Ringer Spy Thorbjørn was kind enough to translate and email an article that appeared in the Danish newspaper Urban a while ago about the popularity of the movies over there! [More]
Month: September 2003
Ringer Spy Thorbjørn was kind enough to translate and email an article that appeared in the Danish newspaper Urban a while ago about the popularity of the movies over there!
The following article from Copenhagen “free-newspaper” Urban is a bit old, but I laid it aside this summer, for future translation, since I believe the users of TORn really ought to see it. The text bears witness to just how massive the cultural impact of both movies and book really is. And, none the least, just how perfect the casting of Orlando Bloom as Legolas was – amazing!
Legolas and Gandalf a hit with Danish parents
J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” is making people name their children after hobbits and wizards. And that really isn’t that terrible, 21-year-old Gandalf Martinus Reid says.
BY LARS WIKBORG AND NOE HABERMANN
DENMARK * First the trilogy became among the best-selling books ever. Then the cinema editions of the fairy-tales created new, grotesque records for ticket-sales.
The most recent proof of the quality of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is now being seen on the desks of parish clerks all over the country.
From the Institute of Name Science, Michael Lerche Nielsen tells that three boys – two of these since the first movie in 2001 – have been named after the handsome Elven warrior Legolas, who alongside the hobbits kills as many orcs as he can manage during an all-night movie.
Norse mythology
“We were a bit hesitant to approve the name, since it is close to a known toy-brand. But because the name has the ending “las”, which we use in other names, and because “The Lord of the Rings” stems from, among other things, the Norse mythology, we have chosen to approve the name Legolas on special occasions,” says Michael Lerche Nielsen, who is among the evaluators when someone wants to call their children something strange.
The good wizard Gandalf also has a couple of Danish social security cards on his conscience. Two years ago, two parents let their son suffer their love of adventure, and named him after the leader of the Fellowship. The little Gandalf needn’t fear teasing when he begins in kindergarten, though.
“Of course it can be a bit annoying, but most of the time it’s quite funny when people don’t believe your name and want to see ID. Neither have I ever been teased with it,” says 21-year-old Gandalf Martinus Reid from Stege on Møn, who got the name because his father ”was mental about” the books.
In spite of the good hobbit Frodo shining brightly in the films, success is more difficult to obtain on the birth certificates.
“It’s probably because it’s much like “Frode”, and that’s not exciting enough,” says Michael Lerche Nielsen, who has only registered a single little Frodo in our country.
Elf Helmet
Ringer Spy Karin sends along these great images from the Armageddon 2003 expo in Wellington. Take a look! [More]
A few days ago we reported that Billy Boyd (Pippin), Dominic Monaghan (Merry) and Elijah Wood (Frodo) would be helping out a charity in NYC by participating in ‘Celebrity Charades’. Well a few lucky Ringers managed to get tickets, here are the reports! [More]
Allykatty1
I just came from the Celebrity Charades benefit at the Daryl Roth Theater in New York, and just had one of the best nights ever! 😉 I met Elijah Wood, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd (or, for those of you less familiar: the actors who played Frodo, Merry, and Pippin in Lord of the Rings). I also shook hands with Robin Williams and saw, on a mock boxing ring stage 30 feet away, Madonna, Edward Norton, Sam Rockwell, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, among other, lesser known, celebs. So what was the deal, you ask??!?!? 😉 WELL, let me tell you!
