Abby Epplett, Historian

This week, I introduce the rest of the Maiar, each of whom represents part of the environment or a craft. This was no different than deities in real-world religions and mythologies, where ancient people believed that the sun, moon, and sea were sentient, while agriculture was controlled by a god, and smithing was taught to humans by a higher power. Many polytheist cultures have multiple gods with overlapping areas of rule. I have chosen to focus on those who appear to be the most popular and most powerful based on scholarly research. Many academic articles are written by researchers from outside the culture that they describe and accordingly may contain errors, which are passed along to me. Additionally, cultures with large populations and cultures from the West are overrepresented, meaning that I can easily find high quality research on these gods but not gods from smaller and non-Western religions. I have done my best to include a variety of religions in this essay but do con

During this week and next week, I am taking a brief break from the appendixes to create more illustrations for the people of Middle-earth. I will focus on Maiar, a Race of angel-like or god-like beings who traveled as invisible spirits or took a wide range of physical forms. While this term did not appear in The Lord of the Rings , many Maiar appeared in the text, and explanations of Maiar and their powers were given in The Silmarillion . Wizards and balrogs will appear this week, while Maiar symbolizing the environment and crafts will appear next week.

Universally disliked by the Free People of Middle-earth, Orcs seemed to exist only to kill and destroy, and yet these people presented a moral dilemma: if orcs were truly evil and not human, they deserved death; however, if they showed an understanding of good and evil, even if they repeatedly did wrong, then targeting them was a race-based genocide. Tolkien was uncomfortable with the concept of his heroes being racist towards their enemies, yet the heroes were frequently racist towards each other, so this was not what set apart their treatment of orcs. The key difference was that orcs could be killed without repercussions. While Elves participated in kinslayings, Dwarves and Elves fought each other, and Men joked about hunting Hobbits, these actions were eventually seen as reprehensible, while the mass killing of orcs was viewed as acceptable, even a game.

Appendix B contained a long and detailed timeline clarifying dates and locations related to characters found in the dialogue portion of the book and Appendix A, explaining relationships between characters, and describing the fates of characters, especially members of the Fellowship. Like in the real-world, all characters died on Middle-earth or passed over the Sea — a metaphor for death — bringing closure to the story in a way rarely seen in modern fiction but common in religious texts, mythologies, and history books.

The Men in my illustrations for Part 2 look drastically different from the Men of Part 1. While the first group of Men is perceived as white or European-coded by modern readers, the second group is perceived as non-white or people of color. A major concern, even controversy, for critics of Tolkien’s work is that the text contains racist material, to which I agree, or that the text itself is inherently racist, which I would argue against. This ground has been trod over multiple times with a plethora of essays arguing for both sides. Many of these arguments struggle to separate the perspectives of fictional, in-universe characters from the perspective of the fictional version of Tolkien acting as a translator from the perspective of real-world Tolkien writing the book, and after writing that convoluted sentence, I can see why. While I do not have a PhD in Tolkien studies, I have completed plenty of research in related fields where I do have higher level degrees.

I recently had an adventure in the Mystic / Lyme region of Connecticut and spent about a day and a half at Mystic Seaport Museum . This is the fourth post in a six-part miniseries about my visit. My last three posts covered Part 1 and Part 2 of “Seaport Village” along with the “Preservation Shipyard” . Today’s post features the “Galleries”, which hosted exhibits on ship figureheads, glass reproductions of sea creatures, art and diversity in maritime New England, the history of shipping, and a large model of Mystic. Upcoming posts will include “Boats, Signs, & Shows” and “Bonus Houses”.

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

In this week’s installment of my mini-series on the Appendixes of The Lord of the Rings , I focus on Appendix A (ii), which is divided into two sections — “The Northern Line: Heirs of Isildur”, and “The Southern Line: Heirs of Anárion”. This section reads similar to a genealogy, last discussed during my overview of Appendix A , but instead of moving from father to son, the lists move between kings, and later to chieftains or stewards. The many names and dates become overwhelming, even to a seasoned reader, so I am selecting a few notable kings in the lists and drawing comparisons between their fictional stories and those in real world history. Founding an Empire Both lists begin with Elendil, discussed last week in my essay on Appendix A (i) as a flood survivor character, similar to Noah in Genesis 6 or Utnapishtim in The Epic of Gilgamesh . Upon arriving in Middle-earth, Elendil took a different role: the founder of an empire. History is filled with famous first king

The history of animation is a common enough topic that multiple excellent articles and books already exist. My introduction focuses specifically on themes that will arise during the creation of the hypothetical animated musical, including the art of the ancient world and medieval period, parallels between world religions, the influence of animation on other media, the erasure of non-white and working-class figures from history, censorship, and the evolution of animation from hand-drawn to computer animated. Using a moving image to tell a story came long before the advent of animation. Pottery in Ancient Greece and later Ancient Rome depicted gods, heroes, and everyday life, often with multiple scenes from the same story. Medieval churches told stories to a population with a low literacy rate through the use of icons, stained glass, and illumination on manuscripts. This visual storytelling was not limited to Christianity, as practitioners of Hinduism and Buddhism created art

I recently finished watching Tracing Your Roots through Food with Michael W. Twitty , a video series hosted on the streaming service MasterClass. During this course, Twitty used his vast knowledge of international cuisine, genetics, lingustics, and history to describe the food culture of the American South. Based in part on his book, The Cooking Gene , published by Amistad and winner of a  James Beard award in 2018 , Twitty emphasized the importance of understanding the relationship of the transatlantic slave trade and Black Diaspora to modern American cooking, especially the soul food tradition. His style of delivery balanced his kind, generous demeanor with serious discussion on heavy topics. Twitty described how he grew up in a family that loved to cook, citing his parents and grandmother as influences on his culinary interests. He turned a family interest into an academic passion. In 2011, he started the blog Afroculinaria as a platform for examining African American

On August 24, 2023 at 3:00 p.m. EDT, I watched a webinar hosted by American Ancestors ® & New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) , which debuted the 10 Million Names project. For context, American Ancestors ® is the oldest genealogical organization in the country, established in Boston, MA during 1845. The organization has supported research and publications for over 175 years. Currently, the organization employees about 95 full-time staff, shares 1.4 billion digital records, holds 28 million original manuscripts, and acts as a filming location for the hit PBS television show Finding Your Roots hosted by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. During this webinar, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Ryan J. Woods introduced the session by explaining that the intent of the project is to identify and recover names of the approximately ten million people of African descent who were enslaved in early America from 1500 to 1865. This project will be a collabo