This is part one of a two part interview with Julia Golding, founder of Project Northmoor and the Oxford Centre for Fantasy, which is dedicated to creativity and the study of Oxford’s most famous fantasy writer, J.R.R. Tolkien. Like Tolkien, she studied at the University of Oxford where she received a Doctorate in English Literature. Her CV includes British diplomat and Oxfam policy adviser, as well as multi-award winning author of children’s and young adult novels, with over a half a million books sold worldwide, which have been translated into many languages.
Julia Golding
Mithril: What is your first memory of reading Tolkien?
Julia: Your question reminded me that I had a first unsuccessful attempt at reading The Hobbit too young on my own (around 6 or 7) which put me off Tolkien. I wish someone had read it to me – or steered me towards a recording –because it took me a long while to rediscover The Hobbit. But then came the summer when I was ten. I decided to try Tolkien again but started with The Lord of the Rings. I have a vivid memory of lying on a sofa in my childhood home in Essex, suburban Southeast England. I can even conjure up the feeling of the sofa fabric and the cool room with the sunny road outside. I was enchanted, completely lost in his world. I got to the end, and immediately went back to The Fellowship of the Ring, because I couldn’t stand for the experience to end – so I carried on lying down reading. It really was a turning point for me; ever since then he has helped inspire my passion for creating worlds in fiction.
Mithril: You’ve written over 60 novels, and once said “[Tolkien] is a key influence over the way I write and the reason I became an author.” Can you delve into this a bit more?
Julia: It is connected to his example as a creator of myth. He wrote about us being sub-creators, how we can be a little like a god to our own worlds. I love the idea that we each have the ability to create these microcosm universes, decide the rules and nature of the worlds, invent the peoples, their behaviour, culture and languages. Tolkien led by example. His enduring appeal to me is as a uniquely creative mind whose subcreation has unrivalled internal consistency, length, breadth and depth.
I was also inspired by how he wrote about the things that mattered to him by using them to power the structure holding up Middle-earth. He didn’t come at you with an obvious allegory and bash you over the head with the application; he famously wrote in the Preface to The Fellowship of the Ring that: ‘I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.’
That doesn’t mean, of course, there aren’t values or messages to be drawn, but these are those connected with the reader’s experience. You can be a person of faith, no faith, and from the whole range of world cultures, and still there will be something important there for you. He found great power in such stories as those where the hero sacrifices themselves, displays humanity to the enemy, or fights a battle where victory is also a kind of defeat – all of which can be linked to source stories ranging from the Bible to George MacDonald and William Morris, via Old Norse sagas and Anglo-Saxon poetry. This method of using the things you find powerful as a code underlying your own story showed me how to draw on what I care about to create something uniquely mine – and hopefully the reader senses this and cares too.
Mithril: You hold a Doctorate in English Literature from the University of Oxford. While there, did you study Tolkien’s works?
Julia: I studied Tolkien when I did my undergraduate degree, which was in [the University of] Cambridge back in the mists of time. I wrote a final year paper on Tolkien and C.S. Lewis looking at their different approaches to mythopoeia. I didn’t become a professional writer for another fifteen years, but that third-year thesis stayed with me.
Mithril: You are the founder of Project Northmoor, a center for creative studies with a focus on fantasy and J.R.R. Tolkien. How did the idea for this come about? Can you talk about the process of pulling it together?
Julia: This all came out of the attempt to buy Tolkien’s house, which began in November 2020, launching in December that year – all in super-quick time as we were trying to buy it before anyone else did. I live close by the house. When I cycle past, I have always thought it would make a perfect creative writing centre and would be a wonderful way to honour Tolkien’s legacy. There isn’t anywhere like that in the UK, which is astonishing considering his global importance as a writer. When we started the campaign to buy it, we decided the idea of having a literary centre in Oxford was a valid goal even if we didn’t achieve our aim for the house. We wanted to provide a place for those who love Oxford fantasy to come for inspiration. When we didn’t make the target in the first three months, we had to stop as the vendor wanted to take another offer. Such a shame as we really gave it our best shot! Many Tolkien fans around the world were really generous but there just weren’t enough of us to get us over the line. We then went to plan b and began looking for another venue for the centre. However, that meant we started off online. That was a blessing in disguise as it made us think outside the box of what residential creative centres usually offer. We could be global from the outset, building a wonderful community of creatives who are inspired by Tolkien and other Oxford fantasy writers.
