“They had not heard of the king”

Hey read-alonger! Sorry I didn’t get to this last week, when it probably would have been more interesting for you But anyway, I can answer this! In The Hobbit, the dwarves see a campfire in the distance and are trying to decide whether it’s a good idea to approach it or not. When describing the…

The Tower Hills

(All this information is limited to the late Third Age/early Fourth Age, just an FYI.) Well, elves definitely visited the Tower Hills (also called Emyn Beraid.) In fact, Gildor Inglorion and the elves the hobbits met in the Shire were on their way back from a pilgrimage to the Tower Hills. Tolkien says that apparently…

For dotonbori-robo-dtr, who asked “Merry Christmas you rocking person! I check your blog every day and I’ve said this before but it absolutely astonishes me the amazing work you do. You’re awesome! Since tis the season, here’s a question: what’s the closest thing Middle-earth has to Christmas? Perhaps a hobbit winter festival or something… Stay awesome!”

SOURCES: LotR Appendices, The Histories of Middle Earth vol. 12, The Book of Lost Tales

‘Sharkey’? Seriously?

So, for those of you who haven’t actually read Lord of the Rings, you may or may not be familiar with the fact that a large part of the ending wasn’t included in the movies – the Scouring of the Shire. You can read more about it in this post, but basic idea is that,…

Hello! Love the blog. Today is July 31st, and it is a very important day in literature. Not only is it the birthday of Harry Potter and JK Rowling, it is also the birthday of Juliet, from Romeo and Juliet. So, I was wondering–did anything auspicious ever happen on any July 31st in Middle-earth?

Unfortunately, no – the only Middle Earth calendar that really translates to “real world” months is the Shire calendar used by hobbits. And the way that calendar works is that every month has only 30 days, meaning that July 31 doesn’t even exist in Middle Earth… SOURCES: LOTR Appendices