Intro: One of our Ringer Spies, frenz, didn’t know quite what to expect when she received her ticket to Comic-Con 2012. Orcs and goblins and bears, oh my! Not to mention a line of over 7,000 people to get into Hall H (capacity of 6,500) for the WB panel, scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Pacific time today. Here are some of her impressions:
So what happens when a new Tolkien fan finds herself at Comic-Con? A sensory overload? Certainly. Everything is big and loud and insane, and it’s caused an unstoppable grin, which is quite something since I’m not normally much for grinning incessantly. But at Comic-Con, you will be miserable if you can’t grin:
Apparently there are thousands already queueing for the Hall H Hobbit presentation that happens later today. Some have been queueing since Wednesday. Madness.
Peter Jackson has done his final rundown as well. In a message he posted on his faceborg account, he wrote:
Where were you all?? I was in Hall H last night, running down our Hobbit reel, and nobody was there. 6500 empty seats!
You should have come along and bought a few beers! Mind you, it was 11.30pm, so I guess everyone was busy. See you later today.
We are having a great time live blogging from #Hobbitcon (Comic-Con)! If you haven’t been following along, staffers are tweeting, posting pics, sharing thoughts and occasionally streaming LIVE video from all areas of the big show – making it seem like you are right there with us in San Diego! We toured booths from WETA, LEGO, Sideshow, Bridge Direct, Gentle Giant and many more on the live stream, as well as hung out with Andy Serkis, Elijah Wood and Richard Taylor! Today should be even more historic as we cover the official Hobbit Panel at 2:30pm PT. Our team will report as much as we can via our LIVE coverage page, so join us there for the fun and frivolity! See you there! [LIVE from Comic-Con 2012] Please do take a moment to share that link with your friends and family.
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This Saturday at 6pm EDT (New York time), Hall of Fire returns to Fellowship of the Ring and rejoins our questing Hobbits as they arrive in the village of Bree.
‘That’s right! Barliman is my name. Barliman Butterbur at your service! You’re from the Shire, eh?’ he said, and then suddenly he clapped his hand to his forehead, as if trying to remember something. ‘Hobbits!’ he cried. ‘Now what does that remind me of? Might I ask your names, sir?’
‘Mr. Took and Mr. Brandybuck,’ said Frodo; ‘and this is Sam Gamgee. My name is Underhill.’
FoTR Book 1, Chapter 9: At the Sign of the Prancing Pony
The Tolkien scholarly community is afire with curiosity and rumours after it emerged that a new Tolkien book is on the horizon. The book, which we understand will be called The Fall of Arthur appears to be set for a May 2013 release going from pre-order information that inadvertently popped up on the website of retailing giant Amazon. It’s possible that it has been edited by Christopher Tolkien, but this is unconfirmed.
The Fall of Arthur is a long, alliterative poem based on Arthurian legends. Some excerpts from it were published in Humphrey Carpenter’s biography of JRR Tolkien. It seems it was written in the 1930s. In Letters of JRR Tolkien there is a bare mention of The Fall of Arthur.
I write alliterative verse with pleasure, though I have published little beyond fragments in The Lord of the Rings, except ‘The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth’… a dramatic dialogue on the nature of the ‘heroic’ and the ‘chivalrous’. I still hope to finish a long poem on The Fall of Arthur in the same measure. Letter 165, Letters of JRR Tolkien.
The Los Angeles Times caught up with Peter Jackson for a quick Q & A interview. He told Geoff Boucher about his choice for making two movies and Jackson was “surprised at how rich the world is, and how many interesting themes and characters there are to explore” and by “also using extensive parts of the appendixes, which were published at the end of “Return of the King.” This is not just “The Hobbit” – it’s “The Hobbit” set in a much greater context of events taking place throughout Middle-earth during this period”
Peter Jackson also added: “. The material is so rich. In fact, only this last week or two, we’ve been talking to the studio about allowing us to shoot some additional material next year, to fully complete the story.” Extended Edition anyone? here’s hoping:) [More]
The Tolkien scholarly community is afire with curiosity and rumours after it emerged that a new Tolkien book is on the horizon. The book, which we understand will be called 