A Long Time Ago, in a Hobbit Hole Far, Far Away

Happy May the 4th! May the Fourth be with you!

Since today is a day where fans celebrate everything and anything Star Wars related, I thought I’d join in on the fun and have some fun imagining Middle-earth meeting that Galaxy Far, Far Away.

So enjoy the following assortment of Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings content1 I’ve created for your enjoyment!

This is where the fun begins

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Special shout-out to all the Jokien with Tolkien: Extended Edition members who helped make today’s newsletter possible, especially recent additions Marc S, who joined the Extended Edition, and Styx, who signed up for a lifetime subscription! I so appreciate each and every paid subscriber: your support of me and this newsletter means everything to me!

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There and Back Again

Want even more Star Wars/LOTR content? This week last year I shared some other LOTR and Star Wars crossovers:

⚔️ If someone forward this email to you or you found it through social media or Google, I’d like to invite you to join 12,000+ subscribers in the Jokien with Tolkien community: Subscribe here and get a free gift just for joining!

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❌ All typos are precisely as intended

🔗 Links may be affiliate, which is a free-to-you way to support this newsletter where I earn a small commission on items you purchase

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🗃️ Can’t wait till next Thursday for more content? View the archive

🎯 Interested in sponsoring this newsletter like the above ad? Email me at JRRJokien@JRRJokien.com

Welcome to Through the Wardrobe, a Jokien with Tolkien newsletter where I share serious analysis and satirical humor about all our favorite literary and cinematic worlds — from the magical woods of Narnia to the breathtaking vistas of Middle-earth even to a galaxy far, far away.

I’m traveling this week for a family wedding, so today I’m sharing a post with you all that I originally wrote as a guest piece for on the similarities and differences between the in-universe creation of Narnia and Middle-earth and what they can teach us as we ourselves create. Enjoy!

—Josh

Songs of Creation

Narnia and Middle-earth would surely be neighboring pools in the Wood Between the Worlds, the fantastical realm from The Magician’s Nephew that connects myriad worlds and enables travel between them. Like the authors who created them—C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien—Narnia and Middle-earth are similar in many key ways, one of which is their creation stories.

Lewis and Tolkien were both Christians who believed in a God who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth. They were also authors who would go on to create their own heavens and earths in creation accounts that share striking similarities.

Since they were both familiar with the Biblical creation accounts and each other’s work, it is instructive to compare and contrast the creation accounts that they themselves composed and the Biblical narrative that informed their thinking as well. Doing so perfectly illustrates Tolkien’s concept of “sub-creation” and the ways that each individual creator brings their own power of creativity to bear on their creations.

The Music of the Ainur

J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion begins with the tale of the creation of Arda, the world containing Middle-earth. The key instrument in this creation is music.

In the opening chapter, “Ainulindalë,” Tolkien describes how Eru Ilúvatar, the One, created angelic beings known as the Ainur. Ilúvatar gives to them a mighty theme and the Ainur sing a Great Music along this theme. While the theme is Ilúvatar’s, the actual music is the Ainur’s. They each bring their own character and talents to the theme, adding to it in harmony with each other and with Ilúvatar’s intent for it.

But the harmony does not last for long.

The greatest of the Ainur, Melkor, decides to add his own theme to the music in discord with the theme of Ilúvatar. The dissonance grows, and Ilúvatar and Melkor strive for dominance. Ilúvatar introduces a second and then a third theme, which Melkor continues to fight against with his own discord. Finally, Ilúvatar ends the music with one final chord, “deeper than the Abyss, higher than the Firmament, piercing as the light of the eye of Ilúvatar.”1

The Music ceases.

Ilúvatar reveals to the Ainur that the Music has created a new world, and that what they each added to the Music, even including Melkor, has been reflected in the creation and the history of the world itself.

To Melkor, Ilúvatar proclaims though he intended to usurp the music for his own glory, Melkor “shall see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined.”2

Strikingly, we see many similarities to this story of Middle-earth’s creation in the story of the creation of Narnia in The Magician’s Nephew.

Aslan’s Song

After traveling from England to a dying world with a giant red star named Charn and back to England, a young boy and girl named Digory and Polly find themselves and several others — including a Queen-turned-Witch from Charn and Digory’s uncle — in a world of no stars and no light. Aside from the ground that they stand on there is nothing: no plants, no wind, no animals, nothing.

And then, “[i]n the darkness something was happening at last. A voice had begun to sing.”3 The song is beautiful and transcendent.

Suddenly, innumerable other voices join the First Voice in the song “in harmony with it”4 and simultaneously “the blackness overhead, all at once, was blazing with stars.”5

Light breaks and the sun rises. And by the light of the sun, Polly, Digory, and the others can see the Lion Aslan, “huge, shaggy, and bright”6 whose “mouth was open wide in song.”7 The Lion is singing the song of creation.

Aslan’s song proceeds from the initial song through another, gentler movement where he creates vegetation for the world and then a wilder movement where he creates animals. And then the song stops.

Like Melkor’s discord, Evil is already present in Narnia at its creation. Digory has brought the Witch from Charn  —  who will go on to eventually cover Narnia in an endless winter  —  into this new world and thus brought evil into it. 

Like Ilúvatar, Aslan has a plan to deal with the evil that has entered Narnia. In a parallel of the story of Adam and Eve, Digory is sent to retrieve an apple from the tree at the center of a garden. He is told he cannot eat or take this fruit selfishly, but the witch tempts him to take it for himself with the promise of eternal life for himself and healing for his sick mother. In an inversion of the Biblical temptation account, he prevails.

The apple is planted and grows into a tree that will protect Narnia as long as it stands, and Aslan promises to personally deal with the evil once it comes: “I will see to it that the worst falls upon myself.”8 In contrast with Ilúvatar — who on occasion intervened in the fate of Arda but did not come to Arda physically9 or suffer death on behalf of his children — Aslan would take the worst of evil’s power upon himself and die so that by the Deeper Magic he could defeat evil.

Creators Creating in the Image  —  But Not Exact Copy  —  of Their Creator

The creation accounts of Narnia and Arda have many parallels. Both worlds are created through song.10 This song is part of the plan of God and each song has three movements. Evil is present from the very beginning and Ilúvatar and Aslan already have a plan to deal with it.

And yet for all their similarities with each other, they both also have significant differences from the Biblical account of creation in Genesis 1.

Unlike Ilúvatar or Aslan, Yahweh creates the world without any help from or participation by the angels of heaven. Though He creates using the power of his voice, He does so without music. 

Evil in Arda in the form of Melkor’s discord introduced as part of the song of creation. Similarly, the Witch is present in Narnia mere hours after its creation and wastes no time in tempting Digory. God in creating the world, however, completed His work and pronounced all that he saw “very good” (Genesis 1:31), and evil is not introduced into the world until the snake’s temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden.11

In creating worlds like Narnia and Arda, the authors engaged in what Tolkien termed “sub-creating.” In his famous essay “On Fairy-Stories,” he explains:

Fantasy remains a human right: we make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker.”12

Part of God saying in Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness,” is that humans will also create. Tolkien refers to this in fantasy as “sub-creation,” where sub-creators “make a Secondary World which your mind can enter.”13

Just as the Creator created creation, so Tolkien and Lewis as sub-creators fashioned Narnia and Arda. In doing so, they created in the likeness of their Creator but not to the point of an exact copy. Like the Ainur adding their own details to the theme of Ilúvatar, they added their own individual touches to the story they told of the creation of their respective fantasy worlds. To do so, the authors pulled details and inspiration from the primary world, the creation stories of other cultures and peoples, and their own imaginative faculties. 

