Available now in paperback, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún reimagines one of the most famous Norse myths. The epic poem brims with passion, jealousy and drama, as the hero Sigurd and princess Gudrún fight to share their lives together. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún arguably contains Tolkien’s most passionate writing, as he delves into the mythology that inspired him more than any other. The 10 lucky winners will get a free copy of this amazing paperback! Fill out the form after the break! For the sweepstakes terms and conditions, click here. [Find a Local Store] [Amazon.com]
Continue reading “Announcing the ‘The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún’ Giveaway!”
Month: September 2010
‘District 9,’ produced by Peter Jackson, directed by Neill Blomkamp (both rumored to be directing some ‘Hobbit’ movie) and conceptually designed by folks at Weta Workshop is now celebrated in a 160-page hardcover book, “The Art of District 9: Weta Workshop.”
While at the Weta booth at this year’s Comic-Con in San Diego, we got our hands on a few pages of a prototype of this book and those few pages were pretty cool! Published by HarperCollins,
Richard Taylor, Weta’s Creative Director and five-time Academy Award winner, together with designers Greg Broadmore, David Meng, Leri Greer and Christian Pearce worked closely with Neill Blomkamp and have contributed many hundreds of pieces of conceptual art to this book. Authored by Daniel Falconer, you can order it directly from Weta or find it at bookstores.
mara69 writes: Last night I attended the world premiere of the Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King at Wolf Trap. It was superb. This year I was able to obtain tickets further down front than the last two years and it really made a difference. The music was clearer and the solo and choral singing much more understandable. The evening started with a 45 minute discussion with Deb Lamberton from WETA Classical Radio. Her talk on leitmotivs and interesting facts was captivating. The movie in HD on such a large screen really drew you in and you truly felt you were part of the story. The orchestra and choirs did a truly magnificent job. Kaitlyn Lusk has performed at all three of the Wolf Trap showing and is stupendous. Her voice has matured wonderfully since I first heard her perform. Nolan Peters, the boy soloist, also did a great job. I’m truly sorry that this is the last of the live music film performances. Maybe, if we’re lucky they will do the extended versions next. If not, there’s always The Hobbit to look forward too.
The following is a short essay from Ringer Squire. Do you agree? Disagree? Share your responses with our discuss or comment areas.
Headlined here yesterday, and discussed on the Main board just now is a link to an entertaining new interactive map of Middle-earth. It’s modeled on Google Earth, in that one can zoom out and see the whole subcontinent, or zoom in and see individual towns and towers close up. Of course it follows Tolkien’s own map, more or less exactly, but it has in fact been redrawn via computer by a new artist, Mr. Kris Kowal. And when you zoom in you see little bits that Tolkien could not or would not include in his original map, like icons representing the Argonath, the road to Isengard (see illustration below), and the ruined tower on Weathertop. Several place names have been added based on texts in Unfinished Tales, like the “Undeeps” of the middle Anduin, so the creators are clearly knowledgeable about their Tolkien geography.
I understand that it is a work in progress, so perhaps we may expect to see more of the details of the Shire in the future, based on the separate map that appears in Fellowship. But really, the power of zooming in, which is so much fun in Google Earth, is disappointing in this “Google Middle-earth”. There’s nothing to zoom in to for 99% of the world—and there never will be. Tolkien only drew on his map the specific places that were mentioned in his story; and for anyone to add anything else is, of course, just another form of fan-fiction.
This new map thus surprisingly reminds us just how poorly Tolkien detailed his physical world. The map, and several recent discussions we have had in the Reading Room about the distribution of hobbit-folk and the political organization of the Rangers, bring me back to an old question. Tolkien expressed his belief that one of the aesthetic virtues of The Lord of the Rings is that it contained hints of the earlier history of the world, but only hints. Continue reading “Why are there no ‘towers of a distant city’ on the map of Middle-earth?”
Take a look at The Brothers Grim and Grimy ‘The Hobbit in under 2 Minutes.’ It is a rather modern retelling of the classic tale in …wait for it… under two minutes! Enjoy!
Close on the heels of the news that Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum of Spyglass Entertainment had signed a non-binding letter of intent to take over the management of MGM, there’s news by Bloomberg hitting the interweb that points to more progress in that direction:
MGM creditors will be asked to approve a restructuring and pre-packaged bankruptcy plan for the studio within the next week or two, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.
Under the plan, MGM would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after obtaining creditor approval, with the goal of emerging from court protection by the end of the year, said one of the people, who asked not to be named because the details aren’t public.
Thanks to messageboard member Eruonen for the heads-up.