Throughout the Fellowship of the Ring, we learnt much of the ways of Elves through Lothlórien and Rivendell and Dwarves in the mines of Moria. Yet much was told of the great city of Men, Minas Tirith and their struggles against Sauron. It is not long into The Two Towers however that we are introduced to a race of men who would prove to be one of the bravest and loyal allies to all those who fight against the tryanny of Sauron. This weekend the Hall of Fire’s Two Towers chapter-by-chapter discussion continues as we look at
Book III, Chapter II – The Riders of Rohan
Hot on the heels of the Uruk-hai that hold their friends captive, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas relentlessly race both day and night in an attempt to shorten the distance between them and Saruman’s forces. Through their hardship, the friendship of the Dwarf and the Elf begins to grow as they venture towards the land of Rohan, the home of the Riders of Rohan, once an ally to the great bastion of Men, Minas Tirith.
However, the trio never get a chance to try and save Merry and Pippin from the captors, as a group of Riders led by Éomer, Third Marshall and one of the closest friends to King Theoden. He bears to them news of a band of Orcs he and his men did battle with, the same Orcs that hold Merry and Pippin and slew Boromir, bearing the White Hand of Isengard. Fearing for their friends, Aragorn and his companions are forced to check for any sign of their friends on the battleground itself. However, the Hobbits are nowhere to be seen, and a spectre feared to be Saruman haunts them in the night.
A great chapter that sets in motion the alliance of Rohan with the other opposing forces to Mordor and introduces us to the Riders of Rohan, come visit this weekend as your fellow Tolkien fans discuss and debate this topic in its entirity!
Upcoming Discussions Apr 13 & 14: LotR, Stereotypes & Racial Class Apr 20 & 21: The Two Towers – The Motion Picture Apr 20 & 21: Literary Merits of LotR
Place: #thehalloffire on theonering.net server; come to theonering.net’s chat room Barliman’s and then type /join #thehalloffire .
Saturday Chat: 5:30 pm ET (17:30) [also 11:30 pm (23:30) CET and 7:30 am Sunday (07:30) AET]
Sunday Chat: 7:00 pm (19:00) CET [also 1:00 pm (13:00) ET and 4:00 am (04:00) Monday morning AET]
ET = Eastern Time, USA’s East Coast CET = Central European Time, Central Europe
Almost two years ago, on April 7th 2000, Tolkien fans around the world were given a first glimpse at Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy currently filming in New Zealand, a project that promised to bring to life the dreams of all Tolkien fans and make the world of Middle-earth a little less fantasy and a little more real. Greeted with images of actors in stilts, rough CG models and actors in make-up, even then the magnitude of the film and what it was doing caught the imagination of us all not because of what it looked like but what it would look like a year and a half later.
From that point on, the resulting trailers each brought us that little bit closer to Peter Jackson’s vision, featuring scattered shots from across the Trilogy, from shots of Moria to fighting at Helm’s Deep to parties at Hobbiton and the forges of Mordor. Each new trailer was the fix for fans addicted to their next peek at Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring, with the hope of seeing some of Tolkien’s more fantastical creatures like the Balrog, Gollum and Treebeard. With the Fellowship of the Ring so far away, the trailers would have to suffice.
And now after the release of Fellowship of the Ring, we’re back on the rollercoaster again as we see the first Teaser Trailer for The Two Towers, the second in Jackson’s Trilogy to hit the silver screen. This time however the teaser isn’t available on the Internet and is instead showing at the end of Fellowship of the Ring, a move that will see fans flocking back to the cinemas to ‘reluctantly’ watching their favourite film one more time so that they can get a brief glimpse of what’s in store for us December 18th 2002.
And from what we’ve seen, The Two Towers is by far the bleaker and foreboding of itself and Fellowship’, with visions of a corrupt and desolate Orthanc and Barad-Dur, Grima Wormtongue manipulating his once mighty master, the riders of Rohan preparing for battle against an enemy they have never seen before, and the incredible fighting at Helm’s Deep that will dominate so much of the film. This weekend the Hall of Fire crew invite you to join us as we discuss The Two Towers Teaser Trailer.
Upcoming Discussions Mar 30 & 31: FotR and the Oscars Apr 06 & 07: TTT – The Riders of Rohan Apr 13 & 14: LotR, Stereotypes & Racial Class Apr 20 & 21: The Two Towers – The Motion Picture Apr 20 & 21: Literary Merits of LotR
Place: #thehalloffire on theonering.net server; come to theonering.net’s chat room Barliman’s and then type /join #thehalloffire .
