Tolkien pushes back against the coupling of fairy-stories and children! True fairy-story is where literary belief and subcreation are fully realized.

This week Michael and I talked with Professor Nick Groom, author of Tolkien in the 21st Century and discuss why Tolkien still matters!

On December 2, 2003 I was part of a roundtable interview with Peter Jackson. Here's the full recording!

The origins of fairy story are hard to define... and though it may feel like Tolkien doesn't give us an answer, he gives us some good starting points.

Ted Nasmith has been creating visions of Middle-earth since the early 1970s when he decided to send JRR Tolkien one of his early pieces--and the professor responded with encouragement! In addition to being the sole featured artist in 12 Tolkien calendars

This week, Michael, Dan, and I discuss the first part of Tolkien's seminal essay "On Fairy Stories", where Tolkien defines what a fairy (aka fantasy) story is.Why is this important? Well, the "fairy tale" in Tolkien's era was relegated to simple childre

High beauty, strong women, and the meat of Middle-earth!

** Use the code "GREAT" at https://shop.theonering.com to get $2 off anything! **It's hard to believe, but this week we finish "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"--the last chapter of The Silmarillion!We talk about the the truth and beauty of Mi

Many of us endured Amazon's Rings of Power show last year... and now we've finally reached that part of The Silmarillion. Of course, here we actually talk about the Rings more than they were featured in the show for those, erm, amazing 5 minutes. This we

Join us as we look back on one year of Exploring Tolkien!This week we talk why we love Tolkien so much, the path that brought us to be a part of this show, all the stats for the show... and most importantly, we ask each other our EXTREMELY personal TORC