Get the Exploring Tolkien App to listen to every episode, a Tolkien calendar, the latest news, and member exlcusives!

“Day shall come again”–but for now, it’s the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. In this episode, we walk through Chapter 2 of The Children of Húrin a breaking down Tolkien’s bloodiest, most tragic battle. We cover the epic (and doomed) alliance of elves, men, and dwarves, the double-cross by the Easterlings, and why Morgoth’s victory still leaves him filled with dread. And we even get the Pope involved!

We also look at:

• Why the elves’ greatest host could never stand against Morgoth—and what the battle’s tactics reveal about Tolkien’s “epic history” mindset
• The legendary valor (and fate) of Húrin and Huor—plus the prophecy that links Gondolin to Morgoth’s ruin
• Tolkien’s use of prophecy, fate, and heroism: why the darkest chapter is full of hope for the future
• The difference between Tolkien’s approach to battles and the modern appetite for nonstop action

In our extended episode (available via our Exploring Tolkien App or for our site’s members–), we go deeper on:

• Listener comments about tragic foreshadowing, and Turin’s nature.
• More LEGO Lord of the Rings
• Why pop culture’s take on Tolkien struggles with the deeper logic of Middle-earth

🎉 To get the extended episode, become a member using our Exploring Tolkien app, or  become a member at https://theonering.com/members ($4/mo and free for the 1st month).

🔗 Episode Links
Get the Exploring Tolkien App!
The Children of Húrin
The Story of Kullervo
The Silmarillion
Unfinished Tales

🎧 Subscribe to our Podcast
Subscribe on Apple
Subscribe on Spotify
Get the Exploring Tolkien App
Get the Extended Podcast

🔍 If You Like Tolkien
The Expanded Letters of JRR Tolkien (audiobook)
The Expanded Letters of JRR Tolkien (book)
The Silmarillion
The Children of Húrin
The Atlas of Middle-earth
Make Tolkien Great Again – Tengwar Hat

Three books bearing J.R.R. Tolkien’s signature went to auction at Quire Auctions in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire on June 3 — and not a single bid was placed.

The volumes — The Hobbit, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King — came from the estate of the late Brenda Jocelyn Walden. Her parents, Kathleen and Henry George Walden, were personal friends with Tolkien and his wife Edith. The two families holidayed together at Bournemouth’s Hotel Miramar, reportedly Edith Tolkien’s favourite destination. Kathleen Walden knew the professor simply as “JRR.”

Each book contains a Tolkien signature that was cut from letters or postcards and pasted inside — a not uncommon practice among friends and family of the author, who rarely signed books for strangers. The Two Towers signature, estimated at £6,000–£8,000, was likely cut from a letter. The Return of the King signature was written on the back of a photograph or postcard depicting the Hotel Miramar. The Hobbit‘s signature (estimated £5,000–£7,000) had been coloured in by a child from the Walden family.

Together, the three volumes were expected to fetch between £17,000 and £23,000.

Caitlin Riley, director at Quire Auctions, called the result “shocking” and disappointing. “It’s a real shame, particularly when we know that the market and demand for Tolkien is on the up,” she told the Stroud News and Journal. The auction house says the books will be relisted in a future sale.

The lack of bids may reflect collector wariness about signatures cut from other documents and pasted in — a detail that can affect authentication and value. Still, with verified provenance linking the Waldens to the Tolkien family, the no-sale outcome caught the auction house off guard.

We’ll be watching to see whether the relisting draws interest — or whether the market has spoken.

Source: Stroud News and Journal, Times Now News

We may have all been disappoint in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy… but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it somewhere else!

The Stratford Festival has brought J.R.R. Tolkien’s adventure to the stage this summer, with The Hobbit now playing in repertory at Stratford, Ontario’s Avon Theatre through October 25, 2026. Directed by Pablo Felices-Luna and adapted by Kim Selody, the production is part of the Festival’s Schulich Children’s Plays series — and it features some inventive practical stagecraft in this year’s season.

Richard Lee plays Bilbo Baggins, with Tim Campbell as Gandalf, Michael Man as Gollum, and Sara-Jeanne Hosie doubling as Old Took and Narrator. 

