Capital R, Ring

11 Wednesday Nov 2026

Tags

Andrew Lang, Bilbo, fairy tales, fairy-tales, Fantasy, George Dasent, Gollum, lotr, Saruman, Sauron, The Lord of the Rings, The Ring, Tolkien

Welcome, as ever, dear readers.

Having grown up reading or being read to from fairy tale books like that by George Dasent (Popular Tales from the Norse, 1859—and here’s a copy for you: https://archive.org/details/populartalesfr00asbj/page/n3/mode/2up   )

and Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books,

(You can start with the first here: https://dn760108.eu.archive.org/0/items/bluefairybook00langiala/bluefairybook00langiala.pdf )

it’s not surprising that Tolkien’s first adventure book, The Hobbit,

should, in many ways, resemble such books.

One of the features of fairy tales is the use of magic, including magic objects, like rings,

(You can read more about such rings here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_ring )

and, of course, such a ring appears in The Hobbit, the magic being that it allows a person wearing it to become invisible, which then allows the hero, Bilbo, to escape from goblins,

(Alan Lee)

fight giant spiders,

(Oleksiy Lipatov—you can see more of his work here: https://www.artstation.com/oleksiylipatov8 )

and even chat with a fearsome dragon.

(JRRT)

Where it came from and what other powers it might have are not explained, only that Bilbo picked it up on the floor of a goblin tunnel and that it was clearly the property—the “precious” –of the creepy Gollum, from whom Bilbo escaped after a riddling contest, using that same ring.

(Alan Lee)

But then the book was so successful that the publisher asked for a sequel and, as Tolkien wrote to W. H. Auden:

“But if you wanted to go on from the end of The Hobbit I think that the ring would be your inevitable choice as the link. If then you wanted a large tale, the Ring would at once acquire a capital letter; and the Dark Lord would immediately appear.” (letter to W.H.Auden, 7 June, 1955, Letters, 315)

Thinking about the Ring recently, I wondered about both its original purpose, and the effect that it had upon other wearers or potential wearers. In an earlier letter, Tolkien had explained that original purpose:

“The Elves of Eregion made Three supremely beautiful and powerful rings…But secretly in the subterranean Fire, in his own Black Land, Sauron made One Ring, the Ruling Ring that contained the powers of all the others, and controlled them, so that its wearer could see the thoughts of all those that used the lesser rings, could govern all that they did, and in the end could utterly enslave them.” (letter to Milton Waldman, late 1951, Letters 212-213)

Along with that controlling force, the Ring—and, as JRRT writes, the other rings– had another potential:

“The chief power (of all the rings alike) was the prevention or slowing of decay (i.e. ‘change’ viewed as a regrettable thing), the preservation of what is desired or loved, or its resemblance—this is more or less an Elvish motive.”

And there is something more:

“But also they enhanced the natural powers of a possessor—thus approaching ‘magic’, a motive easily corruptible into evil, a lust for domination. And finally they had other powers, more directly derived from Sauron…such as rendering invisible the material body, and making things of the invisible world visible.” (letter to Milton Waldman, “probably late 1951”, Letters 212-213)

That invisibility appeared in The Hobbit, but that “prevention or slowing of decay” was something new and we see that first in Gollum, who had taken the Ring from its finder, his cousin, Deagol.

Isildur had lost the Ring in the Anduin—or, rather, the Ring had abandoned him–in SA 3436. Deagol had brought it to the surface in TA2463, Bilbo had found it in TA 2940, and Gollum is still alive at the time of The Lord of the Rings, in TA3018, making him over 550 years old.

This slowing of age is then a give-away to Gandalf about Bilbo and his Ring, as Bilbo, among long-lived Hobbits, seems even longer-lived (eventually going off to the Grey Havens at 131). As Gandalf said of Gollum:

“ ‘And I learned also that he had possessed it long. Many lives of his small kind. The power of the ring had lengthened his years far beyond their span; but that power only the Great Rings wield.’ “ (The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 2, “The Council of Elrond”)

But here we see another effect of possessing the Ring: it may lengthen life, but Bilbo says of himself:

“ ‘I am old, Gandalf. I don’t look it, but I am beginning to feel it in my heart of hearts. Well-preserved indeed!…Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread. That can’t be right…” (The Fellowship of the Ring, Book One, Chapter 1, “A Long-Expected Party”)

We can wonder, then, if Bilbo had possessed the Ring for about 60 years and felt odd, what must Gollum have felt like at 550+? Gandalf gives us something of that:

“ ‘He is thin and tough still. But the thing was eating up his mind, of course, and the torment had become almost unbearable.’ “ (The Fellowship of the Ring, Book One, Chapter 2, “The Shadow of the Past”)

What is this torment? I would guess that it’s a combination of things: first, that the Ring, as we know from Gandalf, always wants to return to its maker/master, even to falling off a wearer’s finger:

“ ‘The Ring was trying to get back to its master. It had slipped off Isildur’s hand and betrayed him; then when a chance came it caught poor Deagol, and he was murdered; and after that Gollum, and it had devoured him. It could make no further use of him: he was too small and mean; and as long as it stayed with him he would never leave his deep pool again. So now, when its master was awake once more and sending out his dark thought from Mirkwood, it abandoned Gollum.” (The Fellowship of the Ring, Book One, Chapter 2, “The Shadow of the Past”)

Thus, the Ring could combine a pressure to release it with its terrible attraction and fear of losing it, which could drive even decent people to shocking behavior, as it had many years ago with Smeagol, and as Frodo feels, when, in Rivendell, Bilbo asks to see it:

“Slowly he drew it out. Bilbo put out his hand. But Frodo quickly drew back the Ring. To his distress and amazement he found that he was no longer looking at Bilbo; a shadow seemed to have fallen between them, and through it he found himself eyeing a little wrinkled creature with a hungry face and bony groping hands. He felt a desire to strike him,” (The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 1, “Many Meetings”)

(from the Jackson film, although more fiendlike, I think, than Tolkien intended)

It may also be that, for someone unequipped to wear it, the power enclosed within the Ring would simply overwhelm that person, as Elrond says:

“ ‘We cannot use the Ruling Ring. That we now know too well. It belongs to Sauron and was made by him alone, and is altogether evil. Its strength, Boromir, is too great for anyone to wield at will, save only those who have already a great power of their own. But for them it holds an even deadlier peril. The very desire of it corrupts the heart. Consider Saruman. If any of the Wise should with this Ring overthrow the Lord of Mordor, using his own arts, he would then set himself up on Sauron’s throne, and yet another Dark Lord would appear.’ “ (The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 2, “The Council of Elrond”)

If even someone as powerful as Saruman would be overwhelmed by that power—and perhaps by that pressure to return it to its rightful owner, as well—then it’s not surprising that Gollum, and Bilbo, would be worn down under it, as he tells Gandalf:

“ ‘I am sorry…But I felt so queer. And yet it would be a relief in a way not to be bothered with it any more. It has been so growing on my mind lately. Sometimes I have felt it was like an eye looking at me. And I am always wanting to put it on and disappear, don’t you know; or wondering if it is safe, and pulling it out to make sure. I tried locking it up, but I found that I couldn’t rest without it in my pocket…’ ” (The Fellowship of the Ring, Book One, Chapter 1, “A Long-Expected Party”)

Such power delays decay, can make a holder invisible, and corrupts, as Elrond has said, but there’s another side to this as well: such power can also weaken. Sauron:

“rules a growing empire from the great dark tower of Barad-dur in Mordor, near to the Mountain of Fire, wielding the One Ring.

But to achieve this he had been obliged to let a great part of his own inherent power (a frequent and very significant motive in myth and fairy-story) pass into the One Ring. While he wore it, his power on earth was actually enhanced. But even if he did not wear it, that power existed and was in ‘rapport’ with himself: he was not ‘diminished’. Unless some other seized it and became possessed of it. If that happened, the new possessor could (if sufficiently strong and heroic by nature) challenge Sauron, become master of all he had learned and done since the making of the One Ring, and so overthrow him and usurp his place. This was the essential weakness he had introduced into his situation in his effort (largely unsuccessful) to enslave the Elves, and in his desire to establish a control over the minds and wills of his servants. There was another weakness: if the One Ring was actually unmade, annihilated, then its power would be dissolved, Sauron’s own being would be diminished to vanishing point, and he would be reduced to a shadow, a mere memory of malicious will.” (Letter to Milton Waldman, “probably written late in 1951”, Letters, 214)

Even Sauron, in fact, deceived himself about the Ring:

“It was indissoluble in any fire, save the undying subterranean fire where it was made—and that was unapproachable, in Mordor. Also so great was the Ring’s power of lust, that anyone who used it became mastered by it; it was beyond the strength of any will (even his own) to injure it, cast it away, or neglect it. So he thought. It was in any case on his finger.” (Letter to Milton Waldman, “probably written late in 1951”, Letters, 214)

And then it wasn’t on his finger, passing through a number of hands until, on the last, it—and its wearer—were “unmade”—

(Marta Nael—visit her spectacular gallery here: https://martanael.com/projects )

and, with it, so was Sauron.