As Christians, we can learn much from those sub-creators who have gone before us. In drawing from the truest fairy story of them all — the gospel14 — and from our own lives, experiences, and talents, we too can create in the likeness of our Creator. What will you create? Will you compose a song of your own? Cultivate a garden? Care tenderly for your family? Create your own world that takes its place as a pool neighboring Narnia and Middle-earth in the Wood Between the Worlds? How will you make as one who makes in the image and likeness of your Creator?15

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📚 You can read more of my writing by reading my books! My latest is a collection of essays on The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and more of Tolkien’s works (and their adaptations). You can find it and more of my books on Amazon or Gumroad

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FRODO: Excuse me, that man in the corner, who is he?

THE INKEEPER, BARLIMAN BUTTERBUR: He's one of them rangers.

FRODO: Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a ranger.

BUTTERBUR: Safe? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.

STRIDER: *sigh* For the last time, Butterbur, would you please stop telling everyone what my deal is? You’re ruining my mysterious brooding vibe, which I put a lot of effort into cultivating.

FRODO: Are you the one who Bilbo wrote that poem of his about?

All that is gold does not glitter, 
Not all those who wander are lost, 
At the sound of his “FOR FRODO!” 
     sorrows will be no more, 
When he renews the blade that was broken, evil meets its end, 
And when he crushes athelas, 
     we shall be healed again. 
Strider is on the move.

STRIDER: Do not cite the deep rhymes to me, friend. I was there when it was written.

SAM: I don’t know exactly why, but whenever I heard Mister Bilbo recite that I was picturing a talking lion for some reason.

STRIDER: (looking around at the riffraff in the room) It’s not wise for you to stay in your rooms tonight. We’ll need to move you to another room. Preferably one further away from this common area.

PIPPIN: Oh, I get it! Further up and further inn.

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Appendices

• Special shout-out and thank you to Dan F, and Tom for upgrading to an Extended Edition membership this week!

  This is a reader-supported newsletter and Jokien with Tolkien: Extended Edition members help keep it coming to everyone’s inboxes week in and week out. If you too regularly get value, entertainment, encouragement, or inspiration from this newsletter, consider upgrading your subscription too!

• A recent note that seemed to strike a chord:

📚 You can read more of my writing by reading my books! My latest is a collection of essays on The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and more of Tolkien’s works (and their adaptations). You can also find it and more of my books on Amazon or Gumroad

⚔️ If someone forwarded this email to you or you found it through social media or Google, I’d like to invite you to join 11,000+ subscribers in the Jokien with Tolkien community: Subscribe here and get a free gift just for joining!

🏹 Chosen as a Substack Featured Publication in 2023

🪓 Official merch available in the Jokien with Tolkien store

❌ All typos are precisely as intended

🔗 Links may be affiliate, which is a free-to-you way to support this newsletter where I earn a small commission on items you purchase

🗃️ Can’t wait till next week for more content? View the archive

🎯 Interested in writing a guest piece? Check out my submission guidelines. Want to sponsor a future issue of Jokien with Tolkien? E-mail me at jrrjokien@jrrjokien.com

If there’s one thing passionate fandoms love, it’s debating which entry in the canon of their beloved stories is the best.

Is it the adaptation you grew up watching? The recent reboot that uses modern vernacular or technology? The TV miniseries? The original/sequel/prequel film trilogy? (Spoiler alert: it’s probably the one that you experienced when you were around 12 years old).

But while it’s only natural to want to compare and rank entries in a shared universe and enjoy the fun of debating their various merits, one common refrain that I see from fandom to fandom is that if you’re a true fan you’ll prefer one particular version or entry over the others. If you don’t agree with this opinion on which entry is superior (and it is ultimately just an opinion) then you aren’t a “true” fan.

This is, of course, rubbish. I couldn’t disagree more.

While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with preferring one version of a story or one chapter in a saga—I myself have favorites from franchise to franchise and will happily share why I like one more than another—when the exercise changes from “Here’s my favorite and why I like it” to “Here’s the only acceptable answer or else you aren’t a true fan,” we’ve gone over to the dark side of the fandom.

I’ve personally experienced this attitude when it comes to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings books and the adaptations based on them. Passionate fans have expressed opinions to me like, “If you like Amazon’s The Rings of Power you aren’t a real fan,” and “True Tolkien fans hate The Hobbit trilogy; if you like those movies you aren’t one of them,” and “It’s only really experiencing The Lord of the Rings if you read the books, not if you watch any of the adaptations.”1

I’ve also seen it in other fandoms:

“You aren’t a true Star Wars fan if you enjoy any of the Disney Star Wars! …except maybe Rogue One and Andor!”

“You aren’t really a Jane Austen fan if you prefer the 2005 Pride & Prejudice film over the 1995 BBC TV miniseries!”

And on and on and on.

But who are we exactly to make such judgments about what makes a true fan and who exactly qualifies anyways?

Returning to Tolkien, of course Tolkien’s books are the original and most complete version of these stories! And the very nature of changing mediums will force any adaptation to make at times difficult choices about how to best translate the story from page to screen, with the likelihood that not all of the potential changes will be good ones.

But to say that one must start with the books or you’re not a true fan or to imply that if someone likes an adaptation you don’t means they’re a fake is pure foolishness. It’s an especially pedantic and judgmental variety of gatekeeping. As you insist that the books or your favorite onscreen version are the only real way to experience Middle-earth, you might imagine that you are keeping the forces of darkness at bay like Gandalf saying, “You cannot pass!” to the Balrog at the bridge of Khazad-dûm, but you’re really much more like Gríma Wormtongue whispering, “They are not welcome here.”

We can criticize the specific choices an adaptation makes in relation to the source material without putting down those who enjoy those adaptations and trying to say that they don’t belong in the fandom or aren’t as “good” or “pure” as other fans.

Who are we to keep the wonders of our chosen fandom from someone like that? As Gandalf might say, that is not for us to decide.

I believe if you consider yourself a fan of The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien’s wider world, then you are one, no matter what your favorite work within that world is. Simple as that. The same goes for that galaxy Far, Far Away, Narnia, Earthsea, and all the other magical realms and stories that have served as inspiration for popular adaptations on the big and little screens.

We should be celebrating every time someone experiences our favorite fictional universe for the first time, whatever the medium, and we should be glad to share the joys of the fandom with those who consider themselves part of it, not trying to convince them that they aren’t a real fan or judging them for taking a different path than we ourselves took.

So let’s be people who encourage people to join our fandoms wherever they’d like to begin and be fans of whatever entries in the canon that they enjoy. May it be no more difficult to wander into Middle-earth than speaking ‘Friend’ and watching the doors to the fandom swing wide in welcome.

