Welcome to this week’s Reading Room secondary discussion of The J. R. R.
Tolkien Encyclopedia.
I wrote three entries for the encyclopedia last fall: The East, The South, and
The Treason of Isengard (HoME vol. 7). This week I’ll tell you something about
the first two, and the adventure I had in writing them. I’ll be back in August
with a second discussion that will focus on Treason.
And what an adventure it was! It was the most intellectually exciting
experience I’ve had in years. For the rest of the week I’ll be presenting some
of the research that I did on my two topics, and I’ll post a few questions on
how one might interpret it all. But today I’d like to tell you all the story of
my adventure.
Since it’s long (you know me!), I’ve put it online as a kind of a blog, and you
can read it here.
Please note: in the rudely virtual equivalent of upending a file cabinet onto
the Reading Room floor, my story above has numerous links to long, elaborate or
dense files from my research. You need not read them so much as skim them to
get that authentic Encyclopedia research adventure flavor!
And now, I’ll take your
questions.
Everyone is watching for the dirty parts at last, when "he took her in his
[CENSORED] and
[CENSORED] her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they
[CENSORED] in sight of many". Join us in the Family Board Reading Room, as we delicately enjoy Chapter 5 of
The Return of the King: "The Steward and the
[CENSORED]"
Also, play an innocent game of Spin-the-Compass and follow squire's Excellent Adventure, as we discuss the meaning of The East and The South in Tolkien's works, in the secondary Reading Room discussion of the J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia.
squire online:
Footerama: "Tolkien would have LOVED it!"
RR Discussions:The Valaquenta, A Shortcut to Mushrooms, and Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit (new!)
Footerama: The 3rd TORn Reading Room LotR Discussion (now with Book V!)
