The Nature of Middle-Earth (NoME): New Tolkien book

[angantyr]

Should be VERY useful for creating a Middle Earth Campaign:

www.tolkienguide.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=25290
www.theonering.net/torwp/2020/06/23/108207-the-nature-of-middle-earth-new-book-with-tolkiens-unpublished-writings/


(I update the title of this thread with the title of the book ---Zenopus)

[tkdco2]

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll keep a lookout for it.

[Deleted]

Interesting - though, seriously, at this point, the researchers are reaching a bit to keep the Tolkien brand in the store with fresh publications.
An unofficial 14th (!) book on the "History of Middle-Earth"?! Who's read the first thirteen?

Instead, what I'd love to see would be stuff that is more accessible to normal folks - a proper comic book adaptation of some of the lesser-known stories, for example, or proper ebook editions of the existing books with footnotes to the names within the ongoing text. I'm a pretty big Tolkien fan, I think, but - the flowers that grew in the gardens of Numenor, not a topic that I'm losing any sleep over.

[angantyr]

Oct 8, 2020 23:45:06 GMT -6 @rafael said:

Interesting - though, seriously, at this point, the researchers are reaching a bit to keep the Tolkien brand in the store with fresh publications.
An unofficial 14th (!) book on the "History of Middle-Earth"?! Who's read the first thirteen?

Instead, what I'd love to see would be stuff that is more accessible to normal folks - a proper comic book adaptation of some of the lesser-known stories, for example, or proper ebook editions of the existing books with footnotes to the names within the ongoing text. I'm a pretty big Tolkien fan, I think, but - the flowers that grew in the gardens of Numenor, not a topic that I'm losing any sleep over.

Well, *I* have read the first thirteen, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one...

Keep in mind that J.R.R. Tolkien created an ENORMOUS volume of written work, only a relatively small fraction of which was actually published originally. And all of it is interesting, albeit to varying degrees, if only because it shows the creative genius at work. But in other cases this unpublished material adds quite a bit to campaign material for Middle Earth or really any fantasy setting - "Unfinished Tales" and "Peoples of Middle Earth", in particular, had an awful lot of useful detail. And even stuff like the admittedly kinda boring "Book of Lost Tales" have a lot of stuff that can be mined as well, it's just more of a slog to get through it.

It should be noted that what you are interested in (comic book adaptations and eBook editions) are really very good ideas, though they are not in fact being shelved simply because of effort on History of Middle-Earth... to me, it appears no one has really thought about doing it. In other words the reason we don't have these things has nothing to do with publishing this book, so don't blame researchers who, by the by, really are filling a demand, even if it's rather niche and not to your personal taste.

[Zenopus]

Just when I think I'm set for Tolkien books for life, another interesting one pops up!

Now I have three on my list, the others being John Garth's new one, The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien, which looks at all of places in the UK which inspired Tolkien, and a new edition of the Unfinished Tales, illustrated for the first time by Lee, Howe and Nasmith.

[Deleted]

Oct 9, 2020 11:08:27 GMT -6 angantyr said:

Well, *I* have read the first thirteen, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one...

My apologies - this was supposed to sound "mocking in a friendly way", not as dismissive as it reads to even myself, now. - The bigger context is, *I* am one of those that have read "The History of Middle Earth", and, of course, I don't think the books make for a bad series, or, generally, for a bad resource. As you say, even some of the later books contain worthwhile material. That said, it does feel somewhat frustrating to me to think that we might have arrived at the "Commented Collections of Tolkien's Post-It Notes"-level of research. - As happens with every dead writer, eventually, of course.

Oct 9, 2020 11:08:27 GMT -6 angantyr said:

...so don't blame researchers who, by the by, really are filling a demand, even if it's rather niche and not to your personal taste.

Of course. This book can be published because people know it will sell, and likely not all too badly. I should not have judged it by its cover blurb alone. That said, I wonder how you'll feel about this book once you've had the chance to read it: "History", for the most part, included documents whose publication was justifiable, but it sure dragged along a bit. If the researchers are talking about more detailed descriptions of Numenor, I wonder whether this will not just simply boil down to "discarded earlier versions" of drafts and descriptions that we've seen published earlier.

