Abby Epplett, Historian

For the second part of Appendix E, Tolkien focused on the writing systems used for Middle-earth languages. Real-world languages use a wide range of systems that can be grouped into “families”, including those descended from Egyptian hieroglyphs, such as variations on the Latin alphabet; East Asian systems based on Chinese characters; Indian and Southeast Asia systems based on the ancient Brahmi script; pre-Columbian languages from Mexico and Central America; and writing systems created by Indigenous Americans to preserve their own languages after European colonization.

While Appendix D is named for the Shire Calendar, this section actually covers calendars from multiple Middle-earth cultures spanning thousands of years. The construction of these calendars presented an unresolved mystery: why were they so similar to modern Western calendars? A real-world explanation was that Tolkien was most familiar with the Gregorian calendar, but a Middle-earth explanation was more complex.

After several weeks of somewhat dry lists and dates, I arrive at a story with dialog! The full name of this section is “(v) Here Follows Part of the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen”. The text existed in-universe as a longer body of work, but only a portion was appended to The Red Book of Minas Tirith , then copied into the Thain’s Book , part of the Shire Records that I discussed several weeks ago . As the title suggests, the section gives a short biography of Aragorn with a special focus on his relationship with Arwen Undómiel. The storyline of this section paralleled aspects of real-world history and culture including marriage customs, elves and fairies in folklore, royal standards or flags, epic poetry, and religious allegory. Age of First Marriage and Fairy Foster Father The section opens with Arathorn son of the chieftain Arador seeking a wife and wanting none but Gilraen the Fair. The one problem was that Arathorn was fifty-six years old, and Gilraen “had not reached th...

Once more continuing my mini series within a series on the Appendixes at the back of The Lord of the Rings, Part Three: Return of the King , I move along to “Appendix A, I The Númenórean Kings, (iv) Gondor and the Heirs of Anárion”. While last week’s section focused on the northern kingdom on Anor after the empire of the Númenóreans divided, this week’s section focuses on the southern kingdom, Gondor. Much like last week, this section is mostly about the Númenórean descendants having a rough time, often because of their own bad choices. Peoples opposing Gondor included the Black Númenóreans, the Men of Harad and Khad, Corsairs, Sauron and his orcs, Wainriders, and themselves, with each group paralleling people in real-world history and mythology. Fortunately, after pages of violent fighting, the conclusion of this section was satisfying and directly connected to the dialogue portion of the books. Color Symbolism, Black Númenóreans, and Men of Harad Black Númenóreans was...