Hobbit Movie Poster GandalfSo today I’m talking posters! And by posters I mean not people who post comments or write posts on websites and blogs. I’m talking sheets of paper that fans of pop stars, bands, TV shows and yes, even movies, do collect and treasure.

Beginning with Comic-Con 2012, fans were treated to one of the first posters for An Unexpected Journey. It was a Comic-Con exclusive that showed Gandalf approaching Bag End on a misty morning in the quiet of the world when there was less noise and more green. And as an allusion, perhaps, to the darker tone of the films compared to the lighthearted children’s tale that is the book, the early morning sun seemed to peek through a wrack of ominous dark clouds.

As an introductory poster to new audiences and also old ones returning to the world of Middle-earth, there couldn’t have been a better piece of imagery set to paper. Continue reading “Where have all the Hobbit posters gone?”

Gandalf Thanks to our friends at Hobbitfilm.it, we have another seven new art images from The Desolation of Smaug.

Nothing dramatically revealing here, but we do like the moody shot of a swampy Mirkwood forest (is that the Company crossing a vast fallen tree?), and the RA army will undoubtedly appreciate what seems to be a new still of Thorin Oakenshield. Continue reading “Seven new images from the 2014 Desolation of Smaug Desk Diary!”

Tolkien_2692769b J.R.R. Tolkien, one of the world’s most celebrated fantasy writers, was inspired by time spent on the bloodsoaked battlefield. John Garth, author of Tolkien and the Great War reports.


A world away from subtle, magnificent Smaug of The Hobbit, Tolkien’s first dragons are surreal hybrids of beast and machine. They lumber against the elf-city of Gondolin, spouting fire and clanking, with orctroops hidden inside. Continue reading “The Somme and the ‘animal horror’ that inspired J.R.R. Tolkien”

If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.

THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY When exactly is Durin’s Day? For various reasons, including the non-exact correlation of the Shire Calendar and our modern Gregorian calendar, it’s quite hard to know for certain.

In this extensively researched piece, DarkJackal uses Tolkien’s notes as published in John D. Rateliff’s The History of the Hobbit to explains why there are conflicting theories… and, in a very Tolkienian fashion, no definitive or easily settled upon answer.

Continue reading “When exactly is Durin’s Day in The Hobbit?”

If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.

Barliman's Chat This weekend (Saturday at 6pm ET) the Hall of Fire will be detouring from our regular book chats back into movie-land as we head into spoiler-land and pull apart the new trailer for The Desolation of Smaug in what’s sure to be an entertaining and enlightening discussion.

Bard: You have no right to enter that mountain!
Thorin: I have every right.

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug trailer chat and analysis! Continue reading “Hall of Fire chat today: Hobbit trailer discussion and analysis!”