Podcasts about Gondor

In this episode, Grant and Jay explore the intriguing history of the Seeing Stones of Gondor and Arnor. Stick around to the end for a brief discussion on why we wouldn't have seen any Palantir in the Hobbit movies!Check us out on Goodreads:Grant: www.goodreads.com/user/show/175355524-grant-mulderJay: www.goodreads.com/user/show/61189862-jay-benedictContact us at exploringmiddleearthpod@gmail.comFollow us on Instagram! @exploringmiddle_earthFollow us on X! @ExpMiddleEarth https://twitter.com/ExpMiddleEarthConnect with us on myspace: https://myspace.com/exploringmiddle-earthMusic: Adventure (remaster) by Alexander Nakarada (https://www.creatorchords.com)Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

What really happened during the Third Age of Middle-earth—the age of fading kingdoms, rising shadows, lost heirs, and the One Ring's long road back into history? In this episode, Craig and Gaurav dive into the Third Age of Tolkien's Legendarium, exploring the major events that shaped the world leading up to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. From the aftermath of Isildur's victory and the loss of the One Ring, to the decline of Arnor, the strength of Gondor, and the slow return of Sauron, this discussion connects the deep history behind Tolkien's most famous stories. We look at how kingdoms rose and fell, why Gondor's golden age mattered, how Rohan was founded, and why the choices of figures like Isildur still echo thousands of years later. The episode also touches on characters, legends, and adaptations connected to the wider mythology, including Talion and the legacy of shadow in Middle-earth. Whether you're a longtime Tolkien fan or just beginning your journey beyond the films, this episode offers an accessible guide to one of the most important periods in Middle-earth history. Join us as we unpack the politics, wars, bloodlines, betrayals, and ancient powers that define the Third Age. If you enjoy deep dives into Tolkien lore, Middle-earth history, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and fantasy worldbuilding, make sure to like, subscribe, and let us know what topic we should explore next.   Don't forget I have a Youtube Membership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbp8JMZizR4zak9wpM3Fvrw/join or my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pacificwarchannel where you can get exclusive content like "What if Japan invaded the USSR during WW2?"

Jay and Grant discuss the Golden Age of Gondor during the reign of the four Ship-Kings. From crazy cat ladies to triumphant victories, this episode covers it all.Check us out on Goodreads:Grant: www.goodreads.com/user/show/175355524-grant-mulderJay: www.goodreads.com/user/show/61189862-jay-benedictContact us at exploringmiddleearthpod@gmail.comFollow us on Instagram! @exploringmiddle_earthFollow us on X! @ExpMiddleEarth https://twitter.com/ExpMiddleEarthConnect with us on myspace: https://myspace.com/exploringmiddle-earthMusic: Adventure (remaster) by Alexander Nakarada (https://www.creatorchords.com)Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! With new perspective comes new insight, and we've got two brand new POV characters today! Maggie's Comet Corner returns to help us make sense of Theon's Freudian violence and Davos' prophetic doubts. Cam takes a closer look at Martin's narrative structure and stumbles upon an illuminating Tolkien comparison. We may have our first glimpse of Gondor and Rohan! Finally, we wrangle up all the creeping supernatural elements in this series and finally confront the many gods of Westeros. Are any of them real? How can we be sure? Does it even matter? Finally, we wrap up the discussion by revisiting and revising a few of our ongoing theories. LINKS: Patreon, YouTube, Spotify, Instagram Feedback & Theories: secondbreakfastpod@gmail.com

„Crimson Desert“ stellt unsere Kritier-Runde vor ein Problem: Wie kann es zugleich so gut und doch so schlecht sein? Oder ist das schon falsch rum und es ist einerseits so schlecht, aber dann doch wieder so gut? In jedem Fall ist das Umfangsmonster eines der faszinierendsten Spiele, die uns seit langem vor die Flinte gekommen sind: Unerträgliche Hauptstory, geradezu dreister Spielzeitbedarf und unfassbar viele kleine und große Probleme. Aber andererseits so viele Details, so viele Systeme, so viel was man tun kann, erleben kann und anstellen kann. Manchmal sogar in einer Art und Weise, die Sinn ergibt. Oft aber auch einfach nur so. Aber gerade dieses „nur so“ ist wiederum eines der besten „nur so“ die es je gab. Mit welchen Bewertungs-Kunstgriffen diese Widersprüche aufgelöst werden, erlebt ihr in dieser Folge. PS: Wir haben die Streicher-Auflösung am Ende ganz vergessen. Hier ist sie, direkt von Dom: „Wie auch Aragon sich seiner Hauptquest (König von Gondor werden) entzogen und sich im Wald herumgetrieben hat, habe ich das auch für mich als Spielspaßmaximum entdeckt“ Timecodes: 00:00:00 - Einleitung 00:07:26 - Prämisse, Story, Grundlegendes 00:39:07 - Skilltree, Ausrüstung, Outfits 01:09:03 - Kampfsystem 01:30:11 - Die Spielwelt, Quests 01:56:13 - Bugs, Verbrechen, Stealth 02:10:44 - Fazit In dieser Folge zu hören: Karsten Scholz, Dom Schott & Andre Peschke Ab mit euch und Abo aboschließen! https://www.gamespodcast.de/abo

Theoden has arrived too late. He's cut off from Gondor by an army of orcs...then he meets Ghân-buri-Ghân, who really just wants to never have to talk to any of these people again.Support the showBlue Sky - https://bsky.app/profile/wordsaboutbooks.bsky.socialDiscord - https://discord.gg/6BaNRtcP8CThreads - https://www.threads.net/@wordsaboutbookspodcastInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/wordsaboutbookspodcastBlog - https://blog.wordsaboutbooks.ninja/

