, especially in the context of mass and creative culture? Is there something to be said in how Tolkien may have changed or otherwise introduced more nuance into some of his more sweeping statements about women in his private correspondence as he aged, especially in contrast to his fellow Inklings? And finally, who wouldn’t want to be the fly on the wall for that conversation between Tolkien, Robert Graves and Ava Gardner? Show Notes. Jared’s doodle. Something about a lovely start to a letter… Remember, join the Megaphonic Patreon! Listen to us and everyone else talk about the movie musical Scrooge! (Spoiler: we were not pleased.) Did we mention preordering Jared’s book? Let’s mention it again. Here’s preorder info for that British Library talk on Twenty First Century Tolkien. Looks like it could be good! In which writing an unauthorized sequel to The Lord of the Rings further goes askew. Demetrious Polychron really, really does try. But. Our Dennis McKiernan/Silver Call duology episode. It really is better in comparison! Ah, cotillions. Look, you want them, have them, but maybe not around the Shire? AO3…waits. The letters! (New edition that is!) It is a very, very thick book. Letter 131 is a doozy! These days it’s most often seen appended to the more recent edition of The Silmarillion. That withdrawn article on Edith Bratt, as much as remains in the journal listing. Who knows? Zero inbox, the blessed and unachievable state. Worth briefly noting The Tolkien Family Album, written and presented by John (the younger) and Priscilla Tolkien. Vatican II’s impact is still very much with us… The Power Broker once again. (Consider our episode on evil.) Yeahhhhhh the Spanish Civil War. Not pretty at all. Tolkien and anarchism, there’s a lot of talk about that out there. (Tolkien balancing out anarchism and monarchism? Somehow he did it…) As for the Shire as society and what it does or doesn’t have, consider our episode (and the Gollum one with the murder mystery!) The Song of Bernadette! It really hit Tolkien hard, this film. (Vincent Price in fact played “Vital Dutour, Imperial Prosecutor” but he would have been a great Mary.) And hey if you ever want to visit Lourdes… Milton and Tolkien would have been at total odds in terms of religion but they absolutely agreed on the joy of sex. (Do a search for the line “This said unanimous, and other rites” and read further.) Our episode on Aldarion and Erendis. Still a remarkable story. Gloria Steinem as a Tolkien correspondent, that’s a vision. C.S Lewis and women…well THAT’S a subject. The 1955 radio version of The Lord of the Rings is lost as noted but as the Wikipedia entry notes, the script itself survives at least. As for the 1968 radio Hobbit adaptation, indeed curious that there’s nothing from Tolkien about it… Robert Graves! Was he a snack in his youth, Sigurd-like? Hey, you be the judge. Ava Gardner! Pretty awesome, really. (And she did live in the UK for the last decades of her life so why not attend an Oxford lecture?) One of John Scalzi’s various posts talking about the idea of ‘convention famous.’ Makes total sense! Again, consider supporting our network, Megaphonic, to help us make the show, and to join us on a friendly little Discord! Thank you if you do.

Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss their collective choice of topic: Peter Jackson’s version of The Return of the King. It’s been twenty years since the conclusion of Jackson’s three-film effort to adapt the entire Lord of the Rings was released, and it was easily the biggest profile release of the series, coming in with massive interest and attention, setting a variety of box office records in the process along with gaining widespread critical acclaim. It all resulted in a series of worldwide film awards and honors culminating with a famed clean sweep of Oscar wins including best picture, resulting in a tie with Titanic and Ben-Hur with eleven Oscars total but also the only one of those three films to literally win every category it was nominated for, a combined record that still stands. The film’s general impact and that of the series as a whole is at this point undeniable, but how it holds up in a look back, caught somewhat between Fellowship’s own unquestionable triumph and Two Towers’s more stop-and-go successes, warrants its own discussion. What are the many changes made to the tangled relationship between Frodo, Sam and Gollum, and how does that play out as a result for both the film and the wider themes? How does the use of practical models and actual landscapes feed into the feeling of how the film both landed in the moment and held up upon later rewatching, even while it was also the biggest demonstration yet of the possibilities for CGI with massive military clashes and the like? Is it possible to actually lose count of just how