The Nazgul – Part One

June 6, 2014June 7, 2014 / Detached / Leave a comment

After taking a break from writing this past week and finishing up the Newbie Blogger Initiative event for the month of May I have been itching to get this new post out so I hope you enjoy.

We’re taking a look at Sauron’s dark servants The Nazgûl or also known as the Ring-Wraiths, Black Riders, or The Nine which is my favorite name for these menacing enemy’s of Middle-Earth. They were the dreaded ring-bound servants of Sauron who served him through the second and third ages.

Once nine great Kings of Men, they were all given Rings of Power. The Nine took them without question and subsequently, after the forging of the One Ring, became slaves of Sauron and later his lieutenants. Centuries later the effect of the rings left the kings spectral, invisible to all but Sauron and whoever wore the One Ring.

Only two of the Nine were ever named: You have the Witch-King of Angmar which I will be doing a series on later this month, and you also had Khamul, the Lieutenant of Sauron.

The Nazgul in the Second Age

During the Second Age of Middle-earth the Elven-smiths of Eregion forged the Rings of Power, nine of which were given to great and powerful kings of Men. For many years the nine kings used these rings, which gained them great wealth, prestige and power. However, the effect of the rings made their bodily forms fade over time until they had become wraiths entirely, and served only the second Dark Lord Sauron.

The nine, were first seen around 2251 of the Second Age, and soon became established as Sauron’s primary servants, though they were temporarily dispersed after Sauron’s downfall in 3434 at the hands of Isildur in the Last Alliance of Elves and Men.

When the Nine Returned

Because the One Ring was not destroyed, the Nazgûl re-emerged around 1300 of the Third Age. It was around this time that the Witch-king of Angmar started war against the kingdom of Arnor. The first target was the realm of Rhudaur. After conquering Rhudaur and replacing the Dúnedain king with one of the native Hillmen, possibly descended from the kin of Ulfang, in the year TA 1356 the Witch-king moved against Arthedain, resulting in the death of King Argeleb I.

Arthedain hadn’t been defeated just yet, it still managed to hold a line of defense along the Weather Hills. The attack came on Cardolan around TA 1409 and during this time, the forces of the Witch-king burned and destroyed the watchtower of Amon Sûl. With the fall of Cardolan, Arthedain’s capital Fornost followed, and with that the last kingdom of Arnor was destroyed. A year later, a prince of Gondor named Eärnur arrived with the intention of aiding Arthedain.

Discovering that he was too late, he and his army marched against the forces of the Witch-king, utterly destroying them at the Battle of Fornost. The Witch-king escaped and retreated to Mordor, as Angmar had served its purpose. At some point, the Witch-king sent Barrow-wights to the Barrow-downs to prevent Cardolan from being resurrected. Upon his return to Mordor, the Witch-king gathered the other eight Nazgûl. Around the year TA 2000 the Nazgul attacked and after a two year long battle finally took Minas Ithil. They renamed it Minas Morgul, and also acquired a Palantir for the Dark Lord.

It was from Minas Morgul that the Nine directed the rebuilding of Sauron’s armies and the preparation of Mordor for their master’s return. In 2942 Sauron returned to Mordor, and declaring himself returned by TA 2951. He sent two or three of the Nazgûl to garrison his fortress Dol Guldur in Mirkwood. They were led by Khamul, the second most powerful of the Nazgul behind the Witch-King.

Be prepared as next week we will continue our story and finish out what happens to the Nazgul in the Third Age and discover the critical role they play in Sauron’s great plan to overtake Middle-Earth.

A Necromancer Above All – Part Three

April 7, 2014April 11, 2014 / Detached / Leave a comment

The Third Age

Despite his defeat, Sauron was not vanquished permanently. Though greatly weakened, and in non-corporeal form, he still existed, due to pouring most of his native power, strength, and will into the One Ring. Thus, as long as it existed, he could never be truly defeated, and during the first thousand years of the Third Age, he lay in hiding, slowly recovering his strength until he was once again able to create a body for himself.

The Necromancer of Dol Guldur

In the year TA 1000, Sauron at last began to rise again, taking the stronghold of Dol Guldur, the Hill of Sorcery, in southern Mirkwood in TA 1050. There, he was disguised as a dark sorcerer known as the Necromancer, and the Elves did not realize at first that he was actually Sauron returned.