Saturday Chat: 5:30 pm ET (17:30) [also 11:30 pm (23:30) CET and 7:30 am Sunday (07:30) AET]
Sunday Chat: 7:00 pm (19:00) CET [also 1:00 pm (13:00) ET and 4:00 am (04:00) Monday morning AET]
ET = Eastern Time, USA’s East Coast CET = Central European Time, Central Europe
With the Oscar hype reaching new levels as of late, its’ easy to forget about this week’s Hall of Fire, but the topic for this weekend is a good one: the Nature of the Ring of Power. The One Ring which Frodo brings from the Shire to Mordor, that thousands of men and elves have died for ever since Sauron forged it in secret.
Despite the well documented forging of the One Ring in the Silmarillion, it’s appearance in The Hobbit and it’s pivotal role in the Lord of the Rings, the nature of the One Ring itself has often been a mystery. Though it is said that a lot of Sauron’s power went into it as it was forged, it is often described more as having a life of its own rather than being an inanimate object, with it ‘betraying’ many of its owners throughout the years. Peter Jackson deliberately portrayed the ring like this in the Fellowship of the Ring, even giving it a voice of its own.
And also the powers that the One Ring grants seem to vary from one owner to another. The ring also seems to have the ability to corrupt even the strongest of wills with delussions of grandure, from Galadriel to Gandalf. Only Boromir is foolish enough to not respect the ring’s potency to corrupt and pollute. And even then, was he so ignorant in not fearing a simple ring? Perhaps Boromir was amazed at the amount of respect being afforded to ‘such a small thing’.
Does the One Ring reflect an intricate flaw in the moral fibre of human beings? Does it reflect all the bad things about our character..greedy, hate and desire? You can discuss all of this and more as we discuss this great topic this weekend!
Upcoming Discussions Mar 30 & 31: FotR and the Oscars Apr 06 & 07: TTT – The Riders of Rohan Apr 13 & 14: LotR, Stereotypes & Racial Class Apr 20 & 21: The Two Towers – The Motion Picture Apr 20 & 21: Literary Merits of LotR
Place: #thehalloffire on theonering.net server; come to theonering.net’s chat room Barliman’s and then type /join #thehalloffire .
Saturday Chat: 5:30 pm ET (17:30) [also 11:30 pm (23:30) CET and 7:30 am Sunday (07:30) AET]
Sunday Chat: 7:00 pm (19:00) CET [also 1:00 pm (13:00) ET and 4:00 am (04:00) Monday morning AET]
ET = Eastern Time, USA’s East Coast CET = Central European Time, Central Europe
With the Oscar hype reaching new levels as of late, its’ easy to forget about this week’s Hall of Fire, but the topic for this weekend is a good one: the Nature of the Ring of Power. The One Ring which Frodo brings from the Shire to Mordor, that thousands of men and elves have died for ever since Sauron forged it in secret.
Despite the well documented forging of the One Ring in the Silmarillion, it’s appearance in The Hobbit and it’s pivotal role in the Lord of the Rings, the nature of the One Ring itself has often been a mystery. Though it is said that a lot of Sauron’s power went into it as it was forged, it is often described more as having a life of its own rather than being an inanimate object, with it ‘betraying’ many of its owners throughout the years. Peter Jackson deliberately portrayed the ring like this in the Fellowship of the Ring, even giving it a voice of its own.
And also the powers that the One Ring grants seem to vary from one owner to another. The ring also seems to have the ability to corrupt even the strongest of wills with delussions of grandure, from Galadriel to Gandalf. Only Boromir is foolish enough to not respect the ring’s potency to corrupt and pollute. And even then, was he so ignorant in not fearing a simple ring? Perhaps Boromir was amazed at the amount of respect being afforded to ‘such a small thing’.
Does the One Ring reflect an intricate flaw in the moral fibre of human beings? Does it reflect all the bad things about our character..greedy, hate and desire? You can discuss all of this and more as we discuss this great topic this weekend!
Upcoming Discussions Mar 30 & 31: FotR and the Oscars Apr 06 & 07: TTT – The Riders of Rohan Apr 13 & 14: LotR, Stereotypes & Racial Class Apr 20 & 21: The Two Towers – The Motion Picture Apr 20 & 21: Literary Merits of LotR
Place: #thehalloffire on theonering.net server; come to theonering.net’s chat room Barliman’s and then type /join #thehalloffire .
