fall of arthur Yours truly has been ever-so-slowly getting through the newest Tolkien book The Fall of Arthur for the last month-and-a-half with a hope of at some point stringing together a few poor words on the subject.

I’ve also been reading other what others have had to say in the media. This piece, by Tolkien scholar John Garth, is a good place to start if you’re interested.


Early in The Fall of Arthur, long awaited by fans of J.R.R. Tolkien and now edited for publication by his son Christopher, an army rides to Mirkwood where they see in a storm above it, Ringwraith-like:

wan horsemen     wild in windy clouds
grey and monstrous     grimly riding
shadow-helmed to war,     shapes disastrous.

But this isn’t Middle-earth: it is Europe on the brink of the Dark Ages, and the army is led by Arthur and Gawain. Mirkwood is simply the old name for Germany’s eastern forests, which Tolkien borrowed for the children’s story he was writing in the same period in the early 1930s, The Hobbit.

Tolkien was a writer of endless stories. And as with most of them, The Fall of Arthur is literally endless: unfinished. It’s been lying among his vast legacy of papers, almost unknown but for a paragraph in Humphrey Carpenter’s 1976 biography and a single reference in Tolkien’s published letters. Publication follows that of the more difficult The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún in 2009, which Christopher Tolkien probably elected to publish first because it was complete. Like Sigurd and Gudrún, The Fall of Arthur is in alliterative verse, a mode last fashionable in the 14th century.

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If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.

Eagles Help In this piece over on io9, Gibbelins discusses why Tolkien knew exactly what he was doing when he was using the Eagles of Manwë. It’s a bit sweary at times, so if you’re put off by strong language this is probably not the article for you. Good, thoughtful writing though. Continue reading “Why yes, the Eagles are ‘the God from the Machine’”

Cryptozoic and TheOneRing.net - LIVE from DragonConCryptozoic Entertainment and TheOneRing.net bring you LIVE streaming coverage from DragonCon! For the first time, catch 2 roving cameras walking about day and night covering the coolest Tolkien, Whovian, and gaming panels DragonCon has to offer. Learn to play the new Two Towers Deck Building Game from Cryptozoic, live from the gaming tables, then chat with Dwalin, Bifur and Azog themselves at a panel. Between panels, we’ll be walking around all day showcasing DragonCon vendors like Badali Jewelry, then bringing you epic cosplay for #TORnAfterDark. [Cryptozoic]

Join in the fun directly on our LIVE streaming page:  http://theonering.net/live
DragonCon Coverage Schedule:
Friday:
1:00 PM – Hobbit Panel w/ Graham McTavish, William Kircher, Manu Benett
8:30 PM – An Evening At Bree costume and dance party
Saturday:
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6:00 PM – TheOneRing Hobbit Panel
10:00 PM – Middle Earth Dance Party
Sunday:
1:00 PM – Desolation of Smaug preview w/ TheOneRing.net
6:00 PM – Hobbit Panel w/ Graham McTavish, William Kircher
Monday:
10:00 AM – Hobbit Panel w/ Graham McTavish, William Kircher, Sylvester McCoy, Manu Benett

 

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As you know, over the next couple of weeks or so TORn is conducting a pledge drive to raise funds and keep our servers running. But, as you might know, we also have some very exciting auctions going on over at ebay.

We have some fabulous, exclusive pieces up for grabs – including some things which, usually, money can’t buy! Here’s just three that might tickle your fancy:

Continue reading “TORn Light the Beacons auction: TORn Collector’s Ed of The Hobbit Magazine, LOTR PEZ gift set, The People’s Guide to J. R. R. Tolkien”

TORn logoBeginning last Saturday and running through to September 4, TheOneRing.net is hosting a Pledge Drive (see the banner at the top) as well as a bunch of auctions for some really cool memorabilia and collectibles.

The day-to-day operation of the website, and the events we host, require a lot more resources than when we first started nearly 15 years ago. We sometimes find it hard to ask our readers for the help we need to keep running, so we began discussing what it is that makes TheOneRing.net worth helping out. It started out as a search for the Top Ten Moments of TORn, but the list got so long because each staff member had their own idea of important moments in TORn history. Here, instead, is something more encompassing: Ten Ways TORn helps serve Tolkien and Lord of the Rings fandom (listed in no specific order).

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If you’ve ever sent in an article, submitted a photo or report, posted on our messageboards, visited our chat, or commented on our twitter, facebook or g+, you’re the reason TheOneRing.net is among the largest and most-respected pillars of the Tolkien community on the web.

Continue reading “Ten ways TORn serves Tolkien and Lord of the Rings fandom”

If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.