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[WanderingWind]

England was amazing. I truly didn't want to leave. We did all the touristy stuff, got lost in Chiswick, ate at innumerable pubs, two fine dining establishments and even found the elusive Yorkshire pudding.

Oxford was very nice, though it may have been colored by being there when all the Tolkien geeks were there. But sitting in the corner where Tolkien and Lewis used to drink at was an unforgettable experience.

Me with a shit eating grin.

 

[Loxley]

Happy #HobbitDay, my fellow Tolkien nerds

 

[Gabriel_Logan]

Happy #HobbitDay, my fellow Tolkien nerds

Guess I'll eat 5 or 6 meals today. I'm also disappointed I missed the Lord of the Rings read along, but alas life happened. It would be a nitch request but I would not mind a read along of Tolkien's translation of Beowulf. I never finished it but I would really like to.

 

[Gabriel_Logan]

New book coming out, The Art of the Lord of the Rings, with claims that over half the illustrations have never been published before. Lots of maps and apparently quickly done sketches, here is one of the Orthanc.

 

[bengraven]

That's canon in my mind.

 

[Turin]

I'm partial to John Howe's version of Orthanc but I've always preferred when they can inject qualities from Tolkien's illustrations.

 

[Jacob]

I flipped through the new artbook today after work (I'm a bookseller) and it was quite nice. A lot of pieces I'd seen but a ton of new ones too. The early drafts especially. The maps were particularly relevant to my interests. I only skimmed Hammond & Scull's commentary but what I did read was informative and seemed up to their usual standards. I'm not deep enough into Tolkien lore stuff anymore to drop $40 on it, though.

 

[Loxley]

I actually haven't picked up the book myself yet, though I probably will by the end of the year. I'm in the process of trying to consolidate my bookshelves to conserve space right now, so I've put a halt to any purchases for the time being.

Oh, and the special features for the BOFTA EE were classified:

While we’re waiting for the release of TheHobbit: BOTFA Extended Edition in November, the British Board of Film Classification have been busy classifying the additional material. Two of the pieces of additional material, On the Front Lines of the Virtual Battlefield and The Last Stage are rated as 15 (UK rating) Here’s what we can expect so far, in no particular order:

IN THE WAKE OF THE DRAGON – LAKE PUKAKI[Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 26m 11s

ANDREW LESNIE REMEMBERED [Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 4m 27s

THE GATHERING STORM: THE CHRONICLES OF THE HOBBIT PART 3: THE GATHERING OF THE CLOUDS – EREBOR – MAY – JUNE 2012[Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 28m 46s

THE CLOUDS BURST – DALE – JUNE 2013[Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 28m 26s

A LAST DESPERATE STAND – RAVENHILL – JUNE 2013 [Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 28m 47s

OUT FROM THE GATE – EREBOR PICK-UPS – JULY 2013 [Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 28m 44s

IN THE DUNGEONS OF THE NECROMANCER – DOL GULDUR – MAY 2011 [Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 28m 44s

MANY PARTINGS – END OF PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY – JUNE [Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 28m 38s

OPENING [Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 3m 33s

BUTT-NUMB-A-THON 2011 GREETING[Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 11m 12s

THE REAL ADAM BROWN [Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 5m 9s

“RIVERS OF GOLD” MUSIC VIDEO [Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 4m 15s

DALE OF OLD CITY OF MEN [Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 28m 44s

DAIN IRONFOOT – THE PEOPLES AND DENIZENS OF MIDDLE-EARTH [Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 28m 46s

ON THE FRONT LINES OF THE VIRTUAL BATTLEFIELD [Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 28m 39s
CLASSIFICATION 15

THE KING OF WOOD AND STONE [Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 28m 48s

HERE AT JOURNEY’S END ANDREW LESNIE REMEMBERED [Additional Material,Andrew Lesnie Remembered (Revised)]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 5m 30s

TURNING THE TIDE [Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 28m 20

A MASTER PLAN, LONG IN THE MAKING[Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 28m 43s

EREBOR – LONELY MOUNTAIN [Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 28m 46s

DOL GULDUR – THE HILL OF SORCERY[Additional Material
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 28m 45s

TAURIEL – DAUGHTER OF THE FOREST[Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 26m 21s

FAREWELL FRIENDS [Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 31m 32s

THE LAST STAGE – JULY 26TH, 2013 [Additional Material]
APPROVED RUNNING TIME 32m 34s

It's great that they have one or two specially dedicated to Andrew Lesnie's work.