Saturday Chat: 5:30 pm ET (17:30) [also 11:30 pm (23:30) CET and 7:30 am Sunday (07:30) AET]
Sunday Chat: 7:00 pm (19:00) CET [also 1:00 pm (13:00) ET and 4:00 am (04:00) Monday morning AET]
ET = Eastern Time, USA’s East Coast CET = Central European Time, Central Europe
For years, the topic of Balrog wings has been hotly debated by Tolkien experts and geeks alike. Due to the ambiguity of his writing, the debate over whether a Balrog has physical, touch-with-your-hand wings or not depends, as with quite a lot of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, on the mental image of every single individual. Even Peter Jackson made sure that Weta created a Balrog that appealed to all spectrums of the debate, in an attempt to give the fans the best adaptation of Tolkien’s work possible without restricting the individual’s ability to create their own Middle-Earth with their imagination, as generations before have.
We have the chance to discuss the Balrog now after seeing the big screen interpration of it in Fellowship of the Ring: why not use it? Now’s a good time as any to bring back that debate of ‘wings of shadow’ versus physical wings. Where do you stand? Do you believe that Tolkien had actual wings in mind when he wrote the ‘Bridge of Khazad-Dum’, or did he deliberately write it so that fans could debate the subject, like right now? Is it good to have a bit of mystery in Lord of the Rings? Or do you think its a topic not even worth talking about? This weekend, come join us as we discuss one of the oldest arguments in the history of Middle-Earth itself.
Upcoming Discussions Mar 23 & 24: The Nature of the Ring of Power Mar 30 & 31: FotR and the Oscars Apr 06 & 07: TTT – The Riders of Rohan Apr 13 & 14: LotR, Stereotypes & Racial Class Apr 20 & 21: The Two Towers – The Motion Picture Apr 20 & 21: Literary Merits of LotR
Place: #thehalloffire on theonering.net server; come to theonering.net’s chat room Barliman’s and then type /join #thehalloffire .
Saturday Chat: 5:30 pm ET (17:30) [also 11:30 pm (23:30) CET and 7:30 am Sunday (07:30) AET]
Sunday Chat: 7:00 pm (19:00) CET [also 1:00 pm (13:00) ET and 4:00 am (04:00) Monday morning AET]
ET = Eastern Time, USA’s East Coast CET = Central European Time, Central Europe
While the release of The Two Towers is December 18th, months and months away, preparation in anticipation for the next installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy begins already in the Hall of Fire as we begin our already succesfull chapter by chapter discussions on The Two Towers and its first chapter: The Departure Of Boromir
In an odd twist, the beginning of The Two Towers is where the Fellowship of the Ring motion picture left off, as Aragorn finds Boromir mortally wounded near Parth Galen, repentant of his deeds as his live extinguishes, the bane deemed by Iluvatar to be suffered by men. With the prince of Minas Tirith dead Aragorn desperately tries to piece together the events that took place and the whereabouts of the four hobbits. Lamenting Boromir’s death and giving him the ceremony worth of a prince who would one day be the steward of Minas Tirith in his father’s place, Aragorn Gimli and Legolas are faced with a difficult decision: follow the Ringbearer and Sam to Mordor or track down Pippin and Merry on the way to Orthanc?
The first chapter of The Two Towers is as much a tribute to the death of the first member of the Fellowship as it sets in motion the events in the book itself. Come join us this weekend as we discuss this chapter and how it was portrayed in Fellowship of the Ring!
Upcoming Discussions Mar 16 & 17: Peter Jackson’s Portrayal of the Balrog Mar 23 & 24: The Nature of the Ring of Power Mar 30 & 31: FotR and the Oscars
Place: #thehalloffire on theonering.net server; come to theonering.net’s chat room Barliman’s and then type /join #thehalloffire .
Saturday Chat: 5:30 pm ET (17:30) [also 11:30 pm (23:30) CET and 7:30 am Sunday (07:30) AET]
Sunday Chat: 7:00 pm (19:00) CET [also 1:00 pm (13:00) ET and 4:00 am (04:00) Monday morning AET]
ET = Eastern Time, USA’s East Coast CET = Central European Time, Central Europe
