Names, Knowledge, and Power: Botanical Colonialism in Middle-earth

My presentation given at the German Tolkien Society's Seminar on "Environment, Ecosphere, Community: Tolkien and Enworldment"

Guten tag, es freut mich, dass ihr gekommen seid^[1] – hello, and thank you all for coming!

This paper is a continuation of work I started in 2022 for my Oxonmoot paper, “Columbus in Middle-earth,” and I am indebted to everyone who has helped me bring it back bigger and better four years later — namely my friends in the Alliance of Arda, the Re/searching Tolkien group led by Robin Anne Reid, and my 2022 audience for asking me excellent questions that led to some of the further points in this paper!

There is no shortage of scholarship on the importance of nature at all scales in Tolkien’s world, or indeed on the relationships his characters demonstrate with the world around them. Nature is rarely just a backdrop to the action, but instead provides sites of immense narrative importance on all scales, including with individual plants. Nature also appears in the relationships and interactions between peoples in Middle-earth. Some of these relationships are, in a broad sense, political, specifically colonial, and this is the subject of today’s paper.

Before we go much further, I should discuss what I mean when I talk about “colonialism” and “imperialism.” For my purposes here, I am using the two terms interchangeably, though I do acknowledge that there are subtleties of method and meaning that can separate them historically.^[2] Ultimately, though, I am talking about situations where one country or group of people is ruled or controlled by another, sometimes established by force though not always. Post-colonialism is the academic exploration of colonialism and its effects on people and lands.

The underlying purposes of colonial and imperial pursuits tend to be twofold — an intended benefit to the colonising group, such as the acquisition and control of land or resources, and/or supposed benefits to the colonised group, such as religion, “civilisation,” or other generalised “improvement.” Both sets of reasons take little account of what the colonised peoples may think, and run on the assumptions that the outcomes intended by the colonising power are positive in all the ways that matter.

There is, in these arrangements, an inherent power dynamic where the coloniser is set up as the superior power to the “naturally” inferior colonised. This dynamic was often justified in the early stages of real-world colonialism by racist ideas about non-European peoples, and this racism continues with greater or lesser acknowledgement today.
Botanical colonialism and imperialism are where these forces and systems interact with the natural world as experienced by both coloniser and colonised. It involves the movement, introduction, removal, and/or alteration of plants/ecosystems by a colonising power to exert control over a colonised people. This control can be economic, territorial, social, cultural, or political.

How this control is exerted and expressed varies immensely in our Primary world. It can be inadvertent, such as the introduction of non-native, invasive plants like Himalayan balsam, or deliberate, such as the planting of non-native pine forests over destroyed Palestinian villages.^[3] It can take place on the level of an individual plant, such as the disruptions in distribution and trade of tea, cinchona, or sugar cane,^[4] or over entire ecosystems, such as the wholesale destruction of prairie habitats in the USA for farming.

Existing discussions of colonialism and imperialism in Tolkien’s works tend to focus primarily on Númenor. This can be in terms of them as a people such as in Sarah Westvik’s 2021 Oxonmoot talk “The Dúnadan’s Burden,”^[5] discussing Númenorean exceptionalism and its roots in the First Age, and Elizabeth Massa Hoiem’s 2005 article “World-building as Colonization.”^[6] It can also be explored in ecocritical terms regarding the extensive deforestation in both Númenor and Middle-earth, as in Gerard Hynes’ “The Cedar Has Fallen,”^[7] and chapters by Muhammad Alpaslan Tandirci and Erik Jampa Andersson on ecological imperialism and the Anthropocene, both in the Proceedings of the British Tolkien Society’s 2023 seminar.^[8] Discussions of other peoples in terms of colonial and ecocritical issues are rarer, such as Gabriel Ertsgaard’s postcolonial exploration of the Elves of Lothlórien and theses by Lobo Jansson and Sofia Vejalainen on postcolonial readings of The Lord of the Rings.^[9] Rarer still are discussions of individual plants in colonial contexts — the only examples I am currently aware of are a brief discussion in Roger Echo-Hawk’s Tolkien in Pawneeland and my previous work on tobacco.^[10]

This paper will use examples of three plants, athelas, pipe-weed, and mallorn trees, that appear primarily in The Lord of the Rings to explore their stories through a post-colonial lens. This will be framed around questions about how plants end up where we find them in the story and what happens over the course of their history including issues of knowledge, usage, and the peoples involved at all stages. I hope that this exploration allows a deeper, richer view of both the importance of plants not only to Tolkien but his characters, as well as complicating how we might see landscapes and nature in the stories.
Before all that, though, I will introduce our three plants and the main sources of information that Tolkien gives us within his writings.