many remarkable moments on a grand scale exist throughout the film, even as there are various “well, but…” caveats and questions to raise along the way? How has the whole series of film changed both the perceptions of Tolkien and the film industry in general? And how many endings are there, after all? (Surprise! It never ended, it’s running somewhere in a theater right now, maybe.) Show Notes. Jared’s doodle. And that’s another epic trilogy down. (The earlier entries here and here.) Hurrah for the SAG-AFTRA strike ending and better (not perfect!) terms won. Our episode on evil. Evil! TheOneRing.net report on the return of the Eagle & Child pub. Jason Horowitz’s New York Times story about that Italian Tolkien exhibition encouraged by Italy’s favorite fascists. Sorry, did we say the quiet part out loud? (In the Guardian, Jamie Mackey with more context.) Our episodes on Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, with lots of notes about the series as a whole so we won’t repeat everything here… The sole trailer for The Return of the King. But that’s all they needed. Trilogy Tuesday! It was a crazy time and it was great. Here’s a photo of the all-day pass given out, and here’s an example of that film frame memento given out as well. The opening scene is really something, no lie. Friendly little worm there. The screenwriting guru Ned mentions is Robert McKee – per Brian Sibley’s Peter Jackson biography, McKee had come to Wellington, New Zealand to give one of his lectures in 1988, and the New Zealand Film Commission invited Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and future contributing screenwriter for The Two Towers Stephen Sinclair to it and they all apparently took it very much to heart. So a long term impact but even so. The opening exchange between Sam, Frodo and Gollum. Really are some beautifully shot moments in this sequence. Oh did Christopher Lee have things to say in the run-up to the theatrical release. Our episode on the Rankin-Bass Return of the King. It is NOT very good. Yeah yeah the Arwen vision and Arwen dying and…well whatever. But boy that introduction to Minas Tirith. THAT’S how to make an entrance. And the beacons sequence, wow, still. Time zone issues aside. For examples of the Gondor theme earlier on in the series, skip ahead to about a minute into this clip. Ride the Empire Builder! If you like. Hurrah for John Noble (and hurrah for Fringe). Skip ahead three minutes for “The rule of Gondor is MINE!” moment, and the parting between Denethor and Faramir, phew. Minas Morgul, a triumph of John Howe design, glowing and clamped. (The skybeam is the skybeam but the sonic buildup rules.) The Holdo maneuver (it really was great, like the film itself) When Theoden and Eowyn part at Dunharrow, boy that’ll ruin ya. That’s two good actors very much in the moment. When Aragorn and Eowyn part at Dunharrow, it is very…shippy. “...and Rohan will answer!” Perfect. “The stars are veiled.” Are they, Legolas? Oh you know the Shelob scene. You know. “The Edge of Night” sequence is unnerving, beautiful and horribly sad. The Nazgul as the angels of death, in essence. However petty. Grond! It is great design for sure, plus armored trolls. Gothmog isn’t bothered with your petty trebuchets. The Ride of the Rohirrim. No notes. But here come the mumakil… “I am no man!” Yeah, it rules. Air Bud, the lingua franca of us all. That crazy Witch-king mace. Gotta love it. And indeed skip ahead to the end of the clip for that mumak takedown by the scrubbing bubbles. Plus Tracy Jordan with the wisdom. It still only counts as one, we guess. Sam finds Frodo in Cirith Ungol – it’s a good moment! “On this good earth!” (Well, maybe not GREAT earth.) “I can carry you!” A beautiful sequence, no doubt. The Crack of Doom. Great acting moments, wonderful moment for Gollum, but not over the cliff again… And yeah when Mount Doom completely explodes… Will they? Won’t they? A great way to do individual bows via a movie. “You bow to NO one.” (Cue big emotions.) A wordless toast indeed. And a pumpkin. (And a case of the not gays.) The Grey Havens sends us off. It really is a great Turner-inspired scene. “Into the West” and the end credit portraits. Great job Annie. (The young filmmaker who passed was Cameron Duncan, to correct Ned there.) The Triplets of Belleville is a real treat, see it when you can. Enjoy all the Oscar wins! Ah yes the Eragon movie. Welp. And the Chronicles of Narnia tried. But. (Good luck Greta!) This ran after the episode was recorded but the LA Times had a piece on the movie anniversary and its impact, especially in New Zealand itself. Our Rings of Power and Hobbit films episodes have more about our general qualms there. Want to hear those exclusive podcasts we’re talking about on Megaphonic? Join the Patreon! And you can check out Kitchen Party here.

Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Oriana’s choice of topic: the Noldor. Also termed the Deep-elves and, in early versions of the legendarium, the Gnomes – thankfully changed given unavoidable associations – they were one of the three ethnicities of the Eldar in general, the first Children of Iluvatar. As compared to the serene Vanyar and the many generally lower-key societies of the Teleri, the Noldor were the ones most driven by the desire to create and to learn about the world in general, though these tendencies, exacerbated by Melkor in his Valinorean captivity and the internal family strife of their royal house, resulted in all the many deeds of fame in Middle-earth on the one hand but also their near total destruction and eventual fading away on the other. By the time of The Lord of the Rings, only small societies and remnants were left, casting an influence on the course of events but not directing them. What can we learn from the stories of the women of the Noldor in particular, not just Galadriel but other figures such as Fëanor’s mother Míriel and his wife Nerdanel or the Nargothrond princess Finduilas? What throughlines did Tolkien suggest in terms of how the Noldor both seemed the most human of the Elves as well as being driven by the same ambiguous creative impulses that haunted any number of beings in the legendarium? How does the decision to keep them from the center of the many arcs of The Lord of the Rings help shape the book into being the story that it is? And just how much of an obsessive creative type do you have to be to not only devise the writing system for your culture but to insist on sticking to a particular pronunciation because you’re still mad about how things ended up with your family? Show Notes. Jared’s doodle. Plus a bonus Galadriel-as-Carmen Miranda sketch. (The episode provides context. Sorta.) Negotiations, negotiations. The SAG-AFTRA strike has a lot of it. The new edition of the letters will be out in mid-November. Holly Ordway’s book Tolkien’s Faith. The Bandcamp Daily story on Jim Kirkwood and his early Tolkien-inspired work. Some details on Starve Acre, the new Morfydd Clark/Mat Smith folk horror film. I mean if you WANT the Tolkien Gateway definition of the Noldor… Recommending the Andy Serkis reading of The Silmarillion once more! Our episode on Galadriel. Turgon via Tolkien Gateway; relatedly, our episode on The Fall of Gondolin. Gildor Inglorion, a truly fascinating character, as is Voronwë. Míriel and Nerdanel – and they have stories that were not fully told… Glorfindel seems like he’s about to be a major character in The Lord of the Rings…and then he’s not! We discussed the Kinslaying as part of our episode on evil. Ah yes, The Shibboleth of Fëanor. Boy this is nuts. And great at the same time. Then there’s the Oath of Fëanor. Maybe review the language first before you sign a contract. Our episodes on “Leaf by Niggle” (as part of Tree and Leaf) and Smith of Wootton Major. Finduilas – again, would be good to learn more about her! See also our episode on The Children of Húrin. And yes The Wheel of Time is really good. Really! Support By-The-Bywater and our network, Megaphonic, on Patreon, and hang out with us in a friendly Discord!

Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Ned’s choice of topic: The Notion Club Papers. Written in 1945 during a creative pause in completing the final third of The Lord of the Rings, The Notion Club Papers found Tolkien on familiar ground, creating a set of purported notes from regular club meetings among a group of Oxford professors much like himself and his fellow members of the famed Inklings. While not advancing beyond a couple of drafts and far from complete, the papers tell first of a professor who, due to a discussion on how spacecraft would work in science fiction, avers he has himself been able to travel in dreams through the reaches of space and meet other minds before returning to earth. One initially skeptical member over time then tells of his own unusual dream experiences, building up to a sudden moment during a massive storm where he invokes the language and imagery of the downfall of Númenor, in much the same fashion as The Lost Road did nearly a decade prior; related manuscripts found Tolkien revisiting the Númenorean story in particular, as well as speaking in detail about his invented language for the society. How does the novel’s complicated structure work creatively, if at all, and is there something there that could have been developed further in later drafts? What does it mean that Tolkien seemed most at ease exploring the possible sources of his own creativity in such a second-hand fashion, even if the means by which he did so ended up being incredibly insular? What were the contemporary sources and inspirations for this effort among his fellow Inklings and beyond, and are there any parallels he acknowledges or, perhaps notably, ignores? And who wouldn’t want to talk over the evident problems of medieval life while getting a haircut from Norman Keeps? Show Notes. Jared’s doodle. This is why it’s important to check the insulation on your windows. And indeed the WGA strike did end soon after we recorded our episode. SAG strike still ongoing for the moment! More from the Lord of the Rings musical revival, and who knows where it will go… Amazon’s plans for ads for Prime Video, great. Lovely. Couldn’t agree with that more. Yup. News about the Tales Of The Shire game and we are very curious indeed! Yeah that whole Warren Beatty Dick Tracy thing. There are indeed skeletons in Stardew Valley. (The