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Appendices

• There are a lot of great deals on Tolkien books currently on Amazon! As of the time of me writing this newsletter, my favorite The Lord of the Rings, the Illustrated by the Author edition, is 65% off ahead of Prime Day! AND there’s a coupon you can add to get an additional $5 off, which brings it down to just over $26! (it says it’s a Prime exclusive but there’s also an option to buy it for a few more dollars but with a $7 coupon…so almost exactly the same price)

  Get 70% off LOTR

• The companion Illustrated by the Author editions of The Hobbit and The Silmarillion are also on sale for over 40% off, with an additional $8 off coupon for The Silmarillion! (The Hobbit is part of a Get 3 for the Price of 2 Sale also running on Amazon)

  Get 40% off The Hobbit

  Get 40% + $8 off the Silmarillion

• I’ve collected all three of these plus other Tolkien-related items on sale on an Amazon list for those who are interested: Prime Day Tolkien Deals

• Speaking of books and Tolkien, for a few weeks now I’ve been giving one of my e-Books, Exploring the Lore of Middle-earth, away to new subscribers when they sign up. However, if you subscribed before I started doing this but also want a free copy, here’s the link for you to download it for free!
  

  Free Exploring the Lore E-book

  (of course, you could always support me by paying for a copy! It’s pay what you want, with the suggested price at just $1!)

• Special shout-out and thank you to Andrew W for upgrading to an Extended Edition membership this week!

  This is a reader-supported newsletter and Jokien with Tolkien: Extended Edition members help keep it coming to everyone’s inboxes week in and week out. If you too regularly get value, entertainment, encouragement, or inspiration from this newsletter, consider upgrading your subscription too!

⚔️ Join 8,000+ subscribers in the Jokien with Tolkien community: Subscribe here

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🪓 Official merch available in the Jokien with Tolkien store

❌ All typos are precisely as intended

🔗 Links may be affiliate, which is a free-to-you way to support this newsletter where I earn a small commission on items you purchase

📚 Check out my shops on Amazon and Bookshop.org for curated lists of Tolkien content

🗃️ Can’t wait till next Thursday for more content? View the archive

🎯 Interested in sponsoring this newsletter like the above ad? Email me at JRRJokien@JRRJokien.com

A Long Time Ago, in a Hobbit Hole Far, Far Away

Today is May the 4th, a day where fans celebrate everything and anything Star Wars related. So I thought I’d join in on the fun and do my part in celebrating the day. And what better way for me to do that than to have some fun imagining Middle-earth meeting that Galaxy Far, Far Away?

So I’ve collected and created the following assortment of Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings content1 for your enjoyment!

This is where the fun begins

What character from Middle-earth would make the best Jedi? My money’s on Aragorn.

“Pass shall you not!”

The Dark Lord Strikes Back

Count Dooku, er, I mean the Wizard Saruman shares some interesting lore…

The new Warner Bros. Lord of the Rings movies:

I was there, Luke. I was there 3,000 parsecs ago when the strength of the Jedi failed.

I don’t think he knows about it, Palpy

May the Forth be with you, Eorlingas!

Special shout-out goes to Cindy H and David S who all became a member of the Jokien with Tolkien: Extended Edition recently! I so appreciate each and every paid subscriber: your support of me and this newsletter means everything to me!

To join them and all the other members of the Extended Edition in receiving an additional exclusive newsletter a month, participating in community discussions, and helping make this newsletter possible, consider upgrading for $5 a month or ($45 a year) today:

Subscribe now

There and Back Again

This week last year I shared a two-part examination of “The Problems with Prequels.” I did it on May 4th because in addition to Amazon’s The Rings of Power, I also discussed Star War’s Andor and Kenobi series as well as Star Trek’s Strange New Worlds.

Here are “Episodes” I and II of that mini-series:

Appendices

• Coming next week: some recent Tolkien Treasures I’ve seen or heard about recently!

• I enjoyed ’s recent reflection on the similarities and differences between the beginning of The Hobbit and the beginning of The Lord of the Rings:
  

  The Fellowship of the Readers

  The Road Goes Ever On and On...

  After reading both beginnings of our two year-long adventures — The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit — I could not help but notice how similar, and yet how starkly different they were at the same time. Both adventures begin in April, which we have already observed is probably not coincidental given spring’s associations with new beginnings, transformatio…

  Read more

  2 years ago · 5 likes · 1 comment · Zoë Tavares Bennett

• I similarly enjoyed ’ thoughts on Despair and Hope in The Return of the King, which you can find here:

  Personal Canon Formation

  “The Eagles are Coming!”: Despair and Hope in *The Return of the King*

  Here is a link to our reading schedule. I didn’t have a specific idea for a big essay this week, and so I decided to take a page from Simon Haisell’s slow reads and provide a chapter-by-chapter commentary on this week’s reading. This also may be a preview of what it may look like when we do this again in the summer of 2025. Yes, that’s right: you heard it here first…

  Read more

  2 years ago · 16 likes · 2 comments · John Halbrooks

⚔️ Join 7,000+ subscribers in the Jokien with Tolkien community: Subscribe here

🏹 Chosen as a Substack Featured Publication in 2023

🪓 Official merch available in the Jokien with Tolkien store

❌ All typos are precisely as intended

🔗 Links may be affiliate, which is a free-to-you way to support this newsletter where I earn a small commission on items you purchase

📚 Check out my shops on Amazon and Bookshop.org for curated lists of Tolkien content

🗃️ Can’t wait till next Thursday for more content? View the archive

🎯 Interested in sponsoring this newsletter? Email me at JRRJokien@JRRJokien.com

Congrats to the winners of my Tolkien Reading Day giveaway!
Grand Prize: Jessica S | 1st Prize: Isaiah L | 2nd Prize: Matt H | 3rd Prize: Justin H
The winners have all been contacted and responded to me and their prizes are en route!

Also: quick reminder that kicks off a yearlong readthrough of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings tomorrow, 4/12! Subscribe today to take the journey from the very beginning!

Hello all!

As you may or may not have not have noticed, I have organized the newsletters that I send out here at Jokien with Tolkien into a few broad categories. In Substack parlance they’re known as “sections” and they function a bit as newsletters within a newsletter.1

These sections here at Jokien with Tolkien are:

• LOLs of the Rings — Lord of the Rings and Tolkien humor. Good examples of these sorts of posts are the recent “Gandalf Attempts to Access His Account on Moria.net” and “Tolkien and Lewis Bicker Over Fantasy” posts:

• Tolkien Talk — essays and articles about Tolkien, his works, and their adaptations. Some examples from this section are my essays on grief and loss in The Lord of the Rings and on Easter and eucatastrophe:

  
  

• Tolkien Treasures — roundups of Tolkien content from around the internet. This section has shifted from a monthly feature to a more occasional one, but along with the most recent Tolkien Treasures I’ve included here my annual gift guide, as it falls under this category too.
  
  

But they were — all of them — deceived, for another section was made…

Introducing Through the Wardrobe

I began this newsletter in November 2022 as a place to keep in contact with you all directly, unbeholden to the capricious whims of social media algorithms, and to write expanded thoughts on Tolkien, faith, and (pop) culture. Up to this point the ‘recipe’ for content here has been mostly Tolkien with a bit of faith and culture sprinkled in, and I don’t have any complaints about that! I’ve enjoyed how this space has developed and am proud of the content that I’ve put out this past year plus.

But while I absolutely love Tolkien and have no plans to stop writing humor pieces or serious analysis of his works and their adaptations to share with you all, I occasionally have a hankering to share my thoughts on broader topics in sci-fi fantasy and literature/film in what I’ll call Tolkien-adjacent subjects.

But what to do with these topics? What I’ve decided on is to introduce a new section for Jokien with Tolkien to collect them under a single banner.

