MYSTERIOUS WORLD: Spring 2008: The Lord of the Rings Cipher Part I: Morgoth's Ring

The Lord of the Rings Cipher Part I: Morgoth's Ring

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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born not in England, as most might suppose, but in Bloemfontein, the capitol city of the Orange Free State in South Africa, on January 3, 1892. His father, Arthur Tolkien, a third-generation German �migr�, had lost the family piano business that had been their fortune for three generations in England, so he had decided to switch to a career in banking. And since prospects in the Birmingham bank in which he was employed were not adequate to raise a family, Arthur and his wife-to-be, Mabel Suffield, decided to move to South Africa where Arthur could earn a better income as a bank manager.

Though the situation was not ideal, the outskirts of the hot, dry, dusty and relatively small frontier town of Bloemfontein being haunted by both lion and jackal, Arthur's job as the manager of the Bank of Africa provided both sufficient income and social standing to provide a respectable upbringing for his small but growing family. Unfortunately, young Ronald (the name that his parents usually called him by) did not respond well to the heat, so in April of 1895 Mabel decided to take him and his younger brother Hilary back to England to stay with her family in Birmingham. There she waited for news of her husband's return to England, but that news never came, as Arthur had contracted rheumatic fever. After three months of battling the disease, he finally succumbed to it in February of 1896.

Left with two children and no income, save a pittance provided by her family, Mabel moved her family to a modest cottage in the small village of Sarehole in Warwickshire, in the countryside south of Birmingham, a major industrial city in the midlands of England. And though small, the house was situated in a beautiful country setting, replete with an old mill and numerous interesting, and what would now be termed "quaint", features that delighted the imagination of the young Tolkien. It was here in Sarehole that he experienced what he would later describe as the most formative period in his life, his detailed, almost loving descriptions of Sarehole sounding much like Hobbiton, which was clearly modeled after his childhood experiences there.⁴

Tolkien's most memorable home was in the quiet village of Sarehole, a suburb of Birmingham, which has since been incorporated into the Hall Green district of Birmingham. Tolkien lived in the center house of the three, at 5 Gracewell Road, though Gracewell Road is now called Wake Green Road. The forested area in the background is Moseley Bog, one of Tolkien's favorite haunts. Image from Heart-of-England.

Sarehole Mill figured prominently in Tolkien's memories of his childhood, the particularly gruff junior miller being nicknamed "The White Ogre" by Tolkien and his brother, Hilary. Tolkien left a sum of money behind to keep the mill open to the public, which helps pay for a small museum and visitors center. Located by the scenic River Cole near Moseley Bog, it is open to visitors April to October. Image from Tolkien Gateway.

Tolkien's Love Affair with Language and Nature

One of the earliest surviving manuscripts (hand written books) in the Welsh language, The Black Book of Carmarthen was written in around 1250, almost 800 years ago. It's full of legends and stories including ones about King Arthur and his knights and Merlin the wizard. It is now part of the collection of the National Library of Wales, where it is also known as "NLW Peniarth MS 1". Doubtless Tolkien, who first saw Welsh on a side of a boxcar in King's Heath, studied this manuscript in his detailed analysis of the Welsh language, which he used to form the Tengwar alphabet for the Elvish language Sindarin, one of the languages he invented for the world of The Lord of the Rings. Image from Show.me.uk

Mabel then began tutoring her young sons, and found that young Ronald took very well to languages, particularly to Latin and English. Interestingly, it was the sound of the languages that he enjoyed most, separate from the meanings of the words, and he enjoyed reading, reciting and listening to languages being spoken almost as if they were music in his ears. Time soon came for formal schooling, and young Ronald matriculated at King Edward's School in nearby Birmingham. This required Mabel to move her family to the city, which was (at that time) in many ways the complete opposite of the idyllic Sarehole. Crowded, dark and dirty from smoke-belching factories, Tolkien found the experience "dreadful", and it would come to form the basis of his idea of Mordor, the evil land of the enemy that was filled with vile smoking pits and horrors of every description, standing as the antithesis of the idyllic, nature-centric Hobbiton in Tolkien's Middle Earth mythopoeia.

Out of the darkness came light, however, as they soon moved from the horrid little shack they had first lived in and found a more suitable accommodation in a nearby suburb named King's Heath. King's Heath was still no Sarehole, being backed up against a train yard, but there were still some areas of green where the children could play. Most important to young Ronald, however, was the strange, foreign words on some of the boxcars that he would later understand to be Welsh, a Celtic language still spoken in some parts of the southwest of Great Britain. These strange words aroused Tolkien's inherent love of language, the exotic Welsh phraseology seeming like magical incantations compared to the more rigid English and Latin that would come to form the basis of his formal education. And though Welsh initially eluded him, it would later come to figure prominently in his linguistic portfolio.

Father Francis Morgan was Tolkien's priest, mentor and spiritual foster parent after both his parents had died. Father Francis, who was Welsh on his father's side and Spanish on his mother's side, was the Father Minister and the Church Treasurer of Birmingham Oratory, living there until he died at the age of 76. Francis was a powerful influence on Tolkien, particularly, of course, in the development of his Christian theology, which would form the conceptual basis of his writings on Middle Earth. Image from Palm Tolkien

The Roots of Christian Faith
Around this time, for no apparent reason, Tolkien's mother decided to convert to Catholicism, and moved the boys once more in order to be closer to her favorite Catholic church. All the hard work of raising two boys by herself began to take its toll, however, and she became ill with diabetes. After a prolonged recovery, she moved the boys back to the countryside once more, but again fell ill and died shortly thereafter. This proved particularly devastating for young Ronald, as he and his brother Hilary were now forced to live with an aunt on their mother's side, in the district of Edgbaston in southern Birmingham. It was just a few miles north of their house in King's Heath, but still far away from the green countryside that they loved. Their priest, Father Francis Morgan, now became their legal guardian, and he had decided to place them with their aunt as her house was near the Birmingham Oratory, a Catholic school that would be their home away from home, though they actually continued to attend King Edward's as it provided a superior education. Indeed, it proved perfect for young Ronald's early education, as Latin and Greek were the backbone of the curriculum there. As time went on he also encountered Old English and Gothic, and soon thereafter his desire to study languages for a living was set in stone.