Tolkien and the Stage Problem

First published in 1937, The Hobbit was Tolkien’s entry point into Middle-earth — a tale written for his children, before the mythology deepened The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien himself was famously skeptical of theatrical adaptations of his work. His prose was built for the page: the songs, the careful accumulation of atmosphere, the internal monologue of a homebody hobbit discovering reserves of courage he never knew he had.

The practical challenges alone are formidable. A company of thirteen dwarves, an ancient dragon, trolls, goblins, giant spiders, and a battle between five armies — all to be rendered by a handful of actors on a single stage. How a production solves that problem is where it lives or dies.

The Avon Theatre, Stratford, Ontario — home of the Stratford Festival’s 2026 production of The Hobbit. Photo: Chris Woodrich / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Inventive Stagecraft

Felices-Luna and his design team solve the practical problems. Set designer Lorenzo Savoini has built three concentric truncated stone semi-circles that shift and reconfigure throughout the evening, their surfaces transformed by Michael Walton’s dynamic lighting to evoke the Shire, mountain passes, goblin caverns, and the depths of the Lonely Mountain — all without a single digital projection. The effect is that of watching landscapes conjured from pure craft.

The puppetry is the production’s crown jewel. Towering troll puppets, a swooping eagle, giant spiders conjured through silhouette and webs — and most memorably, Smaug himself, brought to terrifying life by three puppeteers working in concert inside Ting-Huan Christine Urquhart’s red-lit dragon costume. SesayArts reported the dragon drew gasps and spontaneous applause.

SesayArts put it well: those who arrive already loving Middle-earth will find much here to cherish — they can fill in the gaps from memory. But the production’s ceiling is set by its source script, and no amount of spectacular staging fully compensates for text that doesn’t go as deep as Tolkien did.

The Hobbit runs at the Avon Theatre, Stratford, Ontario through October 25, 2026. Tickets and scheduling are available at stratfordfestival.ca.

The White City has arrived. LEGO Icons Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith (set #11377) went on general sale today, June 4, 2026, following an early-access window for LEGO Insiders that opened June 1. At 8,278 pieces and $649.99 USD, it is one of the most ambitious Middle-earth builds LEGO has ever released — and it is available right now.

The City Tolkien Built in Words

Tolkien introduced Minas Tirith with extraordinary precision in The Return of the King, Book V, Chapter 1 — also titled “Minas Tirith.” Pippin’s first glimpse captures the city’s sheer improbability: a mountain of stone, seven tiers carved from the living rock of Mindolluin, each wall higher than the last, crowned by the Tower of Ecthelion, “a glittering pinnacle of rime” that caught light like a spear of pearl. Tolkien notes that the city was originally called Minas Anor — the Tower of the Sun — built by Anárion, son of Elendil, in the Second Age (S.A. 3320), as a counterpart to Minas Ithil across the Pelennor.

That layered history — the city as palimpsest, each tier accumulating centuries of Gondorian memory — is exactly what LEGO’s hybrid microscale/minifigure design attempts to honor. The set blends macro detail (minifigure-scale streets, gates, interiors) with the sweep of the full mountain silhouette in microscale, a structural challenge that mirrors Tolkien’s own dual registers: intimate character drama played out against an epic architectural canvas.

The accompanying Gift with Purchase, Grond (set #40893), carries its own deep lore. The battering ram used to break the Great Gate in Book V, Chapter 4 (“The Siege of Gondor”) was named after the mace of Morgoth himself — the “Hammer of the Underworld” — a deliberate act of dark naming by Sauron’s forces, invoking the terror of the First Age to shatter Gondor’s resolve. That 307-piece GWP is a small thing in LEGO terms, and an enormous thing in Tolkien terms.

LEGO Icons The Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith (11377) — 8,278 pieces. © LEGO Group

What’s in the Box

Set #11377 breaks down as follows:

• Piece count: 8,278
• Price: $649.99 USD
• Dimensions: 23.5 in. (59 cm) high × 24.5 in. (62 cm) wide × 14.5 in. (37 cm) deep
• Design: Hybrid microscale + minifigure-scale
• Minifigures (10): Gandalf the White, Aragorn as King Elessar, Faramir, Denethor, Peregrin Took, Arwen, and four Soldiers of Gondor
• Also included: Shadowfax horse figure

The minifigure selection is telling. Denethor’s inclusion alongside Faramir and Aragorn as King Elessar means you can stage both the city’s darkest hour and its renewal within the same build. Arwen is a welcome addition — her presence at the coronation is one of Tolkien’s most quietly moving moments, and it is good to see LEGO honor it here.

