One for Anglo-saxonists and lovers of poetry: BBC Radio 4 is set to air a recording of the late Irish poet Seamus Heaney reading his translation of Beowulf next week in 10 separate 15-minute installments. The first episode of 10 is set to air on BBC Radio 4 on Monday at 09:45 BST.
Following the success of last years World Premiere Party which we co-hosted with Red Carpet Tours, Julie, Vic and Raewyn are holding the Desolation of Smaug Premiere Costume Party in Wellington.
Conversation with Smaug by JRR Tolkien. Here’s a nice feature from Gawainthestout over on Hard Hobbit To Break discussing seven things he learned from reading The Hobbit.
I have been reading Tolkien for as long as I’ve been able to. That is to say, that when, in fourth grade I became capable of reading and understanding the Hobbit, I did. And I have been reading the Hobbit (and the Lord of the Rings) annually ever since. It’s fair to say that the lessons taught in the Hobbit were as formative to me as a human being as those taught from my Sunday School’s Bibles or Slater Elementary’s textbooks. “What lessons?” I hear you ask. “It’s just a silly story. It’s not a parable or fable.” How wrong you are. Continue reading “Seven things I learned reading The Hobbit”
This Saturday (at 6pm ET (New York time)), Hall of Fire will return to our chapter-by-chapter read-through of The Lord of The rings, rejoining Frodo, Sam and Gollum as they finally approach the gates of the Black Land.
Across the mouth of the pass, from cliff to cliff, the Dark Lord had built a rampart of stone. In it there was a single gate of iron, and upon its battlement sentinels paced unceasingly. Beneath the hills on either side the rock was bored into a hundred caves and maggot-holes: there a host of orcs lurked, ready at a signal to issue forth like black ants going to war. None could pass the Teeth of Mordor and not feel their bite, unless they were summoned by Sauron, or knew the secret passwords that would open the Morannon, the black gate of his land.
We’d heard and reported the rumours that the next Hobbit trailer was coming soon — probably next week, and probably attached to Gravity. Looks like those guess and rumours could be on the money!
What do Game of Thrones’ Dothraki, Avatar’s Na’vi, Star Trek’s Klingon and LOTR’s Elvish have in common? They are all fantasy constructed languages, or conlangs.
Conlangs have all the delicious complexities of real languages: a high volume of words, grammar rules, and room for messiness and evolution. In this TED Talk, John McWhorter explains why these invented languages captivate fans long past the rolling credits. Continue reading “Are Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki and Na’vi real languages?”
One for Anglo-saxonists and lovers of poetry: BBC Radio 4 is set to air a recording of the late Irish poet Seamus Heaney reading his translation of Beowulf next week in 10 separate 15-minute installments. The first episode of 10 is set to air on BBC Radio 4 on Monday at 09:45 BST.
Following the success of last years World Premiere Party which we co-hosted with Red Carpet Tours, Julie, Vic and Raewyn are holding the Desolation of Smaug Premiere Costume Party in Wellington.
We’d 
What do Game of Thrones’ Dothraki, Avatar’s Na’vi, Star Trek’s Klingon and LOTR’s Elvish have in common? They are all fantasy constructed languages, or conlangs.