So Much Ado At Middle-earth on Xenite.Org

I haven’t had much time to update this blog over the past couple of weeks because I have been busy writing articles for the Middle-earth Website at Xenite.Org. The good news is that there are now many new original articles on the site besides the archives for my old Suite 101 essays and the Middle-earth Talk Radio episodes.

These new articles tackle a lot of fan questions about J.R.R. Tolkien and Middle-earth. But rather than just answer the questions I thought it would be interesting to let the answers wander a bit into some of the research I used to love to do. So far reactions have been positive (despite not eliciting many comments on the blog).

By my count I have so far been able to publish 39 of these Q-and-A articles. I’m surprised I made it this far, to be honest. The editorial calendar is still pretty full and that will probably detract from my blogging on SF-Fandom (or posting much in the forums) but I’ll try to spend time on this domain each week.

Here are the thirty-nine articles published so far:

• Who Made the Rings of Power
• Was Tolkien a Christian?
• In What Order Should J.R.R. Tolkien’s Books Be Read?
• Who Does Sam Marry in The Lord of the Rings?
• Who Are the Orcs in the Lord of the Rings?
• Are the Nazgul Really Afraid of the Water?
• Who Is Radagast the Brown?
• Who Is Gandalf Stormcrow?
• Why Does Gandalf say “Fly, you fools”?
• Is Tolkien’s Rohan Similar to Germany?
• When Does Gandalf Die?
• Who is Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings?
• Where Is Rivendell in Middle-earth?
• Where Did J.R.R. Tolkien Get His Inspiration?
• Where Do Hobbits Come From?
• Is There Money in Middle-earth?
• When Is Bilbo Baggins’ Birthday?
• Where On Earth Was Middle-earth?
• Legolas Will Be In The Hobbit Movie But Is Legolas In The Hobbit Book?
• Why Did Tolkien Write The Lord of the Rings?
• How Long Did It Take J.R.R. Tolkien to Write The Lord of the Rings?
• Were the Dunlendings and the Wild Men of the Hills the Same People?
• Did the Eotheod Worship the Valar or Have a Religion?
• Is Rohan Anglo-Saxon?
• What Are Dwarves Trading with the Shire?
• How Much of the Fourth Age of Middle-earth Did Tolkien Write About?
• Do Tolkien’s Elves Have Pointy Ears?
• What is The Name of Isildur’s Wife?
• Why Did The Elves Leave Middle-earth?
• Do The Rohirrim of Rohan Use Boats?
• Is Middle-earth Real?
• Did the Dunedain Have Marriage Customs Concerning Close Kin?
• Where Did Tolkien Get His Names From?
• Where Did Aragorn Come From?
• Where Does Elrond Live and Who Does Elrond Live With?
• Did Fëanor Make All the Palantirs?
• Where and When Did The Hobbit Take Place?
• What Does The Name of Girion Mean?
• Why Did Tolkien Write The Hobbit?

These are real questions that fans ask. Funny thing about the question “Who is Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings?”, I didn’t realize until after I wrote the article that the question was probably about the actor who played Aragorn in “The Lord of the Rings” (for the record, Viggo Mortensen played Aragorn in “The Lord of the Rings”).

I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep up this pace. It’s pretty grueling but the Middle-earth Website is publishing around 15 articles a week, most of them new.