(Ted Nasmith)

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Stay well,

Avoid the temptation to try to dominate the world—even Napoleon ended up an aging exile on a tiny volcanic island—

And remember that, as always, there’s

MTCIDC

Cap-a-Pie (2)

04 Wednesday Nov 2026

Posted by Ollamh in Uncategorized

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Tags

armor, easterners, Eowyn, Fantasy, Frodo, Haradrim, jacksons-lord-of-the-rings, lotr, Merry, Nazgul, Orcs, Sam, Sauron, Tolkien

Part 1 of this posting came about after I had seen this in a toy catalogue—

It’s clearly based on Jackson’s Sauron

as seen at the moment when Isildur cuts the Ring from Sauron’s hand, as Elrond tells the council:

“ ‘I beheld the last combat on the slopes of Orodruin, where Gil-galad died, and Elendil fell, and Narsil broke beneath him; but Sauron himself was overthrown, and Isildur cut the Ring from his hand with the hilt-shard of his father’s sword, and took it for his own.’ “ (The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 2, “The Council of Elrond”)

There is no description of how Sauron was dressed or armed, so it was up to the film’s designers to create their own image of him and it’s clear that their idea was all about spikiness—perhaps also, by his helmet, suggesting kingly aspirations?—but it made me wonder what JRRT had in mind, if not for Sauron, for his minions–

no, not those—that is, for his various followers—as well as for his opponents, and, in the first part of this posting, I had a look at those opponents, using evidence from Tolkien’s letters and The Lord of the Rings as my basis.

Now, I want to see what those same sources might tell us about his view of Sauron—and Saruman’s—forces.

Beginning at the top, there are the Nazgul. When we first see them and hear about them, they are cloaked—

(J.G. Jones—you can read about him here)

but, on Weathertop, Frodo puts on the Ring and sees

“…upon their grey hairs were helms of silver; in their haggard hands swords of steel…The third was taller than the others: his hair was long and gleaming and on his helm was a crown…” (The Fellowship of the Ring, Book One, Chapter 11, “A Knife in the Dark”)

Because, wearing the Ring, Frodo can see

“In their white faces burned keen and merciless eyes…”

presumably, the Lord of the Nazgul—and perhaps the others—wore open-faced helmets, like this one—

(Denis Gordeev)

And we can learn a little more about this last, the Lord of the Nazgul, when Eowyn and Merry destroy him—

“A crown of steel he bore…Merry had stabbed him from behind, shearing through the black mantle, and passing up beneath the hauberk…” (The Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter 6, “The Battle of the Pelennor Fields”)

He doesn’t appear to be wearing his helmet here, but he is wearing a long chain mail garment, a hauberk

and perhaps we can assume that his fellow Nazgul wore the same? He’s clearly not wearing armor on his legs, which is how Merry can attack the back of his knee

(Ted Nasmith)

and, with no helmet, Eowyn

“…drove her sword between crown and mantle, as the great shoulders bowed before her.”

As for the Orcs, the film designers have them in what look like a combination of medieval and Renaissance and maybe Samurai odds and ends—

so, what does JRRT have to say about them?

They carry swords and have some armor—as are described when Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli are preparing to send Boromir off—

“Quickly they searched the bodies of the Orcs, gathering their swords and cloven helmets and shields into a heap.”

Aragorn, however, is quick to recognize that all of the Orcs are not the same—

“There were four goblin-soldiers of greater stature, swart, slant-eyed, with thick legs and large hands. They were armed with short broad-bladed swords, not with the curved scimitars usual with Orcs; and they had bows of yew, in length and shape like the bows of Men. Upon their shields they bore a strange device: a small white hand in the centre of a black field; and on the front of their iron helms was set an S-rune, wrought of some white metal.” (The Two Towers, Book Three, Chapter 1, “The Departure of Boromir”)

As well, at least some wear mail—as we learn from the moment when Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli come upon the pyre of Orcs slain by the Rohirrim—

“Beside it was a great pile of helms and mail, cloven shields , and broken swords, bows and darts and other gear of war.” (The Two Towers, Book Three, Chapter 2, “The Riders of Rohan”)

We know from the text that these would have been the “gear of war” of both Sauron’s and Saruman’s Orcs, as the two troops were uneasily combined, but we can confirm the gear of Sauron’s orcs from a later description, when, in the Tower of Cirith Ungol, Sam and Frodo are dressing up as Orcs—

“There were long hairy breeches of some unclean beast-fell, and a tunic of dirty leather….Over the tunic went a coat of stout ring-mail, short for a full-sized orc, too long for Frodo and heavy. About it he clasped a belt, at which there hung a short sheath holding a broad-bladed stabbing-sword. Sam had brought several orc-helmets. One of them fitted Frodo well enough, a black cap with iron rim, and iron hoops covered with leather upon which the Evil Eye was painted in red above the beaklike nose-guard.” (The Return of the King, Book Six, Chapter 1, “The Tower of Cirith Ungol”)

(Alan Lee)

(Denis Gordeev)

And, finally, there are Sauron’s allies from the east and from the south. In the Jackson film, the easterners look like this—

whose helmets vaguely remind me of a combination of elements of certain Japanese foot soldier and Samurai helmets—

JRRT doesn’t appear to have given us a very clear description of the Easterners, other than to write:

“But here and there [Frodo] caught the gleam of spears and helmets…” (The Two Towers. Book Four, Chapter 3, “The Black Gate is Closed”)

About those from the south, however, he gives us a more detailed description and a pathetic one, about a warrior killed by Faramir’s men in ambush:

“Then suddenly straight over the rim of their sheltering bank, a man fell, crashing through the slender trees, nearly on top of [Frodo and Sam]. He came to rest in the fern a few feet away, face downward, green arrow-feathers sticking from his neck below a golden collar. His scarlet robes were tattered, his corselet of overlapping brazen plates was rent and hewn, his black plaits of hair braided with gold were drenched in blood. His brown hand still clutched the hilt of a broken sword…

…[Sam] wondered what the man’s name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home and if he would not really rather have stayed there in peace.” (The Two Towers, Book Four, Chapter 4, “Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit”)

We don’t know if this man was wearing a helmet or carrying a shield, but he is wearing armor—this “corselet” is what is called “lamellar armor”, and looks rather like fish scales—

In this description, I’ll conclude this brief look at how Tolkien might have imagined his various warriors dressed, but, at the same time, that last bit of description makes me wonder—was this how JRRT thought, when he saw his first battlefield casualty?

If so, it shows his emotional complexity in that he can write about glorious cavalry charges on the one hand,

(Denis Gordeev)

but have Sam express a melancholy, compassionate thought, on the other.

As always, thanks for reading.

Stay well,

Remember that November 11^th is the 108^th anniversary of the Armistice which brought the Great War (World War One) and its monstrous slaughter close to its close—

And remember, as well, that, as ever, there’s

MTCIDC

Cap-a-Pie (1)

21 Wednesday Oct 2026

Posted by Ollamh in Uncategorized

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armor, Fantasy, Hamlet, Howard Pyle, Pauline Baynes, Prince Valiant, Sauron, Shakespeare, The Bayeux Tapestry, The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien

Horatio is describing to Hamlet a vision of the night before—

“Hor. Two nights together had these Gentlemen,

Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,

In the dead vast and middle of the night.

Beene thus incountered by a figure like your father,

Armed to poynt, exactly Capapea

Appeeres before them thrise, he walkes

Before their weake and feare oppressed eies

Within his tronchions length…”

(from the First Quarto, 1603, of Hamlet, Act One, Scene 2, a somewhat quirky text, but, as always, I like to use Elizabethan/Jacobean spellings as they seem chewier to me and can sometimes indicate the very different sound of Shakespeare’s English. For the complete text, see: https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/doc/Ham_Q1/scene/1/index.html To hear Shakespeare’s English reconstructed, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2QYGEwM1Sk This is part of a whole series which I recommend as a real ear-opener, if you are unfamiliar with the sound of English c.1600.)

(Henry Fuseli—that is, Heinrich Fuessli, 1741-1825—a Swiss-born artist who spent most of his later life in England. A painter of Shakespeare and the weird, friend of William Blake, and extremely interesting Romantic period character. You can read more about him here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fuseli#Influence )

That strange-looking “Capapea” is actually the “cap-a-pie” of my title and means “head-to-foot” in the French (roughly) it was taken from. Hamlet’s father, then, was in full armor, something which was gradually disappearing from the military world of Shakespeare, but might still be seen in Tudor times, especially if someone was involved in one of the retro-tournaments which the Elizabethans and Jacobeans occasionally staged.

(Graham Turner)

My current interest in such things came from recently seeing, in a toy catalogue, this—

labeled as “Sauron”, a Lego model, and clearly based upon the image seen in the Jackson film of The Fellowship of the Ring,

where Sauron appears in Elrond’s account, from Chapter 2 of Book Two, “The Council of Elrond”, of the battle in which Sauron lost the Ring to Isildur. There is no description of Sauron in the original text, but I wondered, looking at the Lego version, what Tolkien, rather than Jackson and his designers, might have had in mind, not only for Sauron’s look, but for armor in his story in general. (This is just a cursory run-through, for the moment, but, on my next reading of the story, I’ll take more time—there are helmets, for instance, about which there is more to be said —such as whatever Gimli is wearing and what kind of helmet conceals Eowyn from her uncle—and the arming of the dwarves and Bilbo in The Hobbit might also be useful.)

