Kullervo artYet more opportunities to win with TheOneRing.net! This time, it’s our good friends at Harper Collins who are giving away TEN copies of the newly published The Story of Kullervo – Tolkien’s first piece of prose fiction.

According to Harper Collins’ official press release, The Story of Kullervo is ‘a previously unknown work of fantasy by J.R.R. Tolkien, which tells the powerful story of a doomed young man who is sold into slavery and who swears revenge on the magician who killed his father. This is its first appearance in book form; 2015 is the centenary of its creation.’

This beautiful new publication is illustrated on the cover with one of Tolkien’s own paintings. The press release goes on to say:

‘Kullervo son of Kalervo is perhaps the darkest and most tragic of all J.R.R Tolkien’s characters. ‘Hapless Kullervo,’ as Tolkien called him, is a luckless orphan boy with supernatural powers and a tragic destiny.

Brought up in the homestead of the dark magician Untamo, who killed his father, kidnapped his mother, and who tries three times to kill him when still a boy, Kullervo is alone save for the love of his twin sister, Wanona, and guarded by the magical powers of the black dog, Musti. When Kullervo is sold into slavery he swears revenge on the magician, but he will learn that even at the point of vengeance there is no escape from the cruellest of fates.

Tolkien himself said that The Story of Kullervo was ‘the germ of my attempt to write legends of my own’, and was ‘a major matter in the legends of the First Age’. Tolkien’s Kullervo is the clear ancestor of Túrin Turambar, tragic incestuous hero of The Silmarillion. In addition to it being a powerful story in its own right, The Story of Kullervo – published here for the first time with the author’s drafts, notes and lecture-essays on its source-work, The Kalevala – is a foundation stone in the structure of Tolkien’s invented world.’

 

We have ten copies of this book to give away to ten lucky readers – and the competition is open worldwide! To enter, all you need to do is complete the form below, including answering the following simple question:

  • How many years is it since Tolkien first created The Story of Kullervo?

 

Simply write the answer in the ‘special note’ box.  Please also NOTE YOUR SHIPPING ADDRESS in the ‘special note’ box. Complete the rest of the form and hit ‘enter now’! The competition is open until Thursday 10th September. Good luck!

[Click here to enter to win]

 

 

AragornFor the next three months we’re teaming up with our friends at BudK.Com to give away one of the many great Middle-earth weapons featured throughout The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Hobbit Trilogy. We start off our contest with a sword fit for a King and my personal favorite of all the weapons used in Middle-earth. That’s right! We’re giving away Anduril. Entering is simple all you have to do is fill out the contest page and you’re entered. This contest is for U.S. Residents only.

Enter for your chance to win Anduril.

Not going to Dragon*Con? Live on the west coast? Need something Middle-earthy to do this weekend that includes two dwarves and a hobbit? Then look no further than the San Jose Wizard World!

The Tolkien festivities will kick off Friday with a Happy Hobbit panel, followed by a “moot,” or Entish get-together, across the street from the convention center at the Affinity Restaurant at the Hilton. Even if you’re not attending the con on Friday, be sure to join us at the moot for some Middle-earth madness, which is prone to happen whenever Fili and Kili are around.

billy-boyd-press-2014-billboard-650

Saturday is your opportunity to meet Billy Boyd (Pippin) and ask him anything at his panel, which will undoubtedly be comic gold and of course, very informative.

Below are the specifics of each event:

san-jose-comic-con-37

SAN JOSE WIZARD WORLD COMIC CON

San Jose Convention Center

150 West San Carlos St., San Jose, California 95113

 

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4TH, 2015


 

Happy Hobbit new DP2

PANEL

6:00 – 6:45PM  HAPPY HOBBIT: THE WORLD AHEAD (ROOM 211AB)
“Home is behind, the world ahead, and there are many paths to tread…” – J.R.R. Tolkien

Join sisters Kellie and Alex Rice (Kili and Fili of the webseries Happy Hobbit) as they go beyond the shire to explore how their geeky roots have blossomed into creative careers. Kellie is also known as K.M. Rice, an author and screenwriter who has worked for both Weta Workshop and Magic Leap, while Alex produces shows and shorts and has her own photography business. Both are excited to share tips on self-publishing, low-budget films, and engaging an online audience.

