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

Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Ned’s choice of topic: Tolkien’s essay “A Secret Vice.” Originally prepared as a lecture called “A Hobby for the Home” for an Oxford literary society in 1931, “A Secret Vice” is now regarded as one of the two most key essays, along with “On Fairy-Stories” of Tolkien essentially reflecting on his own work and what drove his creative interests. His training and work as a philologist grew out not only an interest in languages in general but in creating them for his own interest, and it’s long been clear that his early development of the Elvish languages in particular are what led him to start creating poetry and prose set in his legendarium to begin with. At the same time, the time and place of the essay’s creation demonstrates that a lot of his stance involves assumptions that wider linguistic scholarship has since moved on from. What was the popular impact of constructed languages such as Esperanto on Tolkien’s own belief in how such languages could thrive? Why is it important to distinguish between Tolkien’s favored belief in sound symbolism and the separate school of structural linguistics? What were some of the evident biases that Tolkien’s own favored languages – not to mention his native language, English – created in terms of what he wanted to create himself with his own original tongues? And just what was it with his way of dancing around actually talking about what interested him in the subject instead of simply flat out stating it? Show Notes. Jared’s doodle. To see the stars is to name them. We do not recommend getting into an accident with a forklift, but if you do, watch MST3K, listen to It’s Just a Show, and sing along with a song. The Tolkien Society’s report on the new forthcoming Tolkien book The Fall of Númenor. (And as we say later, check out our Aldarion and Erendis episode.) Amazon promos ahoy. There were a variety of Empire magazine stories; this was the main one online, plus Lenny Henry on the Harfoots. (And Celebrimbor…the newscaster?) Leith McPherson on being the dialect coach for The Rings of Power. Jamie Wilson and Lindsey Weber on the Orcs in The Rings of Power. (Relatedly, our episode on orcs.) Deadline’s announcement of the major voice casting for The War of the Rohirrim. Philippa Boyens interviewed by TheOneRing.net on The War of the Rohirrim, including discussion of the new character Héra. The critical edition of A Secret Vice, as listed on Dimitra Fini’s site. (Plus the informal launch, as she describes it, of the book at Oxford.) Oriana’s 2019 Vox piece on conlangs. You might have heard of GoldenEye. But are you invincible? Constructed languages have been a thing then and now. Esperanto! Volapük! Novial! Gertrude Stein and James Joyce: Modernists par excellence. Sound symbolism and structural linguistics. Finnish is very much its own thing. Support By-The-Bywater on Patreon and hang out with us in a friendly private Slack!

Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Jared’s choice of topic: the Red Book of Westmarch. It’s hinted at at the end of The Lord of the Rings when Sam reviews some title pages – a device carried over into the Jackson movie adaptations – but the appendices and part of the introduction both make it clear that the published story is meant to be a translation from Bilbo and Frodo’s own handwritten memoirs, covering The Hobbit as well, and thus Tolkien in this conceit is not the author of the text but its translator and editor instead. It fits within Tolkien’s own life as an academic and an interpreter and presenter of texts, as well as being part of a lengthy tradition in numerous societies over millennia where writers employ the creative tool of claiming their work as that of others, be they found documents, unearthed manuscripts, discovered letters and so forth. It’s something that many readers may simply find an intriguing amusement when it comes to The Lord of the Rings, but it does introduce further questions about perspective and authorial intent worth the consideration. How does framing the story through the lens of certain participants only shape what we might consider a ‘true’ history of the events of the book, and what would it mean if other perspectives were shared instead? What other times had Tolkien used this framing in his own creative work as a way to present a tale in a different context, and with what intent? Is Tolkien’s work in fact the first postmodern fantasy as such, a self-conscious creation that plays with tropes even as it also establishes new ones in turn? And just what are all those memes about how the main protagonist of the story is really a Maura Labingi about? Show Notes. Jared’s doodle. Who wouldn’t want the real Red Book of Westmarch? Aw, crypto turned out to be a hype scam market, who knew. (Everyone with sense, of course.) As for Lonely Ape, puh-leez. Do check out Oriana’s other podcasts! American Grift and Mission: Recall, both great. The bit from John Howe in Empire – we’ll talk about the issue covers that were released next episode. Reports from the Amazon promo event for the hyperfans are…to be expected. (Again, the ones with the cautious optimism are the ones we appreciate more over the raves.) The LOTR on Prime tweet confirming Tyroe