Today's Tolkien Times
Episodes
Week 12 - Mailbag Monday: Far-Sundered Places
14 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West starts off this week of the TTT with a… clarification, an addendum, a follow-up on dragons’ ability to carry treasure. He also...
Week 11 - Silmarillion Saturday: She Was Not Conquered
12 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Join The Man of the West for the bittersweet conclusion of Húrin’s tale as he reads from both The Silmarillion and The Children of Húrin versions ...
Week 11 - Fandom Friday: Happy Hobbit
11 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West is joined by published author, filmmaker, YouTuber and all-around amazing person Kellie Rice on this week’s Fandom Friday.Check ...
Week 11 - Third Age Thursday: Tinúviel Was Dancing There
10 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
One advantage of hosting your own show is that you can cheat a little: join The Man of the West as he manages to get a First Age story in on a Third A...
Week 11 - Word-nerd Wednesday: Hot As a Glede
09 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In a TTT first, The Man of the West reads a word on Mailbag Monday and dives into its etymology on Word-nerd Wednesday. Join him as he butchers Middle...
Week 11 - Tolkien Tuesday: Fatal Attraction
08 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Join The Man of the West as he takes a deeper look into Tolkien’s process of writing the Appendices, as seen in the Letters and Carpenter’s biogra...
Week 11 - Mailbag Monday: There’s A Little Black Spot on the Sun Today
07 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West starts Week 11 off with Isildur, the King of Gondor Pain, and a closer look at why the One Ring hurts him, but not Frodo. Also: an...
Week 10 - Silmarillion Saturday: Thrall of the Valar
05 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Join The Man of the West as he continues Húrin’s tale after his capture by Morgoth. You think it was brave to fight an endless horde of Orcs? Try f...
Week 10 - Fandom Friday: Teaching With Magic
04 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West is joined by Elise Trudel Cedeño from Teaching With Magic, who has cleverly found a way to use Tolkien — and other fantasy lite...
Week 10 - Third Age Thursday: No Good Roastin’ ‘Em Now
03 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The talking purse is off discussing his future with his agent while the trolls continue to fight — and capture dwarves. The fight continues until da...
Week 10 - Word-nerd Wednesday: Melodramatic Chestnuts
02 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West visits Turkey, Greece, and a 19th century Boston theater to find out the meaning of a word we all thought we already knew. Learn m...
Week 10 - Tolkien Tuesday: A Great Deal Better Than I Feared
01 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Tolkien loves the new dust jackets, is pleasantly surprised by the reviews, and stands by C.S. Lewis. The Man of the West reads the 1954 equivalent of...
Week 10 - Mailbag Monday: The Other Shelves of the West
31 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West starts a new week of Today’s Tolkien Times by visiting the second half of The Shelves of the West! Learn more about your ad choi...
Week 9 - Silmarillion Saturday: Aurë Entuluva!
29 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Indeed, day will come again — but it may be a long time before our featured character feels anything but darkness. Join The Man of the West as he re...
Week 9 - Fandom Friday: The Silmarillion Primer and Jeff LaSala
28 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West welcomes writer, editor, and Dungeon Master extraordinare Jeff LaSala to the TTT to talk about the publication of his Silmarillion...
Week 9 - Third Age Thursday: Not Drawing-Room Fashion At All, At All
27 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Join The Man of the West for more villain dialog — this time from everyone’s three favorite trolls: Bert, Tom, and Bill. And don’t forget the ta...
Week 9 - Word-nerd Wednesday: “Confusticate and bebother these dwarves!”
26 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West opens up the OED and The Ring of Words to help shed light on these fantastically descriptive words from The Hobbit. Learn more abo...
Week 9 - Tolkien Tuesday: I Wisely Started With a Map
25 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Tolkien explains the importance of cartography, expresses fears about hack critics, returns some. very ugly dust-jacket proofs, and promises to not be...
Week 9 - Mailbag Monday: The Shelves of the West
24 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West opens this new series of Today’s Tolkien Times by answering the most-asked question so far on the TTT: can you show us your libr...
Week 8 - Silmarillion Saturday: Trouble in Paradise
08 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West wraps up the first 8-week series of Today’s Tolkien Times by finishing the story of Aulë and Yavanna. Now that the Dwarves are ...
Week 8 - Fandom Friday: ArdaCraft — Recreating Middle-earth Brick by Brick
07 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West is joined by Fornad, the project lead for ArdaCraft, a truly massive project creating the whole of Middle-earth in Minecraft! Lear...
Week 8 - Third Age Thursday: Antiquated Information
06 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We rejoin Bilbo as he wraps up his chat with Smaug: something he should have done with four fewer words. But it’s not all bad: he’s caught Smaug m...
Week 8 - Word-nerd Wednesday: The Bane of My Existence
05 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A quick study of lingustic dilution: or how Modern English has taken a word meaning “a worker of death” and turned it into a word meaning “that’...
