Amazon Studios has announced the casting of ‘Young Gollum,’ voiced by renowned character actor and comedian Patton Oswalt. (YES – This was an April Fool’s Day Prank – 2021!)
Patton Oswalt Cast at Baby Gollum
With a celebrated ensemble cast already gathered for Amazon’s show, this latest release implies that Oswalt will voice a child-like Smeagol character. It goes without saying that a ‘Young Gollum’ did not exist in the initial intended scope of the show, nor in the scope of the rights purchased from the Tolkien Estate. The addition of a – dare we say it – ‘Baby Gollum’ appears to be a clear attempt to attract a broader and younger audience. The vast majority of us at TheOneRing.net are big fans of Oswalt – so we look forward to seeing where this goes!
AMAZON STUDIOS ANNOUNCES VOICE TALENT PATTON OSWALT FOR THE LORD OF THE RINGS TELEVISION SERIES
The Grammy(R), Emmy(R) and Vangard Award(R) Winner joins the Ensemble Cast to Lend His Vocal Talents to Young Gollum.
(CULVER CITY, Calif. – April 1st 2021) – Amazon Studios today announces Patton Oswalt will lend his voice talent as Gollum in the Amazon Original series based on the iconic ‘The Lord of the Rings’ novels by J.R.R. Tolkien. Patton will join the previously announced global cast and crew, currently filming in New Zealand.
“We are so excited to breathe new life to the early history of this immensely popular character,” said executive producer and showrunner [retracted name]. “When you delve into the struggle of Gollum, and his alter-ego Smeagol, a plethora of possibilities leaps out. It’s a tale which is crying out to be told.”
The character of Gollum first appears in J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’, with subsequent appearances in the War of the Ring saga of the Third Age of Middle-earth. Made popular by the Rankin/Bass production in the late 1970s, and then expertly brought to screen in Peter Jackson’s epic trilogies of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’, amazing adventures lie in store for the halfling-like creature, as his prequel stories unfold.
The character will originally be fully realized as a small child through the talents of WETA Digital, and given voice, (initially coos and caws), by the talented Oswalt.
“Its been a lifelong dream to work in the realm of J.R.R. Tolkien. I can’t wait to get started!” said Patton.
Set in Middle-earth, the Amazon television adaptation will explore new storylines preceding J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’. A world-renowned literary work, and winner of the International Fantasy Award and Prometheus Hall of Fame Award, ‘The Lord of the Rings’ was named Amazon customers’ favorite book of the millennium in 1999, and Britain’s best-loved novel of all time in BBC’s ‘The Big Read’ in 2003. ‘The Lord of the Rings’ has been translated into around 40 languages, and has sold more than 150 million copies. Its theatrical adaptations from New Line Cinema and director Peter Jackson earned a combined gross of nearly $6 billion worldwide, and garnered 17 Academy Awards®, including Best Picture (‘The Return of the King’).
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.
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.
Hobbits, AWAKE!
by: David McGlinchey
AWAKE! FEAR! FIRE! FOES! AWAKE!
The Horn Cry of Buckland is waking the town. Ruffians are come to trouble the Shire, Banging on doors and breaking them down! Frightening the Women folk, enslaving the Men Stealing and looting again and again!
AWAKE! FEAR! FIRE! FOES! AWAKE!
The Shirriff’s are out at the sound of the cry Gathering their forces with feather in cap. Bounders from borders fleet footed they fly. With the Horn Cry of Buckland sounding out clear and loud, ‘Hobbits of the Shire, time now to stand proud!’
AWAKE! FEAR! FIRE! FOES! AWAKE!
A High Knight of Gondor, sent by the King. With an Esquire of Rohan, silver horn at his side Empowering the Shire folk in this ‘Battle of the Ring’ The Wars they have ended with the Dark Lord’s defeat Now this battle of Bywater will make victory complete.
AWAKE! FEAR! FIRE! FOES! AWAKE!
Sharkey the Boss man is not what he seems. Destroying our homeland, blotting the land. A shadow, a monster, invading our dreams! He’s hiding at Bag End with his Ruffians in tow. But the Hobbits are coming, he’s nowhere to go.
AWAKE! FEAR! FIRE! FOES! AWAKE!
Beware of this Sharkey, don’t be fooled by his voice. As up to Bag End marched the friends. “Come out from your lair. Make amends, make a choice. The Shire’s seen enough of war, trouble and fear. Leave now with your Ruffians, you are not wanted here!”