Muhafidin as ‘Theo’ aka the one with the broken blade. IGN speaks with the scientist who named the most distant star yet found in the universe Earendel. Alan Lee in LitHub on illustrating The Lord of the Rings. Den of Geek tries once and for all to untangle the whole rights question. It’s still unclear. Tolkien Gateway’s entry on the Red Book of Westmarch. We don’t quite use the term in the episode but the concept of the frame story, as discussed on Wikipedia, is a broader category that can include the kind of stories where authors are presenting works they’ve supposedly found and presented rather than simply written. A key example as Jared discusses would be the epistolary novel, and don’t forget the unreliable narrator. Maura Labingi! It is Frodo’s real name. Postmodernism in fantasy is a thing and has been discussed in various ways – back in 2010 Brandon Sanderson and Jeff VanderMeer had an exchange on the matter. Thomas Pynchon’s written some good work. Or found it, if you will. The Red Book of Hergest, Tolkien’s real-world model. Our Farmer Giles of Ham episode. And our Nature of Middle-earth one. How well known was David Foster Wallace for footnotes? This should give you an idea. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell definitely has a LOT of footnotes. The Message Bible, as not recommended by Jared. The Book of Mazarbul in Tolkien Gateway, including Tolkien’s own created pages from it, planned as a possible inclusion for the initial printing of The Lord of the Rings. Laurence Sterne, literary badass. John Darnielle interviewed by the New Yorker. (We highly recommend Devil House.) The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, and its 1965 Polish adaptation for film, The Saragossa Manuscript. We forgot to give Nate Thatcher a mention in the episode but he was the listener who pointed us to the lecture Jared mentions watching, Michael Drout’s “Lord of the Rings: How To Read J. R. R. Tolkien.” The Cats of Queen Berúthiel! And that’s about all we know. Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson – worth a read! The 1987 US one-volume edition of The Lord of the Rings designed to look like a Red Book of Westmarch, part of a series of such editions. Support By-The-Bywater through Patreon! (Thanks!)

Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Oriana’s choice of topic: initial thoughts on what evil is in Tolkien’s work. The sweeping arc of The Lord of the Rings in particular is understandably thought of – though very often simplistically reduced to – a basic good versus evil clash, a black and white split. But as more and more of Tolkien’s work over the decades has been published over time, up to and including last year’s The Nature of Middle-earth volume, it’s clear that he himself thought that what evil exactly was in his created universe took on many forms and had numerous ways of being perceived. It’s also well worth reflecting on how many of his seemingly stereotypical ‘good’ characters carry out actions, consciously or not, that result in manifold acts of evil playing out in many different forms, from mass slaughter to small acts of domination. What are the differences between Morgoth and his prime servant Sauron in terms of how they view their actions and desires, and how they carry them out? What are the worst horrors carried out in Arda Marred – itself conceived and portrayed as containing an intrinsic, foundational evil that could not be removed without its own destruction – and who is ultimately responsible for them in the moment? How is the pettiness of Ted Sandyman’s laughter and spit in the Scouring of the Shire as much a reflection of evil as Sauron’s ravaging of the Pelennor Fields? And is there evil as such portrayed at all in any of Tolkien’s non-Middle-earth works, or is it more something akin to it? Show Notes. Jared’s doodle. Truly tragic and horrific, and that’s all that can be said. The Folio Society announcement of the newly revised and updated Alan Lee-illustrated Lord of the Rings edition. It really does look great. The Folio Society’s earlier edition with illustrations by Queen Margrethe is indeed really sharp too. A report on the Ukok Princess and her tattoos. Truly striking work. Plenty of stuff to read about Robert Eggers’s film The Northman – enjoy this Smithsonian dive into some of the historical roots. (Bjork’s character is a priestess for this fellow.) The Tolkien Gateway entry on Arda Marred. Robert Moses had quite the impact, to put it mildly – as did Robert Caro’s famed biographical study, The Power Broker. The Kinslaying really is a horrific event to consider. Our episode on The Nature of Middle-earth. Generational and inter-generational trauma are heavy burdens. Our Aldarion and Erendis episode: destructive sorrow without evil as such. Our Scouring of the Shire episode. Bulletproof vs. stab-proof vests, should you be so inclined. The Book of Job is quite a meditation on evil’s existence. There’s a lot out there regarding modern Disney, Marvel, villainy and so forth. For now, Adam Serwer on Killmonger in Black Panther and a wider meditation and links to other pieces on colonialism and imperialism in Thor: Ragnarok. Our episodes on Farmer Giles of Ham, Smith of Wootton Major and Leaf By Niggle. Support By-The-Bywater through our network, Megaphonic, on Patreon.

Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Ned’s choice of topic: Ralph Bakshi’s animated film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. A heavily promoted effort at the time due it being both the first ever version of Tolkien’s work done for film as well as due to Bakshi’s notable reputation as the most well known American animator since Walt Disney and Chuck Jones, the 1978 movie was a reasonable success but not a smash, and the fact that it was only the first half of a planned two-film sequence – but not marketed as such – led to confused audiences and an upset Tolkien reader fanbase. At once a surprisingly faithful if still heavily redacted version of the book and a very unusual mix of animation styles that grew out of Bakshi’s earlier movies, the film has retained a cult following since, and the resulting contrast with the later Peter Jackson movies has proven illuminating to both. What makes the sequences like the Flight to the Ford both compelling viewing and something of a slog? Which voice actors bring a notable depth to their characters along with the script and animation efforts – and which ones end up undercutting their characters completely? How does the shifting between particular animation styles, even within scenes, both act as intriguing experiment aiming to solve particular problems and yet also a confusing mess? And what is up with that incredibly generic musical score? Show Notes. Jared’s doodle. Jackson riffed on this scene for a reason. And Jared did bake a cake for Megaphonic’s Kitchen Party! Check it out. The new Tolkien Estate page, worth a poke around. The Tolkien Society’s announcement of Priscilla Tolkien’s passing. Ralph Bakshi’s site. The specific Lord of the Rings page has a variety of stills, behind the scenes shots and preparatory work from the production. The IMDB entry for Bakshi’s production. (The film is available for streaming from a variety of services.) The AFI catalog entry for the production. Ralph Bakshi: Forging Through the Darkness, a short documentary. The Tolkien Experience, Episode 32: Ralph Bakshi, an extended interview by Luke Shelton. An Exhaustive History of Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings by Dan Olson of Folding Ideas. (And as we spoke about in the episode, Olson’s two hour plus video on NFTs and crypto is an absolute must-watch.) Three Rings For Hollywood, Janet Brennan Croft’s short comparative study of various film script adaptations of The Lord of the Rings up through Bakshi’s adaptation. ‘Will the Video Version of Tolkien Be Hobbit Forming?,’ John Culhane’s late 1977 New York Times story on the Rankin-Bass Hobbit which also includes separate quotes from Bakshi on his then-forthcoming adaptation. Vincent Canby’s review of the film for the New York Times. Roger Ebert’s review of the film for the Chicago Sun-Times. Mythlore 19, Winter 1979, which contains two reviews of the film from Steven Walker and Dale Ziegler. Information on Amon Hen 39, published in June 1979, which contains four separate reviews of the film, including the Mythlore review from Steven Walker. ‘Hobbits On Film,’ Glenn Gaslin’s 2001 retrospective consideration of the Bakshi production for Slate, written in the run-up to the release of Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring. Bakshi’s 2015 interview with TheOneRing.net. Austen Gilkenson’s extended 2018 study of the film for Tor, part one and part two. Ned’s own 2018 piece about the film and other Tolkien adaptations of the time, published in the Quietus. A TV ad for the film. The Electric Company Magazine! And like Ned said, there was a tie-in issue. As for the board game, it had Shelob at least. You know the Spider-man meme. As for Bakshi on his Spider-man experience, he’s not thrilled… That Legolas reaction. It’s a choice. The Flight to the Ford scene – well worth watching even if you don’t know the full film, it sums up both the strengths and oddities of the adaptation. An example of the intriguing angular design of the Shire woods in the Shadow of the Past Goes Outdoors sequence. (Compare to Eyvind Earle’s work on Disney’s Sleeping Beauty.) The full Lothlorien sequence, with Galadriel’s fashion sense, the strange elf choir, the training montage as such and the Mirror of Galadriel