Nuradar writes: Harper-Collins Canada has announced the winner of its 2011 March Madness book contest. This year’s winner is THE HOBBIT! It beat out Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express to win the top place as best book of all time. hccmarchmadness.ca
Category: Merchandise
Signed copies of this brand new 2012 calendar are now
available to US, Canadian, and UK residents shipped directly
from illustrator Jef Murray. The calendar is loaded
with Middle-earth inspired paintings from Jef’s collection,
and half of all proceeds go to directly support The Long Expected Party 2 gathering
in Kentucky later this year.
[See below for info on two upcoming events with TORN blogger Ethan Gilsdorf]
I recently had a conversation with a man who scoffed at gaming and fantasy. The guy was a sports fan. So was I. But we didn’t see eye to eye. “That isn’t reality,” he said of my years reading J.R.R. Tolkien, playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, and my other interests in so-called “escapist” hobbies.
Fantasy and gaming are pointless, he said. Useless. What’s the point in playing them? Waste of time. But he’s wrong. Continue reading “When a Fantasy (Game) Is Better Than Reality (Baseball)”
Don’t forget our Bag End Giveaway running until April 13th 2011! TheOneRing.net is proud to team up with WETA Workshop to celebrate the start of production on ‘The Hobbit’ with a The Bag End Giveaway!
One lucky fan will walk away with this exquisite collectible replica of Bag End created by the renowned artists at Weta Workshop! Perfect for an office desk or at home, Bag End is a small scale reproduction of the best Hobbit hole in Hobbiton. It is sure to be the highlight of any The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit fan’s collection. Follow the link for entry details. [Learn More]
Been to Wellington? Couldn’t get that perfect memento of your visit? Daniel Reeve has filled a gap spotted by local tour company Rover Tours and Jack of the Noldor Blog, and created a Tolkien-inspired map of Wellington’s film sites. It’s in that authentic quill-pen, parchment style Reeve does so well. You can have fun translating the Reeves’ runes into real place names. No doubt there’ll be a mountain of Tolkien-themed goodies available when The Hobbit comes out, but in the meantime, there are a few of these available to buy right now. [See More]
Helmets off to Michael Noer at Forbes. He has written a tremendously funny and intelligent piece for Forbes as part of its “Fictional 15” look at fictionally rich characters, including everybody’s favorite worm of Middle-earth. He walks us through Smaug’s net worth:
We know from the novel that Smaug’s wealth comes down to three primary components, the mound of silver and gold that he sleeps on, the diamonds and other precious gemstones encrusted in his underbelly, and the “Arkenstone of Thrain,” which is depicted as something like the Hope Diamond on steroids.
Smaug The Unassessably Wealthy and 14 other fictional characters can be found here whiile the bit focusing on Tolkien’s creation can be found right here. Can two films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” (featuring Smaug) earn a sum equal to a dragon’s hoard? Enjoy and discuss!