In today's Daily Fix:The role of Aragorn, son of Arathorn II, and heir to the Kingdom of Gondor, will be recast in the upcoming film, The Hunt for Gollum. No specific reason was given, however Viggo Mortensen, who played Aragorn in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy, did express interest in returning. Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in trilogy and is set to direct this new film, has said casting is already underway for a new actor. In other news, the Dead by Daylight developers have spilled the secret into creating a hit live-service game: don't make a live-service game. Or at least, don't set out to make one, just make a game with a fun gameplay loop, and live-service elements can come later. And finally, we celebrate the anniversary of an oft-forgotten Star Wars game.

durée : 00:11:55 - Les Enjeux internationaux - par : Guillaume Erner - Les dépêches sont tombées à l'aube et elles sont mauvaises. Cette nuit, les armées du Mordor ont franchi les lignes de l'Ithilien. Les avant-gardes orques ont été signalées à moins de vingt lieues de Minas Tirith. Le Grand Intendant Denethor a convoqué en urgence le Conseil de Guerre du Gondor. - réalisation : Félicie Faugère - invités : Anne Besson Professeure de littérature comparée à l'université d'Artois, spécialiste des littératures de l'imaginaire

The armies of Sauron have crossed the river. Denethor is unhappy to say the least.Support the showBlue Sky - https://bsky.app/profile/wordsaboutbooks.bsky.socialDiscord - https://discord.gg/6BaNRtcP8CThreads - https://www.threads.net/@wordsaboutbookspodcastInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/wordsaboutbookspodcastBlog - https://blog.wordsaboutbooks.ninja/

Der Montag stürmt die Kalenderblätter wie einst die Reiter von Rohan die Pelennor-Felder und das kann nur eines bedeuten: Gondor ist gerettet und Dom Schott blickt ein weiteres Mal gemeinsam mit euch in die neue Woche. Welche Spiele erscheinen? Was ist euer Blick und eure Zeit (höchstwahrscheinlich) wert? Und was hat es mit diesem Jesus-Simulator auf sich? All das und noch ein bisschen mehr steckt in dieser neuen Ausgabe OK MÜD. Prost und los geht's! Spiele der Woche (30.-05.04.): Bloodletter (30.03. (EA), PC) Legends of the Round Table (31.03., PC) Crown of Creed (31.03., PC) Clean Up Earth (02.04., PC) All Will Fall (03.04., PC) Seltsamster Titel der Woche: I Am Jesus Christ (02.04., PC)

“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.” That's what the Lord Jesus promised His disciples. How does His word, with support from fantastical fiction, help us prepare for armed conflicts across our real world? Episode sponsors The Star-Blessed by Angie Dickinson Realm Makers 2026 Conference & Expo The Hole-Man by Dan Daetz Above the Circle of Earth by E. Stephen Burnett Mission update New at Lorehaven: join the Lorehaven Authorship Subscribe free to get updates and join the Lorehaven Guild Quotes and notes The main relevant fact admitted by all parties is that war is very disagreeable. The main contention urged as fact by Pacifists would be that wars always do more harm than good. How is one to find out whether this is true? It belongs to a class of historical generalisations which involve a comparison between the actual consequences of some actual event and a consequence which might have followed if that event had not occurred. “Wars do no good” involves the proposition that if the Greeks had yielded to Xerxes and the Romans to Hannibal, the course of history ever since would have been perhaps better, but certainly no worse than it actually has been; that a Mediterranean world in which Carthaginian power succeeded Persian would have been at least as good and happy and as fruitful for all posterity as the actual Mediterranean world in which Roman power succeeded Greek. My point is not that such an opinion seems to me overwhelmingly improbable. My point is that both opinions are merely speculative; there is no conceivable way of convincing a man of either. C. S. Lewis, “Why Am I Not A Pacifist” 1. Great stories show us that war is hell. Answer to Stephen's earlier question: all great stories need conflict. Without any conflict, no fights, battles, war, sin, we'd have no story. (Side thought: without the Fall, fiction as we know it couldn't exist.) Yes, we do love stories that are so focused on war that the word is right in the title: Star Wars, World of Warcraft, Warhammer 40,000. But it's vital for stories to show conflict/war as somewhat realistic. People die and do not return. Wounds hurt. War-“glory” is fleeting. And of course, folks start or fight in wars for very corrupt reasons. 2. Stories also show wars can be necessary. God Himself, as Author of the Story, allowed/planned for conflict. The very existence of fiction reminds us conflict serves a purpose. Folks uncomfortable with war often find ways to like these stories. This might indicate that even they know conflict has some purpose. Few critics would reasonably dispute (by faithful in-universe terms) the justifiable causes of the Federation, Fremen, or Men of Gondor. Deep Christian traditions of “just war theory” often supports them. Villains have many motives, but often can be stopped only by force. 3. Best of all, stories help us long for peace. Having shown war as hell, but also necessary, stories can do more. The best ones remind us that all conflict and war is temporary. At our best, we as fans aren't mercenaries who live for the fight. We do want that redemptive, happy ending for heroes, already! … At least, until the next war-story reminding us that it's not yet. Most stories hold this happy end always out of reach, off the page. Others, chief among these the biblical Story, directly promise this. Com station Top question for listeners What are your favorite war-stories and why? Fans like Luke liked exploring pros/cons of adaptation: Our kids usually prefer books to their screen adaptations, but were very disappointed by the Mary Poppins books. The Disney adaptation took a lot of liberties, but it also made Poppins more likeable and wisely left out pagan elements of the story. Next on Fantastical Truth This month's Project Hail Mary film is being praised as a fresh, thrilling sci-fi take that is wholesome and sincere. As expected, we're seeing more fantastical fans cry out for stories that celebrate the human spirit. Why do we love these stories? And how do different fan trends, even across whole generations, keep swerving between positive portrayals and other stories that may be called “realistic” or else “cynical”?