 

[Gabriel_Logan]

looked through the book, and yeah...I wouldn't recommend it unless your a die hard fan. As someone who is just casually interested in Tolkien I could feel my eyes glazing over at the first turn of the page. If you are really into Tolkien scholarship and Christopher Tolkien's works you will probably gather enjoyment from it as it seems like more of a supplemental for that.

 

[BrokenFiction]

Anybody seen this?

http://www.theguardian.com/books/20...th-annotated-map-blackwells-lord-of-the-rings

Tolkien's annotated map of Middle-earth discovered inside copy of Lord of the Rings.

A recently discovered map of Middle-earth annotated by JRR Tolkien reveals The Lord of the Rings author’s observation that Hobbiton is on the same latitude as Oxford, and implies that the Italian city of Ravenna could be the inspiration behind the fictional city of Minas Tirith.

The map was found by a specialist at Blackwell’s Rare Books, loose in a copy of the acclaimed illustrator Pauline Baynes’ copy of The Lord of the Rings. Baynes had removed the map from another edition of the novel as she began work on her own colour Map of Middle-earth for Tolkien, which would go on to be published by Allen & Unwin in 1970. Tolkien himself had then copiously annotated it in green ink and pencil, with Baynes adding her own notes to the document while she worked.

Blackwell’s, which is currently exhibiting the map in Oxford and selling it for £60,000, called it “an important document, and perhaps the finest piece of Tolkien ephemera to emerge in the last 20 years at least”.

And much more...

 

[Jacob]

That is a very cool find, but I feel compelled to point out that Hobbiton being on the same latitude as Oxford is not a revelation. He says as much in Letter 294, which has been available since the publication of the Letters over 30 years ago.

 

[Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!]

So in Children of Hurin when they talk about Easterlings...are they talking about people who inhabit the middle earth of the LOTR trilogy since that is what is east of them at the time? Did the easterlings migrate further east when Beleriand was destroyed? Is "easterling" an actual race of people or just a generic term for people who live to the east?

 

[bengraven]

You know, I speak blasphemy and all and pardon me if I'm reaching into shipping, but from a story telling and character driven standpoint I think Aragorn and Eowyn should have been together in the end.

I bring this up because I was thinking that it felt jarring in the novels that Aragorn and her did not end up together, as if Tolkien edited it out. So I looked it up and behold!

Originally, Tolkien intended for Éowyn to marry Aragorn. Later, however, he decided against it because Aragorn was "too old and lordly and grim." He considered making Éowyn the twin sister of Éomund, and having her die "to avenge or save Théoden". He also considered having Aragorn truly love Éowyn and regret never marrying after her death.

- it would have brought Gondor and Rohan together
- it's a silly reason for him to have changed his mind
- in the proper novels we do not see Arwen and Aragorn together much - Faramir spends more time with Eowyn in Return than the latter two do in the entire trilogy - whilst we see many interactions with Aragorn and Eowyn. It's funny but it feels like even though it's a doomed relationship, we see more of a "romance" between them then the proper matchings
- while in the books there is a proper yearning even from Aragorn I think and how satisfying would that ending be with her wounded by the Witch King after slaying him and Aragorn healing her back to life?

From a story telling perspective it wraps things up nice. We would have still had the tragic, bittersweet parts like Frodo's wound and Aragorn may have lived longer than her so it would have been him wandering the Westmarch in his twilight years, his children ruling that huge land.

 

[Tizoc]

Oh for fuck's sake what is with Amazon canceling my orders....
Gonna order the artbook next month.

For now though I just now realized that the only type of interaction Frodo and Legolas ever had in the movie was when Legolas said 'and my bow' to him.

