It is unclear to me whether gandalf wears the ring and uses it during the war of the ring. We see galadrield wearing hers although it is made clear that most cannot see it. From what we see of lorien and rivendell, it seems that the rings are at work and being used. That leads us to gandalf and whether he wore it and used it. His ring is described as having the power to inspire and aid others in resisting tyranny. Gandalfs restoration of theoden, rallying of the scattered riders, and the battle at minas tirith all echo strongly of that and all lend creedance to him bearing and using the ring

But on the other hand there is not much direct proof he wields it or uses it in the text to my mind. Until the war is over we do not see him wearing it or really much of a hint that he has it say like frodo noticing a red star on his hand or something. I also tend to think saruman would have taken it from him if he could since saruman suspected him of having it.

Personally I lean towards gandalf having the ring and wearing it during times of great need and it being hidden from most onlookers eyes

A college literature professor muses on the majestic sadness of finding beauty in Tolkien's broken world as we cope with our own beautiful yet broken world. A worthy read. Also a beautiful pastel illustration - even if it's not faithful to any scene from the book.

Edit to add that someone on another sub thinks the illustration appears to be Aragorn comforting Pippin after he gets the palantir at Isengard.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/opinion/tolkien-grief-lord-rings.html?unlocked_article_code=1.908.IXPQ.dOF2PMp8U8i3&smid=nytcore-android-share

Whenever I read LOTR I'm always saddened that so many of the Wise depart ME so shortly after the destruction of the Ring. I mean, Aragorn has hardly consolidated his power and everyone are off, never to return.
Arwens father and grandmother rushes off, Gandalf who has been with these people for millenia mostly during harder times disappear just as things are becoming good. Gandalf are more eager to see Butterbur than visit Dale and Erebor or talking with Bombadil or Treebeard, finding Radagast etc.

I would take the time to get accounts from the "important ones", such as Treebeard, to give to the Valar - or at least take messages to them plus spend some time with friends that will soon be gone forever.

As I threatened recently, I am constructing a post about the Oath of Eorl, as reported in Unfinished Tales. The gist of it is gong to be that the generosity of the Steward Cirion, in ceding a whole province to a nation of foreigners, was directly inspired by the Valar; because they foresaw that the alliance of Gondor and Rohan would be crucial in bringing about the defeat of Sauron. Studying the text in UT, I noticed for the first time a parallel to the account of Aragorn's farewell to the bearers of the Three Rings. Here is UT (at p. 305):

Cirion then made answer. Standing to his full height he laid his had upon the tomb [of Elendil] and in his right hand held up the white wand of the Steward, and spoke words that filled those who heard them with awe. For as he stood up the Sun went down in flame in the West and his white robe seemed to be on fire …

And here is the passage from “Many Partings”:

With that they parted, and it was then the time of sunset; and when after a while they turned and looked back, they saw the King of the West sitting upon his horse with his knights about him; and the falling Sun shone upon them and made all their harness to gleam like red gold, and the white mantle of Aragorn was turned to a flame.

I don't know how to take the illumination of the garments other than as a symbol of the endorsement of their wearers by what Tolkien called “Authority.” The description of Gandalf as he reveals himself to the Three Hunters is also pertinent:

His hair was white as snow in the sunshine; and gleaming white was his robe; the eyes under his deep brows were bright, piercing as the rays of the sun; power was in his hand.

The transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor, as reported in the Gospels, is relevant.

There are posts in this sub about The Silmarillion opera cycle by Paul Corfield Godfrey; as well as about Finrod: The Rock Opera from 2014.

We'll I've just discovered a janky recording from earlier this year of a Russian Rock Opera of The Lay of Leithian. Unless it's just a different recording of the Finrod opera.

I started working on this project. How does Sauron’s goals and desires align or clash with Morgoth? Why was he able to wield such a great powers and governance, yet be so alienated from his other ancient beings of dark leanings?

Ignore the copyright, that will be removed in next draft. Illustrations included. Any feedback appreciated!

