Our spies are everywhere…  Our crebain from Dunland reported back to us that Gandalf, aka Sir Ian Mckellen, was spotted at a performance of ‘The Book of Mormon’ in New York City on Thursday evening.  Hopefully he’ll be back in Middle-earth before Bilbo and the gang get into too much trouble…

In the US, tournament frenzy hits every March with the onset of the NCAA’s Men’s Basketball March Madness tournament. We thought this year would be a good opportunity for the entire Tolkien community to participate in a special tournament of our own. So without further delay we are announcing the Middle-earth Madness Tournament! The goal is to settle, once and for all, which character is favored most by Tolkien fans worldwide. To start off the process, the staff at TheOneRing.net compiled a list of 46 finalists. We need to weed this list down to 32 total contestants. To do that, we are going to ask you to vote for up to three characters in the poll below. Voting will be open until Feb 29th at Noon ET. We will then compile the results and create our tournament bracket with seeding based on total votes. It should be noted, much like the men’s basketball tournament in, our Middle-earth Madness selection committee does reserve the right to adjust results a bit in the spirit of competition. (and like the men’s basketball committee, some of the decisions are sure to be controversial!!) So without further delay, let the voting begin!

Continue reading “Announcing The Middle-earth March Madness Tournament!”

Do you use Facebook? Have you been looking for a really really cool Tolkien themed image to use as your timeline cover photo? Well…we are too! Since TheOneRing.net is in a unique position to reach out to thousands of creative Tolkien fans from all over the world, we thought it might be a novel idea to use that opportunity and create a comprehensive Tolkien themed Facebook cover photo gallery. After we have compiled all of the photos, we’ll publish them as a photo album on our Facebook page, which currently has over 50,000 fans! It is a great opportunity to get your name and talents out in front of the entire community. If you are interested in creating a cover photo, details will be posted below on this article. If there are any businesses out there that want to offer up a prize for the most popular photo, just contact us! UPDATE – Wow, what a great response so far! We’ve already got a gallery going on Facebook using your submissions. [Cover Photo Gallery]

Continue reading “Make a Tolkien Themed Facebook Cover Photo!”

TORn has discovered a Tolkien-inspired children’s picture book called Nimpentoad by Henry Herz and his young sons Josh and Harrison.   Five years ago, Henry began drafting a story which he shared with his sons, and they would give their dad ideas on how to improve it.  The boys began creating and naming the characters, including the main creature and title’s namesake… Nimpentoad.   Being avid fans of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films and J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, their imagination was fueled by those works as their fantasy world took shape.  Working together, they created a mysterious forest called Grunwald filled with mean Goblins, hungry Neebels, thundering Rhinotaurs, huge Orcs, a frustrated Giant, and the smallest of the inhabitants… Niblings.   The most resourceful and brave of the Niblings is Nimpentoad.

Continue reading “I have a Nibling infestation!”

Hobbit Calendar 2012: BilboSo, how is 2012 treating you so far?  We’re just a few days into the year, but I bet more than a few of you are realizing while it may be ‘Hobbit year,’ we’re still a loooooooonnng way off from December. Sob.

Well, to help you mark the time between now and then, we asked TORn staffer magpie to design some desktop calendars for the TORn community. She rose to the challenge and created two wallpapers — one Bilbo, one Thorin — which we hope you all will love as much as we do.  Please click through and choose the image best sized for your monitor. And enjoy!

Continue reading ““The Hobbit” 2012 Desktop Calendars”

Welcome to our collection of TORn’s hottest topics for the past YEAR.  We’ve collected some of 2011’s most popular posts on 10 of our Discussion Boards.  You’ll be surprised at what captured the attention and imagination of our posters.  Come have a look back at what has kept us busy as we patiently [?] wait for news of the filming of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. We actually did manage to talk about many fascinating things.  Just follow the links to some of our most popular discussions for 2011. Watch this space as every weekend we will spotlight the most popular buzz on TORn’s Message Boards. Everyone is welcome, so come on in and join in the fun!
Continue reading “TORn Message Boards Weekly Roundup – Special New Years Edition!!”