We know from a letter to Rhona Beare how he imagined the Rohirrim:

“The Styles of the Bayeux Tapestry…fit them well enough, if one remembers that the kind of tennis-nets [the] soldiers seem to have on are only a clumsy conventional sign for chain-mail of small rings.” (letter to Rhona Beare, 14 October, 1955, Letters, 401)

Here’s what JRRT was referring to—

and here’s what those “tennis-nets” would have been based upon—

The helmet is what’s called a “spangenhelm” and looks like this (with lots of variations)—

Tolkien had employed (and enjoyed) the work of Pauline Baynes (1922-2008), commenting, however, on her knights in the same letter:

“…Pauline Baynes drew her inspiration for F[armer] Giles [of Ham] largely from medieval MS. drawings—except for the knights (who are a bit ‘King-Arthurish’)…”

with this footnote: “Sc. belong to our ‘mythological’ Middle-Ages which blends [sic] unhistorically styles and details over 500 years, and most of which did not of course exist in the Dark Ages of c.500 A.D.”

Here’s one of Baynes’ illustrations—

Tolkien is dating King Arthur to early Dark Ages Britain, where warriors might have looked like this—

(Angus McBride)

“mythological” is an important word here, as Tolkien seems to be implying a fantasy world, where details from various periods can be–and are–used at random—and I wonder if he’s thinking here of something like Hal Foster’s long-running comic strip, “Prince Valiant”, which is set in the age of Arthur, but employs elements from all sorts of historical periods—

as does Howard Pyle, in his illustrations for The Story of King Arthur and His Knights (1903)—

of which you can have your own copy here: https://dn720408.ca.archive.org/0/items/storyofkingarthu22pyle/storyofkingarthu22pyle.pdf

the irony being, of course, that Tolkien, himself, both in Farmer Giles and in The Lord of the Rings, is telling his own “mythological” stories.

There are scattered references to armored figures in the text, but, as far as I can tell, mostly just that, and not very detailed. For the defenders of Gondor, instance, we are briefly shown Forlong of Lossnarch, as he leads his men into Minas Tirith—

“…a man of wide shoulders and huge girth, but old and grey-bearded, yet mail-clad and black-helmed…”

Mail-clad would mean wearing chain-mail, like this (and like the Normans depicted as wearing “tennis-nets”)—

but “black-helmed” is vague—are we looking at the earlier spangenhelm, or a later closed helm of some sort?

There’s no mention of heraldry on shields or banners, and Forlong is recognized, so perhaps this means an open helm of some sort?

Imrahil of Dol Amroth appears to be a figure like those in Howard Pyle’s illustrations—

“…with gilded banners bearing his token of the Ship and the Silver Swan, and a company of knights in full harness…” (The Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter 1, “Minas Tirith”)

So JRRT probably meant something like this, as “full harness” usually means full armor–

or this—

There are, as well, the Guards of the citadel of Gondor, described in more detail than usual:

“…robed in black, and their helms were of strange shape, high-crowned, with long cheek-guards close-fitting to the face, and above the cheek-guards were set the white wings of sea-birds, but the helms gleamed with a flame of silver, for they were indeed wrought of mithril, heirlooms of the glory of old days. Upon the black surcoats were embroidered in white a tree blossoming like snow beneath a silver crown and many-pointed stars.” (The Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter 1, “Minas Tirith”)

That description of helmets does seem strange, in a way sounding like a Greek Corinthian helmet—

but the addition of the white wings takes things in a different direction and here I think that Jackson’s designers came close to what Tolkien had described–

So much for the protagonists of The Lord of the Rings, but what about the antagonists? We’ll look at what they’re wearing in part 2 of this posting.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Stay well,

Be sure to be respectful of visiting ghosts—the watchmen in Hamlet actually try poking theirs with their partisans—

(Yeomen warders of the Tower of London armed with partisans)

And remember, that, as always, there’s

MTCIDC

Now You See Him, Now…

14 Wednesday Oct 2026

Posted by Ollamh in Uncategorized

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1984, crop-circles, Fantasy, George Orwell, m-night-shyamalan, Saruman, Sauron, signs, The Lord of the Rings, the-eye, Tolkien

Welcome, dear readers, as always.

In M. Night’s Shyamalan’s 2002 film Signs,

those signs, including crop circles—

will come to mean that the earth is about to be invaded from outer space. Initially, all of this is eerie—we know that something is going to happen—and it does, but, until that moment, everything is oblique, suggested—but then we finally see one of those alien invaders and, for me, the magic of those first feelings of dread disappear.

Considering how the plot then develops, it would have been impossible for the aliens to have remained as mysterious as they had originally been presented, but think, for a moment, about The Lord of the Rings and its antagonists, Saruman and Sauron.

Saruman we see

(the Hildebrandts)

and we see a lot of him, first as the senior Maia, leader of a tiny band of five sent as a counter to Sauron—two of whom having disappeared (the so-called “Blue Wizards”) early from the history of Middle-earth, one, Radagast, seemingly self-marginalized, and only seen briefly before himself disappearing.

(Lucas Graciano)

Then, Saruman appears as the attempted seducer of Gandalf,

(Harold Jigg)

the would-be Sauron trapped in his tower,

(Carl Lundgren)

as the outcast, followed by his lackey, Grima,

(Ted Nasmith)

as “Sharkey”, intent upon the destruction of the Shire,

(Inger Edelfeldt)

and finally as the victim of his lackey, with his final rejection by the power which sent him to Middle-earth.

(Joan Wyatt)

Because we see him again and again, first as a potential ally, but then as a boastful but timid rival to Sauron, then as someone trapped by the Ents in his tower,

(Ted Nasmith)

there is no mystery to him, and, as he sinks lower and lower, to his miserable end, he loses whatever menace he might ever have had.

Sauron, on the other hand, remains only a dark presence, at the edge of the story, and it’s interesting that Tolkien’s one image of him is this—

(JRRT)

in itself, shadowy—and, when we do actually see him, it’s only one element—

and this suggests to me a kind of intense watchfulness—like Big Brother, in Orwell’s 1984—

who is spoken of, but, like Sauron, never seen. Even his end—although spectacular—

(Ted Nasmith)

gives us only a final image of—a hand, like JRRT’s depiction, leaving us with a picture of a powerful failure—but still powerful, although, like his non-appearance in The Lord of the Rings, more suggestive as menacing shadow than like Saruman’s all-too-visible presence–

“And as the Captains gazed south to the Land of Mordor, it seemed to them that, black against the pall of cloud, there rose a huge shape of shadow, impenetrable, lightning-crowned, filling all the sky. Enormous it reared above the world, and stretched out towards them a vast, threatening hand, terrible, but impotent: for even as it leaned over them, a great wind took it, and it was all blown away, and passed; and then a hush fell.” (The Return of the King, Book Six, Chapter 4, “The Field of Cormallen”)

I’m not disappointed that we see so much of Saruman—he’s a lesser character, a pale copy of his eventual greater master, and his end is, in its way, a sad one, someone sent to do good in Middle-earth, but whose arrogance corrupts him. As with Signs, however, much of Sauron’s power lies in the fact that he is unseen, but often spoken of, and usually in hushed tones, but, unlike Signs, he is kept in the shadows and that shadow enhances that feeling of brooding threat almost till the end.

Thanks for reading, as always.

Stay well,

If tempted to put on the Ring, think of Galadriel and starlight, lest you be seen by the Eye,

(the Hildebrandts)

And remember that, as always, there’s

MTCIDC

Minor?

23 Wednesday Sep 2026

Posted by Ollamh in Uncategorized

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Beowulf, books, Doorward, Fantasy, Gandalf, Grendel, Grima, Hama, Lego, Prufrock, Saruman, Sauron, T.S. Eliot, The Lord of the Rings, Theoden, Tolkien, ts-eliot, Wolfgar, Wulfgar

As ever, dear readers, welcome.

It’s true, as I said in my posting about War and Peace, that the novel certainly appears to have a lot of characters, many of them minor, people who appear for a scene or two, as T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) writes, speaking in the voice of “Prufrock”:

“No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;

Am an attendant lord, one that will do

To swell a progress, start a scene or two,

Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,

Deferential, glad to be of use,

Politic, cautious, and meticulous;

Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse…”

(from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, first published in Poetry, June, 1915)

I would say that this is also true for The Lord of the Rings, with its many characters, some of whom “start a scene or two”—think of Sandyman the miller, for example, and his son, Ted, two sceptical Hobbits, who pop up in the first chapters of the book, foils for Gaffer Gamgee and his son, Sam, with their gossip about the Bagginses and traveling Ents—definitely “scene-starters”, though not much more.

Then there are minor characters who, for a moment, have more major roles and here I’m thinking of Hama, the doorward of Meduseld.

(This is from the wonderfully creative Lego “Rebrickable” site: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-174256/Sir%20BuildsALot/meduseld-the-golden-hall-of-edoras/#details which is all about building new things with Legos.)

