Part 84 – The Wall of Darnkess Morning came early on the compound of Esteldin. It brought with it a slight breeze through the rift in the hills as it snuffed out the many camp fires all about the grounds of the three courts of Esteldin. The breeze was warm, though, making the fires in the court grounds undeeded. The warmth was a welcome sense to the cool night...

Part 83 – To Face A Dragon The second day of reading progressed much like the first. The only hints of creatures in caves beneath the earth were of the wyrms. Nothing mentioned the serpent inside the earth and if it did they only were of that of the wyrms. With the second day of searching being wrapped up, Theomin, Estonethiel, Magla and Teryndir prepared to...

Part 78 – Those Who Watch Us Mid day was upon the seven travelers as they made their way through the ruined road of Men Erain. The sky was gloomy, here and there broke through the blue sky through the clouds as a cool north wind blew southward. The wind gave the waters of the lake ripples, white crests like snowy peaks on a mountain top after a blizzard. The...

As part of the annual fundraiser of its parent institution, Signum University, the Mythgard Institute is holding a special LOTRO event on Tuesday, October 6th at 930 pm server time on the LOTRO Twitch channel. Where on Middle-earth Is Wigend? will be a lore-filled evening, as Tolkien Professor Corey Olsen, as Wigend the Guardian (Landroval) whooshes from place...

Hello Friends! Welcome to the long awaited 16th edition of LOTRO Poems! Woohoo! Exams and work kept me from doing justice to Tolkien inspired poetry so I waited till I could do it justice before publishing more. Also I am involved in writing this amazing new video lore series , so check it out if you haven’t done so already, Middle-earth Lore chapter 1:...

Welcome back to LotRO and Lore, an article series where we take a look at a few of the stellar ways that Turbine ties Tolkien’s wonderful writings into the realm of the MMORPG. Today we’ll ride across the plains of Rohan and pay special attention to the banners of its people. In Rohan, we are exposed to a variety of towns and villages of the Rohirrim,...

Welcome back to LotRO and Lore, an article series where we take a look at a few of the stellar ways that Turbine ties Tolkien’s wonderful writings into the realm of the MMORPG. This week’s article will be fairly short, but I thought it was a rather interesting bit of trivia. When travelling in Nan Curunir, the Wizard’s Vale, an adventurer in...

The Tolkien Professor Corey Olsen has an abiding interest in adaptation of Tolkien’s works, whether art or music or film. It is not surprising, therefore, that he watched the first episode of the Middle-earth Lore Series with great interest. It’s also not surprising that, having watched the episode, he got together with Andang to talk about how this series came...

Welcome back to LotRO and Lore, an article series where we take a look at a few of the stellar ways that Turbine ties Tolkien’s wonderful writings into the realm of the MMORPG. This week we survey the statues of the hobbits, a curious race of halfling inhabiting the Shire.   Hobbits have no want for intricate masonry or tall towers; their architects build...

Welcome back to LotRO and Lore, an article series where we take a look at a few of the stellar ways that Turbine ties Tolkien’s wonderful writings into the realm of the MMORPG. Today we diverge from the novels and look at some of the real-world inspirations for the places and people we see in the game. Anyone who stops by the Shire is sure to have heard of...

Welcome back to LotRO and Lore, an article series where we take a look at a few of the stellar ways that Turbine ties Tolkien’s wonderful writings into the realm of the MMORPG. This week we survey the statues of the elves. When I first wandered into the glades of Duillond and Celondim on the banks of the river Lune, I was taken aback by the beauty of the place...

Welcome back to LotRO and Lore, an article series where we take a look at a few of the stellar ways that Turbine ties Tolkien’s wonderful writings into the realm of the MMORPG. Today we look at a region that was first introduced in the days of the Mines of Moria expansion. As much as I love Moria and it’s history, fresh air is always something I yearn for...

Welcome back to LotRO and Lore, an article series where we take a look at a few of the stellar ways that Turbine ties Tolkien’s wonderful writings into the realm of the MMORPG. Today’s topic is one I have often wondered over the years: Where exactly did the Kergrim come from?     Kergrim are a race of greenish-purple wart-covered...

The wide river Anduin separates the eastern banks of Rohan from its unkindly neighbors. We see the battles between the Easterlings and the Rohirrim most prominently in the Riders of Rohan expansion, as well as in the Great River region, where we are given a sneak-peak into the Brown Lands. Information about Easterling culture is scarce, so to flesh out these...

As a long-time player of LotRO, I have many fond memories of a game that has inspired me to look deeper into the world that spawned from the highly-detailed mind of J.R.R. Tolkien. One of my favorite recollections was the first time I ever played; I anxiously waited for my download to finish, logged in to one of the recommended servers, and quickly rolled my...

Hullo LOTRO Players, This Saturday at 5:00 p.m. server time (Eastern), Andang and I along with the Middle-earth Lore team will be recording some moving pictures of Dwarves in Ered Luin on Landroval server. We need more Dwarves! We are filming walking shots and more walking shots.  With waving and cheering and other emotes smattered in between. We are also...

The Tolkien Professor Corey Olsen comes out of the starter area and starts Gryfflet, his hobbit burglar, on a tour of The Shire where he deals with rude hobbits and even ruder bears. (Gryfflet now has attire that suits his profession, thanks to a makeover session with Teriadwyn.) Corey continued to delight viewers with a lore-packed commentary that ties...

Hello Friends! Welcome to the 15th edition of LOTRO Poems! Woohoo! These last few weeks have been awesome..If you guys didn’t know already, I was guest on LOTRO Players News #92. It was an awesome experience and the first one of its kind for me. Casual Raiders had some amazing weeks as well. We as a kin were able to finish Ost Dunhoth Tier 2 as well as...

Yesterday, LOTRO posted a video on their official YouTube channel of the lore discussion that Senior World Builder Chris Pierson had with Tolkien scholars Dr. Corey Olsen (President of Mythgard Institute) and Dr. Michael Drout (Professor of English at Wheaton College). Originally streamed live earlier this month, the discussion centers around the history of...

Hello Friends! Welcome to the 14th edition of LOTRO Poems! Woohoo!  Last week my short hiatus from LOTRO ended and I am back full time. Yay! The Casual Raiders have been raiding everyday ever since. Guess I still love raiding, han? We did Tower of Orthanc one night and Draigoch another. The most amazing part was that we took along some folks who had never done...