highs and lows. Two notable sequences showing how Bakshi’s Aragorn is as Jared puts it ‘his’ Aragorn (costume aside): his meeting with the Hobbits in the Prancing Pony parlor and Boromir’s death, especially with the wordless reaction from Aragorn near the end of the clip. The Council of Elrond sequence definitely is a moment. Not a GOOD moment… The Shadow of the Past sequence, with the quick cuts of the seasons, Gandalf being crabby and stagy, Frodo’s agape reaction to the Ring being tossed into the fire and so forth. Gandalf meets Saruman – or Aruman, depending on the line. Orthanc’s design and Saruman’s MANY COLORS! included. The hobbits first encounter the Nazgul, and it’s a truly creepy moment. Ah yes the Balrog. We agree with the title of this clip. Aside from the opening credits, the prologue sequence is really impressive as we note. But yeah that one Elves bit. Our episode on Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring. And our orc episode. Gollum being Gollum. And almost being redeemed towards the end of this clip. (Per Jared’s comparison, here’s Quentin Crisp on Letterman.) Grima petting Theoden. Can’t put it any plainer. Sam, Sam, Sam. Where to begin? So many examples. And then there’s that ‘moment.’ Aragorn takes a tumble. Helm’s Deep here is not exactly Jackson’s. That’s one big skull in Moria. Meantime, is Rivendell a lamasery? If you REALLY want to hear the soundtrack… But yes, just listen to Rosenman’s Star Trek IV soundtrack instead as Jared suggests. The heroic ending! Sorta. Maybe. If you squint. Support By-The-Bywater and Megaphonic FM on Patreon!

Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Jared’s choice of topic: the Valar. For a legendarium that is clearly monotheistic at base, down to the opening lines of The Silmarillion essentially being a variant of the Book of Genesis, Tolkien’s creation – and account of creation – has a class of similarly immortal beings present from the beginning as well, and while you can call them a version of angels, in many ways they are absolutely not like such beings as theologically understood. Indeed, for all that they are termed as ‘the Powers’ in Arda, much of what we know about them seems to derive from the limits of their power or their inability to comprehend deeper truths – a question that Tolkien himself felt needed explaining at a certain point. What does it say that Varda aka Elbereth is regarded by the Elves with more reverence and love than her partner Manwë? Why is it that beings with an essentially plastic form of existence, not bound by physical form, take on certain specific forms and identities even before the Children of Ilúvatar first awoke in Middle-earth? Is there something to be said for the fact that so much of what the Valar do over time turns more and more into outsourcing of a kind? What’s with the moment of bemusing domestic snark between Aüle and Yavanna like it’s a sitcom? And – separate from all this, but it took up half the episode – what do the three of us think about all the news and trailer and more about a certain Amazon series that finally dropped? Oh, we have thoughts… Show Notes. Jared’s doodle. Nienna really does have a lot to feel sad about the more time goes on… Thanks, Princess Quill! The teaser trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, if for some odd reason you haven’t seen it yet. (The initial Jackson Fellowship of the Ring teaser trailer if you’d like to compare, plus the overall three movie teaser.) The various character posters are kinda scattered over the LOTR on Prime Twitter account. Not one, not two, but three Vanity Fair stories! They say…a lot. And yet. The Origo Gentis Langobardorum, with the women-with-beards story. The new news about the anime The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim film. TheOneRing.net’s case for the mûmakil hanging around in Rohan. The initial Variety report and follow-up regarding the rumored plan of Saul Zaentz’s company selling their adaptation rights. Our episode on the Rankin-Bass Hobbit, if you missed it last year! The Valar, in sum. Our The Nature of Middle-earth episode. The book really does give us a lot more to think about the Valar. (Separately, regarding Manwë’s emissaries, our eagles episode.) Support By-The-Bywater on Patreon.

Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Oriana’s choice of topic: the Shire. The homeland of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins and many of Middle-earth’s hobbits in general, and the entry point for nearly every reader to Tolkien’s imaginative geographical and creative landscape, the Shire often seems like an idyllic and nostalgic English utopia, an untroubled land where the beer is good, the family trees are all spelled out carefully and there’s not much to worry about aside from the occasional wolf or Orc raid over the centuries. Yet Tolkien himself said he didn’t view it as a utopia, and both as sociopolitical organization and as physical location, the Shire has more going on with it than might be seen at first glance, even by some of its most well-known inhabitants. What is the sense of history among the hobbits of the Shire, and how do they regard their land and their sense of who they are? What does the Shire being a seemingly safe place truly reveal when the Scouring is necessary at the end of the grand story? Who are the authorities, if there are any, that keep this seeming anarchist fantasy going as a functioning concern, and does that cover monetary issues as well? And is that the only linguistically blessed fox in the Shire, much less Middle-earth as a whole? Show Notes. Jared’s doodle. A party of special magnificence indeed. Amazon’s title announcement video – FINALLY. (And yes we know there’s more but that happened after recording this episode – next time!) TheOneRing.net got some behind the scenes shots from the creation of said video, pretty cool. The formal Haggerty Museum of Art announcement about the “J. R. R. Tolkien: The Art of the Manuscript” exhibition in Milwaukee, running from August 19 to December 12. Douglas Trumbull is rather well known in the field. The Shire: a basic overview. Some of our relevant past episodes on the Scouring of the Shire and Sam Gamgee. Karen Wynn Fonstad’s Shire map, as with all her work, is very great. (Pick up The Atlas of Middle-earth if you haven’t.) What is utopia? Everywhere and nowhere…well, nowhere, really. Golf is canon! English gardens are indeed a thing. Asterix rules, the end. The specific volume in question – and here’s the lawn joke. Merry England, or rather an overview of the stereotype. A recent article on Tolkien and satire in the context of the Shire. Air traffic controller memes! The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien by John Garth – well worth picking up. Here’s the Birmingham map mentioned – Sarehole is location 1. Britton Hill – Florida’s highest point. (In contrast Ned climbed Mount Marcy once.) Who doesn’t love a Shire fox? Watership Down and The Plague Dogs, both very good reads and often harrowing movies. The feast with Gildor at Woodhall as depicted by Alan Lee. Lovely Crickhollow. Support By-The-Bywater and our network on Patreon!

Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Ned’s choice of topic: Tree and Leaf. Published in 1964 in the UK and the following year in the US, Tree and Leaf was Tolkien’s first major post-Lord of the Rings publication but was itself a republishing of two earlier non-Middle-earth pieces: “On Fairy-Stories,” an essay on the subject revised from a 1939 lecture and 1947 anthology, and “Leaf by Niggle,” a short, explicitly religious story for a Catholic publication in Anthologized and separately published since, they’re at once totally separate but sometimes strangely complementary pieces that serve to illuminate Tolkien’s interests beyond Middle-earth itself, while at the same time often casting reflections back on it or suggesting how dominant his legendarium was to his creative life and beyond. What makes “On Fairy-Stories” key as a way to consider Tolkien’s overall creative aesthetic, even as it contains some of his most dense, allusive prose? How does his framing of fairy-stories as not simply being for children itself lead to other interesting conclusions about not only children but other cultures? What makes “Leaf By Niggle” the closest Tolkien ever got to C.S. Lewis’s fictional approach, but where also does it differ? And how telling is it that once again Tolkien features an idealized friendship – perhaps more – between men in his fiction? Show Notes. Jared’s doodle. (Kinda makes Ned think of the cover of Led Zeppelin IV but not really.) Andy Serkis’s readings of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are quite good indeed. The Daily Mail photo story – those are some lovely shots and the story’s cool too. The Tolkien Society photo announcement…and the fallout. Rosamund Pike has her way with a pineapple. Absolutely check out Costa Botes’s behind the scenes documentaries about Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. Here’s Botes’s own memories about it. As for the films, as noted they’re on the original Blu-ray set and elsewhere but then again it’s weird where they might all turn up. Tree and Leaf, the most current version of same. As noted, the two original pieces are also now available separately with more material: On Fairy-Stories and Leaf By Niggle. Andrew Lang’s impact on the general field of fairy tales and more remains pretty big. (The Andrew Lang Memorial Lectures continue to the present day.) Max Müller’s had his own general scholarly impact too. Our Smith of Wootton Major episode. The ancient Egyptian Tale of Two Brothers. We didn’t mention it in our discussion but Tolkien’s referencing of the sophistication of supposedly ‘primitive’ people has a resonance with the character of Ghân-buri-Ghân – check out our episode on him. If you want more on Carl Jung and how Joseph Campbell built off him, read on. The Juniper Tree, as told by the Grimms. M. R. James – so great. A Thin Ghost presents all the stories plus info on the many adaptations over time, including Mark Gatiss’s recent adaptations for the BBC. R. L. Stine – also so great. The Snowman is there for the reading. Hayao Miyazaki – great great GREAT again. A recent NYT profile, and yes watch Ponyo. And everything else. The Dublin Review, the publication where “Leaf By Niggle” first appeared. So you’re wondering about Purgatory in a Catholic context… CCD aka Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. Phantom Thread! Great film. Very not-Tolkien. The Great Divorce, That Hideous Strength, Till We Have Faces, there’s plenty of C. S. Lewis out there. Niggle and Parish, a fraught friendship but with more to it there. Here’s our episode on friendship. Support By-The-Bywater and Megaphonic FM on Patreon.

Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about our collective choice of topic: Peter Jackson’s version of The Fellowship of the Ring. Released twenty years ago this month, there’s simply no question regarding the sheer force of the impact that the first part of the massive effort to create a three-film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings had. It squarely placed the story directly into more mainstream popular culture, transformed the nature of the longtime fandom and appreciation around the books, and became the anchor point of any number of adaptations and interpretations since. But besides fond memories of a suddenly wild and exuberant time, looking back with a more critical but still appreciative eye is useful in acknowledging flaws and curious decisions as well as reflecting once more on just how striking a film it is. What does a wider consideration of that time in history tell us, not least of which was the shattering impact of 9/11 three months prior, as well as being caught in a continuing new wave of sf, comic book and fantasy adaptations? Are all the various casting choices that the team made for the film successful, as well as the adaptational choices themselves? How does the film succeed as a film straight up, and what are its best moments? And is Legolas really a mink stole? (Admit it, you’d love to see it.) [Thanks to Michael Collins from This Is Your Mixtape for editing this episode!] Show Notes. Jared’s doodle. This was exactly what he looked like, no question. Will Poulter, via a larger GQ feature, on why he couldn’t make the Amazon series. No biggie, it happens. The Daily Mail (yeah, we know) story on Christopher Tolkien’s will. We hope everyone was happy and there were no Succession-style shenanigans. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. You KNOW. Stream it if you don’t. (But NOT the remastered version, as we say later in the episode.) Yes, true, a certain first Harry Potter film a month beforehand did cast a shadow… That first web-only featurette from 2000. LOTS of questions resulted among the fans. Then there was the first overall trailer… LordOfTheRings.net isn’t around any more but the Internet Archive turns up things. (TheOneRing.net is eternal.) As for Ain’t It Cool News…never mind. Elijah Wood really was inspired casting, and darn if he didn’t deliver, eyes and all. Ian McKellen, goddamn. Enjoy some diaries. And indeed, Bob Shaye. Thanks for that call. Ah, AOL Time Warner. The ‘pity and mercy’ scene as filmed. So, so necessary. Andrew Lesnie was truly a craftsman and artist, and is much missed. Polygon’s yearlong series on Jackson’s original trilogy is well worth a read, and the horror movie essay is one of the best. The ‘Boromir trains the hobbits’ scene is a delight. (And yes, Ned did a little spoonerism with the names there…) If you want Arwen’s hero moment, come and click here. Cate Blanchett fully arrives in the film and we’re all in awe. The mirror of Galadriel scene, what a moment. “I know what it was you saw…” Saruman summoning the storm is a great film moment, no lie. For more thoughts on Gimli, our dwarves episode. Howard Shore, indeed. And not just him: the piece of music Jared refers to with his memories of cranking the movie up so he could hear it better is “The Passing of the Elves,” a quite lovely number recorded for the film by the Plan 9 sound/music team in NZ. The Aragorn temptation scene. (And the Uruk-hai, which, again, consider our orc episode.) Frodo leaves the Fellowship – it all builds up to this, and it lands. Mission: Recall! Give it an ear! Support By-The-Bywater and our network on Patreon and you can hang out with us in a chill Slack.

Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Oriana’s choice of topic: Sam Gamgee. For all that Frodo Baggins is the Ringbearer and makes something close to the ultimate sacrifice for the fate of the world—at least right until the very last moment—it’s Sam, son of Bag-End’s gardener who seems to only join Frodo at first to help take care of a new house in Buckland, who ends up being the key figure in The Lord of the Rings that helps Frodo on the quest and who remains most grounded in the whirlwind of fates surrounding his steps, down to having the book’s last words. Thanks to a variety of notable performance interpretations over the years, especially and most indelibly Sean Astin’s marvelous turn in the Peter Jackson films, he might just be the most warmly regarded character as well even beyond the book readers. What is the full meaning and understanding behind Tolkien’s well-known comment about Sam being a tribute to his batmen during World War I, and who were the batmen and private soldiers in general in that conflict? Does the understandable characterization of Sam as ‘just’ a simple hobbit belie a notable depth evident even from the start of the book, and how did Tolkien conceive of Sam as distinct from hobbits in general? What fully went into Astin’s portrayal of Sam in particular for the films, and how much of it was also something provided by other key creative forces? And what was the American radio production team from 1979 exactly thinking when they cast Lucille Bliss as Sam? Show Notes. Jared’s doodle. What can you see on the horizon, indeed. Wanna be like Oriana? Here’s how to apply to the Warner Bros.’ Writers Workshop. A summary of the Lenny Henry radio interview with some key quotes. Willow does have its fanbase, and this planned new series could be good. The Wheel of Time is coming and we await with interest... Dune, yes. We quite like it. (Tolkien himself did not.) Letter 246 to Eileen Elgar, which has a lot of background information on Sam and other characters and their motivations and personalities. You can find plenty of Sean Astin clips of him portraying Sam out there. As for the others? Some samples: Roddy McDowall for Rankin-Bass, Bill Nighy for the BBC, Michael Scholes for Ralph Bakshi and Lucille Bliss for NPR/The Mind’s Eye (skip ahead to 7:15 in that one). The famed Tolkien/Sam Gamgee correspondence. Who knew, indeed? Shakespeare’s rustic characters were something stock, and indeed were often termed ‘clowns’ rather than fools or jesters. Here’s a little more about that. The Marx quote was from the Communist Manifesto, and indeed, ‘the idiocy of rural life.’ Our episode on friendship. More on that hand-holding moment. John Garth’s Tolkien and the Great War is well worth a read. Batmen are a thing, and nothing to do with DC. Sean Astin’s autobiography There And Back Again is a very key read for anyone interested in the Jackson films. There’s RP, there’s Cockney and there’s a whole LOT else. You know the potatoes meme. And you know the Sean Bean meme too. Support By-The-Bywater on Patreon.

Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Ned’s choice of topic: The Nature of Middle-earth. The newest official Tolkien book is anything but a cohesive volume, instead being a collection of remaining unpublished writings from the overall Tolkien archive about Middle-earth, written mostly in the late 1950s and late 1960s, with a heavy focus on more philosophical and generally foundational concepts and aspects of Tolkien’s creation. Edited by Carl Hostetter with the full approval of Christopher Tolkien before the latter’s passing, it’s at once detailed scholarship and the source of a variety of new wrinkles and outright surprises concerning Middle-earth. What can be made of the deep discussions of Elvish culture and life, and the literal differences as a species from Men? How did Tolkien address the concept of Elvish reincarnation in particular, and what exactly did that imply in terms of what the Valar could do? What does it mean that Tolkien constantly chose to frame everything from the point of view of referring to ‘scholars’ and authorities rather than simply leaning into his own creative process? And how delightful is it to learn that Númenor was the home of a legendary annual bear dance? Show Notes. Jared’s doodle. Besides bears, we learn that Númenor has a lot of cliffs. The California redwood parks are among the best. TheOneRing.net’s summary of the Howard Shore semi-news/demi-rumor/whatever it might be. Star Wars: Visions is a treat. Red X by David Demchuk is the book Jared’s illustrated. Check it out! The Nature of Middle-earth -- order away! Vinyar Tengwar and the E.L.F. info is there for you. Kristine Larsen’s extensive bibliography on her work on Tolkien and astronomy is very well worth the investigation. The Isaac Newton story Ned mentioned is a little more involved than that—here’s a 2014 interview with an author who wrote about Newton’s papers in more detail. Now if you’ve not seen Spirited Away, we do highly recommend it. The Notion Club Papers is too underdiscussed, really. It’s a very interesting, strange effort. Flat-earth Catholics, well...we’ll just link this. (It’s not ‘pro-flat earth,’ rest assured.) Neoplatonism! We understand if you’re already asleep. If you want a little more about the phenomenal world… The Magisterium is VERY much a thing. So let’s talk the Gnostics! Enjoy some more about bear dances in our world. As for Finnish bear cults... You can support By-The-Bywater and all of Megaphonic on Patreon, and thank you if you do!