Around this time, the Valar sent the five Wizards, or Istari, to oppose Sauron and rally the free peoples of Middle-Earth against him.

While Sauron continued to gather his strength, the Ringwraiths reappeared in the year TA 1300, and began steadily assaulting the Numenorian kingdoms in exile until, one by one, they fell. Whether the Witch King was acting on his own, or was being guided by Sauron, is not known.

Suspecting that Sauron had returned and was guiding the Nazgul, the wizard Gandalf infiltrated the fortress in TA 2063 to confirm his theory, but Sauron fled into the East to conceal his identity. This marked the beginning of the Watchful Peace, which ended with Sauron’s return to Dol Guldur in TA 2460. During the same year, the One Ring was finally discovered by the stoor Smeagol and his friend Deagol.

Sauron reveals himself to Gandalf at Dol Guldur

Gandalf the Grey made a second intrusion into Dol Guldur in TA 2850, and finally discovered that the Necromancer was indeed Sauron. Eventually, the White Council put forth their might and drove Sauron from Dol Guldur permanently in TA 2941. Without the Ring in his possession, Sauron could draw on only the smallest fraction of its strength, so that his enemies were able to drive him from Dol Guldur with relative ease. However, the Dark Lord, having had ample time to prepare, was willing to abandon Dol Guldur, and returned to Mordor, where he openly declared himself in TA 2951, and began preparations for his final war against the free peoples of Middle-earth.

Mordor

The Tower of Barad-dûr, Sauron’s Mordor fortress. The Eye of Sauron looks out from the topmost pinnacle.

Sauron bred immense armies of Orcs and allied with and enslaved Men from the east and south. He gathered his most terrifying servants, the Nazgûl (airi in Quenyan), or Ringwraiths, each wearing one of the nine rings designed for mortal men. He adopted the symbol of a lidless eye, and was able to exert his will over Middle-earth, so that the Eye of Sauron became a symbol of power and fear. But while Sauron had much of his former strength, he was still much weakened without the One Ring and remained hidden in the shadows, directing his armies from afar.

War of the Ring

After the creature Gollum, who had previously possessed the ring, was captured, Sauron had him tortured and learned that he once had a magic ring, and from him he heard the words Shire and Baggins. He deduced that Gollum’s ring was the One Ring, and sent his servants the Nine to find Shire and search for Baggins, so that the One Ring might be found and brought back to him.

Sauron discovers Aragorn through the Palantír

Meanwhile, Sauron had allied with the wizard Saruman, whom he had ensnared into his service, expecting the wizard to move against Rohan and thus remove one of the major threats Sauron faced in his planned conquest of Gondor and the remaining Elves. Saruman failed however, and Sauron lost his most potent ally as well as Saruman’s massive army of Uruk-Hai.

Shortly after Saruman’s defeat, Peregrin Took looked into the Palantír that Saruman had possessed, and accidentally communicated with Sauron, who believed that Saruman had captured the Halflings bearing the Ring, but when Aragorn took the palantir and revealed himself, Sauron realized that Saruman had failed. Concluding that the Heir of Isildur carried the ring, and could possibly use it against him, Sauron sped up his plans and attacked the city of Minas Tirith much sooner than he had planned, seeking to crush it, and with it the last true resistance to his rule.

But due to the combined efforts of Gondor, Rohan, and the Army of the Dead, Sauron’s army was defeated. He still had many armies in reserve, however, and enough military strength to easily conquer Middle-earth once Gondor fell. Yet, instead of striking out and covering Middle-Earth in a second darkness akin to Morgoth’s near-victory, Sauron feared that Aragorn was attempting to master the ring’s powers for himself, and waited for a period of strife between Aragorn and other potential Ringlords in which he would move out and take the Ring for himself.

The Eye of Sauron glaring at Aragorn’s army at the Morannon

In order to buy time for Frodo to reach Mt. Doom, and to distract Sauron from the peril in his own land, Gandalf and Aragorn led the remaining host from Minas Tirith to the Black Gate, making Sauron believe that Aragorn did indeed intend to challenge him directly.