[cometaryorbit]

Oct 8, 2020 23:45:06 GMT -6 @rafael said:

Interesting - though, seriously, at this point, the researchers are reaching a bit to keep the Tolkien brand in the store with fresh publications.
An unofficial 14th (!) book on the "History of Middle-Earth"?! Who's read the first thirteen?

Wait, what thirteen? I thought HOME was 12 volumes? Are you counting "Unfinished Tales"?

[cometaryorbit]

By the way, does anyone know who controls the rights to the Tolkien material now? Christopher Tolkien died earlier this year.

[angantyr]

Oct 9, 2020 21:30:20 GMT -6 @rafael said:

[As you say, even some of the later books contain worthwhile material. That said, it does feel somewhat frustrating to me to think that we might have arrived at the "Commented Collections of Tolkien's Post-It Notes"-level of research. - As happens with every dead writer, eventually, of course.

Oct 9, 2020 11:08:27 GMT -6 angantyr said:

...so don't blame researchers who, by the by, really are filling a demand, even if it's rather niche and not to your personal taste.

Of course. This book can be published because people know it will sell, and likely not all too badly. I should not have judged it by its cover blurb alone. That said, I wonder how you'll feel about this book once you've had the chance to read it: "History", for the most part, included documents whose publication was justifiable, but it sure dragged along a bit. If the researchers are talking about more detailed descriptions of Numenor, I wonder whether this will not just simply boil down to "discarded earlier versions" of drafts and descriptions that we've seen published earlier.

"Post-It Notes" - Ha! I like that!

In truth, I do not know if I will like it or not, but I suspect I will. Unfinished Tales, in particular, but also Peoples of ME, did have a lot of stories and essays that were more or less complete, and eminently publishable but weren't at the time due to lack of space really.

For most of the real fanatics such as myself, a big driver is picking up tidbits of the invented languages. My hunch is that this volume may well contain details on at least Adunaic, and possibly the closely related Dwarven tongue as well (in Tolkien's Universe the Men learned an awful lot from the dwarves, so Adunaic contains alot of Khuzdul structure and vocabulary). Rumor has it (on the old Elfing mailing list, and other sources) that Tolkien had in fact a fair amount of material related to Khuzdul in particular (IIRC it was more of a detailed sketch of the structure, rather than Quenya/Sindarin levels of vocabulary). Still, there is a lot of interest - and if this material is indeed present that alone would be worth the cover price for me.

Also too, sometimes really finite details matter to me. When my ungrateful wretches (kids....), work, etc. aren't occupying my time, I make a lot of reproduction arms, armour, and related historical objects. I also do some fantasy stuff, as well, such as a "Noldorin" long sword based on an old Del Tin "Glamdring" blade; I went through a fair amount of bother to come up with some of the fine details by reading various of the books. And sometimes details are buried in various previously unpublished material - for example, in the aborted rewrite of the Hobbit that Tolkien started on (in an attempt to bring it more in line with the recently published Lord of the Rings) there is a fuller description of Sting given, with details not found in either Hobbit or LoTR. And THAT is the kind of thing I delight in finding!

Going back to gaming use, I suspect there will be a lot of useful detail for me since Numenor will be part of the "game map".

[angantyr]

Oct 9, 2020 22:25:40 GMT -6 cometaryorbit said:

By the way, does anyone know who controls the rights to the Tolkien material now? Christopher Tolkien died earlier this year.

I think it's his daughters.

[Zenopus]

Oct 9, 2020 22:23:56 GMT -6 cometaryorbit said:

Oct 8, 2020 23:45:06 GMT -6 @rafael said:

Interesting - though, seriously, at this point, the researchers are reaching a bit to keep the Tolkien brand in the store with fresh publications.
An unofficial 14th (!) book on the "History of Middle-Earth"?! Who's read the first thirteen?

Wait, what thirteen? I thought HOME was 12 volumes? Are you counting "Unfinished Tales"?

The linked article refers to UT as the 13th volume. But there is also a separately published volume that is an index of the HOME series. UT is a HOME volume in all but name (really it is #0), but the index could be considered a more "official" 13th.

[Deleted]

Oct 9, 2020 22:25:40 GMT -6 cometaryorbit said:

By the way, does anyone know who controls the rights to the Tolkien material now? Christopher Tolkien died earlier this year.

I don't know, but they have huge shoes to fill and I'm not optimistic about the future of the brand or the estate for my part. 

