Happy Hobbit is back with an all-new Halloween special. Can Fili make a haunted burrow as good as Kili’s? Watch the episode here!

Maxim Baldry, Courtesy of Collider

Collider announced earlier today that 23 year-old British actor Maxim Baldry “has landed a significant role” in the upcoming Amazon Middle-earth TV series. Baldry is perhaps best known so far for his role in the 2019 BBC/HBO joint production series Years and Years. According to Collider: “Character details are being kept under wraps along with plot details.” While that doesn’t give us a lot to go on, ok almost nothing to go on, we do know that the new series is set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, which narrows down, if only slightly, what “significant role” might imply.

Continue reading “Maxim Baldry added to cast of Amazon Middle-earth series”

We’ve been very lucky to team up with the great folks at QMx to show off and review the very first figure in their The Lord of the Rings Q-Fig line: The Witch-king. The Q-Fig line covers lots of license but it wasn’t until just after this past Comic-Con that it set its gaze upon Middle-earth. Now we, the fans, can add some of these awesome figures to our collections.

Right now the collection includes just the standard figures which will run you roughly $20. They also have a masters version which, from what I saw at Comic-Con, are a little bigger or involve more characters. The masters versions of the Q-Fig lines tend to run in the area of $99 to $100. No matter your choice, these things are great! For my fellow collectors on a budget, this is a great avenue to go and be able to bring a little Middle-earth into your collection.

Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – QMx The Witch-king Q-Fig Preview/Review”

Even within Tolkien’s own books, anniversaries are treated as special occasions. A chance for the characters to reflect upon the past that shaped them as they continue moving forward into the future. But for us Lord of the Rings fans, this October 11 (or October 10, if you’re in the Western world) is an anniversary of special magnificence. It was October 11, 1999 in New Zealand when principal photography commenced on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies, with the main shoot encompassing The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. Back at a time when the internet had no Facebook, Twitter, or Wikipedia, back when VHS tapes were the preferred way to watch home movies, and when Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin were world leaders, an 18-year-old Elijah Wood and his castmates gathered together to begin shooting three films that most of the non-Tolkien fans of the time gave little regard to.

Filmed on October 11, 1999

It’s interesting to look back at the schedule from those days because it wasn’t dictated by story or film order but by what locations were ready, who was available, and what the weather was likely to be like. In fact, while filming began with the four hobbit actors hiding from a black rider on the Wooded Road and ended 437 days later on the set of Minas Tirith, the order of what was filmed in between was more of a hodgepodge. (I’m always amused when people claim that the Grey Havens’s farewell sequence carries its emotional weight because of how much the actors bonded over the course of the project. In fact, it was shot rather early in the go, and when Ian McKellen was later asked how he kept from weeping in the scene, he replied, “This was only the second scene I filmed for the trilogy. I scarcely knew Frodo from Merry and adopted the safest course of expressing very little as I said goodbye to them.”)

“You with the dark hair, it is time to go.”

Of course, the end of principal photography itself wasn’t really the end. Pickup shots would continue for The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King, with the latter even having some pickup shots filmed after its theatrical release to help fill out the extended edition. Peter Jackson, after shooting the final final footage for the trilogy, a shot of a couple of skulls rolling at the Paths of the Dead, commented that it was especially bizarre to still be shooting The Return of the King in 2004 after the film had won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

By setting aside the pickup shots, weather cover days, and various bits and pieces shot by some hard-working unit while most of the actors were busy elsewhere, here’s the general schedule The Lord of the Rings followed:

1999

October

(Filming begins with Hobbit leads)
The Wooded Road
Farmer Maggot’s Field
Buckleberry Ferry
Bree Exterior
(Viggo Mortensen arrives)
Weathertop
Isengard Deforestation

November

(Sean Bean Arrives)
Anduin River
Amon Hen Battle

December

Boromir’s Death
Frodo’s escape from Boromir
Ford of Bruinen
Prancing Pony Interior
Exiting Moria
Approach to Lothlorien

2000

January

(Ian McKellen arrives)
Hobbiton Exteriors
The Grey Havens
Edoras Exteriors

February

(Ian Holm arrives)
Bag End Interior
Orthanc Interior
Helm’s Deep

March

Helm’s Deep Continues
Gandalf at Isengard
Rivendell Exteriors

April

Helm’s Deep Continues
Last Alliance (Prologue)
Aragorn and Company at the Black Gate
Caves of Orthanc
Frodo and Sam in Mordor

May

Helm’s Deep Concludes
Frodo and Sam in Mordor Concludes
Frodo and Sam at the Black Gate
Moria Interior
Rivendell Interior

June

Paths of the Dead Interior
(Cate Blanchett arrives)
Lothlorien

July

Orthanc Exteriors
Cirith Ungol

August

Anduin River
Flooded Isengard

September

Breaking of the Fellowship
Caradhas
Voice of Saruman

October

Edoras Interior
Battle of the Pelennor Fields

November

Fangorn Forest

December

Fangorn Forest Concludes
Moria Gate
Minas Tirith

Special thanks to J.W. Braun, the author of The Lord of the Films. You can visit his website at www.jwbraun.com.

If you haven’t already, make sure to mark your calendars for this Thursday, October 10th. That’s the day we can finally order the beautiful Minas Morgul environment we saw at Comic-Con this past July. Unlike previous items, this will have a unique way to determine the edition size. When orders open on Thursday they will begin calculating the edition size, and when orders close on the 23rd of this month they will finalize the number. So we, the fans, will determine just where this ends up; and it also allows us to show bad we want this piece. So mark your calendar now.

Here is what time Minas Morgul will go up based on your location:

·   12.30 p.m, October 10 – 12.30 p.m, October 23 (PDT)
·    9.30 p.m, October 10 – 9.30 p.m, October 23 (CET)
·    8.30 a.m, October 11 – 8.30 a.m, October 24 (NZT)

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.

A long expected party.

by David McG.

Clip, clop trotting along
Merrily humming a favourite song.
Over the bridge passed Sandyman’s mill.
Down round the Green Dragon and up to the Hill.
Pick up a passenger,
Friend of a dear friend.
Clip, clop trotting all the way to Bagend.
Gandalf the Wizard, the Disturber, the Grey
With horse and cart he’s on his way.
Chat about past times, but keep secrets near.
Let off some fireworks,
The children they cheer.
Up to the path with the unwelcoming gate.
Arrives when he means to
(as he never is late!)
“Welcome, welcome!” sounds behind the round door.
Invitation replies piling high on the floor.
Hurriedly tidied by the friend loved so dear.
“Gandalf my friend…

…….It’s so good that you’re here.”.

~~ * ~~

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.