Abby Epplett, Historian

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. On the third day of my trip, I visited Dexter Grist Mill in Sandwich, MA, located across the street from the Sandwich Glass Museum and next door to the Town Hall. This building is owned and maintained by the town just like Hoxie House , so the tour was of similarly high quality.

On Saturday, November 23 and Sunday, November 24, I attended the two-day webinar, the Christopher Tolkien Centenary Conference hosted by the Tolkien Society via Zoom. Past readers of the blog know that I am a big fan of conferences, both in-person and virtual, so this was a great opportunity to combine my love of intense learning events with my research for the hypothetical animated musical. Even as someone on the younger end of attendees, I felt right at home through the friendly chat, the generous speakers, and my extensive knowledge of the Legendarium. Here are my favorite highlights from each talk, minus anything that seemed to be proprietary information. Any mistakes are likely because I have been up since 4:45 a.m. watching this conference. For naming conventions, as said succinctly by James Tauber, “It’s become a common convention in Tolkien studies to use Tolkien to refer to the father and Christopher to refer to the son”, so I will do the same in this summary. Sa...

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. On the third day of my trip, I visited Sandwich Glass Museum in Sandwich, MA run by the Sandwich Historical Society . This society has existed since 1907 and focuses on preserving the history of glassmaking on Cape Cod along with highlighting the work of modern artists and teaching members of the public how to create glass art.

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. A last minute diversion brought me to Christmas Tree Shop Hyannis, an incredible example of avant-garde architecture built by a recently defunct company. I last visited Christmas Tree Shop Sagamore while coming home from a trip to Yarmouth in 2023 , and I may need to visit the remaining stores.

At last, I arrive at the final section of the appendixes. After a hundred and fifty pages of comparing Middle-earth history to real-world history, I have an even stronger grasp of how Tolkien used his expertise as a philologist and historian to build a fantasy world rooted in fact. This will serve as a solid foundation for future research as I move into the dialog portion of the text and reveal vignettes for the hypothetical animated musical.

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. While visiting Cape Cod Maritime Museum and John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum in Hyannis, MA, I made so many quick history stops around the area that I have divided it into two parts. Yesterday, I covered Main Street , and today, I cover local art and some of the Kennedy Legacy Trail. A redbrick Art Path leading from Main Street down to the harbor guides visitors past sculptures and shanties housing tiny art shops. I loved the interactive sculpture Turn, Tern, Turn by Cotuit artist Eric M. Kaiser . A pair of metal seabirds connect to a metal base which visitors are encouraged to gently spin. A few steps away is Aselton Park, which includes the Buoyed Coasts  advocacy art installation created by Kate Kennen and portraits created by Kate DeCiccio . The colorful buoys attached to long metal rods symbo...

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. While visiting Cape Cod Maritime Museum and John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum in Hyannis, MA, I made so many quick history stops around the area that I have divided it into two parts. Today features Main Street, including the library, two churches, historical buildings, a train station, and public art. Tomorrow will feature the HyArts Artist Shanties and some of the Kennedy Legacy Trail.

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. My seventh stop was John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum in Hyannis, MA, a village of Barnstable. Located down the street from Cape Cod Maritime Museum , the museum showcased the life and presidency of U.S. President #35 and his family.

At last, I have arrived at the final appendix! Appendix F is divided into two parts with the first covering the languages spoken by the many peoples of Middle-earth during the Third Age, and the second covering Tolkien’s method of “translation” for those languages. Even to the end, Tolkien maintained his character as a typical early to mid-20 th century translator. Elvish and Mannish languages in Arda evolved along similar paths as real-world Indo-European languages with the development of a common speech, pidgins and creoles from the merger of two or more languages, categorization of languages as high or low based on the social status of the speakers, codeswitching and reappropriation of slurs, and languages falling out of use to become lost.

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. My sixth stop was Cape Cod Maritime Museum of Hyannis, MA, established in 1998 to share the history of the region. During this visit, I learned about boats, scrimshaw, lighthouses and their keepers, women of Cape Cod, and building the Cape Cod Canal.

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. Between major stops in Cotuit like Cotuit Historical Society and Cahoon Museum of American Art , I made several quick history stops. I visited Cotuit Library and nearby Cotuit Memorial Park, Cotuit Federated Church, Mariners Lodge, and Freedom Hall.

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...

