The Wisdom of the Shire

* From the years 1930 to 1947 J.R.R. Tolkien and his family lived at 20 Northmoor Road, Oxford. It was in the drawing room of this house that Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and nearly all of The Lord of the Rings.

* The Shire is divided up into four parts called “farthings” (another Old English word) consisting of East, West, North and Southfarthing. Hobbiton is in the Westfarthing.

* Buckland, where the famous Brandybuck family hails from, is like a tiny sovereign nation and is not “officially” part of the Shire. It lies on the eastern edge of the Shire and is bordered by the River Brandywine on one side, and the Old Forest on the other.

* In some parts of ancient Britain, Neolithic people lived in crude underground homes dug into the sides of hills. These may have been the inspiration for Tolkien’s Hobbit-holes.

* Drogo Baggins was Frodo’s father. He and Frodo’s mother Primula died in a boating accident.

* Simon Dale is building a new house as part of the Lammas Project, a low-impact ecovillage in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It’s a sustainable community where the residents grow their own food, pool resources and build homes from materials at hand, very much like in the Shire of Middle-earth. You can learn more at lammas.org.uk.

* Upcycling: the process of converting waste products or useless materials into something of greater value and benefit to the environment.

* Tolkien’s house had originally been designed for Basil Blackwell, owner of Oxford’s most famous bookstore and publishing house. B.H. Blackwell Publishing gave Tolkien his first break in 1915 by including his poem “Goblin Feet” in an anthology called Oxford Poetry. At the time Tolkien was only twenty-three years old.

* The span of time between the beginning of The Hobbit and the end of The Lord of the Rings is exactly eighty years.

* What did Orcs eat? Man-flesh and other Orcs! When marching they drank a thick dark alcohol to give them vigor. They forced this down Merry’s and Pippin’s throats and it filled them with a “fiery glow.” It was Orc energy drink!

* While Tolkien was a professor at Oxford one of his favorite hangouts was the pub called The Eagle and Child (known to locals as “The Bird and the Baby”). Here his group of writer friends known as The Inklings (along with the creator of the Narnia books C. S. Lewis) would have lunch and a few pints and discuss the stories they were writing.

* Locavore: a person interested in eating foods that are locally grown and produced.

* In Southampton, England, is a pub called The Hobbit where you can get drinks with names like “The Frodo” (double vodka, peach schnapps, cranberry juice, lemonade) and sing your favorite Elvish lay at “Tom Bombadil’s Cabaret Open Mic Night.”

* Who was Sauron? In the ancient days of Middle-earth the great villain of The Lord of the Rings was an angelic creature and a student of the god of invention. Seduced by evil, Sauron used his crafty skills to make the Rings of Power, which were intended to enslave the races of Middle-earth. After losing the One Ring, Sauron forsook his form and his spirit took flight. The disembodied Dark Lord of Mordor was incapable, therefore, of enjoying strawberries and cream.

* Recipe for “Hobbit Stout and Mushroom Soup”

Serves 4 Humans (or 2 hungry Hobbits)

2 medium-sized sweet yellow onions

5 cloves of garlic

4 Tbsp butter

3 stalks of celery (diced)

3 carrots (minced)

1 tsp fresh rosemary (or ½ tsp dried)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 lb crimini mushrooms

1 lb portabella mushrooms

3 Tbsp flour

3 cups of veggie broth

³⁄₄ cup of stout beer (I use a local microbrew from Seattle—Elysian Brewery’s Dragonstooth Stout in a soupy salute to Bilbo’s part in the defeat of Smaug)

1½ cups whole cream

Note: The alcohol from the stout is mostly burned off during the cooking of the soup. But if you want it to be totally alcohol-free merely skip the addition of the beer. The soup will be just as delicious and still fit for a Hobbit.

1. Sauté the onions and garlic in butter for a few minutes. Add the celery and carrots along with the spices and cook until tender.

2. Add the mushrooms. Once they have started to cook down and get juicy, blend in the flour and stir for two minutes.

3. Add the broth and the stout and simmer for 20 minutes. (Drink the rest of the stout that’s left in the bottle while you cook.)

4. Take out half of the soup, purée it in a blender, and then put this back in the pot. (Skip this part if you don’t have a blender. Your soup will be chunkier but just as good.) Simmer for 10 minutes.

5. Add the cream to the soup. Let simmer for 15 minutes or until you just can’t wait any longer because it smells so good.

