Anya writes: At Rob McIntosh in Pointe-Claire, Quebec they are selling LOTR goblets. My mother saw them and she said they were just beautiful. She saw one of Galadriel, one with landscape from the Shire, one of Elrond or Celeborn (she wasn’t sure which), one of Gandalf (maybe there are more, I don’t know).
These are being sold for $129 CDN. There is also a limited edition of King Elessar (there only about 150 of them) which is being sold for about $149 CDN. These are OFFCIALLY LISCENSED.
They are made from solid pewter and are inspired by the books as opposed to the films, thus liscensed by Tolkien Enterprises as opposed to New Line. You can buy big goblets which are being sold at $129 each. There is also a limited edition of King Elessar (which is decorated with a gold crown) which is being sold for $149 – and there are on 50 to be had. (I think I may have said 150 last time – my bad!!) You can also buy little liquer goblets (they actually comprise a chess set) which are being sold for $45 each.
Of the big goblets, I saw one for each of the following: Gandalf, Saruman, Orc, Smaug, Ent, Shelob, Legolas, Celeborn, Galadriel, Frodo (with a golf ring around the base), and Gollum. I also saw one that was called and “Elven Goblet”; this one featured scenes/lanscapes, including the swan ships of Alqualonde. There was another called the “Ring Goblet” which, again, featured only scenes, inlcuding a very scary looking Nazgul. All of them are sculpted from the pewter, not just “carved” – I mean, for the characters, it’s really a FACE. They have the same for the smaller ones, but I didn’t see many. The woman I spoke with said that they will be getting some in soon for the following reason.
The sculptor is Dr. Graeme J. Anthony and he will be in the store on November 9th for a signing, from 12 noon to 4 pm. (He’s actually a trained chiropractor and now lives in Australia, according to the sign).
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The city of Minas Tirith holds its breath waiting for news of the war, while in the Houses of Healing Eowyn rises from her bed. The concerned Warden takes her to see the Steward of the City. Faramir is soon struck by her beauty, but he also perceives that here is one greatly troubled by grief and unrest. Eowyn for her part sees in Faramir both a gentle spirit and a great warrior and slowly hope is kindled in her heart.
An Eagle brings news of the downfall of Sauron to Minas Tirith, and soon it is once again filled with women and children as the refugees return home. The people of Gondor are ready for their new king to return to them. Before the walls of his City, Aragorn is accepted by his people and crowned by Gandalf and Frodo.
The first happy days of Aragorns reign passes and Gandalf takes the king to a hallow high up on Mount Mindolluin. There they find a sapling of the White Tree which the king plants in the court by the fountain. Summer comes to Gondor, and with it a great following of elves out of the North. On the day of Midsummer Aragorn the King Elessar finally weds Arwen, the evenstar of her people.
How is Eowyn finally healed? How does Aragorn show his greatness during his coronation and in the following first days of his reign? What does the White Tree signify? Join us in #thehalloffire as we explore Chapter V of The Return of the King; ‘The Steward and the King’.
Upcoming Topics:
October 25-26: Why are hobbits so resistant to the One Ring?
Times:
Saturday Chat:
5:30pm ET (17:30)
[also 11:30pm (23:30) CET and 7:30am Sunday (07:30) AET]
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7:00 pm (19:00) CET
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Do you have a possible topic for Hall of Fire? Drop us a line at halloffire@theonering.net.
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airearan writes: I spotted the Realms of Fantasy December 2003 issue yesterday, it has Viggo on the cover. There’s no full article though, except for one on fall season movies. Towards the end are some comments by Elijah Wood. It’s a tad spoilerish, especially for non-book readers (well, really very spoilerish for them). But even for us who have read the book and can’t wait for the movie.
Here’s the entire columnful of information from the mag, it shows us the direction Peter Jackson is taking regarding the ending (i.e., the Mt. Doom-related one).
Excerpt from Movies: The fall season is packed with fantasy films to enchant all moviegoers
By Resa Nelson
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (New Line Cinema) opens December 17. It’s been two years since J.R.R. Tolkien fans expressed their outrage over the casting of Elijah Wood as Frodo, and everyone was on tenterhooks, wondering if the gamble made by New Line Cinema and Peter Jackson and company would be one of the greatest failures in movie history.
In this final chapter of Tolkien’s trilogy, Aragorn battles the enemy as he struggles to rise to his rightful place on the throne. At the same time, Frodo battles himself as he tries to finish his quest and fulfill his destiny as the Ringbearer. One of the greatest themes in Tolkien’s masterpiece is the concept that good and evil aren’t always outside forces in the world, but are forces that each of us must face within ourselves.
Which brings us full circle to the choice of casting Elijah Wood as Frodo. Anyone familiar with Wood’s work is well aware of his wide emotional range.
