27. The Brita of Middle-earth.

All about Lothlórien.

Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Jared’s choice of topic: Lothlórien.
Following the necessary but still disastrous journey through Moria, the
Fellowship of the Ring is able to evade pursuing Orcs to journey to this
forested Elf realm, itself thousands of years old as an organized society but
ruled in recent years by Galadriel and Celeborn. Their experiences there are
among the most personal and mysterious of their journey, at once a chance for
recuperation but also a stay in a place that is seemingly out of time’s
general flow—and, per various comments by Galadriel, increasingly out of time
in general. Aragorn firmly rebukes Boromir’s unease at their journey by saying
those who visit the land return ‘not unscathed but….unchanged,’ yet the nature
of such an experience and the land itself are among the most elusive moments
in Tolkien’s work. What does it mean that Tolkien himself, through the
narrative personae of the hobbits’ eyes (and, in one memorable sequence, their
other senses), seems to reach the limits of descriptive language when
outlining Lothlórien? How do the borders function in demarcating Lothlórien
from the outside world, and what do those elements suggest about the society
that has evolved there? What can be made of the suggestions of ecological and
political colonialism at play in the origins of Lothlórien, which Tolkien only
explored in more detail after completing The Lord of the Rings? And besides
his other seemingly amorphous at best qualities, why is Celeborn terrible at
place names?

Jared’s
doodle. But
you’ll have to imagine Nimrodel’s voice yourself.

Sergio Agüero does indeed have tengwar on his arm. But Fernando
Torres
is the real nerd.

Lothlorien
Apartments! Flets not an option.

Charlotte Brändström joins the directing squad for Amazon.
This show is never coming out, is it.

Ludi Lin isn’t wrong, really.

Specifically, the pilot was called Babylon 5: The
Gathering, and it was
indeed a lot earlier than the full show.

Lothlórien indeed. A place,
a state of mind, somewhere neither here nor there?

Our episode on Galadriel (and
Celeboring).

The Tolkien zine Ned was talking about is the still-going Beyond
Bree. (The one he forgot to discuss further is
Vinyar Tengwar.)

Peter Jackson and team really did a great job with Caras
Galadhon, no lie. And again,
all hail Liz Fraser.

The earlier Lórien
(and yes, the Vala’s name is Irmo).

Kievan Rus is an intriguing
society for sure, but yes, that origin story seems...convenient.

The various Elf kindreds are their own involved tangle, and Silvan
Elves and the
Sindar and the
Noldor did all take different paths…

Ned got the forest in Beleriand wrong—that’s Taur-im-Duinath.

Maedhros, Amrod and Amras fan art showing off the red hair? Oh it’s
there.

Eurovision is great, Italy’s winning
entry this year was great, but yeah,
Ukraine. (And totally
separately, Iceland.)

Someone is WRONG on the Internet.

Mallorns! Or, as Tolkien (and Jared)
note, mellyrn.

Ecological or environmental
colonialism is no joke.

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