We encounter athelas twice in The Lord of the Rings. In book 1, Aragorn seeks it out to treat Frodo’s wound and describes its introduction to Middle-earth by the Númenoreans. He tells the Hobbits that it was brought over deliberately because of its value as a healing herb, and adds further that it remains in places “where they dwelt or camped of old.”^[11] Given that the Númenoreans first came to Middle-earth in SA 600,^[12] this means that athelas has remained in the ecosystems of Eriador for anything up to three and a half millennia; in botanical terms, this means it has naturalised in its new environment while still remaining non-native.

The second instance of athelas in The Lord of the Rings is the episode in book 5 in the Houses of Healing, where Aragorn once again uses athelas to heal Merry, Éowyn, and Faramir.^[13] This time, it is Ioreth’s knowledge as well as Aragorn’s that brings this moment about, providing what Jackie Sheppard identifies as a crucial moment in the validation of Aragorn as King of Gondor.^[14]

Like athelas, pipeweed (or tobacco) is another Númenorean import to Middle-earth, but its introduction appears to have been accidental as the Númenoreans are said to have appreciated it for, at most, its sweet scent.^[15] Exactly how it ends up in the Shire is unclear, but it clearly becomes an important economic and cultural plant in Hobbit society, appearing wherever Hobbits gather together at leisure.

Later on, on the Hobbits’ journey back to the Shire, pipe-weed once again becomes important to the events of the story. Among the many problems the Hobbits face is the immense shortage of pipe-weed, which extends as far as Bree, on account of it all being sent to Hobbiton.^[16] However, on their return to Hobbiton itself, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin find that the pipe-weed is in fact being diverted to “The Chief’s Men,” as well as being exported out of the Shire via Sarn Ford. We later find out that this is all Saruman’s work, which has been in motion since just after Frodo left the Shire, as a means of exerting control over the Hobbits and aiding his takeover.^[17]

A third Númenorean import to Middle-earth is the mallorn. This tree is described among the plants growing on Númenor, brought from Tol Eressëa. During the Second Age, Tar-Aldarion gifts some mallorn seeds to Gil-Galad as a gesture of friendship and part of their ongoing diplomatic relationship. The mellyrn, unfortunately, do not take root in Lindon, but Gil-Galad gifts some seeds to Galadriel, who later planted them in Lothlórien after she has assumed control of the region following the death of Amroth.^[18]
We later encounter them in book 2 of LotR as the Fellowship rest there after their trials in Moria. The trees are vividly described in these chapters and are set up as very much synonymous with the land of Lothlórien and its inhabitanats. We also see them up close as the flets where the Fellowship meet Galadriel and Celeborn are in the trees themselves.^[19] Mellyrn are, apparently, exclusive to Lothlórien until the point at which Sam plants the nut gifted to him by Galadriel where the Party Tree once stood.^[20]

Athelas, pipe-weed, and mellyrn were all, originally, brought to Middle-earth by the Númenoreans during the Second Age as part of their colonial ambitions for the land. These colonial ambitions are well-established in Middle-earth from the time of Tar-Aldarion early in the Second Age. Elizabeth Hoiem argues that the tale of Aldarion and Erendis, in which the colonisation of Middle-earth begins in earnest, is “one of Tolkien’s most direct critiques of British imperialism,” and places Aldarion squarely as “not just a mariner, but, indeed, a colonizer.”^[21] While the primary aim of this colonisation of Middle-earth was resource-based, i.e., the need for more wood than the island of Númenor could provide, Erendis’s mother also brings into focus Aldarion’s desire for more land and greater dominion. The Silmarillion also reports that the Númenoreans brought gifts to the Men of Númenor of foodstuffs and various skills of building and cultivation.^[22] This carries with it the assumption that the Men of Middle-earth had no skills in these areas before the arrival of the Númenoreans, who become as gods to them according to the narrator of The Silmarillion.

