The Hobbit Bag End Door Originally, Peter Jackson intended his adaptation of The Hobbit to be a two-film effort — a duology.

We’ll never know for certain how it would have turned out, but in this feature TORn writer Captain Salt brings together the known facts to give us some idea of just how it might have shaped up.

Continue reading “How would have Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit looked as a duology?”

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Lord of the Rings concept art. Balrog by Ralph Bakshi.
Lord of the Rings concept art. Balrog by Ralph Bakshi.
If you’ve ever watched Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 cult animation of The Lord of the Rings, you’ll undoubtedly vividly recall the scene of the confrontation between Gandalf and the Balrog in Moria.

The lion-headed creature with the body of an ape, butterfly wings plus a whip and flaming sword remains one of the classic renditions of Tolkien’s monster — whether for better or worse is up to you.

If you haven’t seen it before, or would like to refresh your memory, just check the clip below. Continue reading “Ralph Bakshi’s son restores deleted Lord of the Rings footage”

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.

Beowulf Tolkien scholar John Garth previews the forthcoming publication of J.R.R. Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf and outlines why the Professor’s expertise with the Anglo-Saxon epic means this new book is to be highly anticipated. Click through the read more link at the bottom to access the complete essay.

Continue reading “JRR Tolkien’s Beowulf translation: bring on the monsters”

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.

Simon Tolkien In my wanderings around the internet, I recently stumbled across this great little interview with Simon Tolkien on the Mythopoeic Society website.

Simon is, of course, the son of Christopher Tolkien and the grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien, and a published author in his own right. He has written four novels. The most recent, Orders from Berlin was published in November 2012.

In the interview, which originally appeared in the Society’s journal Mythprint in June 2010, Simon speaks of his memories of his grandparents, his own writing process and his father’s work compiling The Silmarillion. Enjoy!

Continue reading “An interview with Simon Tolkien”

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.

tolkien_nu_promo Tolkien scholar John Garth examines the the facts behind a newly discovered photograph dating to 1907 that shows a fifteen-year-old J.R.R. Tolkien with his school cadet corps.

Continue reading “New photo reveals J.R.R. Tolkien at fifteen, a warrior-to-be”

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.

balrog2335 Ten facts you probably know about Middle-earth. I’m not entirely sure they make one a “super fan” (which is, frankly, the sort of exclusionary title wielded to make others feel that they’re not real fans). Enjoying Tolkien is surely not some sort of contest to prove one is the biggest fan.

Still it is a nice little list with plenty of nods to some lesser-known but important characters from Tolkien such as Celebrimbor, Feanor, Gothmog and Oropher. So read and enjoy! Minor nitpick: there are more than two Elvish languages (at least conceptually), but Sindarin and Quenya were probably the best developed. Continue reading “HuffPost: Ten facts only Rings ‘super fans’ know”

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.