"esto", Quenya pron: "they (dual emphatic)"
References:
- "PE17/075": "esto" ("3rd person dual emphatic")
- "VT49/48": "esto" ("3rd person dual emphatic")
https://eldamo.org/content/words/word-345504397.html

#Tolkien #Tolkiendili

There's an idea that's been on my mind, a train of thought to which several recent experiences have been contributing: finding myself more reminiscent than usual about Madeleine l'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door (which I used to like a lot less than I do now), and Arthur Machen and "the worm which never dies" that terrified him so much, and the unnatural feedback loop which fosters prion diseases, and so forth.

This is dangerous territory. I am not in the business of pronouncing judgments on any manifestations of Nature and biology, and therefore I wish to avoid the sins committed by #CSLewis and "Redwall" and #Tolkien and George Orwell and a lot of other human writers and moralists who suggest, for the sake of analogy or literary device, that certain animals or creatures are intrinsically evil, symbols of evil.

Viruses especially have that stigma attached to them because they straddle the line between life and non-life, and we're conditioned to thinking of viruses solely as pathogens, which is not entirely true. Viruses have also been the means for "horizontal gene transfer", moving genes from one creature to another through means outside of normal replication, and thus viruses have shaped biological evolution.

(cont'd)

This week's #NewBooks at the library:
- The last of the books from the NHBS January sale: Michael Ruse's The #Philosophy of Human #Evolution, published by Cambridge University Press
- A lovely version of Humphrey Carpenter's highly praised J. R. R. #Tolkien: A Biography, published by HarperCollins
- A second-hand copy of Ant Ecology, published by Oxford University Press

#HumanEvolution #Anthropology #Fantasy #LOTR #LordOfTheRings #Myrmecology #Ecology #Insects #Entomology #Books #Bookstodon #Scicomm @bookstodon

"polda", Quenya adj: "big"
References:
- "PE17/115": "polda"
- "PE17/115": "polya"
https://eldamo.org/content/words/word-3828581983.html

#Tolkien #Tolkiendili

Experience ‘The Hobbit’ Again: A Journey Worth Rewatching

https://duroundsanctumstudio.com/2026/06/20/experience-the-hobbit-again-a-journey-worth-rewatching/

Vendredi lecture

Sébastien Fontenelle - Tolkien contre les machines : Écologie et antifascisme en Terre du Milieu

Petit essai amusant qui cherche à lutter contre la récupération abjecte de Tolkien par l'extrême-droite. Si Tolkien se présentait volontiers lui-même comme un peu réac', sa détestation de l'industrialisation et son rejet de la guerre sous toutes ses formes, était sincère.

#VendrediLecture
#Tolkien
#Ecologie
#Antifascisme

"ent", Sindarin pron: "they, 3rd pl. pronoun"
References:
- "VT50/14": "est" ("3rd pl. pronoun")
- "VT50/14": "ent" ("3rd pl. pronoun")
- "VT50/14": "ith" ("3rd pl. pronoun")
- "VT50/14": "idi" ("3rd pl. pronoun")
- "VT50/14": "idir"
https://eldamo.org/content/words/word-2309968673.html

#Tolkien #Tolkiendili