Commenting just to say that I was lead here by Smough Town and I'm grateful for the content. I've been binging your videos for a few days now and love the explorations of the legendarium without simply being history lessons. Excellent quality and editing as well. This channel is criminally underrated.

Great content really! love your narrative and analysis! Beautiful work my friend by tolkien! 💯🔥🔥

What a lot of words.

He waa the foreign minister ot Mordor

I's been ages since I've been back here. Great content as usual. Also have to give you props for the artwork and editing in this vid: top notch 👍

I may have missed it buy why did Miriel decide to die? I know she was exhausted from bearing Feanor but couldn't she eventually be replenished? Wouldn't she want to watch him grow up?

Is this still on Spotify? I can't find it

Great video on this topic. My feeling was always that they would dwindle as one by one were picked off. Hindi g in the deep places and living sad lives. Thanks for this

Also, I tend to believe that while Tolkien may have found the Orcs irredeemable, there is no reason that whether they are made from the spirits of the elves or men, that they also don't return to the halls of Mandos upon their death. They would simply be required to heal in the Halls of Mandos for a much greater time than any human or elf before them. In this way the Orcs essentially have no hope for redemption in their physical life, but in the afterlife they still have a chance of being redeemed and healed, though this may take untold ages. As I said, this is my personal headcanon but I believe that it is the best way to reconcile all of tolkien's writings into the structure and rules of the world he created. In this way we can add in every little bit of tolkien's writing and it does in fact, explain things that even Tolkien may not have been sure of upon writing it

My personal headcanon of tolkien's myths essentially tries to reconcile every bit of writing that he ever put into it in some way shape or form. So while I don't believe the final battle May ever actually happen in tolkien's universe, I'm more than willing to believe that it is a belief held by the elves, that at the end of the world morgoth will return. In this way, it allows us to add in everything that Tolkien wrote and gives us an in-universe explanation of why the concept is even there to begin with

Yes, like Galadriel and Gandalf, when wearing the ring it was invisible to others except the one in possession of the one ring, like Frodo. Remember Sam did not see it.

Thats an interesting idea that atheism weakens resistance to tyranny.

He basically burned alive and died in absolute agony. The ring was his body

If Morgoth had been forgiven. Why not Feanor?

Did this mf just r*pe the sun?

This is an outstanding piece of work you have done. The depths and the details you went through to bring the story to life is much appreciated. Looking forward to see more of your contents

Honestly, can you blame Feanor? The treachery. Your father murdered. Your greatest works, that even the gods couldn’t replicate, stolen. A soul that was born with so much fire & energy that it made the woman who bore him give up her eternal life in Valinor & reside in the Halls for eternity. He was made that way. Morgoth got off lucky, he got a reprieve from Feanor’s vengeance. At least until the Last Battle. Feanor did nothing wrong.

Well he certainly never said a boat floats because it looks to the sky. The absolute vandalism.

Do not stop making these videos. They are the best. Maybe the next could be Doriath, Thingol, & Melian.

I saw a post recently that essentially described Sauron’s failure to recognise the true nature of the threat to him as similar to derivative fantasy author works failing to understand the general heart of Tolkien’s story when they interpret him. Some authors don’t understand the hobbits and see them as ‘annoying’ because they’re more focused on the juvenile (not innately bad but certainly naive) power fantasy that they impose onto Aragorn, as a divine ruler who conquers evil with might, which Aragorn did not do. Sauron similarly thinks that Aragorn is the ‘main character’ and Aragorn is happy to allow him to think that because like Tolkein, Aragorn understands that it is the little folk volunteering and doing the actual work together that represent the true threat to the likes of Sauron (this I think is the true reason he is likely to be a good king, though he is venerated he understands that he is a servant of the people he rules and his duty is to their welfare.

Love Aragorn as a character.

Great video, I've been listening to this album and band since the 90's and have seen them live more times than I can count on one hand, it would be amazing to have Hansi comment on your video about the Lyrics!

Found this album on CD and put in an order for two of them. Thanks for your in-depth thoughts, I'm looking forward to listening to the album proper.

So awesome

Very nice thanks for sharing.

