Tinw's Lord of the Rings Research and Writings

From pointy ears to Grima's tears

investigations of a Tolkien enthusiast

This page is devoted to an old hobby of mine: Tolkien. I am one of those fans who has read Lord of the Rings and usually The Hobbit annually, for the last twenty-five years or so. In the last decade I've added Silmarillion to the tradition. My recent, belated discovery of many of Tolkien's other postumously-published writings (thanks, Mom) and the recent films have inspired me to delve still deeper into Tolkien's world. My interests lie in three areas: the history and stories of Middle Earth, the Jackson films, and the languages which Tolkien invented using all his knowledge as a linguistic scholar.

Various & Sundry Tolkien Investigations

  • Estel: Aragorn's Secret Name: An essay on Hope in The Lord of the Rings.
  • How old are these people? Can't remember a character's age? This is most of 'em.
  • The Tragedy of Gilraen, Aragorn's Mother
  • Anachronisms in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings
  • Great Female Characters in Tolkien's Middle-earth
  • Healing in Middle-earth: an exhaustive study of healing magic and techniques used by the various characters and races of Middle-earth.
  • Healing Arts of the Elves: an in-character examination of Elven healing, written as if by a visitor to Imladris.
  • The Role of Arwen Undomiel: Kingmaker. She had very different roles in the movies versus the book. Learn more about her!
  • Gandalf's knowledge How much of the future (or present) could he see?
  • Races in Middle-earth: A Common Theme
  • A Character Study of Éomer Éadig and his impact on Rohan and Gondor
  • Legolas of Mirkwood: Prince Among Equals, piecing together his unusual upbringing and family history from Tolkien's lesser-known writings. This is not the Legolas that most fans know!
  • Did Tolkien's Elves Have Pointed Ears? The complete scoop.
  • Men in Lórien: Who Escapes Her Nets? A little-known detail of LOTR.

  • Brian Sibley's BBC Dramatization of LOTR: Better than the films?

  • The Hobbit: Characters in the Books vs. the Films
  • Push Him, Elrond! Why didn't Elrond simply cast Isildur into the fire?
  • The Eye of Sauron in The Lord of the Rings
  • What happened to Erkenbrand in TTT? (or, Elves at Helm's Deep?!!)
  • Hail, Théoden, King! (or not) A humorous critique of a wee little story arc problem in TTT
  • The Boy with the Bow, an ever-evolving and startlingly popular homage to the stunt archery in the films.
  • What Happened to Gallant Captain Faramir? Reconciling the movie and book versions of Faramir.
  • An Immortal in a Mortal World Jackson puts Legolas through the ringer in a way Tolkien never did.
  • Gríma's Tear: what are we to make of it?

  • How to Use a Dictionary to Translate Between Languages: the most important thing every budding Elvish scholar MUST know
  • Elvish poetry, the products of a novice in Sindarin who's still learning the ropes. Translations included.
  • I Raid I Firn: The Paths of the Dead (stand-alone excerpt from Not Lightly Do the Leaves of Lórien Fall).
  • The Khazad-dum Tinies. A little Tolkien humor.
  • Links to indispensible Tolkien sites

    Copyright and trademarks for The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion,, The Hobbit, and other collections of Tolkien’s writings belong to The Saul Zaentz Company d/b/a Tolkien Enterprises. Peter Jackson's film adaptations of LOTR are © New Line Productions, Inc.
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