Good day to you, I say, fair folk of the internet, and welcome to the character creation episode for my next solo podcast series of The One Ring 2e by Free League Publishing.   This is a short episode I'm putting out because things have gotten a little out of control here in March for me, and will continue to be for April, so please be patient with my episode releases for the next month and a half, but!   Let's make a character for a new game! If you want to add ideas or throw out potential cool locations/scenes/anything from your favorite bits of Middle Earth lore, be sure to join me for my 2nd Twitch Stream coming up Monday March 30th!   Anyway, hopefully I get the rules of this character creation right, but we have the following cool guy for this upcoming series:   Iorlas, Ranger of the North, Dunedain & descendant of the Numenoreans that sailed to the shores of Middle Earth fleeing the fall of Numenor. He is a capable Ranger, a Messenger that travels the land to spread word and ensure that the Free Folk of the world are ready for the spreading shadow from Mordor...   He wields a famous ancient blade of the Numenoreans known as Nimloth's Tear, foe-slaying blade to Evil Men and Undead, forged to harken the silver light of Telperion of old, what would be the light of the white tree of Gondor.   Very excited to tell a story in Middle Earth! I hope you're excited to hear :)   ----more---- Join the DMs After Dark Discord channel!   I made a Ko-Fi if you feel absurdly generous and want to help cover podcast hosting costs & all the upkeep. I'm still working on whether I want to offer anything special over there or just give my extreme gratitude (maybe some stickers or something in the mail) to those who donate, but no pressure whatsoever :)   Where to Follow Rene Plays Games: LinkTree |  BlueSky | Threads | Instagram | Facebook | DMs After Dark Rene's Games: MECH | MECH Cities 2 | One Last Quest | I Know I Know You, But I Don't Know How... email: RenePlaysGamesPod@gmail.com   Music in the Episode (in order of appearance): Windswept Realms Vol. III by Vindsvept Rene Plays Games Theme written & produced by Dan Pomfret | @danfrombothbands

Opening Exercise: The audio will lead you through a series of moves from the beginning of a game. At a certain point, one player will make a mistake and it'll be your job to find the move to punish it. To learn more about Don't Move Until You See It and get the free 5-day Conceptualizing Chess Series, head over to https://dontmoveuntilyousee.it/conceptualization PGN for today's exercise: Fauris vs gioser093 (Lichess, 2020) e4 e5 2. f4 d6 3. Nf3 Nd7 4. Nc3 Be7 5. d4 exd4 6. Qxd4 Ngf6 7. e5 dxe5 8. fxe5 Ng8 9. Bc4 a6 10. O-O Bc5 11. Bxf7+ Kxf7 12. e6+ Kxe6 13. Ng5+ Ke7 * And the answer is... Re1+ Kf8 15. Ne6+ Ke7 16. Nxd8+

In this episode, we dig into two crucial scenes: the iconic formation of the Fellowship and the bridge-side tryst between Aragorn and Arwen. Drawing from both book and film, we examine what's gained (and lost) when Tolkien's deep lore is streamlined for cinema. We also look at: Who actually attended the Council of Elrond Boromir's famous “Gondor has no king” line—book vs. film debate Why Gimli's axe-to-the-ring moment feels out of place How Arwen and Aragorn's romance changes when moved from appendix to film The effects of missing characters like Bilbo and Glorfindel Become a member at https://theonering.com/members or https://theonering.com/patreon to hear our thoughts on: Listener questions: Is Lurtz a good addition—or does he rob Aragorn of a key moment? The origins of the Uruk-hai – sci-fi or fantasy? How “meat's back on the menu” could've been more lore friendly The looming Hunt for Gollum trilogy—how much story is really there? How an Aragorn biopic could finally do the ranger justice BECOME A MEMBER! Get access to the extended edition of this podcast, our private Discord chat, and live chats. You can also join for $5 a month on Patreon

In this episode, we explore the rich themes, memorable characters, and powerful symbolism of J.R.R. Tolkien's iconic trilogy. Whether you're a dedicated fan or new to Middle-earth, these insights will deepen your appreciation and inspire your own journey of purpose and resilience.Key Topics:Overview of the setting in Middle-earth and the significance of the final chapterMain characters: Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Gollum, and villains like Sauron and DenethorThemes of good versus evil, hope, sacrifice, and identityThe symbolism of the ring, White Tree of Gondor, eagles, and morePersonal reflections on how the story's lesson on purpose, hope, and identity apply to lifeThe importance of perseverance, humility, and supporting rolesQuotes that capture the essence of heroism, hope, and resilienceRemember, the journey through Middle-earth is much like our own life: filled with challenges, growth, and hope. Embrace your purpose and step into your true identity—just like Aragorn, Frodo, and Sam.

Aquesta setmana, A les Portes de Troia, recuperem el programa que vam fer en directe al Totencat. La nostra visió del passat està segrestada per Hollywood, novel·les de ficció i, sobretot, pel teu cunyat a la sobretaula. Que si a l'edat mitjana no es dutxaven, que si els romans tenien un "vomitòrium", que si tothom es pensava que la Terra era plana... Avui venim a fer neteja! Parlem del presentisme i l'arrogància amb què mirem el passat; desmuntem tòpics, des del fals marbre blanc de l'Antiguitat a la llegenda negra l'edat mitjana; i parlem de la mentida històrica com a arma política: de la construcció de l'alteritat a la pel·lícula 300 al mite. Com utilitzem l'engany històric per dibuixar un enemic i justificar la visió occidental i capitalista del món. En aquest programa especial en directe des del festival Totencat (Figueres), ens acompanya el gran amic del programa, el nostre capità de Gondor, Patrick Urbano.

Hoy no es un episodio más.Hoy llega alguien que ha conquistado el cine mundial.