In the second part of this interview, we’ll share a video where Julia visits a barrow which may have helped inspire the Barrow Downs scene in The Fellowship of the Ring.
Chinese The Lord of the Rings Trilogy fans were highly anticipating this past weekend as Peter Jackson’s ‘The Fellowship of the Ring‘ was due to re-release nationwide – in glorious remastered 4k.
Unfortunately, due to the last second approval by government officials, many Chinese venues did not get the print in time and screenings had to be canceled. Here’s the wrap up from The Hollywood Reporter:
It was another bizarro weekend at the Chinese box office.
The long-anticipated return of Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring finally arrived Friday in vividly remastered 4K. But official permission for the rerelease from China’s regulators came so late — just one full day in advance — that marketing for the movie was mostly nonexistent and scores of digital prints failed to reach cinemas on time, forcing a wave of cancelations and refunds to angry customers throughout Friday and into Saturday.
The article continues…
The Fellowship of the Ring, meanwhile, limped into fifth place with just $4.1 million. The opening results for the fantasy classic are a keen disappointment compared to the recent performance of James Cameron’s Avatar, which opened to $23.7 million when it was rereleased in China in March. The perennial appeal of the Lord of the Rings franchise could help Fellowship mount a healthy hold though, much as Avatar did (Cameron’s film has climbed to $60.2 million in second-run sales). Warner Bros. also will get a do-over later this month — assuming all goes to plan (always a big “if” in China) — when Jackson’s The Two Towers re-releases on April 23. Regulators have indicated that the franchise closer The Return of the King will also get a second run in China, but the film — worryingly — still hasn’t been given an official release date.
Amazon will get an additional 5% from more New Zealand’s Screen Production Grant, Reuters reports today.
(Reuters) New Zealand said on Friday it has agreed to give Amazon (AMZN.O) extra rebates on its expenses for the filming of “The Lord of the Rings” TV series in the country, hoping to reap multi-year economic and tourism benefits.
Amazon will get an extra 5% from New Zealand’s Screen Production Grant in addition to the 20% grant the production already qualifies for, the government said in a statement.
Amazon is estimated to be spending about NZ$650 million ($465 million) filming the first season of the show, for broadcast on its Amazon Prime streaming platform, meaning it would be eligible for a rebate of about NZ$162 million ($116 million), the government said.
“The agreement with Amazon … generates local jobs and creates work for local businesses,” Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash said in a statement. “It will enable a new wave of international tourism branding and promotion for this country.”
The first season entered production in Auckland last year with more than 1,200 people employed. Approximately 700 workers are indirectly employed by providing services to the production, the government said.
U.S.-based Amazon media officials weren’t immediately available for comment outside regular U.S. business hours.
Guest writer Matthew Bossons brings us this fascinating look at how Tolkien fandom has made its way to China; and he reflects on whether Amazon’s upcoming Middle-earth series is likely to find fans there.
Panjiayuan is Beijing’s biggest and best-known antique market, regularly attracting orc-like hordes of tourists and locals alike to wander the warren of booths and stalls, both indoor and outside. All manner of old and made-to-look-old items are on offer here: jade carvings, stone Buddha statues, ancient coins, Chinese Communist Party pins and propaganda posters, replica Korean war medals and mounds of books.
On a brisk October day, while standing at a hawker stand specializing in old Chinese books – mostly Chairman Mao’s iconic ‘Little Red Book’ – I came across a curious title: The Art of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, in English-language and hardcover form. The book, a collection of sketches and maps made by Tolkien, was published in 2015 and compiled by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull – both well-known scholars of the ‘father of high fantasy.’
Amazon Studios has announced the casting of ‘Young Gollum,’ voiced by renowned character actor and comedian Patton Oswalt. (YES – This was an April Fool’s Day Prank – 2021!)
Patton Oswalt Cast at Baby Gollum
With a celebrated ensemble cast already gathered for Amazon’s show, this latest release implies that Oswalt will voice a child-like Smeagol character. It goes without saying that a ‘Young Gollum’ did not exist in the initial intended scope of the show, nor in the scope of the rights purchased from the Tolkien Estate. The addition of a – dare we say it – ‘Baby Gollum’ appears to be a clear attempt to attract a broader and younger audience. The vast majority of us at TheOneRing.net are big fans of Oswalt – so we look forward to seeing where this goes!