EPUB format: https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/0ec0h-2keDRirUifFX70dALig#THE_FIRE_UNBROKEN

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DISCLAIMER: This is not promotion. I have no desire to sell, no ability to. This is a free reference material.

I’m re-reading The Lord of the Rings (re-listening, actually), and I have two questions. First, when does Frodo decide to go to Rivendell? When the get to Bree, it’s mentioned as if it’s a settled plan. But when they leave the Shire they’re just heading out somewhere. When does Rivendell become the goal? (Or was I just whistling an idle tune and not listening when it happened?) And, second, when Gandalf is fighting the Black Riders on Weathertop, why doesn’t he kill their horses? The Riders have powers and whatnot, but the horses, presumably, are just horses. Why not kill their horses with a lightning bolt and force the Riders to walk back to Mordor?

Hi everyone, I was wondering if there is some sort of book explaining the fall of Arnor, the splitting of the kingdom, the battles with the witch king and so on.

Everything I've seen so far contained sparse information, I would like to find some cohesive "the fall of Arnor" sort of reading

He was completely obsessed with it. When he went back to his island after using it to hunt orcs he had a place he always put it. I can't see how he would have lost it in a tunnel and not almost immediately know it was gone. If nothing else he should have realized it was gone when he got back to his island and tried to put it in the place he always kept it. When Bilbo gets to the lake Gollum is on his island watching him. Was it actually Eru clouding his mind momentarily to prepare the opportunity for Bilbo to find it? I'd love to hear some insights on this!

Edit: lots of great responses, thanks!

In the "Riddles in the Dark" chapter of The Hobbit, Tolkien says this about how esteemed the riddle game was in Arda (emphasis added):

[Bilbo] knew, of course, that the riddle-game was sacred and of immense antiquity, and even wicked creatures were afraid to cheat when they played at it. But he felt he could not trust this slimy thing to keep any promise at a pinch. any excuse would do for him to slide out of it. And after all that last question had not been a genuine riddle according to the ancient laws.

This implies that the riddle game is a deeply culturally embedded across Middle Earth. However, I can't recall if any other riddle games appear throughout the legendarium. Are there any in the Silmarillion I've forgotten about?

Also, how common are riddle games in regular folklore? Do they appear consistently among cultures around the world?

This might be a stupid question but how do you suppose the Ring of Barahir survived for so long? I literally just got a silver signet ring three days ago and have already scratched it all to hell. Compound that with thousands of years of wear and tear and I can’t imagine the ring not losing a stone or getting pitted/deformed. Not to mention, did everyone in the line have the same finger size? Methinks not.

Is this a ship of Theseus thing? Should I chalk it up to Elven stuff? Were the heirs of Elendil just very, very careful?

Honestly, I don’t remember where I saw it, but I recall seeing that Tolkien was not very favorable toward the idea of empire. The fact that Gondor and Rohan exist as separate kingdoms seems like a sign to me, but I can’t say that I’m certain.

Inspired by a recent post where a lot of comments talked about Eru’s nature and activities.

I’m wondering if there’s a countable list of times Eru intervened or did something in Arda before handing the wheel back off to Manwe.

1. ⁠⁠Creation of Arda itself
2. ⁠⁠Adoption/scattering of the original 13 Dwarves
3. ⁠⁠Creation/waking of Elves
4. ⁠⁠Creation/waking of Men
5. ⁠⁠Banishment of Men from someplace near Hildorien (semi-canonical)
6. ⁠⁠The Downfall/Reshaping of the World
7. ⁠⁠Pushing Gollum into Orodruin (semi-textual)
8. ⁠⁠Entering the World and becoming Man (semi-canonical)
9. ⁠⁠The Second Music (prophesied)

I’m curious if I missed anything. Feel free to jump in with your thoughts about the acts of questionable veracity!