Thanks to theonering.net, I heard about the Labyrinth celebrity charades benefit being held at the Daryl Roth theatre at Union Square, which is, conveniently enough, practically part of the NYU campus. So three pals and I headed up there around 6 PM this evening, and hung out just behind the public barriers, just off to the side from camera and news crews, etc. Hehe, since we were penned in like cattle, I suggested we all call out, “Baa-aa-aa!” to get the celebs’ attention (which, in the end, we did not, lol). Anyway, after a bit of waiting, the people we were waiting for showed up around… must’ve been 7 PM or so. After the press niceties (got a couple pictures of ’em from afar), they came over to the barrier for just a minute, and signed autographs and whatnot. Well, I had brought along the premiere issue of my Lord of the Rings fan club magazine just in case of such a chance, but had dropped the darn binder it was in on the ground. Since I was at the front of the barrier and being squashed by chaos on all sides, I found it difficult to retrieve! Needless to say, I don’t remember much of that 30 seconds, except scuffling awkwardly between the ground and barrier, and some vague recollection of half-upside-down shaking Dom Monaghan’s hand. But then the actors were wisked inside. “Agh, what just happened???” we all wondered! And then, overcome by giddiness and temporary insanity, my pal Tobi and I decided to check and see if any tickets were left to get inside. Now, we had decided beforehand not to buy them because they were on the expensive side ($250), but our emotions got the better of us this time… the two of us made a dash for the box office, and sure enough, there were still tickets available! We gave in, and then we were in. We checked in our bags, and although in the midst of that we got seperated, we both eventually found our ways up to the main room, where the charades match was being held. As I was searching for Tobi in the crowd, one of the first people I saw was Elijah, and then just off to the right were Dom (talking to Tobi!) and Billy farther on. So I went over to Tobi and Dom first, where we discovered Dom to be one of the nicest guys ever. He chatted with us for a couple of minutes, and then even said hello and chatted on my cell phone to my 15-year-old brother down in Virginia, who’s also a huge LOTR fan. I was quite impressed by that (and I think my brother was too! 😉 I just called him and surprised him, “Here, I’ve got someone to talk to you” Heheheheh). Anyway, after that Tobi and I went over to Elijah for a minute, but barely had time to say a word and to quick squeeze in getting my magazine signed before the celebs all had to go, as the event was starting.
So, as for the event itself, it was awesome! First they gave an award to the guest of honor, Madonna, who came on stage and said a few words, and then they had a short auction (nothing we poor college students could afford, of course, especially after admission!), and then the charades. The celebs were divided into four teams (two rounds of one vs. one and then a final round to determine the winners), and everyone just had a great time with goofball mock-boxing antics and outlandish charades tactics; Dom and Robin Williams were especially hilarious, the former just because I don’t think he stopped hopping up and down for one second the entire time; hamming it up to the crowd, you know! 😉 When the whole thing was over (some team of girl celebs, none of whom I had heard of, won), Tobi and I found our way to Robin Williams, said hello, shook his hand, and then, on our way out, ran into Dom again, who said they (i.e. the hobbits) would all also be at the after-party, which was being held at a lounge down the street. Then I turned around to go back the other way to retrieve my backpack from check-in, and Elijah and I almost ran right into each other. Darn, one more half-second of non-realization on either of our parts and it would have been a headon collision. 😉 But no, we both stopped in time, said “sorry!” and moved on. Doh! Also picked up a couple goodie bags on the way out, which had a couple DVDs, a professional-looking self-tanning kit, a keychain, a Gotham magazine, etc, in it. Not too bad!
Now, the lounge scene wasn’t too thrilling in itself. I’m not a big fan of bars to begin with, and that’s basically all it was. No real dance floor or anything, not a club, so if you’re like me and don’t drink, there’s not much to do. Elijah was there for a little while, but we didn’t really go near him until he was about to leave (or so we thought). We did try our best not to look like stalkers, after all! But Tobi managed to get his attention for a minute to say goodbye, and he hugged her, but apparently didn’t even notice me. 😛 The fact that I was just standing there like an idiot probably didn’t help. So he vanished, and Tobi and I were left wondering what had happened to Dom and Billy, since Dom had said they would be there. After we had been there maybe a half hour or so in total, we reluctantly decided to call it a night before we wasted more time waiting around. Got free Charades t-shirts tho. Hehe.