“Frodo in the third movie ceases to be Frodo,” Wood says. “He reaches a kind of evil center that you don’t think is possible. It is quite a wide range of emotions. I think part of what attracted me to Frodo is that I got a chance as an actor to take a character from a very innocent place to the complete opposite. He’s sort of innocent and naive at the beginning, and at the end he’s lost his innocence. He has these moments of pure evil and hatred.
“Once the ring is destroyed, he’s still Frodo, but his innocence is gone, and he can never get that kind of purity of soul back. So there’s a real sadness to Frodo at the end.”
Although one of the greatest–and possibly the greatest–fantasies ever created, Tolkien’s work is also grounded in reality.
“That’s also what strikes me about the books–they don’t end on a positive note,” Wood says. “Ultimately, Middle-Earth is saved and peace is restored, but these characters will never be able to go back to the way that they once were. Some are better for that. It could be argued that Frodo may be better for that. It’s still sad when you appreciate them so much for what they are and what they stand for, and then see them stripped of the things that define them and then suddenly they can’t regain that feeling anymore. It’s a sad end to an amazing story. And even though there are uplifting things, it’s sort of bittersweet. I love it.”
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Ringer Krista sends us this info:
I thought fellow Tolkien addicts might find this interesting.
Apple’s iTunes music store (newly PC friendly) has just opened an audio books section with 5,000 titles. I thought I’d check to see there were any Tolkien books, and sure enough, there were four:
The Hobbit (abridged)
The Silmarillion Vol. I (unabridged)
The Silmarillion Vol. II (unabridged)
The Silmarillion Vol. III (unabridged)
All of these books are narrated by Martin Shaw and cost $15.95 each to download. When I checked, “The Hobbit” was #5 on today’s top sellers list, and “The Silmarillion Vol. I” was at #91.
Computers running Windows XP and Windows 2000 can now access the store, which can be done by downloading iTunes 4.1 at:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/
To find Tolkien books once you have the iTunes music store running, click on “Power Search.” Select the genre “Audiobooks” and type in “JRR Tolkien” under “artist.” You can also search the store using other criteria.
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Funky_Grooves writes:
Today I visited the London Science Museum to see the LOTR exhibition, when none other than Sir Ian McKellen turned up to be shown around the exhibits by (who I presume to be) the curator, and in tow was a camera crew and various production people and museum staff. Sir Ian was discussing the exhibits on camera and when he got to the Gandalf display they handed him his staff so he could wave it around for us. He spent some time talking to the museum visitors (many of whom amazingly had failed to realise who he was when he first arrived!), and signed autographs.
The camera crew were filming a program called The South Bank Show; no-one seemed sure of the dates that it would be aired but it is presumably being made for the run up to ROTK. [More]
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While I was at the fabulous Best of Both Worlds convention in Canberra just a couple of weeks ago (expect a full report later this week!), I had the privilege of being able to chat with Craig Parker (Haldir of Lorien). The feature has been much delayed by the fact that I’m currently moving house, but I hope you’ll agree that it’s worth the wait!
NB: For anyone who might be wondering – I do not have Craig’s e-mail, telephone or postal address. So I can’t pass messages along, sorry.
An Interview with Craig Parker
Even after a weekend of fandom at the Best of Both Worlds convention, Craig Parker is still very relaxed when I catch up with him on the final evening.
He has a glass of white wine in one hand. In the background, his portable MP3 player fills the room with soothing music. It’s a more thoughtful Craig than the one I’ve just seen entertaining 100-odd people with amusing anecdotes and his razor-sharp wit. Even now – as I write – I find the contrast intriguing.
How do you play an elf?
He tells me that auditioning for Rings felt very strange at one level. “I think I was filming a series at the time,” he says. “I had been working in the morning.”
And then he had to go audition as an elf. He looks up and voices the surrealness of the switch from the real to the unreal: “How do you play an elf?”
“Some of us are still asking that question.” he adds, self deprecatingly. Obviously the joker is not far beneath the surface.
He says that Haldir was used as the generic audition for the elves. “It was a scene that was never filmed – or never made it – up in the flet once the fellowship had been rescued.”
“Auditions universally are usually in some terrible soulless room with a camera on a tripod – so it was literally that. So you turn up, say your words, say goodbye and disappear again.”
He confesses he thought he’d done a terrible job. “You tend to do that. I often find that the auditions I walk away from [thinking]: ‘Yeah, I was great in that.’ you don’t get. And it’s the ones where you go: ‘Oh, I don’t know about that.’ – you often end up with those ones.”
It’s the stuff you dream of as a kid
“I wouldn’t say it [Rings] was the most challenging acting work I’ve had in my life – it [his moment in the film] is very brief. But it was great fun, you know? The stuff you dream of when you’re a kid – being able to swordfight and beat up big guys.”
I mention the axe in his back at Helm’s Deep.
“Or getting beaten up by them and killed.” He laughs. “You don’t dream about that so much.”