All the rest of the Orc armies from Barad-dur had gotten to Udun, once Sauron foresaw their coming, to utterly crush the Men of the West, and regain his prize. Gandalf and Aragorn’s ploy worked: Frodo was able to reach Mount Doom, and upon putting on the Ring, Sauron suddenly became aware of him. Though enraged, he was suddenly gripped with terror, realizing his own folly, and frantically sent the Ringwraiths towards the mountain to retrieve the Ring. He was too late however, and Gollum, after taking the Ring from Frodo, slipped into the Cracks of Doom, and the Ring was unmade. The earth shook, Barad-dûr fell, and Orodruin (Mount Doom) belched fire, consuming the eight remaining Nazgul, who had left their combat with the Great Eagles to race to Mount Doom, in its fiery ruin.

With his physical form utterly destroyed, Sauron’s spirit hovered above Mordor like a “huge shape of shadow, impenetrable, lightning-crowned, … terrible but impotent,” only to be blown away by a great wind.

With his source of power destroyed, Sauron was utterly defeated and his armies were destroyed or scattered, bereft of the driving will behind their conquest.

Death and Barad Dur’s Downfall

All of Sauron’s old strength that was “native to him in his beginning”, in the words of Gandalf, was forever lost. Since his new body was based solely on the powers of the Ring, it was destroyed when the Ring was unmade. Without the strength of the Ring to aid him, he would never regain enough power to form the weakest body in Arda, and thus was restricted to existing as a hateful spirit, weak, and forever unable to take part in the events of Middle-earth. While evil would continue to exist, Sauron could never emerge as a Dark Lord again and never would have the power to create an army or draw evil creatures to his rule as he once did.

“”If [the Ring] is destroyed, then he will fall, and his fall will be so low that none can foresee his arising ever again. For he will lose the best part of the strength that was native to him in his beginning, and all that was made or begun with that power will crumble, and he will be maimed for ever, becoming a mere spirit of malice that gnaws itself in the shadows, but cannot again grow or take shape. And so a great evil of this world will be removed.””

A Necromancer Above All Part Two

March 9, 2014April 11, 2014 / Detached / Leave a comment

Sauron during the Second Age

Forging of the One Ring

“This is the Master-ring, the One Ring to rule them all. This is the One Ring that he lost many ages ago, to the great weakening of his power. He greatly desires it – but he must not get it.”

—Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings, “The Shadow of the Past”

Sauron The Dark Lord’s hand of Power.

After lying hidden and dormant for 500 years, he began revealing himself once more, and by SA 1000 he gathered his power and established himself in the land of Mordor in eastern Middle-earth and began building the dreaded Dark Tower of Barad-dûr near Mount Doom. Sauron, like Morgoth, soon began raising massive armies of Orcs, Trolls, and possibly other creatures, as well as corrupting the hearts of Men with delusions of power and wealth, chiefly Easterlings and Southrons (the Haradrim).

Although Sauron knew that men were easier to sway, he sought to bring the Elves into his service, as they were far more powerful. By about SA 1500, Sauron put on a fair visage in the Second Age, and calling himself Annatar, the “Lord of Gifts”, he befriended the Elvish smiths of Eregion, and counseled them in arts and magic. Not all the Elves trusted him, particularly Lady Galadriel, Elrond, and Gil-galad, High King of the Ñoldor.

Sauron, wearing the One Ring.

To the elves who listened, Sauron gave knowledge and encouragement in forging the Rings of Power, though in secret Sauron forged his own, the One Ring, to rule the Elvish rings. Upon that ring Sauron left the inscription, Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. In Westron the inscription translated into:One Ring to Rule Them All, One Ring to Find Them, One Ring to Bring Them All, and in the Darkness Bind Them.

However, as soon as Sauron put the Ring on his finger the Elves sensed his treachery, and removed their rings and hid them. Enraged, Sauron came against them in open war and demanded that all the Rings of Power be given to him. The Elves managed to hide the three greatest of the Rings from him, but the other sixteen Rings of Power were either captured by Sauron, destroyed, or lost. To the Dwarves he had given seven, but to Men he had given Nine, knowing that they would be the easiest to enslave. The Dwarf Lords who received the Rings proved to be very resistant to their power, and neither “faded” nor became enslaved to Sauron’s will. The Rings instead created in them an insatiable lust for gold, which ultimately caused a great deal of grief for the Dwarves.