6. Serve to your fellow Hobbits with bread and cheese. Accept their praise with modest smiles and nods of the head. Do not leave any leftovers!

* Gollum was around five hundred years old when he and Bilbo had their riddle contest.

* In The Hobbit Gollum is described as having pockets in which he kept the bones of fish and the teeth of goblins, a hunk of bat wing and “a sharp stone to sharpen his fangs on, and other nasty things.”

* The “golem” of Jewish lore was created from dust or mud and animated by inscribing a special word in Hebrew on its forehead, or by writing the word on a piece of paper and putting it in its mouth.

* The Ringwraiths (or Nazgûl) were ancient kings who had been tempted by Sauron with the gift of magical rings, binding their spirits to him even after they died. They had to do whatever the Dark Lord commanded; and he in turn was helpless without them. They were Middle-earth’s ultimate codependents.

* When playing Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, actor Andy Serkis’s throat became so raw from doing the character’s strained voice he had to concoct a special drink called “Gollum juice” made of honey, lemon and ginger.

* The blind fish living in Gollum’s subterranean pond were his favorite food. But he also ate young goblins he caught and strangled, calling them “squeakers.”

* Sauron ended up letting Gollum go free, hoping the obsessed creature would lead him to Bilbo and the One Ring. But the wily Gollum was too “tricksy” even for the Dark Lord.

* Aragorn—whom Gandalf calls “the greatest traveler and huntsman of this age”—was the one who finally tracked Gollum down and captured him. According to Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales, Aragorn led Gollum nine hundred miles to the Elven-king’s home in Mirkwood. The journey lasted fifty days, making Aragorn the dubious winner of the “I spent the most time with Gollum” award.

* Gollum, once a Hobbit-like creature, had become a nocturnal cave dweller. He hated the sun, and also the light of the moon calling it, “White Face.”

* Flet: the name for an Elven platform built high in a tree. After the first night sleeping high in a tree in Lothlórien, the Elves made up sleeping places for the Hobbits on the ground with soft couches, which suited the Shire-folk greatly.

* “Never laugh at live dragons!” became one of Bilbo’s mottos. And this is a good motto for us all.

* The New Zealand weta (a kind of cricket) freezes every night in a state of chilled slumber, only to awake the next morning with the sun. Weta is also the name of Peter Jackson’s special effects company (wetafx.co.nz)

* Frodo was actually seeing a flashback, because Gandalf was rescued by Gwaihir the Windlord eight days before the Hobbit’s dream.

* The Istari were the agents of the Valar—the god-like beings who inhabit the Undying Lands. The Istari were sent to Middle-earth in the Third Age (the period of Middle-earth history in which The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place) to oppose the regeneration of Sauron. Gandalf the Grey was one of these heavenly messengers of hope.

* Palantir: one of the “seeing-stones” used by the ancient Númenóreans to communicate with each other across vast distances. Sort of like the “video chat” of Middle-earth.

* Aragorn used an herb called “kingsfoil” to induce this mystical dreamworld connection and cure Éowyn, Faramir and Merry from the Black Breath of the Ringwraiths.

* The Dúnedain were the descendants of the ancient mortals called the Númenórians. The name means “Man of the West.”

* “Strange as news from Bree” was an old saying in the Eastfarthing. Men who passed near the Shire were turned away by Hobbits called “Bounders.” The Hobbits didn’t know it but the mysterious Rangers had been protecting the Shire for years.

* Arkenstone: also called “The-Heart-of-the-Mountain,” the white gemstone found by the Dwarves in the center of the Lonely Mountain and part of Smaug’s hoard. It shined like “snow under the stars, like rain upon the moon.”

* Tom Bombadil was based on the character of Väinämöinen from the Finnish national poem The Kalevala.

* Sam named this pony “Bill” and the horse ultimately got his revenge against his namesake Bill Ferny, literally kicking the Man out of the Shire at the end of the tale with a well-placed hoof.

* Both Faramir and his father Denethor called Gandalf “Mithrandir” which is the wizard’s Elvish name.

* Théoden was mortally wounded when his beloved horse, Snowmane, shot dead by a Ringwraith’s dart, fell and crushed him. Snowmane was interred on the spot—honored with a burial mound and a poem. (The Riders of Rohan really liked their horses).

* The name of the character “Wormtongue” most likely came from the tenth century Icelandic poet Gunnlaugr Ormstunga (whose name means “Serpent-Tongue” or “Worm-Tongue”).

