While it isn’t exactly “news” it will be of a lot of interest to those who haven’t seen the 2011 version of the annual Tolkien calendar that Cor Blok is next year’s artist.
Blok is the only Tolkien artist living who met J.R.R. Tolkien in person and the English professor bought two paintings from the Dutch professor (history of art) and was given a third as a gift. Blok’s work, produced 50 years ago, is a definite departure from the more familiar works many fans are used to. He reportedly produced over 100 illustrations. You can pre-order it here and you can read a recent interview with Blok here. It is scheduled to be available in July.
From WAMC Radio: ALBANY, NY (WAMC) – Author Simon Tolkien received rave reviews for his first legal thriller, The Final Witness. Now, in The Inheritance, Tolkien sharpens his craft even more, deftly weaving psychological suspense and family drama to create a mystery steeped in memories, betrayal, and the long shadow of the past.
This book is very different than the famed writings of his Grandfather, J.R.R. Tolkien. Part courtroom drama and part historical thriller, The Inheritance is a dark thriller that tests the strength of blood ties, loyalty, and revenge. More..
The Hollywood Reporter reports: Travis Adam Wright has been hired to adapt “Here, There Be Dragons” and “The Search for the Red Dragon,” the first two books in James A. Owen’s popular young-adult fantasy series “The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica.”
The Gotham Group is producing the feature adaptations, with “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy co-producer Rick Porras also coming aboard to produce. Warner Bros. will distribute the films in the potential franchise.
So far, “Geographica,” which Owen also illustrates, includes four novels revolving around a secret book that contains the unpublished maps and journals of history’s most famous author-adventurers. Included as protagonists are a young J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, future giants of the fantasy-adventure genre whose famous works are imagined by Owen to have been inspired by these fictional adventures. Continue reading ““Dragons” Movies Depicts Young Tolkien And Lewis Adventures”
Fantasy writer George R.R. Martin, besides sharing the “double Rs” in his name with J.R.R. Tolkien, is a beloved fantasy author who is in the midst of creating his imaginative masterpiece. Unlike Tolkien, he is able to communicate with and to fans in the digital age. At his “Not A Blog” he wrote today about Tolkien’s skills with linguistics and contrasted it with his own invented language which to date contains only seven words! With an adaptation of his first book in the “Song of Ice and Fire” series headed to HBO, Martin explains what must be done to breath life into his fictional tongue on television while praising The Good Professor.
He starts: “Klaatu Barada Nicto…… or something like that. Truth is, I suck at foreign languages. Always have. Always will. That can be a real drawback for a fantasist working in the tradition of J.R.R. Tolkien, who set the bar very high…”
Read the rest here.
Gollum is an addict of the One Ring. Gollum identifies with the Ring, calling both himself and the Ring “my precious”. Gollum’s personality has been nearly destroyed by possessing and being possessed by the Ring for hundreds of years.
Riddles in the Dark, by David Wenzel
I think most readers of The Lord of the Rings would agree with these characteristic statements about Gollum. They explain his extraordinary behavior and bizarre speech patterns. The identity of Gollum with the Ring is one of the driving forces behind the primary plot of the book: Frodo’s quest of Mt. Doom to destroy the Ring, in which he is guided for much of the way by Gollum, who treacherously hopes to recover it for himself. Gollum’s degradation and tendency to evil also shows us the danger that Frodo is in. If he succumbs to the Ring, he will become another Gollum – who was, originally, a hobbit!
But who remembers Gollum from the good old days? Back when the Ring was just a ring. Back when Gollum was just a scary but funny ghoul who ate passers-by, but loved riddles. Back when he would abjectly apologize for breaking a promise, and ever so politely show his guest the way out of his cavern. Who now has read the first edition of The Hobbit, written years before The Lord of the Rings was even thought of? In that quaint book, Bilbo’s ring is truly just a ring of invisibility, introduced into the story to better his chances of success as the world’s most unlikely burglar. And Gollum, as described above, was a lot more innocent – a mere figure of passing comic-horror in the same league as the three Cockney trolls, and the cattily hissing spiders. Continue reading ““It likes riddles, praps it does, does it?””
Eowyn71 writes: The folks at Mental Floss features this informative article on our beloved Professor: “10 Things You Should Know About J.R.R. Tolkien”. From a description of his lectures, I’d *love* to be one of his students at Oxford! More..
