I’m one of those guys whose entire knowledge of the Lord of the Rings universe is “Short man takes ring to volcano, Peter Jackson stretches The Hobbit into three unnecessary movies. ”

But then I’ll stumble upon things like this Tumblr essay from user mirkwoodest, and be reminded that the Lore of the Rings is richer and more complicated than just about anything else out there.

You get it? Lore of the Rings?

Nevermind, just check out this thread about Tolkien’s insane naming system.

It starts with something I never realized… that the Hobbits had different names?!?

Is this retconning gone wild? Not exactly.

But if you think this is just about TWO languages, hold onto your butt.

I’ve never seen anyone this excited about etymology.

Then come the Horse People.

Basically, it’s word-nerd inception.

God bless the internet and its ability to connect people who know way too much about their favorite things. And Tumblr seems to be THE repository for things like that.

What’s a topic you could nerd out about forever? Let us know in the comments!

Or write a lengthy, well-researched post on Tumblr and drop a link in the comments.

Either of those scenarios work for me.