AMAZON STUDIOS ANNOUNCES VOICE TALENT PATTON OSWALT FOR THE LORD OF THE RINGS TELEVISION SERIES
The Grammy(R), Emmy(R) and Vangard Award(R) Winner joins the Ensemble Cast to Lend His Vocal Talents to Young Gollum.
(CULVER CITY, Calif. – April 1st 2021) – Amazon Studios today announces Patton Oswalt will lend his voice talent as Gollum in the Amazon Original series based on the iconic ‘The Lord of the Rings’ novels by J.R.R. Tolkien. Patton will join the previously announced global cast and crew, currently filming in New Zealand.
“We are so excited to breathe new life to the early history of this immensely popular character,” said executive producer and showrunner [retracted name]. “When you delve into the struggle of Gollum, and his alter-ego Smeagol, a plethora of possibilities leaps out. It’s a tale which is crying out to be told.”
The character of Gollum first appears in J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’, with subsequent appearances in the War of the Ring saga of the Third Age of Middle-earth. Made popular by the Rankin/Bass production in the late 1970s, and then expertly brought to screen in Peter Jackson’s epic trilogies of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’, amazing adventures lie in store for the halfling-like creature, as his prequel stories unfold.
The character will originally be fully realized as a small child through the talents of WETA Digital, and given voice, (initially coos and caws), by the talented Oswalt.
“Its been a lifelong dream to work in the realm of J.R.R. Tolkien. I can’t wait to get started!” said Patton.
Set in Middle-earth, the Amazon television adaptation will explore new storylines preceding J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’. A world-renowned literary work, and winner of the International Fantasy Award and Prometheus Hall of Fame Award, ‘The Lord of the Rings’ was named Amazon customers’ favorite book of the millennium in 1999, and Britain’s best-loved novel of all time in BBC’s ‘The Big Read’ in 2003. ‘The Lord of the Rings’ has been translated into around 40 languages, and has sold more than 150 million copies. Its theatrical adaptations from New Line Cinema and director Peter Jackson earned a combined gross of nearly $6 billion worldwide, and garnered 17 Academy Awards®, including Best Picture (‘The Return of the King’).
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
Just in time for Tolkien Reading Day: our friends at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt have sent us exciting news! Later this year, a new edition of The Lord of the Rings will be published, featuring – for the first time since the original 1954 publication – artwork by the Professor himself.
Here’s their full press release:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books & Media will publish a brand-new edition of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien that, for the the first time since its publication in 1954, will feature paintings, drawings and sketches by the author, in the U.S. on October 19, 2021.
Deb Brody, HMH’s VP and Publisher, says: ‘Professor Tolkien is known the world over for his literary and academic achievements, most especially as author of The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and the critically acclaimed and worldwide bestselling The Lord of the Rings.
‘His charming and evocative illustrations that accompanied The Hobbit, particularly the now-iconic image that appears on its cover, have become as beloved as the story they accompany.”
‘Yet the author himself was characteristically modest, dismissive of the obvious and rare artistic talent he possessed despite having had no formal training. This modesty meant that relatively little else of his artwork was known of or seen during his lifetime, and generally only in scholarly books afterwards.
‘This all changed in 2018, with the first of three record-breaking Tolkien exhibitions in Oxford, New York and Paris, at which hundreds of thousands of people were able to appreciate at first hand the extraordinary artistic achievement of a man known primarily for the written word. Among the exhibits was a selection of the paintings, drawings and sketches that Tolkien produced when writing The Lord of the Rings. Originally intended by him purely for his personal pleasure and reference, after such an overwhelmingly positive response by people to Tolkien the Artist it seemed fitting to finally reunite this art with the words it enhances, and we are delighted that in so doing it will allow people to enjoy this masterpiece anew.’
The Hobbit was first published in 1937 and The Lord of the Rings in 1954–5. Each has since gone on to become a beloved classic of literature and an international bestseller translated into more than 70 languages, collectively selling more than 150,000,000 copies worldwide.
The Lord of the Rings, illustrated by the author, will be published subsequently in translation around the world.
