“It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something…There’s some good left in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.”—Samwise Gamgee, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
This is hands-down probably one of the most popular and beloved monologues from Peter Jackson’s critically and commercially acclaimed trilogy of films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s most famous novels. Only Aragorn’s speech to his army before the Black Gate of Mordor is probably more famous and recognizable. And it’s easy to understand why. It’s delivered with complete heart and sincerity by Sean Astin. It comes as a promise of hope in a moment of darkness and despair. It is relatively faithful to the text that Tolkien puts in Sam’s mouth when he gives this speech in the books, but in both content and context it is a little bit different. Perhaps most of all, it’s fully in line with and faithful to Tolkien’s ideals and spirit. If I was to shrink that all down to just one sentence: It’s adaptation done right, of a truly transcendent piece of literature. And that’s what this blog exists to talk about: the wonderful world of Tolkien, and adaptations of it.
But let’s slow down a bit. Who am I, anyway? And what do I offer that makes this particular Tolkien blog special and unique, and worth your time?
My name is Charles Larrivee. I am a graduate of Purdue University with a degree in history and a minor in Jewish Studies, and am currently pursuing a Master’s in American History from American Public University. I am also a practicing Catholic; indeed, most of my best memories from Purdue come as a result of my membership in Purdue Catholic Students, where I grew as a person, engaged in numerous acts of ministry, and found friends who are with me to this day when many others have moved beyond me. History has long been my favorite subject and something of a passion; the areas in which I am the most knowledgeable are the Habsburg Monarchy, the American Civil War, World War II in the Pacific, and the George W. Bush administration. It gives my sister, a fantasy author, no end of grief that most of my recreational reading is squarely historical nonfiction. But sometimes I do engage with fiction, especially the historical fiction of Bernard Cornwell, Sharon Kay Penman, and Gary Peters, and the geopolitical thrillers of Tom Clancy. I’m also a fan of comfort sitcoms; my favorites include Community, Brooklyn 99, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and The Office. And of course, I’m a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien. It’s the whole reason why this blog exists.
My journey began in a way that seems oddly prescient given the least one of the story choices made by The Rings of Power. Like Isildur, I too was a naval cadet; in high school I was a proud member of the US Naval Sea Cadet Corps. In October of 2007, I was in Columbia, South Carolina for my unit's monthly drill with my dad and my sister. With the conclusion of Saturday's drill, I was free until Sunday morning. So after dinner, my sister suggested we rent a movie from Blockbuster Video. And what movie did we end up renting? Well, my sister had some familiarity with The Hobbit, so we decided to go with The Fellowship of the Ring. And thus, like so many other people before and since, I was introduced to the world of Tolkien through Peter Jackson's wonderful trilogy. I fell in love with its beauty, its epic scale, its characters, and its themes. By December of 2007 we had seen the next two films of the trilogy, and had also read the books. I instantly loved the books as well, with their epic and majestic style, their deep roots in a well-realized and ancient world, and their clear stand in favor of transcendent ideals. Next up was The Silmarillion, which I first read in the summer of 2008. As a history nerd who reads nonfiction historical books for fun, I found a lot to enjoy about this book and was never particularly turned off by its ponderous style. And there, things mostly stayed for the next several years; rereading the books several times a day, rewatching the films, unfavorably comparing Game of Thrones to them, stuff like that. The next big step was discovering Nerd of the Rings on Youtube in August of 2021, and through his videos discovering just how truly vast and complicated Tolkien's world was, which only increased my fondness for it. So when the rumors and whispers of a new TV show that I'd been hearing since 2019 finally crystalized into some concrete information in February of 2022, with that very first Vanity Fair article where showrunners Patrick McCay and JD Payne confirmed that the show would not be veering into the sorts of adult content we have seen in Game of Thrones, and moreover that they wanted to show a worldview of hope and goodness, I was sold. And the finished product did not disappoint.