The throne room of the Citadel featuring Gandalf the White, Peregrin Took, and Denethor. © LEGO Group

The Grond GWP Window Is Closing

The LEGO Icons Grond set (#40893) — a 307-piece recreation of the wolf-headed battering ram — is available as a free Gift with Purchase for orders placed June 1–7, while supplies last. IGN notes that the GWP window is limited, so if you are planning to purchase, today and the next few days are the window. LEGO Insiders who purchased from June 1 onward were already eligible; today’s general availability opens that window to everyone.

We covered the reveal of this set on May 16, and the anticipation in our community since then has been substantial. Today is the day it stops being a future thing and becomes a present thing — a 23.5-inch mountain of Gondorian stone sitting on someone’s shelf.

Interior detail including the throne room of the Citadel. © LEGO Group

Where to Buy

LEGO Icons Minas Tirith (set #11377) is available directly from LEGO.com and at authorized LEGO retailers. The $649.99 price point puts it in the tier of LEGO’s most ambitious licensed sets — the Rivendell and Barad-dûr releases being its nearest peers in scope.

Free League Publishing released three new supplements for their official Tolkien tabletop roleplaying games on June 2, expanding both The One Ring 2nd Edition and The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying (5e) with new adventures centered on Saruman the White and the Shire. The releases mark a significant addition to the growing library of official Middle-earth RPG content.

The two Saruman-focused supplements — Hands of the White Wizard for The One Ring and Trials of Saruman for the 5e game — draw on one of the most compelling and underexplored corners of Tolkien’s legendarium: Curunír before his fall. Tolkien established in Unfinished Tales that Saruman was the chief of the Istari, sent by the Valar and “the most skilled in the works of Sauron” — a wizard of immense craft who, as Gandalf noted in The Fellowship of the Ring, had “long studied the arts of the Enemy himself.” The Third Age years leading up to the War of the Ring, during which Saruman ruled from Orthanc and secretly coveted the One Ring, offer rich but sparsely documented territory in Tolkien’s texts. These supplements step into that space.

Hands of the White Wizard (The One Ring, 2nd Edition)

Hands of the White Wizard is an adventure anthology for The One Ring RPG featuring six adventures set between Third Age year 2965 and the opening of the War of the Ring. Players serve or observe Saruman the White before the treachery of Isengard takes root — and, crucially, may have the chance to influence his fate. The supplement introduces new allies, foes, mysteries, and lore tied to Isengard. The adventures can be played individually or woven together into a longer campaign.

This is genuinely intriguing design territory. The question of whether Saruman’s corruption was inevitable — or whether a different set of choices might have preserved the White Wizard as a force for good — is one Tolkien leaves largely unresolved. The game invites players to test that question at the table.

Hands of the White Wizard, a new adventure anthology for The One Ring RPG. Image courtesy of Free League Publishing.

Hobbit Tales (The One Ring, 2nd Edition)

Hobbit Tales brings five ready-to-play adventures set across the four farthings of the Shire, now available as a standalone supplement for The One Ring 2nd Edition. The material was originally part of the game’s starter set; this release makes it accessible to players who came to the game through other means. Notable Hobbits — including Primula and Rory Brandybuck, Paladin Took, and Bilbo Baggins himself — are available as playable characters.

Tolkien described the Shire as his “ideal vision of the English countryside” — a place defined by its smallness, its comfort, and its studied indifference to the wider world. Adventures set there have their own distinct texture, lighter in scale but no less grounded in what Tolkien imagined about Hobbit life.

Trials of Saruman (The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying, 5e)

Trials of Saruman is the 5e-compatible counterpart to Hands of the White Wizard, adapted for The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying game. The same six-adventure Saruman-focused storyline is retooled for D&D 5e rules, giving players already invested in that system a way into the same narrative without switching rulesets.

All three supplements are available now via the Free League webshop, with immediate PDF access upon purchase. Physical editions are also available to pre-order.

The June releases follow a strong run for Free League’s Middle-earth line — The One Ring took home the Gold ENNIE for Best Game in 2022 — and underscore the ongoing appetite for material that ventures into the quieter, less-mapped moments of Tolkien’s world. Whether your players want to sit across the council table from Saruman or share a meal in a Hobbit hole in the Westfarthing, there’s now a good bit more Middle-earth waiting for them at the table.

