There Are Many Paths to Tread

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You may be looking for the Lord of the Rings archive, Many Paths to Tread.

Zine
Title: There Are Many Paths to Tread
Publisher: Of Dreams and Schemes
Editor(s):
Date(s): 2005
Series?:
Medium: print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom: Lord of the Rings
Language: English
External Links:
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Catherine Schlein

There Are Many Paths to Tread is a gen 124-page Lord of the Rings anthology.

It contains no interior illustration.

It is in the same universe as The Road Goes Ever On.

The author writes in the editorial of Patterns of Memory, that that novel was supposed to have been "There Are Many Paths to Tread" #2, but became its own zine instead.

Summary

Summary from a distributor, Agent With Style:

Here you'll find such stories as -- Frodo decides it’s time to clean out the storerooms at Bag End. Amid the junk and dust, he finds some very interesting things, including a mysterious box which changes his destiny -- and effects everyone around him. And Sam and Frodo are caught in an early blizzard, but, luckily, they are found by a mysterious elf who lives in a secluded valley. Jarnal is a Grey Elf from Mirkwood -- or is he?

From the Editorial

It was all Frodo's fault. Well, and Elijah Woods’ by extension, I suppose — oh, and Peter Jackson and the rest of the actors and crew of the movies.. And, while I’m assigning blame, let me add JKK Tolkien and my friend, Martha Crawford. He for writing a saga that swept me into fantasy back in the 1960's, and she for being my willing cohort in Lord of the Kings mania — er — fandom. Oh, yes, and there’s my husband who puts up with my forays into such things. He's even let me hang LOTR posters in the upstairs family room and fill every shelf with figures....not to mention the bookmarks, puzzles, etc.

I have loved Tolkien’s works since I read them in 1968 and fell in love all over again when the movies came out. So, that brings me to this collection of stories. They are based in the universe I created in the novella I published in 2004. As I said, it was all Frodo's fault, and Sam’s, too. And Jackson for not razing the Shire, I suppose. Anyway, I wrote the novella to bring Frodo back and to resolve the fact that the other hobbits were not seen as heroes when they returned (for what do Hobbits care of the outside world) but as adventurers (and we know what Hobbits think of adventures!).

If you haven’t read the novel, here’s the premise in a nutshell. Sam’s wife Rosie has died of a plague; lost and alone, he decides to go to Valinor, feeling he is unfit for anything anymore. The only child surviving is Elanor, who is old enough to be in the care of others. He feels she’d be better off, in truth. To keep him in the Shire, (Merry and Pippin go to Valinor to tell Frodo what’s happening. They feel Sam still has an important part to play in Middle Earth. They have quite an adventure. Frodo returns. There’s an earthquake, Pippin, Merry, Sam and Frodo help rebuild the Shire and Sam uses the soil of Galadriel to heal the Shire (which is what he needed to stay for). Whew. One 200 plus pages boiled down to a paragraph.

The stories in this zine are all part of the continuing story of Frodo in Middle Earth. These were set forth in the Green Book, but, tragically, it was lost and not rediscovered until after Tolkien penned his famous works. A pity, for then there might have been another movie or two.

Fiction in the Same Universe

  • The Road Goes Ever On (2004)
  • Dark and Deep (This takes place right after the novel and deals with their first adventure after Frodo's return. Printed in Of Dreams and Schemes #19, 2004)
  • The Gifts of Mid-Year's Day (A short story about Frodo's last few months in the Shire. Printed in Hail Fellows, Well Met, 2004)
  • In the Beginning... The Lessons of Life (A story about the early years of Frodo's life and how he got to know the other three hobbits. Printed in Above All Shadows #1, 2005)

Contents

  • Editorial (2)
  • Veils of Time by Martha Crawford (3)
  • Junk of Ages by Catherine Schlein (7)
  • The Reason That the Winds Do Blow by Catherine Schlein (82)
  • The Dark of Twilight by Catherine Schlein (87)
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