We had a fantastic time at last weekend’s Wizard World San Jose. Thanks so much to everyone who made the effort to come out and join us!

wizard world YT

Our panel, Happy Hobbit: The World Ahead, was a delight on Friday afternoon. In keeping with our theme, there was lots of laughter and learning. It’s always very rewarding to meet people who watch our show and fellow Tolkien-fans in general. In addition to geeky fun, several creatives also turned out, curious to hear about my experience with writing as K.M. Rice and to see Fili’s love of capturing the moment with Alexandra Rice Photography. We can only hope that Tolkien would’ve been proud to see just how much creativity and inspiration people have found in his Middle-earth, leading them to their own unique forms of self-expression. Like Bilbo, many of us artists just need a little nudge out the door onto our own roads! You can watch our panel in it’s entirety here:

The short film that we debuted, Wildling, which we made together as a sister team over the summer, can be watched here (in a bit better quality than what you can see in this panel footage!).

Following the panel, we had time to sweep through the showroom floor before heading over to the Hilton’s Affinity restaurant for some hobbity and dwarven hijinks that made our panel look like a calm and composed event. TORn staffter Garfeimao and her sister, Carynn Hobbit, were in attendance, along with several friends, some old and some we’d only met that day! The following afternoon was none other than Billy Boyd’s (Pippin in LOTR and lead vocals in the band beecake) hilarious Q & A panel.

As always with our show, our goal is to make episodes that help you feel like you were at these events, even if you were only present in spirit, so feel free to prop up your feet and enjoy Wizard World San Jose by watching the video below!

The Nine Walkers PaperArtist Jerry Vanderstelt released four new items today covering both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. First up is the final entry of The Fellowship series with the fantastic Boromir print. If you’ve been holding off buying any of them you can now snag all nine of The Fellowship of the Ring set. Jerry is also unveiling one of the most beautiful prints I’ve ever seen: the print featured to the right that captures all nine members of The Fellowship in one amazing print. Finally, The Hobbit gets a little love with a print of Tauriel. The new prints range in size from 12×16 to 17×35 and prices ranging from $39-$325, depending on what print you get. Whatever your choice, you’ll be adding something to your collection that captures the heart and soul of Middle-earth.

10862725_796487747095429_5513024793841096753_oAmazing artist Jerry Vanderstelt is back with some more great pieces.

Tonight, we’re pleased to let you know that he has created a series of portrait prints capturing The Nine Walkers, aka The Fellowship of the Ring. These prints are stunning and capture the personalities of the characters we’ve come to love so much.

As of now only Gimli, Legolas, Merry, and Pippin are up for sale. You can get them in either 12×16 at $39 or 17×22 at $69.

If you’re a fan of The Lord of the Rings films then these are a must have for your collection.

Update: Jerry has now added Strider and Samwise.

Just last week on New Zealand’s South Island a Manapouri local may have stumbled upon a location that Peter Jackson used in filming The Fellowship of the Rings to film a famous scene in the Midgewater Marshes.

Several kilometres up the road to Takaro Lodge, Aaron Nicholson (who last year unsuccessfully attempted to have a Fiordland mountain renamed in honour of J.R.R. Tolkien) stumbled across the site while guiding the visiting Secretary of State for Wisconsin around the area. Continue reading “A lost set location from The Fellowship of the Ring uncovered?”

Unexpected PartyIn expanding on Professor Tolkien’s text in his film adaptation, director Peter Jackson allows us to follow Gandalf the Grey into areas that remain secret to us within the text of The Hobbit. As we look forward seeing these events unfold before our eyes next month, this essay by Tedoras examines Gandalf’s journey into the dark fortress of Dol Guldur, what he found there, and the impact that this event had on the fate of Middle-earth. Continue reading “On the Finding of Thror’s Map and the Key to the Lonely Mountain”

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.

Aragorn and Eowyn Over on Yahoo!, writer Daniel Wood is pining for some of Lord of the Rings key — and minor — characters to reprise their roles somewhere in The Hobbit. Even if it’s just a small cameo.

Now, we know for a fact that most of this wishlist is either unlikely, or downright just not going to happen. But, that being said, in your ideal rendition of The Hobbit, who would you have returning, and why?


We’re almost at the second film in ‘The Hobbit’ trilogy and ‘Desolation of Smaug’ will mark the return of Legolas to add to the growing list of returning characters such as Galadriel, and Gandalf. But who else from Lord of the Rings should return?

Aragorn

I thought I’d get Aragorn out of the way first. Viggo Mortensen’s Aragorn has become somewhat of a major cult icon thanks to his role as Aragorn and when rumours that he’d be making a cameo in ‘The Hobbit’ began to surface everyone, myself included started getting a little excited. However Viggo shot those rumours down by saying that it didn’t make sense for him to return. However Jackson is bridging the gap between ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’ using extra source material from Tolkien’s writing, therefore there are one or two scenes that Aragorn could return for in order to ease the transition from ‘The Hobbit’ to ‘Lord of the Rings’. I’m still holding out hope that Aragorn will in fact be making an appearance.

Gimli

Gimli’s father Gloin is one of the dwarves in Bilbo Baggin’s group that is trying to reclaim Erebor. Gimli also would have been alive during the events of the Hobbit, so if they’re going to include Legolas in ‘Desolation of Smaug’ why not include Gimli. I’m thinking a little scene at the end where Thranduil (Legolas’ father) and Gloin meet alongside their prospective children, hinting at the bromance that is to come in ‘Lord of the Rings’. It’s not necessarily canonical, but it’ll be a nice little precursor. If this were to happen though, the role of Gimli would need to be recast.

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