In a letter to the editor of The Observer, Tolkien had stated of The Hobbit:

“Beowulf is among my most valued sources…” (letter to the editor, 20 February, 1938, Letters, 41)

and, in the case of Hama, this continues to be true.

At the beginning of Beowulf, Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, is in trouble. His mead hall (which the English for “Meduseld”)

has been attacked, for 12 years, by a monster from the moors—Grendel.

Security is tight, therefore, in Denmark, so, when Beowulf arrives from Sweden with his companions, he is first stopped and questioned by a coast guard,

and then, at Hrothgar’s door by Wolfgar, the doorward–

“As the party was approaching the palace together

They set their arms and armor against the wall.

In warlike equipments. ’Gainst the wall of the building

Their wide-fashioned war-shields they weary did set then,

Battle-shields sturdy; benchward they turned then;

Their battle-sarks rattled, the gear of the heroes;

The lances stood up then, all in a cluster,

The arms of the seamen, ashen-shafts mounted

With edges of iron: the armor-clad troopers.”

Wolfgar then questions them–

“A Danish hero asks them whence and why they are come.

Were decked with weapons. Then a proud-mooded hero

Asked of the champions questions of lineage:

“From what borders bear ye your battle-shields plated,

Gilded and gleaming, your gray-colored burnies,

Helmets with visors and heap of war-lances?—

To Hrothgar the king I am servant and liegeman.

’Mong folk from far-lands found I have never

He expresses no little admiration for the strangers.

Men so many of mien more courageous.

I ween that from valor, nowise as outlaws,

But from greatness of soul ye sought for King Hrothgar.”

(from John Lesslie Hall’s 1892 translation, which you can read here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16328/16328-h/16328-h.htm#page_5 This translation suggests the heavy alliteration and rhythm of the original, but it’s occasionally archaic, so, if you’d prefer, there are many others out there. There have, in fact, been English translations since 1837 and you can see a list of most of them here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_translations_of_Beowulf )

Here, we see Wolfgar (his name is mentioned in line 30) greet and question Beowulf and his companions after they have put down their weapons. In the same scene in The Lord of the Rings, Hama is less friendly—

“ ‘I am the Doorward of Theoden,’ he said. ‘Hama is my name. Here I must bid you lay aside your weapons before you enter.’ “

Legolas easily lays aside his weapons, but Aragorn resists, saying, “It is not my will…to put aside my sword or to deliver Anduril to the hand of any other man.“

To which Hama replies: “It is the will of Theoden.”

And here Aragorn begins to sound rather high-handed:

“It is not clear to me that the will of Theoden son of Thengel, even though he be lord of the Mark, should prevail over the will of Aragorn son of Arathorn, Elendil’s heir of Gondor.”

This almost causes a political disaster as Hama replies:

“This is the house of Theoden, not of Aragorn, even were he King of Gondor in the seat of Denethor.”

And then—

“[Hama] step[s] swiftly before the doors and bar[s] the way. His sword was now in his hand and the point towards the strangers.”

Gandalf temporarily calms the situation, but then Hama says to Gandalf:

“ ‘Your staff…Forgive me, but that too must be left at the doors.’ “

Gandalf pleads old age and Hama, hesitating for a moment, then allows him to keep it and, by doing so, steps from minor character for a moment to major as, when Gandalf and the others enter the hall, they find

(the Hildebrandts)

“…a man so bent with age he seemed almost a dwarf…”

(Alan Lee)

as well as “…a woman clad in white..”

and

“At his feet upon the steps sat a wizened figure of a man, with a pale white face and heavy-lidded eyes.”

This is Grima Wormtongue, who, we soon find out, is not the loyal counselor of Theoden he pretends to be, but an agent of Saruman,

(the Hildebrandts)

bent upon betraying the king. Angered by him, Gandalf

“…raised his staff. There was a roll of thunder. The sunlight was blotted out from the eastern windows; the whole hall became suddenly dark as night. The fire faded to sullen embers. Only Gandalf could be seen, standing white and tall before the blackened hearth.

In the gloom, they heard the hiss of Wormtongue’s voice. ‘Did I not counsel you, lord, to forbid his staff? That fool, Hama, has betrayed us!’ There was a flash as if lightning had cloven the roof. Then all was silent. Wormtongue sprawled on his face.”

With Grima thrown down, great age falls away from Theoden—

“He drew himself up, slowly, as a man that is stiff from long bending over some dull toil. Now tall and straight he stood, and his eyes were blue as he looked into the opening sky.” (all of the above from The Lord of the Rings, Book Three, “The Two Towers”, Chapter 6, “The King of the Golden Hall”)

In fact, Hama hasn’t betrayed Theoden, but has given Gandalf the weapon to free the king from Grima’s betrayal and what seems to have been some sort of aging spell.

Theoden then goes on to fight at Helm’s Deep,

(Angus McBride)

to lead the charge at the Fields of the Pelennor,

(Denis Gordeev)

and to die heroically at the battle’s end.

(Angus McBride)

Hama is no Prince Hamlet, but, in allowing Gandalf to keep his staff, he has done more than “start a scene”—he has restarted his king, and, in doing so, he has brought Theoden back into the story, leading the Rohirrim to actions which will help to thwart both Saruman and Sauron—not bad for a minor character.

Thanks for reading, as always.

Stay well,

And, as always, know that there’s

MTCIDC

Solution (2)

19 Wednesday Aug 2026

Posted by Ollamh in Uncategorized

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Aragorn, Arwen, Boromir, Eowyn, Fantasy, Faramir, Into the Woods, lotr, Merry, Palantir, Rangers, riddles, Saruman, Sauron, Stephen Sondheim, The Lord of the Rings, the Mouth of Sauron, the Oath-breakers, the Sceptre of Annuminas, the Stone of Erech, the White Tree of Gondor, Tolkien

As ever, dear readers, welcome.

In my next-to-last, we were given two riddles: one, in a dream sent to Faramir and Boromir, the other posed by Bilbo, both appearing in the council of Elrond—

“Seek for the Sword that was broken:

In Imladris it dwells;

There shall be counsels taken

Stronger than Morgul-spells.

There shall be shown a token

That Doom is near at hand,

For Isildur’s Bane shall waken,

And the Halfling forth shall stand.”

The second is presented by Bilbo:

“All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken:

The crownless again shall be king.”

(The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 2, “The Council of Elrond”)

As Aragorn displays the sword—originally belonging to Elendil, the founder of Gondor—and Frodo, the Halfling, at Gandalf’s bidding, brings out the Ring (Isildur’s Bane), we might think that both riddles have been solved—but Boromir, for one, has doubts:

“ ‘Isildur’s Bane is found, you say…I have seen a bright ring in the Halfling’s hand, but Isildur perished ere this age of the world began, they say. How do the Wise know that this ring is his? And how has it passed down the years, until it is brought hither by so strange a messenger?’ “

And there are greater doubts—as voiced by the Mouth of Sauron:

“ ‘Is there anyone in this rout [“mob”] to treat with me?…Or indeed the wit to understand me? Not thou at least!’ he mocked, turning to Aragorn with scorn. ‘It needs more to make a king than a piece of Elvish glass, or a rabble such as this. Why, any brigand of the hills can show as good a following!’ “ (The Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter 10, “The Black Gate Opens”)

(Douglas Beekman—for more on him and his work, see: https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/beekman_doug )

How, beyond the broken sword

and his claim, can Aragorn prove that he is the wanderer, the light, the crownless?

The wanderer part is perhaps the easiest, because it’s self-evident: Aragorn

(the Hildebrandts)

is a ranger, one of those few survivors of the lost north kingdom of Arnor,

(Stephen Raw—you can learn a little more about him here: https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Stephen_Raw )

of whom the narrator of The Lord of the Rings says:

“In those days no other Men had settled dwellings so far west, or within a hundred leagues of the Shire. But in the wild lands beyond Bree there were mysterious wanderers. The Bree-folk called them Rangers, and knew nothing of their origin…They roamed at will southwards, and eastwards even as far as the Misty Mountains; but they were few now and rarely seen.” (The Fellowship of the Ring, Book One, Chapter 9, “At the Sign of the Prancing Pony”)

For further proofs, I’m reminded of Stephen Sondheim’s wonderful musical Into the Woods, 1987,

in which two characters, the Baker and his Wife, to have a witch’s curse removed, must bring her: “the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold” and much of the plot concerns their journey in the Woods to try to obtain these things—just the sort of objects one might obtain on a quest. (For more on quests, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest )

In Aragorn’s case, although he’s not on a deliberate quest, one piece of his evidence is acquired as he and the Fellowship travel southwards: the Palantir, inadvertently provided by Saruman.

(the Hildebrandts)

Pippin learns, to his unhappiness, that this isn’t something which one can casually pick up, but Aragorn, having used it, says to Gimli:

“I am the lawful master of the Stone, and I had both the right and the strength to use it…”

and here we see JRRT, in a brilliant bit of plotting, adding the reforged sword to the Palantir:

“…but Sauron has not forgotten Isildur and the sword of Elendil. Now in the very hour of his great designs the heir of Isildur and the Sword are revealed; for I showed the blade re-forged to him.” (The Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter 2, “The Passing of the Grey Company”)

So, now we have the shattered Sword and a display of Aragorn’s control of a Palantir, the next proof isn’t an object, but an event.