* Lynn Hill is arguably the greatest woman rock climber in history. She is the first person to ever free-climb the Nose, a legendary route on El Capitan in Yosemite, California.

* Some of the best known inns of the Shire were: The Golden Perch, The Floating Log, The Green Dragon, and The Ivy Bush.

* Tolkien attended secondary school at King Edward’s School in Birmingham, England, where the school song proclaims there are “No fops or idlers” in attendance.

* Shirriff: a sort of Hobbit policeman. Based on the Old English for “shire reeve.”

* Orcs were created eons before by the evil demigod Morgoth to serve as his army in his fight against the Elves. Sharkey is an Orkish word meaning “old man.”

* Faramir’s father Denethor burned himself alive with a palantir, or “seeing stone,” clutched in his hands. It was said if someone tried to look into that palantir thereafter, all they would see were Denethor’s old hands withering in the flames.

* Frodo did not participate in this fight. After the Ring was destroyed he gave his sword Sting to Sam and essentially lived out the rest of his days as a pacifist.

* The actor Christopher Lee, who played Saruman in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, is the only actor in the films to have actually met J.R.R. Tolkien. Lee reads The Lord of the Rings every single year.

* The Barrow-downs were the ancient graves to the east of the Old Forest and were haunted by hostile ghosts guarding the treasure and bones of the dead.

* Merry and Pippin happily discovered some of these provisions in the storeroom in the ruins of Isengard. They were joyous to find a barrel of Longbottom Leaf as well.

* Mithril was an extremely rare and priceless metal much coveted by the Dwarves. Thorin found a small shirt made of mithril rings in Smaug’s hoard and gave it to Bilbo. This coat of mail had been crafted ages ago for an Elven-princeling. Bilbo did not know that his “pretty thing” was worth—at least by Gandalf’s reckoning—more than the entire Shire “and everything in it.”

* In The Hobbit Sauron is referred to as “the Necromancer” and lived in the stronghold of Dol Guldur in the forest of Mirkwood.

* Thorin was only 24 years old when Smaug first attacked the Lonely Mountain, and 195 years old when he returned.

* Dragon flames were not hot enough to dissolve the One Ring, though four of the Dwarven Rings of Power were melted by dragons.

* Tolkien’s poem “The Hoard” (from The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and ostensibly written by Bilbo) describes a storehouse full of treasure corrupting all who come into contact with it. The gold, the poem tells us, cannot sing or smile like the long-dead Elves who hid it there, and is therefore worthless.

* The Halls of Waiting are where all the spirits of the dead in Middle-earth went after death. Each race awaited a different fate in the afterlife.

* At the end of the War of the Ring, Bilbo gave Sam the last bag of gold from the “Smaug-vintage” in case he wanted to get married someday.

* In an article in Forbes (“How Much Is a Dragon Worth, Revisited,” April, 2012), editor Michael Noer attempted to calculate the net worth of Smaug’s hoard in today’s dollars. He came up with the value of $62 billion (including $3.9 billion for “diamonds embedded in dragon”).

* The name “Ent” comes from the Old English for “giant.” The Ents resembled enormous tree-like humans.

* Treebeard might have talked slowly, but he walked fast. He carried Merry and Pippin “seventy thousand Ent-strides” across Fangorn Forest, or nearly one hundred miles in one day (about 7.5 feet per stride).

* The folkmoots of Anglo-Saxon England and Europe were “meetings of the people” where the free men of a region came together to discuss matters of importance. Often these assemblies were held under the boughs of a gigantic tree.

* Sustainability is a model of development and a way of life that doesn’t compromise the ability of future generations to fulfill their own needs.

* The Noldor were the Elven Kindreds who exiled themselves from Valinor and came to Middle-earth.

* You can visit Stout Grove in California’s Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park located in Northern California near Crescent City.

* Melkor was so hated by the Valar they changed his name to Morgoth (meaning “all darkness”). His spider was called Ungoliant and was the progenitor of Shelob.

* Monsanto is a multinational agricultural biotech conglomerate that has come under attack for its genetically engineered seeds and its herbicide Roundup.

* The eagles carried Frodo and Sam to Ithilien—the easternmost province of Gondor. After Aragorn became King he gave this region to Faramir and his new bride Éowyn.

* The Shire museum or “Mathom-house” was in the town of Michel Delving near Hobbiton. Bilbo let them display his mithril coat for several years.

