The Tales That Really Matter

06/08/2026

"The war seemed so very far away. When he went to it I chided him, that his armor didn't fit him properly. I called him a Silver Clam."

𝗢𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗗𝗮𝘆... 𝟴 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲

𝗢𝗻 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗵
1925 - Father Robert Murray, friend of J.R.R. Tolkien and his family, is born.
1961 - J.R.R. Tolkien writes Letter 230.
1961 - J.R.R. Tolkien writes a letter to Rhona Beare.
1994 - Actor Anthony Boyle is born.
2008 - Forodrim's 36th birthday celebration.

𝗜𝗻 𝗔𝗿𝗱𝗮
There are no known events for this day.

𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗮𝘆...
Today's date in the Shire Calendar: Sterday, 18 Forelithe

(𝙏𝙤𝙡𝙠𝙞𝙚𝙣 𝙂𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙬𝙖𝙮)

𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁: 𝘊𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘭 by Eliounora

(Please check comments for link to artist's website)

06/07/2026

06/07/2026

A lovely cosplay of Galadriel in her simple yet elegant blue servant's smock from Numenor, by Lucy's Folklore 💙 🥹

06/07/2026

“Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament…There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth, and more than that: Death: by the divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the taste—or foretaste—of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, which every man’s heart desires.”—J.R.R. Tolkien to his son Michael, March 1941

Myself recessing the Holy Eucharist at the conclusion of one of Purdue Catholic Students’ Exalt (Eucharistic adoration with Praise and Worship music) services, circa spring 2017.

06/06/2026

“…make your communion in circumstances that affront your taste. Choose a snuffling or gabbling priest or a proud and vulgar friar, and a church full of the usual bourgeois crowd, ill-behaved children…open necked and dirty youths, women in trousers and often with hair both unkempt and uncovered. Go to communion WITH them (and pray for them). It will be just the same, or better, than a mass said beautifully by a visibly holy man, and shared by a few devout and decorous people.”—J.R.R. Tolkien to his son Michael, Letter 250, November 1 1963

US troops celebrate Mass on Omaha Beach just hours after finally winning the day against entrenched N**i defenders, June 6 1942

06/04/2026

On this day in 1942, the US Pacific Fleet won a famous and important victory over the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Kido Butai carrier strike force, destroying four of the six Japanese carriers that had attacked Pearl Harbor (and all the ones the Japanese had at the point of contact) and seizing the strategic initiative in the Pacific. 81 years later I wrote an essay somewhat out of the blue, talking about the mythologyzing of the battle is not unlike that of Tolkien’s work brought about by the Peter Jackson movies, and how Rings of Power fulfills a similar function to more recent Midway scholarship by helping us come back to basics. It still holds up pretty well to this day 😊

https://talesthatreallymatter.substack.com/p/the-falling-stars-of-victory

05/29/2026

The colossal cheek to ask a question like this barely three days after Pope Leo quotes Tolkien in his encyclical warning against the rampant overuse of AI...honestly, it's worth studying as a cautionary tale, when we are not mercilessly mocking the idea 🤣
Thankfully AI wasn't actually used to bring Christopher Lee to life in actual War of the Rohirrim. But as I wrote in my recent essay "The Hunt for Nostalgia," it was still a pretty dumb and shortsighted choice. Charles Dance is perfectly alive and healthy, and has a great voice not dissimilar to Lee's; he could have given them a whole scene's worth of dialogue, not just one solitary line. And there's the whole "give an inch, and they'll take a mile" argument as well; this is FAR from the first time I've seen PJ nostalgics argue to abuse AI in the service of stretching the movies out as far as they can.

05/28/2026

This was very unexpected news yesterday, but still very welcome 😊 It shows that Amazon fundamentally has confidence in the show and is willing to see it through for the full 5 seasons; and if true, it may show that Amazon learned something from last time and isn't waiting FOREVER to officially renew. While I doubt this means we'll see S4 next year, we probably will much earlier in 2028 than we're getting 3 this year; either a summer release, or back to the typical Labor Day that 1 and 2 had.

Also, this is noteworthy: "Amazon says the Amazon MGM Studios-produced series has attracted over 185 million viewers worldwide and 'is one of the highest performing and most-viewed titles ever on Prime Video.' The first season marked the largest launch of any Prime Video series ever. The second season also performed well, debuting atop Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10 chart in 2024." Considering how we've all heard so. Many. TIMES how "only 40% of viewers finished Season 1 (even though many of those simply went back and DID finish once the season was fully out), that is a welcome number 😏

Prime Video's 'The Lord of the Rings' series is already gearing up for a fourth season, months ahead of the premiere of season three.

05/27/2026

Morfydd Clark, our Galadriel, in some just-released production shots of a new short film she is in: "Static", a pyschological thriller directed by Rachel Ramsay. It was apparently filmed just before Morfydd began work on RoP Season 3, and is currently in post-production; release date and medium TBD.