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. My fifth stop was Cahoon Museum in Cotuit, MA. Currently celebrating its 40 th year anniversary, the museum was started in 1984 in the former home of the husband-and-wife folk artist team Ralph Cahoon and Martha Farham Cahoon . Artists, architects, and historians alike will delight in these unique buildings filled with local art.

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. My fourth stop was Cotuit Historical Society , which has the full name of Historical Society of Santuit & Cotuit (HSSC). These are two village of Barnstable, MA. The society opened in 1955, and its museum currently consists of three buildings: newly built Cotuit Museum, Dottridge Homestead, and Rothwell Ice House.

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. My third stop was Hoxie House in Sandwich, MA, which is owned and maintained by the town. The saltbox style house was built during the mid 17 th century and has been restored after its acquisition by the town in 1959.

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.

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. My second stop was Nye Museum in East Sandwich, MA, which consisted of three buildings: a homestead originally constructed in 1678, a grange hall that now acts as the visitor center, and a grist mill built in 1858.

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.

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. My first stop was Heritage Museums & Gardens (HMG) in Sandwich, MA. The first part of this six-part miniseries focused on the gardens , second part on J.K. Lilly III Automobile Gallery , the third on small buildings , a fourth covering art installations on the grounds, and the fifth on the reproduction Temple of Virtue . This sixth and final post highlights the delightful Looff carousel.

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. My first stop was Heritage Museums & Gardens (HMG) in Sandwich, MA. The first part of this six-part miniseries focused on the gardens , second part on J.K. Lilly III Automobile Gallery , the third on small buildings , and a fourth covering art installations on the grounds. This post focuses on the reproduction Temple of Virtue and the art exhibit inside.

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. My first stop was Heritage Museums & Gardens (HMG) in Sandwich, MA. The first part of this six-part miniseries focused on the gardens , second part on J.K. Lilly III Automobile Gallery , and the third covered small buildings . In the fourth installment, I look at the art installations on the grounds.

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. My first stop was Heritage Museums & Gardens (HMG) in Sandwich, MA. The first part of this six-part miniseries focused on the gardens , while the second part focused on J.K. Lilly III Automobile Gallery . This third part will focus on small buildings, and one canoe, located throughout the grounds.

The first part of “Appendix E: Writing and Spelling”, focused on pronunciation. I am notoriously bad at pronouncing words that I only know by sight, some of my favorites being liaison, epitome, Yosemite, and mischievous. Because I learned most of my vocabulary from reading, I rarely heard more difficult words pronounced aloud until high school or college, when I learned the hard way that what I heard in my head was not the generally accepted way to say the word. I tended to think my linguistic snafus were pretty funny.

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. My first stop was Heritage Museums & Gardens (HMG) in Sandwich, MA. The first part of this six-part miniseries focused on the gardens. This second part will focus on J.K. Lilly III Automobile Gallery located near the entrance to the museum.

In August, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. My first stop was Heritage Museums & Gardens (HMG) in Sandwich, MA. While I spent half a day at this location, this fantastic venue was packed with so many outdoor activities and indoor history that I could have easily spent a leisurely day on the grounds. I certainly plan on going back! My coverage of HMG will be a six-part mini-series within the Cape Cod Adventure series beginning with an overview of the gardens.

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.

During my trip to Duxbury, where I visited the Alden House National Historic Site , Art Complex Museum , and Myles Standish Burying Ground , I also made several quick history stops around the town. Like in other New England towns, I visited the church, town hall, another cemetery, a monument, and the forest trails. As an added bonus, I learned that the land now holding the public library, schools, and fields once belonged to colonist Philippe de Len(n)oy or Philip Delano , a Huguenot or French Protestant born in Leiden, the Netherlands who moved to British-held Plymouth Colony in 1621 on the “Fortune”, the second ship after the Mayflower. A sign dedicated to Delano was erected by his descendents from Delano Kindred Incorporated .

During my trip to Duxbury, MA, after I had visited Alden House National Historic Site and Art Complex Museum , I stopped by Myles Standish Burying Ground , also called Old Burying Ground . This unique little cemetery claims to be the oldest maintained cemetery in the United States. The town of Duxbury has sporadically taken care of the area since the mid-17 th century and named the grounds after colonial militant Myles Standish , who is said to have been buried on the grounds on October 1656. The seemingly defunct American Cemetery Association gave a commemorative plaque to the cemetery in August 1977 as part of a belated bicentennial celebration.