History of Middle-earth, Part 2: Tolkien’s English Inspiration

fellowship 1965

Reading Time: 5 minutesHISTORY OF MIDDLE-EARTH, PART 2: TOLKIEN’S ENGLISH INSPIRATION .R.R. Tolkien had a 35-year career at the University of Oxford, spending the last part of his time at Merton College, across the street from Magdalen College, where his friend C.S. Lewis taught. His younger brother, Hilary Tolkien, had a farm in Evesham, England, in the Cotswolds,…

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History of Middle-earth: Tolkien’s Swiss Inspiration

img map misty mtns central

Reading Time: 5 minutesHISTORY OF MIDDLE EARTH: TOLKIEN’S SWISS INSPIRATION n the summer of 1911, J.R.R. Tolkien hiked the peaks and valleys of the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland when he was 19 years old. These Alps and their valleys had a profound impact on Tolkien’s imagination, as he wrote when he was 74 to his son Michael in…

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Movie Review: Lord Of The Rings – The Fellowship Of The Ring

Fellowship of the Ring

Reading Time: 13 minutesMovie Review: Lord Of The Rings – The Fellowship Of The Ring [My long-lost review from December 19, 2001, of the movie and an essay on the appeal of J.R.R. Tolkien and his magical world.]  “Exciting, dramatic, passionate, beautiful, chilling, palpable evil, breathtaking vistas…” These are all words I’ve used to describe this movie to…

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