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.

Raynor Memorial Library at Marquette University. Credit: Marquette University. Creative Commons.
Raynor Memorial Library at Marquette University. Credit: Marquette University. Creative Commons.
The Raynor Memorial Library at Marquette University in Milwaukee is home to original manuscripts and working drafts for three of the J.R.R. Tolkien’s most celebrated works: The Hobbit, Farmer Giles of Ham, and The Lord of the Rings. It also holds the original copy of the children’s book Mr. Bliss and has, over the years, grown to become one of the largest repositories of secondary works on Tolkien and his writing.

If you’ve never visited the Tolkien Collection or are unaware of the contents of the archive, this two-part report from Tolkienist and Norse mythologist Dr Karl Seigfried documents just some of the literary treasures it holds. Continue reading “A field trip to the Marquette University Tolkien archives”

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.

Complete ROTK 'For Your Consideration' Ads.
Return of the King ‘For Your Consideration’ Ads for the 2004 Academy Awards.
How exactly did New Line go about mounting its campaign that 10 years ago won The Return of the King a history-making 11 Academy Awards? Vanity Fair interviewed many of those at New Line who were involved in the multi-million-dollar campaign, and the effect that the commercial and critical success had on the way Hollywood views fantasy films.

The biggest problem –– and this started with Fellowship –– was we had the dreaded F word; we were the fantasy movie, and there was no fantasy movies that ever won for best picture. Russell Schwartz, executive vice president of marketing at New Line Cinema in 2004.

Thanks to Ringer Boromir’s Bane for the heads-up. Continue reading “How The Return of the King won best picture and 11 Oscars”

Mid-earthJ.R.R. Tolkien changed fantasy books and publishing forever with his inclusion of maps of Middle-earth. One of the staples of world-building fantasy novels since, maps tell readers they aren’t quite in Kansas anymore and help them know they are instead in places like Westeros or Randland.

So it’s absolutely fitting that the Middle-Earth DEM Project (somebody tell those amazing folks its lower case “e”) is putting Middle-earth in the hands of the public with views from space and can also be explored on foot virtually. The video above demonstrates that walk while the link to the project gives you choices of how you wish to see Middle-earth. Enjoy as team continues its work to put Middle-earth everywhere, including a demo you can download.

NazgulJed

TORN’s latest library piece tries to uncover the origins of the Ringwraiths.

Some of Tolkien’s most mysterious and alluring characters in Middle-earth, the Nazgûl have remained in the shadows (no pun intended) ever since their appearance in The Lord of the Rings.

The following article has examines many of Tolkien’s sources in an attempt to “map out” the possible locations where the Nazgûl may have originally come from. Continue reading “On the identity and origins of the Nazgûl”

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.

DisneyMordorCalling all Dwarves, Elves, Hobbits and Wizards, you are hereby invited to ‘Ringers take Disneyland’ on Saturday, March 1 as part of the Oscar weekend festivities for fans of Middle-earth. Disneyland has been the site for Star Wars days, Potter Days, Browncoat Days and more, so why not fans of Middle-earth?

Here at TORn headquarters, we began to wonder what else we could do on Oscar weekend apart from our “One Dragon, One Party” that would be fun for locals and out-of-towners alike. LA and Hollywood are a popular tourist destination for dozens of reasons, but we needed a place that everyone wants to go to at least once in their lifetime, and is also family friendly and super fun. Disneyland fits the bill in oh so many ways, not the least of which is the fact that it has Dwarves, a Wizard and Mines, as well as many other Middle-earth-like realms and magical folk.  
Continue reading “Ringers take Disneyland on March 1, 2014”