I’m calling this new Jokien with Tolkien section ‘Through the Wardrobe.’

Why “Through the Wardrobe”?

Those familiar with C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia will recognize a wardrobe as the titular portal connecting England to the magical realm of Narnia in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It is one of many stories in the “portal fiction” genre — like Alice in Wonderland, Guy Gavriel Kay’s The Fionavar Tapestry, and The Ten Thousand Doors of January — where a key component of the plot is the protagonist(s) traveling from one reality to another by means of a portal of some kind.

And that’s just how I envision this occasional feature here at Jokien with Tolkien: an occasional newsletter-length journey to Narnia, or that Galaxy Far, Far Away, Arrakis, or any number of other worlds out there in the genres of Sci-Fi and Fantasy (or somehow related to Tolkien and his creations).

This week’s special shout-out goes to Christian C, Matthew P, Dan J, and Majik who all became a member of the Jokien with Tolkien: Extended Edition this week! I so appreciate each and every paid subscriber: your support of me and this newsletter means everything to me!

To join them and all the other members of the Extended Edition in receiving an additional newsletter a month, participating in exclusive community discussions, and helping make this newsletter possible, consider upgrading for $5 a month or ($45 a year) today:

Subscribe now

“What’s In It For Me?” Managing Substack Sections

Like I said earlier, a section here on Substack is a newsletter within a larger publication. Think of it as different sections in a newspaper (Sports, Opinion, Local, etc.) or even different television channels that categorize and collect similar content under a recognizable brand so audiences know what to expect.

“Well that’s great for you, Josh,” you might say. “Glad you’re so organized. But why go on at length about this?”

Here’s the benefit to you, reader:

A newsletter that has sections enables subscribers to receive only what they want to receive from that publication.

Let’s imagine that you’re a subscriber to Jokien with Tolkien who really loves all the humor in LOLs Of The Rings but doesn’t really care for the curated Tolkien links and deals that I send out in Tolkien Treasures. Or perhaps you’re someone who craves the in-depth essays and analysis in Tolkien Talk but isn’t all that interested in content about other media or pop culture subjects.

If you go to jrrjokien.com/account you can manage which sections you’ll receive emails for when I have a new post in that section.

Just toggle the sections in question on/off and you’re set!

If you’re reading this and subscribed you should already be receiving posts from all the sections unless you’ve changed something manually. Again, if you’d like to change that, head to jrrjokien.com/account.

Of course my preference would be that you all read every word that I send out as frequently as I do so! But let’s be honest, I’d rather you hear from me less frequently than unsubscribe because you are getting too much from me that you don’t care for compared to what you do enjoy!

So what would a typical monthly schedule look like?

If in a typical month you hear from me a minimum of four times, you can expect:

• One humorous post in LOLs of the Rings

• One to two Tolkien Talk essays, one being exclusively for paid subscribers

• One Through the Wardrobe newsletter

• An occasional Tolkien Treasures newsletter

At least that’s the plan! We’ll see how things develop from here. Maybe Through the Wardrobe will end up being more occasional and not monthly, maybe I’ll have multiple humor pieces in a given month, you get the idea. But you can expect me to rotate through the sections in coming months and not be all humor or all serious (and don’t worry, this newsletter will stay firmly rooted in Tolkien and his writings).

One last thing before I wrap this up:

Call for Submissions

You may have noticed that I like to occasionally feature guest posts here on Jokien with Tolkien. Up till this point they have been articles that (understandably) focus directly on J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, and other Middle-earth topics. These have typically come through relationships I already have or through people pitching me on an idea. But I haven’t put out a call for guest pieces. Until now.

Now with the introduction of Through the Wardrobe, I’d like to extend a broad invitation for submissions to Jokien with Tolkien!

If you have a Tolkien-specific idea for an article for Jokien with Tolkien, I’d love to hear it. It can be serious or humorous (or somewhere in-between.

But if you have an article that focuses on Narnia, Star Wars, Earthsea, Arakkis, or any number of other closely related sci-fi/fantasy universes that you’d like to pitch as a guest post too, I’m open to that as well!

If you’re interested, please send me an email at jrrjokien@jrrjokien.com with either your pitch for the article or your draft if you have one (a link to google docs is the preferred method if you have a draft already, but you could send a word doc or link to a Substack draft too).

I can’t promise I’ll accept every pitch and may pass for a number of reasons, but I’d love to at least consider how we might work together to spread quality writing on literature and pop culture — from Tolkien to beyond — to interested readers.

The Road Goes Ever On

Thank you all for bearing with me through this post that’s a bit more “inside baseball” than usual. I hope that you’re excited for what’s to come and where we’ll all journey together! I know I am.

Namárië,

Josh

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There and Back Again

This week last year I shared an essay on how Tolkien’s works help us to carry on in the face of death, planting gardens and promises of hope.

Appendices

It has just occurred to me that I can use this space to share some of my favorite Notes! Here are a few recent ones of mine for your amusement:

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It’s been a “Live, Love, Lord of the Rings” week here at Jokien with Tolkien. It’s the week of Valentine’s Day and the last two newsletters I’ve sent out have focused on Finding the Five Love Languages in the Lord of the Rings and Lord of the Rings Valentine’s Day Cards. As I thought about how to end the week focusing on love and Lord of the Rings, I decided that I’d take a page from fellow Inkling C.S. Lewis’ book The Four Loves and look for examples of each of them in Tolkien’s works.

So in today’s newsletter I’m going to highlight an example or two of each of the four loves — Affection, Friendship, Passion, and Charity — as depicted in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

Lewis' Four Loves in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings

Examples of Affection, Friendship, Passion, and Charity in Middle-earth

1. Storge (Affection)

C.S. Lewis begins The Four Loves1 discussing storge, which he defines as “affection” (31). “This warm comfortableness,” he continues, “this satisfaction in being together…ignores the barriers of age, sex, class, and education…even the barriers of species!” (32)

Affection is a love that grows so slowly that you often cannot rightly point to the moment it began and a love that often exists alongside the other loves, where it can “enter into the other loves and colour them all through and become the very medium in which from day to day they operate” (34). Affection is the broadest of loves, a love that can and does develop for “the people with whom you are thrown together in the family, the the college, the mess, the ship, the religious house” (37).

Storge love — affection — makes me immediately think of the broad love that the Fellowship develops for each other over the course of their journey. While certain members are closer to each other in friendship than others (more on that in a moment), all the members of the Fellowship develop a shared bond of affection for each other in The Lord of the Rings. Indeed, their group title itself — Fellowship — conveys this very type of relationship: a fellowship is a group of companions united by shared purpose or interests.

One of the best examples in the Peter Jackson films of this love is the training session that Boromir holds for Merry and Pippin during a bit of downtime on their journey. The serious endeavor devolves into a tangle of laughter and smiles as the two hobbits connive to feign an injury to take down Boromir and then also fell Aragorn when he comes over to investigate. These are men (and hobbits) who care for each other and have each other’s best interests at heart because, though they did not choose each other as companions, destiny brought them together and gave them a set of shared purposes and experiences.

While this moment is a contrivance of the filmmakers and doesn’t appear in the books, the Fellowship does not lack affection for each other in the books. Though it is more often alluded to than explicitly shown, one instance where it is clearly displayed is when the three hunters — Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli — are reunited with their “quarry” — Merry and Pippin — in Isengard.