Week 8 - Tolkien Tuesday: A Real Snorter
04 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Alan wraps up this first series’ Tolkien Tuesdays with a last look at the pre-publication challenges Tolkien faced with The Lord of the Rings. Title...
Week 8 - Mailbag Monday: Dragon Logistics
03 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West begins the week with a question about how Smaug might transport treasure. Claws like spears, sure… but what about opposable thum...
Week 7 - Silmarillion Saturday: Aulë, You’re Grounded
01 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West wraps up this week of Today’s Tolkien Times by beginning a two-part look at one of his favorite tales in The Silmarillion: Of Au...
Week 7 - Fandom Friday: Is There Really a Dwarf of the Year Award? There Should Be.
30 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West welcome Varking Runesong to Today’s Tolkien Times to chat about Rings of Power, Reddit, and building community everywhere we go,...
Week 7 - Third Age Thursday: Bad Guys Always Have the Best Lines
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West embraces his inner villain with a fun reading of his second-favorite dragon in Middle-earth, as he begins a two-part passage in Th...
Week 7 - Word-nerd Wednesday: Archaic and Derogatory — A Halfling at Heart
28 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In today’s Word-nerd Wednesday, The Man of the West looks at the RPG industry’s favorite legal word for hobbit: “halfling”. Also, I’m still ...
Week 7 - Tolkien Tuesday: A Very Bad Time Indeed
27 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A closer look at the conversation between Tolkien and Unwin regarding a problem Tolkien hadn’t had before: titles for all three volumes. Also, the B...
Week 7 - Mailbag Monday: The State of the Show Address
26 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West starts out the week by answering some questions about Today’s Tolkien Times, including whether he’ll ever take time off or run...
Week 6 - Silmarillion Saturday: SPBMI Explained
24 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West wraps up this week’s Today’s Tolkien Times by reading from the Ainulindalë in The Silmarillion and explaining that weird acro...
Week 6 - Fandom Friday: Magic Man, Magic Cards
23 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Obscure Lord of the Rings Facts Guy takes a few minutes away from TikTok to visit with The Man of the West on today’s Fandom Friday. And, with M...
Week 6 - Third Age Thursday: Namarië!
22 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West concludes his time in Lórien by waving farewell to the Lord and Lady, and trying desperately to read Quenya like a boss. Diving i...
Week 6 - Word-nerd Wednesday: Eald Enta Geweorc (Yes, That’s English)
21 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Trolls, ogres, and Ents, oh my. The Man of the West dives into Old English and Old Norse to pull together a couple of ENT-eresting words in this week’...
Week 6 - Tolkien Tuesday: You Want HOW Much for That Book?
20 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West continues to tell the story of how The Lord of the Rings finally got published: today, the issue of cost, and a decision by Rayner...
Week 6 - Mailbag Monday: Mission:Impossible — Gollum’s Escape From Moria
19 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s Tolkien Times begins its sixth week with a close look at all of Gollum’s options for escaping Moria and following the Company: windows, fo...
Week 5 - Silmarillion Saturday: Tuor Meets Ecthelion
17 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West returns to Unfinished Tales to complete the tale of Tour’s arrival to the Hidden Kingdom, as he meets Ecthelion, Lord of the Fou...
Week 5 - Fandom Friday: Silmarillieanne
16 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West welcome TikTok’s Silmarilleanne to Today’s Tolkien Times to chat about her lore videos, the Tolkien fandom, and cosplay — St...
Week 5 - Third Age Thursday: The Gifts of Galadriel, part 2
15 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West reads about Galadriel’s gift to Gimli, bringing to light a bit about Fëanor to help explain its significance. He also looks at ...
Week 5 - Word-nerd Wednesday: A Fellowship of Philology
14 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Join The Man of the West as he dives into Old English and Old Norse to explore this week’s word: fellowship. Quick question: how many times does the...
Week 5 - Tolkien Tuesday: Don’t Drop the Ball
13 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Tolkien is free to take The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion to another publisher: so what happened? How Collins dropped the ball for two years,...
Week 5 - Mailbag Monday: Reading Order for All Things Tolkien
12 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s Tolkien Times starts the week off with The Man of the West answering a question about the best order in which to read Tolkien: chronological...
Week 4 - Silmarillion Saturday: Tuor and the Orfalch Echor
10 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West opens up Unfinished Tales for today’s Silmarillion Saturday, as we journey with Tuor through the first few gates of the Orfalch ...
Week 4 - Fandom Friday: A Long-Expected Guest
09 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s Tolkien Times welcomes the composer, musician, and engineer behind the incredible project, A Long-Expected Soundscape: Jordan Rannells! For ...
Week 4 - Third Age Thursday: The Gifts of Galadriel, part 1
08 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s Third Age Thursday finds the Company on the banks of the Great River, drinking the cup of farewell with the Lord and Lady! Learn more about ...
Week 4 - Word-nerd Wednesday: Tracking Down a Ranger
07 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Track down another word in the wilderness by using all your tracking and hunting skills — because this Word-nerd Wednesday is all about the ‘range...
Week 4 - Tolkien Tuesday: The Professor’s Ultimatum
06 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It is 1950, and Tolkien is growing ever more frustrated with Rayner Unwin, thinking that he has another publisher ready to publish The Silmarillion on...
Week 4 - Mailbag Monday: When Was the Rammas Echor Really Built?
05 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West starts the week with Mailbag Monday and a question about the wall surrounding the Pelennor Fields: when was it built, and who was ...
Week 3 - Silmarillion Saturday: When the Lights Go Down in the City
03 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The city of Valmar, that is. The Man of the West reads about the Darkening of Valinor and the theft of the Silmarils in this week’s Silmarillion Sat...
Week 3 - Fandom Friday: Kaitlyn from Tea With Tolkien
02 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West welcomes Kaitlyn to the Common Room for some Tea — with Tolkien, of course — in this week’s installment of Fandom Friday! Le...
Week 3 - Third Age Thursday: A Proper Fourteen-Twenty
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s time to visit the Shire again, as Sam uses Galadriel’s gift to restore his homeland. Join The Man of the West as he reads and chats about S.R...
Week 3 - Word-nerd Wednesday: Say ‘Friend’ and Enter
31 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West digs deep into linguistic journals to explore all about Gandalf’s far-too-simple magic password in another installment of Word-n...
Week 3 - Tolkien Tuesday: No Just Grievance
30 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Join the Man of the West as he continues reading Tolkien’s Letters, exploring more of the drama between the Professor and two publishers on Tolkien ...
Week 3 - Mailbag Monday: Whatever Happened to Radagast?
29 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West begins another week of Today’s Tolkien Times with an interesting, albeit officially unanswerable, question for Mailbag Monday as...
Week 2 - Silmarillion Saturday: The Creation of the Silmarils
27 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West concludes another week of Today's Tolkien Times by going back to the creation of the Silmarils on Silmarillion Saturday! Learn mor...
Week 2 - Fandom Friday: Jeremy Edmonds from Tolkien Collector's Guide
26 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome another guest to Today's Tolkien Times on Fandom Friday as The Man of the West is joined by Jeremy Edmonds from Tolkien Collector's Guide. Lea...
Week 2 - Third Age Thursday: Isildur's Redemption
25 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Join The Man of the West for another Third Age Thursday, as he goes back to the very beginning of the Third Age to explore Isildur's redemption. Learn...
Week 2 - Word-nerd Wednesday: Sauron and Saruman
24 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Join the Man of the West for another Word-nerd Wednesday, complete with bonus! That's right, it's a double Word-nerd Wednesday as we dive into the nam...
Week 2 - Tolkien Tuesday: More Publishing Drama
23 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The drama between Tolkien, Sir Stanley Unwin, and Milton Waldman continues as The Man of the West reads and discusses Tolkien's Letters. Learn more ab...
Week 2 - Mailbag Monday: Is Dior mortal or immortal?
22 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to Today's Tolkien Times! The Man of the West begins the week with Mailbag Monday and a question regarding Dior, the son of Beren and Lú...
Week 1 - Silmarillion Saturday: The Making of the Trees
20 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Man of the West wraps up the TTT's inaugural week by going back to the making of the Trees on our first Silmarillion Saturday! Learn more about yo...
Week 1 - Fandom Friday: Matt from The Nerd of the Rings
19 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today's Tolkien Times continues its first week, with the debut of the Fandom Friday segment: today, with Matt from The Nerd of the Rings! Learn more a...
Week 1 - Third Age Thursday: The Beauty of the Shire
18 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The inaugural week of the TTT moves on into the Third Age, as the Man of the West reads and chats about some of the travels of Frodo, Sam, and Pippin ...
Week 1 - Word-nerd Wednesday: Dwarves
17 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Join the Man of the West for the debut of Word-nerd Wednesdays, this time going all the way back to the PPP's first Philology Faire to learn more abou...
Week 1 - Tolkien Tuesday: Not Letter #131
16 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The first week of the TTT continues as The Man of the West dives into Tolkien's Letters volume to learn more about Tolkien's efforts to get The Silmar...
Week 1 - Mailbag Monday: Who Put the Ring On a New Chain?
15 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the first week of Today's Tolkien Times! The Man of the West starts off the TTT's inaugural week with Mailbag Monday and a question about t...
Trailer and Launch Announcement!
08 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Join Alan, The Man of the West from The Prancing Pony Podcast, as he introduces his new daily project: Today's Tolkien Times. Listeners get answers o...