Awake Hobbits. .
AWAKE!
~~ * ~~
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.
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.
Just deserts
By D. McGlinchey
You would have screamed in agony. As did your victims . You would have clawed off your skin. As you did to so many. You would have cursed at the fates. As the helpless cursed you. And you would have struck blindly out. As all doomed victims do. But here you all stand now. Forever enshrined. As hard as your hearts! And as cold as your mind. No more in the shadows, your terror to spread. No more will folk fear you, and quake in their bed. The dawn it has claimed you. Forfeit to those claimed. And the sun’s touch has sealed you, With your fury now tamed. Three hunters all trapped by the prey they had caught. And your screaming and writhing has aided you naught! This was your ending, the old tales were true, When the dawn took you all, and made statues of you!
~ * ~
Pernicious Palantir
By: Crystal Dawson
Eyes affixed to the orbed glass, Denethor kept scrolling as Sauron was trolling, poisoning his mind and twisting his heart with a herald so fantastic how could it be false?
The Dark lord reckoned an end for all men that was as evil as it was inevitable. Fear seeped through the steward’s bones bending his will and back. Hunched he remained wherever he sat and his eyes were oft a glaze.
Deep were his musings, cavernous and bleak until all ends ceased in bitter despair. Had his thoughts delved wider, he may have rekindled hope, from alliances afar but not unforgot.
“Flee flee for your lives” he vehemently declared, draining all hearts who heard, of hope: For what is the use? Accept your fate and die in whatever way seems best to you. For no change will come, no hope with dawn. Only fearsome foe surround.
Against such might who could stand up and fight? Best to give up your plight and fly. You fools that march are madder than I, rallying to your kin, waving your torn banners on high.
No rival races will unite. No prodigal sons return. I have seen your future, bleak it remains, empty and void of all light. No aid will appear from sea or sky; you will die in battle this night
The fallen Maia rose in power with each hopeful light put out. Further still the Shadow reached. No great king could stop his advance. What council could ally against his fearsome countless horde?
Atop his solitary tower the flame licked slit narrowed with a gleam and glower, renewed was its eternal blaze. For what power was left in Middle earth that could divert his piercing gaze.
Perhaps none… but the power of one, with one, with another and another, bound in friendship, bonded in love, blind to hate and bold in fear. Faith to see an age that can be united by love of the good in this world, that is worth fighting for.
~ * ~
Untitled
By: darkkrose
I pray thee, Tulkas, lend me strength and guide my sword with sharpness, My time has come to join the fray, I need my heart be dauntless. Don’t let me tire, falter, fail, don’t let my courage dwindle, If I’m about to give up hope, the flame of hope rekindle.
And if by chance the Waiting Halls would open wide before me, Great Námo, Keeper of my fate, have pity and restore me. Don’t let me dwell too long a time in solitude and sadness, Allow me walk under the Sun and feel again its warmness.
~ * ~
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.
Staffer Demosthenes returns from the wilderness, to consider what the plot of Amazon’s Middle-earth TV series might be…
Hello! It’s been a while!
However, the fine folk of TORn have defrosted me from cryogenic stasis just in time to offer a few thoughts on the recently announced synopsis for the forthcoming Amazomg(tm) Middle-earth series.
I’m going to cut straight to chase and simply start dissecting what I consider to be the guts of their statement. The implicit assumption is that the series is focusing on events of the Second Age. Given the content of the maps revealed by the production crew, I think we’re long past the time where that’s a controversial conclusion.
But what does the rest mean? Given that the Second Age covers more than 3000 years, can we narrow down what time period the series may address?
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.
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.
Don’t disturb the water
By D.McGlinchey
Don’t disturb the water, it is best to leave It be. For I fear there’s something hid within its quiet serenity. Don’t disturb the water, come away now we must go. I know the calmness of the top can hide turbulence below. Don’t disturb the water, something’s watching as we go. Hasten now from the waters edge ere it drags us down below.
~~ * ~~
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.
“Far, far below the deepest delving of the dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he. Now I have walked there, but I will bring no report to darken the light of day.” (Gandalf, p.122, The Two Towers)
Hobbit, Ent, Orc, Fell Beast – Tolkien’s world is rich with the great and small, good and evil, heroic and cowardly; all unique, all memorable. But it is the one brief description, that has sat at the back of my mind for many years, that has intrigued me most. We can always ask questions about alternative history – what would have happened if… and why didn’t… – and have a relatively strong consensus about what may or may not happen; but what about those things that we cannot explain, nor even so much as describe? I am, of course, talking about the ‘nameless things’, who dwell deep within the fabric of the world.