 

[tryagainlater]

It's a couple months old so maybe you've all seen it already but just found this Ainulindale animated movie and thought it was pretty cool.

 

[Gabriel_Logan]

It's a couple months old so maybe you've all seen it already but just found this Ainulindale animated movie and thought it was pretty cool.

Yeah that's neat, looks like it took an ungodly amount of work.

 

[4444244]

Man I love these threads, I'd forgotten to check this new one till this evening. Had a great read thanks to all contributors!

 

[Loxley]

So this is pretty cool. I was exploring south street in Philadelphia a couple days ago and came across one of those "We sell old nerd/pop culture things from the 20th century" shops that appear to be in every major city. It was just filled with stuff from floor-to-ceiling, from old horror movie magazines, Godzilla merchandise from Japan, old comics from the 70's and 80's - really neat place.

Anyhoo, while browsing around I managed to find these among the chaotic lack of organization:

They're 10"x 8" promotional prints for the Ralph Bakshi animated LOTR film from 1978! They're in shockingly good condition for being a decade older than I am. I scanned them in so you can see them more clearly:

I absolutely love the one of Gollum and Frodo/Sam, as well as the little blurb on the bottom-left about the studio requiring the theaters to either return or destroy these after using them - WELP. I'm planning on getting frames for them and hanging them up in my studio.

 

[Fathead]

Thats an amazing find!

 

[Loxley]

So hey, how y'all doin'?

- A new species of Stink Bug has been named after Ancalagon the Black

- EW published a really nice interview with Jackson about his time working with Christopher Lee

- For the sixth year in a row, ClassicFM listeners have voted The Lord of the Rings music as the greatest film score of all time (meaning the entire body of work across all three films)

- The Bodleian Libraries and TORCH have released the video from “The Lord of the Rings: Tolkien’s Legacy”, an event held on 29th October to celebrate the 60th anniversary of The Lord of the Rings.

 

[Gabriel_Logan]

So hey, how y'all doin'?

- A new species of Stink Bug has been named after Ancalagon the Black

- EW published a really nice interview with Jackson about his time working with Christopher Lee

- The Bodleian Libraries and TORCH have released the video from “The Lord of the Rings: Tolkien’s Legacy”, an event held on 29th October to celebrate the 60th anniversary of The Lord of the Rings.

LOTR has a good score but there are better.

 

[Any Questions]

So this is pretty cool. I was exploring south street in Philadelphia a couple days ago and came across one of those "We sell old nerd/pop culture things from the 20th century" shops that appear to be in every major city. It was just filled with stuff from floor-to-ceiling, from old horror movie magazines, Godzilla merchandise from Japan, old comics from the 70's and 80's - really neat place.

Anyhoo, while browsing around I managed to find these among the chaotic lack of organization:

They're 10"x 8" promotional prints for the Ralph Bakshi animated LOTR film from 1978! They're in shockingly good condition for being a decade older than I am. I scanned them in so you can see them more clearly:



I absolutely love the one of Gollum and Frodo/Sam, as well as the little blurb on the bottom-left about the studio requiring the theaters to either return or destroy these after using them - WELP. I'm planning on getting frames for them and hanging them up in my studio.

Am really glad that a fan has found this. Have watched this movie a ton.

I was born shortly after this was made and watched in vhs all through the 80's. It was a rashly good effort. Shame sequels weren't made. When I read the book I can still visualise Aragorn as what he looks like in those films

 

[Tizoc]

SLOWLY making my through The Hobbit book but dang, Gandalf telling Beorn their encounter with the Goblins is pure genius.

 

[Andodalf]

Just read the children of Huron, and was very impressed with it! Very tragic, inn the classical sense.

 

[DrForester]

Just finished the Rob Inglis Audiobooks, not having read the series in years. He does a great job. Well, almost finished. He actually reads through the appendices at the end, which is pretty neat.

 

[Loxley]

Just finished the Rob Inglis Audiobooks, not having read the series in years. He does a great job. Well, almost finished. He actually reads through the appendices at the end, which is pretty neat.

Ah, very cool. The Rob Inglis version is great.

