Shannon Erickson has a David and Goliath-type tale to share, inspired by a Google search. Erickson, who owns three local preschools — Hobbit Hill, Hobbit Hill Too and Hobbit Hill Cottage — is the “little guy” in this story. The big guy? The J.R.R. Tolkien Foundation of California. And in this version, the giant wins the battle. It all started about nine months ago, when Erickson was contacted by legal representatives of the late author, renowned for his books such as “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” series. They claimed that Tolkien invented the word “hobbit,” and that Erickson, tracked down via the popular Internet search engine, was illegally using the term for her businesses. Preschool owner learns origin of ‘hobbit’ is big deal
Category: Tolkien
A great piece of Tolkien history was posted on YouTube recently that you just can’t pass up. The Tolkien Library has published J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1971 Interview with Dennis Gerrolt of the BBC on YouTube, as well as the complete transcript at their website. Besides the wonderful content of the interview, there may be many in our audience who have never heard the professor’s voice before!
The Lord of the Rings has remained popular since the 1960s, and became a hugely successful film trilogy. Tolkien’s themes of fellowship, sacrifice and the importance of the natural world are traceable to his experiences in the First World War, as well as to a love of folklore and of myth. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in South Africa and educated at King Edward 1V School, Birmingham, and Oxford. His mother, who inspired a love of fairytales and Roman Catholicism, died when he was 12. The Times Names 50 greatest postwar writers: Tolkien Comes in 6th
January 12, 2008 — The White Tree Fund (TWTF) would like to thank everyone for the incredible reception of the inaugural issue of Silver Leaves and is now calling for submissions to its second issue. The theme for this issue is ‘The Inklings’ and all academic, journalistic, reflective, creative and artistic pieces relative to the collective group known as the Inklings or any of its individual members are welcome. Continue reading “‘Silver Leaves’ Call for Submissions”
If there are any horse-racing fans out there, check out this tidbit sent to use from Ringer Susanita: Silmaril has a chance to reach $1 million in earnings when she faces seven other fillies and mares in Saturday’s $80,000 What A Summer Stakes at Laurel Park. The 7-year-old is just $15,027 shy of becoming the 17th Maryland-bred and fifth mare in history to reach the milestone. A first or second place finish would allow the daughter of Diamond to join elite company.[Read More]
Mark Stewart writes: I’m writing about the University of Washington’s Tolkien lecture series that starts in a couple weeks. It was mentioned previously on theonering, but the full site with registration for all five evenings is now available. We’re trying to get the word out to Tolkien fans in the Seattle area. The speaker, Professor Robin Stacey, is a Tolkien scholar and wonderful lecturer. Details about each night of the series are available here. Other cool news is that we’ll probably be offering a podcast/streaming audio versions of the talks at some point after the series is over. Details will go up on the site.