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The dh combo is something I’m stuck on pronouncing correctly! thank you for this video

Can't believe you started with "There's something about..." and didn't go with the title "There's something about Merry".

Learning + Lotr? now thats how it should be! Thank you for being so clear!

At least, as I remember, TEI XML allows <quote> to contain <p> elements. If you want to capture, the "quote continued signaled by a double quote," use <q type="Continued_Quote_Double" /> and document that in your header. Write attribute values out in full. The need for cryptic abbreviations to enable faster processing passed long ago. The average laptop has more processing power than the computers used for the first atomic bombs. The only difference is the skill with which they are used.

Yea, deep dive into correct pronunciation. Maybe even a series on Rohan and it’s use of language.

Great work! I have been looking at e.g. Foster's great (but by now quite outdated) guide to Middle-earth and thinking of "writing it out" as a graph like that.

Perhaps I’ve misunderstood or misheard you, but while pronouncing Eärendil, I thought I heard the il(eel)sound more like an “ill.” I just wanted to seek clarification on which was grammatically correct. Was it meant to be eel or ill?

Love this video! Just Tweeted it out.

Great work James! We are excited for the possibilities this will open up.

This is incredible! Thank you

This is beautiful. I’ve already been using Cite Tolkien in my notes and writings and am thrilled this tool exists 🎉

Very nice. I thank you for these efforts. I'm interested in the topic of vocabulary used in the descriptive portions of Tolkiens settings. So far, the vocabulary of LOTR is still easily in scope of most english speaking readers. Will the vocabulary still be approachable over decadess and centuries?

That's a brilliant guidance! Coming from German language, most of the tips came naturally to me. But not always. Thanks a lot! And yes, I'd like you to make a more extensive video on this. Especially American guys tend to pronounce "Gandalf" with an prolonged "æ" at the start and a completely different pronunciation of the second "a". Maybe a list of the most common names of LotR and how to pronounce them would be helpful? (Edit: Subbed, liked and bell activated.)

I have PNH's volumes.

Most landscapes always suggest M-escapes to me - except modern urban ones and industrial farmscapes, square mile fields.

The -dh is how we use it in Cornish, and I think the distinction from -th is something that would benefit modern English.

Fantastic resource video, helped me understand the Elven language better, thank you. But I would like to see a more in depth lesson too, covering all of appendix E.

Can someone please tell me how to pronounce the elvish word rhiw? I'm making a game character a elf and I've picked the 2 words Vala (I think it means strength) and. Rhiw which means winter aka her name is strong winter (frost magic user)

Evil and Good in Beren and Luthien might be interesting to know compared to The Children of Hurín.

I was a little surprised to see "Rohan" mentioned so much in Book 2, until I remembered that the Council of Elrond discusses the "Gap of Rohan" a number of times.

It's funny to me that the most dense part of The Lord of the Rings (in terms of the largest chunk) is when a character talks about something in The Silmarillion. That's very on brand.

Throrin would ask axe or sword?

It would be super interesting to map out the date throughout LOTR and The Hobbit. That would help with Two towers issue you showed, and it would be super interesting to see a graph of the rate of flow of time per token.

This is such a cool project.

Very cool, James!

Where does one join as a YT member?

So many things I can think just on an audio level I would want to be able to add to this... :D

If only I was starting A Long-Expected Soundscape with access to Rimbë! But still would be amazing to use to get the even more detail!

Thank you, James. I already use the tools you have built so far. They are always worth consulting.

I would love to see a graph of how frequently each of the valar are mentioned in the Silmarillion.

It would be interesting to see the use/occurrences of Gandalf’s different names like you did with Strider/Aragorn.

It would be interesting to add Aragorn's other names, like Elessar. Sadly "the king" would have some overlap.

Maybe Merry was having his own well-earned nap in one of the guest rooms!

As others have said, it seems most credible that Merry was staying at Bag End (like Lofar did in the first versions) and went to his room after locking the door. What might be added is that when Frodo says "Lock the door, and don't open it to anyone [Ballantine: any one] today" I do not think it means that he puts Merry in charge of the door. It is more like 'Lock the door; I will not let anyone in and do not want anyone in, so I ask you too to not let anyone in' -- Merry is not a servant being ordered, just a friend asked to help. As for Frodo's tea, it was "belated", so we may guess that at proper tea-time he had had told Merry 'Go and take some tea, I'll hold the fort'. It is still true that Tolkien did not make all this sufficiently clear, or perhaps did not think it through sufficiently to make it clear.

It occurs to me there's no need to have the "leap year" column (Column H) for the solstice-aligned Gregorian dates because if it's a leap year, the solstice will be a calendar day earlier.

Are we told where Merry was sleeping? Without recourse to the book (I have a lapful of cat ;-) I would have thought that Merry left Bag End, locked the door from outside, and took his key with him to wherever he was sleeping. Frodo's instruction meant "don't let anybody persuade you to unlock the door for them". I sit, cat and all, ready to be corrected 😻

The "real" story must be that Tolkien simply forgot in the (very complex) process of writing this chapter, as Carl Hostetter notes above, though it's noteworthy that I've never seen *anyone* (including me) notice this in the 70 years since publication. In-universe, perhaps Merry went to the bathroom or for a bite or something, ignoring the knock (if he heard it) as instructed, then either quietly and unnoticed (or at least ignored by the narrator) departing or surreptitiously remaining to eavesdrop on Frodo and Gandalf's subsequent converation, though the latter seems unlikely, as Frodo would have expected him to still be there somewhere if he hadn't noticed him leave.

Bag End is a very big hole, in hobbit terms (though not as big as Brandy Hall, obviously) so there are plenty of places Merry could be, while he rightfully ignores the doorbell, as instructed. He could be investigating either the beer barrel or the pantries; he could be mending the holes in the cellar wall, or at least tidying up the mess, he could be tidying up the general mess caused by all the other visitors, or just having a well-deserved nap in the guest bedroom. Tunnelled dwellings probably make for very thick, Hill-supporting walls, so eavesdropping is easier through the windows than the walls - and we know Merry is inside. And, after all, Merry is a young guest in his friend's hole, however curious, and probably tactful enough to leave him alone with such an eminent and powerful visitor as Gandalf.

Merry's presence and/or departure after locking the door seems to have been obscured when he replaced his precursor, Lofar the Dwarf, who previously had locked the door like Merry, but remained in - or at - Bag-end during Gandalf's visit and departed with him. As first written, at Gandalf's departure, "Bingo saw [Gandalf] off. The dwarf Lofar went with him carrying a large bag. They walked away down the path to the gate at a surprising pace" (RotS:243). This was revised in pencil to read: "Bingo saw Gandalf to the door. There the dwarf Lofar was waiting. He popped up when the door was opened, and picked up a large bag that was standing in the porch. ‘Goodbye, Bingo,’ he said, bowing low. ‘I am going with Gandalf.’ ‘Goodbye,’ said Bingo. Gandalf gave a final wave of his hand, and with the dwarf at his side walked off down the path at a surprising pace" (RotS: 248 n.31).

At this time, Merry is about 16 or 17, right? In hobbit terms, that's a mere child. Maybe it was naptime and he didn't hear Gandalf. 😄 More seriously, Merry didn't let Gandalf in, so he did as he was told. Maybe he was just wherever he was in "his" part of the house and ignored the knock.

In the chapter "The conspiracy unmasked" Merry confesses that he was spying on Bilbo and Frodo about the Ring, so he easily can be eavesdropping during that conversation. Frodo might think that he was already asleep, though. The Bag End is big enough to have a lot of room for guests and Merry definitely stayed the night there.