We finish our look at Men of the Third Age as The Man of the West reviews the history of the Éothéod, their steadfast alliance with Gondor, and their move to the northern vales. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join The Man of the West for another — this time more thorough — look at the name of Gondor's hottest surf spot, Belfalas, along with other places we've encountered in our journey through Gondor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join The Man of the West as we reach the far shores and conclude our 21-week journey through the regions of Gondor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We continue our study of the Men of Middle-earth, this time looking at the ancestors of the Rohirrim, known early on as the Northmen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join The Man of the West as he looks at the etymology of a few more of the rivers and towns in Gondor, continuing our journey west through the land. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join The Man of the West as he continues his journey through Gondor, looking at Lamedon, the Morthond Vale, and the uniquely-named ridge that separates the two. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Fellowgroup continued their journey southward towards Gondor. As their guide for this leg of their journey, Guy struggled to navigate the area, but they finally made it to the large hill of Amon Hen. Yolo spotted a stone seat at the peak and rushed up to it, while Denethea trudged after him in a sour mood and GanDelf remained ethereally aloof. Adam took over as the hunter after criticizing Tyler's ability to only find watermelons, but then he could only find melons too, so he disguised them as eggs. As they argued about the source of the supposed eggs, an arrow struck Guy's hand. Can the Fellowgroup escape an ambush by orcs? Featuring players Tyler Hewitt, Del Borovic, Guy Bradford, and Adam McNamara, and Lore Master Tom McGee.Jesters of Middle-earth streams live every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET on Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/dumbdumbdice)Enjoying Jesters of Middle-earth? - Consider supporting the show for as little as $1 a month to get BTS fun, an ad-free feed, and even add your own character to the podcast! (https://dumbdumbdice.com/join)- Buy merch on our website (https://dumbdumbdice.com/)- Follow us on social media: @dumbdumbdice- Watch our video episodes on YouTube (https://youtube.com/@dumbdumbdice) Artwork by the brilliant Del Borovic- Website & Portfolio (https://delborovic.com/), @deltastic on socialsTheme song by Sound Gallery by Dmitry Taras- YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@soundgallerybydmitrytaras)- Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/music/fantasy-dreamy-childrens-dark-mysterious-halloween-night-scary-creepy-spooky-horror-music-116551/)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Join The Man of the West in his journeys…um, west… through the southern fiefs of Gondor, as he looks more closely at the home of Imrahil known as Dol Amroth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt and Daniel are joined by Rabbi David Mivasair to read the day's events right-to-left with a man who knows from Torah. They cover deadly phones, coordinated state terror messaging, and journey east of Gondor into Mordor to poke at the eye of Ungar-Sargon.Please donate to Connecting Gaza: https://www.connectinggaza.org/New Bad Hasbara Merch: https://estoymerchandise.com/collections/bad-hasbara-podcastSubscribe to the Patreon https://www.patreon.com/badhasbaraWhat's The Spin playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/50JoIqCvlxL3QSNj2BsdURSkad Skasbarska playlist: http://bit.ly/skadskasbarskaSubscribe/listen to Bad Hasbara wherever you get your podcasts.Spotify https://spoti.fi/3HgpxDmApple Podcasts https://apple.co/4kizajtSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/bad-hasbara/donationsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Join The Man of the West as he continues his journeys in southern Gondor, moving into the green fields of Lebennin where the people are hardy and numerous. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Man of the West is far, far too familiar with the truth of today's title, which is actually Tolkien's explanation for some of the place names in Gondor on this week's Word-nerd Wednesday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode Matt, Evan, Rainier, Mik and Alisher talk about Rainier's journey returning to the game and review the Gondor profiles and corresponding legions. We talk about the lists' competitive viability and overall enjoyment!

You've made it to the end.The Return of the King brings together every storyline, every character arc, and every hard choice that's been building since The Fellowship of the Ring. Kings rise, wars are fought, sacrifices are made — and suddenly everyone matters.If you've ever thought, “Wait… who is this again, and why are they important?” — this episode is here to help.In this episode of Fantasy for the Ages, Jim delivers a clear, spoiler-lite Who's Who of The Return of the King, focusing on the characters who define the end of the age — who they are, what role they play, and why Tolkien's Lord of the Rings ending hits as hard as it does.We'll cover:• Aragorn stepping fully into destiny• The leaders of Gondor and Rohan• Frodo and Sam at the limits of endurance• The growth of Merry and Pippin• Tragic figures, unlikely heroes, and the true cost of victoryThis episode is perfect if:• You're reading Tolkien for the first time and want clarity• You're revisiting the books and want a refresher• You've seen the movies but are tackling the novels• You want understanding without appendices or lore overload

What happens when evil isn't fully defeated? Thomas Salerno, Pat Mason, and Jeff Haecker finish their discussion of The Silmarillion as they unpack Isildur's failure, Gondor's long decline, and the fading of the Elves. The Third Age asks a hard question: is victory ever final? The post The Silmarillion: Of The Third Age appeared first on StarQuest Media.