The Corrupted Nine

As Sauron predicted however, the nine Men were all corrupted by their Rings and became the Nazgûl, Sauron’s deadliest servants. Had the Elves not recognized Sauron’s treachery and forsaken the power of their rings, the results would have been catastrophic for the Free Peoples of Middle-Earth. It seems that most if not all of the native Men of Middle-Earth succumbed to the power of the Ring once the Nazgûl were created; the Númenóreans were spared because of their distance. The Elves, had they been captured in this fashion, would have become the slaves of Sauron, and thus Celebrimbor’s resistance was of immense importance in the history of Middle-earth.

In this era, during which he marshalled and commanded great armies, Sauron became known as the Dark Lord of Mordor and his fortress of Barad-dûr was completed. He was very powerful even without control of the Elves, and he conquered nearly all of Middle-earth during the War of the Elves and Sauron. However, the armies of Númenór’s King Tar-Minastir were finally able to defeat him at a last battle near Gwathló or the Greyflood in SA 1700. Defeated but not vanquished, Sauron retreated back to Mordor and began recouping his strength over the many centuries.

The Númenóreans

These Men lived on the island of Númenor in the sea between Middle-earth and Valinor. The Númenóreans, who were then proud, came to Middle-earth with astounding force of arms. King Ar-Pharazôn marched his troops all the way to Mordor without a single battle, and demanded that Sauron abase himself before the King. Sauron could see clearly that even the most powerful of his servants could not stand against the Númenóreans, and so came from Barad-dûr without any offer of battle. He assumed a fair form and flattered Ar-Pharazôn, but the King demanded that Sauron come back to Númenor as a hostage. Sauron feigned unhappiness at this development but secretly was delighted, for this presented him with an opportunity to destroy the Númenóreans from within. After only a few short years in Númenor he grew from captive to the King’s most trusted adviser, and nearly all the King’s court fawned upon him. Drawing on their fear of death, he converted many Númenóreans to the worship of Morgoth, lying that Morgoth had the power to save them from mortality. As his power and influence reached its peak, he raised a great Temple in which he performed human sacrifices to Morgoth. Finally, he convinced Ar-Pharazôn to rebel against the Valar and attack Valinor itself and claim it for himself.

But here, Sauron’s cunning overreached itself, for Eru then directly intervened – Númenor was drowned under the sea, and the great navy of Númenor was destroyed and the army that reached Aman was buried under mountains of falling rock and imprisoned in the Caves of the Forgotten. The world was bent, so that thereafter, only Elven-Ships could sail into the Utter West. Sauron’s body was destroyed, but his spirit was not diminished, and he fled back to Mordor bearing the Ring, where he slowly rebuilt a new body and his strength during the time known as the Dark Years. From this point on, he lost the ability to assume a fair shape, and ruled now through terror and force. A few faithful Númenóreans led by Elendil were saved from the flood, and they founded Gondor and Arnor in Middle-earth.

Sauron’s destruction in battle by Isildur

After losing his body in the destruction of Númenor and a brief period of renewed war, Elendil and his people allied with the Elven-king, Gil-Galad to create the Last Alliance, and together fought Sauron. They finally defeated his armies at the Battle of Dagorlad, and laid siege to Barad-dûr for seven years. Finally, Sauron himself came forth and dueled both Elendil and Gil-galad, slaying them both singlehandedly. Then Isildur, son of Elendil, took up his father’s broken sword, Narsil and cut the One Ring from Sauron’s finger. Sauron’s physical body was destroyed. With nearly all of his power stored in the ring, the dark lord was vanquished when it was cut from his finger. Without their leader’s dark will driving them on, Sauron’s armies were routed and fled, and thus, his campaign to defeat the free peoples was seemingly ended, and his greatest weapon taken from him.

But while Isildur had taken the ring, he could not bring himself to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom where it was forged, instead he became corrupted by the One Ring and kept it for himself. He was eventually betrayed by it a few years later, and slain by orcs at Gladden Fields. The Ring fell into the river Anduin, and was lost for centuries before being found by Smeagol’s friend Deagol.

Until next week I’m Iogro Merrybelly signing off for the night.

The Shire

March 3, 2014April 11, 2014 / Detached / Leave a comment

A Hobbits Home
In former times, Men were seldom seen there, though Dwarves often passed through the Shire as they travelled to the Blue Mountains from their lands in the East. More rarely still, Elves could sometimes be seen in the woods as they journeyed to Mithlond, the Grey Havens beyond the borders of the Shire, where they cross the Sea into the West. Dark things seldom threatened the hills and meadows of the Shire. Largely this has been because hobbits are very good at keeping to their own business and not being noticed by others. But Little Folkwould be aghast and unbelieving if they only knew the lengths to which Gandalf the Grey and the Rangers of the North have gone to ensure the country’s peace. Now, though, even the Shire cannot escape the notice of the Shadow in the East.

The Lore
In the year 1601 of the Third Age, the Fallohide brothers Marcho and Blanco lead a group of Hobbits west from Bree and crossed the Bridge of Stonebows (later known as the Brandywine Bridge) and settled in the empty land they found. This became year 1 of the Shire-reckoning. King Argeleb II, the tenth King of Arthedain and a direct ancestor of Aragorn, granted the Hobbits this unused land and thus it became The Shire.

In III 2340 Hobbits expanded the Shire to include also Buckland and Brandy Hall was founded, though Buckland was never considered part of “the four farthings of the Shire”. Little is told about the history of the Shire, except for genealogical details about families, such as the Baggins, Brandybucks, Tooks, and many more. However…
In 22 September III 2890 Bilbo Baggins was born, and a few decades later his adventures would bring focus on the Shire. A fateful morning III 2941 an old bearded man with a blue pointed hat approached Bilbo and soon the Quest of Erebor begun, chiefly taking place in the far East. Eventually Bilbo brought back to Bag End treasures that greatly enriched hobbits all around the Shire, but one of the smaller items, a modest ring would also prove extremely hazardous, though not at once. In III 3001 Bilbo leaves the Shire and settles down in Rivendell, after giving the One Ring to Frodo.

In III 3017 Gollum (the former owner of the One Ring) was released from Mordor, probably shortly after he had revealed “Baggins” and “Shire” for Sauron. The Shire was still innocently unaware that the Dark Lord soon would begin the War of the Ring and their farthings were at stake. In early April III 3018 Gandalf tells Frodo about the One Ring and its powers and hazards, urging him to leave the Shire promptly, though Frodo hesitated, he was slow and it took him more than five months to set out. In September 14 Frodo, Sam and Pippin set out from Bag End towards Crickhollow in Buckland (where Merry would join them on the quest).

The Shire was a fertile and well-tilled part of Arnor, but deserted during the waning days of the Kingdom when it was known as the splinter-realm of Arthedain; where the Shire was, it had been the hunting grounds of the King of Arnor. The Hobbits(who lived in Dunland and parts of depopulated Cardolan and Rhudaur) got official permission from King Argeleb II at Norbury (Fornost) to settle the lands. This was finally done in Third Age 1601 (Year 1 in Shire Reckoning) by Hobbits from Bree, led by the brothers Marcho and Blanco.

The Shire was the homeland of the Hobbits. It was located in the northwest of Middle-earth, in the region of Eriador and within the Kingdom of Arnor, that is, while the kingdom existed. By the Third Age it was one of the few heavily-populated areas left in Eriador. Its name in Westron was Sûza”Shire” or Sûzat “The Shire”. Contrary to popular misconception, The Shire was not the birthplace of Frodo Baggins. The Shire was settled by Hobbits in the year TA 1601 (Year 1 in Shire Reckoning). The Hobbits (who originally lived in the vale of Anduin) had migrated west over the Misty Mountains in the decades before, and before entering The Shire they had lived in Dunland and parts of the depopulated Arnorian splinter-realms Cardolan and Rhudaur. It has been speculated that the Hobbits had originally moved west to escape the evils of Mirkwood, and the trouble caused by the Easterlings. The Shire was a part of Arthedain, and as such a part of Arnor. The Hobbits were granted official permission from King Argeleb II at Norbury (Fornost) to settle the Shire, which was not populated at the time, and seen as the King’s hunting grounds. The Hobbits considered themselves to be subjects of the King, and sent some support troops to the great battles Arnor fought against The Witch-king of Angmar. Tales claim that some Hobbit bowmen were involved at the Battle of Fornost, although no tales of it exsist in Men records. After the fall of Arnor, the Shire remained a small but independent entity.

The Shire During the Third Age
This peaceful situation changed after Bilbo Baggins’ acquisition of the One Ring in the year SR 1343 of the Shire Reckoning. Shortly after the first events that led to the War of the Ring (autumn of the year 1419 in Shire Reckoning), the Shire was first visited by the Nine Ringwraiths who went as far as Hobbiton, and then captured by Saruman. It was liberated with the help of Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin after the end of the Quest of the Ring. After Aragorn’s return as the King of Arnor and Gondor, the Shire became a protected enclave inside the Reunited Kingdom. He is known to have issued an order that forbade the entrance of full-sized Men into the Shire.