These creatures: Do they bear claws? Do they have multiple eyes or limbs? Do they have rows and rows of sharpened teeth? Who knows? Only our imaginations. It is our imaginations that forge the images we perceive from those few written words upon the page; and it is those few words that make all the difference from a passing description, to a hidden labyrinth of endless possibility and imagery.
“Imagination is the reality of the dreamer.” (Ringenbach 2020) How apt is that statement? It’s something I’m sure even Tolkien would approve of. It was never Tolkien’s intent to embed reality within our minds, but for us to decide upon the reality we perceive from his words; perhaps, in a way, like the Bible.
Who could be aware of such creatures without name, nor form? Eru perhaps? They are, after all, dwelling within the world he created. Surely, of all beings, he would be the most aware of their presence? Could the Valar know of them; those supposedly, ‘all-wise’, ‘all-knowing’ beings who live far from the troubles of Middle-earth? I think not. They were blind to Morgoth’s manipulations during his time in Valinor, the fight of the Noldor, and many more events that shaped the First Age and beyond. Perhaps Morgoth? Some make the claim that the nameless things are creatures of the Dark Lord’s design during the early days of the world, perhaps bred in the lairs of Utumno and Angband. I find this unlikely, as not even Sauron was aware of their presence, as Gandalf states in The Two Towers. As Sauron was Morgoth’s lieutenant, he would be privy to his master’s council and command, rendering any argument for Sauron’s awareness and therefore the likelihood of Morgoth’s creation of them completely improbable. One being that would almost certainly be aware of them would be the Balrog, Durin’s Bane, as it was he who fought Gandalf to the very bowels of the earth, and used the tunnels made by the nameless things to dwell in and travel through. It could even be possible that Durin’s Bane fought with them, mirroring the battle between Morgoth and the Balrogs against Ungoliant, thousands of years before. Perhaps this is some wishful thinking, but I believe that was Tolkien’s intention – to encourage more wishful thinking among his readers.
Heather Hudson – The Nameless Thing
I would tell you to bear this in mind – are these creatures not of the same design as Ungoliant, the Great Spider; wrenched from the void during the Ainulindalë as the songs of both Eru and Morgoth brought unbalance to the One’s creation? It must be this riff that brought the void’s darkness into the world and, over time, this darkness manifesting itself into those nameless things Gandalf later describes.
The nameless things then, are creatures akin to Ungoliant, who was the incarnation of the void itself: a force of pure darkness, always hungry, always devouring, that brought even Morgoth to heel. If she, a single creature of this kind, could have wrought so much devastation to both the Valar, by draining the life of Laurelin and Telperion (the Two Trees of Valinor), and to Morgoth (by trapping him within her darkened web), then who knows what those nameless things could conjure? As it states, there are multiple ‘things’, so how do we know that, given the chance, they wouldn’t grow to the size of Ungoliant, or even supersede her?
Despite Tolkien’s tendency to narrate the battle between good and evil, he has, perhaps without even realising, created another battle; the battle between light and dark. This is certainly not the same as good versus evil. It is easy for people to categorise light with good and darkness with evil, as this is the perception we often grow up with from our parents telling us stories, to watching children’s programmes or reading superhero comics. It is a very religious narrative, and with Tolkien’s strong practice of Catholicism, it is understandable, but predictable. But this battle between light and dark signifies more the battle between life and death. Nothing can grow without light. No flower. No tree. Nothing. It is what the nameless things typify: the devouring of all life without care, nor understanding for good versus evil; and that is arguably a far greater foe than Morgoth ever could be.
I believe they lie in wait, trapped within their own darkened labyrinth; a prison matched only by the Timeless Void in which Morgoth awaits his fateful return to the world, wrapped within the chains of Angainor and collared by his own monstrous iron crown. Perhaps, when the fateful day of Dagor Dagorath arises, then these creatures will finally rear their heads and reach the surface, hell- bent to extinguish all light within Eä.
– Liam Clements-Pope
Liam is a guest writer for TheOneRing.net and a student at the University of South Wales, UK. He is also an aspiring film director/screenwriter.
References: Tolkien J.R.R. (1954) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. George Allen and Unwin. Ringenbach. S. (2020) Quotes.net (15/11/2020)
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.