Most important of all to Tolkien, however, was his Christian faith, which was mixed together with his love of language and nature. Above all he loved his mother, whom he considered to be the perfect embodiment of all three. Indeed, everything good about his life was associated with his mother and all she represented, whereas everything evil was simply everything that his mother was not. Evil in Tolkien's mind was a lack of the beauty, order and certainty that his mother embodied, nourished by an indefinable heavenly grace that suffused them all into a holy trinity of completeness. Evil was, in his mind, simply an absence of good, just as cold is simply an absence of heat. Evil cannot exist by itself; it must attach itself parasitically to good and drain away life and meaning from it in order to survive, in the process degrading the good and turning it into a hollow, dead mockery of itself. But without good to leech off of, evil consumes itself, like a serpent biting its own tail, spiraling out of control into eternal self-destruction.⁵

What lay at the essential core of Tolkien was the desire to escape the world of the modern, which even by his time had become overrun with factories, filth and moral degradation, and return to that garden of grace that he had experienced in fleeting moments during his childhood. His passion was to see again those glimpses of heaven that he had seen reflected in the shards of the shattered jewel that is our universe, through the beclouded mirror of this present darkness that separates us from God. These intense personal convictions, given structure and meaning by the theological training that he had received from various sources throughout his childhood, came to form the basis of a unique personal mythology that incorporated aspects of Christianity, pagan mythology and an exceptionally deep understanding of linguistics. And it was from this fertile theo-mytho-philological garden that grew a great forest of writings, the greatest of which was The Lord of the Rings.

The Creation of a 'Christian Mythology'

Gandalf the White was perhaps the most powerful symbol for good in The Lord of the Rings, and probably the second most powerful being in Middle Earth. Gandalf, originally "the Grey", began his career in Middle Earth as the second highest ranked wizard in a group of five wizards named the Istari, whom the Valar had sent to Middle Earth to combat the forces of evil near the beginning of The Third Age. When the wizard Saruman, the leader of the order of the Istari, betrayed the Valar and went over to the dark side, Gandalf rallied the defense against Saruman, defeated his armies, and then broke his staff, effectively banishing him from the order of the Istari and replacing him as its head. The Gandalf character, in his self-sacrificial death in the fight against the demonic balrog in order to save his friends, was a powerful type of Christ, who sacrificed his life to save Israel. Gandalf's subsequent resurrection from "the Grey" to "the White" no doubt reflects the biblical description of the divine "clothing" of the saints after the Resurrection, which will be "like fine linen, white and clean" (Rev. 19:8, 14). Image from Ghost in the Machine.

Many authors have commented on the Christian elements to be found in Tolkien's writings, and they are correct to do so, as they definitely permeate everything he wrote. And though his own Christian beliefs were a guiding force throughout his works, Tolkien's primary motivation for creating the world of Middle Earth was that he wanted to create an Anglo-Saxon mythology for England like that of the Germanic Ring Cycle, the Nordic Elder Edda or the Finnish Kalevala, because whatever uniquely Anglo-Saxon mythology had once existed in England had been thoroughly erased by the Norman conquest. As a result, the Anglo-Saxons, from whose stock his mother had descended, no longer had a "race myth" that told the tale of their origin and history, as do so many other peoples throughout the world.⁶ However, he also wished to have a vehicle through which to communicate his own personal theo-mytho-philological theories and beliefs, his "Christian mythology" one might call it, as well as to communicate his love of language⁷ and of nature, so The Lord of the Rings essentially grew out of a number of competing desires that were so disparate that they could only be integrated together in the context of an entire "sub-universe", only in which context these thoughts could actually co-exist in some sort of coherent fashion.

As such, Tolkien saw his creation of the universe of Middle Earth as a "sub-creation." This concept was based upon his belief that mankind was created to be a "co-creator" with God, helping to shape Earth into the image God wanted it to be. The technique Tolkien used to achieve this end of "co-creation" was by engaging in speculative, theo-mytho-philological exercise in order to "mine" the mind of God so as to better understand what He intended for His Creation. Tolkien thus saw himself as a sort of "discoverer of legend",⁸ a seeker of the universal archetypal principles that lay behind the scenes of everyday reality, and the tools that he used to dig past the everyday mundane into the fundamental structure of reality were the analysis of religion, mythology and language. And of the three, language was probably the most important, as in its structure he believed lay encoded the deepest secrets of all. And his primary means of communicating the knowledge he had discovered was through the medium of myth. Birzer explains in J.R.R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth,

For Tolkien, mystery surrounds us. But modernity has deformed our perception of this reality. His mythologizing of the world, Tolkien believed, increased our ability to see the beauty and sacramentality of creation. It also allowed ideas and loves to transcend time and space. In essence, Tolkien's mind remained complexly medieval and oriented toward myth and mystery�. Indeed, for Tolkien, myths expressed far greater truths than did historical facts or events. Sanctified myths, inspired by grace, served as an anamnesis, or a way for people to recall encounters with transcendence that had helped order their souls and their society. Myth, inherited or created, could also offer a "sudden glimpse of Truth," that is, a brief view of heaven. At the very least, sanctified myth revealed the life humans were meant to have prior to the Fall.⁹

Tolkien saw his exploration of religion, mythology and language as a search for Truth, though even he knew that he could at best achieve a splintered, fragmented understanding of God's original Truth. Thus he believed that mythology is inherently "true", in the sense that it contains fragments of the truth, though these fragments are but a sliver of the original shattered jewel.¹⁰ Mythology, then, is most useful as a theological tool that enhances one's ability to search for Truth, like a telescope enhances one's ability to search the cosmos.