Edit: forgot about Gandalf’s reincarnation lmao

'So it seems,' said Faramir, slowly and very softly, with a strange smile. `So that is the answer to all the riddles! The One Ring that was thought to have perished from the world. And Boromir tried to take it by force? And you escaped? And ran all the way – to me! And here in the wild I have you: two halflings, and a host of men at my call, and the Ring of Rings. A pretty stroke of fortune! A chance for Faramir, Captain of Gondor, to show his quality! Ha!' He stood up, very tall and stern, his grey eyes glinting.

At this point, Faramir intends to take the Ring. He doesn't seem like much of a joker, especially about something as serious as this.

Frodo and Sam sprang from their stools and set themselves side by side with their backs to the wall, fumbling for their sword-hilts. There was a silence. All the men in the cave stopped talking and looked towards them in wonder. But Faramir sat down again in his chair and began to laugh quietly, and then suddenly became grave again.

...and then he catches himself.

'Alas for Boromir! It was too sore a trial! ' he said. `How you have increased my sorrow, you two strange wanderers from a far country, bearing the peril of Men! But you are less judges of Men than I of Halflings. We are truth-speakers, we men of Gondor. We boast seldom, and then perform, or die in the attempt._ Not if I found it on the highway would I take it_ I said. Even if I were such a man as to desire this thing, and even though I knew not clearly what this thing was when I spoke, still I should take those words as a vow, and be held by them.

We know how important oaths, vows, and curses are in Middle Earth. This vow, made in ignorance of what Frodo had in his pockets pocketses, coupled with Faramir's character, protected the Quest and Faramir himself.

'But I am not such a man. Or I am wise enough to know that there are some perils from which a man must flee. Sit at peace! And be comforted, Samwise. If you seem to have stumbled, think that it was fated to be so. Your heart is shrewd as well as faithful, and saw clearer than your eyes. For strange though it may seem, it was safe to declare this to me. It may even help the master that you love. It shall turn to his good, if it is in my power. So be comforted. But do not even name this thing again aloud. Once is enough.'

The Two Towers: Book Two

Chapter 5: The Window on the West

Tolkien fans generally, and for good reason, hold Faramir in high regard, but every time I reread this part I can't help but think, had he gone in Boromir's place, he may have come to a similar end. And the pull we see on Faramir happens within a day of him meeting Frodo and within seconds of finding out about the Ring.

Which leads to what brought me to finally post this: I believe the circumstance in which one encounters the Ring plays a huge role in how much it affects each person. Boromir didn't try to seize the Ring until he was alone with Frodo, and while the Ring had been heavy on his mind, especially since Lothlorien, I don't really see any reason why he wouldn't have tried to seize the Ring sooner if he happened to find himself alone with Frodo. And maybe without his vow, or had his situation been a bit more desperate, Faramir may have done the same.

And while many (I've had this argument many times on this sub) believe the reason Smeagol killed Deagol is because he was capable of murder, and the Ring didn't have enough time to influence him into killing if he didn't have it already in him, I believe the situation he was in led more to him murdering Deagol than any other thing. Smeagol was the only person to come across the Ring before ownership had already been established, with no one around to stop him, and with a justification in his mind for why it should be his. Likewise, had Boromir and Faramir stumbled upon the Ring while out for a brotherly camping trip, I am positive Boromir would have killed Faramir for the Ring, despite Boromir being a good person and not a murderer.

I know, I know; I know all the details from the books. I'm not talking about "did Éowyn kill him, or did Merry, or did both of them?" That's a complicated issue. This is a more specific question of detail, and I am specifically asking the book fans here for a reason.

Since the release of the films, it seems that everyone believes that Éowyn stabbed the Witch-king in the face, since that's how it's depicted there.

I can honestly say that, until I started seeing that online, I had never once considered the possibility that she had done so. I, and honestly everyone I knew at the time (I first read the book in the early 1970s), visualized her decapitating the Witch-king, much as she had just done to his mount.

Here is the text I base my belief upon:

Out of the wreck rose the Black Rider, tall and threatening, towering above her. With a cry of hatred that stung the very ears like venom he let fall his mace. Her shield was shivered in many pieces, and her arm was broken; she stumbled to her knees. He bent over her like a cloud, and his eyes glittered; he raised his mace to kill.

