Tolkien Reading Day 2020

Today is Tolkien Reading Day! To give you some backstory let’s talk about what this day means.

The Tolkien Society has been organizing Tolkien Reading Day every year on March 25th, since 2003. Why March 25th you might ask, well, on this day in Middle-earth, the One Ring was destroyed, marking the end of Sauron and his reign of terror. In an effort to celebrate this moment and to honor Tolkien’s works, 3/25 became the perfect day for the Tolkien Society to begin this celebration.

Each year has a theme that relates to Tolkiens works, and this year’s theme is Nature and Industry.

What do we do with this theme? Well, the goal of Tolkien Reading Day is to celebrate J.R.R. Tolkien by reading a chapter or passage from one of his works. If you feel so inclined to read an entire story well then, everyone at Of Blades and Kings applauds you.

If you’re not sure what to read regarding Nature and Industry here’s some ideas from the Tolkien Society.

  • The Lord of the Rings, such as the chapters “The Old Forest”, “Lothlórien”, “Treebeard”, “Helm’s Deep”, and “The Scouring of the Shire”.
  • Tales from the Perilous Realm, particularly Leaf by Niggle.
  • The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, such as letters 75, 78, 131, 155, 181.
  • Beren and Lúthien.

We are going to continue reading The Hobbit as we’re on Chapter 8: Flies and Spiders. Conveniently for us, Bilbo and Thorin’s Company begin their trek through Mirkwood. It’s a chapter that includes plenty of nature, and perhaps, an example of how industry affects nature. Mirkwood used to be called Greenwood the Great, but since Sauron invaded Dol Guldor his ways of industry created a sickness in Greenwood, and thus it’s name was changed to Mirkwood.

Even though we’re reading The Hobbit, if you haven’t had the chance to read Leaf by Niggle we would highly encourage you to read it. It’s not a The Lord of the Rings story but it’s a great fantasy tale by Tolkien.

For more information regarding Tolkien Reading Day please visit, https://www.tolkiensociety.org/society/events/reading-day/

Thank you for your time and remember, the crownless again shall be king.

– The Wandering One

On This Day in Middle-earth

March 24th

Frodo and Samwise make their last journey to the feet of Mount Doom.

The Host camps in the Desolation of the Morannon.

We are approaching the end of a long and wearisome journey. Frodo and Sam have finally made it to the feet of Mount Doom and the Host of the West has their last camp before they reach the Black Gates.

I don’t have to go into much detail here about what both of these parties are feeling/thinking.

Both are standing over the edge, they know and can see what lies beyond. Both parties are about to take a leap into darkness, hopefully some light will be able to shine at the end. It can be hard to hope in these moments, darkness seems to creep in and it’s easy to despair. There’s courage in fighting and there’s courage in hoping when all seems lost. Sam has hope, Sam has the most hope out of the Fellowship. He is fighting for that hope for his home, for his Rosie, for his Gaffer, for the Shire. It’s his hopefulness that allows this journey to go on, and it’s his strength that carries Frodo to the end. So much can go wrong when you’re behind enemy lines, but Sam and Frodo’s story has the most hope here.

Let’s just read some examples about how mentally draining their journey was.

For the hobbits each day, each mile, was more bitter than the one before, as their strength lessened and the land became more evil. They met no enemies by day. At times by night, as they cowered or drowsed uneasily in some hiding beside the road, they heard cries and the noise of many feet or the swift passing of some cruelly ridden steed. But far worse than all such perils was the ever-approaching threat that beat upon them as they went: the dreadful menace of the Power that waited, brooding in deep thought and sleepless malice behind the dark veil about its Throne. Nearer and nearer it drew, looming blacker, like the oncoming of a wall of night at the last end of the world.

Such dreadful rest, every moment the fear of being caught gets worse and worse.

Sam, wih all his strength, had moments of doubt.

He could not sleep and he held a debate with himself. “Well, come now, we’ve done better than you hoped,” he said sturdily. “Began well anyway. I reckon we crossed half the distance before we stopped. One more day will do it.” And then he paused.

“Don’t be a fool, Sam Gamgee,” came an answer in his own voice. “He won’t go another day like that, if he moves at all. And you can’t go on much longer giving him all the water and most of the food.”

“I can go on a good way though, and I will.”

“Where to?”

“To the Mountain, of course.”

“But what then, Sam Gamgee, what then? When you get there, what are you going to do? He won’t be able to do anything for himself.”

To his dismay Sam realized that he had not got an answer to this. He had no clear idea at all. Frodo had not spoken much to him of his errand, and Sam only knew vaguely that the Ring had somehow to be put into the fire. “The Cracks of Doom,” he muttered, the old name rising to his mind. “Well, if Master knows how to find them, I don’t.”