 

[4444244]

Ditto, Inglis gave a fantastic performance. Whilst I'm not keen on all the songs in the books, he did an amazing job with his own arrangements.

I've not heard any other version, but I doubt anything could top his.

 

[ACR0019]

So any impressions of the BOTFA EE? I cannot find them anywhere outside the usual Blu-Ray sites. Did the additions improve it at all?

 

[WanderingWind]

So any impressions of the BOTFA EE? I cannot find them anywhere outside the usual Blu-Ray sites. Did the additions improve it at all?

Nah. You can't fix Kili x Tauriel, unfortunately.

 

[Jacob]

So any impressions of the BOTFA EE? I cannot find them anywhere outside the usual Blu-Ray sites. Did the additions improve it at all?

I thought that it added the least storytelling value of any of the Hobbit EEs, and there were several parts where I felt the pacing was significantly worse than in the theatrical version. Of course, all three films were bloated to begin with, but that's sorta beside the point.

 

[Loxley]

So any impressions of the BOTFA EE? I cannot find them anywhere outside the usual Blu-Ray sites. Did the additions improve it at all?

It made the actual battle of the five armies slightly more fun to watch (if even less coherent) thanks to how utterly absurd things get, but it doesn't fix the film's larger problems. I still like BOFTA more than DOS (which isn't saying much), but the EE really does nothing to improve it in any substantial way.

One thing I did like about the EE (aside from the surprisingly candid comments from Jackson about the film's production woes) was the inclusion of this scene, which was even left out of the Extended cut. It's a shame that it couldn't work with the final film though, I love it. I think part of why I like it so much is because it felt like a sort of spiritual callback to one of the best scenes in The Return of the King.

 

[Ixion]

So is there a good fan edit using all three Extended Editions yet? I know there were a few released last year before the BOFTA EE was released.

I'd like to see a good book purist version that condenses the trilogy down to one long movie. Although I'd also be interested in seeing a shorter version that's not necessarily a purist version, but just better, sort of like The Arkenstone Edition was for An Unexpected Journey.

I know we can't link fan edits on here, so if someone can PM me something, that would be awesome.

 

[Loxley]

Alan Lee discusses his artwork at the Tolkien Society Annual Dinner 2016

 

[Megalosaro]

September is fast approaching my friends...

Which means it's time for another re-reading of some Tolkien stuff. Fall just feels right to read some Tolkien to me. Because that is when it's Frodo and Bilbo's birthday!

I think this year I'll re-read THE HOBBIT. Been like 3 years since my last reading of this classic.

 

[Tizoc]

Anyone know where to find eBook/PDF of The Hobbit? Pref. the latest edition. Want to get it for my young nephew's Tablet.

 

[Curufinwe]

So any impressions of the BOTFA EE? I cannot find them anywhere outside the usual Blu-Ray sites. Did the additions improve it at all?

I am very late, but your post made me look it up and I found a Tolkien site with a thorough recap of the extra scenes.

https://atolkienistperspective.word...e-of-the-five-armies-extended-edition-review/

 

[Curufinwe]

An interesting story that came out in the wake of the announcement of the ridiculously expensive Middle Earth movie collection.

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/201...d-or-bemused-the-uce-blu-ray-galvanizes-fans/

I’ve done a bit of investigative sleuthing and found out the facts that have me seeing red: Peter Jackson faithfully and very earnestly offered (almost a year and half ago, perhaps two years back) to make this current “UCE” into a true “Unicorn Edition.” Michael Pellerin and PJ together proposed to WBHE that this combination of all six movies would be the perfect opportunity to send-off the Middle-earth Saga with a comprehensive look back. It would allow them to do brand spanking new 2-hour documentaries for each of the films featuring those outtakes and bloopers I have extolled; with even more frank discussion about “hot button” issues they couldn’t talk about at the time but now with the ease of time passing could be elucidated.