Greeted by the sight of Merry and Pippin smoking and at their leisure after having had a hearty meal, Gimli erupts into feigned indignancy:

You rascals, you wooly-footed and wool-pated truants! A fine hunt you have led us! Two hundred leagues, through fen and forest, battle and death, to rescue you! And here we find you feasting and idling—and smoking! Smoking! where did you come by the weed, you villains? Hammer and tongs! I am so torn between rage and joy, that if I do not burst, it will be a marvel!2

Gimli’s affectionate love for the hobbits overflows in this moment, showing how much he’d come to care for them in the time they’d spent together.

Another of the most striking examples of affection in the books is that of the affection Sam and other members of the Fellowship have for Bill the Pony.

He has journeyed with the Hobbits from the Shire to Rivendell and with the Company from Rivendell and he has proved useful to them. “I am sorry,” Gandalf says to Frodo as they discuss having to let Bill go outside Moria. “Poor Bill has been a useful companion, and it goes to my heart to turn him adrift now. I would have travelled lighter and brought no animal, least of all this one that Sam is fond of.”3 Even Gandalf has come to care for Bill, affection born from the use they’ve had of him and the time on the road they’ve had together.

So this first and broadest of the loves is a general affection that slowly develops between those who do not necessarily choose each other but who end up together. Next comes a deeper love and one that is less general than affection: Friendship.

2. Philia (Friendship)

Philia love is friendship love. Though we see many examples of this love throughout Tolkien’s legendarium,4 I’d like to draw some special attention to the friendship of Gandalf and Bilbo and Legolas and Gimli.

Gandalf and Bilbo had not only shared their adventure to and from (er, There and Back Again, I mean) the Lonely Mountain with Thorin and his Dwarves in The Hobbit but also stayed in touch long afterwards. Gandalf was Bilbo’s co-conspirator when he planned his eleventy-first birthday party and accompanying disappearance (though he doubted his friend’s wisdom) and Gandalf accompanied Bilbo on his final journey over the sea to Valinor. “All your long life we have been friends,”5 Gandalf says to Bilbo in Bag End. And that friendship is one that changed the course of the history of Middle-earth.

But whereas Gandalf and Bilbo have seemingly always been friends, Legolas and Gimli start at a very different place: distrustful of each other, if not outright enemies. Their races have a long and strained history and they are loathe to trust one another.

But something unexpected happens: the pictures that they have in their minds of what all elves or dwarves must be like based on the stories they’ve heard and even experiences they have had begin to be challenged by this fellow member of the Fellowship. They see each other’s prowess in battle, they see the respect that others like Gandalf and Aragorn give to the other, and they go through hardship, grief, and loss together. And then, most wondrous of all, Gimli’s experience meeting Galadriel and being favored by her with the priceless gift of her hair knocks down any remaining animosity they have for each other. Gimli has had his negative view of the elves completely dismantled, and Legolas has seen one of the greatest of his race not just tolerate but bless this dwarf he has come to know.

From that point on, they are fast friends and close companions. They make promises to each other about things they will do after the war, such as exploring the Glittering Caves near Helm’s Deep, and they fight all the way to the Black Gates of Mordor together. Their friendship deepens to the point that they stay inseparable after the War of the Ring, even sailing together to Valinor after the death of Aragorn.

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3. Eros (Passion)

Eros is romantic love, associated with passion and romance. This love finds its expression in the pages of The Lord of the Rings in several standout couples. There is the unexpected and sweet love that grows between Éowyn and Faramir in the houses of healing. There is also of course the love of Sam for Rosie, which Tolkien refers to as a “simple ‘rustic’ love” and deems “absolutely essential to the study of his (the chief hero’s) character, and to the theme of the relation of ordinary life (breathing, eating, working, begetting) and quests, sacrifice, causes, and the ‘longing for the Elves’, and sheer beauty” (Letter 131).

But the great love story of The Lord of the Rings is the story of Aragorn and Arwen. Tolkien calls it “the highest love-story” in the book (Letter 131). And the story intentionally echoes two of Tolkien’s love stories from the First Age: the love of Thingol and Melian and the love of Beren and Lúthien.

The similarities, or more aptly the rhymes, between the three stories are poetic.6 All three couples have their first meeting in a forest glade. Thingol comes across Melian, a Maia like Gandalf, after following her enchanting song through the woods and when he meets her gaze and takes her hand they stand locked in their gaze for years (talk about love at first sight!). Beren is literally struck dumb by Lúthien — who is Thingol and Melian’s daughter — at their first meeting when he spies her dancing in a forest glade and is unable to speak until he finds her again months later and calls out the name he has given to her: Tinúviel, meaning Nightingale.

And Aragorn, who wears the Ring of Barahir that Beren wore and is singing the Lay of Lúthien to himself as he walks through the woods near Rivendell, is momentarily speechless when Lúthien seemingly appears before him. “Tinúviel!” he cries. “Tinúviel!” But it is not Lúthien, it is her great-great granddaughter, Arwen.

In being influenced by and modeled after the love of Beren and Lúthien, Arewn and Aragorn’s romance also was influenced by and modeled after Tolkien’s own love story. He and his wife Edith were the inspiration for the story of Beren and Lúthien, as he shares in a letter written after her death.

Explaining why he wanted her tombstone to contain the inscription “Lúthien”, Tolkien wrote:

I never called Edith Lúthien — but she was the source of the story that in time became the chief part of the Silmarillion. It was first conceived in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks at Roos in Yorkshire… In those days her hair was raven, her skin clear, her eyes brighter than you have seen them, and she could sing — and dance. But the story has gone crooked, & I am left, and I cannot plead before the inexorable Mandos.7 (Letter 340)

No wonder that the tales of Beren and Lúthien and also Arwen and Aragorn form such a central part of his tales of Middle-earth: they were echoes of Tolkien’s own love for his Beloved.

4. Agape (Charity)

Last of the four loves, we have agape. Lewis calls this love Charity. Agape is a Divine love. All the previous loves, Lewis writes, are natural loves. But God’s love is a supernatural love. Natural loves, Lewis says, are “always directed to objects which the lover finds in some way intrinsically lovable…But Divine Gift-love [agape] in the man helps him love what is not naturally lovable; lepers, criminals, enemies, morons, the sulky, the superior and the sneering.”8

A giving and forgiving love. A love for those that don’t deserve it.

I can think of no better example of a love that is given though it is not deserved than Frodo’s pity and love of Gollum and Saruman.

I have previously discussed the power of Frodo’s pity for Gollum, so I will instead focus here on Frodo’s pity for and Saruman. (For those that have only seen the movies, spoilers for the conclusion of the The Return of the King book follow).

During the Scouring of the Shire, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin find their home ravaged and under the control of evil men under the command of a boss referred to as “Sharkey.” The Shire is occupied, many of the trees — including the Party Tree where Bilbo celebrated his eleventy-first birthday — cut down, and the inhabitants living in fear.

After organizing an uprising and driving off the ruffians, the four hobbits confront this “Sharkey” who has directed the desolation of the Shire and discover that it is none other than Saruman himself.

Frodo says to Saruman that he pities him and instructs him to leave the Shire and never return. Hearing this, many of the other hobbits who have come with the four members of the Fellowship are angered and call for Saruman’s death. He clearly deserves it at this point and they want justice. They cannot love him: he is unlovable: a criminal, an enemy, a superior and sneering foe even in his disgrace and humiliation.