upcoming game Ned mentioned is Wytchwood.) The Notion Club Papers! We recommend at least a little caffeine before reading. Knowing a little about the Inklings will not hurt at all when it comes to the Notion Club Papers. Socratic dialogue can indeed be rollicking. Our episode on “A Secret Vice.” Thomas Pynchon is out there and is happy not to be recognized. That Hideous Strength concludes the Space Trilogy by taking a Charles Williams direction (though as Jared notes, not very successfully). If you haven’t seen Inspector Morse just ask a relative who still watches PBS a lot. (Because they’ve likely been watching Endeavour.) Interstellar is trippy, man. (In a formal Nolany way, but still.) The Great Storm of 1987 as reported on UK TV. “The Call of Cthulhu” is probably Lovecraft’s most well known story. And boy does it have problems too! C. S. Lewis’s “The Dark Tower” is a weirdly fascinating fragment, while An Experiment With Time by J. W. Dunne was a reference point for both Lewis and Tolkien in these works. Ringu aka The Ring, which of course has nothing to do with a certain other ring. We think. Monty Python’s Constitutional Peasants, one of their most perfect moments. David Lindsay’s A Voyage to Arcturus Tolkien definitely liked. The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison, rather more mixed. (And relatedly our episode on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.) The Grink! (RIP Twitter, culturally at least, but Bluesky is starting to gel more.) Per Ned’s closing comment, Roger Zelazny’s A Night In The Lonesome October has become a seasonal classic of sorts. (And the Gahan Wilson illustrations inside are a delight.) Support By-The-Bywater through our network, Megaphonic, on Patreon and hang out with us in a friendly little Discord!

Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Jared’s choice of topic: The Lost Road. In 1937, Tolkien agreed to C.S. Lewis’s suggestion to try to write the kind of stories they enjoyed but didn’t see good examples of to their liking. Lewis’s efforts turned into what has been termed the Space Trilogy, starting with Out Of The Silent Planet. Tolkien’s goal was a time travel story called The Lost Road, but outside of a few chapters and some potential outlines, it never got any further, with the success of The Hobbit and his resulting focus of attention being The Lord Of The Rings stopping any further development. It was eventually published in the Christopher Tolkien-edited series The History of Middle-earth, and was revealed to be a fascinating if very incomplete early conception of what Númenor was, including some of its key protagonists and antagonists at the time of its fall. How much does the story’s self-evident autobiographical angle play into how we should regard the surviving chapters, and what do his choices about how to refocus or rewrite the story of his own life suggest in turn? What import do the specifically metaphysical elements of the story have for both Tolkien and his own conception of not only the legendarium but how he regarded language? Building off our previous discussion of the specifically Númenorean chapter in our episode on The Fall of Númenor, what is it about that sequence that is so unusual for Tolkien’s general writing on Middle-earth, and how does it fit within the larger context of this story as it is told, or as much of it as we have? And finally, have you all pre-ordered Jared’s book yet? Really, you should. Show Notes. Jared’s doodle. I mean the whole skull thing is just plain rude. Jared’s novel The West Passage is up for preorders! And you can see the cover art there as well, done by Kuri Huang – check out her work! Elliott Bay Book Company is indeed a great Seattle bookstore, check it out if you’re ever there. Deadline’s report about the rescheduled release of The War Of The Rohirrim, along with TheOneRing.net’s further report also noting the potential production crunch that had been previously looming. (As a compare and contrast, here’s Vulture’s piece on the production nightmare of Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse and Screenrant’s summary of a paywalled Insider article on the much more humane Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem production.) A summary of Embracer’s money sillies. Well well well. The musical revival does seem to have landed rather well! Here’s a fun little promo video, an engaging video review from an attendee, and TheOneRing.net’s own report. (And of course, once more, here’s our own episode on the original production.) The Lost Road! It’s a curio, that’s for sure, but an interesting one even in all its flaws and lacunae. C.S. Lewis’s space trilogy. It’s interesting…if a little uneven, let’s say. As noted at various points, the Númenor chapter was already discussed on its own a bit in our episode on The Fall of Númenor. Want to know something about the Lombardic language? Well there’s always Wikipedia… As for Middle-earth metaphysics, our episodes on The Nature of Middle-earth and the Valar are there for you! The Worm Ouroboros with the framing device with Lessingham. A common trope! Sycld Shefing! He got around. Corn? Maize? Here’s a little more about it. So the actual Alboin was…not pleasant. And you better believe the skull thing was known by later artists. Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Years of Rice and Salt, if you’d like to know more. (And then there’s Harry Turtledove and then etc.) Our “A Secret Vice” episode, considering Tolkien’s compulsion to create languages. Support By-The-Bywater and our network, Megaphonic. Thank you if you do.

Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Oriana’s choice of topic: land. By default the Middle-earth legendarium is about a place that never was, however rooted in the actual planet we live on, and the range of details from sweeping mountains and vast continents to small roads and fields evident throughout the cycle of stories is a key part of what has made Tolkien’s work so vivid and loved. Both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are specifically about journeys as the key plotline, where characters move into spaces that they’d only heard about dimly or not at all as they seek to fulfill their aims. That said, there’s certainly more than this to how Tolkien considers and situates the geography of his creation, including the in-universe explanations of that creation to start with and Melkor’s marring of it. How has Tolkien’s grounding of Middle-earth in the feeling of Northern Europe in general shaped perceptions of fantasy worlds since, and what authors and traditions have worked against it? What are the senses of how layers of history have both informed and shaped the land and the peoples who were and are there in the legendarium, and how does that emerge along the way as the stories progress? Have the expectations and experiences of quick and easy travel shaped our reaction to understanding how slow journeys are, especially on foot, as was the case for most of human history? And did the stones of Eregion indeed actually speak? Show Notes. Jared’s doodle. And who wouldn’t enjoy that view, we ask? The WGA strike is of course still happening. And you should still support it! And the actors too! And indeed, Andy Serkis’s The Silmarillion reading is out! So yes, not only did a fan purchase the Magic: The Gathering The One Ring card by lucky chance, following the episode recording he sold it to hardcore MTG fan Post Malone. Truly this is a world we are in. The promo performance of “Now And For Always” from the revival of the LOTR musical is pretty nice! Performances did start soon after the episode recording and an initial Guardian review was quite complimentary. More promo photos are available, and again there’s always our episode on the original production… The Rings of Power Emmy nominations. Of course, when the Emmys themselves will happen is another matter. The Society of American Archivists’ announcement of William Fliss’s award for his continuing work with the Marquette University Tolkien archive. We meant to mention that fellow Megaphonic podcast The Spouter-Inn discussed The Fellowship of the Ring as part of a cluster of books about land, and then had Oriana on as a guest. Much of the Christopher Tolkien-edited History of Middle-earth series is essentially about Tolkien’s decades-long process of setting down what Middle-earth actually was. Among the key books in the series in this regard are The Shaping of Middle-earth and Morgoth’s Ring. I suspect most of us had our own Oregon Trail experiences. No, we are not going to relitigate the Eagles. Just listen to our episode. The article on Tolkien and Aldo Leopold is Lucas Niiler’s 1999 piece “Green Reading: Tolkien, Leopold and the Land Ethic.” Who wouldn’t love the Glittering Caves? (And indeed, check out our dwarves episode as well as our Ghân-Buri-Ghân episode.) Colonialism/imperialism and environmental destruction? Who could guess there’d be a connection. (Enjoy this book for some other light reading.) Very light, but this piece on Roman ruins in the present day helps underscore this sense of persistence into the present Tolkien captures well. (In contrast, the Duwamish have had to fight erasure.) If you want to go to Three Rivers, learn a little more about it. A 2015 Vox piece on the invention and criminalization of jaywalking. Peter Jackson’s vision of Isengard as industrial hellhole. (The tree being flung down is at 1:20.) Earthsea is always a vibe but as Jared notes, check out Annals of the Western Shore. A Thousand Thousand Islands is indeed no longer going, sadly, but you can get a taste of it here. Guy Gavriel Kay’s had quite the career! And indeed some younger authors to check out who aren’t doing Europe all over again include R. F. Kuang and Tasha Suri. Fonda Lee has the Green Bone Saga to check out, aka the ‘Jade’ series. And indeed the fan film Born of Hope about Arathorn is on YouTube! Support us and our network on Patreon and you can join us to talk Tolkien (and more!) in our friendly Discord.

Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Ned’s choice of topic: The Fall of Númenor. Published in fall of 2022, The Fall of Númenor is the most recent posthumously published collection of Middle-earth writings, acting as an overall guide to the Second Age of Middle-earth, with its key defining moments in Tolkien’s legendarium being the fall of the titular kingdom of the Dúnedain and the subsequent Last Alliance’s temporary defeat of Sauron. Given that most of the material the book draws on comes from a wide variety of other posthumous Tolkien publications, it can serve as a guide and introduction for those unaware of this deeper history to get a sense of how Tolkien envisioned, however haltingly in some cases, this particular era of his creation. But at the same time, since there is no new material presented in the first place, it can be argued in turn that there is little more here for some readers to learn about, while the fact that it was published in tandem with Amazon’s Rings of Power series while not specifically calling attention to the general connection with that series’s setting raises further overall questions. Does the book do a service in bringing the story of Aldarion and Erendis back to the fore after some decades, given its particular detail in comparison with the rest of the material presented? Is the choice of Alan Lee to present more illustrations as with other posthumous collections an understandable point of continuity or a sign of relying too much on one particular artistic vision of Middle-earth? Are there any particular details or points of interest that have sometimes been overlooked in Tolkien’s conception of his world that come back to the fore more here as a result? And really…just what IS it with Elendil’s description of his son at a couple of points? Show Notes. Jared’s doodle. Those birds have to be at least a little distressed. News of the expanded edition of The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. 700 pages? Why not? A detailed report on The War of the Rohirrim’s event at Annecy. Enjoy a separate interview as well. The Fall of Númenor. It fell indeed. Our episode on Aldarion and Erendis. Give it a listen, it’s one of our favorites. Brian Sibley’s done a lot. The Lost Road and Other Writings does have quite a lot to delve into. C. S. Lewis’s space trilogy. It…goes places. The New Shadow and The Notion Club Papers are indeed very unusual and interesting. Nope, we’re still not over The Rings of Power. Lebensraum, hoo boy. (We do not approve of the idea at all.) Mary Renault is truly a vibe and we appreciate her. And we love that she loved Tolkien’s work in turn! Strictly speaking California doesn’t have private beaches full on…but boy some try. Further discussion of the physical body in Tolkien can be found in the essay collection The Body in Tolkien’s Legendarium. Alan Lee’s illustrations of Sauron’s Temple and Moria from the book. Mike Mignola would have been a fine addition for del Toro’s planned Hobbit films. (And indeed, episode 50 is there for you.) Ah, David Brent. Our episode on orcs. Support By-The-Bywater through our network, Megaphonic, and hang out with us in a friendly Discord!

Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Jared’s choice of topic: Sir Orfeo. The Orpheus myth is one of the most mysterious ones in the open-ended collection of tales that make up what is termed ‘Greek mythology,’ something that Tolkien would have learned about by default as part of his standard late Victorian/Edwardian education. But his particular exploration of that myth wasn’t via one of those texts, but a translation of a Middle English poem by an anonymous author, itself based on a Breton source, that fused elements of the most famous Orpheus story – trying to win back the love of his life from the land of the dead – with elements of Celtic faery and myth as well as recent English history. Yet Tolkien’s work is one of his most mysterious efforts in turn, first presented by Christopher Tolkien along with the translations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Pearl, but, as the younger Tolkien explained, unaccompanied by any notes, introductory paragraphs or even an exact date of creation to determine what inspired him to make the translation or for what purpose it might have been intended. Can more be said about how old and familiar myths get reset and recontextualized across human history, reflecting the situations and biases of their times? Is there anything about the poem or the translation that stands out as uniquely or distinctly Tolkienian based on his other work? What about the land of the dead makes it such an unusual place all around, especially considering the fates of those who are there? And drawing on our separate news discussion about the continuing WGA strike and its impact on The Rings of Power season 2, how complicated is it to shoot a TV show anyway? (It’s very complicated.) Show Notes. Jared’s doodle. Harps do have power in the right hands. Support the WGA strike! It’ll help Oriana among many others. Lots of good pieces out there, including interviews with Michael Schur, David Simon and Hollywood Teamster leader Lindsay Dougherty, plus this barnburner of a piece from one of the striking writers, Ron Currie. The Rings of Power cast talk about things. Kinda vaguely, but anyway. So the WGA strike didn’t deter Amazon from getting the second season of The Rings of Power done, apparently. Check out the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Here’s the page for The War of the Rohirrim. Sir Orfeo! Want to try and read along in the original? Here’s one of the texts with some guidance as needed. The Orpheus myth is indeed pretty darned complex! David Graeber’s Debt: The First 5000 Years? Well worth your time. The history of Winchester is a little involved… There’s a fair amount out there about ‘the Greek tradition’ and Victorians – have a read here for some more of that. As for the fairies/faery in Celtic tradition and the dead, there’s a lot there too. Here’s a starting point. Hadestown! It was and is a hit indeed. (And if you’d like to hear the original version.) Support By-The-Bywater and our network, Megaphonic. If you do, you can hang out with us in a members-only Discord and hear an exclusive interview with Jared.