This weekend, Hall of Fire focuses on one of Tolkien’s more mysterious creations – the Druedain. If you’re somewhat mystified as to who these people are, the name Ghan Buri Ghan (from Return of the King) may ring a few bells. Just what was Tolkien’s inspiration for the creation of this “unlovely” and secretive people? A forest people with no writing system and “guttural languange”, they seem uniquely placed among the Free Peoples of Middle Earth. [More]
Category: Original TORn
Hall Of Fire Chats This Weekend
This weekend, Hall of Fire focuses on one of Tolkien’s more mysterious creations – the Druedain. If you’re somewhat mystified as to who these people are, the name Ghan Buri Ghan (from Return of the King) may ring a few bells.
Just what was Tolkien’s inspiration for the creation of this “unlovely” and secretive people? A forest people with no writing system and “guttural languange”, they seem uniquely placed among the Free Peoples of Middle Earth. Tolkien was at pains to point out that – despite their primitive nature – they were not a breed of orcs or had ever been corrupted by the Dark Lord – Morgoth. In fact, they seem more akin to hobbits or dwarves than other human tribes.
You might also not have known that the Druedain were one of the tribes of Edain that they went to Numenor at the end of the First Age! But how did did they get to Druadan Forest? And what is their connection with the strange Pukel statues of Dunharrow?
Join us at one of our chats this weekend as we investigate one of Tolkien’s most intriguing enigmas.
Suggested Reading:
Unfinished Tales – The Druedain
RoTK – The Passing of the Grey Company
RoTK – The Muster of Rohan
RoTK – The Ride of the Rohirrim
Upcoming Chats:
April 26/27
Ents, Entwives and all things Treeish
Not entirely sure what this will involve yet, but expect lots of book talk … old forest, origons and fate of the ents and entwives, rumours of trees wandering the moors and what the heck are huorns?
Place:
#thehalloffire on theonering.net server; come to theonering.net’s chat room Barliman’s and then type /join #thehalloffire .
Times:
Saturday Chat:
5:30pm ET (17:30)
[also 11:30pm (23:30) CET and 7:30am Sunday (07:30) AET]
Sunday Chat:
7:00 pm (19:00) CET
[also 1:00pm (13:00) ET and 3:00am (03:00) Monday morning AET]
ET = Eastern Time, USA’s East Coast
CET = Central European Time, Central Europe
AET = Australian East Coast
Having trouble working out a time zone near you? Try this page.
Do you have a possible topic for Hall of Fire? Drop us a line at halloffire@theonering.net. And don’t forget that you can check out previous chats here.
The Sydney Morning Herald scores a great interview with Hugo Weaving. Journalist Garry Maddox writes: Despite shunning Los Angeles and staying close to his Sydney home, Weaving’s profile has soared in recent years thanks to roles in the hit movies The Lord of the Rings and The Matrix. [More]
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers has been nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation of 2002. The Hugo Awards are given out each year for the best in science fiction as determined by a vote of current Worldcon members. This year’s Hugos will be given out at Torcon in Toronto on Saturday, August 30. You can check out the full list of nominees here.
Last year The Fellowship of the Ring picked up the Hugo Award in the same category. Thanks to Laurie for the info!
Cartoonist John Cook is running a cartoon caption contest on his website sev.com.au. The cartoon has Wormtongue surveying a vast army of orcs, wondering how Saruman put together such a huge army so quickly. The reader gets to write Saruman’s response. The entries are rated by readers with the funniest punchline voted on in a week’s time. The contest ends Wed 23 April. Check it out here!
Thanks to Jess for the heads up!
I’m starting to think that the folks over at the CBBC website lack a certain amount of imagination: all of their polls seem to be somehow related to Lord of the Rings. At the moment they are running one about you favorite ‘thing’ here, and your favorite celebrity (vote for Elijah Wood or Orlando Bloom) here. Vote if you dare…