This dominion of land is established via the building of the port of Lond Daer in the estuary of the Gwathló during Aldarion’s reign based on the plenteousness of trees in the region. However, the Númenoreans also exerted dominion over the peoples of the region via physical force. In Appendix D of “The History of Galadriel and Celeborn”, the “native communities” are said to be scattered and lacking a central leadership, and appear not to have been consulted on the deforestation of their lands, attacking the Númenoreans, who became “ruthless in their fellings” in revenge.^[23]

This dynamic between the Númenoreans and both the Indigenous peoples of Middle-earth and the lands where they live is the backdrop for much of the history of the plants in this paper. For the Númenoreans, their sole connection to the land becomes what it can do for them, what they can extract from it, with little thought for their responsibilities towards it or how the existing custodians of that land might feel. Aragorn points out that athelas was deliberately brought to Middle-earth as a healing plant known to the Númenoreans, seemingly with no consideration for its effects on the ecosystems to which it was introduced. They needed the plant there, so they took it, relying on their own knowledge and understanding, and leaving a mark that remains on the ecology of Eriador millenia later at the end of the Third Age. While there is no discussion in the text as to positive or negative ecological effects of athelas, the disconnect shown in the Númenoreans’ lack of care is itself part of botanical colonialism here. This lack of care is further exemplified in the accidental introduction of pipe-weed.

Likewise, mallorn trees are a deliberate introduction to Middle-earth, though this time as part of a diplomatic effort between Tar-Aldarion and Gil-Galad. As with athelas, there seems to be no prior consideration of what the introduction of a new plant to the ecosystem might be, either on the part of Gil-Galad, who attempts to grow them in Lindon, or Aldarion himself.

This also introduces another power structure in Middle-earth, between Gil-Galad and Aldarion. Thousands of years before the Númenoreans, the Noldor also colonised Middle-earth, capitalising on their exalted status in the hierarchy of Elven kindreds: Feanor “urged the Noldor to follow him and by their own prowess…win freedom and great realms in the lands of the East”.^[24] Gil-Galad’s kingship is therefore a continuation of this power, making his conversations with Aldarion a dialogue between two colonising powers. These powers legitimise one another, each recognising the other’s authority, and neither raising objection to the other’s continuing presence in the lands of Middle-earth. Additionally, there seems to be no record of Gil-Galad raising any objection to Aldarion’s treatment of the peoples in the Gwathló estuary, reinforcing the Númenoreans’ unchecked brutality towards them and placing Gil-Galad on the side of colonialism.

Once plants have been introduced, their histories do not end here; common to all three of our examples is their use to exert and maintain colonial control.

On its second appearance in The Lord of the Rings, athelas has moved from an ecological marker of the past to a powerful symbol in the present. As Jackie Sheppard points out, athelas is a vital part of Aragorn’s legitimisation as the returned King of Gondor — his abilities as a healer via the use of the plant are a direct part of why he is recognised by his people.^[25] While this is undoubtedly an immensely positive moment in the book, it is worth noting that the kingship of Gondor is a direct continuation of the colonising power of Númenor, legitimised in this moment in part by the use of a plant introduced deliberately by that colonising power. It is equally worth noting, however, that Aragorn’s relations with Indigenous peoples in Middle-earth are very different during his reign to those of the Númenoreans. Alongside Éomer’s honouring of Théoden’s promise to Ghân-buri-Ghân, that the Rohirrim would stop hunting the Drúedain, Aragorn adds to this the command that no one should enter the forest of Drúadan without the leave of the Drúedain.^[26] While we know little of Aragorn’s future dealings with any of the Indigenous peoples of Middle-earth, we can see his efforts to make reparation with some of them for the continuing effects of colonisation.