And the journey continued. For one thing, having seen the show and fallen in love with it, as one does I wanted to talk about it. This being the age when Twitter was still Twitter, I began to hone my skills in Tolkien writing with either brief posts or longer threads dealing with various aspects of the show and their relationship with the legendarium; many of these revolved around Morfydd Clark’s depiction of Galadriel, which I and many others fell in love with but was viciously attacked by some. And as this process continued, the more I talked and hung out with people on Twitter or Discord who also loved the show, the more I realized just how little I really knew about Tolkien’s world. I certainly knew more than the average hatemonger and internet troll, but compared to some of my allies my resources were lacking. That began to change when for my birthday last year I got a physical copy of Unfinished Tales, which made the books I’ve read so far, the Jackson movies, and Rings of Power so much richer; and “The History of Galadriel and Celeborn” made me feel so vindicated. But this was not the end, oh no; the title of that particular volume is Unfinished Tales, after all. The Fall of Numenor came next, and it helped to put many of the various fragments from UT into their proper historical context, while also making me even more aware of how useful and profound even Tolkien’s letters can be to understanding his world. It’s about this time that this blog finally came into being; for although I’d had a previous blog devoted to history and culture more generally, for which I’d written a review of Rings of Power’s first season, I saw the need to have a place where I could talk about Tolkien as much as I wanted. And the rest, as they say, is history.
If character limits didn’t exist, you’d probably see something like this in the “About” sections of my various social media platforms: “In this house, we love Tolkien and his legendarium, adaptations of his world, Rings of Power, historical references, Galadriel his greatest heroine, and Morfydd Clark who brings her so wonderfully to life.” Tolkien, of course, needs no introduction, and no explanation as to why he is important to what I am doing here. Without him, this blog wouldn’t exist. As for the “legendarium”…unfortunately, some people sometimes forget that there is more to his work than just the original trilogy and The Hobbit. Unfinished Tales, the Great Tales such as Beren and Luthien, The Fall of Gondolin, and The Children of Hurin, The Fall of Gondolin, and Tolkien’s voluminous letters which are so numerous, there’s a whole second edition of them coming out in November…all of these are important to varying degrees to gain a complete understanding of Middle-earth. Some of these I’m fairly familiar with, and still have much to say about them. Others, not so much, and I am excited to learn more about them. And sometimes, what I learn about Tolkien’s world can lead to interesting places. Hence why, on Instagram and Facebook my followers see so many references to bears, eagles and foxes; Tolkien is no Watership Down or Redwall, but his work has surprisingly frequent references to our furry and feathered friends. Everyone is familiar with the Eagles, Shadowfax, and Bill the Pony; not everyone is familiar with a random Thinking Fox (I’m not even kidding, we actually get to read his thoughts about how unusual it is for three hobbits to be camping outdoors) who shows up in The Fellowship of the Ring, or the Dancing Bears of Numenor that have captivated Tolkien fandom almost more than anything else in The Fall of Numenor, or of how the role of Sauron was once filled by a giant black cat called Tevildo.
With regard to adaptations, I’ve already written about why I have chosen to focus less on the famous Peter Jackson films and more on various Tolkien artists, and on Rings of Power, but I’ll briefly recap: essentially, I firmly believe that while the original Jackson trilogy deserves its love and acclaim, the world is plenty big enough for multiple different “other minds and hands” to realize good-faith interpretations of Tolkien’s world, and that Rings of Power deserves to be ranked fairly high up there in any discussion of these interpretations. “Historical references” comes with the territory of being a history nerd and Master’s student. Some of these would be fairly obvious, such as how Tolkien’s service in the Great War influenced his own views on war and technology. Some of them less so. You’ll probably find on my social media references to the great naval Battle of Jutland in May of 1916, and you’d be right to say that Tolkien never fought there. But his friend Christopher Wiseman, the namesake for Tolkien’s son Christopher, did participate aboard the battleship HMS Superb. And then we get into tangents regarding some of my own areas of expertise. Did you know that the naval flag of France under the Bourbon kings was a plain white banner “like snow in the sun, bearing no charge nor device”, just like the flag of Gondor under the Stewards in the books? Or that the day the Nazgul first sallied forth from Minas Morgul, July 1, was also the day the Confederates won the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg? Or that two of the Japanese aircraft carriers at the battle of Midway were called Hiryu and Soryu, translated to Flying and Blue Dragons respectively, and that the SBD Dauntlesses that sank them were painted light blue with white stars? That reminds me at least of how Earendil threw down the mighty dragon Ancalogon. Just as how Morfydd Clark practiced horsemanship for four months, and became good at it, reminds me of how Maria Theresa of Austria practiced horsemanship for months so that she could personally take part in her coronation ceremony as “King” of Hungary, thus winning the love and fealty of the temperamental Hungarian magnates at a time when she needed all the help she could get.