In sum, Tolkien used his mythology in order to "capture" this elusive Truth in a visible form, like a fly in amber. One subtle detail people sometimes fail to grasp, however, was that Tolkien did not come up with these stories themselves, but rather saw himself as a sort of amanuensis, or medium through which these stories were told. Tolkien actually explained his thought processes in some detail in a 1951 letter to Milton Waldman, an editor at Collins Publishers (now Harper Collins Publishers). Waldman found this letter so intriguing that he had it typed up and saved for posterity. Here is an excerpt from that important letter, which contains so much insight about Tolkien's thought processes that it is actually included as part of the preface to The Silmarillion:

Once upon a time � I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic, to the level of romantic fairy story — the larger founded upon the lesser in contact with the earth, the lesser drawing splendour from the vast backcloths — which I could dedicate simply to: England; to my country. It should possess the tone and quality that I desired, somewhat cool and clear, be redolent of our "air" � while still possessing the fair elusive beauty of what some call Celtic (though it is rarely found in genuine ancient Celtic things). It should be "high", purged of the gross, and fit more for the more adult mind of a land long now steeped in poetry�. Of course such an overweening purpose did not develop all at once. The mere stories were the thing. They arose in my mind as "given" things, and as they came, separately, so too the links grew � yet always I had the sense of recording what was already "there", somewhere: not of "inventing".¹¹

Thus Tolkien might be seen as having been less like a scientist, methodically analyzing religion, mythology and language in order to discover a scientific answer to the secrets of the universe, than like a priest, whose mind is specially trained to allow the spirits of ancient times to inspire him and speak through him so that their message might be made alive and relevant once more. This is because only through the specially trained mind of certain unique individuals such as Tolkien can these ancient spirits speak, leaving us tantalizing clues regarding the great mystery of existence — of our history, future and fate — in the form of myth.

Finally, though Tolkien might agree that his stories were essentially "mythology with a message", he refused the idea that his stories were allegorical, in the mode of Pilgrim's Progress. They were indeed a form of allegory, however, though deeper and much more sophisticated, "an embodiment of a profound truth."¹² Tolkien's writings were not obvious, like an allegory, but hidden, like a parable. They were indeed a cipher, a message encoded in the form of myth, through which he intended to communicate his own personal theology and his opinions about how the world truly came into being, why it exists, and how it will eventually end.

Notes

¹ Ethan Gilsdorf, "J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: A Literary Friendship and Rivalry" (Literary Traveler: http://www.literarytraveler.com).

² Wikipedia, "Robert E. Howard" (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org). Howard, whom some feel was a great inspiration to Tolkien, created an entire world that he theorized actually existed "between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aryas", which he called the Hyborean Age. Though it was fairly well fleshed out, it lacked the subtle details such as non-human races and multiple languages that Tolkien actually created almost ex nihilo. Lovecraft and Moorcock also created their own universes in which their heroes fought and strove to make their mark, but Moorcock's characters, such as the classic Elric of Melnibon�, were actually drawn purposely as anti-heroes specifically in order to contrast the writings of Tolkien and Howard.

³ Tom Shippey, J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000).

⁴ Humphrey Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000), 28-29.

⁵ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2001), 87.

⁶ Carpenter, Biography, 67, 97-98.

⁷ Carpenter, Biography, 101.

⁸ Carpenter, Biography, 83.

⁹ Bradley J. Birzer, J. R. R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-Earth (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2002), 23-24.

¹⁰ Carpenter, Biography, 99-101.

¹¹ J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien ed., The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1995), 144-145.

¹² Carpenter, Biography, 99.

¹³ Tolkien, The Silmarillion, 3-4.

¹⁴ One of the reasons Tolkien had F�anor the elf (q.v.) create three jewels may have been that he wanted them to symbolize the Holy Trinity — a God who was three, yet one.

¹⁵ Tolkien, The Silmarillion, 4-5. Note that Melkor was the fifteenth and greatest of the Valar, but was removed from their ranks after falling from heaven.

¹⁶ Tolkien, The Silmarillion, 6-7.

¹⁷ Text adapted from Ellie Crystal, "Ayer's Rock, Uluru" (Crystalinks: http://www.crystalinks.com/ayersrock.html). Cf. also http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2002/Autumn/Atlantis/#TheOriginsOfMan.

¹⁸ Tolkien, The Silmarillion, 10-12.

¹⁹ Tolkien, The Silmarillion, 27-28.

²⁰ Tolkien, The Silmarillion, 31.

²¹ Wikipedia, "F�anor" (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org).

²² Wikipedia, "F�anor".

²³ Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, 67, 101.

²⁴ Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, 101.

²⁵ Silima may be based upon the Greek word thelema, "will", which Aleister Crowley used at length in his profane occult treatises. It was also used in the Bible to describe the "will" of God, so its function is not strictly negative in orientation. Tolkien probably intended to focus on the concept that F�anor "willed" the jewels into existence, that they were a product of his and his alone. It is also interesting to note that at the heart of Buddism is the principle of "The Three Jewels" that Buddhists look to for guidance. Could this concept actually be the memory of three actual ancient jewels which had mysterious powers? Furthermore, could these three jewels have also been one of Tolkien's inspirations for the three Silmarilli?)

²⁶ Rabbi Geoffrey W. Dennis, "Tzohar" (Encyclopedia Mythica: http://www.pantheon.org/articles/t/tzohar.html).

²⁷ Anonymous, "The Tsohar" (Encyclopedia Mythica: http://www.indyfan.com/ark/tsohar.html).

²⁸ See "The Exodus Revelation" previously in this issue for an in-depth discussion of the tsohar "firestones" and how they have played crucial roles throughout the history of mankind. It is interesting to note that the term "three jewels" is used frequently in Masonic initiations, as well as Buddhist teachings.

