askmiddlearth:

In honor of Tolkien Reading Day, here’s Part I of “Which Tolkien Book Should You Read Next?”, a guide for the indecisive reader. Includes a list of “recommended if”/“not recommended if” for each book, as well as any movie adaptation issues you might want to know, and in general what to expect from each book.

Check back in a few hours for “Part II: Supplementary Books”!

I couldn’t let Tolkien Reading Day go by without doing something, so I’m reblogging some of my favorite TRD posts from past years – find more on the blog’s Tolkien Reading Day tag!

askmiddlearth:

Now presenting, in its full, complete, and downloadable glory, the Racism and Middle Earth series! This six part guide to Tolkien and Racism collects relevant tidbits from Tolkien’s own writings (from the most familiar to the most obscure) in order to highlight what the most problematic and the most potential-ridden parts of Middle Earth are, and outlines how we, as fans, can make Middle Earth a better place for characters of all ethnicities.

Each chapter is summarized in the photos above. The series can be downloaded as a .pdf, .ibook, or text-only .pdf (warning: the text version is not pretty, and is missing some important maps, so use only as a last resort.) I’ve also got a list of articles, essays, and blog posts on the subject of Middle Earth and racism here, for anyone wanting to learn more, or just looking for a different perspective/take on the issue. 

(For those who read the original blog posts, there have been a few changes to this final version – mainly additions made to Part I.)

Had fun at the Yule Festival this year, can you tell?

Champion of Eriador!

why do i love the cold places so much when in rl i hate the cold?

Ugh, just let me go there.

still calling this look The Goat Demon That Ate Your Children

Bunny!

Okay, I know you didn’t really ask for any screenshots or anything, but I just really love my character and am not even ashamed of how much time I spend putting together outfits in this game.

Anyway, Hithaerel is a human/woman hunter. (Also, due to the whole world transfer thing, I’m now on the Arkenstone server, fyi.)

Don’t know about LOTRO? This post will get you started.

askmiddlearth:

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

I made these info-graphics ages ago for the Silmarillion Read-Along, but realized that I never posted them all together. So, since I was too lazy to write anything new today, instead have a War of the Jewels info-graphic dump. The maps themselves are from Karen Wynn Fonstad’s Atlas of Middle Earth, I just color-coded them. 

Look what’s ready for download! After a few little edits (just typos, etc), both the Women Who Shaped Middle Earth and Awesome Ladies of the Shire series are available for download! The links are below, and I’ve added them to my list of Downloadable Guides:

• Women Who Shaped Middle Earth (PDF)
• Women Who Shaped Middle Earth (IBOOK)
• Awesome Ladies of the Shire (PDF)
• Awesome Ladies of the Shire (IBOOK)

This is a batch of questions that weren’t repeat questions (otherwise they’d be in an Archive Monday post), but also didn’t have enough of an answer to make a “real” post. A lot of them are answered with a slightly more elaborate version of “maybe” or “I don’t know”, or otherwise just had really short answers.

So, if you’re waiting to see a question asked, be sure to browse through these and see if your answer is in there! I’ll probably keep doing more batches of these until my inbox goes back down to a manageable level.

And here’s the third part of my Awesome Ladies of the Shire series, the great matriarchs + Elanor Gardner (plus one last family tree.) This is my second (much smaller) contribution to Legendarium Ladies April – just looking at some of my favorite hobbit lasses. I’ll have the whole series together and ready for download in a few days!

And though it’s not ready for download yet, my first LLA series (”The Women Who Shaped Middle Earth”) can be read in it’s rough-draft form here. And, as always, if you think I’ve missed something (or someone), feel free to send me a message!

Here’s the second part of my Awesome Ladies of the Shire series, Pippin’s sisters (plus another simplified family tree, for context.) This is my second (much smaller) contribution to Legendarium Ladies April – just looking at some of my favorite hobbit lasses. The next (and final) section will be about some of the Shire’s great matriarchs.

Though it’s not ready for download yet, my first LLA series (”The Women Who Shaped Middle Earth”) can be read in it’s rough-draft form here. And, as always, if you think I’ve missed something (or someone), feel free to send me a message!

Okay, here’s the first part of my Awesome Ladies of the Shire series, the three remarkable daughters of the Old Took (plus a super simplified family tree, for context.) This is my second (much smaller) contribution to Legendarium Ladies April – just looking at some of my favorite hobbit lasses. The next section will be about Pippin’s three sisters, and the last section will be a look at some of the Shire’s great matriarchs.

Though it’s not ready for download yet, my first LLA series (”The Women Who Shaped Middle Earth”) can be read in it’s rough-draft form here. And, as always, if you think I’ve missed something (or someone), feel free to send me a message!