Glen GoodKnight, founder of the Mythopoeic Society, passed away Wednesday night, November 3rd. Glen founded the Mythopoeic Society in 1967 to further the study of the writings of C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams and J.R.R. Tolkien. In 1970, he organized the first of the now famous Mythcon conventions, still going strong today. Glen was active in the Mythopoeic Society for over 30 years and edited 78 issues of the society’s journal, Mythlore.

Thanks to squire for alerting our community to the sad news via the Reading Room discussion board. In squire’s words: ” I have long admired his dedication to his life’s work: to increase the world’s awareness of the importance of modern mythmakers like Tolkien and his fellow Inklings — to break down the walls of the fantasy ghetto. We on this site, and on this board especially, owe a great debt to him, whether we know it or not. I hope others will join me in wishing him an well-earned and honored rest in the home of his longfathers.” We couldn’t have said it any better, squire. Our sincere condolences go out to to Glen’s family and friends.

Announcing the Cruise to Middle-earth: The Sequel, Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Fellowship of the Ring.

TheOneRing.net staffer Garfeimao (aka Cathy) is planning our next Cruise to Middle-earth! Here’s all the details:

New Zealand will always be Middle-earth here at TORn. With that in mind, I am proud to announce a second cruise to Middle-earth. This is your chance to see the enchanting Land of the Long White Cloud and Middle-earth in the same place. Red Carpet Tours will be customizing short day tours for us from several of the ports, as well as a longer, optional post-cruise tour of locations not reachable from the ship.

This cruise will sail on the Celebrity Century from Sydney, Australia on November 30, 2011 and finish in Auckland, New Zealand on December 12, 2011. The bulk of the cruise will be in New Zealand waters, with stops at ports near several Lord of the Rings filming locations. The advantage of a cruise is that it acts as a hotel, a restaurant and transportation so that you need unpack only once during the cruise. It will give everyone in the group time to bond over dinner, to meet up during ‘at sea’ days to watch the films, and to even have a costume party. Exact optional tours are still in development at the moment, so please do contact me for more details.
Continue reading “Return to Middle-earth in 2011!”

New Zealand is not going down without a fight! Join the effort to keep The Hobbit in New Zealand by participating positive rallies throughout the country. A facebook page has been setup for the effort, including dates and times when rallies will be taking part in your town. If you are in New Zealand, join your fellow Kiwis this Labour Day Monday! [Facebook Page] [Rally Event Page to RSVP]

If you do attend, please send in your reports to spymaster@theonering.net. We’d love to hear from you all.

For the past four years we have covered the releases of The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica, a series by James A. Owen, in which Tolkien and fellow Inklings C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams are the Caretakers of the Atlas of the Imaginary Lands. October 19 marks the release of Book 5 in the series: The Dragon’s Apprentice.

The Caretakers must fight against their most fearsome enemy ever and attempt to restore Time. They must journey through a forgotten Door from the destroyed Keep of Time in order to seek out the Dragon’s Apprentice. If they fail, it will mean the end of both of the worlds. But success will carry its own price–a price that may be too high even for the Caretakers to bear.

James A. Owen is the author of hit series The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica. He was Guest of Honor at Myth Con 2009. Here, There be Dragons, Book 1 in the series, is being prepared for the big screen by producers Rick Porras and Mark Ordesky, who worked in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings.

Delayed Peter Jackson movie The Hobbit has shown signs of life with a preliminary casting call in Wellington.

The movie has been held up by the sale of the MGM studio, which owns half of the production.

Budding film stars of all shapes and sizes arrived from around the country.

A preliminary casting call is great news for Wellington’s film industry, but it wasn’t the happiest of days for some Hobbit hopefuls.

[Full story]

Empire Magazine asked their readers to vote on their favorite movie trilogies and Peter Jackson’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ has taken the top spot. LOTR beat out other film trios such as the original Star Wars films (2), Back to the Future  (3), Toy Story (4) and The Godfather (5). Not that we are biased or anything, but we believe the results came out as they should! Check out the full list over at Empire Online. Thanks to Ringer Mikstan for sending us the link. [33 Greatest Movie Trilogies] [LOTR Top Spot]