Starting this coming weekend, Saturday March 17 at 6.00pm EDT, Hall of Fire is embarking on a chapter-by-chapter discussion of Fellowship of The Ring.

Whether you’re a first-time reader of Tolkien, a first-time chatter who’s never visited before, or an experienced hand who was with us when we began our first read-through back in 2001, we’d love you to join us. (Be prepared for a few spoilers along the way, though!)

FoTR Book 1, Chapter 1: A Long-Expected Party.

“It will have to be paid for,” they said. “It isn’t natural and trouble will come it!” Continue reading “Hall of Fire this weekend: FoTR — Book 1, Chapter 1”

Earlier tonight Sean Astin (Samwise Gamgee) appeared on Access Hollywood to promote his special dedications for the upcoming L.A. Marathon and show his #run3rd hashtag-inspired running shirt. Check out the clip here.  Just a few short weeks ago Sean happily showed Ringer fans at TheOneRing.net a sneak-peak when he joined our live weekly webcast TORn TUESDAYS with Cliff Broadway. Sean treated us to stunningly cool movie props and authentic costumes from the LOTR trilogy and talked enthusiastically about running and training. Check out the TORn TUESDAY archive on our Live Event page where we start talking about marathons about an hour in.

Follow Sean Astin on Twitter.
Visit the official Sean Astin website.
Find out more about Sean Astin’s Run3rd special project.

Middle-earth Madness and all the fun that implies, is soon to be released to fans of J.R.R. Tolkien everywhere. Readers and moviegoers will be able to vote as we pit character vs. character in a showdown to determine the 2012 Middle-earth character champion.

In the spirit of the U.S.’ NCAA college basketball tournament, known as March Madness, we will create matchups that pit the likes of Gollum vs. Treebeard and Boromir vs. Balin. Unlike the NCAA bracket, ours will be a 32 team showdown. Using voting fan input and finally our own selection committee.

And, because there are hundreds of great characters across the Middle-earth catalog, we know not everybody’s favorite character can fit in a field of 32 and just like in the NCAA tournament, some deserving characters may not get in. (Unlike the basketball tournament however, all of the characters are fictional and none will have his or her feelings hurt and they all have “next year” to be a contender.) So, we hope you will join us for our voting and enjoy Middle-earth Madness! The Bracket will be revealed soon!

We’ve gotten a lot of great reaction to yesterday’s reveal of our Today in Middle-earth Calendar and want to share a quick update for those of you looking to add it to your feed or Apple’s iCal. For iCal, simply click on this link and the calendar will be automatically added to your iCal application (from there you can share it on your iPHone, etc). When we make updates to the calendar they should automatically populate your calendar as well.  If you are looking for a XML feed of this calendar, click here.  [XML Feed] [iCal Download] [TIME Calendar]

Welcome to our collection of TORn’s hottest topics for the past week. If you’ve fallen behind on what’s happening on the Message Boards, here’s a great way to catch the highlights. Or if you’re new to TORn and want to enjoy some great conversations, just follow the links to some of our most popular discussions. Watch this space as every weekend we will spotlight the most popular buzz on TORn’s Message Boards. Everyone is welcome, so come on in and join in the fun!

Continue reading “TORn Message Boards Weekly Roundup – March 11, 2012”

Our staffers are warming up their speaking voices, brushing up on their Hobbit knowledge and getting ready to head for the Anaheim Convention Center for WonderCon in less than a week. Friday March 16, at 12:30 p.m. (lunch time) TORn will start programming at the convention that will surely take over the title “Happiest Place On Earth,” from neighboring Disneyland for three days.

We will explore the latest news from New Zealand and The Hobbit film that is currently in overdrive filming. We will discuss news, rumors and have a wealth of opinions and speculation about what fans can expect this December and next. On hand will be staffers Justin, Garfiemo, MrCere, Ostadan, Quickbeam and Saruman as either part of the panel or part of the day. Continue reading “TORn ready to kick off WonderCon in Anaheim”