Tolkien’s love of Anglo-Saxon history is well-known, as are his influences from such Nordic works as Beowulf and the Finnish Kalevala. His passion for these cultures is evident in every race he created for Middle-earth, including the dwarves. Yet as has been highlighted in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, some of the inspiration for the dwarven race may have come from an understated influence: the Celts. Continue reading “Dwarves: A Celtic Connection”

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.

DOS1On Friday message board member narflet let us know that images and details for the Tie-in books were available for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. According to the current list, there are going to be seven (count them!) tie-in books for film two. The United States Publication dates for all the books looks to be November 5th with the lone exception being the Weta Chronicles book which debuts on December 13th. The publication dates for the books in the United Kingdom are November 7th with the lone exception being the Annual being August 29th. Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Book Tie-Ins”

Hobbit-DOS-key-art-poster And here’s new poster art for Desolation of Smaug, too!

Is this a subtle indicator that we will definitely see Bilbo and Smaug’s (the Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities) riddling sequence from Inside information in the Desolation of Smaug? Those great lines about Bilbo being the friend of bears and guest of eagles — barrel-rider, Ringwinner and Luckwearer? Continue reading “New Desolation of Smaug key art poster!”

Live Coverage from Comic-Con 2013 and all things The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien.First off, we’d like to continue to send our prayers and well wishes to all our friends in NZ, who once again are dealing with a significant earthquake.

Over on the west coast of the US, the last San Diego Comic-Con is upon on us. Our LIVE stream, sponsored by Badali Jewelry, will be running all day long, starting at 10am PT. Our LIVE coverage subsite  features staff updates from the twitterverse, facebook, instagram and vine (#tornlive #sdcc #smaugcon @theonering.net). That means you get to see real time photos and mini-videos all day long as we countdown to the end of the show. And of course, you can chat right as you watch the live stream in either ustream or Barlimans!

Don’t forget about some of the great opportunities available until the end of the day…

  • Enter the $800 Dark Rider of Morder Giveaway from SideshowCollectibles.com [Details]
  • Save 15% OFF everything from BadaliJewelry.com with promo code SMAUG.
  • Snag the ‘We Can Do It!’ Poster and other great Comic-Con items from our own shop.theonering.net
  • Don’t forget to send your support for our LIVE events. If you appreciated our coverage, please consider a donation.

If you have a moment, use our comments section to tell us what you thought of our coverage! [Live Coverage]

 

KDBA2If you have been following our LIVE stream coverage from Comic-Con 2013, you may have noticed we experienced a few technical hiccups with the video stream yesterday. Well, thanks to our long time friends at Badali Jewelry, we can now say those technical woes are behind us! With their support as our major stream sponsor, we can now bring you full coverage for the remaining two days of the event.

And possibly even more exciting news for collectors…they have given us an exclusive 15% OFF coupon to use both on the Comic-Con floor and online at their website badalijewelry.com. Simply use the code ‘SMAUG‘ during checkout and your discount will be applied. The offer is good until the end of the monthy, so act fast!

Badali was the first advertiser on TheOneRing.net way back in 1999. We are so privileged to have their continued support today. Please visit their site and build up your own collections with their amazing products and offerings!

In case you missed our post earlier, we’ve listed all of their Comic-Con specials here.

[Badali Jewelry] [Live Coverage]

 

Benedict CumberbatchWhile have yet to see his work in ‘The Hobbit,’ we’d like to wish a very Happy Birthday to actor Benedict Cumberbatch. The man who will be Smaug turns 37 today! Here’s his bio from Wikipedia…

Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch (born 19 July 1976) is an English actor. His most acclaimed roles include Stephen Hawking in the BBC drama Hawking (2004); William Pitt in the historical filmAmazing Grace (2006); protagonist Stephen Ezard in the miniseries thriller The Last Enemy (2008); Paul Marshall in Atonement (2007); Bernard in Small Island (2009); and Sherlock Holmes in the modern BBC adaptation series Sherlock (2010–12).

In February 2011, he starred in Danny Boyle‘s stage adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein at the Royal National Theatre. In late 2011, he played Major Stewart in Steven Spielberg‘s War Horse (2011). He also played Peter Guillam, one of the pivotal roles in Tomas Alfredson‘s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011).

He also starred as Christopher Tietjens in the BBC/HBO co-produced miniseries, Parade’s End, which first aired August 2012. He portrayed Smaug the dragon through voice and motion capture and also provided the motion capture for the Necromancer in Peter Jackson‘s The Hobbit trilogy (2012).

Cumberbatch portrayed the main antagonist, Khan Noonien Singh, in J. J. Abrams‘ Star Trek Into Darkness, released in May 2013, and will play WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate.