J.R.R. Tolkien Sir Martin Gilbert writes: J.R.R. Tolkien and the Somme were inextricably linked. I learned this forty-four years ago, shortly after I was elected to my first university appointment, at Merton College, Oxford. I was twenty-six years old.

In those days there was a strict seating order at college dinners. The head of the college sat in the centre, the senior fellows on either side of him, and the junior fellows at the far ends of the table. Also at the ends were the Emeritus Fellows, long retired, venerable, sometimes garrulous guardians of the college name. Several of them had served in the First World War. When they discovered a historian, new to his craft, filled with the keenness of a youngster amid his elders, they were happy to talk about those distant days, already more than forty years in the past. What Tolkien Taught Me about the Battle of the Somme

Astrid Nielsch Musician ‘Asni‘ sends this along: I’ve been working hard promoting my CD launch in the last few weeks. For those interested, below is my media release. I have finally managed to do a little work on my “Travelguide to Middle-earth” section, at least the photos and the info in this press release are online now, and it looks a wee bit nicer.

If you live anywhere near enough Wellington, please do note the date of the launch in your calendar! It is intended to be a bit of a farewell gig, since I plan to focus on things other than performing in the future – it may be quite a while until you get another chance to see and hear me live! So, do come – and don’t say you haven’t been warned. 🙂 Continue reading “New Tolkien Themed CD to Launch in Wellington”

Ringer Diedye brings us another great FLASHBACK! This week’s flashback details the events that took place in the Tolkien universe between August 17th-23rd. This is a weekly feature that Diedye posts in the forum, so if there is ever a time we don’t post it on the homepage of TORn, make sure to check the Main board in our forums. Click on the link below to transported in time!
Continue reading “Tolkien Flashback August 17th-23rd”

Another week, another great FLASHBACK from Ringer Diedye. This week’s flashback details the events that took place in the Tolkien universe between August 10th and August 16th. This is a weekly feature that Diedye posts in the forum, so if there is ever a time we don’t post it on the homepage of TORn, make sure to check the Main board in our forums. Click on the link below to transported in time!

Continue reading “Tolkien Flashback August 10th – 16th”

Another week, another great FLASHBACK from Ringer Diedye. This week’s flashback details the events that took place in the Tolkien universe between August 3rd and August 9th. This is a weekly feature that Diedye posts in the forum, so if there is ever a time we don’t post it on the homepage of TORn, make sure to check the Main board in our forums. Click on the link below to transported in time!

Continue reading “Tolkien Flashback – August 3rd-9th”

Pauline BaynesThanks to Ringer Diedye for the heads up on this article in The Guardian:

It was by chance, in 1948, that samples from the portfolio of the designer and illustrator Pauline Baynes, who has died aged 85, came to the attention of JRR Tolkien. At that time Tolkien was famous for just one book, his children’s novel, The Hobbit, which had been published to great acclaim 11 years earlier. The medieval style of some of Baynes’s drawings were ideally suited for Tolkien’s Farmer Giles of Ham, which he had also written before the second war, but which was only to be published in 1949. Baynes produced pen and ink drawings and three coloured plates, which Tolkien humorously maintained reduced his text to a “commentary”.

Read the full article at the Guardian website. [Read More]