[Punkrabbitt]

Oct 11, 2020 5:14:03 GMT -6 @ampleframework said:

Oct 9, 2020 22:25:40 GMT -6 cometaryorbit said:

By the way, does anyone know who controls the rights to the Tolkien material now? Christopher Tolkien died earlier this year.

I don't know, but they have huge shoes to fill and I'm not optimistic about the future of the brand or the estate for my part. 

Tolkien Enterprises is the gift that keeps on giving!

[tdenmark]

Oct 11, 2020 5:14:03 GMT -6 @ampleframework said:

Oct 9, 2020 22:25:40 GMT -6 cometaryorbit said:

By the way, does anyone know who controls the rights to the Tolkien material now? Christopher Tolkien died earlier this year.

I don't know, but they have huge shoes to fill and I'm not optimistic about the future of the brand or the estate for my part. 

Christopher Tolkien was a legitimately brilliant scholar, who even apart from his father would still have been a well respected academic. We are particularly lucky that such a highly intelligent man inherited Middle-Earth and JRR Tolkien's vast notes, and made it his life's work to organize and publish it all.

I know nothing about his daughters, but I hope they are prepared for the mantle they received.

[plethon]

I pre-ordered this book, should receive it on the 2nd when it releases

[tkdco2]

Here's a review of the book on YouTube.

[geoffrey]

I spent about 20 minutes looking through it at Barnes & Noble. I'm clearly not the target audience for it since it bored me to tears.

[tdenmark]

Sept 24, 2021 18:56:39 GMT -6 geoffrey said:

I spent about 20 minutes looking through it at Barnes & Noble. I'm clearly not the target audience for it since it bored me to tears.

I tried watching the video review and fell asleep.

[tetramorph]

I watched the video, and I’m going to have to pick this up right away. This is the book that I’ve been waiting for for a long time. I love Tolkien’s fictional nonfiction.

[angantyr]

Sept 24, 2021 18:56:39 GMT -6 geoffrey said:

I spent about 20 minutes looking through it at Barnes & Noble. I'm clearly not the target audience for it since it bored me to tears.

:-)

Yeah, I'm not finding as much here for gaming that I hoped. I mean, it is actually fascinating to see the real deep down details that underlay the "main" stories like LoTR, Silmarillion, etc. and I do in fact find it interesting (I am indeed the "target audience") but I can see why most would not care for it.

Personally, I had hoped for more detail on the Dwarven language, as it has been hinted that some additional details exist, at least in terms of structure if not so much on vocabulary. I expected to see that here, but there was only a page devoted to the "sound" of the dwarven voice, which was interesting as far as it went, but I had wanted more.

[tkdco2]

I suspect any material suitable for gaming would probably be related to fleshing out cultures, but I enjoy looking into the Professor's thought processes as he amended and refined his ideas.

[Falconer]

Here’s a machine transcription of that video, lightly touched up by me:

Intro

So if you’re a Tolkien fan and you use the internet, you are probably aware of that a new book, The Nature of Middle-earth came out on September 2nd.

Now if you’re a nerd with very little social life like me, you’ve had the book on pre-order for a year, and you called in sick so that you could read it as soon as you got it. But if you’re a healthy, well adjusted member of society, you might have a hard time discerning from the blurry screenshots, panics, tweets and opaque in jokes, what the big deal is about this book.

So what is the big deal? And is it something that you should run out and buy? Well, that depends.

Now, I’m not a real academic, there’s no way I’m going to be able to cover everything of note and I still don’t understand Elvish aging, but I’m going to take this opportunity to give a quick description of the book, its context and its contents and give a few of my favorite details, then hopefully, you’ll be in a better position to make up your own mind.


Context and Composition

Most people in the Tolkien fandom are at least aware that when Tolkien died, he left behind a considerable body of unpublished notes, essays and half finished stories about Middle-earth and its history. His youngest son, Christopher was appointed his literary executor and selected from among this material to create the published version of The Silmarillion, which came out in 1977. He later released a good deal of the raw material in 12 volumes collectively known as The History of Middle-earth. The last of these was released in 1996.

