We have a pretty fantastic contest lined up for you the fans starting today! We’re pleased to announce that thanks to our friends at HarperCollins Publishers we will be giving away not one but FIVE copies of the amazing art book by Weta Workshop for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. This amazing art book is filled to the brim with great images of what it took to bring this movie to life. The cherry on top of the goodness that will be inside for the five lucky fans though is that Evangeline Lilly aka Tauriel has graciously signed these five copies. So not only do you get a great art book but you get one of the fine actors who worked on these movies signature. This contest will run from today through midnight PST on New Year’s Eve. Please when you fill out this form you must include your name, address, email address, and a phone number.
Category: Books Publications

Rare and Unique Items from Greg and Tim Hildebrandt Available Now!
Back in the 1970’s Greg and Tim Hildebrandt created 3 Tolkien themed calendars for Ballantine Books, beginning around the time of the 25th anniversary of the publishing of ‘The Lord of the Rings’. During this resurgence of popularity for Tolkien’s collective works, those calendars provided an entire generation’s vision of Middle-earth and all the characters within. Since the release of those calendars, very few alternative versions of those images have been available outside of the calendars and a few art books. Greg and Tim were always very particular about the quality of how their art was showcased. That is all changing, much of this work is now being released in multiple formats that meet with Greg’s exacting standards. Continue reading “Classic Hildebrandt Artwork Exclusively Available in New Formats”

The Short Version: Not Good, Good, Great, or Awesome? It’s great. This book is not only beautiful and bursting with Tolkien art, but it also gives a chronological, detailed overview of the state of Tolkien interpretive art to date. Lovely and informative, with only a few things that I wish could have been improved.
Cut to the Chase: Do You Want This Book for Christmas? Absolutely, you do! Continue reading “Anwyn’s Review of Middle-earth Envisioned by Brian J. Robb and Paul Simpson”
Its always nice to hear from Weta Workshop, but its especially nice when they drop something beautiful in our mailbox. This time it is concept art work from “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles: Art & Design,” book. Written by Daniel Falconer, this is likely to be an amazing book. TORn got its first look at a similar book by Falconer for the previous movie and it turned out to be as stunning as we imagined it might be. Those who have had occasion to meet the author, who does extensive design work for Weta, know that he is gracious and smart and passionate about the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

They also included some previously released Elf concept art which you can see below. You can order the book RIGHT HERE. Expect this art to pop up in other places soon and more will be released as Weta and HarperCollins see fit, but for Hobbit fans, this may be among the very best of seasonal gifts.
For those of us who have made a habit out of collecting the various tie-in books that have been released alongside Peter Jackson’s Tolkien adaptations – Jude Fisher is a name that springs instantly to mind. She is the author of the Visual Companion books that have come out with each Continue reading “Creating a Visual Companion: Jude Fisher talks about her life in Middle-earth”
“In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit.”
One of the great joys of these words is that they are available in so many different languages, as are the countless sentences that follow. They are accessible to so many different cultures and nationalities. Now, for the very first time, Professor Tolkien’s brilliant classic “The Hobbit” is available in the official Yiddish translation, approved by the Tolkien Estate – through Harvard Book Store. Continue reading “Journey There and Back Again with the Official Yiddish Translation of ‘The Hobbit’”

