Reclaiming the Blade
Reclaiming the Blade
“Star Wars” and “The Lord of the Rings” are two of the most widely appealing film series in history. While they share many common elements, there is little argument that knights and swords sit at the core of each. The Jedi masters and their sabers – the weapon passed from father to son – share many common elements with Aragorn and his ancestral heirloom weapon in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth.

The sword, in whatever form, remains an important feature in cultures around the globe. It remains a symbol of the warrior in an age when many of us never need to fight anybody. Daniel McNicoll has directed a documentary, “Reclaiming The Blade,” that explores the sword and its standing in contemporary society and uses many examples from popular culture to do it. Continue reading “TORn exclusive with ‘Reclaiming The Blade,’ director”

sigurdJ.R.R. Tolkien’s newest posthumous work lands in retail today. The body of the non Middle-earth tale is told in two narrative poems told in the form of Norse mythology with a Tolkien lecture and an introduction from his son Christopher. Tolkien was a master of the forms of Old Norse and Old Englsih poetry while for most of us, that brilliance is likely to go unappreciated, there is still treasure to be gleaned in understanding the author and the traditions that led him to construct his own cosmology.

The Guardian in the UK published a faxed interview while while reviews are popping up like mushrooms. Read some here, here, and here.

NEW YORK – The latest J.R.R. Tolkien project lasted six years, more than half as long as the author needed to complete his “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Getting permission to release a book in electronic form can be as hard – or harder – than writing it. “The Tolkien estate wanted to be absolutely confident that e-books were not something ephemeral,” says David Roth-Ey, director of business development at HarperCollins UK, which announced last week that the late British author’s work – among the world’s most popular – would be available for downloads. “We were finally able to convince the Tolkien estate that the e-book is a legitimate, widespread format.” Tolkien’s in, but e-library still lacking

DiveTwin points out on our message boards that a campaign has been launched to re-open a pub that was once a haunt of none other than J.R.R. Tolkien’s. The story reads:
Pub lovers are backing a campaign to return a pub once popular with Lord of the Rings writer JRR Tolkien to its former glory. The Community Alert on Pubs group is hoping to re-open the Grade-II Listed Three Cups Hotel in Lyme Regis, West Dorset, which was where Tolkien is believed to have penned much of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Read on