But Frodo says, “I will not have him slain. It is useless to meet revenge with revenge: it will heal nothing.” But even as Saruman starts to slink away, he draws a knife and stabs Frodo. Bilbo’s mithril coat saves Frodo once more: the knife snaps and Saruman is tackled by a pile of hobbits. Sam draws his sword, but Frodo cries out:

“No, Sam! Do not kill him even now. For he has not hurt me…He is fallen, and his cure is beyond us, but I would still spare him, in the hope that he may find it” (ROTK, 333)

Even in the face of murderous intent, Frodo still pities and loves Saruman. Saruman notes this growth in Frodo, his expression “of mingled wonder and respect and hatred.” He meets his end at the hand of Wormtongue, whom he finally pushes too far. But Frodo’s love and pity overcomes the hatred of Saruman, just as his pity for Gollum ended up ruling the fates of many.

So we see each of the Four Loves — Affection, Friendship, Passion, and Charity — in the characters and events of The Lord of the Rings. And we see them modeled for us that we might live them out out and bring them into the world. May we grow in each of these loves for those around us, and may we be inspired by tales such as these to love even our enemies.

To Discuss:

What are some other examples —either from LOTR or his other works — that come to mind of each of these four loves?

Why are there only four loves but five love languages? Have all of us been deceived, and another love been made?

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Appendices

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[In frozen NARNIA, where we lay our scene, MR. and MRS. BEAVER sit in their home at their table with four CHILDREN, two boys and two girls, when a frantic RAPPING on the door interrupts their conversation]

MRS. BEAVER: Now what could that be?

[before anyone can get up from the table, the door of the house BURSTS open and a FIGURE dressed in dazzling white robes steps inside]

LUCY: The White Witch!!

GANDALF: IS IT SECRET? IS IT SAFE?? Wait…this isn’t Bag End! Where am I?

MR. BEAVER: You must have the wrong house, good sir. We thought you were someone else. But...who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good.

GANDALF: I beg your pardon?

MR. BEAVER: Oh, forgive me, just thought you were asking about Aslan. He’s the son of the Emperor-Over-the-Sea.

GANDALF: Over the sea, you say? That’s where I’m from, you know. And I was just recently there. But I've been sent back until my task is done. [mutters to himself] I must have taken a wrong turn when I was passing through Spare Oom on the way to Arda…

MR. BEAVER: Ahhh, so you’ve met him then! I see we have a distinguished guest. Forgive my lack of hospitality so far! Can I get you anything to eat?

GANDALF: Just tea, thank you.

PETER: I’ve got it! I thought you looked familiar. You’re Father Christmas, aren’t you? Bold choice going with White instead of Red this year.

GANDALF: I’ve met him too, but no, I am not him. Though this is not the first time we’ve been confused for each other. I do have some gifts for you children though. Father Christmas has been…delayed, so it seems I will have to fill in for him. Peter, future High King of Narnia, you have the sword of Aragorn, the High King of Gondor and Arnor!

PETER: *solemnly and silently examines the blade*

GANDALF: And Susan, you have Legolas’ bow!

SUSAN: Well, it’s not lipstick like I was hoping for, but I’ll take it.1

GANDALF: Edmund, you have Gimli’s ax!

EDMUND: Really?

GANDALF: Of course not! Fool of a Son of Adam! You aren’t even supposed to be with the other siblings to get a gift when Father Christmas arrives but for comedic purposes this scene is happening several chapters earlier than it’s supposed to happen!

EDMUND: *sulks*

GANDALF: And for you, Lucy, I have a very special gift. I give you the light of Eärendil, the most beloved star of the elves. May it be a light for you in dark places, when all other lights go out. Oh and here’s my good friend Bilbo’s sword, Sting! It will help you defend yourself at great need and glows blue when there are orcs nearby!

LUCY: Defend myself? And orcs? Why sir, shall it really come to that? I think I could be brave enough if it does…

GANDALF: I have no doubt that you will be, should it come to that, little one. [To all] Well, though a wizard is never late, I really should be on my way. Does anyone know the quickest way back to Spare Oom?

[a CRY from an EAGLE sounds from just outside the house]

GANDALF: ah, looks like my ride is here! Farewell!

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Appendices

• The plan for the rest of this month: this month’s paid subscriber essay will be on The Theme of Stars in the Legendarium (9/14), then we’ll have a special post for the week of Hobbit Day (9/21), and I’ll round things out with the monthly Tolkien Treasures (9/28)! In addition to the essay, Paid Subscribers will also get the monthly Paid Subscriber Discussion next week and the monthly There and Back Again (I’m thinking 9/26).

• Next month Jokien with Tolkien turns 1! I can hardly believe it’s already almost here. I’m planning the festivities now.

• If any of you are active on Medium, go follow Jokien with Tolkien on Medium too!

All typos are totally on purpose. Links may be affiliate, which is a free-to-you way to support this newsletter where I earn a small commission on items you purchase.

Last Week On Jokien with Tolkien: Through the Wardrobe

I started a two-part series in last week’s newsletter where I gave an overview of prequels generally and outlined four major factors that I have seen present challenges to many prequels: Pacing the Prequel, Approaching The Predetermined Fate of Characters, Resisting the Temptation to Overdo Fan Service, and Navigating Fidelity to The Source Material.

I covered the introduction and the first of those four factors last week, so in today’s newsletter I’m covering the topics of Fate and Fan Service—Fidelity to The Source Material is just too big a topic to do justice to so I’ll save for a dedicated future newsletter sometime—and have some concluding thoughts about it all. Be sure to open this newsletter in the app or in your browser if your email cuts it off before the conclusion and appendices. Onward!

Approaching The Predetermined Fate of Characters

So you’re writing a prequel. What’s one issue that you’re going to have no matter what fictional universe you’re working in? Everyone who has seen the originals knows what’s going to happen to any legacy characters you include in your prequel. We all know that little Anakin in The Phantom Menace is going to become Darth Vader eventually and that he can’t ultimately defeat or be defeated by Obi-Wan in Kenobi because they have a final showdown coming in A New Hope. We all know Cassian Andor is going to survive Andor because he appears in Rogue One. We all know that Galadriel will end up ruling Lothlórien with her Silver Clam of a husband in The Lord of the Rings so she can’t sail to Valinor in The Rings of Power.

While this potential issue can rob a prequel of its dramatic tension or excitement, it also can be successfully addressed or subverted. While recruiting Cassian Andor to the Rebellion in episode 4 of Andor, “Aldhani,” Luthen gives him the following reality check and invitation:

No matter what you tell me or tell yourself, you’ll ultimately die fighting these bastards. So what I’m asking is this. Wouldn’t you rather give it all at once to something real than carve off useless pieces till there’s nothing left?

“You’ll ultimately die fighting these bastards” is a moment where Luthen says two true things simultaneously and at different levels of meaning, one to Cassian and one to the audience. To Cassian, it’s just a statement of insight into who Cassian is as well as who the Empire is. “I know you,” Luthen is saying. “There’s no way you can stay out of this fight. And there’s no way you’re going to win this fight. So why no fight for something that’s real and that matters?”