Simply brilliant 👏🏼

Sauron is a real angel or little Demi-god. Therefore he knows God is real, had firsthand knowledge of God, and knew God created Arda to be inherited by men.

Thank you for the podcast. It was so well done and thoughtful.

A section for Easterlings, but nothing on the Haradrim, Black Numenoreans, Corsairs of Umbar, Variags of Khand, or Dunlandings?

the greatest power that they had against sauron was himself like they say in the two towers wise fool because accoding to what he would do and the addiction of the ring if aragorn had touched it hed have wanted his fix of ring and he would have weilded it and had the inner strength to weild it and defeatr at helms deep made sauron think that they used the ring so according to his thinking and knowing that the ring is far to important to give to hobbits they would have weilded it and gone to minas tirith and taken down the black gates and cast sauron down thats according to saurons thinking and logic but they all knew the dangers of the ring and they could see into the future and the phrophecy of it been saurons doom with the return of the king sauron had good reason to faer aragorn but alas they played a trick on him and only just before his doom did he realise

The basic conceit of Tolkien's work is that The Silmarillion and other stories of ancient times like the Ainulindalë and the Valaquenta are the records or are commentaries based on the records of ancient days, drawn from the teaching of the Elves and recorded by the Humans of Numenor and Gondor and even later by Aelfwine. We only see Manwe and the Valar through that lens. I think the idea that Manwe believed that he had erred in not attacking Melkor before the Awakening of the Firstborn or erred in setting Melkor free after he served his sentence show the influence of Elvish and Human interpreters. I think it more likely that Manwe consulted Eru at every turn and fulfilled his will that is be definition inerrant. As the Hebrew Scriptures put it, God's ways are not our ways, so we do not fully understand God's actions. Manwe acts as the will of Eru directs him, and if that means giving Melkor his freedom to do good or evil, well, as Tolkien put it, even Melkor's discord and evil in the end redoundeth to the good, a good greater than as if discord and evil had never been.

To be fair, there was also a militaristic reason for Aragorn's mercy, not to take anything away from the rest of it. The most dangerous thing for any general in battle is for his own men to flee from battle. Aragorn realized that if he forced these men to stay and fight than there was a very high likelihood they would have fled at first contact with the enemy. Such a route would than become infectious as more and more men will be disheartened by seeing their comrades run for their lives and all of a sudden you have a mass route on your hands. So allowing the weakest links to leave the battlefield before the battle starts actually improved his odds of not suffering such a mass route during the battle itself. Now to put a caveat on the above point, the battle itself was never actually the point. It was a hopeless battle to begin with that was going to be decided elsewhere(in Mt. Doom), but still I thought it prudent to point out that Aragorn's character and decision made sense in all aspects, even those that on paper seem questionable.

I think that the biggest practical reason Sauron feared Aragorn is something you only glanced over at this video, not giving it the emphasis it deserved. That thing being Ar-Pharazon and his Numenorian host. During the second age when Sauron was at the height of his power he proclaimed himself as king of all men and thought no-one would dare challenge him. Ar-Pharazon, the proud Numenorian king, did so, seeing himself as the king of all men, being the king of the strongest kingdom of men: Numenor, at the height of its power. Thus Ar-Pharazon raised a host and declared war on Sauron. Sauron quickly realized his host was no match for the Numenorians, surrendered and humbled himself before Ar-Pharazon. In hind sight we all know this was a ruse and part of Sauron's plan to bring the downfall of Numenor but in the moment Sauron was genuinely afraid of this great Numenorian host, and one could say that this plan of his as it happened in the lore was actually his plan B, a plan he improvised after seeing the full might of Numenor marching against him. Aragorn, being of Numenorian blood himself, was a symbol of this threat. Sauron feared Aragorn too could raise a mighty host of men that could challenge his own. He was scarred by a great host of men once, he wasn't about to be caught, with his pants down so to speak, again. Moreover you forgot that before the Kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor was actually a single kingdom of men, created by the exiles of Numenor. Gondor and Arnor were 2 kingdoms that split off from this united kingdom, much as Arnor split apart like you mentioned in the video. Aragorn's lineage meant that he had claim to both kingdoms(Gondor and Arnor) thus being in a unique position to reunite the kingdom of the exiles of Numenor. This would have been the greatest threat Sauron has faced since his face off against Numenor, and of course means that all his plans of weakening the race of men would have failed.