²⁹ J. F. Sutton, "The Atlantean Tuaoi Stone Revisited" (The Hutton Commentaries: http://www.huttoncommentaries.com/subs/Special/AtlanRec_Firestone/Tuaoi/ TuaoiRevisited.htm), edited for brevity. Note that Cayce's reference to "the entity" refers to his belief that he was able to communicate with spirit entities who had reincarnated themselves over and over again throughout history, even from the beginning of human history, so Cayce allegedly was able to find out about the past by questioning the spirit of the person asking for the "reading" where he or she was and what they were doing in the past. This was how he was allegedly able to find out so much about Atlantis — so many "entities" who had once lived in Atlantis reincarnated in the 20th century that Cayce was able to relate an enormous amount of information about that period of Earth's history.

³⁰ For more information on the mysterious firestones in the Bible, see "The Exodus Revelation" elsewhere in this issue.

³¹ Association for Research and Enlightenment A.R.E. �, Inc., "Searching for the Hall of Records in the Yucatan" (Edgar Cayce's A.R.E.: http://www.edgarcayce.org/about_ec/cayce_on/ancient/search.html)

³² Geoffrey W Burr, "Optical data storage enters a new dimension" (PhysicsWorld.com: http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/13/7/7); see also http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/rd/443/ashley.html; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_optical_data_storage; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hologram; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_storage#Optical_storage; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc.

³³ See http://www.t1shopper.com/tools/calculate/ for a conversion calculator to see how large a Petabyte is.

³⁴ "Native American Legends: The Spider Woman and The Twins" (First People: http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/TheSpiderWomanandtheTwins-Hopi.html). Interestingly, in the Hopi myth of Spider Woman, the first thing she created were two twin males, P�q�nghoya and Pal�ngawhoya, which may be the Hopi version of the "two witnesses" concept discussed previously. Tolkien appears to have found some very deep correlaries in mythology, as far afield as the Desert Southwest of America. An important point to note is that Spider Woman brought life to the twins, and all plants and animals, through the use of something called a "white substance cape", which was "the creative wisdom itself". Could this be the same substance as the heavenly manna mentioned in the Bible? See "Exodus Revelation" for more on this critical subject.

³⁵ Tolkien-Online.com, "Morgoth's Ring" (Tolkien-Online.com: http://www.tolkien-online.com/morgoths-ring.html).

³⁶ Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, 101.

³⁷ "Iron Crown of Lombardy" (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Crown_of_Lombardy).

³⁸ "Lombards" (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombards). Cf. also

"Lombardy" (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombardy)

³⁹ "Iron Crown of Lombardy" (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Crown_of_Lombardy). Cf. also

"Order of the Iron Crown" (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Iron_Crown) and

"Charlemagne's "Iron Crown"" (Order of the Crown of Charlemagne in the United States of America: http://www.charlemagne.org/ic.html).

Charlemagne's father was named "Pippin the Short", probably where Tolkien took the name for the Hobbit "Pippin" in The Lord of the Rings. Theodolinda, the Queen of the Lombards, Germanic conquerors of northern Italy, was said to have found the crown. Was she the inspiration for Theoden of Rohan, or perhaps for Eowyn, who reigned after his death, or perhaps a combination of both? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodelinda)

⁴⁰ Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, 72.

⁴¹ Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, 72, 79, 83.

⁴² "E�rendil" (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earendel).

⁴³ Jimmy Dunn, "Apophis (Apep), the Enemy of Re" (Wikipedia: http://touregypt.net/featurestories/apep.htm).

⁴⁴ "Urim and Thummim" (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urim_and_Thummim). Interestingly, the Mormons believed that their founder, Joseph Smith, had been led by an angel to find a cache of golden plates that could only be read with what the angel called "Urim and Thummim", which Smith described as essentially a pair of silver-rimmed glasses with smooth, three-cornered diamonds for lenses. Whereas this cannot be corroborated, the idea that the Urim and Thummim were essentially a pair of glasses that could be used to decipher encoded text is a very plausible one. Click here to read more about this fascinating theory.

⁴⁵ "Urim and Thummim" (Jewish Encyclopedia: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=52&letter=U).

⁴⁶ "Oracles of God — The Urim and Thummim" (Israel Elect of Zion: http://www.israelect.com/reference/WesleyASwift/sermons/68-11-06.htm). Note that the author appears to be a racist, so take his teachings with a large grain of salt.

⁴⁷ See "The Exodus Revelation" previously in this issue for an in-depth discussion of the tsohar "firestones".

⁴⁸ "The Palant�ri: The Stone of Osgiliath" (The Thain's Book: http://www.tuckborough.net/palantir.html#Osgiliath Stone). See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palant%C3%ADr.

⁴⁹ The seven palantiri "seeing stones" may correspond to seven mobile firestones that God uses to routinely survey the Earth and "keep an eye on things" (Zech. 4:10). One of these "eyes of the Lord" vehicles, each of which appear to be essentially a huge firestone on a square platform driven by a combination of four turbine engines ("wheels within wheels") on each corner, with suction to reduce drag (the word ayin, in Hebrew, incorrectly translated as "eyes" here, basically means "holes"), appeared in a vision to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 1. Basically, it appears that God sits on His heavenly throne and looks into the chief firestone on the heavenly Ark, which is hooked up to the seven mobile firestones, that transmit images back to Him so he can constantly survey the entire planet, just as the Kings of Gondor once used The Stone of Osgiliath in Tolkien's cipher.

⁵⁰ Tolkien, Silmarillion, 306.

⁵¹ "Dagor Dagorath" (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagor_Dagorath).

Selected Lord of the Rings-oriented content © The J.R.R. Tolkien Estate Ltd., EA Games or New Line Cinema, and is used for didactic purposes only. The terms "Lord of the Rings Cipher", "LOTR Cipher" and all original concepts and content are all © 2007 Doug Elwell, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All Bible quotations are taken from the New Kings James Version (NKJV) unless otherwise noted.