The Brandywine River (Baranduin) bound the Shire from the east. (Hobbits also lived in Buckland, which lay east of the river and west of the Hedge protecting the Shire from invasion from the Old Forest; however, Buckland was not formally recognised as part of The Shire until after the War of the Ring, when it was granted officially to The Shire by Aragorn II Elessar.) From the north and the west The Shire had no topographical borders, but rather was bounded by the ancient south and east roads, and by vague geographical features such as theTower Hills. The Shire was quite densely populated in parts with many villages and a few towns, but it still was open enough to allow for wide forested areas and marshes. The total amount of land calculated in square miles was 21,400 probably not including the Westmarch.

The Shire was originally divided in four Farthings (Northfarthing, Southfarthing, Eastfarthing, and Westfarthing), but Buckland and later the Westmarch were added to it. Within the Farthings there were some smaller, unofficial divisions such as family lands; nearly all the Tooks lived in or near Tuckborough, for instance. In many cases a Hobbit’s last name indicates where their family came from: Samwise Gamgee’s last name derived from Gamwich, where the family originated. Outside the Farthings, Buckland itself was named for the Oldbucks (later Brandybucks). The Shire’s small size, relative lack of importance in terms of geographical position, natural resources, or even concerning hobbits themselves made it too modest an objective for conquest from the more dominant races of the East and South. More importantly, the Shire was guarded and protected by the Dúnedain Rangers, who patrolled the borders and kept out intruders, though Tolkien notes that many of the current hobbits of the Shire have grown so accustomed to this that they have forgotten their protectors altogether.
However the limited government of the Shire did hold its own voluntary police force known as Shirriffs that helped to keep the Shire safe, usually from trespassing beasts rather than from enemy forces. The only foreigners to enter the Shire were the Dwarves travelling on the Great Road that ran through the Shire to and from their mines in the Blue Mountains (Ered Luin), and the occasional elves on their way to the Grey Havens. Despite this, two battles were fought in the Shire, the Battle of Greenfields, and the Battle of Bywater. The Shire was also attacked by White Wolves in TA 2911 during the Fell Winter, prompting the use of the Horn-call of Buckland.

The Shire derived its laws from the authority of the King at Fornost. After Fornost fell and the last king died, the Hobbits appointed a Thain to continue the authority of the missing king. The title of Thain eventually passed to the head of the Took clan in Tuckborough. The Thain commanded an armed force during emergencies, but otherwise had only a symbolic role. The Mayor of Michel Delving, elected once every seven years, became the most important official in the Shire. Most hobbits regarded Michel Delving as the principal town of the Shire, particularly with regard to its government. The Mayor was also the Postmaster and the First Shirriff for the whole Shire, so some called him the Mayor of the Shire.

The Shire was a small but beautiful and fruitful land, beloved by its inhabitants. The Hobbits had an extensive agricultural system in the Shire, but did not proceed with industrialization. Various supplies could be found in the Shire, including cereals, fruit, wood and pipe-weed (a favourite treat of Hobbits). Its relatively peaceful existence during the perilous period preceding the defeat of Sauron can be attributed to the vigilance ofGandalf and Rangers of the North led by Aragorn who used daring tactics to keep evil at bay. However when these set out to a distant war, the Shire became essentially defenceless, which led to its capture. But the damage which Saruman caused by forced industrialization was undone by the Hobbits’ efforts. The Shire was restored with soil from Lórien, given to Sam by Galadriel. The year SR 1420 was called The Great Year of Plenty and was considered by the inhabitants of the Shire to be the most productive and prosperous year in their history. The industrialization of the Shire was based on Tolkien’s witnessing of the extension of the Industrial Revolution to rural Warwickshire during his youth, and especially the deleterious consequences thereof. The rebellion of the hobbits and the restoration of the pre-industrial Shire may be interpreted as a prescription of voluntary simplicity as a remedy to the problems of modern society.

A Hobbits Journey

LOTR

The Nazgul – Part One

A Necromancer Above All – Part Three

A Necromancer Above All Part Two

The Shire

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