Exploring Tolkien

The Middle-earth Mixer joins us this week to look at why Peter Jackson made some pretty big changes to 3 central characters. Listen in as we look at: Sauron, the Formless Elrond, the Unbeliever Saruman, Sith Lord Check out The Middle-earth Mixer’s podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify In our extended episode ( available for our members for only $4/mo–free for the first month!) we talk a...

Peter Jackson brought most of the comic relief for The Lord of the Rings via Gimli–which, based on his character in the books, is definitely off character. This week we discuss: Gimli, the Comic Relief Gimli, the Hatchet Man Legolas’ Boots were Made for Walkin’ (on snow) They did Boromir Dirty… Blonde Are we right? Wrong? Did we miss something obvious? Let us know! In our e...

Aragorn is, actually, a very different character in the films than the books. Was it a good decision to make the change? This week we discuss: The Hobbit Youth Movement Aragorn, the Dark and Brooding Aragorn, the Reluctant King Are we right? Wrong? Did we miss something obvious? Let us know! In our extended episode ( available for our members for only $4/mo–free for the first month!) we talk...

Michael and I continue to analyze the general changes Peter Jackson made to Lord of the Rings. This week, we look at: Gandalf, the Befuddled Sam, the Best Bud Merry and Pippen, the Pranksters Are we right? Wrong? Did we miss something obvious? Let us know! In our extended episode ( available for our members for only $4/mo–free for the first month!) we talk about: Become a member at https://t...

We jump into the deep end of analyzing Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings as we look at every film change he made! This week, Michael and I look at the first three: It’s an Adaptation Intercut Storylines Many of the Songs and Poems were cut Are we right? Wrong? Did we miss something obvious? Let us know! In our extended episode ( available for our members for only $4/mo–free for t...

In this week’s episode in our series of interviews from the December 2, 2003 roundtable discussions (listen to our Peter Jackson and Ian McKellen episode), we spoke with Lord of the Rings screenwriter Philippa Boyens.  She likely influenced the script as much as Peter Jackson did, and was known for trying to lift lines directly from the book instead of rewriting them for “modern audien...

Here’s the next episode in our series of interviews from the December 2, 2003 roundtable discussions (our Peter Jackson and Ian McKellen episode)!  You can tell that Viggo is thoughtful and soft-spoken, but has a driven personality that allows him to inhabit roles like Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings. In this episode, Viggo Mortensen discusses: What he does (as a newly discovered sex symbol...

If you haven’t listened to Jeff Johnson’s music yet, you’re missing out. I’ve been a fan of his music for over 20 years, having been first inroduced with his Songs of Albion trilogy — music based on reknowned author Stephen R. Lawheads trilogy of books of the same name. Jeff’s music stands out with music inspired by books, locations, and art. Listening to his mu...

Here’s our 3rd recording from the December 2, 2003 roundtable interviews (our Peter Jackson episode is at https://youtu.be/JqhF91GJbGg)! In this episode, Liv Tyler and Orlando Bloom joined us to talk their thoughts about the films, their careers, and the crazy premiere in Wellington for Return of the King. Become a member to at https://theonering.com/members to hear our thoughts on: Whether...

Here’s another recording from the December 2, 2003 roundtable interviews I was invited to join with a few other journalists to speak to the actors and crew of The Lord of the Rings (our Peter Jackson episode is at https://youtu.be/JqhF91GJbGg ). While the audio is terrible (we did what we could to make it listenable!), Peter Jackson’s Gandalf answered our questions earnestly and though...

We’re wrapping up Tolkien’s seminal essay this week looking at Consolation–and with that–Tolkien’s well-known term, Eucatastrophe. With so much depth, this essay isn’t easy to consume, and we really hope reading it with us helped you come to understand why Tolkien wrote it and why he believes Fairy Stories are so important! This week we look at: Why Consolation/...

What are we supposed to recover from?  And why do fairy stories provide it?  And why do we need to escape? And how do fairy stories break us out? As we get closer to finishing out “On Fairy Stories,” Michael Dan and I discuss how recovery and escape are 2 of the 3 things (consolation will be next week!) that these fantasy tales offer us.  We look at: Recovery from what? What is this &#...

