Mordor

Now, we know less about her, but at the start of her reign Sauron was still in Eregion, disguised as Annatar.

He really was there for a very long time, before sneaking back to Mordor to forge the One Ring.

After that, and the elves uncovered the plot, he invaded Eregion, seized those sixteen other rings of power and pushed on westwards, basically invading all of Middle-earth except for the stronghold of Lindon, where Gil-galad was, and a few enclaves here and there like Rivendell.

What was Tar-Telperion doing during that time? Well, not a lot to start with, but when things started to look bleak, Gil-Galad formally requested aid from Numenor, and Numenor responded.

Minasdir, Tar-Telperion's heir, sent a large fleet to the aid of the elves, and their intervention tipped the balance against Sauron's forces, pushing them all the way back to Mordor.

As I said, Numenor was mighty in those days.

You may have noticed, though, that I said Ministir, Telperien's heir, sent the fleet, rather than her.

And part of me wonders if we will ever see Sam with the sword again, as his journey turns towards the Citadel and becoming a maester.

It would be funny for someone nicknamed Slayer to not have any weapons anymore, but once again I'm thinking of Lord of the Rings, and how Frodo made the active choice not to carry a sword into Mordor.

It was not a victory to be won by the blade, and I wonder if something similar will happen in Sam's story.

A couple other bits I liked about Sam hocking off their wares.

that that's been supplanted by ai i promise The Venn diagram of people who relied on cliff notes and people who use AI to summarize way too much shit is a full circle.

Hey, so you turned in your essay and it said that the boys left behind on the island discovered they had to take a ring to Mordor? You

know, it's funny because these days, like...

I imagine these days, if you were turning in a report and you confessed, no, I didn't use AI, I used Cliff Notes, then that would be like a step up.

Okay.

And the last one, it's not one does simply walk into Mordor.

It's one does not simply walk through Mordor.

No, no, no, no.

No, it's not.

Let's take the book I'm familiar with, Lord of the Rings.

When Frodo and Sam are on the road to Mordor, life is horrendous.

It looks like evil is winning.

You know, Gondor is being bombarded by the armies.

We're not at the end of the story.

We're not in Revelation at the moment.

We're on the road to Mordor.

And B, we're not the master storyteller.

But be ye aware a Watford win and your future will be bright in May.

A Watford loss, and your future will see you visit Mordor soon.

A draw! And ye shall forever be in potso.

Purgatory.

Five minus five is zero.

And Norwich 5 minus 3 is 2.

Mordor it is.

Norwich

It's actually just more complicated allegory, right? And you can see some of his pre-writing.

He's clearly like, Mordor is like...

Asia Minor, the Turks, you know, who fought Vienna, which has the seven walled city like it's there.

It's just he puts more more gauze between you and that, which is great because it preserves your freedom and allows, I think, a more delicate version of allegory.

my God.

You make it sound like you live in Mordor.

What has happened over on your side of the country? Here it's like we're starting to get some fall colors.

No, no.