181 – Two Shall Be the Number of the Towers

And the number of the towers shall be two. Or three. Or… five? If it’s not clear yet, we’ll clear it up in this introduction to Book III of The Lord of the Rings, and the second volume of the not-really-a-trilogy that happens to be named after some arbitrarily chosen pair of very tall buildings. We also look back at the story so far and learn that Tolkien himself was the first person to leave Tom Bombadil out of an adaptation of his work. Plus, what we did over our summer break: including favorite moments from this year’s online Oxonmoot and Mythmoot.

For video of the Eä Tolkien Society’s Tolkienmoot XVI panel on the Rise of Númenor, which Shawn appeared on with Sarah Zama, Dr. David Russell Mosley and John Garth, click here.

To find out more about events hosted by the Tolkien Society, click here.

To find out more about events hosted by Signum University / Mythgard Institute, click here.

Recommended Reading:

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings (Mariner Books, paperback)

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings (Mariner Books, paperback)

Tolkien, J. R. R. (Christopher Tolkien, ed.) The Treason of Isengard (The History of Middle-earth, Vol. 7) (Houghton Mifflin, paperback)

Tolkien, J. R. R. (Christopher Tolkien, ed.) The War of the Ring (The History of Middle-earth, Vol. 8) (Houghton Mifflin, paperback)

Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Mariner Books, paperback)

Hammond, Wayne G. and Christina Scull. The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, hardcover)

Scull, Christina, and Wayne G. Hammond. J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide (Three Volume Box Set) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, hardcover)

Drout, Michael D. C., ed. J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment (Routledge, paperback)

Hammond, Wayne G. and Christina Scull. J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator (Mariner Books, paperback)

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays (HarperCollins, paperback)

Shippey, Tom. The Road to Middle-Earth: How J.R.R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology (Mariner Books, paperback)