Articles by Noble Smith

About Noble Smith

Noble is the author of The Wisdom of the Shire, hailed by Kirkus Reviews as “a life-affirming, must-have morsel for Tolkien’s colossal fan base.” The book has been translated into 8 languages including Finnish and Spanish. His musings on J.R.R. Tolkien and his Hobbits have appeared in the U.S. and U.K. versions of The Huffington Post. Noble’s action-adventure The Warrior Trilogy is published by Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press. The first book in the series— Sons of Zeus—is available in hardcover, ebook and unabridged audio. An award-winning playwright, video game writer and film producer, he co-hosts the D&D nostalgia blog www.DungeonsAndDorkwads.com. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and children.

Do You Have Goblin Feet?

February 23, 2015 Noble Smith

“Goblin Feet” is the title of J.R.R . Tolkien’s first published work. The poem came out in 1915 when he was twenty-three in an anthology produced by Blackwell’s Books. Near the end of his life Tolkien stated that he despised the poem: “I wish the unhappy little thing, representing all that I came (so soon after) to fervently dislike, could be buried for ever.” […]

Baldor the Hapless: Epic Fail in The Lord of the Rings

February 19, 2015 Noble Smith

Over the last year I’ve been reading The Lord of the Rings out loud to my son, and it’s been wonderful to re-experience Tolkien and Middle-earth through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy. The other […]

Jemima Catlin and The Hobbit

February 17, 2015 Noble Smith

Jemima Catlin and The Hobbit by Noble Smith I have many editions of The Hobbit in my collection, from Alan Lee’s handsomely illustrated edition, to the bizarre Rankin and Bass animated film book tie-in, to […]

Tolkien’s Magical Inventory

February 15, 2015 Noble Smith

The mystical athelas herb, along with the talking troll purse, virtue-imbued staffs, enchanted barrow swords, and spiritually-infused lembas, are all unique examples of Tolkien’s wild creative genius. […]

Break Bread Like A Hobbit

September 22, 2014 Noble Smith

Break Bread Like A Hobbit by Noble Smith Are meals at your house a hasty and chaotic event? Do members of your family fight at the table? Have you ever made a meal and not […]

Cool Like Bombadillo

June 5, 2014 Noble Smith

J.R.R. Tolkien’s character of Tom Bombadil was based on one of the author’s beloved childhood toys—a doll that accidentally got flushed down a toilet. Many Tolkien aficionados wish that the enigmatic inhabitant of the Old Forest had stayed in that loo, never to resurface in Tolkien’s subconscious. […]

Exclusives

Amory Lovins on Tolkien

March 28, 2014 Noble Smith

“J.R.R. Tolkien was just a delightful old gentleman, interested in a lot of things, with a lively curiosity and a deep knowledge of philology; a love of words and language and a masterly storyteller. He […]