Amon Sûl

Fr. Andrew welcomes iconographer, artist, and author Jonathan Pageau of “The Symbolic World” to talk dragons in Tolkien’s legendarium and in the traditions that inform and surround it. Do dragons almost exist? The answer is yes.

Having cut it from the hand of Fr. Andrew, Prof. Cyril Gary Jenkins takes up the Podcast of Power and hosts fellow history professor William Tighe to talk teaching Tolkien to college and high school students, as well as giving a critic’s eye to the Tolkien biopic.

Fantasy author and Orthodox Christian deacon Nicholas Kotar returns to the podcast to talk wizards -- Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast and those two mysterious Blue Wizards! Along the way, they discuss a fake Slavic god, story-telling (what else?) and the difference between angels and Maiar, wrapping up a fascinating episode by digging a dusty heap of old mathoms out of Fr. Andrew’s hobbit hole.

Sarah, a combat veteran of the Iraq war joins Fr. Andrew to co-host an episode talking about the experience of war and what it means to come home after, whether one is a hobbit or human, including an in-depth exploration of Eowyn as a warrior and wrapping up with a roaring charge into the legend of the most famous hobbit warrior of them all.

Fr. Stephen De Young joins Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick to talk about monsters, myth and mythology in the Tolkien legendarium, especially as they relate to Biblical narrative and the historical background of the Ancient Near East. Watch out for giants, wraiths, Atlantis, flood, fire, the sword and the answer to the burning question: Shouldn’t Aragorn be taller?

For International Tolkien Reading Day, Dr. Cyril Jenkins joins Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick to talk March 25 in the Tolkien legendarium -- Atonement, Annunciation and our Lady the Theotokos. They wrap up with reading from some of their favorite non-legendarium Tolkien tales.

Celebrating the first anniversary of the podcast, Germanic philologist Richard Rohlin joins Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick to talk Tolkien as a philologist, medievalist and inventor of languages. The Corn King, cellar doors and hijinks abound.

Michael Haldas speaks at DoxaMoot 2019 at St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.

Deacon Nicholas Kotar speaks at DoxaMoot 2019 at St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Alfred Kentigern Siewers speaks at DoxaMoot 2019 at St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.

Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick speaks at DoxaMoot 2019 at St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Cyril Gary Jenkins speaks at DoxaMoot 2019 at St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.

Sarah Livick-Moses joins Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick as guest co-host to talk about the power and sacredness of language in the Tolkien Legendarium. We begin with a brief memoriam to Christopher Tolkien and end with the incredulity of the Rohirrim.

On this special Christmas episode, Orthodox Church musician Richard Barrett joins Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick to talk about music as signposts of the divine in Middle-earth as well as a lost and recently recovered Tolkien poem celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.

Christian Gonzalez, podcaster, thinker and therapist, joins Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick to pace the lonely, palantir-haunted halls of the White Tower of Ecthelion to figure out just what makes the penultimate Steward of Gondor tick.

Dcn. Nicholas Kotar returns to the podcast to discuss with Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick his forthcoming epic fantasy novel in the Raven Son series, world-building, sub-creation in Tolkienian terms, and how this contributes to Christian culture-creation.

Violinist Rebecca Rovny joins as guest co-host to talk with Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick about music in Middle-earth and the role it plays for Tolkien’s characters and cultures and how that relates back to Tolkien’s creation myth. She also helps Fr. Andrew introduce a new segment: The Hall of Fire.

The theme of Hope is woven into and throughout all Tolkien’s legendarium just as it is in the Christian narrative of the salvation of the world. Dr. Lori Peterson Branch joins Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick to examine this theme with a little help from two young Tolkien fans.

Author and podcaster Michael Haldas and Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick put on their bright blue jackets and yellow boots to talk the single most requested character study in all our feedback so far: Tom Bombadil! Just who is this enigmatic figure that never makes it into the movies? We close with a trivia game designed exclusively for Michael Haldas.

In Tolkien’s legendarium, healing means renewal, not reset. Fr. Andrew is joined by psychology student Stasia Braswell to discuss what it means to be healed in Middle-earth and how that image of transformation sheds light on our own lives as Christians. Also: Ponies. (No, not those ones.)

Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick and live panelists Dcn. Nicholas Kotar, Dr. Cyril Jenkins, Michael Haldas and Steven Christoforou talk visions of the age to come in the works of Tolkien. Fr. Andrew adds meditations on music and poetry inspired by the vision.

Guest co-host Joshua Duncan joins Fr. Andrew to talk food, cheer, song, hoarded gold, the merrier world, and the hobbits who love them. Is the hobbit life compatible with Orthodox Christian asceticism?

Fr. Andrew thinks a lot of the reviewers of the 2019 film “Tolkien” are getting their reviews wrong, and he tells you all about it in this special review minisode with a lot of help from you, the listeners.

Guest co-host and Greek Orthodox priest Fr. Anthony Cook joins Fr. Andrew to talk about life, death, anthropology (and elvenology?), with a dive into one of the lesser-known Tolkien texts, the “Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth.”

Fr. Andrew addresses some messages from listeners and also discusses a famous passage from The Two Towers, where Faramir opens up the “Window on the West,” that is, he shows us how to look into the transcendent from the immanent.

Epic fantasy author and Russian Orthodox deacon Nicholas Kotar joins Fr. Andrew to discuss Tolkien’s famous essay “On Fairy Stories,” storytelling, Christian hagiography and culture, and their benefit to spiritual life. They wrap up with a strange journey into the wild world of Russian Tolkien fandom.

Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick introduces his first "minisode" (a.k.a. "The Appendices") to talk about what Amon Sûl actually is in Middle-earth and its significance for him. He also responds to some concerns from a listener and visits the Tolkien exhibit in New York along with Steven Christoforou and a very special guest.

Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick launches his new podcast with guest co-host Steven Christoforou, sharing their mutual love for the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, and discussing how journeying through Middle-earth helps us on the journey through our modern secular world.