Sources: Free League press release via GamesPress; ComicBook.com

Amazon is already developing a fourth season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, according to an exclusive report from The Hollywood Reporter. Preproduction is being scheduled for fall 2026, with filming targeting early 2027 — which would put a potential Season 4 release somewhere in 2028.

The fourth season has not been officially greenlit. But Amazon made a five-season production commitment when it acquired the television rights to Tolkien’s works in 2017, and the studio appears to be acting on that commitment. Amazon has publicly claimed 185 million worldwide viewers for the series. Season 1 was the largest Prime Video launch ever, and Season 2 debuted atop Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10 (but declined swiftly after that).

Whether those numbers justify the reported per-season budget is a question Amazon has never fully answered, but the five-season plan has always been the framework the company points to when asked about the show’s future. Ultimately, breaking the commitment, they say, costs too much.

This development news arrives well ahead of Season 3, which premieres November 11, 2026. That season is set during the War of the Elves and Sauron, jumping “several years” past the events of Season 2, and will focus on Sauron forging the One Ring. Beginning preproduction on a fourth season before the third has even aired signals confidence — or at least institutional momentum — on Amazon’s part.

Galadriel watching Halbrand (Sauron) and Celebrimbor at the forge of Eregion in The Rings Of Power

As for where a fourth season might go narratively: the show is licensed from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings appendices, which cover an enormous stretch of the Second Age. If Season 3 handles the War of the Elves and Sauron, there’s still the Downfall of Númenor and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men ahead.

Pope Leo XIV has quoted J.R.R. Tolkien in his first encyclical — making Magnifica Humanitas the first papal encyclical ever to cite the author of The Lord of the Rings.

The 40,000-word document, released on May 25, addresses the rise of artificial intelligence and calls for it to be “disarmed” in service of the common good. In paragraph 213, discussing resistance to what he calls AI-driven dehumanization, Pope Leo turns to Tolkien — whom he describes as a “twentieth-century Catholic author” — and quotes a passage from The Return of the King, attributing it to “the words of a protagonist in one of his novels”:

“It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.”

Readers will recognize the words immediately: they belong to Gandalf, spoken to the captains of the West during the Last Debate in Book V, Chapter IX of The Return of the King. It is one of the most theologically resonant passages in all of Tolkien’s work — a call to humility, faithfulness, and ordinary courage in the face of overwhelming odds.

The Pope follows the quotation with a line of his own:
“The civilization of love will not arise from a single or spectacular gesture, but from the sum total of small and steadfast acts of fidelity that serve as a bulwark against dehumanization.”

It is no accident that a Catholic Pope chose this passage. Tolkien himself described The Lord of the Rings as “a fundamentally religious and Catholic work” (Letters, No. 142), and the humility at the heart of Gandalf’s counsel — that we are not called to win the whole war, only to tend the fields we know — aligns directly with Catholic social teaching on the dignity of faithful, ordinary action.

This is not the first time a pope has invoked Tolkien. Pope Francis referenced Tolkien in speeches and a pastoral letter during his pontificate. But an encyclical is a different matter entirely — it is the highest form of ordinary magisterial teaching the Church produces. For Tolkien’s words to appear in one is a landmark moment in the long relationship between his work and Catholic thought.

Magnifica Humanitas is a sweeping document, and the Tolkien quotation is one small part of its broader argument about technology, human dignity, and the common good. Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah was present at the Vatican for its release, underscoring the document’s engagement with the AI industry directly.

We have been covering Tolkien’s legacy for over 25 years, and moments like this remind us why his work endures — not just as literature, but as a moral and spiritual touchstone that speaks to every generation

We are thrilled to announce that the Exploring Tolkien app is officially live on the Apple App Store. This is something we have been building for our community for a long time, and we could not be more excited to finally put it in your hands.

Download Exploring Tolkien on the App Store

Built around the Exploring Tolkien podcast we’ve (Jonathan Watson and Michael Grumbine) hosted for 4 years, this app brings everything we do into one place, and then some.

