Just a couple of days to go until the fourth (and final?) HobbitCon gets underway in Bonn, Germany. Fans and cast members alike are getting on planes around the world and making their way to the Hotel Maritim – and TORn staffers greendragon and deej are looking forward to being there too! We’ll have t-shirts and buttons for sale, some prizes to giveaway, and we’ll be giving two panels over the weekend:
Saturday 2nd April 2pm in Saal Maritim
A Party of Special Magnificence – Behind the Scenes of The One Last Party
February 2015 in Hollywood – TheOneRing.net and fellow fans gathered with some of the cast and crew from Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth movies, to celebrate this fandom we all love – ‘one last time’… TORn staffers greendragon and deej share tales of fundraising on an epic scale, preparing for this special event, and trying to keep elves, dwarves, hobbits and men – and the occasional dragon – happy! Plus we’ll show some footage from the night itself – and maybe some extra video clips of cast who sent along their support.
Sunday 3rd April 12pm in Saal Maritim
There and Back Again – Looking Back on an Extraordinary Journey
Seventeen years ago, a film maker in New Zealand began his work bringing Middle-earth to the screen; and TheOneRing.net began a mission… quest… thing. In the years which followed, we’ve travelled far and wide, in cyberspace and in the real world; meeting cast and crew; getting magical glimpses behind the scenes; and most importantly, sharing an epic journey with our fellow fans across the globe. Join staffers from TheOneRing.net to share reminiscences about the highs and lows of this Unexpected Journey with a Fellowship of Fans.
Hope you can join us at the panels – and of course come by our table to say hello! We’re really looking forward to seeing everyone there – and of course we’ll report back with photos so everyone can share the fun.
Hold the presses! The Sweet Sixteen has been set, but not without a bit of controversy. For the first time in the storied history of Middle-earth March Madness, we’ve had a tie – yes, a TIE!
In the Beauties bracket, the Cinderella story (16) Feanor tied with (9) Varda when voting ended at 10pm ET today. To solve this tie-breaker, we decided to randomly pick one to win…no no, we wouldn’t do that. Instead, we did something a bit more logical. We took the total votes from round 1 and 2 and combined them for each contestant. The general idea being, if one contestant got more overall votes in those first two rounds, they should win. After the tally, (9) Varda made it through to face (5) Melian. Should be an interesting match-up!
However, one could argue that is not the most interesting match-up of the Beauty Bracket…we have (3) Galadriel facing a fan favorite (10) Legolas!
In the Brains bracket (8) Elrond managed to slip by the number one seed Tom Bombadil and will face (4) Luthien. Two of the top seeds, (3) Faramir and (2) Gandalf will face off in the other match-up.
Both the Brawn and Baddies brackets are advancing all the top seeds into the Sweet Sixteen.
In the Brawn bracket we have (1) Beorn facing (4) Eomer, while (3) Boromir will face (2) Eowyn. Will we have a sibling battle in the Elite Eight??
The Baddies contestants read like a who’s who of bad-arse Middle-earth antagonists. We’ve got (1) Morgoth facing (4) Sauron, and (3) Smaug facing (2) The Balrog of Moria. I only wish we had a couple hundred million dollars and the special effects wizards at WETA to visualize these match-ups for us!
Voting is now open and will remain open until March 30th at 10pm ET. We will calculate the winners at that point and post the next round on March 31st. Follow after the break for a complete bracket image (download it), and to vote on all of our Round 3 match-ups! [Sweet Sixteen Bracket] [Round 2 Bracket] [Round 1 Bracket]
We have some incredibly close contests as we choose our Middle-earth Sweet Sixteen. In the Brains bracket, can (5)Treebeard overcome (4)Luthien, or does (7)Aragorn have a strategy to come from behind and win over (2)Gandalf? (10)Gimli and (2)Eowyn are locked in a tight battle – who will prevail in the Brawn bracket? What about the Beauties (10)Legolas and (2)Arwen? Can anyone defeat (1)Morgoth in Baddies?
Voting ends March 26 at 10 PM ET, so pick your winners now! Here’s a link to the poll: Round 2 voting.
A note on how the bracket combatants were determined. TheOneRing.net created a document containing all combatants, sub divided into divisions. We asked staff to cast sixteen votes per division, with the votes having a weight of 1-4. Each staffer cast four 4 votes, four 3 votes, four 2 votes and four 1 votes in each division. We then totaled all the votes from each division to determine their rank, and ultimately placed those into our bracket for seeding.
Middle-earth March Madness Round 2 is here! With 1000+ votes for each match-up, some of our first round match-ups came down to just 5 votes!
In the Beauty Bracket, and with the biggest upset of the tournament so far, (1) Goldberry was beaten by the (16) Feanor! In the Brains Bracket, (6) Gwaihir managed to hold off (11) Turgon. In the Brawn Bracket, the battle of the dwarves was won by (11) Gimli when he took down (7) Dwalin. And in the Baddies Bracket, (3) Smaug decimated (14) Lurtz.
Round 2 has its share of interesting match-ups – what are your favorites?
Voting in Round 2 will remain open until March 26th at 10pm ET. At that point, we’ll calculate the winners and post the next round on March 27th. Follow after the break for a complete bracket image (download it), and to vote on all of our Round 2 match-ups! [Round 2 Bracket] [Round 1 Bracket]
Wellington’s Tolkien Society, Welly-moot, have been in touch to let us know that they are hosting the ULTIMATE Middle-earth Marathon at the Roxy in ‘Wellywood’ over 24 hours, Thursday 24th to Friday 25th March. That’s all SIX of Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth movies, Extended Editions, over one day!
The Haywood Society’s touring exhibition, ‘J.R.R. Tolkien – Soldier recruitment and Myth Maker’ launches at the Museum of Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, UK, March 7th to April 24th.
This fascinating exhibition focuses on Tolkien’s time in Staffordshire during the First World War. It will include ‘Original artwork, of domestic scenes and landscapes, which has not returned to Staffordshire since it left with Tolkien in 1918 … [as well as] photographs specially loaned by The Tolkien Estate and Bodleian Library.’
‘During the Great War Second Lieutenant J. R. R. Tolkien of the Lancashire Fusiliers was stationed in Staffordshire, first at Whittington Heath, near Lichfield, next at a musketry camp at Newcastle-under-Lyme, then at Rugeley and Brocton Camps on Cannock Chase. After his marriage in March 1916 Tolkien’s wife came to live in Great Haywood so that she could be close to him. Tolkien regularly visited Edith in the village until he was posted to France in June 1916.
Tolkien returned to Great Haywood in early December 1916 to recover from his traumatic experiences at the Somme. He lived with Edith in a cottage there until late February 1917 and during this time created his first mythological stories, in part inspired by Staffordshire landscapes and experiences.
After a brief posting to East Yorkshire, Tolkien returned to Staffordshire in 1918 and lived in a cottage at Gipsy Green, Teddesley Park, near Penkridge, where other important work was undertaken.’
Find out more about the exhibition here. Be sure to let us know if you’re able to go along – we’d love to hear more about the exhibition!
Just a couple of days to go until the fourth (and final?) HobbitCon gets underway in Bonn, Germany. Fans and cast members alike are getting on planes around the world and making their way to the Hotel Maritim – and TORn staffers greendragon and deej are looking forward to being there too! We’ll have t-shirts and buttons for sale, some prizes to giveaway, and we’ll be giving two panels over the weekend:
