Episode Guide
Each month, the hosts of By-The-Bywater taken turns picking a new topic connected to J.R.R. Tolkien. Topics have included character studies, thematic overviews, lesser known texts by Tolkien, and adaptations of his work — both the famous ones and some obscure ones.
On Terry Brooks’s novel The Sword of Shannara.
60.Tolkien Dropping Bars.On Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf.
59.I Physically Recoiled from the Book at That Point.Silicon Valley's misinterpretations of Tolkien.
58.What an Absolute Nightmare This Man Would Have Been to Work With.The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.
57.There’s No Rule That Says a Girl Can’t Kill the Witch-king!Peter Jackson’s version of The Return of the King.
56.The Long Defeat Is Maybe Going on a Little Too Long.All about the Noldor.
55.There Was a Lot to Remember Here and I Don’t Remember Most of It.Tolkien's unfinished novel The Notion Club Papers.
54.The Pleasures of the Robot Dancehall.Tolkien's story The Lost Road.
53.Working on the Group Art Project.Land in Tolkien.
52.This Weird Paranoia Paradise Vibe.Tolkien’s posthumous collection The Fall of Númenor.
51.Looking Kinda Gross.Tolkien’s translation of Sir Orfeo.
50.LaCroix Wormtongue.Peter Jackson's Hobbit movies. (Live!)
49.Some Kind of Horrible Subpar D&D Fop Who Just Shows Up.The Rankin-Bass adaptation of The Return of the King.
48.It’s Important to Get Really into Jewelry.On worldbuilding and Tolkien.
47.He’s Just A Gross Little Guy!All about Gollum.
46.Bad Performance Review as an Actual Plot Point.Tolkien’s short children’s works, Roverandom and Mr. Bliss.
45.This Film Is Choppy.Peter Jackson's The Two Towers.
44.(Various Sighs and Groans.)The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, season 1.
43.Little Broccoli Trees.On cartography in Tolkien.
42.This Isn’t Freaking Redwall!On food in Tolkien.
41.The Jock Who Joins the Glee Club.All about Legolas Greenleaf.
40.Dude, Just Make a Language!On Tolkien’s essay A Secret Vice and constructed languages.
39.These Aren’t My Questions, I Translated Them.On the Red Book of Westmarch.
38.The Rings of Power Broker.On evil in Tolkien.
37.They’re Just Some Solarized Dudes.Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings.
36.Divine Background Radiation.All about the Valar.
35.Do the Hobbits Have H.O.A.s?All about the Shire.
34.I Ain’t No Big City Philologist!Tolkien's collection Tree and Leaf.
33.Perry and Mippin.Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring.
32.He's Being Ganged Up On By These Mean Little Jerks!All about Sam Gamgee.
31.There Was So Much Math!A new Tolkien book, The Nature of Middle-earth.
30.The Family That Fights Together Stays Alive Together.Tolkien's tale The Fall of Gondolin.
29.Always Around to Do the Bare Minimum.All about the eagles.
28.Is He Hot Or Is He Tall?Tolkien's posthumously published book The Children of Húrin.
27.The Brita of Middle-earth.All about Lothlórien.
26.The Work of Repair After the Storm.The Scouring of the Shire.
25.You Can Have Well-Written Music in a Kid’s Movie!The 1977 Rankin-Bass version of The Hobbit.
24.Radagast is Scrappy-Doo!All about The Istari (a.k.a. the Five Wizards, a.k.a. Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast, and those other two).
23.Hella Problematic in So Many Ways.All about orcs.
22.Not Just Because I Like Cooking and Eating!Tolkien's short story, Smith of Wootton Major.
21.The Princess Bride But with Santa.Tolkien’s Father Christmas Letters.
20.She Does It All!All about Éowyn.
19.A More Robust Line of Succession.All about Boromir, Faramir, and Denethor.
18.Speak Softly and Be a Big Stick.All about ents.
17.A Bad Thing That Bad People Do.Tolkien and imperialism.
16.Turn Off the Dark Lord.The Lord of the Rings musical. (No, really.)
15.A Weird Faerie Sex Game.Tolkien’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
14.But...Faramir! He’s such a good boy!Toklien adaptations.
13.That’s Why You Have Scrolls!Dennis L. McKiernan’s Silver Call Duology.
12.Things You Can Snag Your Mind On.Fanwork inspired by Tolkien.
11.I Found that Personally Upsetting.All about dwarves.
10.The Wheeler-Dealer Dragon!Tolkien’s short mock-medieval novella Farmer Giles of Ham.
9.This Flash, This Sublime Thing.On magic in Tolkien.
8.Who Let This Happen?All about Tom Bombadil.
7.Crypto-magical in Their Own Way.All about Ghân-buri-Ghân.
6.“Strider! What’s Up, Man?”On friendship in Tolkien.
5.This Mysterious Færie Queen.All about Galadriel.
4.A Series of Small Wounds.Tolkien’s unfinished story Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner’s Wife.
3.Manwë, You’re Not My Dad!All about Melian—queen of Doriath, fan of nightingales.
2.Tuor Is JUST a Guy!Death in Tolkien.
1.It’s Finally Out in the World!How Jared, Oriana, and Ned first learned about Tolkien.