A couple of weeks ago we revealed LOTRProject’s new interactive map of Middle-earth — complete with key dates,…
Continue ReadingA couple of weeks ago we revealed LOTRProject’s new interactive map of Middle-earth — complete with key dates, events and character movements for events of the Second Age and Third Age.
Now Emil Johannson has reached back into the events of the Elder Days of Middle-earth’s history, creating a similar interactive map that depicts the key events of the elves’ war against Morgoth on a map of Beleriand. Continue reading “Explore this great interactive map of lost Beleriand”
As soon as you open your copy of The Silmarillion, you are faced with what is perhaps the most difficult chapter in all of the book.
Have you ever tried to image how the scene of the Music of the Ainur and the vision of the world, would unfold?
How is Tolkien’s highly-complex imagination perceived by you?
The following post presents a three-minute video with one fan’s outlook towards the Ainulindalë.
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– Comprehending and Conceptualizing the Ainulindalë in the real world
Ever read Dante Alighieri’s La Vita Nuova?
That passion. That love. All the emotions in just a few cleverly-constructed sentences.
Transform that text into music and you get Patrick Cassidy’s Vide Cor Meum; and you might just start to comprehend what the Music of the Ainur may have sounded like.
No discords of Melkor. At first.
Just all the Ainur signing in unison before the seat of Ilúvatar – the glory, the majesty, love and subtleties of nostalgia.
The results are in! After three weeks of intense competition we can finally crown a winner! In the end, Thranduil — the Sindarin king of the Woodland Realm — has taken the crown in our 2014 Middle-earth March Madness contest!
We received more than 20,000 votes in the final, and Thranduil (Thrandy to his nearest and dearest?) soundly defeated his worthy opponent Legolas (aka Leggy) with 64.18% of those votes! I guess it is good to be king!
We’d like to thank you all for participating in this year’s event and hope you had a fun time discussing the finer points of your favourite Middle-earth characters and objects, regardless of whether you viewed the contests as a physical battle, a game of wits, or a popularity contest (all valid ways to vote!). It’s also a neat way to explore what makes these characters such interesting and vital parts of Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
Continue reading “Congratulations to our 2014 Middle-earth March Madness champion: Thranduil!”
There’s a lot of excitement floating round academic communities for J.R.R. Tolkien’s forthcoming Beowulf translation (which you can pre-order here) where the prevailing buzz seems to be “best thing since slices bread”. Here, writer Mabel Slattery outlines why.
EDIT: There is an error of fact within the article. Michael Drout did not actually re-discover Tolkien’s Beowulf translation.
I did not “discover” the Beowulf translation, not even in the sense that I found it in the Bodleian Library. This claim is a conflation of a story about one manuscript with information about a totally different text.
The real story is not quite as exciting.
You can read Drout’s explanation in full here.
Don’t forget to click the link to read the full article. Continue reading “Why Tolkien’s Beowulf translation is one of the best things to happen to literature”
Welcome to our collection of TORn’s hottest topics for the past week. If you’ve fallen behind on what’s happening on the Message Boards here’s a great way to catch the highlights. Or if you’re new to TORn and want to enjoy some great conversations, just follow the links to some of our most popular discussions. Watch this space as every weekend we well spotlight the most popular buzz on TORn’s Message Boards. Everyone is welcome, so come on in and join the fun!
Continue reading “TORn Message Boards Weekly Roundup – April 6, 2014”
In what is possibly of the biggest boilovers imaginable, Middle-earth March Madness for 2014 has come down to a father-son battle for the title honours!
That’s right: it’s a Thranduil vs Legolas final.
After a very slow semi-final start, Thranduil clawed his way back through the field to eventually topple Aragorn out of the contest, while Legolas and Thorin waged a neck-and-neck battle for quite some time before the former pulled away in the vote.