The kicker: Warner Bros. refused to pay for this. They balked and said, “We would only do ONE two-hour documentary, not a whole bunch of them, so let’s scale this whole thing back.” I’ve been told by the most reliable sources that PJ decided he would rather not do a half-assed retrospective and it would not be in alignment with what he had been enthused about for so long (we’ve all heard him in the Director’s Commentaries mentioning this possible “Unicorn Edition” even though he didn’t use that exact term).

 

[4444244]

I wouldn't cut Jackson too much slack.

What do you expect from WB, but if Jackson really wanted to go the whole hog, he could've just funded it himself.

Lets face it he made a shit load of LOTR, then he made a shit load more from the frankly super-shite Hobbit films, so he can put his hand in his pocket himself - he'd probably would have gotten the money back on it anyway.

 

[Loxley]

An interesting story that came out in the wake of the announcement of the ridiculously expensive Middle Earth movie collection.

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/201...d-or-bemused-the-uce-blu-ray-galvanizes-fans/

Makes sense and backs up what we've heard from other folks with "sources" from around the internet. Just a bummer.

I wouldn't cut Jackson too much slack.

What do you expect from WB, but if Jackson really wanted to go the whole hog, he could've just funded it himself.

Lets face it he made a shit load of LOTR, then he made a shit load more from the frankly super-shite Hobbit films, so he can put his hand in his pocket himself - he'd probably would have gotten the money back on it anyway.

Expecting Jackson to fund something that WB could easily pay for themselves but are just being dumb about is a tad unfair. I mean, I'm not intimately familiar with the guy's personal finances, but I'm not going to blame him for backing off because WB wouldn;t cough up the cash.

 

[Ixion]

I watched that 2-hour fan edit of The Hobbit that basically aims to create a Peter Jackson version of the animated movie. If you google it, you'll find it easily.

Anyway, it worked really well for the most part. The story feels more whimsical, Gandalf feels more mysterious, the focus is entirely on Bilbo, and I loved how the editor handled the Erebor prologue. She cut out Old Bilbo and instead she extended the dwarves' Misty Mountains song and played the prologue scenes during that song.

The main negative would be the three or four rushed/awkward transitions that should have been handled better, especially going from the first movie to the second movie. Overall though, the 2-hour edit works better than you'd think. I'd give the raw trilogy a 7/10, but this edit would be a 9/10.

 

[Turin]

I think Dol Guldur had merit to be adapted in(though I'm not sure where you'd fit it in one movie) but it was done in the most uninspired way. Jackson just turned it into mini-Mordor.

 

[Ixion]

I think Dol Guldur had merit to be adapted in(though I'm not sure where you'd fit it in one movie) but it was done in the most uninspired way. Jackson just turned it into mini-Mordor.

Someone actually made a 40-minute fan edit film for just the White Council storyline that was supposed to be well done, but I can't find it anywhere. It was taken down everywhere I looked.

 

[Loxley]

Someone actually made a 40-minute fan edit film for just the White Council storyline that was supposed to be well done, but I can't find it anywhere. It was taken down everywhere I looked.

Yeah I'd meant to watch that a few months back but couldn't find it anywhere (I believe it used to be on Vimeo).

 

[Loxley]

Some guy on Reddit made this Tolkien-inspired map of the US:

 

[Fathead]

Thats actually pretty cool. I would hang that up in my house.

 

[Gila]

Apologies if this has been posted before, but I saw this picture of Tolkien in his greenhouse, pipe in hand and just thought it was a great representation of what I thought he'd be like in my mind.

That's a great picture, wonderful to see him. I'm reading The Children of Húrin for the first time

 

[Loxley]

Because Off-Topic is bumming me out man:

Frodo: I can’t do this, Sam.

Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?

Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.

 

[tryagainlater]

Always a great quote. A lot of Lotr quotes have been running through my head today but none of the optimistic ones.

 

[BorkBork]

I was rereading the Fifth Battle in the Silmarillion just after the election. Felt apt.

 

[BorkBork]

Always a great quote. A lot of Lotr quotes have been running through my head today but none of the optimistic ones.

Here is a good one I recalled today:

“Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love. Why Bilbo Baggins? Perhaps because I am afraid, and he gives me courage.”