Join The Man of the West as he begins the 14th Series of Today's Tolkien Times with a look at the region of South Ithilien. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam look back at the year that was, look ahead to the year that's to come, and answer (excellent!) listener questions. Topics include the status of democracy in absolute monarchies like Gondor, connections between Tolkien and Lovecraft, the history of Galadriel, our favorite movies of 2025, Reddit comments about the podcast, and our predictions for 2026 elections in the US and abroad.Further reading/listening:Our episode with Rob TallyOur episode with Lee KonstantinouOur episode with Ali MirzabayatiKonstantinou - Mythic Capital: How Tolkien is Whispering in the Ears of America's Most Powerful MenSemley (Wired, 10/25) - Elon Musk Really Doesn't Get The Lord of the RingsPagliarini (Dissent, Fall 25) - Lula's Unfinished DemocracyHartrich (Journal of Social History, Fall 24) - The Boundaries of Popular Control in Late Medieval English TownsHill - The Century of Revolution: 1603-1714Livingston - Bloody Crowns: A New History of the Hundred Years WarTooze - The Wages of DestructionKenny's Letterboxd | Sam's LetterboxdLeave us a review! Send us an email at entmootpod@gmail.com! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This holiday season we are back to dive into one of the biggest trilogies of all time in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings! Jordan and Colin join Edwin and Alex to break down The Fellowship of the Ring, the first installment from Peter Jackson that kicked it all off in 2001. After discussing our personal backgrounds with the movie and going over the basics we discuss: - The most important scenes to us (22:05) - Delightful moments (39:44) - Best decision by a character (58:43) - Worst decision by a character (1:03:25) - Best specific fight moves (1:09:22) All that, plus the greatest death on film, how to re-cast this to make it bad, favorite lines, where we'd live in Middle Earth, and so much more. So put on your mithril vestments, catch the Bucklebury Ferry, and blow the horn of Gondor to kick off a sprawling epic! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Fellowgroup haven't made any friends in Rivendell. Adam's kin saw through his lies and beat him up until someone brought news that Grungus Took was nearby, Guy discovered that saying the name J.R.R. Tolkien injured his fellow elves, and at the Gondor camp, Denethea declared she wanted the ring for herself, then stabbed Del when Tyler said it wasn't theirs to give to her. Del and Tyler were saved by the arrival of Gandalf, and once the wizard got the troupe alone, he revealed that he knew they didn't belong in Middle-earth and produced The Fellowship of the Ring on DVD. Does this mean the troupe will finally learn the story they're stuck inside?Featuring players Tyler Hewitt, Del Borovic, Guy Bradford, and Adam McNamara, and Dungeon Master Tom McGee.Jesters of Middle-earth streams live every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET on Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/dumbdumbdice)Enjoying Jesters of Middle-earth? - Consider supporting the show for as little as $1 a month to get BTS fun, an ad-free feed, and even add your own character to the podcast! (https://dumbdumbdice.com/join)- Buy merch on our website (https://dumbdumbdice.com/)- Follow us on social media: @dumbdumbdice- Watch our video episodes on YouTube (https://youtube.com/@dumbdumbdice) Artwork by the brilliant Del Borovic- Website & Portfolio (https://delborovic.com/), @deltastic on socialsTheme song by Sound Gallery by Dmitry Taras- YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@soundgallerybydmitrytaras)- Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/music/fantasy-dreamy-childrens-dark-mysterious-halloween-night-scary-creepy-spooky-horror-music-116551/)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Fellowgroup arrived in Rivendell and met people who seemed to know them! Guy learned that he's immortal, his father is the king of Mirkwood, and the other elves want Yolo's ring for themselves. Del gave Tyler relationship advice about the Arwen situation before they met Denethea, daughter of the Steward of Gondor. Once Tyler assured her that he didn't want to claim any throne, Denethea spoke about her brothers, Faramir and Boromir, and their fixation on the ring. Adam, meanwhile, cornered himself into improvising the tale of his supposed escape from the Lonely Mountain, but is he clever enough to avoid exposing them all as imposters?Featuring players Tyler Hewitt, Del Borovic, Guy Bradford, and Adam McNamara, and Dungeon Master Tom McGee.Jesters of Middle-earth streams live every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET on Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/dumbdumbdice)Enjoying Jesters of Middle-earth? - Consider supporting the show for as little as $1 a month to get BTS fun, an ad-free feed, and even add your own character to the podcast! (https://dumbdumbdice.com/join)- Buy merch on our website (https://dumbdumbdice.com/)- Follow us on social media: @dumbdumbdice- Watch our video episodes on YouTube (https://youtube.com/@dumbdumbdice) Artwork by the brilliant Del Borovic- Website & Portfolio (https://delborovic.com/), @deltastic on socialsTheme song by Sound Gallery by Dmitry Taras- YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@soundgallerybydmitrytaras)- Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/music/fantasy-dreamy-childrens-dark-mysterious-halloween-night-scary-creepy-spooky-horror-music-116551/)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on The Infinite Library, we answer Gondor's call for aid and discuss "The Return of the King" with Nate Schmidt of Gamers with Glasses. We've been there and we're nearly ready to go back again, so please join us to discuss the conclusion of The Lord of the Rings!As always, we hope that you enjoy the conversation.

With Frodo lost to the flood, the remainder of the Fellowgroup headed to Rivendell, following Arwen, who had stormed off after Tyler couldn't recall her name. When they arrived at the Elvish sanctuary, Arwen informed them that there would soon be a meeting to discuss the ring. But in the meantime, Adam and Guy's respective kin were waiting for them, a delegation from Gondor would be eager to learn that Tyler was alive, Yolo's father was drunk and making a scene, and no one seemed to recognize Del. Can Wet Change convincingly improvise their way through reunions with friends and family they've never met?***Del's character played by Tom this episode while she's out sick***Featuring players Tyler Hewitt, Del Borovic, Guy Bradford, and Adam McNamara, and Dungeon Master Tom McGee.Jesters of Middle-earth streams live every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET on Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/dumbdumbdice)Enjoying Jesters of Middle-earth? - Consider supporting the show for as little as $1 a month to get BTS fun, an ad-free feed, and even add your own character to the podcast! (https://dumbdumbdice.com/join)- Buy merch on our website (https://dumbdumbdice.com/)- Follow us on social media: @dumbdumbdice- Watch our video episodes on YouTube (https://youtube.com/@dumbdumbdice) Artwork by the brilliant Del Borovic- Website & Portfolio (https://delborovic.com/), @deltastic on socialsTheme song by Sound Gallery by Dmitry Taras- YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@soundgallerybydmitrytaras)- Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/music/fantasy-dreamy-childrens-dark-mysterious-halloween-night-scary-creepy-spooky-horror-music-116551/)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We continue our Aragorn series this week. We cover his early life and meeting Arwen. Some deep details on who 'the wise' are, some of the areas in Gondor are fleshed out, and a good sprinkling of philology as always.