LOTR_Cipher Links

The Tolkien Society
TheOneRing.net
TheOneRing.net: Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema Join with MGM to Produce "The Hobbit" Movie
LordOfTheRings.net: The Official Movie Site
The Hobbit: The Official Movie Blog
Watchman Fellowship: Tolkien, Fantasy and Magic
The Lost Tolkien Novel
Internet Sacred Text Archive: Sources of Lord of the Rings
The Elvish Linguistic Fellowship: Resources for Tolkienian Linguistics
Ted Nasmith: The J.R.R. Tolkien Gallery
Arwen-Undomiel.com

T R A V E L:
Bloemfontein, South Africa (Tolkien's Birthplace)
Southern Africa Places: Bloemfontein
Mangaung Local Municipality: Bloemfontein - Botshabelo - Thaba Nchu
SouthAfrica.net: Bloemfontein — Heart of the Free State
SafariNow.com: Bloemfontein
Wikipedia: Bloemfontein
Wikitravel: Bloemfontein
Wikipedia: Orange Free State
Wikipedia: South Africa

Birmingham, England (Tolkien's Childhood Years)
Wikipedia: Birmingham, England
Birmingham City Council
Birmingham City Council: The Shire Country Park: Tolkien Weekend
Visit Birmingham
Britain Express: West Midlands
Wikipedia: West Midlands
Warwickshire County Council
Heart-of-England: Best Tourist Attractions in the Heart of England
Heart-of-England: Village of Sarehole
Heart-of-England: Dormston with Bag End
Heart-of-England: Tolkien's Warwickshire
Wikipedia: Sarehole
Wikipedia: Sarehole Mill
Birmingham Picture Library: Sarehole
Birmingham City Council: Sarehole Mill (w/map)
Birmingham City Council: The Shire Country Park
Birmingham City Council: The Shire Country Park: Tolkien Weekend
Birmingham City Council: Moseley Bog Local Nature Reserve
Shire Productions: Outdoor Theatre and Dramatisations of J.R.R Tolkien's Works
The Tolkien Society: Sarehole
Virtual Brum: Tolkien's Birmingham (pictures)
Tolkien Gateway: Sarehole
Tolkien Gateway: Sarehole Mill
Wikipedia: Edgebaston
Birminghamuk.com: Voice of the West Midlands
Birminghamuk.com: Edgebaston Tourist Information
Birminghamuk.com: Photographs of Edgbaston Birmingham
Birmingham Oratory
The Birmingham Oratory: Tolkien and the Oratory

Tours (Including Locations for the Films)
TheOneRing.net: Middle-Earth Tours
NewZealand.com: Lord of the Rings Tours
New Zealand Tourism Online: Lord of the Rings Tours
The Misty Mountains (Australia)

LOTR_Cipher Books

The Lord of the Rings (50th Anniversary Edition)
J. R. R. Tolkien
Rating:
The Fellowship of the Ring, part one of J.R.R. Tolkien�s epic masterpiece, fist reached these shores on October 21, 1954, arriving, as C. S. Lewis proclaimed, "like lightning from a clear sky." Fifty years and nearly one hundred million American readers later comes a beautiful new one-volume collector�s edition befitting the stature of this crown jewel of our list. With a text fully corrected under the supervision of Christopher Tolkien to meet the author�s exacting wishes, two large-format fold-out maps, a ribbon placemarker, gilded page edges, a color insert depicting Tolkien's own paintings of the Book of Mazarbul and exceptionally elegant and sturdy overall packaging housed within an attractive slipcase, this edition is the finest we�ve ever produced.
Click here to buy this book.

