The folks from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt send this bit of coolness to us! They want to whet your appetites for the May 5th release of ‘The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún’, take a look at the foreword written by Christopher Tolkien!
In his essay On Fairy-Stories (1947) my father wrote of books that he read in his childhood, and in the course of this he said:
I had very little desire to look for buried treasure or fight pirates, and Treasure Island left me cool. Red Indians were better: there were bows and arrows (I had and have a wholly unsatisfied desire to shoot well with a bow), and strange languages, and glimpses of an archaic mode of life, and above all, forests in such stories. But the land of Merlin and Arthur were better than these, and best of all the nameless North of Sigurd and the Völsungs, and the prince of all dragons. Such lands were pre-eminently desirable. Continue reading “Christopher Tolkien’s Foreword to ‘Sigurd and Gudrún’!”
Joel writes: Check out these review comments from people on Amazon regarding the blu-ray release of the theatrical editions. There’s a story there how, in this economy, people are angry at New Line for doing the ‘double dipping’ by releasing the theatrical first, and the extended later. It has forced the trilogy down to a 2-star average rating. I’ve not seen something quite like this before – love of the film, but such anger over a release/marketing policy. There’s 34 pages of >90% bitter reviews.
Xoanon here: I’m not too sure how much of ‘New Line Cinema’ exists, so venting to them may not help. LOTR is now a property of Warner Bros., and I assume the release schedule is of their doing. One sure fire way to get their attention is to visit this link and send them a kindly worded email expressing your disappointment. You never know, fans made LOTR a hit, and perhaps we can make a difference here as well.
From thebookseller.com: J R R Tolkien will move into the digital age as HarperCollins begins selling his Lord of the Rings series as enhanced e-books.
As The Bookseller went to press, the publisher said it was planning to issue Tolkien’s entire back catalogue as e-books, beginning with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit and The Children of Húrin from today [20th April]. The e-books will include the maps and runes contained in the traditional print books and will be on sale at waterstones.com, harpercollinsebooks.co.uk and tolkien.co.uk. Waterstone’s will have a dedicated author page featuring the e-books from today.
David Roth-Ey, director of digital business development, said that the launch was the “most significant e-book initiative” the publisher has done so far. He said: “This is something that the fans so clearly wanted. Releasing Tolkien in e-books is something that has long been a goal of ours and we wanted to create high-quality legal versions of these books. It was a long -process—with the maps and runes, it’s slightly more complicated than [digitising] your average thriller.” HC turns Middle Earth digital
Claire writes: Amazon UK are offering the standard edition of ‘Sigurd and Gudrun’ at half price for pre-order – that’s £9.49 instead of £18.99 (though there’s postage in addition, of course, unless you qualify for one of their free postage deals). The special edition is also being offered at a considerable discount, £34.99 instead of £60.00.
GaladrielTX writes: Profiles in History is running a huge auction of movie memorabilia at the end of this month. Lot # 706 is a limited edition The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring print signed by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Alan Lee and “two pieces of fantasy horror art”. It’s estimated to sell at $200-$300. Film buffs will no doubt drool over the props they have up for sale (from other movies), too. LOTR Goodies at Auction
Sideshow Collectibles has just fully revealed their latest in the LOTR Diorama series: ‘The Shades of Mordor’ Ringwraith Diorama. The very dynamic piece captures a moment in time as the Ringwraiths approach the Hobbits on Weathertop. While the Hobbits are not featured in the diorama, an exclusive edition (limited to 400) will be available and includes a Frodo companion statue. We don’t now about you, but we believe the Elijah Wood likeness on the exclusive is spot on! If you are interested in getting the exclusive Frodo statue, you will need to be eligible for the Priority Pre-Order event taking place tomorrow (friday, april 17th) at 10AM PT. For the complete gallery of this collectible and details on how to qualify for the exclusive, follow the links below. (BTW – Act before midnight, as that is the cut off time to be eligible for the exclusive) [Preview] [Production Blog with Full Gallery]
The folks from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt send this bit of coolness to us! They want to whet your appetites for the May 5th release of ‘The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún’, take a look at the foreword written by Christopher Tolkien! 
![The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (Theatrical Editions) [Blu-ray]](http://www.theonering.net/torwp/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/51x3aa9fknl_sl500_aa240_-150x150.jpg "The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (Theatrical Editions) [Blu-ray]")
