How We Got Here: the History of Rings Of Power — Lord of the Rings Rings of Power on Amazon Prime News, JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit and more | TheOneRing.net

The debut of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Prime Video is in many ways a new age of Middle-earth adaptation. Set firmly in the Second Age, thousands of years before the events of the The Hobbit. This TV series sets out to explore the the age of settlements in Middle-earth […]

Ren Faires, Robin Hood, and the Merry Month of May

Throughout our adult lives, the New York Renaissance Faire has been something for my sister and I to look forward to every year. When we could afford to, we would often go every weekend during its run. But even when we were broke, we managed to make it at least once a year, usually because

Happy Tolkien Reading Day!

This post contains spoilers for both the book and film versions of The Lord of the Rings. March 25th is Tolkien Reading Day, because that’s the day J. R. R. Tolkien gave for the climactic event of his epic fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings, when the One Ring went into the fire and the

Another Tolkien-themed Birthday!

This post contains spoilers for both the book and film versions of The Lord of the Rings. Some of you may recall that for my 50th birthday I decided to celebrate Hobbit-style, since Bilbo and Frodo were both fifty years old when they each set out on their respective adventures. Well, my sister’s birthday was on

A Few of My Favourite Things, Part I

One of the things I love about blogging is that I get to tell perfect strangers all about the things I love. Imagine trying to do that during a long flight, or sitting in the waiting room of the doctor’s office. The difference is that I don’t have a captive audience. This blog is more

That Time I Got So Skinny So Fast I Was Afraid I Had Cancer

For most of my adult life I’ve had sit-down jobs. In fact, for almost a decade I worked as a customer service representative in a call centre, which meant that I was basically tied to a desk for 90% of my work day, not counting the hour I spent sitting down to eat my lunch,

Thousands gathered at Stonehenge to celebrate the annual winter solstice. — Stonehenge Stone Circle News and Information

Crowds came together for the biggest gathering at Stonehenge since the pandemic began. Thousands of people gathered at Stonehenge on Wednesday morning to celebrate the annual winter solstice. The event, which marks the first sunrise after the longest night of the year, saw 2,500 people visit the World Heritage site in Salisbury – the largest gathering at […]

Christkindlesmarkt

If I ever get to visit Germany before I die, it will probably either be for Oktoberfest in München (Munich) or for the Christkindlesmarkt in Nürnberg (Nuremberg). Since it’s nearly Christmas I’ll be talking about the latter in this post. For those who don’t know, the Christkindlesmarkt is a Christmas Market named for the Christkind,

Medieval Carpenters — A Writer’s Perspective

Bradford on Avon Tithe Barn Exterior We’re back with medieval crafts and trades this week, looking at carpenters. There have always been carpenters. Two thousand years ago, Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, was a carpenter and there were carpenters two thousand years before him. Their craft remained unchanged for centuries. We know that carpentry […]

The Animated Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings

Here’s something I don’t think I’ve mentioned about myself before: I love animation. I have ever since I was a child, watching Saturday-morning cartoons on network television, and going to see Disney’s Bambi and Dumbo at the movies with my mother. So I’m a huge fan of Netflix’s Castlevania, and I’m eagerly looking forward to