HH WW

 

MOOT  7:30 PM

Affinity Restaurant at the San Jose Hilton.

Hilton San Jose, 300 S Almaden Blvd, San Jose, CA 95113

No reservation, we’ll just take over Dwarf-style!


SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5TH, 2015

billy-boyd-peregrin-pippin-took-the-lord-of-the-rings-trilogy-joins-the-wizard-world-comic-con-tour-2

PANEL

12:30 – 1:15PM  ADVENTURES IN MIDDLE EARTH WITH BILLY BOYD (ROOM 210)
“Lord of the Rings” fans rejoice! Billy Boyd (Peregrin ‘Pippin’ Took) has traveled far and wide to join us for this very special Wizard World Q&A! This is your opportunity to ask Billy about his life, career, and where his adventures will be taking him next! You don’t want to miss this awesome panel!

Billy is also a member of the band beecake, and anyone who has heard either Pippin singing in the LOTR films or “The Last Goodbye” as the credits rolled on Middle-earth with BoTFA this winter knows that he’s more than worth listening to.


 

Here’s to hoping we’ll see more than less than half of you as we’d expect, and that you all have more than half the fun that you deserve!

Fathom Events has come out with a trailer for the special showings of all three Hobbit extended editions in early October. The trailer, which is 2 minutes, 19 seconds long, contains shots from all three EEs, including The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Needless to say… spoilers ahead!

 

The Fathom Events trailer shows only a few seconds of new material sandwiched in between familiar scenes from the theatrical release. However, a quick eye can catch some tantalizing hints about some of the new material. Some of what the sharp-eyed members of our Hobbit Movie discussion forum are buzzing about are listed below (spoiler warning!):

Continue reading “Watch the trailer for the Hobbit EE trilogy showing”

IMG_5878One of my favorite creatures in all of Middle-earth is the Balrog. When this guy first popped on-screen in The Lord of the Rings; The Fellowship of the Ring, my jaw dropped with just how cool he looked, and last year at Comic-Con the same thing happened when I saw this amazing piece. Part of the reborn The Lord of the Rings statue line, this time fans get a large version of this mind blowing creature. Coming in at 20.5″ high, with a weight of 33 pounds the Balrog is going to be a piece that will make everyone who sees your collection stop and look at it in awe. Shipping right now from all warehouses, the Balrog can be yours for $649 with an edition size of only 1500 pieces worldwide.
Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Weta Workshop’s The Balrog: The Demon of Shadow and Flame”

BOFTA Theatrical PosterThe day has finally come when tickets for the Hobbit trilogy in theaters are on sale! The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies will be shown on Tuesday, October 13, 7:30 local time. The event will include an introduction by Sir Peter Jackson and will be the first time the extended edition of BotFA will be viewed by the public.

[Update: Fathom Events has taken down the webpage announcing the above information. However, the dates and times for the EE showings as reported in this article are still correct. Also, although tickets *were* on sale online on Friday (when I purchased mine), the links to buy them are now also unavailable. The new date for online sales is now Tuesday, August 25. Obviously, a cat or two got out of the bag a little early! If you can’t wait until Tuesday, we recommend that you call or visit your local theater directly, as we have had many reports of people getting their tickets just fine that way].

The trilogy showing is being sponsored by Fathom Events and Warner Bros., and TORn has confirmed with Fathom Events that this will be a U.S. event only. For the lucky folks who will have a chance to see it, the next question, of course, is: where can I get tickets? A few weeks ago we published this link to movietickets.com where you can search for theaters in your area that will be showing the trilogy. Enter your zip code and the search radius, and you’ll get a listing of participating theaters. The “Movies” link at the top of the page can be used to search on the other two films.

The good news is, when I did a search for my area, a number of theaters were listed as showing BotFA on October 13th, including theaters in the AMC, United Artists and Regal chains. The interesting (and possibly bad news for some) is when I did a search on the other two movies, they were listed as showing at only one AMC theater: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey extended edition on Monday, October 5th and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug extended edition on Wednesday, October 7th. However, we urge you to keep checking for more locations either by using the provided link, or by calling you local theater.

Update: the Celebration theater chain in Michigan is also showing the trilogy. Same dates as above; $12 a showing which is the same price at the theaters we checked earlier today.