So we headed outside, and we about to leave, when we saw this usher-type guy who had kind of helped us out a bit earlier on with getting tickets, etc. Well, he stopped us and let us know that all three LOTR actors were right next door in another bar/pool hall. Thank you, new Best Friend! Sooo, we dropped in there instead! We twiddled away another ten or fifteen minutes there, and I finally built up the courage to say something to Billy Boyd, who I still hadn’t really met yet. So I did, and babbled something incoherent about how they played a good charades game, and that was that. He seemed a bit preoccupied, so I didn’t want to bother him much. Again, Tobi and I milled around, and since we felt like dorks, we finally thought maybe it was time to leave. But then something amazing happened, involving a chance encounter with an old acquaintance of Tobi’s, and it ended the evening nicely.
When Tobi and I finally did leave, I made a point of finally trying to say _something_ remotely intelligent to Elijah, but it failed miserably: just ended up with “wanted to say a proper hello, and now that I’ve done that, um… bye!” Argh, mind fart, yet again. I should have mentioned Inside the Actor’s Studio (which I was subscribed to attend, and which should have been taped this on very same night, until it was cancelled). But, in the end, I think this was probably better! 😉 Or I could have mentioned his hair. He had shaved it into a little mohawk. Ooooookay. Lol.
But, anyway, like I said, it’s been quite a night. 🙂 It is now 3:26 AM, and I still need to shower before going to bed. It’s a good thing I don’t have any classes tomorrow… poor Tobi, she has one at 9:30 AM!
Take care, Hobbitses, Elvses, and all!
Tara
First off, I want to compliment you on your website. It is the most amazing LotR site I have ever visited. I go on everytime I am online to check out the updates and news and it is because of your site that I got to meet the incredibly awesome trio of hobbits, Billy Boyd, Elijah Wood & Dominic Monaghan. I read about their “possible” appearance at the benefit for the Labyrinth Theatre Company in NYC only three days ago and I immediately checked out the infor and got a ticket. If it weren’t for your incredible “spies” and news updates, I would have never known. Needless to say, I just got back from the occassion and am still glowing. Overall, the evening was beautiful, hilarious and just incredible. Everyone their had so much support for the cause and raised about $40,000 dollars.
I had met Billy, Elijah and Dom in that order before the show and they were so kind in signing autographs and giving hugs to all their fans (i had not the guts to ask for one) They arethe nicest celebs I have ever met and I will treasure the meetings I had with them. I was also graced to hear Billy Boyd utter the words “Where are we going?” and my heart just smiled, in my opinion no one could have ever been a better Pippin.
The rest of the evening was awesome and alot of amazing people were there like Madonna, Robin Williams & Ed Norton; but above all those celebs I will treasure most my meeting with the hobbits. I hope every fan of LotR gets a chance to meet these guys, because they are incredible. Thanks again and keep up the amazing work….
Chickenorb and BellaMichalina
Didn’t know if you were interested, but we wanted to let you know that we stopped by the Philip Seymour Hoffman Celebrity Charades event to see Dom, Billy, and Elijah. We didn’t know what to expect, and being students arrived there later than we had wanted (at about 9:45pm).
There were actually only about 20 people waiting, so it was nice not being part of a mob. According to other Ringers, the 3 showed up around 6:30pm. People from the audience came out earlier than the stars, and we heard only positive comments about how good the show was–there was even a couple joking presumably about something from the show, laughing about “the ring of power.” Around 10:15pm, Billy came out first and very nicely signed autographs and took pictures with us.
Around 10:30pm, Dom and Elijah came out together–Dom gave us autographs and shook our hands, remarking that our hands were really cold. Elijah was rushed away before we could get an autograph but we got pics! We wanted to thank you for alerting us to this wonderful but brief opportunity–now, we officially join the ranks of Ringers with autographs!
The Christopher Lee Collection, which features the films ‘The Blood of Fu Manchu’, ‘The Castle of Fu Manchu’, ‘Circus of Fear’ & ‘The Bloody Judge’ has been released today on DVD. Any Lee fans with a love for classic horror films will enjoy this! [More]