But to the audience, Luthen is acknowledging what everyone who has seen Rogue One knows: Cassian does die, and fighting the Empire too. But he’s telling the viewers that’s not what’s important about this story and that’s not what this story is about. It won’t be a limiting factor, but instead a freeing one.

Diego Luna, who plays Cassian, said as much in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter. When asked, “Knowing what you know now about the character, does part of you wish you could go back and play Cassian in Rogue One again?” he replied, “I’ve never thought that way because we were able to tell this story by knowing the end. It was always a reference that Cassian gets there, so how far can we go back?” He continued:

I remind myself all the time of where the character ends up and what choices I made, because that gives structure to everything I’m doing now. So I’m starting the other way around. It’s less, “Oh, I wish,” and it’s more like, “Okay, because I get there, I can do this.” So that is where I found freedom and all the different ways I can get there. And then I’ll think about what is the most unpredictable one. So, all the layers we didn’t get to see in the film, I get to explore them now. If I had tried them at the time, then I wouldn’t be able to explore them now. So it’s just a perspective kind of thing. The freedom comes from knowing exactly what he does. 

Instead of being constrained by knowing the ending, Andor has capitalized on the set ending and found freedom in that fate to focus on telling the story of how Cassian gets to Rogue One in the most interesting and highest quality way.

Strange New Worlds similarly turned the predetermined fate of its main character into a strength. In Star Trek: The Original Series, we see Captain Pike as a shell of himself after an accident leaves him permanently injured by delta radiation.

In Star Trek: Discovery, Pike glimpses this fate while using a time crystal at a Klingon monastery. Pike’s character arc during Season 1 of Strange New Worlds is defined by him grappling with this foreknowledge. Instead of the fate becoming little more than plot armor shielding him from death during the series and emptying the story of any drama concerning his ultimate fate, giving Pike this foreknowledge adds to the drama and gives the audience something to care about, as well as opening up interesting philosophical questions to explore and scenarios for the writers to place Pike in during the show.

The Rings of Power has not been as successful as either of these shows in turning what could be the challenges or limits of the audience knowing the eventual fates of its characters into freedom or a strength.

Isildur is a character like Cassian or Captain Pike whose eventual fate is well-known: he cuts the ring from Sauron’s finger and dies trying to flee from attacking orcs while swimming the river Anduin. But The Rings of Power ends Season 1 with Isildur’s fate left seemingly uncertain. Many characters think that he is dead and we as the audience aren’t shown whether he’s alive for certain or not. However, everyone who has seen the first five minutes of The Fellowship of the Ring knows that Isildur is still alive to join Elendil—his father—and Elrond and Gil-galad for the Last Alliance of Men and Elves, where he’ll take the Ring and die not long after. So he can’t be dead in The Rings of Power: he has to be alive to die in Fellowship. Now Season 2 could very well make something interesting out of this cliff-hanger without much tension. But at the moment it’s simply not very compelling because we all know the ending and it doesn’t seem like The Rings of Power is doing anything to subvert that or turn it into a strength.

And Isildur is far from the only example here. In many other instances, the attempts to do something interesting with the future fate of characters either fall flat or just don’t work. The worst offender here is the Moria storyline, where mithril forms an important plot point and the Balrog is shown for a split-second. Now I do like the inclusion of the mithril storyline in this particular sense:1 fans who know Moria’s eventual fate will know that mithril was a key component of that fate and should enjoy seeing it play out. But actually showing Durin’s Bane as a tease for basically a split second just felt a little too on-the-nose to me. Look, there he is! We all know what happens soon, don’t we? Wink wink.

Galadriel is another example here of a character whose fate we know. But it seems the strategy for the first season of The Rings of Power was to portray her at a much earlier stage of her character development—proud, impulsive, bent on revenge—to give her space to develop into the regal, ethereal, and mighty ruler we meet in The Lord of the Rings.

To be fair, this sort of change adds drama and has the potential to make a character more interesting and compelling onscreen. It’s what Peter Jackson did to Aragorn, for instance. While Aragorn arrives on the pages of The Lord of the Rings confident in his heritage and destiny, carrying Narsil around with him and having it reforged in Rivendell before the Fellowship departs, in the movies he is conflicted, afraid he will fail as Isildur did, and doesn’t accept Narsil reforged into Andúril until The Return of the King. It is changing the source material, but it works for an adaptation because it gives his character somewhere to develop and move towards as the movies go on.

The problem for The Rings of Power is how vastly different this version of Galadriel comes across compared to the version of Galadriel in Jackson's The Lord of the Rings.2 In attempting to leave room for development, did The Rings of Power go too far?

While we saw glimpses of that development of her character begin in the final two episodes as Galadriel gave away both her sword and her brother’s dagger and while future seasons will help more to answer that question, even I as someone who wanted to like and enjoy this version of Galadriel found the portrayal to be grating for most of the first season.

(continued below)

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Resisting the Temptation to Overdo Fan Service

Prequels often reward fans of the original story by including references to or nods to characters, events, and quotes from the original. This can be a rewarding experience as a fan when done well. However, it can also come across as trying too hard or either distract from or ruin a moment instead of enhancing it.

In The Rings of Power, I started off this first season enjoying the direct references to or allusions to The Lord of the Rings. For instance, Sadoc speaking at the Harfoot ceremony in episode three reminded me of Bilbo’s speech at his eleventy-first birthday party. And allusions like the tapestry of Elros and Elrond in Númenor’s Tower of Records serve as a deep-cut reference to the genealogies and history in the Appendices of The Lord of the Rings but also help to visually illustrate the divide between men and elves and some of Elrond’s personal history and loss.

But by the end of the season, the references were losing their luster for me. Maybe it was the sheer number of them—I was able to make spoilers without context tweets that consisted solely of screenshots from LOTR for many episodes, for example—but most likely it was that the specific references seemed to not make the moment from The Rings of Power richer and more resonant but to make the moment in The Lord of the Rings worse.

Consider Bronwyn’s words to her son Theo in episode 6: “In the end, this shadow is but a small and passing thing. There is light and high beauty forever beyond its reach. Find the light and the shadow will not find you.” It’s a nice moment…but it’s so similar to Sam’s speech in The Two Towers that it strains in-universe credulity and broke the suspension of disbelief for me.

Is “the shadow is a passing thing” or something similar a proverbial saying in Middle-earth? One that would be so well known and endure so long that a human and a halfling living a thousand years from each other would both say basically the same phrase?

The out-of-universe answer, of course, is that both Jackson’s LOTR movies and The Rings of Power are drawing on a passage from The Return of the King where Sam sees a star high above the plains of Mordor.

There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.3

The difference, though, is that it’s a thought directly given to Sam by Tolkien. Whereas Bronwyn, as an original character for The Rings of Power, has no dialogue or thoughts written directly by Tolkien. It’s actually a more direct adaptation of Sam’s thought that Bronwyn shares. But by this point in Jackson’s The Two Towers, Sam has earned this moment. We as an audience care about him and accept this from him. But Bronwyn just hasn’t had the screen time or character development to get to the point where a line like this lands and moves us. And The Two Towers used it first, so even if ROP uses is a little more accurately in a sense here, it’ll still be compared to and interpreted as echoing The Two Towers.

Moments like these or the quick shot of the Balrog in Moria or The Stranger’s “When in doubt, always follow your nose” line fell flat for me. I didn’t feel a thrill or sense of glee when they came onscreen. Instead, I wished for fewer of these intentional echoes of Jackson’s LOTR or for less direct, more nuanced references.

