Amon Sûl

Fr. Anthony talks with returning host, Deacon Seraphim Richard Rohlin, as the Hobbits have a very unsettling after-dinner conversation.

Fr. Anthony talks with returning founding host, Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick, as the Hobbits move forward from their encounter with Tom Bombadil and enter the village of Bree.

Fr. Anthony talks with listener Brittany Miller, about chapters 6 through 8 of the Fellowship of the Ring, as a retrospective on these chapters before proceeding through the book.

Fr. Anthony talks with ten-time returning guest co-host Michael Haldas about the eighth chapter of Fellowship of the Ring, “Fog on the Barrow Downs,” as the hobbits leave the refuge of Tom Bombadil’s house and almost immediately fall into terrible peril and near disaster.

Fr. Anthony talks with Rob Clark about the seventh chapter of Fellowship of the Ring, “In the House of Tom Bombadil,” as the hobbits arrive at this strange and beautiful place of refuge and respite.

Fr. Anthony talks with arborist Mark Caldwell, about the sixth chapter of Fellowship of the Ring, “The Old Forest,” as the hobbits leave the Shire behind and enter into the Wide World in a place that is not at all wide and open.

Fr. Anthony talks with his original Tolkien Interlocutor, Josh Cook, about the first five chapters of the Fellowship of the Ring, returning to some of the essential themes that we have identified over the past several months.

Fr. Anthony talks with returning guest co-host Richard Barrett about Chapter 5 of the Fellowship of the Ring: A Conspiracy Unmasked, and they dig deeply into an entirely different sort of music in Middle Earth than Richard and Fr. Andrew discussed five years ago.

In this month's episode, Fr. Anthony assembles an intrepid panel to discuss Paschal themes in Tolkien. This episode originally aired on April 25 on the YouTube channel, so the format will be a little different this time. Music attribution: Hidden Past and Celtic Impulse, both by Kevin MacLeod (www.incompatech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Fr. Anthony talks with first-time reader, long time movie fan Zach Heller about the beginning of the Lord of the Rings, the characters in the books, and the long slow leavetaking of the Shire.

Fr. Anthony reads Chapter 3, Three is Company, with Fr. Paul Hodge as the guest host.

Fr. Anthony reads Chapter 2, the Shadow of the Past, with Dr. Cyril Gary Jenkins as the guest host.

Fr. Anthony begins the grand read-through of the Lord of the Rings with the first chapter, with Dr. Brad Birzer as guest host.

Fr. Andrew & Richard sign off from the podcast, and Fr. Anthony joins in, and together, in the first episode with three co-hosts, they discuss some favorite memories from the past, and the preliminary material to the Lord of the Rings, especially the Foreword to the Second Edition and the Prologue Concerning Hobbits and Other Matters.

Richard is rejoined by Magister Scott Brewer to round out The Last Homely House’s read-through of the Silmarillion. They discuss the Breaking of the World, and Richard pitches his own version of a TV show focused on the Second Age of Middle-earth.

Richard is joined by Deacon Davede Thompson for the finale of our Earendil series. They talk about St. Augustine, Old English poetry, Earendil, and the Tale of the Mariner and His Wife

In this presentation from Doxamoot 2024, Richard Rohlin presents his talk "Like Rain on the Mountain: Theodoric, Beowulf, Theoden, and Tolkien’s Elegy for Northern Courage."

In this presentation from Doxamoot 2024, Dr. Cyril Jenkins presents his talk "Love’s Obligation: Deceit and Truth - The Divide Between Virtue and Vice in Tolkien."

In this presentation from Doxamoot 2024, Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick presents his talk "'We heard of the horns in the hills ringing': Musical memory of the Rohirrim in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings."

In this presentation from Doxamoot 2024, Richard Rohlin presents his talk "Pentecost at the Stone of Erech: Oathbreakers and Covenant Keepers in the Legendarium."

Dcn. Nicholas Kotar is back on the podcast to discuss with Fr. Andrew what is probably the funniest of all of Tolkien’s stories, the non-Legendarium tale “Farmer Giles of Ham.” Pull up a chair, grab a big bowl full of Dragon’s Tail, and be prepared for some storytelling joy.

Fr. Andrew comes over to this side of the podcast to discuss the tale of The Mariner’s Wife, one of the most melancholy tales in the legendarium. They talk about marriage, the sea, and Fr. Andrew even shares a beautiful piece of music to lift our spirits at the end…

Podcaster and entomologist Aaron Irber of “I Might Believe in Faeries” rejoins Richard to continue his extended deep-read of the Silmarillion. They finish up the Quenta Silmarillion proper. If this series has passed from the high and the beautiful to darkness and ruin, that was of old the fate of Arda Marred; and if any change shall come and the Marring be amended, Manwë and Varda may know; but they have not revealed it, and it is not declared in the dooms of Mandos

Dr. Cyril Jenkins joins Fr. Andrew for a reading of Tolkien’s short story “Leaf by Niggle.” Is this really an allegory? What does it say about this life and the life of the age to come? Why did Tolkien write this story?

After 99 episodes of talking about how to interpret Tolkien’s works in religious and specifically Orthodox Christian terms, in Episode 100 Fr. Andrew and Richard talk about all that religion that really is in Middle-earth. Because actually it really is in there – prayer, worship, invocation of saints, etc. The episode wraps up with a big announcement about the future of the podcast.