A Birmingham nature reserve that was a favourite childhood playground of Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien has been awarded a £376,500 lottery grant. Tolkien said Moseley Bog had inspired the mystical Old Forest that his Hobbit characters travelled through in the Lord of the Rings. The reserve is owned by Birmingham City Council and managed by the Friends of Moseley Bog and a wildlife trust. They said the grant would fund an outdoor theatre and restore hedgerows. More..
Category: J.R.R. Tolkien
TheOneRing.net has received rock-solid information from an absolutely reliable source that the MGM financial situation is indeed what is behind the delays of the start of “The Hobbit.”
The venerable film studio behind James Bond and about 4,000 other titles is reported to be in about $3.7 billion in debt but holds the distribution rights for two “Hobbit” films that are under contract to be made by Warners Bros. The two studios have an agreement in place to produce and distribute the film but financial difficulties for MGM, including the potential sale of the studio and its holdings, including rights to the films based on the book by J.R.R. Tolkien, has delayed the films.
The source inside the production has told TheOneRing.net that all of the wrangling with MGM is indeed a significant part of possibly pushing the films back.
“At this stage we are all working and hoping for the best case scenario. Without a doubt, the MGM situation carries great importance.” Continue reading “Source says the MGM situation of ‘great importance’ to two potential ‘Hobbit’ films”
The Tolkien Society got me thinking. This year’s Tolkien Reading Day had a nautical theme – some breezy thing about International Seafarer Day. Why? Is Tolkien a particularly “nautical” writer? I admit this had never occurred to me. From the very idea of Middle-earth, a land before time that approximates continental Europe with land bridges to England and Africa; to the endless series of quests across mountains, forests, fields and caverns that Tolkien loves to describe in breathtaking language; to the most famous fantasy race of Halflings that ever turned pale at the thought of crossing open water, Tolkien has always seemed to me to have his literary feet planted firmly in dry land, like the roots of his beloved trees.
Not that he doesn’t treat with the Sea. Of course he does. Every foreground needs its background. Who doesn’t know that the great Western or Sundering Sea is the barrier between the mortal Great Lands (Tolkien’s original name for Middle-earth’s central continent) and the Undying Lands of Elvenhome and Valinor? Only the Elves may cross this Sea – with the usual exceptions of various mortal Heroes taking their numbers and awaiting their chances. The Elves have the Sea-longing embedded in them. Legolas is warned by Galadriel that once he hears the seagulls at Pelargir in southern Gondor, he will never again be at rest in his woodland home. Ted Sandyman mocks Sam’s love of the tale of the Elves: “sailing, sailing, into the West” – a theme echoed by Saruman at the end of the story as he taunts Galadriel for her exile on the wrong side of the great water.
Continue reading “Tolkien against the Sea”
Today, March 25, 2010, TheOneRing.net would like to acknowledge and celebrate Tolkien Reading Day with fellow Tolkien fans all over the world. Initiated by the Tolkien Society in 2003, Tolkien Reading day helps motivate people, alone or in groups, to take time out of their busy lives to enjoy the prose and poetry of Professor J.R.R. Tolkien.
Do you have a favorite passage from The Lord of the Rings? The Silmarillion? The Hobbit? We invite you to join several discussion events on our message boards and share them with us. Or, if *gasp* you don’t have your books handy, we invite you to read and comment on the quotes that other fellow Tolkien-lovers share. Be sure and check out our Main forum to discuss your favorite passages, and the Reading Room for an entertaining look at “Tolkien A-Z.” The essay by ‘squire’ on the Home Page today will also be a must read. (Tolkien Reading Day A-Z footer pictures by “Magpie”).
Malcolm from ADC Books sends this along: Press release Updated Front Page to ADC’s Tolkien Art & Books website:
“The front page of the ADC’s Tolkien Art & Books website (www.adcbooks.co.uk) has now been updated to more clearly show the Catalogue of original Tolkien art and limited edition prints by its four Tolkien artists: Ted Nasmith, Ruth Lacon, Jef Murray & Peter Pracownik; and now also the Books that are available, by Angela Gardner, Alex Lewis & Elizabeth Currie, & Ruth Lacon, along with How to Order details! The forthcoming biography of Hilary Tolkien, “Wheelbarrows at Dawn”, due August 2010, is also listed, though price details, ISBN’s, and cover image are to follow later. Continue reading “ADC Books News”
Claire writes: In early December 2008 TheOneRing.net carried a report of the launch of Dr Dimitra Fimi’s book ‘Tolkien, Race and Cultural History’. Well, the publishers, Palgrave Macmillan, have decided to reissue the book – and this time it’ll be in paperback!
It’s fairly unusual for an academic volume to be published in paperback, so this is a real coup for Dimitra and Tolkien studies. It’s due out on 14th August 2010, but you can always pre-order a copy from your local bookshop or on line. To do that you’ll need the ISBN, which is 9780230272842, the title, author’s name and publisher. Continue reading “Dimitra Fimi’s ‘Tolkien, Race and Cultural History’”