We explore the opening of the movie The Hobbit, an Unexpected Journey, and compare it to the chapter in JRR Tolkien’s classic children’s book, The Hobbit. We will see how a seemingly-small change in the prologue shifts the en...
How an unsuspecting, comfortable hobbit became the host of a party of dwarves and a burglar of a dragon: Today we explore chapter 1 of JRR Tolkien’s classic story: The Hobbit or There and Back Again. Exclusive discounts for y...
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Tolkien’s simple opening line to his book The Hobbit wasn’t merely the first sentence to a children’s story of adventure, bravery, and dragons: this sentence is the first step in ...
Remastered episode 1: "The Beginning of Middle-earth"! We introduce Tolkien's "The Silmarillion" and examine the creation story for Tolkien's mythology. Exclusive discounts for you : https://www.ringspodcast.com/p/discounts/ ...
Who understands the Lord of the Rings better? Amazon’s Rings of Power, or the new artificial intelligence called ChatGPT. I asked the AI three questions about Lord of the Rings, and its answers left me speechless. Today, I wi...
I've seen Peter Jackson's LoTR movies nearly three dozen times, but I still notice new details and connections every time I watch them. Join me as I share new insights from the movies as I watch them in my annual Lord of the ...
I've seen Peter Jackson's LoTR movies nearly three dozen times, but I still notice new details and connections every time I watch them. Join me as I share new insights from the movies as I watch them in my annual Lord of the ...
The events of the Lord of the Rings book transpire in less than a year. But what a packed year it was; when the events of the First, Second, and nearly all the Third Age culminate in the overthrow of Sauron, the Return of the...
Today marks 1 year since the Lore of the Rings podcast launched. We dive into how I found Lord of the Rings many years ago, and how this podcast came to be. I share some numbers about our audience, and provide a sneak peak on...
Middle-earth has a detailed and ancient history, with Three Ages of the world each spanning thousands of years. Today we wander through this epic timeline, and I’ll rip into how Amazon’s Rings of Power totally trashed Tolkien...
If you’ve seen or read Tolkien’s The Hobbit , then you know that Gandalf convinced Thorin and the dwarves to take Bilbo Baggins, a simple hobbit from the Shire. But you may not know why Gandalf chose Bilbo in the first place,...
While Peter Jackson’s adaptations reduced dwarves to little more than comic relief, Rings of Power shows dwarves at the height of their power in Khazad-dum. Today we wander the tales of the dwarves, and you may be surprised a...
Three takeaways from the new behind-the-scenes footage for Rings of Power season 1. Exclusive discounts for you : https://www.ringspodcast.com/p/discounts/ Find contact info, social media links, discounts and more on the Lore...
A holy hill, a solemn oath, a mysterious tomb; What do these things have in common? Perhaps one of Tolkien’s most beloved themes, in a word, Friendship. Today we dive deep on the oath sworn between Rohan and Gondor, and how i...
The origins of the Kingdom of Rohan, long-time ally of Gondor, keepers of the white horses called the mearas, and befuddled enemies of Saruman. Today we explore their history, which surprisingly has less to do with horses, an...
Middle-earth’s greatest power couple: Aragorn and Arwen. If we stripped away all the battles, all the struggles, all the rings, dwarves, dragons, dark lords, wizards, Nazgul, hobbits, if we stripped all of that away, and we w...
We explore the rise and fall of Gondor, the southern kingdom, once ruled by Isildur and Anarion, sons of Elendil. We’ll track the line of kings from beginning to end, explore the Ruling Stewards' attempts to repel Mordor, and...
We all know that Aragorn is Isildur’s heir, but there’s 38 generations and nearly 3000 years between them. What happened during that time? Elrond said that Aragorn was “descended through many fathers from Isildur Elendil’s so...
What was the promise that Tolkien made that he wished he could take back? What project was he working on that lead to the delay for the publishing of the final volume of The Lord of the Rings? What part of the book did Tolkie...
Three Rings for the Elven Kings, The Stranger’s new adventure, and Halbrand is back in Mordor. We continue our spoiler-rich adventure—exploring the lore behind the finale of Rings of Power season 1! This our third and final l...
The Stranger banishes the cultists and Sauron twists Galadriel’s mind. We continue our spoiler-rich adventure—exploring the lore behind the finale of Rings of Power season 1! Exclusive discounts for you : https://www.ringspod...
Sauron revealed, Halbrand’s healing miracle, three gemstones, and a fool’s hope: today I’m giving a lore breakdown—scene by scene—of Rings of Power season 1 finale! Exclusive discounts for you : https://www.ringspodcast.com/p...
Deadly Harfoots, a weeping Elendil, a jarringly humble Galadriel, kneeling Elves, and who is Celeborn—we’ll wander through all this in more in my breakdown of Rings of Power Season 1, Episode 7: The Eye. Exclusive discounts f...
We explore the lore the origins of Orcs, and entertain some possible answers to the riddles of their creation and redemption. Exclusive discounts for you : https://www.ringspodcast.com/p/discounts/ Find contact info, social m...