Tolkien Heads

Amazon has basically admitted some of you bailed on The Rings of Power, and they're telling you to just start at season three. Like starting Star Wars at episode four. So Nick Polk and I sounded the horn of Gondor and recorded the on-ramp: everything you need to know before season three, plus a guided tour of the inside jokes from our 26 hours of talking about the first two. This is also, officially, the Waldreg memorial and/or eschatological hope livestream. You may not know who Waldreg is. He made Mordor. We'll get to that.

Nick walks t...

Alright Tolkien Heads, this one's important. Dr. Craig Boyd joins us to dig into Tolkien's political philosophy and—look, we gotta talk about how the alt-right has been trying to claim Tolkien as one of their own, which is just... no. Craig offers a much-needed corrective by actually reading what the man wrote and believed. The heart of the conversation is this contrast between Gandalf and Saruman as two models of leadership: one rooted in service and humility, the other in domination and control. And yeah, this feels pretty relevant right now. We get into why the easy path of...

Join us for a special episode recorded live at Theology Beer Camp, as we head to Middle Earth with our resident Tolkien Head, Nick Polk and renowned Tolkien scholar Craig Boyd. Boyd opens the session with a deep look at the life of Gandalf and the nature of virtue in Tolkien's world, followed by a compelling conversation on how these themes apply to our lives. The conversation is rich with insights on Gandalf's wisdom, his compassionate leadership, and the deep connections between Tolkien’s characters and biblical figures like Moses. They discuss the amplification of one’s inherent abilities thro...

Nick & Tripp gather to nerd out about episode 5 of The Rings of Power!

WATCH the conversation on YouTube

Follow the Tolkien fun at https://tolkienpop.substack.com/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nick & Tripp gathered to nerd out after the in 4th episode drop of Rings of Power season 2! Since Tom Bombadil has arrived they got their friend Tom to join.

You can WATCH this conversation on YouTube.

Keep up with all the Tolkien fun on Nick's Tolkien Pop substack.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nick & Tripp gathered to nerd out after the initial 3 episode drop of Rings of Power season 2!

You can WATCH this conversation on YouTube.

Keep up with all the Tolkien fun on Nick's Tolkien Pop substack.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the request of Durin the 4th, Nick & Tripp give you the meat and give it to you raw... well, at least it was fun. The Tolkien Heads team is going to be live-streaming our way through the new season of ROP, and this is us getting hyped for the fresh season.

You can WATCH this conversation on YouTube.

Keep up with all the Tolkien fun on Nick's Tolkien Pop substack.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I hope that no matter where you are in life, you have been able to enjoy the holiday season by eating good food, spending time with friends and family, or at least getting some rest. If the holidays don’t tend to provide comfort, then you can escape and take shelter in The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy with Nick Polk from Tolkien Pop! as well as Tolkien Scholar Dr. Craig Boyd!

As we enter the eye of the storm that is the holiday season, we will kick off our run of Christmas movies with The Lor...

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today J.R.R. Tolkien turns 131! My buddy and pro-Tolkien nerd Nick Polk joined me to share a toast to Tolkien and reflect on a passage we selected as we enter a new year. After the toast, you will hear our special Tolkien Heads session from Theology Beer Camp, which was a bunch of fun.

Nick Polk is the production editor for Mallorn, the academic journal of The Tolkien Society. His most recent research includes his essay entitled “Middle-earth in South Park: The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers as Parody.” Other than...

The Tolkien Heads pack their pipes and get ready to nerd out as they take a look back at the first season of Rings of Power. Go grab lots of nerdy Tolkien goodness at www.TolkienHeadPod.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join the Tolkien Heads class

Mariana Rios Maldonado completed her undergraduate studies in Literature and Spanish Linguistics at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas, Mexico, and her master’s degree in Comparative Literature at the Peter Szondi Institute in Berlin’s Freie Universität. Her research focuses on the influence of Germanic mythology and culture in contemporary literature, Germanophonic fantastic literature between the 18thand 20th centuries, as well as J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary production. Mariana is currently a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures of the University of Glasgow with the researc...

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Rings of Power is not out and about in the world! After seeing the first two episodes, I have been able to exhale, knowing the show isn’t going to be the nightmare many of us Tolkien Heads feared. It was surprisingly good. In this live-streamed episode, Nick Polk and I were joined by singer, poet, and connoisseur of fantasies, Kevin Max.

Kevin is a four-time Grammy-winning vocalist, whose work began in DC Talk and has since explored a host of different genres from spoken-word, electronica, and rock. On his previous visit to the podcast, we dis...

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Garth is the most epic living scholar of JRR Tolkien. He dropped an amazing lecture for the Tolkien Heads class we are currently running, and yesterday he joined our live stream for some nerdy fun. It was too much fun not to share. Plus some of you may not have joined the class to get those ohh so zesty lectures.

Writer, editor and researcher John Garth is well known for his ongoing work on J.R.R. Tolkien’s life and creativity and was awarded the Tolkien Society’s Outstanding Contribution Award in 2017.

His firs...

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a preview stream for our upcoming online class – Tolkien Heads. The class is for those who want to go deeper into Middle-earth, but don’t know where to start. In this class you’ll be accompanied by fellow Tolkien heads and guided by Tolkien experts like John Garth and Flemming Rutledge to help you “keep your feet” on your journey down the Tolkien Road. Everything from Tolkien’s life, creation of Middle-earth, and faith will be covered, so you can increase your nerd street cred and follow the unending trail of Tolkien goodness. Plus, who doesn’t want to nerd out du...

Who doesn’t love J.R.R. Tolkien, the mythology of Middle Earth, and getting to see Smaug (the most EPIC of all dragons) on the big screen?  If Led Zeppelin can sing about it and nerds can roll 12 sided dice about it, then it must be pretty awesome.  On Thursday February 6th we hosted a live video streaming podcast with Gregory Walter to nerd out about Tolkien’s world.  It was an amazing conversation in which you get convo about the book, movie, and all the Middle Earth mythology.

Our guest is Dr. Gregory Walter, a profess...