Primary Sources

“The Council of Elrond,” The Fellowship of the Ring
“Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit,” The Two Towers
“The Window on the West,” The Two Towers
“The Forbidden Pool,” The Two Towers
“Minas Tirith,” The Return of the King
“The Siege of Gondor,” The Return of the King
“The Battle of the Pelennor Fields,” The Return of the King
“The Pyre of Denethor,” The Return of the King
“The Houses of Healing,” The Return of the King
“The Last Debate,” The Return of the King
“The Field of Cormallen,” The Return of the King
“The Steward and the King,” The Return of the King
“Appendix A,” The Return of the King
“Appendix B,” The Return of the King
“Part IV: Akallabêth: The Downfall of Númenor,” The Silmarillion

Commentary on Gondor

“The Heirs of Elendil,” The Peoples of Middle-earth
“The Appendix on Languages,” The Peoples of Middle-earth
“Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan,” Unfinished Tales
“The Drowning of Anadûnê,” Sauron Defeated
“Lives of the Númenóreans,” The Nature of Middle-earth
“The Ageing of Númenóreans,” The Nature of Middle-earth
“The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor,” Vinyar Tengwar, Number 42
“131 To Milton Waldman,” The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
“141 To Naomi Mitchison,” The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
“153 To Peter Hastings (draft),” The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
“154 to Naomi Mitchison,” The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
“156 To Robert Murray, SJ. (draft),” The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
“168 To Richard Jeffery,” The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
“183 Notes on W.H. Auden’s review of The Return of the King,” The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
“193 From a letter to Terence Tiller 2 November 1956,” The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
“211 To Rhona Beare,” The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
“244 From a draft to a reader of The Lord of the Rings,” The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
“256 From a letter to Colin Bailey 13 May 1964,” The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
“294 To Charlotte and Denis Plimmer,” The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

LOTRO Resources

https://lotro-wiki.com/wiki⁴⁸
Lotro Items discord server⁴⁹
Yao and Prunaprismia. D&Co Milieu. July, 2016, https://dcodumilieu.com/.⁵⁰

Gondor’s Environment

Judd, Walter S., and Graham A. Judd. Flora of Middle-earth. New York, Oxford University Press, 2017.⁵¹
“Interpreting Dover Castle’s great tower: Angevin innovation, or a medieval white elephant?” The Past Magazine, 23 June 2021, https://the-past.com/feature/interpreting-dover-castles-great-tower-angevin-innovation-or-a-medieval-white-elephant/.⁵²

Clothing

@sororeshistoriae. “#grwm 13th century edition.” Instagram, 13 July 2026, https://www.instagram.com/sororeshistoriae/reel/DavS9u4sz_K/.
@company_of_little_dunmow. “Get Dressed with Me - 13th Century Edition.” Instagram, 19 May, 2025, https://www.instagram.com/p/DJ1l0t5xIco/.
https://www.comthurey-alpinum.ch/ ⁵³
Segrest, Jen. “12th Century: Roger II Dalmatic.” Medieval Beads, https://medievalbeads.com/early-period-holy-roman-empire-dalmatic/. Accessed 19 July 2026.⁵⁴
Grew, Francis, and Margrethe de Neergaard. Shoes and Pattens, London, Museum of London, 2001.⁵⁵
“Colors : Historic Enterprises, We’re Making History.” Historic Enterprises. Accessed 19 July 2026.⁵⁶
https://www.thecompanyoflittledunmow.org/photo-gallery⁵⁷

War and Warfare

“The Siege of Gondor,” A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, Bret Devereaux, 2019.⁵⁸
Dos Reis, Nathanael. “Articles.” Nath Explorateur de l’Histoire, 2021.⁵⁹
Dos Reis, Nathanael. “L'ARMURE du CHEVALIER à l'époque des croisades !” Youtube, uploaded by Nath Explorateur de l'Histoire, 17 January 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcOojXKFteA.⁶⁰
Dos Reis, Nathanael. “Articles.” De Geules et d’Argent, https://www.degueulesetdargent.fr/articles/. 2026.
Lowe, Eric. The Use of Medieval Weaponry, 2021.⁶¹
Kopciuch, Maciej. “Articles.” Art of Swordmaking, https://artofswordmaking.com/articles. 2026.⁶²