The Silmarillion
J. R. R. Tolkien
Rating:
The Silmarillion is J.R.R. Tolkien's tragic, operatic history of the First Age of Middle-Earth, essential background material for serious readers of the classic Lord of the Rings saga. Tolkien's work sets the standard for fantasy, and this version of the "Bible of Middle-Earth" does The Silmarillion justice, conveying all the powerful events and emotions that shaped elven and human history long before Bilbo, Frodo, Gandalf and all the rest embarked on their quests. Beginning with the Music of the Ainur, The Silmarillion tells a tale of the Elder Days, when Elves and Men became estranged by the Dark Lord Morgoth's lust for the Silmarils, pure and powerful magic jewels. Even the love between a human warrior and the daughter of the Elven king cannot defeat Morgoth, but the War of Wrath finally brings down the Dark Lord. Peace reigns until the evil Sauron recovers the Rings of Power and sets the stage for the events told in the Lord of the Rings. This is epic fantasy at its finest, thrillingly and gloriously unabridged.
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Morgoth's Ring: The Later Silmarillion, Part One
(The History of Middle-Earth, Vol. 10)
J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien, ed.
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In Morgoth's Ring, the tenth volume of The History of Middle Earth and the first of two companion volumes, Christopher Tolkien describes and documents the legends of the Elder Days, as they were evolved and transformed by his father in the years before he completed The Lord of the Rings. The text of the "Annals of Aman", the "Blessed Land" in the far West, is given in full. And in writings never before published, we can see the nature of the problems that J.R.R. Tolkien explored in his later years as new and radical ideas, portending upheaval in the heart of the mythology. At this time Tokien sought to redefine the old legends, and wrote of the nature and destiny of Elves, the idea of Elvish rebirth, the origins of the Orcs, and the Fall of Men. His meditation of mortality and immortality as represented in the lives of Men and Elves led to another major writing at this time, the "Debate of Finrod and Andreth," which is reproduced here in full. "Above all," Christopher Tolkien writes in his foreword, "the power and significance of Melkor-Morgoth...was enlarged to become the ground and source of the corruption of Arda." This book indeed is all about Morgoth. Incomparably greater than the power of Sauron, concentrated in the One Ring, Morgoth's power (Tolkien wrote) was dispersed into the very matter of Arda: "The whole of Middle-earth was Morgoth's Ring." (From the book description)
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The War of the Jewels: The Later Silmarillion, Part Two
(The History of Middle-Earth, Vol. 11)
J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien, ed.
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In volumes ten and eleven of The History of Middle-earth, Christopher Tolkien recounts from the original texts the evolution of his father's work on The Silmarillion, the legendary history of the Elder Days or First Age, from the completion of The Lord of the Rings in 1949 until J.R.R. Tolkien's death. In volume ten, Morgoth's Ring, the narrative was taken only as far as the natural dividing point in the work, when Morgoth destroyed the Trees of Light and fled from Valinor bearing the stolen Silmarils. In The War of the Jewels, the story returns to Middle-earth and the ruinous conflict of the High Elves and the Men who were their allies with the power of the Dark Lord. With the publication in this book of all of J.R.R. Tolkien's later narrative writing concerned with the last centuries of the First Age, the long history of The Silmarillion, from its beginnings in The Book of Lost Tales, is completed; the enigmatic state of the work at his death can now be understood. A chief element in The War of the Jewels is a major story of Middle Earth, now published for the first time — a continuation of the great "saga" of Turin Turambar and his sister Nienor, the children of Hurin the Steadfast. This is the tale of the disaster that overtook the forest people of Brethil when Hurin came among them after his release from long years of captivity in Angband, the fortress of Morgoth. The uncompleted text of the Grey Annals, the primary record of The War of the Jewels, is given in full; the geography of Beleriand is studied in detail, with redrawings of the final state of the map; and a long essay on the names and relations of all the peoples of Middle Earth shows more clearly than any writing yet published the close connection between the language and history in Tolkien's world. The text also provides new information, including some knowledge of the divine powers, the Valar. (From the book description)
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The Shaping of Middle-Earth: The Quenta, the Ambarkanta and the Annals (The History of Middle-Earth, Vol. 4)
J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien, ed.
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This is the fourth volume of The History of Middle-earth, edited by Christopher Tolkien, the first two comprising The Book of Lost Tales Parts One and Two, and the third The Lays of Beleriand. It has been given the title The Shaping of Middle Earth because the writings it includes display a great advance in the chronological and geographical structure of the legends of Middle Earth and Valinor. The hitherto wholly unknown Ambarkanta, or "Shape of the World", is the only account ever given of the nature of the imagined universe, and it is accompanied by diagrams and maps of the world before and after the cataclysms of the War of the Gods and the Downfall of Numenor. The first map of Beleriand, in the North-west of Middle-earth, is also reproduced and discussed. In the "Annals of Valinor" and the "Annals of Beleriand" the chronology of the First Age is given shape; and with these are given the fragments of the translations into Anglo-Saxon made by Aelfwine, the Englishman who voyaged into the True West and came to Tol Eressea, the Lonely Isle, where he learned the ancient history of Elves and Men. Also included are the original "Silmarillion," written in 1926, from which all the later development proceeded, and the "Quenta Noldorinwa" of 1930, the only version of the myths and legends of the First Age that J.R.R. Tolkien completed to their end. As Christopher Tolkien continues editing the unpublished papers that form the bedrock from which The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion were quarried, the vastness of his father's accomplishment becomes even more extraordinary. (From the book description)
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J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography
Humphrey Carpenter
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Though he single-handedly gave a mythology to the English and was beloved by millions, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien remained refreshingly unchanged by his fame and fortune, living out his days simply and modestly among the familiar surroundings of Oxford College. Humphrey Carpenter, who was given unrestricted access to Tolkien's papers, brilliantly puts meat to the bones of the Tolkien legend in J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, offering a well-rounded portrayal of this quiet, bookish man who always saw himself first and foremost as a philologist, uncovering rather than creating the peoples, languages, and adventures of Middle-Earth. Carpenter chronicles Tolkien's early life with a special sensitivity; after losing both parents, Tolkien and his brother Hilary were taken from their idyllic life in the English countryside to a poverty-ridden existence in dark and sooty Birmingham. There were bright points, however. A social and cheerful lad, Tolkien enjoyed rugby and was proud of his gift for languages. It was also at this time that he met Edith Bratt, who would later become his wife. Academic life — both as a student and professor — is where this biography shines. Friendship with other men played a huge part in Tolkien's life, and Carpenter deftly reveals the importance these relationships — his complex friendship with C.S. Lewis, membership in the Inklings and the T.C.B.S. — had on the development of his writing. (Review by Amazon.com)
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The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien ed.
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Scholars and fans of the great mythologist will find a rich vein of information in Humphrey Carpenter's The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien was a prodigious letter writer all his life; the sheer mass of his correspondence would give pause to even the most stalwart archivist (one shudders to think what he would have done with e-mail). But with the able assistance of Tolkien's son Christopher and a healthy dose of determination, Carpenter manages find the cream of the crop--the letters that shed light on Tolkien's thoughts about his academic and literary work, as well as those that show his more private side, revealing a loving husband, a playful friend, and a doting father. The most fascinating letters are, of course, those in which he discusses Middle-Earth, and Carpenter offers plenty of those to choose from. Tolkien discussed the minutia of his legend--sometimes at great length--with friends, publishers, and even fans who wrote to him with questions. These letters offer significant insights into how he went about creating the peoples and languages of Middle-Earth. This new edition of letters has an extensive index, and Carpenter has included a brief blurb at the beginning of each letter to explain who the correspondent was and what was being discussed. Still, we strongly recommend buying the companion volume, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, in order to better understand the place these correspondents had in Tolkien's life and get a better context for the letters. (Review by Amazon.com)
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J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century
Tom Shippey
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In a wonderfully readable study aimed at not just the Tolkien fan but any literate person curious about this fantasy author's extraordinary popularity, British scholar Shippey (The Road to Middle Earth) makes an impressive, low-key case for why the creator of Middle Earth is deserving of acclaim. (Recent polls in Britain have consistently put The Lord of the Rings at the top of greatest books of the century lists.) Having taught the same Old English syllabus at Oxford that his subject once did, Shippey is especially well qualified to discuss Tolkien's Anglo-Saxon sources, notably Beowulf, for the elvish languages and names used in the fiction. The author's theory on the origin of the word hobbit, for example, is as learned as it is free of academic jargon. In addition, Shippey shows that Tolkien as a storyteller often improved on his ancient sources, while The Lord of the Rings is unmistakably a work of its time. (The Shire chapters, like Orwell's 1984, evoke the bleakness of late-'40s Britain.) In treating such topics as the nature of evil, religion, allegory, style and genre, the author nimbly answers the objections of Tolkien's more rabid critics. By the end, he has convincingly demonstrated why the much imitated Tolkien remains inimitable and continues to appeal. (Review by Amazon.com)
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J.R.R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-Earth
Bradley J. Birzer
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In a wonderfully readable study aimed at not just the Tolkien fan but any literate person curious about this fantasy author's extraordinary popularity, British scholar Shippey (The Road to Middle Earth) 2002 brought a bumper crop of spirituality-of-Tolkien books, no doubt fueled by the heightened interest generated by the new film series. Birzer's book differs somewhat from recent volumes on the Christian themes to be found in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien's spirituality, says Birzer, was not generically Christian but specifically Roman Catholic: the lembas that sustains the company represents the Eucharist; Galadriel and Elbereth exemplify traits of the Virgin Mary; and the company looks to the restoration of a kingdom similar to the Holy Roman Empire. The best chapter of Birzer's study explores how Tolkien's "sanctifying myth" was informed by such Roman Catholic beliefs; Tolkien told a Jesuit friend, for example, that the trilogy was "a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision." Other chapters place Tolkien more generally within the usual canon of 20th-century Christian humanists, including his on-again, off-again friend, C. S. Lewis. Birzer is a fine writer who does a wonderful job of integrating primary sources such as letters, reminiscences and journals into his text; he also includes glimpses of unpublished materials, such as a scuttled LOTR chapter about Sam, as well as Tolkien's little-known attack on Lewis, "The Ulsterior Motive." This is, overall, a fine tribute to the man who, Birzer suggests, "resuscitated the notion that the fantastic may tell us more about reality than do scientific facts." (Review by Publishers Weekly)
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LOTR_Cipher Books