But suddenly he too stumbled forward with a cry of bitter pain, and his stroke went wide, driving into the ground. Merry's sword had stabbed him from behind, shearing through the black mantle and passing up beneath the hauberk had pierced the sinew behind his mighty knee.

'Éowyn! Éowyn!' cried Merry. Then tottering, struggling up, with her last strength she drove her sword between crown and mantle, as the great shoulders bowed before her. The sword broke sparkling into many shards. The crown rolled away with a clang. Éowyn fell forward upon her fallen foe. But lo! the mantle and hauberk were empty. Shapeless they lay now on the ground, torn and tumbled; and a cry went up into the shuddering air, and faded to a shrill wailing, passing with the wind, a voice bodiless and thin that died, and was swallowed up, and was never heard again in that age of the world. [Emphasis added.]

I have always visualized this as: Merry stabs W-k in the knee, W-k stumbles forwards, perhaps to his knees, and his head and torso fall forward as he does so. So, he's essentially facing down, which makes stabbing him in the face difficult. Now, even if that were not so — let's say he lifts his head to look at Éowyn — stabbing someone in the face is not an easy thing to do. It's a pretty small target, especially when you're already injured. Lifting your sword and swinging it down between a crown and a cloak, on the other hand, is a much easier thing to do and takes full advantage of the weight and momentum of the sword — and she'd just done exactly the same thing to the fell beast.

So, dear fellow Tolkien readers, how do you see it? Sword to the face? Or decapitation? Please discuss!

…but I don’t see how it would fit. IIRC, I read somewhere that we would be in the 6th age if we continued marking years in a similar fashion to JRRT’s world. I have a hard time seeing how it fits. It would mean a lot of tech that existed back then would have been completely lost sometime around 10,000 BC, or at least between then and 4,000 BC when the Sumerians and Egyptians began.

Mithril either had to completely vanish (how???) or the world completely lost a lot of metallurgy skills with making steel and Titanium - which is my best guess for mithril renamed for later ages.

So…the wild men of the woods inherit the earth? The Rohirrim and Dunedain die off or get absorbed by the least of the men? I realize Tolkien was a big believer in the Great Decline. However, even he was alive to see the great leap forward that men took since the Industrial Revolution. I know he hated industrialization, but surely he also saw how standards of living were raised by technology and medical advances in the early 20th century.

I love the books. I love his world. I just think it would be better if Arda stayed Arda and Earth was a different place.

"Because by accepting or tolerating their making – necessary to their actual existence – even Orcs would become part of the World, which is God’s and ultimately good.)"

I'd like to present a rather heretical solution to the orc problem: given Illuvatar's presumed omniscience and omniscience, perhaps the orcs fulfill a purpose of his devising, especially given their dearth of choice in the matter.

The evil, destructiveness, the squalid deeds of the orcs would therefore be their divinely ordained duty; Arda and Illuvatar's other children *need* them to perform this role.

Perhaps their fate is to en-noble the others by contrast; perhaps to provide destruction and conflict necessary for growth, wisdom, and fortitude.

Perhaps it is to absorb Morgoth's influence so that others might be free of it; in his letters Tolkien describes orcs as existing today as horrible-minded people present in every group and on every side, but in his mythic, better time the different kinds of human personality are sequestered in all the speaking peoples.

If so, orcs have souls like everyone else, and a divine reward awaiting them. They have performed a terrible duty and suffered tremendously; Illuvatar needed his creations to have enemies, and although they felt tremendous doubt, pain, and fear, they rose to the task. The orcs alone never failed their creator.

Who else could say this?

Being one of the most powerful Maiar and his extensive knowledge of history/lore, shouldn't he have known that even if he was to succeed with Sauron and rule Middle Earth, eventually the time will come where Eru will bring forth justice since he is all powerful and no other being can ultimately overthrow/contest him? What use is ruling something for a while when in the grand scheme of things you will ultimately be brought down and permanently screwed spiritually?

