Five Great Tolkien Lore Channels
Tired of listening to political podcasts and the depressing news cycle? When I am sick of the same old content, I like to tune in to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien fan content on YouTube. Given the tremendous popularity of Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings in the Catholic homeschooling community, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share my five favorite Middle-earth-themed YouTube channels. These are great for kids and adults alike who want to deepen their love of Middle-earth and indulge in a bit of escapism into the colorful world of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Nerd of the Rings
If I had to choose my favorite Tolkien channel overall, it would be Nerd of the Rings. Nerd of the Rings is run by Matt Graf, an amateur Tolkien enthusiast—although his levels of erudition and expertise about all things Tolkien are anything but amateur. Matt’s Nerd of the Rings YouTube channel (and his corresponding website) is a wealth of information about Middle-earth. Nerd of the Rings offers a fantastic deep dive into J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth lore, covering everything from character breakdowns and historical timelines to maps, book analyses, and even thoughts on contemporary adaptations like The Rings of Power.
I particularly like Matt’s hypothetical scenarios he teases out in videos like “What if Gandalf Took the Ring?” and “What if Gollum Repented?” He also has videos covering the histories of characters, lands, and artifacts, as well as interviews with actors, scholars, and writers involved in the world of Tolkien. Matt’s videos have an extremely high production value, blending education with entertainment. It’s also worth mentioning that Matt is noted for his genial personality and lack of any hint of toxicity. Very wholesome!
Men of the West
Another excellent channel is Men of the West, run by a creator known only as Yoystan. Whoever Yoystan is, he knows his lore well, to the point of being able to speak Sindarin. As with Nerd of the Rings, the videos on Men of the West are known for their high production quality. While he has a fair share of generalized content, there’s also a fair amount that is a little more niche. It’s great stuff if you like going down rabbit-holes. One of his most popular videos is a master timeline of Middle-earth, which arranges all the events of The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings chronologically and explains how they relate to each other.
Other examples of some of his rabbit-hole videos include “How Did Saruman Find Isildur’s Remains?“, “Why is Mordor Freezing Cold?“, and “What is the Richest Place in Middle-earth?” There’s so much more interesting stuff on Men of the West for people who want to do a deep dive into Middle-earth minutiae. It is a channel where a Tolkien nerd could get lost for hours.
Tolkien Untangled
David J. Levene is a historical fiction author and blogger who has a special love for the legendarium of J.R.R. Tolkien, which he explores in his YouTube channel Tolkien Untangled. Specializing in untangling complex timelines, contradictions across Tolkien’s drafts, and event breakdowns (e.g., the Fall of Gondolin), it matches Nerd of the Rings in scope and production quality. Its animated timelines and cited references are easy to watch and learn from, but without sacrificing scholarly precision. Tolkien Untangled is your go-to if you want delightfully long exposition to keep you entertained on long car rides (and by “ridiculously long,” I mean how about 6 hours of videos on the First Age Wars of Beleriand alone?)
Tolkien Untangled is also known for its 9-hour playlist “correcting” Amazon’s Rings of Power. It offers a critique on how the series should have been written. All in all, Tolkien Untangled is an excellent resource, especially if you need to kill a half a day and want to lose yourself in Middle-earth for 6 to 10 hours.
By the way, David goes by “Rainbow Dave” on his channel, and a lot of his art features rainbows. This is because he used to be a tie-dye instructor; it’s not due to anything unwholesome.
Girl Next Gondor
I have only recently become acquainted with the channel Girl Next Gondor, but so far I have loved what I’ve watched. The woman who runs the channel remains anonymous, yet she is clearly a superb Tolkien scholar. It would not surprise me if she has an academic background in English literature.
Besides deep dives into the lore in superbly-produced videos, Girl Next Gondor is notable for its heavily literary approach to Tolkien. Instead of just providing information, she delves into discussions of the themes in Tolkien’s work, such as fate and free will, oath-swearing, political power, and the cultural details in Middle-earth. She also has fascinating discussions about Tolkien himself, including his influence on music and what J.R.R. Tolkien would think of AI. Girl Next Door thus gives more than recaps and exposition. She offers insightful and original analysis of Middle-earth that is faithful to the lore and grounded in the texts of Tolkien. And if that’s not enough, she also has a podcast called Down the Hobbit Hole with even more discussion.
The Broken Sword
Finally, I want to mention a very interesting channel called The Broken Sword. The Broken Sword is run by James Hayman, the English director of Flawless Films and a long-time fan of J.R.R. Tolkien. As with the other Tolkien channels we have profiled above, Hayman’s Broken Sword offers high-quality videos featuring histories of the characters of Middle-earth, hypothetical discussions (“What if Boromir Had Lived and Took the One Ring?“), and plenty of geographical content discussing maps and the histories of various locations.
One thing I like about The Broken Sword is that it has many videos that explore the psychology and intentions of various characters. For example, “What Was Saruman’s Plan if He Had Defeated Rohan?” and “What Was Really Going Through Aragorn’s Mind at the Argonath?” I also appreciate his comparison of the divergences between the books and Peter Jackson’s films, as well as his compendium of live-stream videos featuring Hayman and hundreds of online Tolkien fans nerding out about Middle-earth.
Conclusion
One word of caution. While I have watched videos from all of these channels, each one is truly voluminous, and I have not watched everything on each channel. Therefore, I cannot vouch for all content, especially interviews and live streams. As with anything on the Internet, watch at your own risk. That said, each of these channels has a reputation for solid scholarship and wholesome commentary. Nothing I’ve seen on them has been unsuitable for family viewing. I like to think this is an expression of Tolkien’s own spirit informing the demeanor of his biggest fans.
What are your thoughts on this topic? Join other homeschooling parents and me in the Homeschool Connections Facebook Group or in the HSC Community to continue the conversation.