Mellyrn, likewise, have their own role in reinforcing a colonial ruler, this time in providing a physical symbol of the land of Lothlórien having been planted by Galadriel when she assumed her rule. In Galadriel’s second appearance in The Silmarillion, her colonial ambitions are set out, encouraged by Feanor’s talk of “great realms in the lands of the East” to seek out “a realm at her own will.”^[27] This ambition is finally realised when she and Celeborn take on the rule of Lothlórien following the loss of Amroth in the year 1981 of the Third Age.^[28] Little is said by Tolkien of the actual passing of power, other than some brief references in “The History of Galadriel and Celeborn” where they are said to have been welcomed by the Elves of Lórien.^[29]

This welcome may seem to be at odds with her initial imperial ambition — this is indeed well within character for Tolkien’s writings on Galadriel, which had even Christopher admitting to “severe inconsistencies” in Unfinished Tales.^[30] Galadriel’s relationship to power is just one of the elements of her character to have undergone “continual refashionings” as Christopher called them. The characterisation of her ascent to rule in Lothlórien is among Tolkien’s later writings about her, which by the end of his life had her as a wholly innocent party in Feanor’s deeds and their consequences. At other times in his writings, Galadriel “looked upon the Dwarves with the eye of a commander,” was a co-founder of Eregion, and is sorely tempted by the power of the Ring.^[31] Whether or not Galadriel’s rule of Lothlórien began entirely without complication, her character over the whole legendarium provides ample evidence of her desire for power over her own realm. Colonial rule is no less so because the ruled accept their ruler, and in the absence of a definitive single version of Galadriel as a character, we must accept that there is quite enough evidence to see her as a colonial ruler.

The planting of mellyrn at this juncture, therefore, gives rise to Galadriel’s title at the time of The Lord of the Rings of “Lady of the Golden Wood.” She is here identified with her land thanks to the trees specifically planted by her — as Sam asks, “whether they’ve made the land, or the land’s made them, it’s hard to say.”^[32] This ambiguity matters when considering the ecological role of mellyrn in Middle-earth — having not successfully grown in Lindon, they do survive in Lórien, but only as long as Galadriel remains.^[33] Thus, their cultivation in Middle-earth is inherently unsustainable in natural terms, requiring constant input (whether horticultural, magical, or both) to survive. The fragility of this ecosystem is characteristic of colonially imposed landscapes, complicating the connection between the Elves and the Earth. The mallorn forest of Lothlórien, therefore, demonstrates an aspect of coloniality in Galadriel’s rule where her identity is bound up with the land she created, but is also essential to it as it cannot survive without her.

Less ambiguously, pipe-weed is used as a more evidently ugly and violent form of control on a smaller scale in the Shire towards the end of the War of the Ring. Saruman’s desire for power is well-known, specifically over the Shire that Tolkien later dates back to meetings of the White Council, where the link between the Shire, pipe-weed, and Gandalf’s interests become clear to him. Tolkien tells us that Saruman’s interest was at least partly as a result of Gandalf’s, and that power in “Gandalf’s province” could be achieved by spending money on pipe-weed.^[34] Where our previous two examples demonstrate how colonisers use their own plants to exert and maintain control over the colonised, pipe-weed gives us an example where a plant that is primarily important to the colonised is co-opted, simultaneously to benefit those aiding the effort of colonisation (the “Chief’s Men”) and to bring the colonised (the Hobbits) to heel by depriving them of an important cultural plant. Hob Hayward’s information that pipe-weed has been diverted from the Shire via Sarn Ford since after Frodo left, combined with the pipe-weed found at Isengard by Merry and Pippin following its destruction by the Ents, shows the depth and deliberation of planning involved in Saruman’s strategy.^[35] His understanding of Hobbits and their relationship to pipe-weed is directly weaponised with its effects felt as far as Bree.

Additionally, we are told in “The Hunt for the Ring” that Saruman deliberately sought to corrupt families such as the Bracegirdles, and by extension the Sackville-Bagginses, due to their ownership of pipe-weed plantations. This corruption was also turned into spying, often by Hobbits in the pay of the Bracegirdles and Sackville-Bagginses. Here, control of the pipe-weed trade acts as a gateway for further forms of social and economic subjugation by Saruman.^[36]

The final broad theme of botanical colonialism I want to explore today is around the importance of names and knowledge, and who has access to which varieties of each. Broadly speaking, knowledge, including plant knowledge, in Middle-earth ends up stratified according to what the “learned” think is worth knowing. For example, in the case of pipe-weed, while it is a source of immense pride and importance for Hobbits, who will happily info-dump on the subject when introduced to the King of Rohan among the ruins of Isengard, it is all but unknown outside their circles.^[37] Indeed, its accidental introduction to Middle-earth by the Númenoreans is evidence of this, as the most they may have esteemed it for is its sweet scent. Instead, Aragorn, mocking the voice of the herbmaster, emphasises the names given to pipe-weed in the absence of any real importance from his point of view.

