Abby Epplett, Historian

For the 1965/1966 edition of The Lord of the Rings released in the United States by Ballantine Books , J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a five-page foreword giving context to his writing process, explaining inspirations behind the story, and rebuking his critics. While Tolkien insisted in this essay, just as he did in letters to fans and during interviews, that little in the book was based on reality, the influence of industrialization and the World Wars, trends in music and art, and historical discoveries affected his ideology presented in the novels. I will use the literary criticism theory of cultural studies to examine this foreword by describing important events that occurred concurrently with the many drafts of the manuscript. Future posts will demonstrate how these events influenced the text itself and my hypothetical animated musical. Near the beginning of the letter, Tolkien explained that one of his primary interests was writing “the mythology and legends of the Eldar Days” ...

Back in September 2023, the day after touring Amesbury, MA, I went north to Portsmouth, NH to continue my history adventure. I had previously visited Portsmouth in September 2022, covering well-known historic attractions including but not limited to Strawbery Banke , Historic New England’s Governor John Langdon House and Rundlet-May House , Moffatt-Ladd House & Garden , and Wentworth-Gardner House . During this visit, my first stop was to see Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion and Little Harbor Chapel located on the outskirts of Portsmouth.

My tour through The Lord of the Rings enroute to creating the animated musical will take a different approach to projects created by other enthusiasts. I am interested in exploring a holistic view of the text in its historical context. For me, the societies and cultures, both real world and fantasy, in which the book was written and read has the same importance as the material in the book itself. I come from an academic background, meaning that I was in school for too long and have permanently warped my brain with professor jargon, but I will do my best to keep these essays manageable for a reader with a high school level education. With this in mind, I begin with the three-paragraph introductory essay written by Peter S. Beagle and first appearing in the 1973 edition of The Lord of the Rings: Part One, The Fellowship of the Ring , which I will call Fellowship for the remainder of this post. When Beagle penned his mini-essay, he was already a well-established fantasy aut...

In the second part of my two-part series on quick history stops in Amesbury, MA, I marched across a training field used during the American Revolutionary War, walked a wooded trail, passed by multiple historic buildings, and visited two monuments.

Back in September 2023, I had a history adventure in Amesbury, MA and neighboring Portsmouth, NH. During my first four major stops, I visited Historic New England’s Rocky Hill Meeting House , Lowell’s Boat Shop , a Mary Baker Eddy Historic House , and the Industrial History Center in Amesbury . During this busy day, I also made many quick history stops. For the first post in a two-part mini-series, I visit several houses of worship, two banks, two murals, a library, and a statue, all located in downtown Amesbury.

Back in September 2023, I had a history adventure in Amesbury, MA and neighboring Portsmouth, NH. During my first three major stops, I visited Historic New England’s Rocky Hill Meeting House , Lowell’s Boat Shop , and a Mary Baker Eddy Historic House . For my fourth major stop, I visited the Industrial History Center operated by the Amesbury Carriage House Museum. This mini museum in the historic millyard of downtown Amesbury featured information about the town’s manufacturing history. Paved paths located nearby had signage explaining features of the yard, including factory buildings and water power. The Industrial History Center is housed in one of the eight, 19 th century red brick textile mill buildings making up the Millyard. This area is known as the Amesbury and Salisbury Mills Village Historic District, which has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1985 . Water-powered mills were not new to the area when these  were construct...

Back in September 2023, I had a history adventure in Amesbury, MA and neighboring Portsmouth, NH. During my first two major stops, I visited Historic New England’s Rocky Hill Meeting House and Lowell’s Boat Shop . For my third major stop, I toured the Mary Baker Eddy Historic House in Amesbury , which served as her temporary residence in 1868 and 1870. This was my third historical experience involving Eddy, founder of the Church of Christian Science. My visit to the “How Do You See the World?” Experience & Mapparium at the Christian Science Plaza in Boston, MA back in May 2022 was my first post to the blog , and I visited a pair of her homes in Lynn and Swampscott, MA in September 2022 . Unlike many of the house tours that I take, this focused not on architecture, decor, or a community but the life and philosophy of a single person. Constructed in 1780, the house was home to the Bagley family by the 1860s. The current restoration of the house, which ...

After much research and debate, I am debuting the first creative project to appear on Abby Epplett, Historian . While my regular posts on museums, webinars, and reviews will continue to appear on the blog, I’ll be adding new materials that tap into my other interests — art, music, literature, film — while keeping history at the forefront. Posts will orbit around a hypothetical television series tentatively called Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical . I decided to base the project on the publications of linguistics professor J.R.R. Tolkien  because of its unusual duality of the original books being considered of high academic merit versus its continued popularity as lucrative intellectual property (IP) in popular culture. A Note on IP, Copyright, and Fair Use While I am not a lawyer, I have a significant amount of knowledge regarding copyright law, fair use, and the public domain particularly relating to museums, historical artifacts, and digital reproduction. If...

In September 2023, I had a three-day adventure in Amesbury, MA and Portsmouth, NH. After my first major stop at Rocky Hill Meeting House , I went down the street to Lowell’s Boat Shop , the oldest working boat shop in America and in operation since 1793. Located over the Merrimack River, the bright red building has been a National Historic Landmark since 1990. Lowell’s Boat Shop receives its name from the Lowell family who joined the dominant boat building industry in the early 18 th century. Boat builder Gideon Lowell arrived in Amesbury from Newbury in 1718, while his nephew, Simeon Lowell , started the official business with his sons Stephen and Benjamin . Simeon's grandson, Hiram Lowell , constructed the current buildings in 1860 during the American Civil War when the area was considered to be part of Salisbury rather than Amesbury. After Hiram retired, his son Frederick Elmore Lowell ran the shop. The Lowell family added building addition...