Turbine welcomes the spring season today by kicking off The Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) in-game Spring Festival! To mark the start of the festival, Turbine has released a new batch of screenshots depicting just some of the special activities planned, including everything from new mini-games like Stomp-A-Shrew, to the popular Hedge Maze in the Shire, the Feast of the Greenfields, as well as special decorations, festive costumes, and new Ale Association quests.
There is more to see in the Spring Festival this year than ever, and plenty to keep players busy over the next month. More information about the Spring Festival can be found at www.LOTRO.com and in this developer diary. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like to review the game.
Linuxelf sends along the latest batch of vintage New Zealand LOTR news articles. Richard Taylor Interview on Weta, Peter Jackson BAFTA’s FOTR Interview & some rare WETA team footage. Take a look!
The Tolkien Society got me thinking. This year’s Tolkien Reading Day had a nautical theme – some breezy thing about International Seafarer Day. Why? Is Tolkien a particularly “nautical” writer? I admit this had never occurred to me. From the very idea of Middle-earth, a land before time that approximates continental Europe with land bridges to England and Africa; to the endless series of quests across mountains, forests, fields and caverns that Tolkien loves to describe in breathtaking language; to the most famous fantasy race of Halflings that ever turned pale at the thought of crossing open water, Tolkien has always seemed to me to have his literary feet planted firmly in dry land, like the roots of his beloved trees.
Not that he doesn’t treat with the Sea. Of course he does. Every foreground needs its background. Who doesn’t know that the great Western or Sundering Sea is the barrier between the mortal Great Lands (Tolkien’s original name for Middle-earth’s central continent) and the Undying Lands of Elvenhome and Valinor? Only the Elves may cross this Sea – with the usual exceptions of various mortal Heroes taking their numbers and awaiting their chances. The Elves have the Sea-longing embedded in them. Legolas is warned by Galadriel that once he hears the seagulls at Pelargir in southern Gondor, he will never again be at rest in his woodland home. Ted Sandyman mocks Sam’s love of the tale of the Elves: “sailing, sailing, into the West” – a theme echoed by Saruman at the end of the story as he taunts Galadriel for her exile on the wrong side of the great water. Continue reading “Tolkien against the Sea”
Today, March 25, 2010, TheOneRing.net would like to acknowledge and celebrate Tolkien Reading Day with fellow Tolkien fans all over the world. Initiated by the Tolkien Society in 2003, Tolkien Reading day helps motivate people, alone or in groups, to take time out of their busy lives to enjoy the prose and poetry of Professor J.R.R. Tolkien.
Do you have a favorite passage from The Lord of the Rings? The Silmarillion? The Hobbit? We invite you to join several discussion events on our message boards and share them with us. Or, if *gasp* you don’t have your books handy, we invite you to read and comment on the quotes that other fellow Tolkien-lovers share. Be sure and check out our Main forum to discuss your favorite passages, and the Reading Room for an entertaining look at “Tolkien A-Z.” The essay by ‘squire’ on the Home Page today will also be a must read. (Tolkien Reading Day A-Z footer pictures by “Magpie”).
TheOneRing.net and Warner Brothers are teaming up to celebrate the release of The Lord Of The Rings Motion Picture Trilogy on Blu Ray, April 6th 2010!
From now until April 13th 2010, we will be giving you the opportunity to win some amazing prizes, including the grand prize of a Lord of the Rings Middle-earth Treasure Chest Jewelry Box, worth nearly $200!
How to Enter: This giveaway will be hosted on the Official TheOneRing.net Forums! All you have to do to enter is reply to this giveaway thread with your favorite scene in The Lord of the Rings and give us a small explanation of why that is your favorite scene. All winners will be randomly chosen from all replies to the thread.
We’re pleased to have author Tad Williams on the show this weekend! Tune into TheOneRing.net Radio Show on BlogTalkRadio at 2pm Eastern for your chance to chat with Tad! Be sure to check out our BlogTalkRadio page and set yourself a reminder for this Sunday at 2pm!
From tadwilliams.com: Tad Williams has held more jobs than any sane person should admit to—singing in a band, selling shoes, managing a financial institution, throwing newspapers, and designing military manuals, to name just a few. He also hosted a syndicated radio show for ten years, worked in theater and television production, taught both grade-school and college classes, and worked in multimedia for a major computer firm. He is cofounder of an interactive television company, and is currently writing comic books and film and television scripts as well as novels.
Tad and his wife, Deborah Beale, live in the San Francisco Bay Area with their children and far more cats, dogs, turtles, pet ants and banana slugs than they can count.