* Thorin Oakenshield fought in the War of the Dwarves and Orcs where he became famous for using an oak branch to defend himself after his shield was shattered, thus earning his surname.

* After his adventures with the Dwarves, Bilbo invited them to come and visit anytime, even though, he reminded them, tea was at four o’clock.

* Bilbo was a proud descendent of the famous Bullroarer Took who invented the game of golf when he struck off an invading Orc’s head with a wooden club, sending it rolling into a hole.

* Sting was made by Elven-smiths from Gondolin thousands of years before Bilbo found it in the trolls’ cave.

* The Witch-king was an ancient sorcerer who willingly took one of Sauron’s “Nine Rings for mortal men doomed to die.” It was prophesied that no man would kill him. Instead it took a shield-maiden and a Halfling.

* Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli ran for four days straight averaging thirty-three miles per day.

* Eucatastrophe: Tolkien’s invented term from two Greek words meaning a “good calamity.”

* Meriadoc Brandybuck was credited as the author of Herblore of the Shire. The best varieties of pipe-weed were thought to be: Longbottom Leaf, Old Toby, and Southern Star.

* The Gaffer Gamgee was most likely based on the real-life position of the Victorian-era chief gardener of a country estate who held the same lofty status as the head butler. The Gaffer tended Bilbo’s garden for forty years.

* Sam received a special gift from the Elven Queen before departing from Lothlórien: a small box with a silver Elvish rune on the lid. The rune was in the shape of a “G” for “Galadriel” but, she told him, it could also stand for “garden” in the language of the Shire. Inside were a few pinches of soil infused with her powerful magic, and the seed of a mallorn—the magnificent trees of Lothlórien.

* Uprising Seeds (uprisingorganics.com) and Territorial Seed Company (territorialseed.com) are two small but industrious seed companies selling non-genetically modified heirloom seeds such as Brandywine tomatoes and rainbow chard.

* The first year after First Lady Michelle Obama created the White House garden (in 2008) the planting of home gardens went up nearly twenty percent in the United States.

* The actual distance from Hobbiton to Mount Doom (according to The Atlas of Middle Earth) was 1,560 miles—several hundred miles farther than the distance from London to Rome.

* The stars that Frodo would have seen twinkling in the sky on his night walks in Middle-earth are the same heavenly bodies as in our world’s sky, only Tolkien gave them different names. For example, the constellation of Orion’s Belt was called “The Swordsman in the Sky.”

* Frodo and his friends (along with Strider) averaged 17.5 miles per day on foot over a period of 28 days on their trek from Hobbiton to Rivendell.

* Before Faramir released Sam and Frodo from Ithilien, he gave each the gift of a walking stick carved from lebethron—a wood possessing a kind of magic for “finding and returning.” Sam used his to fight off Gollum’s sneak attack near Shelob’s lair, proving the sticks were also good for hitting.

* Shadowfax was the chief of the horses of Rohan, who had never let anyone ride him before Gandalf tamed him. He was the strongest, swiftest, and most tireless horse in Middle-earth.

* You can visit Ashland, Oregon, home of the Tony Award–winning Shakespeare Festival. Learn more at Ashlandchamber.com.

* The Proudfoots were a family of Hobbits who enjoyed mispronouncing their names as “Proudfeet.”

* Tolkien discovered Finnish as a child and fell in love with it, using it as a model for the Elvish language Quenya. The Elven-tongue Sindarin is based on Old Welsh.

* The Morgul-blade was the dagger used by the Ringwraith who stabbed Frodo. A splinter of the sinister weapon broke off in the Hobbit’s left shoulder and slowly worked its way toward his heart. If it had pierced this vital organ, Frodo would have become a wraith like the Nazgûl.

* Rivendell is also known as Imladris in Elven. Both mean “deeply cloven valley.”

* Elrond’s ring was called “Vilya”—the Ring of Sapphire, and was once owned by the Elven-king Gil-galad.

* Gimli left Middle-earth for the Undying Lands so that he could see Galadriel again. He was the only Dwarf to make this journey.

* The ships going to Valinor made a mystical rather than a maritime journey, passing into another dimension and entering Aman—the Blessed Realm.

* Aragorn, the last of the ancient Númenóreans, had the power to die at will. At the age of 210 he grew weary and gave back “the gift” of life.

* Tolkien was born in 1892, a year before G. B. Shaw’s shocking play about a female brothel owner (Mrs. Warren’s Profession) was banned from the theatre. It wasn’t performed until Tolkien was twenty-three years old and engaged to be married.

