John Howe. Photo: Fataneh Howe. Check out this interview with interview that Ethan Gilsdorf conducted with John Howe over two sessions in January and July last year. It’s a corker.
Howe is, of course, a long-time Tolkien illustrator and is currently working with Alan Lee as Conceptual Designer for The Hobbit movie trilogy.
What folks call dark fantasy — that niche within fantasy of bloody tales full of morally grey people, supernatural forces and a distinct lack of happy endings — has become incredibly popular over the last few years.
But who are the progenitors of the dark fantasy movement? What are their key works?
Here’s a thought-provoking list from io9 of some of the landmark titles that have helped define dark fantasy. It contains some interesting entries.
One readers of Tolkien will certainly recognise is The Children of Hurin — a grim read if ever there was one. Beowulf and The Kalavela were also key inspirations for Tolkien. Victorian proto-fantasy author William Morris was too, although Tolkien’s letters cite influence from The House of the Wolflings and The Roots of the Mountains rather than Williams’ archaically-styled magnum opus The Well at the World’s End. Continue reading “A list of the landmark novels in the history of Dark Fantasy”
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.
Tolkien scholar John Garth reviews Tolkien’s long-awaited translation of Beowulf (together with the short story Sellic Spell) in The New Statesman.
J R R Tolkien’s Beowulf: one man’s passion for the threshold between myth and reality
by John Garth
In his story “Leaf by Niggle”, J R R Tolkien imagines an artist painting a picture he can neither complete nor abandon. “It had begun with a leaf caught in the wind, and it became a tree; and the tree grew, sending out innumerable branches, and thrusting out the most fantastic roots.” In the end the picture is never put on show. Continue reading “John Garth reviews Tolkien’s Beowulf translation”
In our latest Library feature, Tedoras muses on how we can view Gandalf as the prime extension of the will of J.R.R. Tolkien within The Lord of Rings.
Gandalf as Tolkien’s Will
By Tedoras
“Hobbits really are amazing creatures,” a wise man once remarked. While Gandalf was indeed right about that, it is a rather fatuous comment for such a sage to make. The praises of the halflings are sung perpetually in our fandom, as they rightfully are affirmed by their deeds in the legendarium. But it is certainly time we reexamined our relationship with Gandalf — for here, truly, is an amazing creature.
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.
In 1911, when Tolkien was only 19, he travelled with a on a walking tour of the Swiss Alps. It was his first and only experience of truly large mountains, and as he later made clear in several of his letters, the experience inspired the mountain landscapes in his Middle-earth writings.
`Only once before have I seen them from afar in waking life, but I know them and their names, for under them lies Khazad-dûm, the Dwarrowdelf, that is now called the Black Pit, Moria in the Elvish tongue. Yonder stands Barazinbar, the Redhorn, cruel Caradhras; and beyond him are Silvertine and Cloudyhead: Celebdil the White, and Fanuidhol the Grey, that we call Zirak-zigil and Bundushathûr.
Gimli, The Lord of the Rings.
When mother Dis has had enough of Fili and Kili’s shenanigans, she leaves them in the woods with a mysterious stranger to whip them into shape by teaching them the basics of sword fighting. But who is the stranger? And can Fili and Kili actually learn or will they accidentally kill themselves?
What folks call dark fantasy — that niche within fantasy of bloody tales full of 
Tolkien scholar John Garth reviews Tolkien’s long-awaited translation of Beowulf (together with the short story Sellic Spell) in The New Statesman.
In our latest Library feature, Tedoras muses on how we can view Gandalf as the prime extension of the will of J.R.R. Tolkien within The Lord of Rings. 
In 1911, when Tolkien was only 19, he travelled with a on a walking tour of the Swiss Alps. It was his first and only experience of truly large mountains, and as he later made clear in several of his letters, the experience inspired the mountain landscapes in his Middle-earth writings.