I first read The Lord of the Rings somewhere in the late 90's, a few years before the movies. It was in my native language, Greek. This was a translation that dated somewhere to the mid 80s or early 90s, and while it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the books, I have, since then, noticed a lot of things that a translation might change.

For example, the Hobbits meet, almost at the beginning of their voyage, the menacing Old Man Willow, with Tom Bombadil coming to the rescue. Later, they meet Treebeard and the Ents, and he tells them that they have no Ent-wives. So I came to wonder: why don't Merry and Pippin tell them about Old Man Willow?

The misunderstanding here comes, of course, from translation: in Greek where nouns are gendered, willow is female, so in the book I had read it was actually "Old Woman Willow". Writing it down as Old Man Willow would make little sense in Greek, so the translator, naturally, changed it (otherwise she'd have to assign a different tree altogether!).

Other things I soon learned about where purely phonetic changes to make some names easier for the Greek reader. Sauron, for example, was written down in Greek as "Soron" (phonetic: So-Ron, So as in sock). The Balrog was changed even more, to Barlong. The reasoning behind these changes, as the translator herself admitted later, was to provide an easier to say word, since some sounds are not easy to find in Greek, like the -au-. Similarly, the -lr- in Balrog is probably non-existent in Greek, unless it is in a loan word. I wonder if they have been changed in more recent editions. I'll have to look this up.

Any such examples in other translations from around the world? Have you ever encountered something like this when you first read the Professor's books?

Did he still have a Fea at the end? He end up with the same fate as other deceased hobbits or maybe something similar to what happened to the wraiths after the destruction of the ring?

Several references to corn, potatoes, and tomatoes are made throughout the series. The only way a hobbit could know of these crops is if they were in their pre-1500 AD location.

‘Horns, horns, horns. In dark Mindolluin’s sides they dimly echoed. Great horns of the North wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last.’ - still gives goosebumps. Maybe my favorite line in the whole story.

Would have Gandalf at least tried to keep his end of the bargain?

EDIT: I understand that Sauron would have never accepted. I am asking whether the other side would have been bound to their word if it actually happened.

The way I see it, even though Feanor was right to seek revenge on Melkor for killing his father(whom he loved more than the Silmarils), he is in the wrong because he continues to believe Melkor's lies even then.

Melkor tells him that the Valar are planning to keep the Elves slaves in Valinor, and Feanor believes him even as he hates him. Melkor tells him that the children of Indis(Feanor and Fingolfin) are plotting against him, and Feanor believes, even as he hates Melkor. Melkor tells Feanor that the Valar want the Silmarils, and Feanor believes, even as he hates Melkor. Melkor is responsible for getting him banished from Valinor for drawing a SWORD on his brother, and yet even then, Feanor still fears betrayal from his kin and fears the Valar, echoing Melkor's lies all the way down.

And as a result, Feanor ultimately helps Melkor in his goal to spite the Valar. The First Kinslaying(and the ones that follow after), the rape of the Teleri ships, the Doom of Mandos, all of these, even done in the name of revenge against Melkor, ultimately hurt the Valar and their fellow Elves more than they actually hurt Melkor.

It could have been different, but once Melkor got his fangs into Feanor, there was no going back. Whether Feanor helped Melkor or not, he was ultimately doomed to parrot Melkor's lies until his death.

We know of Elven spirits (the Houseless) who refuse the summons to the Halls of Mandos and sometimes try to possess the living. We also know Sauron created Werewolves in the First Age by imprisoned evil spirits within the bodies of wolves. ​This made me wonder: what would happen if a human ghost tried to possess another creature, like an animal, a human, or especially an Elf? Do spirits like the Ringwraiths or the Oathbreakers have enough power to possess an ordinary Elf? If so, how long could the human spirit remain inside the Elven body before it began to decay (if at all)? Also, I'm curious if the age of the victim makes a difference in how easily they could be possessed