First things first, a very happy Christmas to you all. I hope you all having a great day or at the very least a good Sunday.

Unless you're listening to it out of time and it's like August now, I guess I hope that day is great too.

Anyway, I'm currently off in New England at the moment spending Christmas with the in-laws, but I have recorded this episode ahead of time so that you can still get your Q of E-Phil. Think of it as a Christmas special. Catherine Varigan will have to wait another week

before she finds out how Henry intends to go about annulling their marriage, because today we're

going to talk about a different, more fictional woman, A-O-N, from J.R.R. Tolkien's incomparable Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Now, for those of you who have not seen or read the Lord of the Rings, well, first you should totally do it.

I can't think of a better thing to spend your Christmas money on.

But even if you don't, then I think you will still enjoy this episode.

I assume no prior knowledge.

If I still haven't persuaded you, then no worries. I'll see you again in January for the next episode proper. If you're new to the show, welcome. the Queen's of England podcast.

Supplemental Aowin, Lady at the Shield shield arm and shield number of J.R. Tolkien's other works

take place in a fictional place called Middle Earth. This world draws heavily from the early

and later Middle Ages with a heavy dose of fantasy in there to boot. There are a number of

different races of people involved across a number of

different realms and what have you, but today, all you'll need to concern yourself with are

humans and orcs. Well, and a couple of wizards, a few hobbits, and a god. Now, as I said before the

titles, I am assuming no prior knowledge here, which means that it will be, A, grossly oversimplifying,

and B, leaving a lot of stuff out. So apologies in advance for you hardcore talkiness out there.

Of course, the books and the films that adapted them are not exactly the same. Their dialogue

differs, and certain scenes are not present in both or are changed. For the purposes of this episode, I will largely be drawing from the books, as is my want, but I will also throw some scenes from the films in from time to time. Before I introduce this world, though, I think it's important to start with a discussion of women in Tolkien, because it is a bit of a controversial issue. Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings in the 1950s, and if we're honest, he was not a modern man

where women were concerned. Indeed, his first book, The Hobbit, is notable that in its

300 or so pages, there is not one single female character. Not one. In the Lord of the Rings,

...