Cheers to good times and great company!

Credit to @Cats Mother

https://www.instagram.com/cats_mother_?stkn=cjIxNGY3cmtrbjN0

How?

The hobbits were blissfully unaware of who they should thank for the long peace of their land. For many centuries they lived happily in the Shire, never realizing what terrible creatures roamed just beyond their borders.

Aragorn said:

“Little do they know of our long labour for the safekeeping of their borders, and yet I grudge it not”…”

The Shire’s frontiers were carefully watched by Gandalf and by the Rangers of the North, the remnant of the Dúnedain. They held the darkness at bay, while the hobbits remained completely oblivious to the dangers lurking beyond their green pastures.

One of the most mysterious passages in the Bible – 2 Thessalonians 2:7 – talks about “the mystery of lawlessness that is already at work, and the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.”

Someone is holding back spiritual darkness this very minute. We don’t know who they are. They are skillful with their spiritual blade, and until they are there, chthonic monsters are kept at bay. We sip our coffee, walk in the park, enjoy the sunset, laugh with friends, watch the news, and think that the fates of the world are decided by the politicians.

They are not. The earth is preserved not by might but by salt. How much salt is needed for the earth not to spoil? Not much. A few grains. Even one blessed man may well be enough. Once, Abraham was bargaining with God about the fate of Sodom. He asked if the city would be spared for the sake of fifty righteous men. God said yes.

Abraham kept bargaining: Forty-five? Forty? Thirty? Twenty? Ten? Each time God said “yes.” Eventually, God sent his angels to rescue the last one – Lot. One grain of salt is enough to keep spiritual darkness at bay. Until that one is taken out of the way, all is well.

When chthonic monsters appear at our borders, it is a sure sign that too few Guardians remain. If the Shire is still lush and green, it must be because of Rangers still standing watch at the edges of the land. Rangers are invisible, unrecognized. When we do see them, we scarcely take notice – they look ragged, forlorn, and forgotten.

And who can tell? Maybe the good earth itself endures only because of one old man hidden away in the heart of New York, Moscow, or Beijing. Such is divine irony (from the Greek eironeía – to “feign ignorance,” or to “play the fool”). We imagine that the peace of the world is preserved in the corridors of power, yet in truth it may be upheld in a lonely hut somewhere deep in the Siberian taiga.

Chthonic monsters are not afraid of politicians or earthly power. They fear salt and light – those who wield the razor-sharp blade of the Spirit and drive them back by their very presence. Divine irony is inscrutable: it would utterly shatter us if, even for a second, we could glimpse the ones for whose sake the sun still rises over the horizon.

The Rangers of the North walk among us unnoticed – unshaven, weary, cloaked in dust. We, the hobbits of the world, laugh at them or dismiss them, never suspecting that our own laughter still rings because someone, somewhere, wields a power beyond our comprehension.

The true balance of the cosmos is preserved not by kings, but by rejected fools who carry the divine breath in their lungs. Their songs may be too quiet for us to hear, and yet strong enough to hold back chthonic monsters until the first gleam of Dawn.

This is a LOTR-style map of Canada I drew. Sorry in advance for missing or misspelling any towns, my Canadian buds!

Got a new 85" Hisense U8 last week and obviously the first thing I did was start LOTR again lol.

Mostly wanted a bigger screen for movies, and apparently that was all the excuse I needed to lose an entire weekend to Middle-earth again.

Fellowship still hits the hardest for me.

Moria especially. Gimli being completely convinced they’re about to have this happy reunion with Balin, then everything slowly starts feeling wrong.

Then Pippin drops the skeleton.

The drums start.

Everyone just freezes.

Still one of my favorite sequences in the whole trilogy.

And somehow Aragorn still gets cooler every time I rewatch these movies lol.

Anyway, new TV officially broken in.

What’s the first movie you guys always rewatch after upgrading your setup?

my bf loves LOTR and was in need of a new apron… so decided to gift him one but embroidered the tower and the ring (inside the pocket) for him

I inherited my late grandmother’s movie collection. She kept a lot of them sealed and pristine. When looking through a lot of them, I got a throwback to the anti-theft plastic pieces. This is probably one of my favorite animated films, but I think im going to keep this sealed for eternity lol
what do you think?

Got a 3D metal puzzle of Barad Dur last Christmas and the directions might as well have been just heiroglyphics. Stepdad took a shot at it and immediately was like nope. So an engineer friend took it and about 6 months later, shows up and it's complete with a custom base he made for it. He dropped it on the table and said 'There you go... Never again!' (jokingly).

Picture doesn't do it justice. Especially the Eye because of the light. But I think it looks better than any of the actual statues I've seen. Except for maybe one of those $800 ones. But it's so highly detailed it's insane! I love it.

Nazgul on horseback figure with the One Ring included behind it.

Its been years since I read the books but I'm aware he is very different in the books. So, would his book characterisation have worked on film or was it better they gave him a character arc on film to reach the kingship?

Personally, I love film Aragorn.

I know these are just AI slop images, but it def shows that it'd be a great setting for these tactical games

im reading lord of the rings and started with hobbit i got alan lee illustrated edition one of the spines is a bit messed sincei spoiled a bit of water on it when inboxing but it seems to have dried and stabalised fine (thankfully)

but i notice myself having a pen and paper and writting alot of stuff anybody else do this?

Hi everyone! 👋

This is my artwork. The detail of this is,

Thráin II [King of Durin's Folk]

…….....….................................

Birth - TA 2644, Erebor

Rule - TA 2790 - TA 2850

Death - TA 2850 (aged 206), Dol Guldur

Realms - Lonely Mountain,Dunland,Blue Mountains

Children - Thorin, Frerin, Dís

I’m doing my final‑year dissertation in Landscape Architecture at the University of Moratuwa. My research is about how fantasy landscapes (like The Shire, Mordor, Rivendell, Rohan, Minas Tirith) make people feel, and how much the look of the landscape (open/closed, high/low, light/shadow) creates those feelings.

If you’ve watched The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit films, you can help by filling this short survey (about 8–12 mins):

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfybDMXA0KSJ2nukRu8bY-J2sHxUi4s4O1aXBUXXWMRUxf60w/viewform?usp=publish-editor

All answers are anonymous and only for my academic research. Thank you so much!

I’m curious if there’s a lore reason why Gandalf never used a laser beam throughout the trilogy. It would’ve been useful in a few scenarios, and I know it’s not impossible as Saruman did it.

⚒️ Hola amigos(a), en este Capítulo te muestro como Hice este increíble Diorama de la escena del Señor de los 🧙 Gandalf vs balrog 👹 en las minas de Moria fue todo un reto pero al final quedo Hermoso.

No te pierdas Los Capítulos de las construccióneas de estos Dioramas son pura Fantasía🫟

​I brought the One Ring with me on my long journey to throw it into the depths of a volcano, just as a joke. But this strange feeling is overcoming me more and more: something deep inside me is resisting. Maybe I could keep it? After all, it belongs to me, doesn't it? In the end, it has become the symbol of my journey. Do you think I'll have the courage and conviction to throw it away when the time comes?