Welcome to our collection of TORn’s hottest topics for the past year.  We’ve collected together some of 2012′s most popular posts on 10 of our Message Boards.  You’ll be surprised at what captured the attention and imagination of our members.  Come and have a look back at what has kept us busy, as we impatiently awaited the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. We actually did manage to talk about many fascinating things, besides The Hobbit, so just follow the links to some of our most popular discussions for 2012. Continue to watch this space as every weekend we spotlight the most popular buzz on TORn’s Message Boards. Everyone is welcome, so come on in and join the fun!

Continue reading “TORn Message Boards Weekly Roundup – Special New Years Edition!!”

From independent.ie: PRE-exam nerves are bad enough, but if your examiner is JRR Tolkien, then you’d really have your work cut out.

Well that was the case for students at NUI Galway more than 60 years ago when ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’ author worked as an English literature examiner.

Recently discovered exam papers reveal that the creative genius was an external examiner for the summer exams over a number of years at the Galway university.

Barry Houlihan, an archivist at the James Hardiman Library in the university, said the find came about thanks to a Tolkien enthusiast who contacted the college.

“We decided to have a search and we found the volume in question. We went through all the exam papers and we found that Tolkien had been an external on four occasions. It was fascinating to see his name printed on them,” said Mr Houlihan. [Read More]

New Zealand Post's hobbit coins Back in October, New Zealand Post announced that they would mint special-issue gold coins as a tie-in with Jackson’s The Hobbit. The press release stated:

The rim of each coin is inscribed in both English and Dwarvish with the words “Middle-earth — New Zealand.” Continue reading “Say it right: Middle-earth language usage”

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.

A Fiordland peak could be named Mt Tolkien, after the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, if a Manapouri man’s proposal is accepted by the New Zealand Geographic Board. Aaron Nicholson has applied to name the peak, near Gunns Lake on the Milford Rd, Mt Tolkien, after J R R Tolkien. The 1757-metre unnamed peak is 1.8 kilometres from Consolation Peak, which is 1851 metres. Both lie at the northern end of the Earl Mountains. For the naming to go ahead, Mr Nicholson would have to get enough public support. “It’s got to be wanted. If I just show up saying, ‘Can we do this?’ and nobody else is interested, they’ll just pass on it.” Read more…

In 1911, at the age of 19, J.R.R. Tolkien took a trip to the Swiss Alps. The trip left such an impression on the young man that landscapes and events from the trip served as a basis for places and events in his future books, namely, “The Hobbit.” In October 2013, Swiss touring company, Alpenwild, will be offering “In the Footsteps of Tolkien,” a tour that follows the same path that Tolkien took in 1911. Along for the trip will be Alex Lewis, Chairman of the Tolkien Society of UK from 1988-92, and author of three books of Tolkien studies. The tour, which will also visit the soon-to-be opened Bernd Greisinger Middle Earth Collection museum, is scheduled for October 12-20, 2013. Read More…

In Imagining Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, guest writer Eric M. Van draws together the threads of known facts, and add a dash of logic to speculate on how Peter Jackson and his crew may have imagined their version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

This third part of the series continues to analyse the unique challenges Jackson and his fellow screenwriters face adapting The Hobbit for the screen — and examines how the unusual way J.R.R. Tolkien constructs the fantasy world of The Hobbit introduces its own special set of headaches. Warning: this feature contains spoiler images. Continue reading “Imagining Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: Part Three”

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.