Welcome to The Great Hall of Poets, our regular monthly feature showcasing the talent of Middle-earth fans. Each month we will feature a small selection of the poems submitted, but we hope you will read all of the poems that we have received here in our Great Hall of Poets.

So come and join us by the hearth and enjoy!

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.

Continue reading “The Great Hall of Poets”

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.

Photo: Courtesy Sundance Film Festival
Photo: Courtesy Sundance Film Festival

Elijah Wood’s film “I don’t feel at home in this world anymore,” won the Sundance Grand Jury prize in the U.S. Dramatic competition at the just concluded 2017 festival.

It was one of 16 films in the category that included “Crown Hights” that won the Audience Award.

The film is summarized like this:

Ruth, a depressed nursing assistant, returns from work to find dog shit on her lawn and her house burglarized, the thief having made off with her silverware and laptop. Losing faith in the police (and possibly humanity as a whole), Ruth starts her own investigation, joining forces with her erratic neighbor–and dog shit culprit–Tony. Upon locating the laptop, they trace it back to a consignment store, leading them to a gang of degenerate criminals and a dangerous, bizarre underworld where they’re way out of their depth.

Macon Blair’s outstanding debut feature has an exuberant storytelling style that’s full of personality, visual inventiveness, idiosyncratic characters, and wildly unpredictable turns. Its dark tone, deadpan humor, and increasingly blood-soaked foray into a twisted moral universe evoke the Coen brothers, but most captivating is the deeply unsettling journey it takes Ruth on, through human vulnerability and escalating violence. Once brought to tears by the notion of an infinite universe, her quest isn’t for her laptop, but for a way of processing a world that no longer makes sense to her.Elijah Wood in I don't feel at home in this world anymore

On the same night, last year’s big Middle-earth alumni film of Sundance 2016, “Captain Fantastic” featured Viggo Mortensen and the cast appeared at the screen actor’s guild where it was nominated but didn’t win. For that film TheOneRing was able to talk with Mortensen about the film, but despite repeated efforts, had no luck speaking with Wood for his film.

But, Wood wasn’t the only Middle-earth actor to show up in a film at this year’s Sundance. Actor Stephen Hunter, who played Bombur in the three films based on “The Hobbit,” appeared in Australian thriller “The Killing Ground.” The film received a warm reception and has a good chance to be seen in theaters. I saw it and think it’s a gripping thriller that handles its violence well. It deserves to be seen but will disturb some because of its violence.

KillingGround

Hunter plays a key supporting role that the Sundance festival described like this:

When young couple Sam and Ian escape the confines of urban living for a weekend getaway at a remote campsite, they arrive to find a neighboring tent set up with its inhabitants nowhere in sight. As day turns to night and then to day again, the young couple becomes increasingly concerned about the whereabouts of their unknown fellow campers. When they discover a toddler wandering alone on the campground, things go from bad to worse, thrusting them into a harrowing fight for survival in a place miles from civilization, where no one can hear them scream.

Teeming with dread and unnerving tension, the debut feature of writer/director Damien Power draws heavy inspiration from Michael Haneke’s Funny Games and Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs, utilizing the film’s sparse locations to considerable effect. As jagged pieces of the puzzle are carefully revealed one by one, Killing Ground evolves into a brutally violent thriller that will force you to think twice the next time you dare venture beyond the city’s bright lights

Wood also appears in another film, this one a documentary about the classic Alfred Hitchcock “Psycho.” The film, called “78/52,” breaks down the historic and absolutely groundbreaking shower scene in the film that is credited with launching the horror genre of film in a new way. He is seated with other actors sharing his perspective, especially insightful when examining the performance of Anthony Perkins. Guillermo del Toro also is featured and is a delight.

The film has been purchased and will likely get a new or extended title and will be released in major film markets. The festival title refers to the number of set ups and film cuts the master of suspense used in the scene. For anybody interested in film, I absolutely recommend it. Actually, I recommend it for anybody who has ever watched a film.

Film 78/52 features Elijah Wood

The festival describes it:

“In 78 setups and 52 cuts, the deliriously choreographed two-minute shower sequence in Psycho ripped apart cinema’s definition of horror. With a shocking combination of exploitation and high art, Alfred Hitchcock upended his own acclaimed narrative structure by violently killing off a heroine a third of the way through his film, without explanation, justification, or higher purpose. Psycho played out like a horrific prank, forcing audiences to recognize that even the most banal domestic spaces were now fair game for unspeakable mayhem.

With black-and-white film-geek reverence, director Alexandre O. Philippe breaks down this most notorious and essential scene shot for shot, enlisting the help of film buffs and filmmakers alike—including Guillermo del Toro, Bret Easton Ellis, Karyn Kusama, Eli Roth, and Peter Bogdanovich. 78/52 examines Janet Leigh’s terrified facial expressions and the blink-and-you-miss-it camera work, not just within the context of the film but also with an eye toward America’s changing social mores—revealing how one bloody, chaotic on-screen death killed off chaste cinema and eerily predicted a decade of unprecedented violence and upheaval.”

bakshi-strider

John Hurt, famous for a number of roles but unforgettable as the voice of Aragorn in Ralph Bakshi’s “The Lord of the Rings,” has died. He was 77.