Well spoke brov!

Your production levels on these videos are amazing. Really enjoyed this topic discussion, so thanks 🧙‍♂️

So you probably don't want to but you need to do a video, or series, looking at the parallels & metaphors between the war in Ukraine & Tolkien's Legendarium. The latter is directly relevant on multiple levels to current events.

I would watch your Lovecraft channel.

Love your voice. Thank you for your great analysis of Tolkiens works.

Thank you so much for clearly making clear the responsibilities of Manwe, his own fallibility, the privilege of hindsight that we have, and the danger if Manwe (or other valar) becoming a new and even worse Melkor.

If you are familiar with the story of Achilles, you may find parallels between his story and Aragorn’s. I highly recommend doing some research on it yourself. Connection to mythical parentage (lost/forgotten) Fighting an unwinnable battle (fights a river, fights Sauron/Nazgul, Witch King of Angmar) Taught by elder (Gandalf, Priam) Tragedy (Briseis, Boromir) Quest (Fellowship, Thetis’ prediction of Achilles death) Just a few thoughts. Could simply discuss the heroes journey but I think there’s an even deeper connection between the two pairs of mothers and sons. Achilles and Thetis / Aragorn and Gilraen. Just goes to show what kinds of connected themes these stories have, how inalienable and permanent they appear over time.

If Manwe was not of a mind to forgive, Osse might have gone the same path as Sauron, having followed Melkor's prompting early on before his wife calmed him down...to an extent. Middle Earth would thus have been far more terrible. If Boromir was not allowed the opportunity for repentance, he would have died without peace. It's a perilous thing to say one should not be forgiven according to our judgement, as we can't say when we will be in a position to need mercy, be it from God or from our neighbors.

Steven, could you do a video on how free will interacts with the dichotomy of good vs evil in the Legendarium?🙏🏻😁 Good characters sometimes make evil choices with their free will, and it doesn't seem to work the other way with evil characters making good/righteous decisions. So how does this all of this work together?🙏🏻😁

Niavete is goodness coupled with ignorance. Innocence is goodness with the full awareness of evil, yet choosing the good.

I don't think it is impossible that some of the Edain that crossed the Blue Mountains into Beleriand later returned back and intermingled with their relatives who stayed in Eriador. There is one description of such migration in the Silmarillion, if I am not mistaken, and there might be more of them that aren't mentioned. Of course, there is not enough information to be sure that some of those people were among the ancestors of Rohirrim, but it is a possibility. So the Gondorian version of history probably wasn't a complete lie, just a favorful interpretation of historical events. Another reason is that the term "Hadorians" (and "House of Hador") is pretty vague - it may describe the descendants of Hador himself, or the dynasty to which Hador belonged, or the people that were ruled by that dynasty, or all the people related to that tribe (including those that didn't go into Beleriand or returned from there). It is possible that this confusion started as a problem of terminology and only later was used for political goals.

"Remember that unbalanced strength is evil, that unbalanced severity is only cruelty and oppression, but that unbalanced mercy is also only weakness, which would allow and favor evil." LIBER LIBRAE

Okay, then why did Eru the Allknowing not give a flying EFF about ANYTHING ongoing, besides Numenor? Not a God I'd find too pleasant to follow. Some lazy bum God. HINDSIGHT? The evil of Melkor went on for thousand or more years in Beleriand? How many dead and destroyed realms do you NEED to see "Oh heck, this man must be stopped"? Not speaking against you, but I find this one of the unacceptable concepts in Tolkien's world I otherwise love.

It's worth remembering that Gandalf possessed the fire ring, which would have helped him enormously given the Ringwraiths vulnerability to fire.

Always found Morgoths Ring as my favourite book in the History of ME series. Just loved it, especially the conversation between Finrod and Andreth

Thank you for sharing this. All the best.

Perhaps he became a Potato?