231 – Spirits in the Material World

Frodo and Sam follow their travel guide Gollum through the Dead Marshes — it’s not the tour package we would have chosen, but who are we to judge? — and are far more shaken up than Gollum is by the fact that the marshes actually have, y’know, dead in them. But never mind the terrifying things below, because there’s a new terrifying thing above making its appearance, and that one is going to get Gollum pretty shaken up indeed. Also, just in time for the holidays, a new installment of Kingly Gifts, with Tolkien Collector’s Guide moderator Andrew Ferguson.

To see the lecture “How To Read J.R.R. Tolkien” given by Michael Drout at Carnegie Mellon University, see here.

Find Andrew Ferguson online as Trotter on Tolkien Collector’s Guide, or on Twitter at @Trotter_Tolkien, and see below the media player for an image of some of the books referred to in his segment.

 

(a) The Father Christmas Letters by J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Ballie Tolkien George Allen & Unwin 1st Edition 1976 (hardback)
(b) Father Christmas Letters by J.R.R. Tolkien HarperCollins 1994 (Miniature hardbacks – issued in a slipcase)
(c) Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Ballie Tolkien Collins Children’s Books 1995 (hardback including pull-out letters)
(d) Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Ballie Tolkien HarperCollins 1999 (hardback)
(e) Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Ballie Tolkien HarperCollins 2004 (hardback)
(f) Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Ballie Tolkien HarperCollins 2009 (paperback)
(g) Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Ballie Tolkien HarperCollins 2012 (hardback)
(h) Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Ballie Tolkien HarperCollins 2019 (hardback)
(i) Letters from Father Christmas Centenary Edition by J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Ballie Tolkien HarperCollins 2020 (hardback)
(j) Father Christmas Letters by J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Ballie Tolkien HarperCollins 1998 (Miniature hardback)
(k) The Father Christmas Letters by J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Ballie Tolkien George Allen & Unwin 1st Edition 1978 (paperback)
(l) The Father Christmas Letters by J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Ballie Tolkien Unwin Paperbacks 1990 (paperback)

Recommended Reading:

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings (Mariner Books, paperback) “The Passage of the Marshes”, pp. 611-16

Tolkien, J. R. R. (Christopher Tolkien, ed.) The Silmarillion (Mariner Books, paperback)

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 Return of the King: Being the Third Part of the Lord of the Rings (Mariner Books, paperback)

Tolkien, J. R. R. (Christopher Tolkien, ed.) Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth (Mariner Books, paperback)

Tolkien, J. R. R. (Christopher Tolkien, ed.) The Lays of Beleriand (The History of Middle-earth, Vol. 3) (Del Rey, paperback)

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

Tolkien, J. R. R. (Baillie Tolkien, ed.) Letters from Father Christmas (Mariner Books, paperback)

Tolkien, J. R. R. (Christopher Tolkien, ed.)Pictures by JRR Tolkien (reissue) (Mariner Books, hardcover)

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

Garth, John. Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth (Mariner Books, hardcover)

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)

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1 comment
  • so if the dead marshes are the evil lothlorien, then the big pool with the visions of dead frodo and sam is the evil mirror of galadriel?

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