On one of the Tolkien discussion lists I’m on, the perennial question about Maedhros and Thangorodrim was posed: What does JRRT tell us about how Maedhros survived up there for so long?
The answer to that question is simple: JRRT doesn’t. At least, not in any of the books published during his lifetime or posthumously to [...]
Filed under: Tolkien by Dawn
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Maeglin the iPod died on my way to work today, so I was left alone with my thoughts for the whole of the hour-plus-long drive home. Amid the maelstrom of my thoughts on mythology and women and Tolkien and feminist revision (related to an end-of-term research paper due this weekend), I got to thinking about [...]
Filed under: The Crackpot, Tolkien by Dawn
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My last post on whether or not Maedhros threatening to kill Elrond and Elros was canonical has generated a lot of wonderfully thought-provoking comments. Not surprisingly, many of these have been about canon: what it is, how it is defined, and at what point to we pass from “canon” to “AU.” This is a matter [...]
Filed under: Fandom and Online Life, Tolkien by Dawn
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The other day, I was reading a story about Maedhros and Maglor during the attack on the settlement at Sirion. Maedhros and Maglor search for the Silmaril. Together, they burst into a room and find not the jewel but the twin sons of Eärendil, Elrond and Elros. The twins try to defend themselves but they [...]
Filed under: Tolkien by Dawn
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This is the second part of a continuing series on Tolkien and allegory. Part 1 can be found here.
A lot of times, when people talk about allegory and Tolkien, I suspect they are talking about something different from how I see allegory and probably how Tolkien saw it too. To be fair, even the experts [...]
Filed under: Tolkien by Dawn
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I am currently taking a course on modern epic fantasy literature and, of course, the core of it is a study of Tolkien. This week’s topic is allegory in Tolkien’s works: Is there or isn’t there?
The course has been pretty tame so far, mostly looking at the literary influences on Tolkien’s work, his biography, and [...]
Filed under: Tolkien by Dawn
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