We here at TORn are very happy to introduce something new within the collectibles arena. We’ve been doing reviews and news blurbs under ‘Collecting The Precious’ for a decade now; so we’ve decided to branch out and add something new! MadeyeGamgee and myself (Elessar) are excited to sit down and talk about various collectibles topics, ranging from new collectibles and interviews with the artists, to tips to help new and old collectors alike. The very first episode is on YouTube now, and you can watch it below. In this first episode we cover mostly the cool things that came out of San Diego Comic-Con at Home 2021. We hope you enjoy this first episode, which comes in at just a little under three hours.
This is part one of a two part interview with Julia Golding, founder of Project Northmoor and the Oxford Centre for Fantasy, which is dedicated to creativity and the study of Oxford’s most famous fantasy writer, J.R.R. Tolkien. Like Tolkien, she studied at the University of Oxford where she received a Doctorate in English Literature. Her CV includes British diplomat and Oxfam policy adviser, as well as multi-award winning author of children’s and young adult novels, with over a half a million books sold worldwide, which have been translated into many languages.
Julia Golding
Mithril: What is your first memory of reading Tolkien?
Julia: Your question reminded me that I had a first unsuccessful attempt at reading The Hobbit too young on my own (around 6 or 7) which put me off Tolkien. I wish someone had read it to me – or steered me towards a recording –because it took me a long while to rediscover The Hobbit. But then came the summer when I was ten. I decided to try Tolkien again but started with The Lord of the Rings. I have a vivid memory of lying on a sofa in my childhood home in Essex, suburban Southeast England. I can even conjure up the feeling of the sofa fabric and the cool room with the sunny road outside. I was enchanted, completely lost in his world. I got to the end, and immediately went back to The Fellowship of the Ring, because I couldn’t stand for the experience to end – so I carried on lying down reading. It really was a turning point for me; ever since then he has helped inspire my passion for creating worlds in fiction.
Mithril: You’ve written over 60 novels, and once said “[Tolkien] is a key influence over the way I write and the reason I became an author.” Can you delve into this a bit more?
Julia: It is connected to his example as a creator of myth. He wrote about us being sub-creators, how we can be a little like a god to our own worlds. I love the idea that we each have the ability to create these microcosm universes, decide the rules and nature of the worlds, invent the peoples, their behaviour, culture and languages. Tolkien led by example. His enduring appeal to me is as a uniquely creative mind whose subcreation has unrivalled internal consistency, length, breadth and depth.
I was also inspired by how he wrote about the things that mattered to him by using them to power the structure holding up Middle-earth. He didn’t come at you with an obvious allegory and bash you over the head with the application; he famously wrote in the Preface to The Fellowship of the Ring that: ‘I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.’
That doesn’t mean, of course, there aren’t values or messages to be drawn, but these are those connected with the reader’s experience. You can be a person of faith, no faith, and from the whole range of world cultures, and still there will be something important there for you. He found great power in such stories as those where the hero sacrifices themselves, displays humanity to the enemy, or fights a battle where victory is also a kind of defeat – all of which can be linked to source stories ranging from the Bible to George MacDonald and William Morris, via Old Norse sagas and Anglo-Saxon poetry. This method of using the things you find powerful as a code underlying your own story showed me how to draw on what I care about to create something uniquely mine – and hopefully the reader senses this and cares too.
Mithril: You hold a Doctorate in English Literature from the University of Oxford. While there, did you study Tolkien’s works?
Julia: I studied Tolkien when I did my undergraduate degree, which was in [the University of] Cambridge back in the mists of time. I wrote a final year paper on Tolkien and C.S. Lewis looking at their different approaches to mythopoeia. I didn’t become a professional writer for another fifteen years, but that third-year thesis stayed with me.
Mithril: You are the founder of Project Northmoor, a center for creative studies with a focus on fantasy and J.R.R. Tolkien. How did the idea for this come about? Can you talk about the process of pulling it together?