Aragorn and his company follow the Paths of the Dead under the mountains, coming out at last to the Hill of Erech and its large, round, black stone.

(from Lotro-Wiki—where you can find more details: https://lotro-wiki.com/wiki/The_Stone_of_Erech_(King’s_Gondor) and here: https://lotro-wiki.com/wiki/Vandassar )

Behind them have come the “Oathbreakers”, men of long ago, who had pledged to help Isildur against Sauron, but then refused to join him. In response, Isildur cursed them and they retreated to the hills and gradually faded, becoming uneasy spirits which troubled the land. (For more, see: https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Oathbreakers ) Aragorn has summoned them and here we see another proof:

“ ‘The hour is come at last. Now I go to Pelargir upon Anduin, and ye shall come with me. And when all this land is clean of the servants of Sauron, I will hold the oath fulfilled, and ye shall have peace and depart for ever. For I am Elessar, Isildur’s heir of Gondor.’ “ (The Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter 2, “The Passing of the Grey Company”)

(Ted Nasmith)

To this, we can add a skill.

In the battles before Minas Tirith, Faramir has been struck down—seemingly by both a Southron arrow and by a Nazgul’s Black Breath—

(Angus McBride)

and both Eowyn and Merry have suffered from their fight with the chief of the Nazgul.

(Ted Nasmith)

They are brought to the Houses of Healing and there Ioreth, “the eldest of the women who served in that house”, looking at Faramir, said:

“ ‘Alas! If he should die. Would that there were kings in Gondor, as there were once upon a time, they say! For it is said in the old lore: The hands of the king are the hands of a healer. And so the rightful king could ever be known.’ “

Using the herb athelas/kingsfoil, as well as some unspoken power, Aragorn restores all three, at which Ioreth says:

“ ‘King! Did you hear that? What did I say? The hands of a healer, I said.’ “

(the Hildebrandts)

Her words spread:

“And soon the word had gone out from the House that the king was indeed come among them, and after the war he brought healing, and the news ran through the city.” (The Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter 8, “The Houses of Healing”)

And, finally, a sign. The White Tree, symbol of Gondor—

“ ‘There in the courts of the King grew a white tree, from the seed of that tree which Isildur brought over the deep waters, and the seed of that tree came from Eressea, and before that out of the Uttermost West in the Day before days when the world was young.’ “ (The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 2, “The Council of Elrond”)

(artist? So far, no luck in finding one, but I would be glad to credit someone for this impressive image.)

but now—

“A sweet fountain played there in the morning sun, and a sward of bright green lay about it, but in the midst, drooping over the pool, stood a dead tree, and the falling drops dripped sadly from its barren and broken branches back into the clear water.” (The Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter 1, “Minas Tirith”)

(from Jackson’s film)

As this is the emblem of Gondor itself,

a replacement would certainly be a sign of renewal, which even after the defeat of Sauron seems doubtful to Aragorn:

“ ‘The tree in the Court of the Fountain is still withered and barren. When shall I see a sign that it will ever be otherwise?’ “

Gandalf leads him to a place high on Mount Mindolluin and reveals to him:

“…a sapling tree no more than three foot high. Already it had put forth young leaves long and shapely, dark above and silver beneath, and upon its slender crown it bore one small cluster of flowers whose petals shone like the sunlit snow.”

“Then Aragorn cried: ‘Ye! Utuvienyes! I have found it! Lo! Here is a scion of the Eldest of Trees!’ “

Gandalf is vague about its origins there, but says to Aragorn:

“ ‘Here it has lain hidden on the mountain, even as the race of Elendil lay hidden in the wastes of the North.’ “

Aragorn transplants it to the Court of the Fountain and sees its growth as a kind of prophecy—

“ ‘The sign has been given…’ “

On “the day before Midsummer”, the whole of the household of Elrond then appears at Minas Tirith, Elrond himself “bearing the sceptre of Annuminas”. (The Return of the King, Book Six, Chapter 5, “The Steward and the King”)

In Appendix A, this object is explained:

“The sceptre was the chief mark of royalty in Numenor…and that was also so in Arnor, whose kings wore no crown, but bore a single white gem, the Elendilmir, Star of Elendil, bound on their brows with a silver fillet.” (The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, “The North-kingdom and the Dunedain”)

(not the sceptre of Annuminas, described as a simple silver rod, but it will give you the idea)

Then—

“…the King welcomed his guests, and they alighted; and Elrond surrendered the sceptre…”

And here we have a final proof: the shattered sword, the ranger, the Palantir, the healing hands, the White Tree, and now the sceptre of Numenor—just as the acquisition by the Baker and his Wife of “the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold” will allow them to break the curse, with the sceptre the confirmation that Aragorn is the rightful king is complete—although we should also add:

“And Aragorn the King Elessar wedded Arwen Undomiel in the City of the Kings upon the day of Midsummer, and the tale of their long waiting and labours was come to fulfillment.”

(the Hildebrandts)

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Stay well,

And remember, as always, that there’s

MTCIDC

Prismatic

20 Monday Jul 2026

Posted by Ollamh in Uncategorized

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Tags

Aristotle, Balrog, color-theory, De Coloribus, electromagnetic-spectrum, Fantasy, Gandalf, Isaac Newton, Istari, lotr, Maiar, Radagast, Saruman, Sauron, Shadowfax, the blue wizards, the electromagnetic spectrum, The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien, wizards

As always, dear readers, welcome.

“ ‘So you have come, Gandalf,’ he said to me gravely; but in his eyes there seemed to be a white light, as if a cold laughter was in his heart.

‘Yes, I have come,’ I said. ‘I have come for your aid, Saruman the White.’ And that title seemed to anger him.

‘Have you indeed, Gandalf the Grey!’ he scoffed…”

This seems like an odd bit of dialogue—why such an emphasis on colors? And there’s more—

“ ‘Radagast the Brown!’ laughed Saruman, and he no longer concealed his scorn. ‘Radagast the Bird-tamer! Radagast the Simple! Radagast the Fool!’ “ (The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 2, “The Council of Elrond”)

These colors began with the arrival of the 5 “wizards” (Istari) on Middle-earth, a thousand years into the Third Age. They are, in fact, Maiar, which we may think of as a form of “lesser angel”—that is, belonging to the orders of spiritual beings who inhabit Valinor, to the far west of Middle-earth.

(Karen Wynn Fonstad)

These particular Maiar were intended to be a counterforce to Sauron, who appeared to be once more on the rise. Although there were 5 of them—Saruman, Gandalf, Radagast—and two more who may have been named Alatar and Pallando—and all had colors attached to them—Saruman white,

(the Hildebrandts)

Gandalf grey,

(the Hildebrandts)

Radagast brown,

(I can’t find an artist for this, but it strikes me as a much better depiction than that seen in the Jackson Hobbit movies.)

and the other two blue—those last two, only briefly mentioned, go eastwards and disappear entirely from the narrative. (For more details, see Unfinished Tales, 405-420)

As for the other three, their colors appear to have a definite significance: Radagast is an earthy type, with a passion for birds and animals, Gandalf is seen as an elderly man, grey as his garments, and Saruman as “the greatest of my order”, as Gandalf once described him, could be stainless in white.

And this is where color comes in in a different way and we see why Saruman is not pleased at being given his old title—

“ ‘For I am Saruman the Wise, Saruman Ring-maker, Saruman of Many Colours!’

I looked then and saw that his robes, which had seemed white, were not so, but were woven of all colours, and if he moved they shimmered and changed hue so that the eye was bewildered.”

Although Gandalf’s eye might have been bewildered, his mind was clearly not:

‘I liked white better,’ I said.”

White was the color in which Saruman had appeared on his mission to Middle-earth and his behavior at Gandalf’s arrival shows that he has already betrayed that mission:

“ ‘For you have come, and that was all the purpose of my message. And here you will stay, Gandalf the Grey, and rest from journeys.’

“Rest”, of course, is not quite what Saruman has in mind.

‘He was cold now and perilous. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I did not expect you to show wisdom, even in your own behalf; but I gave you the chance of aiding me willingly, and so saving yourself much trouble and pain. The third choice is to stay here until the end.’

‘Until what end?’

‘Until you reveal to me where the One may be found. I may find means to persuade you. Or until it is found in your despite, and the Ruler has time to turn to lighter matters: to devise, say, a fitting reward for the hindrance and insolence of Gandalf the Grey.’ “

“The Ruler”, we can suppose, is Sauron, but Saruman has plans of his own, proposing, when the Ring has been discovered, not to turn it over to that “Ruler”, but to keep it:

“ ‘Why not? The Ruling Ring? If we could command that, then the Power would pass to us.’ “

But Gandalf sees through this immediately:

“ ‘Saruman…only one hand at a time can wield the One, and you know that well, so do not trouble to say we!’ “

Thus, not only has Saruman betrayed his mission from the Valar, but he plans to betray the object of that mission, Sauron, as well. It’s no wonder, then, that he no longer wears white—and, in fact, has nothing but contempt for it:

“ ‘White!’ he sneered. ‘It serves as a beginning. White cloth may be dyed. The white page can be overwritten; and the white light can be broken.’ “

And here Tolkien suggests that Saruman has rather advanced information about the science of optics.