Similarly, the names of athelas are key to its recognition in the context of healing. Ioreth’s naming of “kingsfoil” and her recognition of it are placed beneath the herbmaster’s notice, requiring Gandalf’s intercession for him to take it seriously. Again, the emphasis on names, this time spoken directly by the herbmaster and perhaps the source for Aragorn’s later imitation, is front and centre. Perhaps in a bid to assert the importance of his knowledge, the herbmaster starts to give names as he hands over the athelas to Aragorn, dismissing the healing and quasi-magical properties mentioned by Ioreth as “doggerel…garbled in the memory of old wives.”^[38]

Another mention of “old wives” allows Tolkien a chance to critique the attitudes of those who would dismiss them. When Boromir alludes to old wives’ tales regarding Fangorn, it is Celeborn who chides him to bear in mind that old wives often keep important knowledge.^[39] Similarly, Gandalf reminds Théoden of the stories he would have heard as a child about the Ents,^[40] again drawing attention to what he has forgotten. In these ways, Tolkien offers a response to those who would dismiss “folk” knowledge simply on account of who carries it.

Additionally, in the case of Ioreth, the knowledge she carries comes from Númenor, and has somehow lasted until the end of the Third Age. The forgetting and dismissal of this knowledge demonstrates another phenomenon in colonial botany, namely where a colonising nation loses the knowledge of its origins and home in order to colonise and maintain power. While Ioreth is also (presumably) a Gondorian, she is of a lower social status than the learned herbmaster, her knowledge carrying less power than the ability to quote Quenya, Sindarin, or Valinorean names for athelas. In this way, knowledge both within a colonising society and between coloniser and colonised becomes stratified along the lines of power dynamics. Both the loss of and refusal to learn “traditional” knowledge from those outside the herbmaster’s own circle demonstrate, on the small scale, the wider ways in which botanical and ecological knowledge can be devalued in the service of power.

Through these examples, we can clearly see that plants are important for more than just their presence or appearance, that much of their importance can be seen in how people interact with them and each other, for good or ill. Plants end up featuring centrally in multiple forms of control, whether the outright economical control Saruman exerts over the Shire or the more subtle mutual legitimisation of colonial powers as between Aldarion and Gil-Galad. Sometimes their very existence is a hallmark of colonial rule, be it past, with athelas, or present, with mellyrn. The knowledge of plants themselves also features in these dynamics — awareness, or lack thereof, of why plants are important to people or why they might remain important long after their introduction. Stratifications of power and influence work alongside different “levels” of knowledge that may be considered more or less worthy than one another.

Tolkien does not present these dynamics without comment, though — as Hoiem says, he both reproduces and critiques imperialist viewpoints in his work. The Númenoreans may destroy the forests of Middle-earth and kill the Indigenous peoples who object, but they also come to their own Fall when their ambition becomes too much. Aragorn, in taking the kingship of Gondor, provides a small act of reparation to the Drúedain in assuring them that their autonomy over their lands will be restored. Ioreth’s knowledge may be dismissed by the oh-so-learned herbmaster, but Gandalf ensures that the value of that knowledge is appreciated, validated, and used.

Almost the entire history of Middle-earth from the First to the Third Age is contained within these narratives of colonial expansion and power and their ecological, social, and cultural effects. This is often underpinned by the power hierarchy identified by Charles Mills in his 2021-published essay “The Wretched of Middle-earth,”^[41] where Elves are at the top, Men below them, and everyone else lower still. The human relationships surrounding these botanical stories demonstrate this time and again, over millennia of history in Middle-earth.

