Recent content by Jim Deutch

If I am not mistaken, when the door the company went through to enter Moria was made, it was not yet called Moria, yet that name seems to have been written on the door. I ascribe this to translation mix-ups and confusions, probably even before the Westron-to-English translation of the text.

I seem to have missed some discussion of the 50th anniversary edition: what's so bad about it? Both the Tolkien Gateway wiki and Hammond and Scull seem to take it seriously as a "corrected" version, and the wiki claims that Christopher Tolkien approved every change...

Zooming in on the Tolkien Gateway image is . . . um: ambiguous. If the dot truly exists, it is small, smaller than the width of the strokes. The dots above the ä in Feänorian are darker, but not larger; however, these letters are also slightly smaller:

I couldn't make any sense of the stress on "to" until I read the replies; it didn't ring any bells because I've never read an edition that included that word! "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." is the sentence as I know it. I read it with the stress on...

Tehanu is, I think, deliberately ambiguous, and so it is less-satisfying as a novel. Leguin was bothered by "weak as women's magic; wicked as women's magic", but the big question of what is the proper role of women in Earthsea society and in magic is left mostly unanswered in Tehanu: LeGuin...

I think spying on Rivendell with the Palantir is far beyond Denethor's ability. Galadriel tells us that Sauron tries and tries, but can't spy on Lothlorien; I expect it's similar for Elrond. Since Denethor is not the hereditary "owner" of the Palantir, his command over it would be lesser. And he...

and, entirely to the point, the Shire Calendar is completely "actual". In fact, I strongly favor its universal adoption. It just makes so much more sense!

And, of course, there is no possibility of "actual" conjunction: ME is entirely "non-actual"!

I'd have thought the most obvious source of ringlore would have been Celebrimbor. He's the one who made the three. And at the time, we're told, there was great friendship between the Elves of Hollin and the Dwarves in Kazad-dum. It's not beyond speculation that information was freely shared...

I would think Gandalf might have learned some Ringlore somewhere, perhaps long ago; even now, he may largely trust anything Saruman told him before his treason. Maybe this information comes from another source than personal observation. I like Flammifer's theory that it is the storyteller's...

I have long thought these points to be evidence that Orcs are immortal, like Elves. It is not widely accepted, though.

I'm still not explaining it clearly, I'm afraid. We also get hail - icy balls usually associated with thunderstorms: generally falls in the summer, not winter. "the smaller lighter version" we call graupel: it falls in winter when temperatures are moderate. Happens when snow falls through a...

I'm afraid that "powder snow" in English probably means many different kinds of snow in different contexts. Here, near the Great Lakes, the powder we get most often is lake-effect snow, which does not require particularly low temperatures and falls as big clumps of many large snowflakes...

I have a definite feeling that if JRRT had ever taken it into his head to explain Legolas' snow-running ability it would have been an explanation that would have made St. Thomas Aquinas proud. And that I wouldn't have understood one word of it.

I've been waiting years for this passage! Running back and forth over a rope strung between trees is an example of physical prowess and control. It is something that even Men can accomplish. The main bar to gaining this skill is, in fact, psychological: in the movie "The Walk", about Phillipe...