A Casual Stroll to Mordor

As mentioned on episode 120, LOTRO Lore Nuggets, is a blog you probably want to add to your list for some great LOTRO information.

The Battles at the Fords of the Isen are regarded as the opening conflict of the War of the Ring proper, though they were by no means the first clash among the major combatants.

Does Draigoch break The Lord of the Rings lore? That seems to be the major discussion of a recent forum post.

I decided I would like to see a poster with all the major kingdoms and battles of Middle-Earth laid out on a timeline.

No more serious topic of discussion can be found in all of Tolkiendom than Balrog wings. After listening to many of the Tolkien Professor’s podcasts, and reading others thoughts, I was inspired to wade into this inflammatory topic with my own ruminations.

I thought it would be fun to sort some of the characters from the books into LOTRO Classes.

So in the end I had a chart which showed almost every important person in all of Middle-Earth history. And the lines of Arwen and Aragorn can now be traced on one chart from beginning to end. But more than that, it turned into a condensed history of Middle-Earth.

Here it is: the long-awaited (or at least long-delayed) conclusion to my series of posts on the NPC hobbits in the back room of the Bird and Baby in Michel Delving!

Some of you may recall a podcast from a couple years ago called “Secrets of Lord of the Rings”. I’m very happy to inform everyone that this project is getting a re-boot and is now going by the name “Secrets of of Middle-earth”.

Way back in 2007 when LOTRO was first launched, one pretty consistent gripe from reviewers concerned the whole concept of the Minstrel class. Sure, everyone knew that the game needed a healer of some sort, but many people just didn’t get the concept of the Minstrel.

Punggo introduces the real-life counterpart of the second of these hobbits from the Bird and Baby in LOTRO, Carlo Williams.

The first time I made it into Evendim, not long after the zone opened up, I was blown away by the ruins dotting the landscape and the views across Lake Nenuial. If you have never spent any time there, you are missing out on what I think may be the most visually stunning zone in the entire game.

If you play LotRO, you have probably paid a visit to Michel Delving, the “capital” of the Shire, at some point, even if you do not play a hobbit. Maybe you needed to turn in mathoms for reputation, or perhaps you’re a member of the Cooking Guild. On the other hand, if you completed the Shire Brew-master deed, successfully finished Inn League initiation, or did the “Recovering the Lost Leaf” quest chain (available from Ronald Dwale near Dwaling), you would have gone inside the Bird and Baby Inn.

I feel just down right silly for not having this as an Outside LOTRO before now. I’ve been following the Tolkien Professor for months now, chatting on twitter, linked to it from our facebook and even mentioned it in the official forums. However, I some how missed making a post on our actual blog. Duh!

The Tolkien Society has chosen March 25th as “Tolkien Reading Day”. A day devoted to reading Professor Tolkien’s works.

A LOTRO-Europe screenshot contest and a Turbine Lottery to celebrate Brandobras “Bullroarer” Took!

Just a short post to list a few things that aren’t huge or impact everyone but that you may be interested in knowing about. Enjoy!

I found a wonderful blog today entitled “Once Upon a Hobbit” and I find so very interesting, I’m encouraging you to stop by and read it as well or perhaps add it to your feed reader.

This edition is about Lobelia, Otho and their son Lotho Sackville-Baggins.

Today we’ll give some attention to Radagast the Brown.

Today we are going to look at the eleven server names originate.

Today’s topic is the merry fellow himself, Tom Bombadil.

For whatever reason, I have never read the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I’ve seen the animated movie and the live action movies, as well as having read The Hobbit several times.