“There you are!” came the answer. “It’s all quite useless. He said so himself. You are the fool, going on hoping and toiling. You could have lain down and gone to sleep together days ago, if you hadn’t been so dogged. But you’ll die just the same, or worse. You might just as well lie down now and give it up. You’ll never get to the top anyway.”

“I’ll get there, if I leave everything but my bones behind,” said Sam. “And I’ll carry Mr. Frodo up myself, if it breaks my back and heart. So stop arguing!”

At that moment Sam felt a tremor in the ground beneath him, and he heard or sensed a deep remote rumble as of thunder imprisoned under the earth. There was a brief red flame that flickered under the clouds and died away. The Mountain too slept uneasily.

Hope and strength are powerful tools.

Thank you for your time and remember, not all those who wander are lost.

– The Wandering One

Alas, Pottermore!

Alas, earwax! This past week I was reminiscing about the old Pottermore’s format.

I may be in the minority here, but I really did enjoy visually going through each chapter of the book, searching for clues, and discovering new information written by J.K. Rowling. All these things had to be completed prior to moving forward to the next chapter. The more you discovered or accomplished the more points you received for your house. Let’s not forget about the Sorting Hat system, I understand it’s not a perfect science, but neither is the Sorting Hat system at Hogwarts. I can’t imagine an 11 year old kid is going to have the same thoughts and personality when he’s 17 years old, even more so when he’s a full grown adult. You get into the world you learn more things, you adapt and change. But maybe there’s some magic beyond the Sorting Hat where he knows past, present, and future so his decision is final. Probably not though.

Sorry let’s get back to old Pottermore, yes the system is flawed, but for what it is, it’s not that bad. I was hoping for Hufflepuff (R.I.P. Ced!), but got sorted into Gryffindor, to assuage my disappointment I’ve been told, “you have too big of a personality to be in Hufflepuff, if something’s going down you’re going to be apart of it.” Therefore, I accepted my place in Gryffindor and went about my business. Discovering your wand was a perfect treat, as was the addition of discovering your Patronus (brown hare) and Ilvermorny house (Pukwudgie). Quizzes and tests are always fun, we hope to include some at Of Blades and Kings down the road.

However, the most unique aspect I miss most about the old Pottermore was the interactivity. As I said before, you went through each chapter of every book discovering new clues, finding potions ingredients, collecting Bertty Bott’s Every-flavor Beans (They mean every flavor! There’s chocolate, peppermint, spinach, and tripe. George swears he got a bogey flavor once!) sorry couldn’t resist, and every now and then you’d run into new background information written by J.K. Rowling. You could brew potions for more house points, I believe there was even a dueling option near the end of it. There was a common room area where you could see your house points and who had the most points for your house. You had your own username (AsphodelCentaur137) that allowed you to add friends and chat. That aspect was tricky, but it was cool to add friends that I encouraged to sign on and see how they were doing. Spoiler alert, I was the only one in that group consistently participating. There was even a House Cup, at the end of the year the house that had the most points won. It was truly a unique and wonderful website to be apart of, and now unfortunately, Pottermore is a website focusing on blog content. Which I can surely attest, if you make the time for it, anyone can do. The new Pottermore’s lost all the creativity and uniqueness that made it special. Perhaps the change was our doing, as fans, maybe we didn’t voice out our appreciation for it, and so Pottermore had to decrease their bandwidth. They never finished the books series in the old format, they only reached The Order of the Phoenix, I can’t really remember if they even finished that one. Perhaps they got to The Half-Blood Prince, but I’m sure it was never finished. Or perhaps I’m wrong. I could’ve stopped logging on, therefore, becoming apart of the problem. How disappointed I am, in myself.

Amidst the endless sea of blogs, old Pottermore, you really stood out.

Thank you for your time and remember, not all those who wander are lost!

– AsphodelCentaur137 a.k.a. The Wandering One

On This Day in Middle-earth

March 23rd

The Host passes out of Ithilien.

Aragorn dismisses the faint-hearted.

Frodo and Samwise cast away their arms and gear.

The Host of the West continues their march, but it’s not without delays and pauses. For those not aware, Aragorn, Gandalf, and the captains of Men decided it was best to attack Sauron head on and draw his forces out of Mordor. This desperate plan was formed with the sole purpose to give Frodo and Sam an easier passage through Modor. It’s not to win, or show their strength, it’s to fight and die as a distraction so Sauron may be defeated.

These men are marching to their doom, whatever that may be, and when the host passed out of Ithilien, lands about them became desolate and filled with horror, many men would go no further. Aragorn looked at these men with pity, for many were young, instead of forcing them onward he bid them to go and gave them a task if they should wish to uphold their honor.

