Hi Tony! It's honestly great to meet another huge Tolkien fan, as you clearly are. :-)

A bit of context -- I write a monthly column examining how motherhood is portrayed in pop culture. Generally, it's not portrayed at all. Tragically, the LOTR stories are not an outlier in that regard. What an absolute delight it might have been to have motherhood set to the tune of Tolkien .

Anyway, looking for motherhood in a work of literature, television, or film is a hobby horse for me, and as I've been immersed in "Rings of Power," it was an obvious choice to take a more critical look at Tolkiens' output on that score.