Julia: This all came out of the attempt to buy Tolkien’s house, which began in November 2020, launching in December that year – all in super-quick time as we were trying to buy it before anyone else did. I live close by the house. When I cycle past, I have always thought it would make a perfect creative writing centre and would be a wonderful way to honour Tolkien’s legacy. There isn’t anywhere like that in the UK, which is astonishing considering his global importance as a writer. When we started the campaign to buy it, we decided the idea of having a literary centre in Oxford was a valid goal even if we didn’t achieve our aim for the house. We wanted to provide a place for those who love Oxford fantasy to come for inspiration. When we didn’t make the target in the first three months, we had to stop as the vendor wanted to take another offer. Such a shame as we really gave it our best shot! Many Tolkien fans around the world were really generous but there just weren’t enough of us to get us over the line. We then went to plan b and began looking for another venue for the centre. However, that meant we started off online. That was a blessing in disguise as it made us think outside the box of what residential creative centres usually offer. We could be global from the outset, building a wonderful community of creatives who are inspired by Tolkien and other Oxford fantasy writers.
In the second part of this interview, we’ll share a video where Julia visits a barrow which may have helped inspire the Barrow Downs scene in The Fellowship of the Ring.
The awesome folks at Diamond Select Toys were cool enough to send us something pretty sweet to take a look at, and let you all know what we think. As we’ve mentioned in the past, they are doing a great action figure line in the same scale, for those who collected the Toy Biz figure line when the movies were out. These figures of course are updated, and created with today’s technologies; and it shows in how cool they are. The folks at DST sent us what started out as an unlikely friendship in Legolas and Gimli. These figures are out now, and come in at a price of $29.99. If you’re like me and have a copy of their 2021 SDCC Exclusive, they’ve let folks know what the packaging will look like and you can find that here. They’ve also announced a solo Gollum figure, and shown all the cool stuff it comes with along with a price; there’s a link to the blog post mentioning that here.
A review is never late, fellow Ringers; it arrives precisely when it means to! Our friends at Asmus Toys sent us this awesome Gandalf the Grey Crown Series figure to review. The first thing we want to do is thank them! Gandalf is easily one of the coolest 1:6 figures I’ve owned. The headsculpt alone is worth the price ($350, if you want to know…), and when you add all the other detailing aspects you get one heck of a great figure. He’s out now, so you should be able to order him and have him quite quickly to your door, ready to invite you on an adventure.
Our friends at Asmus Toys have a very cool new 1:6 figure coming your way between July and September of this year. Who is it? None other than Arwen herself! Fans can add to their collections this beautiful Arwen figure, from the moment during The Return of the King when the life of the Eldar is leaving her. As you can see in the photos below, the sculpting, which is a brand new sculpt, and detailing on this figure look absolutely fantastic. This figure is approximately 28.5cm tall and has over 34 points of articulation. Depending on your budget, the folks at Asmus have two different versions for you to collect: fans can acquire the collector’s edition for $190, or if you’d like, you can get the exclusive version for $250. You get everything the collector’s edition includes, and you also get that beautiful daybed she is lying on in that sequence.
Yesterday our friends at Weta Workshop delivered something many of us long-time collectors wanted to see, but never thought we would. For years we wanted a Bilbo Baggins sitting at his desk, as you see him during the opening events of The Fellowship of the Ring. Now, fans not only have one superb piece; there are actually two amazing options, depending on how you want to go. If collectors want not just Bilbo at his desk, but also want some of Bag End as well, then you’ll want to go for the limited edition. This piece is up for PO right now through June 21st. This will determine the edition size of Bilbo, which comes with a price tag of $1,299. If you just want Bilbo at his desk, you can order the classic series version, which is an open edition piece for $349. Both versions are not shipping until the first quarter of next year. No matter what route you go, this is going to be one of those pieces that create conversations about your collection.
We here at TORn are very happy to introduce something new within the collectibles arena. We’ve been doing reviews and news blurbs under ‘Collecting The Precious’ for a decade now; so we’ve decided to branch out and add something new! MadeyeGamgee and myself (Elessar) are excited to sit down and talk about various collectibles topics, ranging from new collectibles and interviews with the artists, to tips to help new and old collectors alike. The very first episode is on YouTube now, and you can watch it below. In this first episode we cover mostly the cool things that came out of San Diego Comic-Con at Home 2021. We hope you enjoy this first episode, which comes in at just a little under three hours.
