A route through the open archive: Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings
The archive of A kind of elvish craft is currently open to all subscribers until 7 September 2026, just after the final day of Oxonmoot. After that, the archive will return to paid access. So, over the next few weeks, I thought I’d offer a few suggested routes through older essays, especially for readers who have joined recently and may not know where to begin.
This first route is for readers interested in Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, hobbits, language, folklore, and the Ring.
You don’t have to read these essays in order, but, as a collection, they give a good sense of the Tolkien strand I’ve been developing here, especially the work that is now becoming my “slow” re-reading of The Lord of the Rings.
1. Bilbo as a folklore hero
A good place to begin is my first “slow” LotR Re-read post, where I look at the opening of The Fellowship of the Ring and the way Bilbo is presented through rumour, gossip, treasure, longevity, and disappearance. This post thinks about Bilbo not just as a novelistic character, but as a figure already slipping into folklore.
Read: The Slow LotR Re-read (1): Bilbo as a folklore hero
2. Gandalf’s hat, scarf, and wizardly iconography
If you enjoy thinking about visual culture, this one follows Gandalf’s appearance: his pointed, broad-brimmed hat, silver scarf, and the way Tolkien’s wizard draws on older images of wizards/sorcerers/magicians, as well as the visual representation of Merlin and Odin.
Read: The Slow LotR Re-read (2): Gandalf’s hat and scarf
3. Gandalf’s fireworks
This is one of my favourite rabbit holes: squibs, crackers, backarappers, dwarf-candles, elf-fountains, goblin-barkers, thunderclaps, and Tolkien’s own memories of fireworks. It begins with a very small detail in Bilbo’s party and opens out into dialect, childhood, visual spectacle, and Gandalf as the “kindler”.
Read: The Slow LotR Re-read (3): Gandalf’s fireworks
4. Bilbo’s decluttering
This post looks at Bag End after Bilbo’s departure: the labelled gifts, the silver spoons, the idea of “clutter”, and the odd modernity of hobbit material culture. If hobbits feel closer to us (as opposed to the older, heroic and mythical world of Middle-earth) because of their world of umbrellas, pocket-handkerchiefs, and kettles, then their “clutter” also reveals attitudes about aging and the idea of “home”.
Read: The Slow LotR Re-read (4): Bilbo’s decluttering
5. The “true story” of Bilbo’s ring
This one is useful background for everything that follows. I explain why The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings contain two different versions of the “Riddles in the Dark” episode, how Tolkien revised The Hobbit in 1951, and how that revision transformed Bilbo’s simple invisibility ring into something morally and metaphysically darker.
Read: The Slow LotR Re-read (5): the “true story” of Bilbo’s ring
6. Strange dwarves and Jewish emigration
This post focuses on a brief but loaded passage in Chapter 2 of The Fellowship of the Ring, where Frodo encounters “strange dwarves” on the road, some of whom are “seeking refuge in the West”. I discuss Tolkien’s complex association of Dwarves with Jewish people, Khuzdul as a Semitic-style language, the historical context of WWII, and Tolkien’s later revision of this passage.
Read: The Slow LotR Re-read (6): strange dwarves and Jewish emigration
7. Hobbit talk and non-standard English
Here I look closely at “hobbit talk”: “drownded”, “agin”, “ain’t”, and other forms of non-standard English in the speech of rustic hobbits. This post draws on Nils-Lennart Johannesson’s work on Shire dialect and Tolkien’s memories of Warwickshire and Oxfordshire speech.
Read: The Slow LotR Re-read (7): “hobbit talk” and non-standard English
8. Sam Gamgee, folklore, and the numinous
This post follows Sam at The Green Dragon and considers his openness to “fire-side tales and children’s stories”, dragons, Tree-men, Elves, and the departure of the Fair Folk. I argue that Sam’s willingness to believe in old stories prepares the reader for the entrance of the numinous into the apparently ordinary world of the Shire.
Read: The Slow LotR Re-read (8): Sam Gamgee, folklore, and the numinous
9. Gandalf the Parent
This was the first post in my new half-paywalled model. The opening section remains a free “Portal”, and the deeper argument continues “Beyond the Threshold” for paid subscribers. In it, I read Gandalf’s intervention with Bilbo over the Ring as an astonishingly careful act of parental authority: calm, persuasive, patient, but decisive when necessary. I also connect this to the Ring as addiction, Tolkien as a father, hobbits as childlike figures, and the Istari as beings sent to advise and persuade rather than dominate.
Read: The Slow LotR Re-read (9): Gandalf the Parent
10. What kind of object is the Ring?
This is also part of the new model, with a free opening section and a paid continuation. Here I look at the One Ring as a material object: something made of gold, carrying a hidden inscription, unexpectedly related to the tradition of posy rings, and fruitfully approached through the idea of entanglement. The essay asks what happens when we read the Ring not only as a symbol of power but as a material thing.
Read: The Slow LotR Re-read (10): What Kind of Object Is the Ring?
Together, these essays trace a path from the apparently cosy opening of The Lord of the Rings into deeper questions of folklore, language, class, history, material culture, power, addiction, and enchantment.
If you are new to A kind of elvish craft, this is probably the route I’d recommend beginning with.
The archive remains open to all subscribers until 7 September 2026. After that, older essays will return to the paid archive.
Tomorrow’s new essay continues the Slow LotR Re-read.