Professions and Crafting

“Collections: Iron, How Did They Make It? Part I, Mining,” A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, Bret Devereaux, 2020.⁶³
Craddock, Paul T. Early Metal Mining and Production. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1995.⁶⁴
St Thomas Woodcrafting Guild⁶⁵
Secrets of the Castle. Directed by Blythe Tinker et al., starring Peter Ginn, Ruth Goodman, and Tom Pinfold, Lion Television, 2014.⁶⁶
Brown, Tonia. “My (New) 12th Century Sewing Kit.” The Journal of Aveline de Ceresbroch, Wordpress, 17 November, 2015. https://normanlady.wordpress.com/2015/11/17/my-new-sewing-kit/.⁶⁷
“Serena gives… a demonstration of spinning wool yarn…” Instagram, uploaded by company_of_little_dunmow, 29 April 2026, https://www.instagram.com/p/DXt6LrzEclJ/⁶⁸
“The Making of a Medieval Book.” Paul J. Getty Museum, 5 May 2003, https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/making/.⁶⁹

Agriculture and Cooking

“Historical Italian Cooking.” Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/@HistoricalItalianCooking. Accessed 21 July 2026.⁷⁰
Gavio de Rubeis, Marco. De Observatione Ciborum. I Doni delle Muse, 2021.⁷¹
Gavio de Rubeis, Marco. Libro de la Cocina. I Doni delle Muse, 2022.⁷²
“Agrarian Life in Early Medieval Hilltop Villages in Italy.” Medieval Histories, 4 Feb, 2017, https://www.medieval.eu/agrarian-life-early-medieval-hilltop-villages-italy/. ⁷³

Music

Faraji, Farya. “Bardcore & Neo-Medieval vs Actual Medieval Music.” YouTube, uploaded 28 June, 2024.⁷⁴
Pittaway, Ian. “Index of Articles.” Early Music Muse. 2014.⁷⁵

Crime

WelfOnTheShelf. “Prior to DNA evidence, finger prints, etc. how did they solve murders and actually know if they convicted the right person?” Reddit, 2019, https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/cu1eet/comment/exw5x58/.⁷⁶

Mariners

“Medieval Ships.” Naval Encyclopedia, https://naval-encyclopedia.com/medieval-ships.php. 2026.⁷⁷

General Resources

Stříbrný, David. “Articles.” Project Forlǫg, https://sagy.vikingove.cz/en/articles/. 2026.⁷⁸
Medieval history reading list⁷⁹
"Feudalism". Reddit, 2019, https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/middleages/#wiki_feudalism.⁸⁰