In our Middle-earth, up until at least the beginning of the 18^th century, people subscribed to the theory, created perhaps by Aristotle (384-322BC),

that colors were, in fact, a mixture of certain simpler colors, like black and white (see for more on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Colors ).

It was Isaac Newton’s (1642-1727) experiments with prisms

which led to a different theory—that the “white” light which he passed through a prism

was actually a series of colored lights, a theory which he published in 1704,

and which is the basis of our current understanding of light and color. (For more on the electromagnetic spectrum, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vsl0Iom3S0 This is from a children’s program and about my level of understanding!)

To Gandalf, seeing Saruman’s actions as the betrayal they are, replies:

“ ‘In which case it is no longer white,’ I said.”

Just as Saruman is no longer the leader of the Maiar mission to Middle-earth, but a would-be Sauron, an imitation “Ring-maker”, who will, in time, be overthrown and eventually die a miserable death, murdered by his own agent.

(Joan Wyatt—you can see more of her work here: https://www.artnet.com/artists/joan-wyatt/ )

But this is not the end of wizard colors, of course. Gandalf appears to die, dragged down into the depths of Moria along with the Balrog,

(Denis Gordeev)

but reappears, not as Gandalf the Grey or Gandalf of Many Colors, but as Gandalf the White,

(the Hildebrandts)

and here we see white in a new light (sorry!): as the color of someone who has been purified by his near-death experience and returned to become that leader of resistance to Sauron that Saruman, in breaking that trust, has betrayed.

Is it surprising that Shadowfax, his horse, is white, as well?

(Angus McBride)

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Stay well,

Imagine a spectrum where we could see all of the other elements, like ultraviolet and gamma-rays,

But, until we can, at least remember that there’s

MTCIDC

Saruman’s Sigh

13 Wednesday May 2026

Posted by Ollamh in Uncategorized

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Tags

books, Captain Hook, Fantasy, Gandalf, Isengard, lotr, Orcs, Palantir, Saruman, Sauron, Tolkien

Welcome, as always, dear readers.

When it comes to The Lord of the Rings, I’m sure that everyone has favorite characters. I suppose that mine, if I had to pin it down to one, would be Sam. At the same time, I would also say that, for me, if you asked for other favorites, I might say Saruman—and, perhaps surprisingly, this might have been true for Tolkien, I would suggest, as well.

Saruman? Maybe I just have a perverse taste for villains—after all, I’ve always secretly liked Captain Hook,

and have a sneaking fondness for the Orcs,

(Alan Lee)

but I think that there’s, ultimately, a poignancy about Saruman—not in his behavior in the earlier parts of The Lord of the Rings, but in his end–which Tolkien, who could simply have painted him as a villain, clearly chose to add to his depiction, which says to me that he, too, found something more to say about the character.

Consider the end of Sauron, which is quite dramatic, if not downright apocalyptic—

(Ted Nasmith)

“And even as he spoke the earth rocked beneath their feet. Then rising swiftly up, far above the Towers of the Black Gate, high above the mountains, a vast soaring darkness sprang into the sky, flickering with fire. The earth groaned and quaked. The Towers of the Teeth swayed, tottered, and fell down; the mighty ramparts crumbled; the Black Gate was hurled in ruin; and from far away, now dim, now growing, now mounting to the clouds, there came a drumming rumble, a roar, a long echoing roll of ruinous noise…

And as the Captains gazed south to the Land of Mordor, it seemed to them that, black against the pall of cloud, there rose a huge shape of shadow, impenetrable, lightning-crowned, filling all the sky. Enormous it reared above the world, and stretched out towards them a vast, threatening hand, terrible but impotent; for even as it leaned over them, a great wind took it, and it was all blown away, and passed; and then a hush fell.” (The Return of the King, Book Six, Chapter 4, “The Field of Cormallen”)

In contrast, there is the death of Saruman—

“To the dismay of those that stood by, about the body of Saruman a grey mist gathered, and rising slowly to a great height like smoke from a fire, as a pale shrouded figure it loomed over the Hill For a moment it wavered, looking to the West; but out of the West came a cold wind, and it bent away, and with a sigh dissolved into nothing.

Frodo looked down at the body with pity and horror, for as he looked it seemed that long years of death were suddenly revealed in it, and it shrank, and the shrivelled face became rags of skin upon a hideous skull. Lifting up the skirt of the dirty cloak that sprawled beside it, he covered it over, and turned away.” (The Return of the King, Book Six, Chapter 8, “The Scouring of the Shire”)

(Joan Wyatt—you can see more of her work here: https://gallerix.org/storeroom/1692737256/ )

And yet both were powerful beings, Sauron being the more powerful, but both Maiar, the equivalent, we might say, of angels, in our Middle-earth.

As if it were only an expression of his personality, when Sauron was destroyed, all Mordor came crashing down, although all that we see of Sauron himself is that one “vast, threatening hand, terrible but impotent…”

(JRRT)

So what is the purpose, the meaning, of that simple sigh?

For all that they might attempt to control it in their various ways and scales, these two were not natives of Middle-earth. Rather, they were once inhabitants of Valinor, to the far west.

(Karen Wynn Fonstad)

Sauron had come in an earlier age of his own accord, intent upon conquest, whereas Saruman had been sent as one of the five Istari, as a counterbalance to Sauron, once servant to the fallen Vala, Melkor, and now a would-be Melkor himself, until something began to go wrong and, instead of countering Sauron, Saruman began to become like him.

This had happened, I think, in stages.

To begin with, there is the question of how the Istari were to act as a balance. It’s interesting that the two others of whom we know anything, Gandalf and Radagast, appear to have been sent as wanderers, as if their role was to counter Sauron’s influence over a wide area and perhaps in different ways, depending upon that influence.

In contrast, Saruman has not just a fixed home, but a fortress, Isengard,

(the Hildebrandts)

where he has found one of the seeing-stones, the Palantiri,

(the Hildebrandts)

although he has kept this discovery secret, only to be revealed after his defeat—a disturbing sign: why not let the other Istari know–unless its use was in itself suspect?

At the very beginning of The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf identifies Saruman to Frodo as “…great among the Wise…chief of my order…” and yet adds something very interesting, and perhaps another disturbing sign: “His knowledge is deep, but his pride has grown with it, and he takes ill any meddling.” (The Fellowship of the Ring, Book One, Chapter 2, “The Shadow of the Past”)

We can’t know whether that pride which Gandalf mentions was already displaying itself then, but it’s clear that that discovery was fatal, the second stage in his corruption, pushing Saruman away from his role as a defender of Middle-earth into, in his own mind, the role of a potential conqueror and perhaps even rival to Sauron, although Saruman was

“…being deceived—for all of those arts and subtle devices, for which he forsook his former wisdom, and which fondly he imagined were his own, came but from Mordor; so that what he had made was naught, only a little copy, a child’s model or a slave’s flattery, of that vast fortress, armoury, prison, furnace of great power, Barad-dur, the Dark Tower, which suffered no rival, and laughed at flattery, biding its time, secure in its pride and its immeasurable strength.” (The Two Towers, Book Three, Chapter 8, “The Road to Isengard”)

In his description of Saruman to Frodo, Gandalf had been specific about Saruman’s knowledge:

“The lore of the Elven-rings, great and small, is his province. He has long studied it, seeking the lost secrets of their making…”

And here perhaps is revealed another stage in Saruman’s corruption:

“…but when the Rings were debated in the Council, all that he would reveal to us of his ring-lore told against my fears…”

That is, just as in the case of the Palantir, Saruman has kept things back. Was Saruman acting on his own in this, or had the seeing-stone and its real controller already been working at his mind?

Certainly, when he makes his pompous and revelatory speech to Gandalf, hoping to persuade him to join him (which Gandalf immediately not only sees through, but sees how much of it isn’t even Saruman’s thinking, but the words of someone else), we have the sense that, whoever Saruman had been when he came to Middle-earth, that person had been twisted away from protecting Middle-earth from Sauron and was stating, instead, completely alien goals, as Gandalf recognized:

“We can bide our time, we can keep our thoughts in our hearts, deploring maybe evils done by the way, but approving the high and ultimate purpose: Knowledge, Rule, Order; all the things that we have so far striven in vain to accomplish, hindered rather than helped by our weak or idle friends. There need not be, there would not be, any real change in our designs, only in our means.” (The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 2, “The Council of Elrond”)

To Gandalf, this is Sauron talking:

“ ‘Saruman…I have heard speeches of this kind before, but only in the mouths of emissaries from Mordor to deceive the ignorant.’ “

and it’s clear to him that Saruman, seemingly unknowingly, has become a puppet of someone more powerful and devious than he.