When Tolkien talks about Fantasy, he doesn’t simply mean fiction stories set in sword-and-sorcery worlds.  Fantasy is the highest form of sub-creation, the “most nearly pure form”–and the most potent. An art form that is “best left to words, to true literature.” Michael, Dan, and I discuss this idea of Fantasy as the one form of Art that comes closest to true En...

This week we discussed “Children” from the “On Fairy Stories” by Tolkien.  He pushes back against the coupling of fairy-stories and children, making the point that, “If fairy-story as a kind is worth reading at all it is worthy to be written for and read by adults.” We talk about: Suspension of Disbelief vs Literary Belief How fairy-stories are not to be relegat...

This week Michael and I talked with Professor Nick Groom, author of Tolkien in the 21st Century: The Meaning of Middle-earth Today, releasing Sept. 5, 2023 (apologies for some some of the echo in the audio!). Professor Groom’s book is a detailed, in-depth, but very readable look into MIddle-earth, and how he perceives Tolkien as more relevant than ever before–particularly in a post-COV...

On December 2, 2003, I was invited to join a few other journalists to interview the actors and crew of The Lord of the Rings. For me (Jonathan), for a “kid” in his mid-20s who turned a website into one of the largest online destinations for Tolkien fans on the internet, it was the unexpected zenith of the previous 4 years running the TheOneRing.com . So, when listening, remember that n...

Diving into what the origin of fairy stories is, we realize–once again–that Tolkien doesn’t give us an encyclopedic answer, but instead lays out some boundaries that help us better understand where fairy story comes from–and what it needs to have. It’s a thought-provoking episode this week as we continue to dissect this incredibly important essay Tolkien wrote! In our...

Ted Nasmith has been creating visions of Middle-earth since the early 1970s when he decided to send JRR Tolkien one of his early pieces–and the professor responded with encouragement!  In addition to being the sole featured artist in 12 Tolkien calendars (2022 most recently), he worked closely with Christopher Tolkien to create the incredible illustrated Silmarillion in 1998 . Michael and I...

This week, Michael, Dan, and I discuss the first part of Tolkien’s seminal essay “On Fairy Stories”, where Tolkien defines what a fairy (aka fantasy) story is. Why is this important? Well, the “fairy tale” in Tolkien’s era was relegated to simple children’s fiction, something adults grew out of along with their innocence and naiveté. But to Tolkien, these...

In our final episode discussing The Silmarillion, we each get our own “Big Thought” (sorry Dan!)… We look at how Tolkien created “high beauty”, how this book truly shows Tolkien’s “Strong Women”, and talk about how The Silmarillion is truly the meat of Tolkien’s writing. Then, join us in our extended episode ( https://theonering.com/members ) w...

** Use the code “GREAT” at https://shop.theonering.com to get $2 off anything! ** It’s hard to believe, but this week we finish “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age”–the last chapter of The Silmarillion! We talk about the the truth and beauty of Middle-earth (and how we’re not connected to it), how Peter Jackson portrayed the battle between Gil-Galad,...

Many of us endured Amazon’s Rings of Power show last year… and now we’ve finally reached that part of The Silmarillion. Of course, here we actually talk about the Rings more than they were featured in the show for those, erm, amazing 5 minutes. This week we take Michael to task for defending Amazon’s show, why the rings were so seductive to each race, and why do the green e...

Join us as we look back on one year of Exploring Tolkien! This week we talk why we love Tolkien so much, the path that brought us to be a part of this show, all the stats for the show… and most importantly, we ask each other our EXTREMELY personal TORC Inquisition questions 🙂 ! And join us in our extended episode where we discuss what our families think of us doing this show, if we’ve...

With the release of the new Gollum game, we decided to take a deeper dive at this character–not his motivations or history, but what Tolkien specifically said about him in his letters. Tolkien indicates that the most moving scene in all of the Lord of the Rings was Gollum’s near repentance on the stairs of Cirith Ungol, as he looked on Frodo and Sam sleeping: “Gollum looked at th...

Dan had an unexpected work trip this week (I forgive him ????), and we weren’t able to record our expected 1 year anniversary podcast, In lieu of that, here is last weeks livestream where we talked about Galadriel’s “life-changing” event in Rings of Power season 2, the Gollum game releasing May 25, 2023, the newly announced MMO game from Amazon, if we accept the reason for...