* The names of Sam and Rosie’s children were, in order of birth: Elanor, Frodo, Rose, Merry, Pippin, Goldilocks, Hamfast, Daisy, Primrose, Bilbo, Ruby, Robin, and Tolman (Tom).

* Merry spent six full days in the saddle with Éowyn, who was riding disguised as a man and going under the alias “Dernhelm” (which translates as “Secret Helm”).

* Tinúviel actually means “Daughter of Twilight” or “Nightingale” in Elven.

* Aragorn and Arwen were married on Midsummer Day and their marital bliss lasted for 6 score years (or 120 years) until Aragorn’s death. Their son was named Eldarion.

* Tom Bombadil and Goldberry were immortals and possibly the oldest living entities in Middle-earth other than Sauron. Their marriage, therefore, was the longest in the history of that world.

* Sam’s daughter, Rosie, grew up to marry Pippin’s son, Faramir, named in honor of his Gondorian friend.

* You can pay your respects to J.R.R. Tolkien’s grave at Wolvercote Cemetery in North Oxford. This is what appears on the tombstone:

EDITH MARY TOLKIEN

LÚTHIEN

1889–1971

JOHN RONALD

REUEL TOLKIEN

BEREN

1892–1973

* At the start of The Lord of the Rings, Frodo was 50 years old, Merry 36, Sam 35, and Pippin 28.

* Shelob was Sauron’s wicked pet. The Dark Lord sent live prisoners to her as food. The disgusting arachnid was about as close as Gollum had to a friend.

* Because Pippin was under thirty-three he was still considered—by the standards of the Shire—to be an underage “tween.”

* Gandalf had been watching out for his beloved Shire-folk for centuries. Almost two hundred years before the events of the War of the Ring he came to the aid of Hobbits during a terrible and deadly winter.

* Merry and Pippin traveled to Gondor to be with their friend Aragorn just before they both died. They were buried in “beds” or tombs that were set on either side of the King’s final resting place in the new burial chamber of Minas Tirith, the old chamber having been burned down by the mad Denethor.

* At the end of The Lord of the Rings, Bilbo is one hundred and thirty-one years old, having lived to see one more birthday than the famous Old Took.

* The Two Trees of Valinor lit up the world at the start of creation. After the trees were wantonly destroyed by the wicked demigod Melkor, the gods made the sun and moon as gifts to give light to the inhabitants of Middle-earth.

* Galadriel’s power came from her magical ring Nenya, a gift she received from the Elven smith Celebrimbor; its strength was bound to the One Ring.

* Frodo continued the tradition of celebrating his own and Bilbo’s birthdays (without the presence of his favorite uncle, of course) every season in the years following the great eleventy-first birthday.

* After the Ring had been destroyed the Hobbits celebrated Bilbo’s one hundred and twenty-ninth birthday with him in Rivendell. Bilbo gave Frodo three books of lore he’d written titled Translations from the Elvish, by B.B.

* Lembas, the nourishing waybread of the Elves given to the Companions, was wrapped in the leaves of mallorn trees to keep it fresh.

* The new Party Tree was the only Elven mallorn tree to grow west of the Misty Mountains.

* Several heavy metal bands have taken their names from The Lord of the Rings, including Gorgoroth and Burzum (both words from the language of Mordor).

* Tolkien’s The Adventures of Tom Bombadil contains songs and poems supposedly written by Bilbo and Sam (including one called “Oliphaunt,” most likely penned by that courageous elephant-loving gardener).

* In the film version of The Fellowship of the Ring, the first time we see Gandalf he’s humming “The Road Goes Ever On” as he drives his fireworks-laden cart down the wooded lane towards Hobbiton.

* The actor Billy Boyd (who played Pippin Took in Peter Jackson’s film trilogy) is lead singer and guitarist in an alternative rock band based in Glasgow, Scotland, called Beecake. (beecake.com)

* The Beatles had the idea to create what would have been the first film version of The Lord of the Rings with George as Gandalf, Paul as Frodo, Ringo as Sam and John as Gollum.

* Bret McKenzie, who played the Elf Figwit in The Lord of the Rings and the Elf Lindir in The Hobbit films, wrote “Life’s a Happy Song” (for which he won an Academy Award).

* The new age group Shadowfax took their name from the horse Gandalf “borrowed” from the Rohirrim.

* The legendary rock trio Rush recorded a song titled “Rivendell” on their album Fly by Night in 1975.

* Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn from the film trilogy) came up with the haunting tunes for the song his character sings in the Elven-tongue when he is crowned King.

* The Valar sent five Istari to Middle-earth, including Saruman the White, Gandalf the Grey, and Radagast the Brown. The names of the other two are unknown.

* When Bilbo was born in the Shire, Gandalf had already lived in Middle-earth for 1,840 years.

* Old Toby’s Leaf: tobacco or “pipe weed” as it’s called in the Shire. In Gondor it’s referred to as Westmansweed, and sweet galenas by the Rangers of the North.

* Gandalf’s various names were The Grey Pilgrim, Mithrandir, Stormcrow, and Tharkûn.

* Círdan the shipwright was the owner of the third Elven Ring of Power called Narya. But when Gandalf the Istari arrived in Middle-earth, Círdan gave him his “Ring of Fire,” knowing the wizard would need all the extra help he could get in his fight against Sauron.

* Gandalf befriended Aragorn when the Ranger was only twenty-five. Soon after Aragorn took on the assumed name Thorongil (presumably at Gandalf’s behest) and spent the next twenty-three years as a Rider of Rohan, and as a man- at-arms for the city of Minas Tirith.

* Gandalf killed the Balrog (a creation of Morgoth) on the top of Zirakzigil—one of the peaks of Moria. The wizard died and was brought back to life by the Valar. The King of eagles carried him to Lothlórien where Galadriel clothed him in white.

* Ian McKellen, the awe-inspiring actor who plays Gandalf, is co-owner of a three-hundred-year-old pub called “The Grapes,” at 76 Narrow Street, Limehouse, London. Sometimes he works there pulling pints. (thegrapes.co.uk)

* Yvain, or The Knight with the Lion, was a twelfth-century French romance featuring a magic ring of invisibility.

* The rumors of Gollum’s atrocities were related by Gandalf to Frodo at Bag End in the chapter “The Shadow of the Past.”

* To amplify the power of the One Ring, Sauron had to place a great part of his soul into the nefarious tool. There were twenty Rings of Power including the One Ring.

* Isildur, the valiant hero of the previous age, who helped found Gondor and cut the Ruling Ring from Sauron’s finger, knew the Ring was perilous when he wrote: “It is precious to me, though it causes me great pain.”

* Gandalf realized Bilbo had become enslaved to the Ring when the Hobbit called it “precious,” just like Isildur and Gollum had done before him.

* In Sam’s fantasy he was called “Samwise the Strong, Hero of the Age,” and wielded a flaming sword.

* Boromir rode 110 days from Gondor to Rivendell, all alone on dangerous paths, to seek Elrond’s advice. This was no small feat in the Third Age.

* Silmaril: one of the three mystical jewels fashioned by the Elf Fëanor. They held supernatural light of the Two Trees of Valinor and were stolen by Morgoth and taken to Middle-earth where he set them in an iron crown.

* The Valar were so moved by Eärendil’s plea that they agreed to help the people of Middle-earth and sent an army to attack Morgoth. He was captured and his spirit cast out beyond the boundaries of creation.

* Other heavenly bodies in Middle-earth were “The Plow” (the Big Dipper) and the red star “Borgil” (Betelgeuse).

* Trench fever is caused by body lice. The symptoms include a high fever, aching eyeballs, and leg pain. Two other famous writers—A.A. Milne and C.S. Lewis—were also hospitalized for this disease during WWI.

* The other two sayings at the Oracle at Delphi were “Make a vow and mischief will come your way,” and “Nothing in excess.”

* Elanor, Sam and Rosie’s firstborn child, was named for the white flowers that grew in Lothlórien.

* The enigmatic craftsman who built their ship—an ancient Elf named Círdan—is the same shipwright who helped make the sailor Eärendil’s boat eons before.

* Legolas constructed his own ship to sail to the Undying Lands and was the last of the Companions to leave Middle-earth along with a single passenger—his dear friend Gimli, probably clutching three strands of golden hair encased in crystal on a chain round his neck.

* “Many of those who first caught sight of ‘Frodo Lives’ in the subway, or scribbled on a billboard, didn’t know who Frodo was, or John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, or Middle-earth itself, for that matter. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were a kind of password to shared secret knowledge. People who already knew the books found their own meanings, went on their own interior quests; people who didn’t were strangely lured, as though by the word ‘mellon’—the Elvish for ‘friend.’”

—Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn and the introduction to The Lord of the Rings