The immediate instrument for this was, as I would suggest, that seeing-stone, but, beyond that, there was a vulnerability inherent in Saruman’s very being in Middle-earth, as Tolkien describes in a letter:

“But since in this tale & mythology Power—when it dominates or seeks to dominate other wills and minds (except by the assent of their reason)—is evil, these ‘wizards’ were incarnated in the life-forms of Middle-earth, and so suffered the pains both of mind and body. They were also, for the same reason, thus involved in the peril of the incarnate: the possibility of ‘fall’, of sin, if you will. The chief form this would take with them would be impatience, leading to the desire to force others to their own good ends, and so inevitably at last to mere desire to make their own wills effective by any means. To this evil Saruman succumbed.” (drafts to Michael Straight, “probably January or February 1956”, Letters, 342-343)

And here is where that “pride”, which Gandalf had mentioned to Frodo had appeared, added to which was his losing sight of the Valar’s purpose in sending him and acquiring a fortress, where Sauron was able to turn him to his own purposes—although we might imagine that, under Sauron’s domination, Saruman might still believe that he could escape Sauron’s notice, when he suggests to Gandalf

“As the Power grows, its proved friends will also grow; and the Wise, such as you and I, may with patience come at last to direct its courses, to control it.”

And even that he might imagine that he himself might employ the Ring—

“ ‘Why not? The Ruling Ring? If we should command that, then the Power would pass to us.’ “

Gandalf’s reply to this: “ ‘Saruman…only one hand at a time can wield the One, and you know that well, so do not trouble to say we…You were head of the Council, but you have unmasked yourself at last.” shows that Saruman has failed completely, both in his immediate quest to persuade Gandalf to tell him where the Ring currently is, and in his attempt to bring a fellow Istar to his side, having dismissed Radagast completely (“Radagast the Bird-tamer! Radagast the Simple! Radagast the Fool!”).

This, however, is only Saruman’s first failure. His attempt to out-Sauron Sauron by a war of conquest not only fails at Helm’s Deep, but brings about the destruction of his fortress at Isengard.

(Ted Nasmith)

He then loses the Palantir,

(Sergei Lukhimov—you can see a little more of his work here: https://imgur.com/gallery/1993-ukranian-artist-sergei-lukhimov-created-32-illustrations-first-ever-russian-edition-of-lord-of-rings-eastern-orthodox-iconography-meets-anglo-saxon-modern-mythology-Ct7ojT5 )

and is even exiled from his one-time place of power,

(Ted Nasmith)

before his attempt to ruin the Shire is stopped by the return of Frodo and his friends

(Alan Lee)

and his final confrontation with Frodo

(Inger Edelfeldt—you can read about her here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inger_Edelfeldt )

ends in his death—or the closest thing like it to someone from Valinor in the West—his rejection by it–

(Joan Wyatt)

One has only to remember the beautiful, melancholy farewells at the Grey Havens to see what Saruman might have been part of—

(Ted Nasmith)

Gandalf, with Sauron defeated, returns whence he came, his task complete. Saruman, failing in that task, has no home to which to return and “dissolved into nothing”, but that sigh—so important here—says that he knows that he has failed and, in depicting that recognition, I believe we see JRRT show some deeper feeling for him than he might ever have expressed for Sauron, even as he had written that Sauron had not begun as evil (see draft to Peter Hastings, September, 1954, Letters, 284).

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Stay well,

As well, consider the deep feeling which can rest even in a sigh,

And remember that, as always, there’s

MTCIDC

Goblins and Goblin

25 Wednesday Mar 2026

Posted by Ollamh in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Book Goblin, books, Despicable Me, Droids, Elizabeth Wheatley, Emperor Palpatine, Fantasy, George Macdonald, Goblins, Gru, Minions, Orcs, Order 66, Sauron, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien

Welcome, dear readers, as always.

Villains with ambitious plans for world conquest need armies.

Emperor Palpatine

initially employs droids by the million to face the Republic’s clone armies, and not just ordinary foot soldier droids—

but super battle droids

and even commando battle droids

before, in his complex plan, he turns the Republic’s clones against his real target, the Jedi, in Order 66.

On a lighter level, Gru,

of Despicable Me, has masses of Minions to work his will (sort of)—

It’s clear that Sauron has similar plans—and similar armies—orcs—along with masses of humans.

(Alan Lee)

Orcs, we’re told, are a kind of distortion of actual living creatures—

“But Trolls are only counterfeits, made by the Enemy in the Great Darkness, in mockery of Ents, as Orcs were of Elves.” (The Two Towers, Book Three, Chapter 4, “Treebeard”)

Orcs began, however, as something more traditional and, for Tolkien, begin with the works of George MacDonald (1824-1905),

and, in particular, with one of his fantasy novels, The Princess and the Goblin, 1870-2.

(First US edition, 1871)

For our purposes, the princess, although an heroic figure, can be removed, as we’re interested in those goblins.

(Arthur Hughes)

Later in life, Tolkien became disenchanted with MacDonald’s work, failing to complete a proposed preface for his The Golden Key, a short story from MacDonald’s Dealings with the Fairies, 1867—you can read it here: https://archive.org/details/dealingswithfair00macd_0/page/n5/mode/2up

and you can read about his disenchantment in Carpenter’s J.R.R. Tolkien, page 244.). Earlier, however, he had acknowledged MacDonald’s influence, writing to the editor of The Observer about The Hobbit:

“As for the rest of the tale it is, as the Habit [the pen name of a commentator on the book] suggests, derived from (previously digested) epic, mythology, and fairy-story—not, however, Victorian in authorship, as a rule to which George Macdonald [sic] is the chief exception.” (letter to the editior, February, 1938, Letters, 40-41)

Tolkien refers to this influence again in a much later letter to Hugh Brogan:

“Your preference of goblins to orcs involves a large question and a matter of taste, and perhaps historical pedantry on my part. I personally prefer Orcs (since these creatures are not ‘goblins’, not even the goblins of George MacDonald, which they do to some extent resemble).” (letter to Hugh Brogan, 18 September, 1954, Letters, 278)

And a little earlier, in a letter to Naomi Mitchison:

“They are not based on direct experience of mine [an interesting remark—did JRRT have supernatural experiences which he doesn’t discuss?]; but owe, I suppose, a good deal to the goblin tradition (goblin is used as a translation in The Hobbit, where orc only occurs once, I think), especially as it appears in George MacDonald, except for the soft feet which I never believed in.” (letter to Naomi Mitchison, 25 April, 1954, Letters, 267)

Those soft feet turn out to be the Achilles’ heel (sorry!) of the goblins as we overhear in a conversation between a goblin father and son:

” ‘You say so, dad. I think myself I’m all right. But I could carry ten times as much if it wasn’t for my feet.’

‘That is your weak point, I confess, my boy.’

‘Ain’t it yours, too, father?’

‘Well, to be honest, it is a goblin-weakness. Why they come so soft, I declare I haven’t an idea.’ (The Princess and the Goblin, Chapter VIII, “The Goblins” You can read more here: https://archive.org/details/princessgoblin00macd/mode/2up And you can read more about the author here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_MacDonald )

Recently, however, I’ve met another goblin, to whom I was introduced by a dear friend. This is Book Goblin.

Unlike the clones and droids and Minions and orcs, who only exist to do their master’s bidding, Book Goblin lives for books, stacking shelves full, longing for the mailman to bring more, even believing in “Bookhalla”, which is, basically, an immense library, where those who are gathered there read books all day and hold book clubs all night. You can see and hear Book Goblin describing it here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vkjErlwUA2A Only brave readers are allowed to go there, including those who read “without bookmarks”!

Book Goblin is, in fact, the creation of the fantasy author Elizabeth Wheatley

and you can read more about her and her work here: https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/elisabeth-wheatley/ And YouTube has many short features in which Book Goblin discusses likes and dislikes and often seems like the Id of all passionate readers, which is why I bring her to your attention. Unlike droids, clones, Minions, and orcs, however, she is one of kind and, as for world conquest—I suspect that it would interfere with her reading.

Thanks for your reading, as always,

Stay well,

If you’re like me, you probably aren’t brave enough to read without a bookmark, so I guess no Bookhalla, sadly,

But remember that, as always, there’s

MTCIDC

Eavesdropping

25 Wednesday Feb 2026

Posted by Ollamh in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Bilbo, Denethor, Fantasy, Grima, lotr, Palantir, psychology, Sam Gamgee, Saruman, Sauron, Smaug, Tolkien

Welcome, dear readers, as always.

Where are “eaves” anyway, and why would you drop from them?

On a modern roof, they look like this—

If you lived in the mid-15^th century, when the expression “eavesdropper” first appears, it might look like this—that’s the overhang of the thatched roof–

As Etymonline will be happy to tell you,“eaves” is from Old English “efes”, the “overhang of a roof”, plus “dropa”, “a drop (as of rain)”, so “that area of the roof from which the rain drips”. (For more, see: https://www.etymonline.com/word/eavesdrop )

The idea, then, is that, if you wanted to listen in on an indoor conversation, you might climb on a roof, hang your head over the side, and follow someone speaking below, say at an open window—rather as Sam Gamgee does, although he does so less precariously—

(Robert Chronister)

In our modern world, more than once, I’ve found myself doing this—and probably you have, too–although inadvertently, as someone nearby has been bellowing into his/her cellphone while sitting or standing near you.