There’s been a steady dribble of talking material in the intervening decades, including some of Tolkien’s non-Middle-earth translations and retellings and the three Great Tales. A mere two years after the last of the Great Tales was released, Christopher Tolkien passed away in 2020. This was a sore blow to the fandom not merely because of the loss of the scrupulous and dedicated scholar, but also because it was known that more unpublished material existed and it wasn’t clear how the average fan would ever get to see it.

At roughly the same time, a good deal of Tolkien’s mainly linguistic writings on the Elvish languages were being studied and sometimes published by specialized academic and fan groups most pertinently to this discussion, the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship whose journal the Vinyar Tengwar has been published off and on since 1988. The current editor of this journal and head of the elf notes the convenient acronym is Carl Hostetter, who is also the editor of The Nature of Middle-earth.

According to his foreword to this book, starting in 1997, he quote “received from Christopher Tolkien a bundle of photocopies of various materials which he referred to collectively as late philological essays. This was later joined by a large bundle of late chiefly manuscript writings which had been collected together under the title, ‘Time and Aging.’” Hostetter notes that, as is often the case, Tolkien’s linguistic writings were littered with references to historical, social, and even biological details that would be of interest to the general public. So he began organizing these into a book.

The result is The Nature of Middle-earth, which some are calling the 13th Volume of The History of Middle-earth, and indeed, it reads very much in continuity with that series. One notable difference, of course, is that Hostetter is not Christopher Tolkien, and this might understandably be alarming to readers who are accustomed to the depth of the latter’s engagement with his father’s work and his sympathy to his artistic goals. Luckily, I don’t think this is a serious concern here. Of course, no one can replace Christopher but Hostetter has a long track record of scholarship and moreover, the content of the book is almost pure talking with light annotations and what appears to be careful documentation of any corrections or changes made.

Another difference is that the material in the book is more fragmentary than, for example, Unfinished Tales or Morgoth’s Ring. This makes sense when you remember that two thirds of the book is basically made of digressions, excerpts from technical linguistic documents, long footnotes, or appendices that had been omitted from earlier editions of an essay or reunified texts consisting of fragments that had previously been published separately.


What’s in it?

Also, as the name of the book suggests, this material is concerned with Tolkien’s primarily philosophical, metaphysical and scientific musings on the nature, used both in the sense of essence and in the sense of natural world, of Middle-earth. That means no narratives, no poems, no annals or histories, and a comparative wealth of mathematical calculations.

The first part titled “Time and Aging” is about 160 pages, and is the most cohesive part of the book consisting of a collection of Tolkien’s writings about relative lengths of time and its effects on elves. It centers around Tolkien’s revision of the relationship between the Valian years by which time was counted before the death, the trees and the shorter solar years that followed, the ratio between a Valian year and a solar year is somewhere between 10 to one and 144 to one. And obviously the differences occasions between the two extremes require very different versions of the early history of artists. This is where the many tables and mathematical calculations come into play.

This section can be pretty dry and complicated, and I’m not going to pretend that after one reading I’m even close to understanding it. And based on that description, you might ask yourself why anyone, even a hardcore fan would be terribly motivated to struggle through it. One reason is that scattered in the generational tables and equations are lots of different versions of the Elves early history from their awakening in Cuiviénen into their long march West and eventual arrival in Valinor.

The material also naturally involves questions of elven life stages, aging, maturity, and procreation. Tolkien presents several different possible scenarios for elven aging. But one factor that seems constant and is consistent with earlier writings is that elves develop at different rates throughout their lifespan, growing from infancy to young adulthood relatively quickly, but then experiencing a slower rate in maturity.

Following this section are two more parts, “Body, Mind and Spirit” and “The World: Its Lands and its Inhabitants.” Part Two deals with issues like reincarnation, souls, telepathy, foresight, and fate. Part Three contains more anthropological, cultural, geographical and historical material.

Some of the most significant chunks of Parts Two and Three are versions of four essays that had seen limited publication but remained hard to find: “Ósanwe-kenta,” “Notes on Órë,” “Rivers and Beacon Hills of Gondor,” and “Eldarin Hands, Fingers, and Numerals.” If you were particularly dedicated, you could have tracked down all four of these before Nature of Middle-earth was published, but it’s quite nice to have them all in one easily-accessible place.

Finally, the book includes an appendix that summarizes some of Middle-earth metaphysics that appear to draw on mainly two mystic branches of Catholic philosophical and theological thought.