“Go!” said Aragorn. “But keep what honour you may, and do not run! And there is a task which you may attempt and so be not wholly shamed. Take your way south-west till you come to Cair Andros, and if that is still held by enemies, as I think, then re-take it, if you can; and hold it to the last in defence of Gondor and Rohan!”

Some men, shamed by his mercy, cast aside their fears and pushed onward. Some did as he said, happy they had something they could do to help.

At this point in there journey Frodo and Sam were weary and down trodden. At this point it was clear that there were few Orcs around them, if there were any at all. In an effort to conserve what strength they had left they cast aside their Orc disguises and pressed on with only what they needed.

Thank you for your time and remember, renewed shall be blade that was broken.

– The Wandering One

On This Day in Middle-earth

March 22th

The dreadful nightfall.

Frodo and Samwise leave the road and turn south to Mount Doom.

Third assault on Lórien.

Traveling through Mordor you would think Frodo and Sam would want to do everything they could to get off the road and stay out of sight. Logic tells us that’s the right way to go, but Mordor’s environment is incredibly harsh and when there’s not jagged rocks to make traveling difficult there’s huge thorn bushes that tear at your clothes.

It would’ve taken them way too long a time to travel through that terrain.

We also need to consider the fact that at this point most of the roads and areas surrounding them are deserted. Why you might ask? Sauron is gathering all his armies to the Black Gate in an effort to defeat Aragorn and the remaining captains. Gondor has been a thorn in his side since, well forever, and now he has a chance to wipe out their king and remaining warriors. He’s not going to pass that up.

The third assault on Lórien takes place today, Sauron cannot let this place go, not with Galadriel and Celeborn residing there. He knows this is an Elven stronghold to defeat them here would be a major show of force.

Thank you for your time and remember, renewed shall be blade that was broken.

– The Wandering One

Character of the Week

Ginny Weasley

The speechless, shy red-headed girl turns into a strong empowered young woman.

Let’s give a round of applause for Ginny Weasley, the youngest and only female child in the Weasley family. Growing up with all brothers you can image how overprotective they were of her, not to mention her parents. It can be hard to come from those roots and grow beyond them, but Ginny does that. At Of Blades and Kings, we’re happy to announce that we believe Ginny Weasley is one of the top Weasley kids, if not the best.

To clarify, we’re not talking about Ginny Weasley from the movies, blech. Ee got nothing against the actress, Bonnie Wright is fantastic, but the writers never seemed to understand Ginny. She’s an out-going, strong, powerful woman, that’s all they had to depict her as, and when I watch the movies I’m not sure what they were going for. Besides her Quidditch moves, I never really get the feeling that Ginny is as powerful as she is in the books.

Let’s talk about this girl’s Quidditch skills, she joined the team as an alternate in her 4th year, her brothers never even knew she could play. That takes talent, not to mention, she replaced the hardest position, Seeker. The entire game relies on her ability to win it for Gryffindor, and she does! After that, she says no to Seeker and joins the team as Chaser, and is an absolute boss. Throwing is not the same as catching, that’s some legit athleticism. Hold on folks there’s more, then later in the year she has to make the switch back to Seeker and wins again! I mean, take away how cool this girl is, how she gets along well with others, how strong and independent she is, her Quidditch skills alone would be impressive. After Hogwarts she went on to join the Holyhead Harpies Quidditch club. Beyond Wood, there’s not too many Hogwarts Alum playing in the pros, so we know this is an elite group.

Let’s get back on track, this girl is the I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T, if you know what I mean. She straight up was like “Um, Dean, don’t you be pushing me through this door, you always do this, I can walk through all by myself, thanks.” Granted that wasn’t Dean, and he’s only trying to be nice, but you gotta know your paramore Dean. Obviously this is something that you do, and this ain’t a girl to priss about and make sure she can do things. Boy, she’s got this handled, you can leave her be. When Harry Potter leaves, she was sad but she knew it was going to happen, he’s always the hero. That didn’t stop her from living her life and being a leader at Hogwarts without him. She’s got everything under control, we just need to sit back and let her do her thing.

Whether it’s on the Quidditch pitch, in the classroom, or fighting Death Eaters, Ginny Weasley can hold her own with the best of them. That’s why she’s getting this week’s Character of the Week.

Thank you for your time, please join us in celebrating Ginny Weasley this week. Remember, deep roots are not reached by the frost.

– The Wandering One

On This Day in Middle-earth

March 19th

The Host comes to Morgul Vale.

Frodo and Samwise escape and begin their journey along the road to the Barad-dûr.

The Host of the West is continuing their march on the Black Gate.