In this week's episode, we take a look at creating good backstories for characters and how that can advance the plot. We also discuss two articles about the problems of generative AI. This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebook versions of books in the Sevenfold Sword series at my Payhip store: SEVENBOOKS The coupon code is valid through October 13, 2025. So if you need a new ebook this fall, we've got you covered! Here are links to the articles mentioned in the episode. Writer Beware: https://writerbeware.blog/2025/08/01/return-of-the-nigerian-prince-a-new-twist-on-book-marketing-scams/ Ed Zitron: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-haters-gui/ TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 271 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is October 3, 2025, and today we are looking at how to create character backstories. We'll also look at some good articles about the problems created by generative AI technology. If you hear occasional drumming noise in the background, it seems like the elementary school a few blocks from here is practicing their marching band. Hopefully it won't be too disruptive. First off, let's start with Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebook versions of books in the Sevenfold Sword Series in my Payhip store, and that coupon code is SEVENBOOKS. And as always, the coupon code and the link to my Payhip store will be available in the show notes. This coupon code will be valid through October the 13th, 2025. If you need a new ebook for this fall, we have got you covered. Now let's have a progress update on my current writing projects. As of this recording, I am 83,000 words into Cloak of Worlds, which will be the 13th book in the Cloak Mage series. I'm thinking the book will end up about 110,000 words, so hopefully I will finish up the rough draft next week. We'll see how things go. I'm also 8,000 words into Blade of Shadows, which will be the sequel to Blade of Flames from last month, and that will be my main project once Cloak of Worlds is published (hopefully by the end of October, if all goes well). In audiobook news, I'm very pleased to report that recording and all the work is done on Ghost in the Siege (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) and we will actually close out this episode with a preview from that audiobook. It's currently up on my Payhip store and probably Google Play as of this recording, but it should be showing up on all the other stores before too much longer. 00:01:52 Generative AI Now onto our next topic, which is two very good articles about the problems of generative AI I read recently. The first (and I'll have the links to both articles in the show notes) is from Writer Beware, which talks about how generative AI is causing a new round of super targeted scammers. These scammers feed your book into the chatbot, which then generates a highly personalized email praising the book and offering marketing services. I got a ton of these scam emails after Stealth and Spells Online, Ghost in the Siege, and Blade of Flames came out in the past couple months and a bunch more after Malison: The Complete Series did well on BookBub at the end of August. So if you are a writer and you publish a book and a few days later or perhaps even the very same day, you get a very detailed email praising the book with very specific plot points and offering marketing services, beware, it's probably a scam that will give you no value whatsoever for your money. Journalist Edward Zitron wrote a great article explaining in extensive detail why generative AI is a bad idea that's probably going to cause a serious market crash in the next few years. I admit I started out with a mildly negative opinion of LLM based generative AI tools in 2022 and 2023, but I wanted my opinion to be an informed one. I've experimented with them on and off and read a good bit about them and as I've experimented with them, my opinion has moved from mildly negative to highly negative and finally arriving at completely anti-AI this year. I never used AI for any of my books, short stories, or cover images. I experimented a bit with using AI images for Facebook ads, but people generally hated them, so I stopped entirely with that. In fact, Facebook ads have become far less effective this year because of all the AI stuff Meta has crammed into them, but more on that later. So why did I arrive at a highly negative opinion of AI? It's because these tools do not actually do what their advocates promise, they're hideously expensive to run, and the enormous costs and downsides significantly outweigh any benefits. In addition to the problems mentioned in the Zitron article like cost, false promises, economic bubbles, and the companies blatantly lying about their capabilities, I think the fundamental difficulty with generative AI is that it's essentially a cognitive mirror for its users, like a Narcissus Machine like I've called it before. What do I mean by this? In Greek myth Narcissus was enraptured by the beauty of his own reflection. LLM based AI is essentially very fancy autocomplete, which means it guesses the most likely response to your prompt based on a statistical likelihood. In other words, it ends up mirroring your own thoughts back at you. So I think LLMs are highly prone to inducing an unconscious confirmation bias in the user. Confirmation bias is a logical fallacy where one interprets new information as confirming one's preexisting beliefs. It's healthier to reevaluate one's beliefs based on new information that comes in, but with confirmation bias, you warp any incoming information to fit a preexisting belief. For example, let's say you have the preexisting belief that you're immortal and nothing can kill you, and then you accidentally shoot yourself in the arm with a nail gun and you bleed. The correct interpretation of this is no, you are not in fact immortal and you can in fact die. Someone suffering under confirmation bias would say the fact that they accidentally shot themselves in the nail gun in the arm with a nail gun and didn't die is proof that they're immortal. That's obviously a logical fallacy, but you see why it's called a confirmation bias. I think even highly intelligent people using LLMS are prone to this kind of confirmation bias because the AI model settles on what is the most statistically likely response to the prompt, which means that consciously or not, you are guiding the LLM to give you the responses that please you. This is why you see on the tragically hilarious side, people who are convinced they've invented a new level of physics with the LLM or taught it to become self-aware or think that the LLM has fallen in love with them. And on the outright tragic side, people who have serious mental breakdowns or blow up their lives in destructive ways because of their interaction with the LLM. Grimly enough, I suppose the problem is going to sort itself out when the AI bubble crashes, whether in a few months or a few years. As one of the linked articles mentioned, AI companies have no clear path to profitability, save for chaining together infinite NVIDIA graphics cards and hoping they magically stumble into an artificial general intelligence or a super intelligence. They're not going to and it's all going to fall apart. The downside is that this is going to cause a lot of economic disruption when it crashes. I know I'm very negative about AI, but in the end I see hardly any good results or actual benefits from the technology. Lots of technology products are becoming worse from having AI stuffed into them (like Windows 11 and Microsoft Office) and what a few good results have come about will not last because the data centers are burning cash like there's no tomorrow. So again, you can see the links to these articles in the show notes and those are my thoughts on generative AI at the moment. 