Status Updates From Atlas illustré de Tolkien

A brilliant appendix to guide you through the world of Tolkien. I’m reading this post having read novels but I will be keeping it alongside me for the next time I re-read them.

"So it was that the meekest and least of all people came to hold the gate of all the world in their hands."

MEEKEST? LEAST OF ALL PEOPLE? According to who?! Dude. I would have said comfortable, content with their lot in life, even closed off to the rest of the world or a bit xenophobic.

But meek? Least of all people? That sounds so insulting!

Wauw. So literally nothing is known about them huh.

This is disappointing.

Did I miss when or where the Hobbits came from? Apparently they started in the First Age but on the genealogy pages they are never mentioned?!

Listen, I only care about the Hobbits. Cliché but true.

I am always a bit amused seeing the word 'barbarians' used in the context of Tolkien's work. He was a language nerd but the word 'barbarian' has such a specific origin that it feels a bit out of place because it does not have the same history in the world he created.

It is a quibble but I would have loved to ask him about these kinds of things because he loved language so much.

I have lost the book. No idea where it is. Which is unlike me.

How do you lose a whole ass book?!