“But the thrill was being part of such a huge event. The excitement. It’s your perfect kids’ adventure – suddenly you’re in the middle of this huge fantasy world. And I loved it for that.”
Like many of the principal actresses and actors, he did his much of own stuntwork. “The actors would do the whole thing,” he says. “And they would do it a number of times. But you’d also shoot the scene with a double. So your wide shots – sometimes they come in with the double. In this film I can’t tell where it’s me and where it’s [my double]. And that’s fantastic.”
He would float and turn and fly
His own double was “an amazing guy called Morgan. He’s just an artist really – like a dancer. Amazing martial skills.”
He and Morgan would work together, Morgan drilling him through the moves. “So I’d get up and feel quite flash – ‘Yeah, I’m pretty cool at this!’ And then he would get up and do it, and it’d be the same moves but suddenly watching an artist.”
There’s something like awe in his voice. “He would just float and turn and fly. He’s an incredible actor – an incredible acrobat.” [Listen]
He emphasises the safety aspect and is full of praise for the stunt team when I ask about the Uruk-hai fighters at Helm’s Deep. “By the time we got to film anything, we were reasonably confident and sure of what we were doing. And you had to be for safety. There was so many people on set – if you don’t know what you’re doing, someone is going to be hurt.”
“The stunt team were incredible,” he says. “Not only were they in these incredibly uncomfortable, incredibly hot costumes, they’re constantly rehearsing their stuntwork or doing it.”
“They’re being hit with swords and bashed and thrown to the ground. They’re constantly working through all the day in incredibly difficult conditions. And they’re still incredibly generous and supportive of us [the actors].”
“I know I was constantly asking: ‘Sala, Sala can we work through this move? Can we go through this? Can we go over this?’ just so I was sure of it. And they would always be there. So I have huge respect for the guys.”
Lives were lived during this project
Support, encouragement and passion for the project seems to have been a defining trait of the entire cast and crew.
“Peter and Richard – and the various other people who gathered people to work on this film – are remarkably passionate people,” Craig says. “And they also tend to be people who don’t buy into the ego hierarchy. Richard Taylor runs WETA in the most beautiful, elegant way where it’s about support and encouragement. Clear leadership, but not dictatorial control. So he gets passionate people around him and he encourages them to be more passionate than they thought they could be.”
“And Peter does the same thing. I think across all areas, people were chosen because of those qualities. And it was such a long process. My involvement was in and out – it wasn’t so extreme for me – but there were people who spent 10 years of their life involved in this project. People who met, married, had kids, broke up, remarried – whatever – over this period of time. Lives were lived during this project. And the only way people would get to the end was if they really cared about it.”
Having heard so many horror stories of the wet, cold nights that everyone spent filming at Helm’s Deep, I ask whether he ever fell ill during the shooting as a result of exposure to the elements. Craig says he found he tended to be fine while filming. “It’s when you stop and you’ve got a week off that your body collapses and you get the cold and the flu.”
He adds that he was fortunate in that he only spent short bursts of time on the set. “I was the lucky one who would come down for a week, spend a week in these conditions but then go back home for a week or two weeks while all the other poor suckers had to stay there for the three months.”
But it was worth all the pain and suffering, he says. He recalls the cast and crew screening for the first film. “A lot of people had been working that day, and they were tired. And then [after seeing Fellowship] there was a sense of ‘Aaah, we have made something magnificent. It was worth it. The pain and the suffering was actually worth of it.'”
The passing of an age
He interprets the death of Haldir (with all his brethren scattered like fallen leaves around him) as a metaphor for the passing of the elves. “To me – and anyone can read anything they want into it – it was quite a visceral representation of the passing of an age. The death of a way of life and a culture. And the change.”
“It may have had some totally different purpose, but I think it was just to lift the stakes a bit and say everything could be lost, this is a point where it may not be a happy ending.”
“And good versus evil is only interesting is only interesting when we can understand it on a personal level. And I think it’s been the success of this book, this story – especially in film three – our heart is bleeding for Frodo. He has this incredibly tragic journey he goes through.”
It’s not about Schwangor of Planet Kwang
“And I haven’t read a huge amount of fantasy – I’m a sci-fi reader, I guess – but the books I love aren’t about Schwangor of Planet Kwang who defeats a million Thwangors, they’re the stories about the personal relationships.”
“The future technology or the fantasy world is really just a world to set these creatures in who have a personal experience. And I think that for any of us – a film is only interesting if we care about the people involved.” [Listen]
I ask if he feels a sense of ownership of Rings.
“I do, actually,” he says. “I feel a slight sense of ownership. I think all of New Zealand feels a sense of ownership. In a sense that we all know someone who worked on it. New Zealand is such a small place – and we – New Zealand feels a sense that this is our film. And that’s quite lovely, I think.”
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