Here is what you will find inside:

• Extended members-only episodes – 20 minutes longer than the free versions
• Custom Middle-earth portraits – choose from 24 legendary alliances
• Exclusive monthly Zoom chats – members only, face-to-face with us
• Tolkien date tracker – every important date in Middle-earth history and Tolkien life
• Rank up with every listen – your dedication is recognized
• Members-only video exclusives and shorts – all in one place
• News alerts – be the first to know when Tolkien news breaks

Whether you have been with us since the early days or just discovered the podcast, this app is designed to deepen your experience and bring our community closer together.

The app is free to download, with premium membership unlocking the full experience. Visit exploringtolkien.com for more details.

Download Exploring Tolkien on the Apple App Store

We built this for you. Let us know what you think.

Get the Exploring Tolkien App to listen to every episode, a Tolkien calendar, the latest news, and member exlcusives!

Turin’s tragic journey starts here. In this episode, we examine the opening chapter of The Children of Húrin, exploring the foundational relationships and lineage that shape Turin’s fate. Why does Tolkien focus so much on houses and kin? How does the friendship with the crippled servant Sador color Turin’s early years? We unpack the narrative roots of tragedy, prophecy, and the fraught bond between elves and men.

We also look at:

• What Tolkien’s “fire” actually means when describing Húrin
• The rare, uneasy alliance between elves and men in the First Age
• How tragedy marks Turin’s family from the very beginning
• Giving, pity, and the early signs of Turin’s character—before everything goes wrong

In our extended episode (available via our Exploring Tolkien App or for our site’s members–), we go deeper on:

• The roles of Morwen and Húrin—and how their contrasting natures shape Turin’s destiny
• Tolkien’s craft: why his metaphors never just describe, but also worldbuild
• Why houses and heraldry matter so much in Middle-earth’s oldest tales

🎉 To get the extended episode, become a member using our Exploring Tolkien app, or  become a member at https://theonering.com/members ($4/mo and free for the 1st month).

🔗 Episode Links
Get the Exploring Tolkien App!
The Children of Húrin
The Story of Kullervo
The Silmarillion
Unfinished Tales

🎧 Subscribe to our Podcast
Subscribe on Apple
Subscribe on Spotify
Get the Exploring Tolkien App
Get the Extended Podcast

🔍 If You Like Tolkien
The Expanded Letters of JRR Tolkien (audiobook)
The Expanded Letters of JRR Tolkien (book)
The Silmarillion
The Children of Húrin
The Atlas of Middle-earth
Make Tolkien Great Again – Tengwar Hat

Peter Jackson has offered the most concrete description yet of what he’s actually seeking from the Tolkien Estate — and it goes well beyond a single film.

Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival, Jackson elaborated on the negotiations we first reported on May 14, describing his pursuit of “connective tissue” rights — First Age material that would support The Hunt for Gollum and future Warner Bros. projects set in Middle-earth.

Peter Jackson explains at #Cannes why he is not directing “The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum’:

“The film is about Gollum’s psychological and addiction. I thought Andy knows this guy better than anybody. So I actually I didn’t think much of me [directing the new movie.… pic.twitter.com/eNbmQuQ54d

— Variety (@Variety) May 13, 2026

The phrase is carefully chosen. The Hunt for Gollum is set in the gap between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, a period covered most fully in Unfinished Tales and the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings. But the deeper history that gives that era its weight — the forging of the Rings of Power, the fall of Númenor, the long defeat of the Eldar — lives in The Silmarillion and related First Age writings. Without those rights, any film set in the late Third Age can only gesture at the mythology behind it.

“Connective tissue” implies not a single adaptation but an ongoing creative need — threads of First Age lore woven through multiple productions. If the Estate agrees, it could open the door to material Tolkien spent his entire life building: the tale of Beren and Lúthien, the Fall of Gondolin, the tragic grandeur of the Noldor in exile. These aren’t side stories. They are the foundation on which everything in The Lord of the Rings ultimately rests.

The Tolkien Estate has historically guarded First Age rights with particular care. Christopher Tolkien’s deep reservations about the Jackson films are well documented, and while the Estate’s posture has shifted since his passing in 2020 — most notably with the Amazon Rings of Power deal — a theatrical Silmarillion adaptation would represent a new threshold entirely.

Jackson offered no timeline and acknowledged the complexity of the discussions. But the fact that he’s speaking publicly, and in this level of detail, suggests the conversations have progressed beyond the exploratory stage. Whether the Estate ultimately agrees, the negotiation itself marks a significant moment in the long history of Tolkien’s works on screen.