For many who love Tolkien’s works, the animated LOTR was the serious animated treatment of the masterpiece of J.R.R. Tolkien that was also frustrating because it was meant to have a sequel and was never properly finished. Hurt played Strider turned Aragorn as perhaps the most recognizable voice in the cast. Director Ralph Bakshi was left telling only part of the story but Hurt’s Aragorn, was majestic and powerful.

Hurt shines in the voice role, playing a confident Aragorn, that before the live action LOTR films were announced, was for a generation, the embodiment of the hero who would return as King.

Hurt’s career was long and plentiful with over 200 film credits to his name. He is best known for his outstanding turn as John Merrick, the title character in “The Elephant Man.” Audiences not familiar with that Oscar-nominated performance as well as his also nominated work in “Midnight Express,” will remember him for his work in the first two Harry Potter films as wandsman Garrick Ollivander. He also has an all-time iconic performance in “Alien,” where he was the first to have his chest burst, unleashing space horror on popular culture. He later did a parody of himself in “Spaceballs.”

He was essential as Trevor “Broom” Bruttenholm in the “Hellboy” films and was likewise great in his first major role in 1962’s “A Man For All Seasons.” Many will remember him for “V For Vendetta.”

But for Tolkien fans from before Peter Jackson took over movie screens, the voice of Hurt as Aragorn will always be a part of his legacy.

CNN put together this tribute, embedded in his honor.

bag endThe word ‘mathom,’ invented by J.R.R. Tolkien, was used by Hobbits to describe anything they ‘had no use for but were unwilling to throw away.’  If that sounds familiar as you look around at your collection of Tolkien books and other collectibles, it did to Andrew Whalen at iDigitalTimes too. In Andrew’s opinion, the word mathom is so perfect for describing the clutter many of us love, it should become part of our regular vocabulary.

According to the article, “Hobbits love clutter. Many humans do too. The thought of purging a bookshelf, for example, might give you angry shivers. Everyone should have several different copies of the same book with different paperback covers!” Of course, to many Tolkien geeks that goes without saying. Further to making his case, Andrew really hits the nail on the head with his observation: “..it’s just fun to say: mathom.” We here at TORn wholeheartedly agree. Read the full article here.

 

 

DragonCon, the annual pop culture convention held on Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia has announced that there will no longer be a Tolkien’s Middle-earth programming track.  Instead, any Tolkien-related content will be absorbed into other programming tracks, such as Fantasy Literature, Costuming, and Main Programming.

This is a huge blow to the thousands of Tolkien fans that have attended DragonCon over the years.  The Tolkien track has been a staple of DragonCon’s programming, long before Peter Jackson’s films were released.  Over the years the track has presented quality panels on the books, films, music, and costuming.  They’ve hosted actors from ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’ trilogies, as well as Tolkien artists and scholars.  Bonds of friendship and love have been forged from time spent in the track room and for many friends it is the one time each year they get to see each other.

For the last 9 years, TOR.n staffer MrCere has been Tolkien’s Middle-earth track director.  Yesterday he announced the end on the Tolkien Track’s Facebook page:

 

In my personal opinion, this is a terrible decision. In brief I told DragonCon:
* I think Tolkien shouldn’t be lumped into fantasy, for his sake and for dominating the rest of the fantasy content
* There is scholarship about Tolkien that differentiates him & his works from every single other Fantasy creator
* Tolkien content is still coming out new, at a solid rate, including a new book in 2017
* 80 years of fandom and counting, not a fad or trend
*Tolkien brings mainstream respectability to the whole convention and transcends just fantasy / just generally geekery
* Guest potential (Weta Digital & Weta Workshop & actors)
* Because good things are worth fighting for
* It harms Dragon Con by removing it

I hope WE can be united as a fandom, of which I am a member. It would be nice to form something of a Fellowship to Vote Bilbo — if some of you know that reference.

The Tolkien track would love to continue as long as DragonCon does, but at the very least they’d like one last year to hold a proper goodbye.  If you would like to voice your support for the Tolkien track, PLEASE contact DragonCon and let them know (politely)!  Click HERE, and select DragonCon Office under the list of departments.   As Tolkien fans have proven time and time again, even the smallest person can change the course of the future.

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Below are a very small selection of photos taken at Tolkien track panels and events throughout the year; photo credit has been listed, but if any are missing, please let us know!

 

children of hurin The usual Christmas and New Year shenanigans mean that in The Hall of Fire we’ve only just arrived at the ninth chapter of The Children of Húrin. It’s short, but crucial — climaxing with the death of Beleg.

That’s not really a spoiler; the chapter is literally named “The Death of Beleg”.

It’s a — possibly the — key turning point in Túrin’s life. Until his death, Beleg is a strong stabilising influence on Túrin’s action. The absence of that support, combined with the manner of Beleg’s death, profoundly affect Túrin’s subsequent behaviour. Continue reading “The death of Beleg. Is Túrin culpable?”