Our own Cliff “Quickbeam” Broadway got the chance to have a few words with Richard Armitage in the Hall H press session. Armitage read The Hobbit as a young child of seven, and (among other things) spoke about the responsibility that comes with taking on a role in a universe with such depth that it feels like it could have existed.
Choice quote: “…and then actually putting the costume on and trying to make that character live and breath and walk and talk. It’s like you’re given this responsibility to every other person who’s read them, who’s reading the books for the first time or who has read them when they were seven. That’s the responsibility — and you have to own that for everyone.”
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The Tolkien scholarly community is afire with curiosity and rumours after it emerged that a new Tolkien book is on the horizon. The book, which we understand will be called The Fall of Arthur appears to be set for a May 2013 release going from pre-order information that inadvertently popped up on the website of retailing giant Amazon. It’s possible that it has been edited by Christopher Tolkien, but this is unconfirmed.
The Fall of Arthur is a long, alliterative poem based on Arthurian legends. Some excerpts from it were published in Humphrey Carpenter’s biography of JRR Tolkien. It seems it was written in the 1930s. In Letters of JRR Tolkien there is a bare mention of The Fall of Arthur.
I write alliterative verse with pleasure, though I have published little beyond fragments in The Lord of the Rings, except ‘The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth’… a dramatic dialogue on the nature of the ‘heroic’ and the ‘chivalrous’. I still hope to finish a long poem on The Fall of Arthur in the same measure. Letter 165, Letters of JRR Tolkien.
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From our friends at the Tolkien Society: The Tolkien Society is pleased to announce that this year’s Oxonmoot will take place on 21st-23rd September at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. This year will be The Tolkien Society’s 38th Oxonmoot and will include fellowship, talks and panels, friendly discussion, a quiz, an art exhibition and a party with a raft of creative opportunities! This year’s Oxonmoot is particularly special as The Tolkien Society will be holding a celebration in honour of the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit. The Hobbit was first published on the 21st September 1937 and has become one of the world’s most popular books: it has been translated into over 50 languages and estimates put sales of The Hobbit at over 100 million worldwide.
Continue reading “Announcing Oxonmoot 2012, Celebrating 75 years of Tolkien’s The Hobbit”
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The University of Illinois has just announced a topic for its Engaged Citizenship Common Experience Speakers Series. On July 17, 2012, it will present Sanctifying Myths: The currency of class, gender, and courage in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings & Peter Jackson’s films.
Dr Donna Bussell, PhD, will highlight Tolkien’s understanding of the spiritual and cultural work of mythology and manifestations of courage in major characters such as Frodo, Sam, Arwen and Aragorn.
Her talk also explores the importance of minor characters whose roles (and lower status) reveal much about the nature of courage in relation to class and gender in the story. Bussell concludes with a few thoughts on how these ideas are (or are not) treated in Jackson’s films, and the implications of these revisions for the transmission of Tolkien’s ideals.
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Tolkien researcher John Garth is the author of Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth. Michael Martinez, who describes it as “a great biographical portrait of a young man who sees his world divided between life and death” chats with the author over on Xenite.org about how Tolkien’s experiences of war might have influenced his fiction.
An excerpt:
From almost as early as [Tolkien] could remember he had lived in and around Birmingham, one of the biggest industrial cities of the era, and as a lover both of nature and of rural life he was acutely aware of the encroachment of the town. He was also well aware of the Arts & Crafts Movement spearheaded by William Morris, one of his favourite authors (The House of the Wolfings, The Roots of the Mountains, etc.), and I’m sure his own views on the alienating effects of ‘mechanical’ labour were considerably shaped by those of Morris and his followers.
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Wellington will roll out its really, really long red carpet and throw a world-class party for “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” on November 28. The date of the event has been guessed about for months but today it was confirmed in New Zealand.
The Embassy Theatre has long been the expected spot of the premiere and today’s story confirms it, giving the beautiful site another world-class event to go along with its 2003 hosting of “The Return of the King.” (You can check out TORn’s scrapbook of that event right here.)
Middle-earth royalty, many from the film, would be likely to attend and walk down Wellington’s Courtenay Place which serves as a weekend hot-spot in Wellington that typically stays open until the sun rises.
“I know I speak for a company of hobbits, dwarves, elves and orcs when I say that this city holds a special place in all our hearts,” director Peter Jackson said of the event at www.stuff.co.nz.
“We cannot think of a more perfect way to send ‘The Hobbit’ off into the world than to celebrate with a huge party here in Wellington, where the journey began.”
TheOneRing.net, long friends with Red Carpet Tours, is supporting their longer tour of Middle-earth, one we definitely recommend, but also hope to put together a shorter trip focused on the premiere. You can read Red Carpet’s full itinerary and sign up while details for a micro-trip will be announced ASAP. In addition, both groups will host a joint party in Wellington at a hotel in central Wellington
The two films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” is currently filming and is expected to finish principal photography later this month with pickups for the first film scheduled for later. TheOneRing.net spent a five-week stint embedded on set for the films with content coming later, as agreed before the embed began. We also fully expect to cover the premiere, and everything else ‘Hobbit’ related, as possible.
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