Conclusion

While it may seem like I’ve been too hard on The Rings of Power and didn’t enjoy it, I’d like to say that it’s precisely because I did like so much of the show that I offer some critiques coming from my recent thoughts about prequels. I loved the cinematography and visuals of the show as well as the portrayal of Elrond (especially his interactions with Durin and Disa and his relationship with Galadriel), the score, Adar, and much more.

And it is early yet. For a show with five planned total seasons, there’s lots of room to improve and lessons to learn. Still, seeing how other prequels—especially ones also in their first seasons like Andor and Strange New Worlds—handled some of the same issues prompted me to ask just what the Rings of Power could do better come next season.

If The Rings of Power is paced better next season, can find freedom instead of limits for the journey towards the predetermined fate of its characters that also appear in The Lord of the Rings, and dials back the fan service a bit, I will be all the more excited to see where it goes. But if in doubt, I’ll be sure to follow my nose.

That’s all for today’s newsletter and for the mini-series on prequels. Farewell, friends. Go towards goodness!

Special shoutout and thank you to jhnlnks for upgrading to a paid subscription this week! This is a reader-supported newsletter so if you enjoy these updates each week, please consider joining the other supporters of this Substack by upgrading to a paid subscription:

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Appendices

• As Season 1 aired, I share thoughts on each episode on threads on twitter at Jokien with Tolkien. Would you all prefer I post thoughts each week there, or do weekly updates in posts here on Substack?

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Celebrant May the Fourth Be With You!

People And with your Force Ghost.

Happy May the Fourth! I recently finished watching the first season of Andor, and with news of more The Lord of the Rings movies on the way in the near future and more seasons of The Rings of Power on the horizon too, I’ve been thinking a lot about the inherent problems of prequels. What makes a prequel actually work? Because, if we’re honest, not every prequel works as well as others. What’s going on there? Do these factors affect Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power? And how does its first season compare with other similar prequels? Where does it stack up well against them? And where it compares unfavorably, is there anything it can it do in future seasons to improve in these areas?

While there are obviously many factors that affect the final quality and success of prequels, in today’s newsletter I’m focusing a few of the factors I’ve personally been considering. And in honor of May the Fourth, I’ll look at The Rings of Power alongside examples from some other recent television prequel series I’ve seen—Kenobi, Andor, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds—to illustrate my points.

The four major factors that present challenges to any prequel I’ve been mulling over are Pacing the Prequel, Navigating Fidelity to The Source Material, Resisting the Temptation to Overdo Fan-service, and Approaching The Predetermined Fate of Characters. In today’s newsletter, I’ll give an overview of prequels generally and then tackle the first of these factors. Then in next week’s newsletter, I’ll cover the remaining factors and have some concluding thoughts.1

[There will be some light spoilers throughout this series for each show, though I’ll try to limit the major plot revelations for those who haven’t seen them. However, if you’re meaning to watch any of these shows but haven’t gotten around to it, consider this your SPOILER WARNING]

To Prequel, Or Not To Prequel

Seemingly everywhere you look across the current media landscape, studios are chasing the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and trying to establish their own cinematic universes and franchises that will churn out Content™ ad infinitum and effectively print an endless supply of dependable money for them. Inevitably, this franchizification involves going back and doing a prequel, or a story depicting events that occur prior to those of an existing work.

Prequels are an attractive proposition for good reason. When you’re making a prequel, you don’t have to start from square one. You already have a universe with history and characters to tap into for story ideas and inspiration. In a prequel you can see familiar characters in a new light during earlier adventures or you can introduce entirely new characters into a familiar world. Prequels provide a chance to fill in the gaps in a story that’s already been told and show how events either referenced in the original story or introduced for the first time in the prequel lead to the original story.2 And—perhaps most crucially from a studio or publisher’s perspective—prequels can provide a reason to return to a favorite world and tap into a pre-established, enthusiastic, and loyal base of fans.

So there’s a lot of upside for both audiences and creators if you get it right. Why don’t prequels always live up to the promise? What are some of the major issues that prequels run into?

It turns out that many of these upsides are double-edged swords. Yes, you already have events and characters to tap into, but you can be limited by these events as easily as you can be inspired. Characters you use from the original can’t die in a prequel, for instance, draining dramatic sequences of some or all of their tension: the character has plot armor.3 Your new characters will also certainly be compared and contrasted with the original characters (whether they appear in your prequel or not) and judged by their standard. And the very fans whose love for the originals you hope to tap into can turn on you if you fail to live up to their sky-high expectations and powerful nostalgia.

How have The Rings of Power, Strange New Worlds, Kenobi, and Andor handled or been hamstrung by these potential pitfalls? Let’s start with number of episodes and episode length.

(continued below)

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Pacing the Prequel

When coming up with a prequel, you have to decide how much story you’re going to attempt to tell and the format that you’re going to tell it in. You already know the ending point of the journey (more on that later), but what route and pace will you take to get there? In television shows, this comes down to number of episodes, episode lengths, and number of seasons. Going to our main examples for this series, in their first seasons, Kenobi had six episodes, The Rings of Power had eight, Strange New Worlds had ten, and Andor had twelve.4

Did ROP end up going too short? Or was this a case where Eight Is Enough? Even though different average episode lengths meant the total number of minutes come out close for The Rings of Power, Strange New Worlds, and Andor,5 both Strange New Worlds and Andor felt better paced. Why? Because having more episodes that were on average more focused and concise came across as deliberate and yet not overstuffed, patient but not boring, and not trying to do too much while still maintaining quality. The Rings of Power, on the other hand, attempted to juggle lengthy storylines involving Galdariel and Halbrand, Númenor, the elves of Lindon and Eregion and the dwarves of Moria, the Southlands, AND the Stranger and the Harfoots all in the course of just eight episodes. This seemed a bit frantic and overstuffed at points, especially before several of these storylines intertwined.

The Rings of Power could have benefited from an extra episode or two or a cut storyline here or there to alleviate some of this feeling of too much going on and not enough space for ideas and plotlines to fully develop. In future seasons, I’d love to see The Rings of Power focus on fewer storylines or have a slightly expanded episode count in order to improve the pacing and flow of the story.

Continue Reading:

That’s all for today’s newsletter. Farewell, friends. Go towards goodness!

Special shoutout and thank you to Brian W for upgrading to a paid subscription this week! This is a reader-supported newsletter so if you enjoy these updates each week, please consider supporting this Substack by upgrading to a paid subscription.

Subscribe now

Or if you would prefer either a $3 monthly subscription, to subscribe at the normal rate but not via Substack, or to subscribe but chip in a little bit extra each month, check out the different tiers on my new patreon!

Want to support me another way? You can also click the ♡ below, forward this to a friend, or share the link on social media. Every little bit helps!

Appendices

• My friend and fellow lover of literature, humor, and joy is starting a new Substack, . Check it out and give her a subscribe!

• Have no fear, paid subscribers! Your exclusive essay is still coming this month; it’ll just drop the Thursday after this series wraps up instead of the second Thursday like the pattern has been.

• Interested in a paid subscription but legitimately can’t justify the expense right now? Email me at JRRJokien@gmail.com! I have one sponsored annual subscription to gift to the first person who claims it! No questions asked.

All typos are totally on purpose. Links may be affiliate.