Rutland Herald’s retired editor Kendall Wild has written an interesting opinion piece on the parallels between ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and the ‘Count of Monte Cristo’ by Alexandre Dumas. Here’s an excerpt:
There is an odd similarity between the “Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien and the “Count of Monte Cristo” by the senior Alexandre Dumas. The characters and places have different names, but the overall framework of each is very much alike.
The central theme of both novels, of course, is a quest. Frodo’s quest (often capitalized as “Quest”) is to carry the evil ring of Sauron to the volcanic fire of Mount Doom and destroy it, thus destroying Sauron.
The quest of Edmond Dantes, in the Dumas novel, is to exact revenge on the people who falsely imprisoned him, stole his girlfriend, and caused his father to starve to death.
You can read the full article at the Rutland Herald website. [Read More]
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From the Birmingham Mail:
The great nephew of legendary Birmingham author JRR Tolkien is sculpting a statue of Cardinal Newman which will be specially placed in Cofton Park for the Papal visit.
Award-winning sculptor and Catholic Tim Tolkien has started work on the life-size statue of the Cardinal which will be fabricated in steel and sprayed with bronze.
Read the full story at the Birmingham Mail website. [Read More]
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Warner Bros. is celebrating the release of the Blu ray TE single editions of Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. These theatrical editions are due to hit the streets on September 14. Be the first to bring Middle-earth to your desktop with an interactive panoramic wallpaper and access new content daily. Click here to get your wallpaper! Continue reading “Warner Bros. Interactive Panoramic Wallpaper”
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WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE™ WILL BE FREE TO PLAY STARTING SEPTEMBER 10, 2010
Turbine and Codemasters to Release Free-to-Play Version of Award-winning Online Game Across North America and Europe
WESTWOOD, MA – August 18, 2010 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced today that Turbine’s The Lord of the Rings Online™ (LOTRO) will introduce its innovative new pricing model, allowing players to download the game and play for free and purchase expansions, quest packs, items, and account services a la carte from the new LOTRO Store starting September 10, 2010.
Extending its award-winning story, LOTRO delivers the ultimate adventure featuring the massive world of Middle-earth brought to life through state-of-the-art graphics and gameplay, and a rich set of features that until now could only be found in premium subscription-based online games. Continue reading “LOTR Online will be Free To Play September 10th!”
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Dion writes: I attended the Festival In The Shire this weekend as roving reporters for Scrolls, the podcast for literary geekdom. Whilst there I recorded interviews with Mark Faith (the creator of the festival), Rodney Matthews (artist), and Tom Shippey (author of JRR Tolkien: Author of the Century). If you and your readership are interested in hearing them you can do so at geeksyndicate.co.uk/podcasts. Click on the Scrolls link in the left hand column if it’s dropped off the main page.
Chapter 8: The Middle Earth Special, Part 1 contains the interviews. Part 2 will be recorded tonight and will be a discussion about LOTR with reference to the Festival, the book, movies and various other adaptations and – well, the conversation could take us in all kinds of directions so I suppose we’ll see how it goes.
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Though unlikely to overtake Avatar as number one in the all-time UK box-office rankings, Pixar’s animated film is expected to make an assault on second place in the next few weeks. A week ago, this column reported that Toy Story 3 stood at 12th place in the all-time UK box-office rankings, after just 21 days of play. Seven days later, and it’s now moved up to seventh position, overtaking The Full Monty, the second Pirates Of The Caribbean, the second Harry Potter, Casino Royale and the second Lord Of The Rings. In just 28 days, Toy Story 3 has grossed £58.91m. Next in the Pixar animation’s sights are Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King (£61.06m) and Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship Of The Ring (£63.01m). It should overtake both during the next seven days, earning fifth place in the all-time rankings. More..
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