Some readers are going to find this book dense, dry, fragmentary or confusing.

Others are probably going to be frustrated by the eternally recurring question of what is canon, as the material doesn’t always align with the published Silmarillion, The History of Middle-earth, or even with The Lord of the Rings, it’s important to remember going in that these represents some of Tolkien’s latest thoughts on Middle-earth during a period when he was massively revising some of the most fundamental elements of the Legendarium a project he never completed to his satisfaction.

Nevertheless, this is not only an important book, but it can be a fun one. Even for elf trash like me who just want fodder for their multi chapter fan or in redemption, alternate universe fanfic.


Favorite Tidbits

To demonstrate this, here are a few of my favorite tidbits that emerged from the very serious metaphysical considerations.

As I alluded before, during the course of endlessly calculating and recalculating the generations lifespans and migrations of the first elves, Tolkien had to engage with a whole host of ideas about Elvish lifestyles. So we get details like elven women reach maturity sooner than elven men, which Yeah, checks out. Quenya words for Beloved, elven childbearing.

The suggestion that the first elves were mostly interested in language because they could use it to sweet talk their woman folk. There’s also details on specific characters like Finwë, who in one version is motivated to lead as people develop or because he thought his incredibly talented lover Míriel would benefit from the Valar’s tutelage. Or Elwë who seems truly convinced that the elves were only moving development or on a temporary basis, and would be able to return whatever they wanted, or at least surely after the little annoyance of Melkor was taken care of.

There’s multiple lines that Tolkien includes almost casually that are really very strange to even consider as possible alternatives to the more familiar versions of the story. This sentence, for example, was struck through apparently as Tolkien was writing section XVIII, “Elvish Ages & Númenórean.” Examples of application to narrative. “The following calculation is probable. Celeborn’s wife [?stole] away and left him with a son, Amroth.” Note: “The Elves did not normally marry again, but after the judgment of Míriel they were permitted lawfully to do [so] if one partner deserted the other. This very seldom occurred; but in such a time of divided feelings as [the] end of [the] First Age, this could occur.”

This little gem is found in Section XI, the “Ageing of Elves.” “There were a few of the Ñoldor who in heart were ‘Avari’, but marched because all their people did. Eöl was one of these.… Maeglin must also be born in Aman. His sinister character will then be accounted for by the fact that he (and his mother and father) were specially attracted by Melkor.”

And we can’t forget this. In the section, “Key Dates.” “The Valar send five Guardians (great spirits of the Maiar) – with Melian (the only woman, but the chief) these make six. The others were Tarindor (later Saruman), Olórin (Gandalf), Hrávandil (Radagast), Palacendo, and Haimenar.”

Yeah, so apparently Tolkien was playing around with the ideas of Galadriel being Celeborn’s second wife, Noldorin Eöl, and the Istari headed by Melian being sent to the aid of the Elves before they reached Valinor. The concept of canon is really difficult to apply to Middle-earth. But these are all ideas that I would have never expected to be even considered.

Part Two in particular contains a lot of material about the Valar. Like the rules they had to abide by, lest they become as corrupt as Morgoth, their motivations, limitations and challenges and their relation to the physical world. In their mythic and remote presentations in The Silmarillion, it’s easy to write the Valar off as disinterested, omnipotent jerks, but the more I learn about them, the more they fascinate me. They’re even more alien to human thought than elves are, but they face very serious conundrums and you really start to feel for them.

Scattered throughout Parts Two and Three are a lot more fun ideas about elves. We get material on elven sleep, memory, time perception, body language, handedness, mirror writing, and perhaps most importantly, in the essay “Eldarin Hands, Fingers, and Numerals,” we get the Quenya equivalent of the Finger Family Song.

Though this is an elf-heavy tome, there is plenty on men and even some stuff on dwarves. In a note that’s less than two pages long. For instance, we are casually informed that Mîm the petty-dwarf tried to kill Finrod in his sleep during the construction of Nargothrond and was subsequently driven out.

We get a couple substantial and relatively complete descriptions of Númenórean society and the ecology of the island, including such delightful facts as the women of Númenór being very fond of feeding squirrels, and that Númenórean bears would often wander into homes and be given honey as gift. Apparently as a reciprocal gesture, these bears would then dance to entertain their human friends, sometimes in groups of up to 50. It was considered highly rude, not to say dangerous, to interrupt their dance by laughing.