The Two Towers - Howard Shore The Lord of the Rings: Motion Picture Trilogy Soundtrack
Howard Shore
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Howard Shore's music for the massively successful The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the first film chapter of Tolkien's Ring saga, won him the Oscar� for Best Original Score, something of a surprise given the music's ambitious scale and determinedly dark overtones, factors that handily blurred the line between typical film fantasy music and accomplished concert work.
Its sequel, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, takes the same, often Wagnerian-scaled dramatic tack, following the film's story line into even more brooding and ominous dark corners. Fellowships' Hobbit-inspired pastoralism is supplanted in Towers by rich ethnic textures that expand the musical scope of Middle-earth and the World of Men. The score's looming orchestral clouds are brightened by Shore's masterful choral writing, which infuses ancient liturgical influences with various solo turns by Isabel Bayrakdarian, indie-pop star Sheila Chandra, Ben Del Maestro, and Elizabeth Fraser.
The final chapter of Peter Jackson's sprawling adaptation of Tolkien's "Ring" trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King closes out one of the most accomplished cycles in cinema — and film music — history. As he's done for the saga's first two installments, composer Howard Shore has honed a mature, brooding orchestral masterpiece that's long on subtle shadings of mood and nuance, while eschewing the hollow bombast that's characterized all too many mainstream action and adventure films for three decades. Shore uses his preternatural understanding of orchestral timbres and their almost mystical connections with human emotions to close out this remarkable trilogy with a Wagnerian dramatic sweep, tempered by a distinctly modern, understated melodic sense that is Shore's alone.(Review adapted from Amazon.com)
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The Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship Of The Ring
(The Complete Recordings)
Howard Shore
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As fans of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy know, each film exists in two versions: the theatrical one and the extended one that appeared on DVD. This luxurious box set--which also comes with a detailed essay on the movie's musical themes — features the full extended score, so many cues not on the CDs of the individual movies are included. Granted, the majority of listeners will be perfectly happy with the shorter versions of the scores — it's a safe bet that most people can live without hearing, say, Ian McKellen's 35-second-long ditty "The Road Goes Ever On" at the beginning of "Bag End," or Viggo Mortensen's performance of his own composition, "The Song of L�thien," within the track "The Nazg�l." But if you're a completist and/or a devotee of Howard Shore's pounding tympani and overwhelming choral compositions (featured particularly prominently on disc 3, a large chunk of which is devoted to a battle scene), then this set is a dream come true. Audiophiles should note that the fourth disc, a DVD, offers the score in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Fire up those speakers so the whole Shire can hear! (Review from Amazon.com)
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The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers
(The Complete Recordings)
Howard Shore
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Where Fellowship Of The Ring dealt with the world of joyous hobbits and magical elves, Two Towers focuses on the decaying world of men, their desperate war against Saruman and Frodo's dreary journey through marshes and woods. Some lighter hobbit material provides a couple of comedic breaks during Merry and Pippin's storyline with Treebeard and the Ents, who are represented by a very particular sound texture of wooden percussion and a specific motif, which unfortunately mostly cut from the film, but which can be heard here in full form. All in all, there are over a dozen new themes and motifs in this expanded version to fill in the blank spots for Rohan, Gondor, Fangorn, Gandalf The White and Frodo. Very noticeable, and very appropriately, in the expanded score is the extensive exploration of the Isengard material, whose 5/4 pattern is very invasive, spreads throughout the score and tries to take over other thematic material. Orchestration and composition of the theme are expanded as well, it's not as isolated as in Fellowship anymore, it feels alot more active. Connected to that is Gandalf's resurrection. In "Gandalf The White", which heavily features unused music, the White Rider theme is introduced, which sounds like a beautiful, soaring contrast to the Isengard motif. Frodo and Sam's journey, as soon as they encounter Gollum, is slowly getting dominated by his music. The Pity Of Gollum theme, already present in more conventional form in Fellowship, gets some serious workout, and not only that; Howard Shore expands it and defines a distinct Gollum sound, together with the cembalon. This hammer dulcimer is the weapon of choice for Gollum's evil "Stinker" motif, one of the many new themes for Two Towers. It can be heard prominently in "Lost In Emyn Muil" and on bassoon at the end of "The Tales That Really Matter". The set encompasses three CDs plus a DVD-audio disc featuring the score in four superior sound configurations. (Review from Amazon.com)
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The Lord Of The Rings: The Return of the King
(The Complete Recordings)
Howard Shore
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The final film in The Lord Of The Rings blockbuster trilogy features the climax of the epic journey that brought Tolkien�s world before our very eyes. The Complete Recordings series featuring the soundtrack albums have been hits and award winners. This five-disc set caps off the "complete recordings" series, which offers extensive versions of Howard Shore's score for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Though it includes the climactic trek to Mount Doom, the overall mood is less dark than in The Two Towers. The London Philharmonic Orchestra handles the heavy lifting, with help from adult and children's choirs, and well-selected guest stars. Soprano Ren�e Fleming, for instance, lends a particularly eerie, otherworldly touch to disc 1's "The Grace of Und�miel," and disc 4's "Mount Doom" and "The Eagles." Meanwhile, flutist James Galway provides a quasi-spiritual counterbalance, a musical ray of hope on tracks such as disc 3's "The Mouth of Sauron." And of course, Annie Lennox's Academy Award�winning "Into the West" is here, incorporated in disc 4's "Days of the Ring." Finally, the fifth disc is a DVD-Audio that includes the score in super-duper surround sound. It may seem like overkill, but too much is never enough for LOTR fans — and besides, people buying this set are exactly the kind of people who own the type of equipment required to make disc 5 explode. Finally, the packaging includes new artwork and liner notes written by Doug Adams, an expert on the music from LOTR. (Review from Amazon.com)
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LOTR_Cipher Video

