I’ve been recently re-reading Chapter VIII of The Children of Húrin in anticipation of our Hall of Fire chat tomorrow.
One thing that particularly struck me is the invidiousness of Túrin’s position on Amon Rudh: whether he and his growing band of outlaws fight or hide, their prospects are grim.
Beleg summarises the conundrum neatly:
“…a king or the lord of a great host has many needs. He must have a secure refuge; and he must have wealth, and many whose work is not in war. With numbers comes the need of food, more than the wild will furnish to hunters. And there comes the passing of secrecy.
Amon Rûdh is a good place for a few – it has eyes and ears.
But it stands alone, and is seen far off; and no great force is needed to surround it – unless a host defends it, greater far than ours is yet or than it is likely ever to be.”
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
Tolkien was fascinated by the concept he called “the theory of courage”, which exemplified one of the highest qualities in the literary Northern hero: that of unflinching courage, steadfast resolve and sheer determination of will in the face of impossible odds. Continue reading “Northern Courage, Ofermōde and Thorin Oakenshield’s last stand”
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
Hurin and Morgoth – Ted Nasmith This weekend Hall of Fire is delving into the third chapter of The Children of Húrin. (Our discussion starts at 6pm ET. Feel free to join us as we dive into Chapter 3.)
The Words of Húrin and Morgoth
It’s a key one, dominated by a long conversation between Húrin, and his captor, the Valar, Morgoth.
We’re likely to have many talking points but for me, the most pivotal is the Curse of Morgoth. Morgoth promises Húrin:
…upon all whom you love my thought shall weigh as a cloud of Doom, and it shall bring them down into darkness and despair. Wherever they go, evil shall arise. Whenever they speak, their words shall bring ill counsel. Whatsoever they do shall turn against them. They shall die without hope, cursing both life and death.
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
I’ve been thinking that the thirty-second and thirty-third of the kings of Gondor might just be two of the most influential. If that sounds a touch far-fetched, bear with me.
This pair of Gondorian kings are, of course, Eärnil II, and his son, Eärnur.
At this point in its history, Gondor was struggling through a trio of disasters spread across several hundred years.
The first, a period of civil war known as the kin-strife; the second, a great plague; the third, the encroachments of a people known as the Wainriders from the east.
It’s not easy to precisely gauge the effects, but certainly Osgiliath is left both damaged and depopulated. Perhaps more critically, there is a diminution of the Gondorian aristocracy. Continue reading “The influence of Eärnil and Eärnur”
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
I’ve been re-reading The Children of Húrin lately in preparation for TORn’s chapter-by-chapter discussion in our chatroom. (We’re starting our discussion later today in The Hall of Fire. Feel free to join us at 6pm ET as we dive into Chapter 1.)
It’s been some years since I’ve read The Children of Húrin in full; I probably haven’t completed a cover-to-cover reading since the novel was first published in 2006. But it’s always interesting how revisiting a novel after a long period sometimes gives you a totally different perspective on the action.
So as I’m reading along, I’m going to try and briefly write about one new thing that strikes me each chapter.
Túrin and Sador; Turin and Brandir: a study in contrasts?
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
A complete tale of the War of the Last Alliance is a tantalising prospect. Yet, all the information we have available comes from fragments scattered over a number of books. The following post attempts to reconstruct the entire account as written Tolkien himself Continue reading “The Tale of the War of the Last Alliance”
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
I’ve been recently re-reading Chapter VIII of The Children of Húrin in anticipation of our Hall of Fire chat tomorrow.
I’ve been thinking that the thirty-second and thirty-third of the kings of Gondor might just be two of the most influential. If that sounds a touch far-fetched, bear with me.
I’ve been re-reading The Children of Húrin lately in preparation for TORn’s chapter-by-chapter discussion in our chatroom. (We’re starting our discussion later today in The Hall of Fire. Feel free to 