00:07:04 Writing Backstory for Characters [Note: Contains some mild spoilers for early books in the Frostborn, Half-Elven Thief, The Ghosts, and Cloak Games series] Now let's move on to a happier and frankly more interesting topic and that is writing backstory for characters. I will define it, talk about why backstory is important, give three tips about writing effective backstories, and share examples of good backstories from my own work and other media. First of all, what is a backstory? It's what happens to a character before the story begins or details of situation that happens before the story begins. Very often you'll have characters who have preexisting pasts before the story begins. It's very rare the story will begin when the main character is born and go from there. Even if that is the case, then some of the supporting characters obviously will have backstories. One example of a backstory could be a detective who had a twin sister who is kidnapped, which explains why he gets overly invested when a similar case happens. An example of a location's backstory would be knowing that a particular country was once part of another one and split off after revolution or war. That detail influences how people in that country currently treat people in the other nation. And you can see that a backstory is also an important component of world building as well, especially for fantasy and science fiction novels, though even novels set in in the contemporary world like mysteries and contemporary romance will often have backstories as well that require world building, because the location is very often fictional or will have fictional elements to it. Now, why is backstory important? For one thing, it makes a story feel more realistic and “lived in”, for lack of a better word. It's not realistic that absolutely nothing of interest happened to the protagonist before the story begins, or that nothing from their past would influence their current beliefs, behavior, and decisions. Backstory also gives characters clearer reasons for doing things. Returning to the earlier example of detective who had a younger sister who was kidnapped. What if the detective was a very procedural and by the book until a sudden similar case happened? Backstory can explain his unorthodox methods and willingness to solve the case at any cost. Backstory can also drive the plot in many ways. Continuing with the detective example, the detective's knowledge of his little sister's case leads him to find similar patterns in the new case and sends him on a search to prove that the cases are connected. As we can see from that, backstory is also a good way to set up plot hooks for later characters, such as we could have our detective here with his twin sister who disappeared in circumstances similar to his current case. It could be a fantasy hero who had previous battles with orcs and explains why he doesn't like seeing orcs. It could be a contemporary romance heroine who is reencountering her old flame, in which case the backstory would be central towards the plot, essentially. And now for three tips for writing backstory. First, it's important to not stop the plot to reveal backstory. Infodumping is generally something to be avoided when you are writing a novel. A little bit of it is unavoidable, but you want to avoid infodumping as much as possible and to reveal only as much information as necessary, partly because that creates a less cumbersome read for the reader and partly because that can also inspire a sense of mystery that sort of helps hook the reader and propels them forward into the story. It's also good to only reveal backstory that serves the plot or provides key information. For example, you could have in your detective's backstory that he went to high school and he was only a mediocre student and graduated with a GPA of 2.9 while doing well in athletics. Unless that's actually relevant to the story or has some significance to the plot, it's probably best to not include that. You can always tell when a writer has done a lot of research on a particular topic like firearms or travel or the history of a particular country because they are going to put that information in the book whether you want it or not. And if you're inventing an elaborate backstory for your character, it's best to avoid that impulse and only bring in details from the backstory as necessary. It's also important not to have the characters tell each other backstory that they would already know. For example, if you have two characters who've been married for 20 years, it would not be good to have them appear in dialogue as, “As you know, beloved wife, we have been married for 20 years this Tuesday.” It would be better if it's important to the plot to reveal that information like they're going out to a 20th anniversary party or their friends are throwing them a 20th anniversary party, that kind of thing, rather than having it come out in sort of a cumbersome conversation like that. Additionally, it's also important to only do as much backstory as necessary. For your main character, you may need a good deal of backstory or for the antagonist, but for supporting characters, it's less important to have a fully realized background. You need just enough so that they feel realistic and can contribute to the plot without overburdening the plot with too many details. Now, a few examples from my own books, mild spoilers here, nothing major but mild spoilers. I have written characters who have one key backstory element that influenced the plot. Ridmark Arban from Frostborn would be one and his major backstory point is that he was unable to save his wife Aelia from being killed five years before the story starts. Later on, there would be additional backstory that comes out for him in relation to his father and his brothers, but that is the main backstory point that defines his character for easily the first half of the series. Another example would be Morigna, whose parents were killed by the dvargir and then she was raised by a mysterious sorcerer who called himself the old man. And that is a major defining part of her character, that backstory that happened before we meet her in the narrative. I've also written characters with a lot of backstory, and the chief example of that would be Calliande from Frostborn as well, where she wakes up in the first book with no memory of her past and discovering what her backstory actually is a major driving force in the first eight books of the series. So that is a good example. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but that is a good example of using backstory as a mysterious narrative hook to pull the characters forward. Rivah from Half-Elven Thief is another character of mine who has a lot of backstory. In the backstory, she was raised in a noble household, her mother died, her father was about to sell her into slavery, so she fled into the streets and then she met Tobell and became part of his thieving crew. Tobell suffered a serious injury, and the thieving crew broke up and Rivah had to sort of strike out on her own while coming under debt to the procurator Marandis. So there is a lot of backstory there and all of it is important to Rivah's character and I think I've done my best to sort of feed that into the story as necessary to drive the plot rather than hopefully unloading it all in a massive infodump. And I have written characters with very little backstory, and the prime example of those would be Caina and Nadia. In Caina's series, the series starts when she's 11 years old and living with her parents and we develop Caina as she goes along and follow her she grows to adulthood and then increasing prominence in her world. With Nadia, the very first scene in the book is her first day of kindergarten pledging allegiance to the flag, the United States, and the High Queen of the Elves, which is the first indicator that Nadia's world, while very similar as to ours, is nonetheless very different. Like Caina, the book's narrative starts when Nadia is very young and then we see her develop along the course of the books. In a good example of backstory used well from another book would be Aragorn from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, where Aragorn's backstory is extremely important because when the hobbits first meet him at The Prancing Pony in Bree, he's just this mysterious wanderer known as Strider. But later on, we learn that he's actually the last heir of Gondor and Arnor and the rightful king of Gondor. His desire to reclaim his heritage and fulfill the role destiny has prepared for him is a major part of his character and that actually grows organically out of his backstory. I'm not usually fond of prequels, but a good example of a prequel using backstory effectively would be the combination of the Andor TV show and the Rogue One movie, where they create this excellent backstory for the Star Wars movie [Episode IV]. They do it through good characterization so you can see all the motivations of the characters as they go about their various missions and errands. So hopefully that gives you a good look into the process of creating backstory and how best to use it for writing your own stories. So that is it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found this show useful. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes of the show at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week. And now let's close out with a preview of the audiobook of Ghosts in the Siege, as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy [audiobook excerpt follows].    