The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers (Platinum Series Special Extended Edition) The Lord of the Rings - The Motion Picture Trilogy
(Platinum Series Special Extended Edition, 2004)
Rating: Osiria IV bullet
The extended editions of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings present the greatest trilogy in film history in the most ambitious sets in DVD history. In bringing J.R.R. Tolkien's nearly unfilmable work to the screen, Jackson benefited from extraordinary special effects, evocative New Zealand locales, and an exceptionally well-chosen cast, but most of all from his own adaptation with co-writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, preserving Tolkien's vision and often his very words, but also making logical changes to accommodate the medium of film. While purists complained about these changes and about characters and scenes left out of the films, the almost two additional hours of material in the extended editions (about 11 hours total) help appease them by delving more deeply into Tolkien's music, the characters, and loose ends that enrich the story, such as an explanation of the Faramir-Denethor relationship, and the appearance of the Mouth of Sauron at the gates of Mordor. In addition, the extended editions offer more bridge material between the films, further confirming that the trilogy is really one long film presented in three pieces. The scene of Galadriel's gifts to the Fellowship added to the first film proves significant over the course of the story, while the new Faramir scene at the end of the second film helps set up the third and the new Saruman scene at the beginning of the third film helps conclude the plot of the second. To top it all off, the extended editions offer four discs per film: two for the longer movie, plus four commentary tracks and stupendous DTS 6.1 ES sound; and two for the bonus material, which covers just about everything from script creation to special effects. The LOTR extended editions without exception have set the DVD standard by providing a richer film experience that pulls the three films together and further embraces Tolkien's world, a reference-quality home theater experience, and generous, intelligent, and engrossing bonus features. (Review by Amazon.com)
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LOTR_Cipher Collectibles

Lord of the Rings 24" Balrog with Sound
The most anticipated Lord of the Rings figure of all time! The Fire Demon Balrog is over 20" tall with a 3-1/2 foot wing span. Comes complete with sword and whip. This fully poseable figure includes ball jointed shoulders, bendable elbows, swivel wrists, and more. The eyes and flames on his back 'glow' with LED lights inside. (From the product description. Note that the red aura has been added for clarity against the black background and is not present in the actual product. Please read Amazon description and reviews before purchasing.)
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The Lord Of The Rings Fellowship Of The Ring 10" Sauron Deluxe
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The great evil who is seeking to rule Middle Earth has been masterfully crafted into a 10" action figure. Adorned in intricately detailed armor, Sauron features 16 points of articulation. He holds his evil mace and wears a shrouded back cape. Sauron wears "the one ring to rule them all," which is lost when his fingers are realistically severed. His eyes light up red as he electronically speaks four different phrases from the movie.
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The Lord of the Rings: The One Ring The One Ring
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One Ring to Rule Them All. One Ring to Find Them,
One Ring to Bring Them All, And in the Darkness Bind Them!
The One Ring...Isildur's Bane, the Ring of Power...forged in the fires of Mount Doom by Sauron himself! Now you, too, can be a Ringbearer, if you dare...
Bearing the Black Speech of Mordor, transcribed into beautiful, flowing Elvish script which is laser engraved, these rings are reproductions of the One Ring you have seen in the movies, and are fully licensed by New Line. The Elvish script is both inside the rings as well as outside. Displayed in a rich wood treasure box, a certificate of authenticity accompanies this recreation of the One Ring to Rule Them All from The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Now available in different sizes!
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