Preface (Please Read First)

As a youngster, I read The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings, which pulled me into The Silmarillion and later the broader legendarium. I loved the mystery and magic of it all. I reveled in how easily the live action LOTR films rekindled my wonder at Tolkien’s world. Fast forward through decades of life and adulthood: I was excited for The Rings of Power, but tempered by the protective dissociation of experiencing life as an adult human in our world. As I watched the series, I rediscovered that long-buried imagination and wonder. It lit something fundamental within me. I realize how silly it sounds to describe a television show in that way, but here we are.

Inspired by the kindred joy I witnessed among fellow fans, I made a Threads account (@loquendinerdiae) simply to share my joy at rediscovering this core part of my self. My mind delighted in tinkering with this puzzle of different crafts — music, cinema, storytelling, acting, writing, literature. For the first time in literal decades, I indulged this silly, joyful pursuit—the first thing I’d done purely for fun, purely for me, in my adult memory.

I spend so much of my life reigning in the natural proclivities of my brain; it feels liberating to fully indulge a hyper focus, allowing my brain to exercise its capacity for pattern recognition and imagination without restraint, and importantly without judgment. It feels healing to embrace myself in this way, and more so because it connects with this deep childhood experience of Self that existed (in the words of Emily McDowell) before the world got its hands on me.

So I’m writing this for myself, for fun, and for anyone who wishes to engage with the material with joy and enthusiasm. I am no expert on Tolkien. I love making connections between the show and the lore, but I’m rusty and will miss things or get things wrong. I’m writing about my own very specific perspectives on the show, ideas which tickled my brain and inspired me to revisit my love for literary analysis.

Please do not read further if you’re not willing to engage with my work in joy and good faith. I’m not writing this to debate the quality of the show or inconsistencies in the lore. ****I’m writing this for myself, and to share joy.

If you do choose to read this, please interpret all of it through the lens of a youngster for whom this has sparked an important inner journey of re-membering: a literal reintegration of disconnected pieces of myself, long faded in the graying influence of life’s hard realities.

Please leave behind your criticism, skepticism, and realism. Please bring your unabashed wonder, imagination, creativity, and joy. Please be gentle with me.

And please enjoy.

NEXT: Ring Composition In The Rings Of Power

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface (Please Read First)

Ring Composition in The Rings of Power

Galadriel and Sauron: Reflecting Narrative Rings

A Note On Sauron’s Repentance

Missing Pieces

In The Sea

Elements of Myth and Symbol

</aside>

Back to Home