Why “The Forsaken Inn?”

Although I have a much greater appreciation for Tolkien’s magnum opus now than I did when I was younger, I must admit that there are aspects of The Lord of the Rings that thrill me more than others. Of the three books in the trilogy, I’m far more partial to The Fellowship of the Ring than I am of the others. That is, aside from the appendices in The Return of the King.

My admiration of the first book stems for the fact that most of the events occur in the north of Middle-Earth, a place which stirs my imagination far more than the southern realms. The north is a place steeped in a history of grandeur cast into ruin by the works of both Man and the Shadow. It is where the Men of Westernesse founded the Northern Kingdom of Arnor; the land where their descendants defied, but ultimately fell, to the advances of the Witch-King of Angmar. It is the home of the ruins of Amon Sûl and to the Dûnedain, who keep their watch over their ancient home and their former charges, shunned by the very people they protect. In short, I find a land of ruins and barrows and stout-hearted Rangers more interesting in than the fading strength of Gondor and the smoking darkness of Mordor.

I decided then that if I was going to keep a blog that focused on my The One Ring game and The Lord of the Rings miniatures game, it needed a name firmly rooted in the land that was once Arnor, yet without all the intellectual baggage a name like “Rivendell” or “The Shire” would bring along with it. So, digging deep into the minutia, I settled on “The Forsaken Inn,” a mere footnote in the text (although from what I understand its role is much greater in the Lord of the Rings MMO).

As my TOR campaign continues along, it’s my intent to eventually expand its focus to include the lands west of the Misty Mountains. When that occurs, I fully plan on developing the Forsaken Inn more and perhaps enhance its role in Eriador.

Lastly, “The Forsaken Inn” is simply a much more evocative name that say, “The Prancing Pony,” and I like to be evocative in anything I create. There is an inherent desperation in anything referred to as “forsaken,” and given the themes of struggle against the encroaching Shadow in both Tolkien’s work and in The One Ring, I believe it a fitting adjective for the title of a blog dedicated to the same.