Unless the person at the other end is bellowing, too, you don’t hear that end of the conversation, only the local speaker, but it might be an interesting experiment, perhaps, to see what you could reconstruct from this end and, in this posting, I want to try to do that–not with a cellphone, but with a rather older device, a palantir,

(Angus McBride)

and the person we’ll be eavesdropping on isn’t that loud person on the bus, but the Steward of Gondor, Denethor.

(Alan Lee)

Initially, we don’t know that Denethor has one, of course, although we receive hints in the text—

“ ‘Yea,’ he [Denethor] said; ‘for though the Stones be lost, they say, still the lords of Gondor have keener sight than lesser men…’ “

“ ‘And the Lord Denethor is unlike other men: he sees far. Some say that as he sits alone in his high chamber in the Tower at night, and bends his thought this way and that, he can read somewhat of the future, and that he will at times search even the mind of the Enemy, wrestling with him.’ “ (The Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter 1, “Minas Tirith”)

“But he [Denethor] himself went up alone into the secret room under the summit of the Tower; and many who looked up thither at that time saw a pale light that gleamed and flickered from the narrow windows for a while, and then flashed and went out.” (The Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter 4, “The Siege of Gondor”)

It’s only at Denethor’s end that we see what gleamed and flickered and with what, as Beregond says, he “wrestles” with the Enemy—

(Robert Chronister)

“Then suddenly Denethor laughed. He stood up tall and proud again, and stepping swifly back to the table he lifted from it the pillow on which his head had lain. Then coming to the doorway he drew aside the covering, and lo! he had between his hands a palantir. As he held it up, it seemed to those that looked on that the globe began to glow with an inner flame, so that the lean face of the Lord was lit as with a red fire.” (The Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter 7, “The Pyre of Denethor”)

We don’t, unfortunately, have record of either end of the conversations which Denethor has had, but we know one thing: these were not happy chats—Beregond says, continuing the description above—“And so it is that he is old, worn before his time.”

And it’s not hard to guess another: at the far end of the connection is Sauron, as Gandalf explains to Pippin:

“ ‘Who knows where the lost Stones of Arnor and Gondor now lie buried, or drowned deep? But one at least Sauron must have obtained and mastered to his purposes. I guess that it was the Ithil-stone, for he took Minas Ithil long ago and turned it into an evil place: Minas Morgul, it has become.’ “

We can also guess what has happened to Denethor—exactly what happened to Saruman:

(the Hildebrandts)

“ ‘…yet it seems that he was not content. Further and further abroad he gazed, until he cast his gaze upon Barad-dur. Then he was caught!…Easy it is now to guess how quickly the roving eye of Saruman was trapped and held; and how ever since he has been persuaded from afar, and daunted when persuasion would not serve…How long, I wonder, has he been constrained to come often to his glass for inspection and instruction, and the Orthanc-stone so bent towards Barad-dur that, if any save a will of adamant now looks into it, it will bear his mind and sight swiftly thither?’ “ (The Two Towers, Book Three, Chapter 11, “The Palantir”)

The power of the voice is a strong theme, both in The Hobbit, where we see that Smaug

(JRRT)

can begin to damage Bilbo’s trust in the dwarves with a few words, and in The Lord of the Rings, Saruman’s spy, Grima,

(Alan Lee)

can actually prematurely age Theoden with his talk, sowing, as well, distrust of allies.

Perhaps the most powerful voice is that of Saruman himself, as Gandalf warns Pippin:

“ ‘But there is no knowing what he can do, or may choose to try. A wild beast cornered is not safe to approach. And Saruman has powers you do not guess. Beware of his voice!’ “

(Carl Lundgren)

One example will underline Gandalf’s warning:

“ ‘But my lord of Rohan, am I to be called a murderer, because valiant men have fallen in battle? If you go to war, needlessly, for I did not desire it, then men will be slain…I say, Theoden King: shall we have peace and friendship, you and I? It is ours to command.’ ”

Saruman’s words are simply lies: he began the war when his Orcs marched against Rohan and attacked Helm’s Deep, but his power is as dangerous as Gandalf has warned:

“For many the sound of the voice alone was enough to hold them enthralled; but for those whom it conquered the spell endured when they were away, and ever they heard that soft voice whispering and urging them. But none were unmoved; none rejected its pleas and its commands without an effort of mind and will, so long as its master had control of it.” (The Two Towers, Book Three, Chapter 10, “The Voice of Saruman”)

The few words we actually hear from Sauron are brief questions and commands, but, at least initially, these wouldn’t have come to control as powerful a personality as Denethor, so I’m imagining something more like Saruman, but, judging from Denethor’s reactions to others, this included the kind of undermining which Smaug and Grima practice.

(This is medieval undermining, and shows one of two possibilities. The first is to dig all the way under a castle wall and burst out suddenly behind the defenders. The second, shown here, is to dig under the way, replace the foundations with wooden props, then set fire to the props in hopes that, without them, the wall will crumble. The illustration is from the site “Classroom Adventures” and I recommend the essay which is attached to the illustration as a very useful way of getting up to speed on how medieval sieges—like that of Minas Tirith—were conducted: https://www.classroomadventures.co.uk/post/under-siege-a-history-of-siege-weaponshttps://www.classroomadventures.co.uk/post/under-siege-a-history-of-siege-weapons )

This posting had a different title, when I began it: “Sauron Psychologist” and, in Denethor’s reactions, it would appear that Denethor has been attacked on two main fronts: jealousy and insecurity, suggesting that, in his conversations with the Steward, Sauron has learned just where Denethor’s psychological vulnerabilities lie.

Although Denethor favors Boromir, he seems more than a little anxious at Faramir’s attraction to Gandalf, as Denethor says bitterly:

“ ‘See, you have spoken skillfully, as ever; but I, have I not seen your eyes fixed on Mithrandir, seeking whether you said well or too much? He has long had your heart in his keeping…For Boromir was loyal to me and no wizard’s pupil.” (The Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter 4, “The Siege of Gondor”)

Sauron also appears to have worked to undermine Denethor’s understanding of his role in Gondor. He is, after all, not the King, but the King’s lieutenant. His family has ruled in place of the King for so long, however, that Denethor seems—I think that we can assume with Sauron’s encouragement– to have made the assumption that he is the King:

“ ‘I will not step down to be the dotard chamberlain of an upstart. Even were his claim proved to me, still he comes but of the line of Isildur. I will not bow to such a one, last of a ragged house long bereft of lordship and dignity.’ “

And I would suggest that, just as Gandalf, long before, has said that the beginning of Saruman’s attempt to persuade him in Orthanc had seemed “as if he were making a speech long rehearsed”, so Denethor’s reply to Gandalf’s question “What then would you have…if your will could have its way?” has that same ring, and is just as false:

“ ‘I would have things as they were in all the days of my life…and in the days of my longfathers before: to be the Lord of this City in peace, and leave my chair to a son after me, who would be his own master and no wizard’s pupil. But if doom denies this to me, then I will have naught: neither life diminished, nor love halved, nor honour abated.’ “(The Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter 7, “The Pyre of Denethor”)

Without Sauron’s actual words, this can only be a guess, but I wonder if, behind all of this is Sauron’s “whispering and urging”, saying things like: “You once had two sons, but your favorite died on a mission which failed, and the other is no longer yours, is he? A wizard’s pupil now, and you fear, but know, this. And will the pupil ever become master, or will his master become master of all? Without the interference of wizards, we could have had peace, you and I—it was in our power—two wise rulers sharing Middle-earth—I the East, you the West, for no King would ever return—should ever return—to take your place, in Gondor. But now”—and here I switch from my text to JRRT’s–‘For a little space you may triumph on the field, for a day. But against the Power that now arises there is no victory. To this City only the first finger of its hand has yet been stretched. All the East is moving. And even now the wind of thy hope cheats thee and wafts up the Anduin a fleet with black sails. The West has failed. It is time for all to depart who would not be slaves.’ “

Smaug ultimately didn’t convince Bilbo. Gandalf freed Theoden from Grima’s attempt at senescence. Theoden’s mockery of Saruman broke the spell of Saruman’s voice. But there was no rescue for Denethor:

“Then Denethor leaped upon the table; and standing there wreathed in fire and smoke he took up the staff of his stewardship and broke it on his knee. Casting the pieces into the blaze he bowed and laid himself on the table, clasping the palantir with both hands upon his breast. And it was said that ever after, if any man looked in that Stone, unless he had a great strength of will to turn it to other purpose, he saw only two aged hands withering in flame.” (The Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter 7, “The Pyre of Denethor”)

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Stay well,

Noise-canceling earphones definitely have their merits,

But avoid crystal balls at all costs,

Though remembering that, as always, there’s

MTCIDC

doubtfulsea

~ adventure fantasy

Tag Archives: Sauron

Capital R, Ring

Cap-a-Pie (2)

Cap-a-Pie (1)

Now You See Him, Now…

Minor?

Solution (2)

Prismatic

Saruman’s Sigh

Goblins and Goblin

Eavesdropping