Buy Chris' book here (available in paperback, Audible or ebook): https://shorturl.at/N6AbXFool of a Took Socials: https://shorturl.at/92y3AThis week we're joined by the lovely lads Chris and Pat from the Fool of a Took Podcast. 4 Americans who have a similar goal to us. They bring you to Tolkien in a relaxed, accessible way!Join us for a good long chat about where they are in reading the books, gatekeeping in the Tolkien community (it's bad, don't do it), the history of the Stewards in Gondor, how middle-earth is a mad-max apocalypse, and so much more.Get them wherever you listen, but mainly on YouTube, as they're primarily a video podcast!

Send us a textWell met friends! In this episode of the Get Piped Podcast, Adam and Nick discuss Middle Earth's preeminent tobacconist from GondorIn the segments, Adam finds ranks LOTR Hell Yeah Brothers and then Adam and Nick choose some LOTR themed This or That's.Support the showPURCHASE BATTLE OF THE BRIAR FOREVER: Blu-Ray: https://getpiped.co/products/battle-of-the-briar or Digital Copy: https://www.patreon.com/GetPiped/shop/battle-of-briar-pipe-smoking-documentary-690160__________ Don't forget to subscribe/follow the GPP so you never miss an episode.We want to hear from you! If you have any further questions, comments, or recommendations, send them to show@getpiped.co.__________Follow Get Piped on Instagram. Follow Producer Guy on Instagram.Check out the Get Piped YouTube for more content.Join the Get Piped community Discord here.Support the GPP by joining the Patreon.Check out the Get Piped merch store.GPP is created by Adam Floyd (Get Piped)GPP is produced by Nick Masella (Producer Guy).Music for this episode is from StreamBeats.

Join The Man of the West for an in-depth look at each of the Beacon-hills of Gondor in this Middle-earth Map Monday, as we continue exploring Anórien. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Buy Chris' book here (available in paperback, Audible or ebook): https://shorturl.at/N6AbXThis week we cover the history of Umbar, the troubling region south of Gondor that gave birth to the most famous pirates in Middle-earth.

While today's title could describe The Man of the West's years in college, it's actually the narrative calling out a hobbit. Start this week with a Middle-earth Map Monday about the Beacons of Gondor! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join The Man of the West as he begins Series 12 of the TTT with a Middle-earth Map Monday on the region of Gondor known as Anórien. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this next installment of The History of Middle-earth, Jude and Stef chat about volume 8: The War of the Ring. Stef talks about Part 2, Chapter 5, “Faramir”, and Jude focuses Part 3, Chapter 9, “The Battle of the Pelennor Fields”. We discuss Tolkien's writing process, the character development of Faramir, Eowyn, and the Witch King, and the progression of thematic elements of Rohan and Gondor.  Citations:Brown, Sara. (2025, Aug 2). ““Her hair was held a marvel unmatched”: The Significance of Long, Blonde Hair in Tolkien's Imagination” [Paper presentation], Mythopoeic Society OMS 4 - Online MidSummer Seminar 2025 “More Perilous and Fair: Women and Gender in Mythopoeic Fantasy”, online. https://www.mythsoc.org/oms/oms-04.htmTolkien, J. R. R. The War of the Ring: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part Three. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. The History of Middle-earth: Vol. 8. Unwin Hyman, London, 1990.

One podcast episode to rule them all. Dan's brother Will joins Brian to hunker down and dig deep into Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. In this part 1, they give some background context on the info, then dive into Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. Dan, outed as a Tolkien skeptic in the podcast's previous episode of adaptations of the author's work (look up Animated Tolkien in our episode history), does his best to parse through the story and make sense of Tolkien's dense worldbuilding and bizarre naming conventions. Will offers the perspective an invested fan. Brian finds some middle ground. Join soon Part 2, which includes a discussion of The Return of the King and a review of some of the overarching elements of the trilogy. Dan's movie reviews: http://thegoodsreviews.com/ Subscribe, join the Discord, and find us on Letterboxd: http://thegoodsfilmpodcast.com/

The Steward of Gondor and the Lord of the Éothéod swear oaths to one another; Alan and Matt simply try not to swear at one another. Join us as Eorl knows it's time to ‘show the way and leave today' in the fifth of our six episodes covering Cirion & Eorl. The Prince of Dol Amroth discovers the reason for the awe on the Hill of Awe, Eorl swears such an oath that we can only ever know the translation, and Cirion returns the favor by invoking the name of Eru for the first time in 2500 years. We wonder if Eorl's oath was in alliterative verse, speculate about when to celebrate Rohan Day, and agree that Cirion is highly underrated. Also, let's make Christmas carols in Quenya a thing. Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/pony. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices