The Hall of Fire

Just one word (for now):

Ents!

This has been an enjoyable journey, and I’ve appreciated the civility and open-mindedness of the discussions here. I’m going to miss the post-episode dissections. On balance, I can say I really did enjoy the series, odd diversions notwithstanding. I found the last episode pretty compelling, almost e...

I’ve also reached that point of not anticipating close adherence to Tolkien canon and am just going with the flow. And I am enjoying it! The slower pace of this episode felt like the calm between the storms because I’m anticipating Episode 8 will be pretty full on. (I hope so, at least.) Elendil’s r...

The mithril/Silmaril storyline had me literally talking back to the screen (in a ‘what do you think you’re doing?!’ way) I think all the possible Saurons are turning out to be red herrings - Theo has reverted to being a good kid, Halbrand is just a dude with a shameful past and probably doomed to fa...

Halbrand's continued protests about returning to Middle-earth strongly suggest he's either the world's most reluctant warrior and/or he's running from something. It adds weight, in my mind, to him becoming a potential King of the Dead.

Thanks V. It's good to be back.

Hello again (after quite a long time…) I have been enjoying RoP so far, but it’s a little fine-edged. I’ve had to consciously set aside the known chronology of the Second Age, and also (more-or-less) accept that sometimes one character is going to be telling another character’s story and at a differ...

And I also love that article! As a former denizen of Frodo's Kitchen, it brings back fond memories of debates about choice, fate and destiny. Thanks for posting it, Dave.

I like Hannah Gadsby – I like her wry, understated wit. She’s clever in her observations – and Nanette was all this too, but on a bigger, darker and much more confronting scale. It was definitely challenging to watch. The anger – I don’t deal with other people’s anger very well, I tend to shrivel up...

Lovely photos, Jude. I woke at 4:30 this morning, and was very lucky to be able to look out of my window and see the lunar eclipse - the blood moon. It was seriously uncanny, watching the silver light of the moon being swallowed by the shadowy red. And the brilliance of Mars - it seemed big enough a...

Fingers crossed, Imp. I won't say another word...

Ooooh. Book recommendations! I haven't read the Isabel Dalhousie series, though I have read (and loved) the Scotland Street series. Thanks Jude! I'd also like to read Full Disclosure, but it doesn't seem to be available through the Australian Kindle Store. (I'm very much a Kindle reader these days. ...

What a wonderful list! Thank you - I'm looking forward to following the countdown.

I'm not sure what the problem was there - but here's the image my friend took at Wellington Airport yesterday:

Does this count as a tie in? I'm not sure, but I thought I'd post this picture shared on Twitter by an NZ colleague who just happened to be visiting Wellington airport yesterday.

I check too, Imp, now that I've been converted to the Kindle fraternity.

YLDTLMGITY?

ALITTTFOTR?

POTD?

I'm very much enjoying reading this thread (and also the AUJ EE one), but those three have me seriously stumped!

...The first 30+ seconds were acappela, highly unusual for any kind of "pop" song. It uses very little instrumentation for the first half, until the violin comes in...but even then, it remains folk-like in feel. It is almost entirely acoustic, has a modal tonality (in fact, it switches ba...

A couple of years ago we were travelling in Canada and I dearly wanted to see a bear. We saw evidence of bears on trees (big scratch marks), people we spoke with assured us 'oh yes, there are bears around here', I saw intriguing bear-proof rubbish bins, and millions of bear images in souvenir shops....

A bear! Wonderful!

These are all fabulous pictures. I do love this thread.