💎 Tolkien Treasures #004: February 2023
What I've Been Enjoying This Month, Some Funny Recent Tweets, and This Newsletter Has A Twitter
February Tolkien Treasures
Hello all! February is already coming to a close, so that means it’s time for me to share a few things that I’ve been enjoying this month. Here they are:
LEGO Rivendell set—
JUST LOOK AT THIS BEAUTIFUL LEGO RIVENDELL SET. JUST. LOOK.
It is…precious to me.
Clocking in at 6,000 pieces and costing a whopping $500, this LEGO Rivendell set comes with 15 separate minifigures and has three main sections, according to an official release:Section one, featuring:
The Council Ring – complete with a semicircular ring of chairs for the council and the plinth where the ring is first revealed and the Fellowship discuss how to destroy it
Frodo’s Bedroom – with a desk and chest where the young hobbit recovers following his rescue by Arwen from the hands of the Nazgûl, before being reunited with Bilbo
Elrond’s study – with famous paintings from the history of Middle-earthSection two, featuring:
An elven tower – featuring five Elven statues of unnamed famous warriors from the pastSecond three, featuring:
Gazebo, river and bridge – to recreate the scene where the Fellowship departs Rivendell.Here’s a few photos of those details:
Give it to us. Because it's my birthday, and I wants it. Er…I mean…haha
A Grief Observed—I’d never read this classic on grief by C.S. Lewis until this month. More Lewis’ own personal observations on grief than an academic or popular level treatment of grief, A Grief Observed peels back the curtain on Lewis’ personal experience with grief. Though we all grieve differently, there were many passages that rang true to my own experiences. A hard but good read.
ndor—I’ve slowly but steadily been making my way through season 1 of Andor and it looks like I’ll be able to finish before season 3 of The Mandalorian begins next week. Through the first 10 episodes it’s been excellent (no spoilers in the comments, please!) and I’m consistently impressed by it and enjoying it.
For a while now I’ve been mulling over the glut of prequels that we’ve had recently—obviously The Rings of Power but also Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, Star Trek’s Strange New Worlds, and House of the Dragon—and think comparing and contrasting them to see why some work so well and some haven’t worked that well will be the focus of an upcoming newsletter. Stay tuned!
Bitter and Sweet—Yesterday, Ash Wednesday, the liturgical season of Lent began. From now through Holy Week I’m going through a daily devotional by
(who writes at ) . While this is my first time with this particular devotional, I’ve enjoyed Tsh’s Advent devotional both times we’ve gone through it and am looking forward to this one as well.
he Rings of Power Was Pretty Good, Actually—I missed this thread by Paul Miller originally when it was first tweeted but John Shelton (who writes here at
) brought it to my attention on twitter this week. SPOILERS in the thread and very light spoilers in my overview of it below.Over the course of the thread, Paul Miller articulates (and I essentially and enthusiastically agree) why when viewed as a whole, season 1 of The Rings of Power was pretty good, actually, covering both Galadriel’s character arc to the Sauron reveal in some detail. I love how his close reading of the season shows Galadriel’s growth (especially the point about her sword and her brother’s knife) and identifies the motivations for a certain Dark Lord’s actions.
Read the thread yourself if that piques your interest!
There we have it, my Five Faves for February. Your turn: what is something you’ve been enjoying this month?
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Tweets of the Week
Here are some recent tweets that made me laugh. Enjoy!
Erin’s tweet sits smack dab in the center of the Venn Diagram of my precise interests.
I’ll never wish a centaur good luck by yelling “break a leg!” again
New writing motto.
I laugh just thinking about Durin chanting “MCDONALDS! MCDONALDS! MCDONALDS!”
This Newsletter Is On Twitter Now!
Speaking of The Rings of Power, when season 1 initially aired, I wanted a place to discuss the show each week with folks without putting spoilers on my main account. So I started an account called @LLLOfTheRings (Lord, Liar, Lunatic of the Rings) and had a ton of fun connecting with other people watching the show, discussing the latest episode, and making more LOTR and ROP content specifically for that account.
Since this first season ended, however, I’ve been wondering how best to use that account. It will be at least a year (and maybe longer) before the second season of ROP drops, so what to do with it in the meantime?
At the same time as I was wondering all that, I have been getting this newsletter up and running. I had the thought that discussion posts here might be a fun way to have a “live” discussion of future episodes as they air or the next morning, but then wouldn’t that take away from the purpose of the twitter alt I had?
Then it hit me: why not rebrand the account to be this newsletter’s twitter presence? It coincided with me receiving the amazing new logo and branding for Jokien with Tolkien (thanks again to Carly for her amazing work, more of which you can see at CarlyKjelstrom.com). What better time to combine the account and the newsletter and use both to discuss all things LOTR and ROP?
Thus @JokienWTolkien was born:
You’re already likely subscribed to this newsletter and are also very likely following me at @joshcarlosjosh on twitter, but if you’d like even more of me in your social feeds and another place to see newsletter and LOTR content, give me a follow there too!
Appendices
In this month’s paid subscriber thread, Jason M. contributed the wonderful idea to do an “advice column” style newsletter and already gave the first silly problem for me to weigh in on. I’d love to hear from you all: do you have any LOTR/fantasy/nerdy problems, disputes or issues that you’d like to have me attempt to give an answer to in a future “advice column” newsletter? Leave your question in the comments here or send them to JRRJokien@gmail.com. Thank you!
I haven't played with legos is decades, but suddenly I want to get back into them! Also, A Grief Observed is incredible. Such an honest and vulnerable book.
Hilarious as always.