That last example is a great way to segue into the last couple of points: “Galadriel his greatest heroine, and Morfydd Clark who brings her to life so wonderfully.” By now, if you’ve spent much time or even taken just a cursory look at my social media platforms, you’ll notice that while this is ultimately a Tolkien-themed blog, Morfydd Clark and her Galadriel are not far behind. It wasn’t always like this. At first, I had no particularly strong feelings about Galadriel either way; my favorite characters were probably Frodo, Aragorn and Eowyn. But all that changed after Rings of Power and Unfinished Tales and the Letters. Far from being some sort of ethereal and distant figure out of legend, this Galadriel was, well, a person, constantly striving to be noble, good and virtuous and and do the right thing, but who has to deal with a lot of obstacles including some from within herself. Considering that neither UT nor the Letters are straight novels, it’s a tribute to Tolkien that he could still draw an image of a heroine even more real than what we meet in the trilogy. And it is a tribute to Morfydd Clark that she could bring this heroine to life so well, so faithfully to Tolkien’s spirit even if her portrayal isn’t exact in every detail. I knew I was going to like her as soon as I came across this interview in Spring of last year that she had done back while RoP was still under production; what’s not to like about her winsome charm, her beauty, her honesty, and her passion for her work that we can see on display here?
And indeed, I fell in love with Morfydd’s Galadriel as soon as I first met her in the pilot episode of Season 1, with her sorrow, her charm, her drive, her resolve. Many others have done so, if not right away then by the time the season ended. So I think it’s a shame that Morfydd hasn’t gotten the same amount of recognition that Cate Blanchett received for a much smaller and less commanding presence. One could argue that as far as heroines go, Arwen and Eowyn were much more influential in the story the movies were telling; I don’t think anyone can argue that Galadriel is indeed the heart and soul of Rings of Power. But it’s not just the lack of recognition; it’s the active hostility that Morfydd’s Galadriel, and Morfydd herself, have awakened in enough corners of the internet. Galadriel has been slandered as a “Mary Sue/Karen”, a petulant child, a “woke feminist girlboss” a butcher, a psychopath, a cheap attempt to copy Eowyn, all of which are simply not true when considering both Tolkien’s source material and the character we actually see in the show. Meanwhile Morfydd’s Welsh name has been mocked, her genuine acting skills have been belittled, her mental and emotional health have been called into question. And for what? Because her Galadriel wears armor and carries a sword? Because she scolded the racists on Instagram for attacking her PoC castmates? Because her grasp of Tolkien, horseback riding, and swordsmanship makes small-minded people feel insecure? Morfydd and her Galadriel deserve better. And in this space, as for me and my house, she will always receive support, admiration, and affection.
So, there you have it. This is who I am, this is how I came to fall in love with Tolkien’s world, and this is what I hope to do by maintaining this blog and it’s linked Facebook, Instagram, Substack Notes, and Threads accounts. This has been a wonderful journey so far, and I expect it will continue. And I am honored that you have decided to join me on it. Welcome 🤗