Perhaps the most important aspect of this discussion of botanical colonialism is the light it sheds on the broader hierarchies of race and species in Middle-earth, mediated through their relationships with the land. Ertsgaard, quoting Dickerson and Evans, identifies a kind of inherent positivity attached to Elven stewardship of land.^[42] However, looking at the introduction of mellyrn, we can see that this stewardship is perhaps not quite as it seems — while the mellyrn are beautiful, their presence is ecologically unsustainable as non-native plants that cannot survive without cultivation. The façade of ecological harmony is in fact artificial, maintained by Galadriel’s desire for a realm of her own. Likewise, the Númenoreans’ gifts to the peoples of Middle-earth are placed in a very different light when their treatment of other Indigenous peoples is considered. Their introduction of plants to their own benefit without considering the land they were entering no longer looks like an unadulterated gift. The knowledge of Hobbits and old wives is dismissed in favour of more “learned” ideas among Men, only deemed important when someone wants to take power, or when other powerful people in the room demand that the lowly be heard.

The three-way dynamic between coloniser, colonised, and the plant life around them offers an additional dimension to postcolonial and ecocritical explorations of Tolkien. Where these may have bled through from the Primary World, they may in turn bleed back into how we read and respond to these dynamics, and how we see the nature of Middle-earth in relation to its peoples.

Thank you very much, danke schön!

Works Cited

• Andersson, Erik Jampa. ‘The “Akallabêth” and the Anthropocene: Myth, Ecology, and the Changing of the World’. In Númenor, the Mighty and Frail: Proceedings of the Tolkien Society Seminar 2023, edited by Will Sherwood. Luna Press Publishing, 2025.
• Arneil, Barbara. ‘Colonialism versus Imperialism’. Political Theory 52, no. 1 (2024): 146–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/00905917231193107.
• Braverman, Irus. Settling Nature: The Conservation Regime in Palestine-Israel. University of Minnesota Press, 2023.
• Echo-Hawk, Roger C. ‘To Distant Lands and Back Again’. In Tolkien in Pawneeland: The Secret Sources of Middle-Earth, by Roger C. Echo-Hawk. Roger Echo-Hawk, 2013.
• Ertsgaard, Gabriel. ‘“Leaves of Gold There Grew”: Lothlórien, Postcolonialism, and Ecology’. In Representations of Nature in Middle-Earth, edited by Martin Simonson. Cormarë Series, no. 34. Walking Tree Publishers, 2015.
• Hoiem, Elizabeth Massa. ‘World Creation as Colonization: British Imperialism in “Aldarion and Erendis”’. Tolkien Studies 2, no. 1 (2005): 75–92. https://doi.org/10.1353/tks.2005.0020.
• Hynes, Gerard. ‘“The Cedar Is Fallen”: Empire, Deforestation and the Fall of Númenor’. In Tolkien: The Forest and the City, edited by Helen Conrad-O’Briain and Gerard Hynes. Four Courts Press, 2013.
• Jansson, Lobo. ‘Lord of the Rings, Lord of Nature: A Postcolonial-Ecocritical Study of J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Its Implications in the EFL Classroom’. Master’s Thesis, Linné­universitet, 2018.
• Sheppard, Jackie. The Lord of the Rings Part 10: Jackie Sheppard. Hosted by The Tolkien Society. 2026. 33:03. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaDwf-TZ09Q.
• Pappé, Ilan. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oneworld Publications, 2007.
• Tandırcı, Muhammed Alpaslan. ‘Ecology of Imperialism: Environmental History for Númenor’. In Númenor, the Mighty and Frail: Proceedings of the Tolkien Society Seminar 2023, edited by Will Sherwood. Luna Press Publishing, 2025.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. The Fellowship of the Ring. George Allen & Unwin, 1954. Reprint, Collins Modern Classics, 2001.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. The Return of the King. George Allen & Unwin, 1955. Reprint, Collins Modern Classics, 2001.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. The Silmarillion. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. George Allen & Unwin, 1977. Reprint, HarperCollins, 1999.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. The Two Towers. George Allen & Unwin, 1954. Reprint, Collins Modern Classics, 2001.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-Earth. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. HarperCollins e-books, 2009.
• Veijalainen, Sofia. ‘An Ecocritical Reading of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings’. MA Thesis, University of Eastern Finland, 2022. https://erepo.uef.fi/server/api/core/bitstreams/4a06461f-8d41-4382-8343-5fe74e470558/content.
• Westvik, S. R. The Dúnadan’s Burden? Or, Examining Shades of Imperialism in Tolkien’s Second Age Tales. Hosted by The Tolkien Society. 2021. 4:33:45-5:12:57. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ-EV2EFCxY&t=2767s.

Footnotes