We are having a great time live blogging from #Hobbitcon (Comic-Con)! If you haven’t been following along, staffers are tweeting, posting pics, sharing thoughts and occasionally streaming LIVE video from all areas of the big show – making it seem like you are right there with us in San Diego! We toured booths from WETA, LEGO, Sideshow, Bridge Direct, Gentle Giant and many more on the live stream, as well as hung out with Andy Serkis, Elijah Wood and Richard Taylor! Today should be even more historic as we cover the official Hobbit Panel at 2:30pm PT. Our team will report as much as we can via our LIVE coverage page, so join us there for the fun and frivolity! See you there! [LIVE from Comic-Con 2012] Please do take a moment to share that link with your friends and family.

(And, if you enjoy this type of coverage from us, please consider a small donation to help us handle the expenses. Even just a few dollars can go a long way!)


Over at Elendilion.pl, the folks of Gwaith-i-Phethdain, (which means The Fellowship of the Word-smiths) have been doing some linguistic research based on the latest close-up pictures of Dwalin’s axes and Thorin Oakenshield’s Orcrist.

They report the runic (Angerthas Moria) inscriptions on Dwalin’s axes are Neo-Khuzdûl words that probably mean Grasper and Keeper. Apparently it’s a pun reference to the Bronte sisters’ pet dogs? The runes on Orcrist (scribed using Angerthas Daeron) translate as Tooth of Snake Orcrist.

Highlight the above to reveal some minor linguistic spoilers, then read on for some much bigger spy news! Continue reading “Spy news: Dwalin’s runes, Orcrist, Thranduil and wargs!”

Christopher Tolkien is the youngest son of J.R.R. Tolkien, and his literary executor. He recently gave a rare interview to French newspaper Le Monde. In it, he talks about his father’s works, reputation, and the slow evolution of Tolkien’s Middle-earth.

The posterity of J.R.R. Tolkien is both the story of an extraordinary literary transmission from a father to a son, and the story of a misunderstanding. The most well-known works, the ones that have hidden the rest, were only an epiphenomenon in the eyes of their author…

[In French] | [English translation]

TheOneRing.net were invited to tour the Gentle Giant Studios just before Comic-Con to get an exclusive sneak peak of their HOBBIT line of mini-busts. This report will show you a few images of completed busts, and a few images of ‘works in progress’ so that you can learn what goes into making these delightful collectibles.

It was an invitation met with a resounding “yes!” by TORn staffers Garfeimao and Quickbeam, when both realized they could glimpse very early into the process of the digital magic at Gentle Giant.  The digi-wizards at GG provide incredibly high-res digital imaging of characters and pieces to filmmakers, visual FX companies like WETA, toy manufacturers, and animation studios.  The resulting 3D digitization can lend itself to effects work, masks, and remarkable sculptures…. More after the break with a gallery of exclusive images of yet-to-be-released HOBBIT characters!

Continue reading “TORn’s Exclusive *1st Look* at Gentle Giant’s Hobbit Line!”

We are very excited to share with you our LIVE coverage from this year’s Comic-Con, now appropriately renamed #HobbitCon! Throughout the next few days, our 100% volunteer staff will descend on San Diego to give all of us who can’t make it to the show, the best LIVE coverage a not for profit website can muster! That includes a live blogging feature which follows select staffers as they work their way around the exhibit hall and panels, a LIVE video feed from the TORn Tuesday team and Stickam.com, and a special Flickr gallery that we hope to update often with great Tolkien related photos. In a year in which The Hobbit will rule Comic-Con, we want to give you the absolute best online experience possible. All of this takes place in our LIVE event center – http://www.theonering.net/sdcc. As we all know, if you step on the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to! [LIVE from Comic-Con 2012] Please do take a moment to share that link with your friends and family. 

(And, if you enjoy this type of coverage from us, please consider a small donation to help us handle the expenses. Even just a few dollars can go a long way!)





From our friends at the Tolkien Society: The Tolkien Society is pleased to announce that this year’s Oxonmoot will take place on 21st-23rd September at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. This year will be The Tolkien Society’s 38th Oxonmoot and will include fellowship, talks and panels, friendly discussion, a quiz, an art exhibition and a party with a raft of creative opportunities! This year’s Oxonmoot is particularly special as The Tolkien Society will be holding a celebration in honour of the 75th anniversary of the publication of The HobbitThe Hobbit was first published on the 21st September 1937 and has become one of the world’s most popular books: it has been translated into over 50 languages and estimates put sales of The Hobbit at over 100 million worldwide.

Continue reading “Announcing Oxonmoot 2012, Celebrating 75 years of Tolkien’s The Hobbit”