⁴⁸If you’re like me and you often forget which characters LOTRO made up and what they said, the LOTRO wiki is a fantastic reference for looking up the quest texts.⁴⁹ The player Mithotyn created a Discord server displaying all unique cosmetic items on LOTRO. There’s no weird duplicates like the item treasury plugin, and the unique items are organized extremely well. This is possibly the best database yet for looking up cosmetics in LOTRO. ⁵⁰ The best database online of LOTRO’s housing decorations, showing off multiple screenshots for every single item and categorizing them. A great way to find Gondorian decorations for the Belfalas housing.⁵¹ An excellent reference guide for all plants mentioned in Middle-earth, including Gondor. Worth reading to know about more than just athelas and the White Tree. ⁵² An article with a few good pictures of Dover Castle, which now has a partially reconstructed c. 1200 great tower/hall. Great visual reference for furniture and interior decoration of a castle.⁵³ Swiss reenactment group with beautiful reproductions of costumes/artifacts c. 1180. More photos here.⁵⁴ The silk tunic of a Sicilian king, and a great example of what the richest lords in Gondor could wear.⁵⁵ A collection of medieval shoes dated between 1100-1450, if you want some idea of what Gondorian footwear probably looked like. Special attention to the 1100-1300 finds (Referring to Appearances and Dress). ⁵⁶ Great little article on medieval dyes and their natural sources.⁵⁷ This Ohio-based reenactment group also has very accessible presentations on topics of c. 1215 daily life and warfare with lots of good visual references and videos on their social media. ⁵⁸ I don’t always agree with Devereaux’s conclusions, especially re: the influence of Byzantium or the 2003 movies’ armor/aesthetic choices, but otherwise he does a pretty good job of analyzing premodern warfare, and the example here is very relevant to our guide.⁵⁹ This page is in French, but a lot of browsers now have automatic translation software. Nath dos Reis is one of the foremost experts especially in martial and material culture c. 1200 western Europe, which is pretty close to Gondor judging by the text. ⁶⁰ This video shows the arming sequence of a c. 1200 knight. A great visual reference for understanding how the chainmail armor that’s so ubiquitous in Tolkien’s world is worn.⁶¹ Lowe is a HEMA practitioner and does an excellent job of describing medieval weapons (albeit a bit later than LOTR’s early/high medieval aesthetic, but broadly still applicable), especially for fantasy writers to understand.⁶² Lots of good articles about everything to do with swords. ⁶³ Pretty much everything you need to know about premodern iron mining, blooming/production, and forging.⁶⁴ Everything you would ever want to know about mining, but even earlier in time than Devereaux’s material.⁶⁵ If you ever wanted to know about medieval woodcrafting, these are the guys to check out.⁶⁶ One of the best documentaries about High Medieval castle construction and surrounding daily life to date. Especially relevant given Gondor’s love of stone and masonry.⁶⁷ A very short blog post showing a medieval sewing kit.⁶⁸ A nice and brief demonstration of wool-spinning, which is how the majority of clothing fabric was made pre-1300. Wool and linen were the primary fabrics of the time, plus silk for the rich, and cotton imports.⁶⁹ A quick primer on medieval manuscript production. It’s extremely laborious and expensive without a printing press and cheap writing medium like papyrus or paper! A more detailed hour-long lecture can be seen here.⁷⁰ Lots of great videos demonstrating interpretations of ancient and medieval Italian recipes. Given Tolkien’s geographical equation of Venice, Italy with Gondor, this is a great source of inspiration for dishes in Gondor with the caveat that potatoes do seem to exist in Middle-earth, whereas they did not in pre-16th century Europe. The palate might be different than what is presented here, so this is where historical precedent could fall short. The owner also published translations of cookbooks; see below.⁷¹ This is a 6th century cookbook written by a Byzantine physician for the Frankish kings, both influences on Gondor.⁷² The second is a 14th-century vernacular Tuscan cookbook.⁷³ A brief but informative article about early medieval Italian farming. It’s not a perfect analogue for Gondor since it never had the Roman latifundia of antiquity, or the changes occurring in 13th century Italy, but Middle-earth’s Great Plague and the general decline of Gondor is similar enough. The climate and geography is also very similar, with Italy having both mountainous and hilly Mediterranean environments alongside low plains, similar to Gondor, and the flora and fauna are quite similar, too. ⁷⁴A good primer on medieval music. Faraji also includes sources and more reading in the description. Reproductions of actual instruments can be found here for reference. Additional info on the vielle here.⁷⁵One of Faraji’s sources and also the most accessible online source for medieval music with a dizzying array of articles.⁷⁶ More on ‘town guards’ and police forces (or the lack thereof) here. This is of course a very popular topic for RPers due to crime RP. Since this isn’t really a topic in the text of LOTR, historical precedent is probably the next best thing. You can also search other subtopics on this subreddit for accessible info.⁷⁷A handy and accessible resource showing off the various types of medieval ships. Of special note are the hulks, cogs, and galleys, precursors of the later medieval galleon ships the Númenóreans used.
⁷⁸Possibly the best and most accessible resource on the Internet today for early medieval material culture. It gets very crunchy and heavy on archaeological analysis, but if you want to know what something from that time really looked like, chances are you can find it here.⁷⁹ This utterly massive document which I’ve previously contributed to contains thousands of academic books written about the Middle Ages, organized by location, topic, and period.
⁸⁰What was feudalism? Did feudalism even exist? Those are complicated questions even modern historians are grappling with. The system itself is confusing, mostly because there wasn't really any system beyond the vague notions of monarchy. Tolkien himself didn't feel inclined to explain Gondor's governance further, and I suspect the main takeaway should be that the general vibe of medieval life (e.g. life being less regimented, the people self-govern for the most part, a lack of bureaucracy yet still retaining customs and laws, etc.) remains more valuable for how to think about Gondor than outdated theory about pyramidal governments.