Most of the writing is late material concerned with the First and Second Ages, but there are a few important documents concerning the Third Age. One of these is a selection from critical comments Tolkien wrote about a map illustrated by Pauline Baynes, which gives some further insight into the physical traits and personalities of the members of the Fellowship, though alas, Legolas’s hair color is not mentioned.

There’s also an essay on the relative beardedness of characters specifying that men of Númenorean descent like Aragorn and Denethor would not have had beards and stating that elves did not grow beards, despite the fact that Círdan is mentioned as having a beard in The Lord of the Rings.


Should I buy it?

If you’re conversant with The Silmarillion, and you’ve read at least parts of The History of Middle-earth, you’ll probably enjoy The Nature of Middle-earth as well. And if you read it, or even just skim for the interesting parts, you’ll have a better idea of why some of us on the internet will be screaming at each other in capslock for the next five or so years.

And if you’re just finishing up your first read of Lord of the Rings, by all means, get this book and dive in. If you’re excited to read it. Just don’t be discouraged if it seems dense or difficult because it is but that’s okay because it’s also awesome.

If you liked this video, go ahead and feed the YouTube algorithm like a Númenórean lady would feed a friendly squirrel with a nice like and maybe a sub. Comment below if you’ve read or are planning to read the book, and what parts you’re most excited for. And thanks for watching.

[tkdco2]

Definitely up my alley. I watched a few videos where Tolkien fans considered "Of Beleriand and its Realms" the most boring part of The Silmarillion. It may be so for readers, but it's gold to a DM. And if they get bored with that chapter, they'll never get through the chapter in the Iliad which describes the troop strength of each of the Greek heroes.

[Zenopus]

Douglas C. Kane, author of Arda Reconstructed and who runs the Hall of Fire forum, has written a 14-page review of the Nature of Middle-Earth for the Journal of Tolkien Research, which can be downloaded here for free:

scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol13/iss1/5/

[tkdco2]

I just took the plunge and bought this book, along with a Beren & Luthien/Children of Hurin/Fall of Gondolin bundle. They were all on sale on Amazon, and I got a gift card for my birthday last month, so I went for it.

[tetramorph]

Sept 24, 2021 18:56:39 GMT -6 geoffrey said:

I spent about 20 minutes looking through it at Barnes & Noble. I'm clearly not the target audience for it since it bored me to tears.

I can understand this response. I would say, the best way to approach this book, is not as something that you would simply sit down and attempt to read from cover to cover. Rather, the way I have approached it, is that when I noticed something interesting in the table of contents, I just go and skim through that section and read until I get bored. It’s like a fun compendium of “true facts“ about middle earth, that satisfies my need for fun curiosities. Also, I would say, that I just enjoy being able to witness the way in which Tolkien’s mind worked. All the fun he had spinning off into the details of his imaginary world. It gives me inspiration for my own little world building as a referee. I don’t know, but maybe that would help you to engage something like this.

[tkdco2]

Expecting the book to arrive today; I got the Great Tales trilogy last night.

I had an idea about using some of JRRT's discarded works for a homebrew game: early versions of maps, unused characters and names, etc. I for one would love to use Tevildo, Prince of Cats as a major villain.* File off the serial numbers as needed. Unless your players are hard-core Tolkien fans or scholars, they'll probably be unfamiliar with the terms.

The Valar would be Gods; Middle-earth would be Palisor, etc. The Noldor were originally called Gnomes, which are a different race, so you'd have to change the name. Of course, you can use D&D gnomes instead of High Elves, which would already make a big difference.

*I suspect Tolkien didn't like cats very much; between Tevildo and Beruthiel's pets, cats aren't portrayed in a positive light in his works.

[Zenopus]

I looked at the Nature of Middle-Earth in person yesterday at B&N. It's nicely done, and I looked over some of the interesting bits. I'll put it on my Xmas list.

[geoffrey]

Oct 9, 2021 12:14:22 GMT -6 tkdco2 said:

Beruthiel's pets

Years ago I would regularly invent for my daughter at bedtime silly little stories about the mishaps and adventures of Beruthiel's cats.

Where does the time go?

[Deleted]

Ugh. I'm behind on my reading. I haven't even read The Fall of Gondolin yet and now this is out.