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The site I’ve photgraphed is new in the last 3 weeks and is located on Queens Drive in Lyall Bay across from Wellington airport on the south coast. I literally live on the street next door, and less than 300m from the construction site. (I also look across the bay to the airport where I can still see the massive Gollum on the roof of the airport terminal reaching for a ring, but that’s another story!)
Back to the site. The land was empty until shipping containers starting being stacked a few weeks ago, after which the framework started going up. One of the workers there just this morning confirmed that they are indeed building a film set for King Kong, “constructing rock walls”, and the blue screen is plainly obvious.
The site is fenced with “chicken wire” as you’ll see in a couple of the shots, and only small scrub and trees separate it from the main coast road. I took the shots from across the road, well on public land in case you’re wondering.
Photo “1” is looking south at the entrance to the site. The airport and Lyall Bay is off to my left, the road also heads past the set to the left and a steep bank flanks the site on the right side, which you’ll see in photo “2”. The rest are reasonably self explanetory.
The photos were taken yesterday – Wednesday 6 October here in NZ.
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Skyway Moaters writes: Just thought I’d drop you a line to let you know about a “Tolkien Event” that took place this past Monday evening at The Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility here in the Hampton Roads area of Southern Virginia. The lecture was entitled: “Moon Runes, The Light of Earendil, and Durin’s Crown: The Astronomy of Middle-Earth”, and was delivered by one Kristine M. Larsen, Ph.D., Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Central Connecticut State University. The event took place in a large lecture hall at the Jefferson Labs facility described above, and the good professor (a true Tolkien Geek BTW) was playing to a packed house. [More]
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Skyway Moaters writes:
Just thought I’d drop you a line to let you know about a “Tolkien Event” that took place this past Monday evening at The Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility here in the Hampton Roads area of Southern Virginia. The lecture was entitled: “Moon Runes, The Light of Earendil, and Durin’s Crown: The Astronomy of Middle-Earth”, and was delivered by one Kristine M. Larsen, Ph.D., Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Central Connecticut State University. The event took place in a large lecture hall at the Jefferson Labs facility described above, and the good professor (a true Tolkien Geek BTW) was playing to a packed house.
Dr. Larsen very clearly delineated the pains to which JRRT put himself to get the phases of the moon to be consistent with the timeline of the novel and talked at length concerning Middle Earth/Endor/Arda/Aman Cosmology, the Silmarillion’s creation myth, and: the creation of the ‘lesser stars’, The Two Trees of the Valar, the ‘greater’ stars and finally the Sun and Moon (Aran and Isil); illustrating with a well turned out slide-show presentation the relationships of all these things to our ‘real world’ night skies.
We learned for example that The Big Dipper is analogous with Tolkien’s “Sickle Of the Valar”, Menelvagor (Sindarin name, Menelmacar in Quenya) – ‘Swordsman of the Sky’ = “Orion the Hunter”, The Star of Earendil = Venus, and “red Borgil” = Aldebaran – NOT Betelgeuse as I had always guessed. An assertion very well supported by the passage in the text from FOTR: “Away high in the East swung Remmirath, (The Pleiades) the Netted Stars, and slowly above the mists red Borgil rose, glowing like a jewel of fire. Then by some shift of airs all the mist was drawn away like a veil, and there leaned up, as he climbed over the the rim of the world, the Swordsman of the Sky, Menelvagor with his shining belt…”. Borgil CAN’T be Betelgeuse because it rises BEFORE Menelvagor/Orion.
It turns out that the ‘identity’ of the constellation depicted in the “Crown of Durin”, that the Father of Dwarves saw reflected about his head when first he gazed into icy ‘Mirrormere’ – Kheled Zaram, is a subject of much debate among ‘Astronomically savvy’ Tolkienites. I could be meant to represent “Corona Borealis” – the “Northern Crown” (seven stars in approximately the same arrangement depicted on Durin’s Door) or possibly “Cepheus the King”, another famous circumpolar northern constellation, lying next to both Cassiopeia and the Big Dipper – a circumpolar group of stars and would, theoretically, be visible all the times if one could see stars during the day. The main difficulty with such an identification is that Cepheus only contains five prominent stars. Heck, to me “Durin’s Crown” looks most like “Corona Australis” – the “Southern Crown”, but that would mean the Misty Mountains and Moria would have to have be in the southern hemisphere, oh well. But then again, are we talking flat Arda? Round Arda? Pthlblt! Now my head hurts.
Funny thing though, no mention was made of “The Southern Cross” – “Crusis” (Crux), that I could have sworn was mentioned in some essay or other I remember reading years ago, as having a Middle Earth analogue. Oh well again.
Professor Larsen lectures frequently and apparently travels extensively doing so. So keep an eye out for academic lectures and events in your area, and catch this excellent presentation should you get the opportunity. Highly recommended for all Tolkien geeks, erm, SCHOLARS, of every stripe. AND you can check it out on-line @: physics.ccsu.edu or physics.ccsu.edu Please see attached photos and feel free to use them on TORN if you like.
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Gary writes: I was checking out Birch.com.au and on the 25th of November they will be holding a ‘Lord Of The Rings Extended Marathon’ and that will include ROTK. [More]
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Sean Astin is slated to be a guest at the LOTR Exhibit in Boston on October 16th. *no tickets needed* [More]
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kongisking.net has posted a video featuring Andy Serkis as ‘Lumpy the Cook’ giving a tour of his kitchens on the SS Venture. Take a look at Andy in full character showing off his state-of-the-art facilities and offering recipe hints and hygiene tips. [More]
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