One thing I’ve mentioned before but something I haven’t specifically stated recently, is how often the Appendices mention Sam’s presence. We’ve see that it’s not often but we’re finally seeing mentions of Sam on this stage of the journey.

Early on, I’ve pointed out that for the most part, the history books kept Frodo at the forefront and never really mentioned Sam. Things changed when Frodo was attacked by Shelob and captured by the Orcs. Sam, thinking Frodo dead, took the One Ring to continue the quest. This is a big moment in history, everytime the One Ring changes hands, it gets noticed, and that individual gets the title Ringbearer. During the brief time that Sam is trying to figure things out on his own, history starts noticing his efforts. Probably because at this point in the journey, Frodo was incredibly weak and without Sam he never would have made it to the end. We’re happy Sam is finally being mentioned more, but be was very important even before taking the Ring.

Moving on, Yesterday Frodo and Sam were caught by an Orc horde, but don’t worry they were disguised as Orcs. The horde was heading to the Black Gate where Mordor’s armies are gathering. The slave driver/leader of the horde noticed two Orcs (Frodo and Sam) lying on the side of the road and forced them to join the march.

Further down the road, there was a crossing and multiple groups of Orcs were bumping into each other. Some Orcs started fighting, and while the Orcs attention was diverted Sam threw Frodo to the ground and they crawled away from the commotion and out of sight. Then both hobbits collapsed from exhaustion in a shallow pit and rested.

I can’t imagine getting much rest while in Mordor, but at the same time their bodies have to be completely destroyed by the environment. It makes sense that rest would be easy to come by.

Thank you for your time and remember, a light from the shadows shall spring.

– The Wandering One

On This Day in Middle-earth

March 18th

The Host of the West marches from Minas Tirith.

Frodo comes in sight of the Isenmouthe; he is overtaken by Orcs on the road from Durthang to Udûn.

Aragorn is on his way to the Black Gates of Mordor and Sauron knows this, he’s ordered his armies to march to the Black Gate. One of these groups runs into Frodo and Sam disguised as Orcs.

There’s a cool moment in the Extended Edition of The Return of the King where we actually get to see Frodo and Sam accidentally run into a pack of Orcs.

After Cirith Ungol, Frodo and Sam disguise themselves as Orcs and continue their journey into Mordor. Modor, however, seems deserted. For a while they’re able to walk into Mordor and make their way, they’re relieved their presence hasn’t already been detected. So, they press on, as they’re traveling panic hits as they begin to hear Orcs heading their way. There’s no where to hide and they have to slouch on the road pretending to rest. Orcs pass them by but when the Orc driver/leader/quartermaster finds them and forces them to join formation.

Frodo and Sam are now on their way to the Black Gate and Sam’s mind is all over the place trying to figure out how to get them free.

Thank you for your time and remember, the crownless again shall be king.

– The Wandering One

Quick Sketch

Not sure why, perhaps it was the powers at Of Blades and Kings, but I was compelled to put my pencil to paper today. Well…more like pencil to Post-It note.

It turned out alright, it’s good not great, at least it’s decent for a Post-It note

Hope you enjoy!

Thank you for your time and remember, the crownless again shall be king.

– The Wandering One

On This Day in Middle-earth

March 17th

Battle of Dale.

King Brand and King Dáin Ironfoot fall.

Many Dwarves and Men take refuge in Erebor and are besieged.

Shagrat brings Frodo’s cloak, mail-shirt, and sword to Barad-dûr.

Shagrat was captain of Cirith Ungol and part of the Orc group that captured Frodo. He found Frodo’s fancy cloak, Mithril shirt, and elven blade. With this discovery, he wanted to take these items to Sauron, but, there was a debate about who received credit for it. Fights broke out and he was the one of the few left. Sam tried to fight him but Shagrat got away and fled. Now we learn Shagrat made it all the way to Barad-dûr to report to Sauron.

One of my favorite things about the Appendix, in The Return of the King, is the insight we receive about events around Middle-earth.

Reading the books and watching the movies you would never know that Sauron was launching full scale attacks on Lórien, Mirkwood, Dale, and Erebor. Luckily Tolkien was gracious enough to embellish his story for us.

Sadly, the Men and Dwarves fighting in the Battle of Dale suffered heavy losses as their kings, Brand (Bard the Bowman’s grandson) and Dáin Ironfoot (Thorin’s cousin from The Hobbit) died fighting before the Gates of Erebor. Brand fell first and Dáin stood over his body, protecting it as he fiercely wielded his axe. Dáin stood for as long as he could, but he too was slain.

There lied two kings fighting to defend each other and their people. Truly the friendships that were cultivated during The Hobbit were longstanding and devout.

Be at peace great kings.

Thank you for your time and remember, all that is gold does not glitter.

– The Wandering One