15 Things About J. R. R. Tolkien That You May or May Not Know
As you probably know if you’re visiting this blog, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) wrote The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the...
The Attributes of Antagonists
Antagonists don’t often get the attention that they deserve. Or rather, that they feel they deserve. And that’s the root of their...
Tolkien and the Sinfulness of Creativity Part 1
I wrote a thesis back in 1983, never published. In it I was exploring (amongst other Tolkieny things) the ambivalence that Tolkien had...
C. S. Lewis: 14 Biographical Facts
Here are 14 facts about C. S. Lewis that you may or may not have known: 1. Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast, Ireland, on 29...
Gandalf the Procrastinator
As with many of Tolkien’s characters and ideas, Gandalf grows backwards and larger as the stories featuring him develop. Closely...
The Inner Consistency of Reality
Famous fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth is unquestionably one of the most fully imagined worlds in all of literature, and...
The Story of a Sword
Most Tolkien fanatics know about Glamdring, the ancient sword wielded by Gandalf during the War of the Ring and seen by most of us in...
The Quality of Faerie
In 1975, my English teacher, one Mr. Sweeting, came up with the idea of a reading list from which we (his unforgiving class of...
My Favourite Place in Middle-earth
Middle-earth is a large and wonderful place, full of rivers and mountains and plains and giant forests, dotted with ancient cities and...