Perry writes: I’m the publicity guy for TruthQuest at Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago. We’re hosting a special event on Friday Evening January 10, where a professor from Wheaton College and a ‘pagan’ Tolkien afficionado will face off on the subject of whether there is hidden Christianity in Lord Of The Rings and The Two Towers. As you know, Tolkien was Roman Catholic, and some believe that his Christian worldview influences his work. [More]

Jeff writes: action-figure.com has some pictures of new figures due out in July 03. Includes Sam with climbing action, Helms Deep Legolas on a shield with wheels, Theoden in armor, Gimli, twilight Frodo, Gollum with Electronic Sound Rock Base and Boromir with a battle attack action. [More]

elvedar sends along this screengrab from TTT featuring Peter Jackson’s 2.2 second cameo in TTT! Take a look! [More]

Peter Jackson, the New Zealand director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, almost begs to be described as a hobbit. His hair is like untrimmed shrubbery and he is barefoot despite the frigid temperature of an unheated Manhattan hotel room. [More]

Ro alerted us to the astounding news that a handwritten manuscript of Beowulf was found buried in a box of JRR Tolkien’s papers that are housed in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England by Michael Drout, assistant professor of English at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. [More] Update: Read the full story here. [More]

Ro alerted us to the astounding news that a handwritten manuscript of Beowulf was found buried in a box of JRR Tolkien’s papers that are housed in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England by Michael Drout, assistant professor of English at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. Drout was researching Anglo-Saxon scholarship at the time for his book ‘Beowulf and the Critics’, published earlier this month. According to the Sunday Times, which has reported this story, “I was sitting there going through the transcripts when I saw these four bound volumes at the bottom of the box. I started looking through and realised I had found an entire book of material that had never seen the light of day.” This manuscript consists of a translation and line by line interpretation of the epic poem. It is considered by scholars to be much closer to the original Anglo Saxon than the latest publication.

We are searching for a postable link to this story now, but in the meantime, we wanted to bring you the news that Tolkien’s Beowulf manuscript is going to be published next summer.