It was established in 2007 by some of the original co-founders of Tië eldaliéva to explore J.R.R Tolkien's Middle-earth tales (the Legendarium) to the greatest extent practicable.
We find the mythopoetic creation of JRR Tolkien's legendarium useful as a starting point, using imagination, creativity, ritual and any other means we find useful. What works best is different for everyone, there’s no one size fits all approach.
- JRR Tolkien’s stories are extraordinarily enchanting, much more so than the movies suggest.
- You need to read the books themselves: the Lord of the Rings, the Silmarillion, short stories like Leaf by Niggle, the Book of Lost Tales.
- They all have a peculiar depth that touches a part of your mind that you were all but forgotten you had.
- People who like Tolkien's stories usually agree on that. It's what makes them special.
This particular quality is usually attributed to Tolkien's skill in describing the world his stories are set in.
According to common sense, that's about all there is to say about it.
Nonetheless, Tolkien has left numerous indications - in his letters, in his poem Mythopoeia, in his short stories Leaf by Niggle and Smith of Wootton-Major, in essays - that there's a lot more to it than that.
People usually don't know what to make of that, so they either ignore it or else attribute it to 'artistic eccentricity' (whatever that means).
What if you were to take it seriously? What if you, as it were, would try and walk in Tolkien's shoes for a while to see where that leads to? This may be far stranger than you'd expect.
Sure, Tolkien lived not that long ago in the 20th century. The world in which he lived is not so long ago that we would not recognise it. But he was a most unusual man with a most unusual mind, combining a strong intellect with an incredibly powerful imagination. To walk in his shoes means to question a number of assumptions about the world and the nature of reality, and doing that might affect the foundation of your world-view.
Tolkien, in 'On Fairy-stories', wrote:Faerie is a perilous country, with pitfalls for the unweary and dungeons for the overbold
Everything on this forum is the result of following the signposts of the particular effect that Tolkien's tales have, together with the hints he gave about the nature and origin of that effect, though often reluctantly. They together point towards the entrance of the rabbit-hole.
Entering that opens up a panorama that’s both strange and familiar...
It is strange because the concepts and vocabulary are all but erased from the modern mindset; familiar because it is part of who we are.
You might, like me, find something back that you had even forgotten you lost.
In the beginning, you knew.
Then you pretended to forget.
Then you pretended to forget you forgot.
Then you forgot you pretended.
Remember?
If you're interested, feel free to join.