A Tolkien and Storytelling Podcast
Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen, yéni únótimë ve rámar aldaron! Yéni ve lintë yuldar avánier mi oromardi lissë-miruvóreva Andúnë pella, Vardo tellumar nu luini yassen tintilar i eleni ómaryo airetári-lírinen. Sí man
An sí Tintallë Varda Oiolossëo ve fanyar máryat Elentári ortanë ar ilyë tier undulávë lumbulë ar sindanóriello caita mornië i falmalinnar imbë met, ar hísië untúpa Calaciryo míri oialë. Sí vanwa ná, Rómello vanwa
The Stories
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The main thing we'll be covering on this podcast, and in our occasional blog posts too, is the primary works of Tolkien that I think everybody reading will be familiar: The Lord of Rings and The Hobbit, as well as The Silmarillion, although some of you may not have read it, and that's fine, it's quite a daunting read to be honest. But, in going through material from The Silmarillion, we'll be trying to make it as accessible as possible, and I'll give spoiler warnings just in case.
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When going through these works, we'll be diving into characters and plots, as well as the deeper themes and how Tolkien explores them in his stories, with focus on as many aspects of these stories as we can, because there's so much, and everybody has their favourite parts and characters, that sometimes Tolkien doesn't initially give too much attention to (I know, it can be quite irritating, but we'll be digging through the texts to help us with this).
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Aside from his novels, Tolkien has a lot of poetry that bring new stories to life, or bring new depth to some of his stories that have been written in prose, examples of these being The Children of Hurin and Beren and Luthien.
The World
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When people think of Tolkien, the stories are almost the second piece of the puzzle, with the highly detailed world and history of Middle Earth being the thing Tolkien is most renowned for in many people's eyes.
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We'll be diving into the depths of Tolkien's world through texts like The History of Middle Earth and many other supporting materials, to gain a better understanding of the world that Tolkien created over his lifetime and was revealed to us even in the decades following his death.
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As a visual thinker, filmmaker and former design student, I find that the world of Middle Earth is so vivid in its depiction in my head, so I want to take a more visual and kinaesthetic approach to thinking about Middle Earth from time to time. By this I mean talking about the people, geography and design of the world to help build a bigger picture and aid the formation of context surrounding the works as we work through them and hopefully get you as obsessed with Middle Earth as I am.
Behind the Pages
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In the community of fans and admirers of Tolkien's work, the author's own life and history is often a topic of discussion, as we learn about his storied life from youth to death, and see how it shaped his dreams and the world he went on to create.
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As much as Tolkien would've had a thing or two to say about looking for 'the bones' of his work, when an author has such a varied and interesting set of subjects and experiences to draw on, it is hard to avoid diving into them to help us understand the world they created, especially when they have been ingrained so deeply into the stories, characters and cultures that he developed across novels, poems and assorted supporting material.