Portfolio Tag: 20th Century & Contemporary BritLit
The Geography of Arda and Middle-earth
The Years of the Lamps and the Years of the Trees Source: Wikipedia Andrey Maximov: Illuin and Ormal — Ted Nasmith: Illuin Karen Wynn Fonstad: The Spring of Arda — from Almaren and the Great Lake in the Time of the Lamps to Middle-earth and Valinor in the Years of the Trees. Aman and Valinor […]
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The Creatures of Middle-earth
Arda had a rich fauna, largely (though not exactly) coinciding with that of our world: it would be going overboard to try and list on this page every single type of animal mentioned in the legendarium even in passing; so the descriptions and commentary hereafter will be limited to those animals that significantly impact a […]
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The Timeline of Arda and Middle-earth
While there is no substantial difficulty in fixing the time periods known as the Second, Third, and (beginnings of the) Fourth Age of Arda and Middle-earth, it is somewhat trickier to determine what exactly was “the First Age”, how long it lasted and which events it comprised. For a discussion of the whys and wherefores […]
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The Weaponry of Middle-earth
Middle-earth was not a peaceful place; from the First-Age warfare between Morgoth and the Elves, and their Edain allies, to the War of the Ring at the end of the Third Age, armed conflict formed the constant background of its people’s existence — and while there were also numerous minor wars and disputes, the overarching […]
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Shiny Objects in Arda and Middle-earth
Arda and Middle-earth knew poverty, destruction, war, and hardship aplenty, but from their very own sources of light to precious jewels and metals, it also shone and sparkled with items of sheer magical brilliance, many of which were also of huge symbolic value. These are some of them: The Lights Amy O’Hanlon: Illuin and […]
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The People and Peoples of Arda and Middle-earth
Note: This is primarily a write-up for my own purposes; I am not trying to emulate or even approximate the many outstanding Tolkien resources already available on- and offline. As I prefer having all closely-related information available on one and the same page, I am keeping the information on Tolkien’s major (groups of) characters on […]
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Wars and Battles of Arda and Middle-earth
Battlefields are blood-soaked places of unspeakable horror, replete with corpses, body parts, the roar, thunder and clash of arms, the cries and whimpers of the wounded and dying, shouts of rage, often the fumes of smoke and fire, and always the all-pervading stench of death. And of course the legendarium’s universe far exceeds the various […]
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Middle-earth
J.R.R. Tolkien Author page: biographical sketch, bibliography, quotes, links (Auto-) Biographical Works Humphrey Carter: J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography Humphrey Carter: The Inklings Philip Zaleski: The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings Middle-earth The Books The Silmarillion (1977) The Hobbit (1937) – Audiobook performed by Andy Serkis […]
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2021 Holiday Reads
We’re less than two weeks away from Advent and the beginning of December, this year’s incarnation of “Festive Tasks” includes a “holiday books” square, CrimeReads recently published their 2021 Holiday Gift Guide, and I just succumbed to the purchase of electric tealights for my holiday candle holders so as to be able to enjoy them […]
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Halloween Book Bingo 2021
My Card and Game Progress The Books Amateur Sleuth: E.C. Bentley & H. Warner Allen: Trent’s Own Case – finished Sept. 18. Relics & Curiosities: Barbara Hambly: Graveyard Dust – finished Sept. 15. Halloween: Washington Irving: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow – finished Sept. 18. Mad Scientists and Evil Geniuses: Barbara Vine: The Blood […]
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Summer Games 2021
So, I’ve finally come up with a summer reading theme: Seeing as both the Olympic Games and the European Football (Soccer) Championship have been pushed back to this year from 2020 due to the pandemic (and 3 of the four tennis Grand Slam tournaments are also set while it’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere), I […]
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Narrativium: Where the Falling Angel Meets the Rising Ape
The Discworld Novels (and Subseries) The Colour of Magic (1983) – Rincewind #1 ♦ Review HERE The Light Fantastic (1986) – Rincewind #2 ♦ Review HERE Equal Rites (1987) – Witches #1 ♦ Review HERE Mort (1987) – Death #1 ♦ Review HERE Sourcery (1988) – Rincewind #3 ♦ Review HERE Wyrd Sisters (1988) – Witches […]
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The (Mostly) Dead Writers Society Reading Projects: Birthday Challenge & Authors in Residence
(Dead) Author Birthdays This is a reading challenge associated with the (Mostly) Dead Writers Society on Goodreads; I decided to join it because it is as much an invitation to reconnect with the classics as it is one to walk down literary paths less traveled; so it ties in nicely with my own 2021 reading […]
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Christmas Reading 2020
My usual Christmas reads / movies: Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (book & movie) Agatha Christie: The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (aka The Royal Ruby) (short story & TV adaptation) Arthur Conan Doyle: The Blue Carbuncle (short story & TV adaptation) Dorothy L. Sayers: The Nine Tailors (book & TV adaptation) Charles Dickens: A […]
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2020 Summer Sojourn
As current events make actual travel — at least, leisure travel — either undesirable, unwise or flat-out impossible, I decided to devote my 2020 summer reading to literary armchair travel, and to call it the 2020 Summer Sojourn. Then the BookLikes meltdown happened and I had to start sprucing up my WordPress blog … as […]
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Halloween Book Bingo 2020
My Blacked-out Card: The Books: Sleepy Hollow: Alice Hoffman: The River King – finished Sept. 26, 2020. Film at 11: Ellis Peters: The Devil’s Novice – finished Sept. 24, 2020. Southern Gothic: Sharyn McCrumb: The Ballad of Tom Dooley – finished Sept. 19, 2020. Murder Most Foul: Michael Connelly: The Night Fire – […]
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The Flat Book Society
The Flat Book Society on BookLikes The Flat Book Society was a science and popular science book club, active on BookLikes from July 2017 to December 2019. BookLikes Book Club Page BookLikes Discussion Group The Reading Lists Suggested Books Nominated Books Books Read 2017-07-07 – 2017-08-31 – Andrea Wulf: The […]
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Freedom and Future Library
Introduction (2018) You’d have to be living under a rock buried somewhere halfway down to the center of the earth in order not to be aware that in recent years our beautiful world has been shaken up by a number of crises the likes of which I, at least, have not experienced in my entire […]
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Kill Your Darlings
Aaaand … that’s a wrap. My Kill Your Darling Books. Green Round: Team MbD – Lillelara – TA Round 1 Suspect Own guess / card played: Madeleine L’Engle – wrong – 5 points Correct guess: None Victims Own guess / card played: Katniss Everdeen – 5 points Correct guess: None Crime Scenes Own guess […]
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On Page and Screen
Bringing together great literature and its equally great screen adaptations. Note: Authors are included here if I own a screen adaptation of at least one of their works and have either reviewed / blogged about that screen adaptation or about any one of the author’s literary works. At the same time, however, for each of […]
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