Come join the Southern California TORn staff and Tolkien fans on Saturday, September 18, 2021, as we celebrate Bilbo and Frodo Baggins’ shared birthday in Griffith Park. The party will kick off at Noon, and run until about 6 pm. The biggest difference this year will be NO POTLUCK. Please bring enough food and drink for yourself and the group you will be attending with. As always, sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses, and maybe a popup for shade are all good things to bring in order to stay comfortable. We are returning to the Mineral Wells section of Griffith Park, which is near the Harding Golf Course. Please head to the Baggins Birthday Bash Facebook event page for directions and a map. https://www.facebook.com/events/193623342558178/
While this event is scheduled for Saturday, September 18, the dual issues of COVID restrictions and/or Wildfires could become an issue this coming week. Should LA County trigger a restriction of large gatherings or a Wildfire trigger evacuations in the region of Griffith Park, we will post a Cancelation notice to the FB page first, and if there is time, post here on the main website as well.
As for COVID restrictions, the LA County guidelines recommend masking outdoors only in the case of a Mega Event, and that has only happened once. We are recommending everyone have a MASK with them, ready to wear near groups of people and remove when eating and drinking. The outdoor setting should afford us more than enough space to social distance if it makes you feel comfortable. We would PREFER if everyone attending was fully vaccinated, but none of us are qualified to verify the CDC card, so we won’t be asking.
Come and join fellow Tolkien fans from around Australia for a Zoom get together of the 'Hern Ennorath' Tolkien group.
Tolkien fans from Australia are building an online community for Australians to discuss Tolkien and Middle-earth topics.
‘Hern Ennorath’ means South Lands of Middle-earth. The name was chosen to reflect where we Aussies live, in the great southern land, in the southern hemisphere and, so far, is made up of three sub-groups
Each of these sub-groups also have their own individual Facebook pages.
The next online meeting is on 23rd September and the topic will be “Music of Middle-earth”. It will start with a quick ‘getting to know you’, before discussing all things music in Middle-earth. From Tolkien’s lyrical poetry to music that has been inspired by Tolkien. The meeting will run for 1 1/2 hours, but everyone is welcome to come and go as they please.
Just follow these instructions to join
Times: 8pm, ACT, NSW, Victoria and Tasmania 7:30pm NT and SA 6pm WA
All are welcome, so mark the 23rd of September in your diaries, grab your favourite snacks and settle in for some “Music in Middle-earth”.
There are also plans afoot to hold an online Middle-earth Trivia Night in November, and a national face-to-face dinner and conference in 2022, so stay tuned for further details.
Welcome to The Great Hall of Poets, our regular monthly feature showcasing the talent of Middle-earth fans. Each month we will feature a small selection of the poems submitted, but we hope you will read all of the poems that we have received here in our Great Hall of Poets.
So come and join us by the hearth, and enjoy!
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.
The Mirror
by: Cassie Hughes
i)
Oh dearest love how can I bear
the mirror’s tale to me this night,
a family torn and ripped apart
as darkness claims and covers light.
Celebrian! Celebrian!
I called but could not keep her safe
for claws and fangs bore her away
to torment she could not escape.
The mirror fogged then cleared again
as vengeance showed to me their face,
twin perils twisted, hearts enslaved
by lustful wrath they could not sate.
Come back to us! Come back to us!
I shouted but they did not hear
above the clash of heavy blades,
the screams and sobs of death and fear.
Another scene unfolded then,
a ranger, tall and dark he stood
beside our precious Evenstar,
and oh! their faces shone with love.
Undomiel! Undomiel!
I wept then as she turned away
to follow where I could not go,
that mortal path of slow decay.
Is this my doing and my doom?
In reparation for past deeds
when thirst for knowledge ruled my head
and power cancelled other needs.
Oh Celeborn, my Celeborn
Have I brought darkness on us all?
Our daughter held beyond despair.
Her children lost beyond recall.
ii)
Your mirror tells what yet may be
but set in stone those tales are not.
Beloved, things are still in flux
our family safe, so ease your heart.
Galadriel! Galadriel!
Read nothing yet in what you saw.
They may be passing shadows just
like pipeweed smoke and not endure.
Yet if in truth they come to pass,
our strength combined will see us through.
As over ages proud and strong
together we have learned to do.
Do not despair! Do not despair!
Though tragedy may take our kin
live for today, let go these fears,
and do not let the darkness win.
iii)
The silvered surface briefly holds
An unseen fleeting image then
a halfling holding out his palm
upon which lies a glowing ring.
Ash nazg begiles! Ash nazg deceives!
What comes to pass will surely be
as told within those crystal depths,
and writ in legend endlessly.
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.
Well, we’re back – with Episode 2 of our collectibles themed podcast. (If you missed it, you can find Episode 1 here.) In this episode, we talk about the importance of having a clear concept of what you want your collection to be, what you want in that collection, and being open to when a special piece crosses your path. We think this topic is important when collecting, because it’s very easy to feel the need to have everything, and thus get overwhelmed and burned out. We hope you enjoy the podcast – and we’re already working on episode 3!
Today’s the day! Our friends at Weta Workshop’s latest Master Collection statue goes up for order today at 2 p.m. PST. This is yet another amazing statue from the Master Collection line, as we’ve seen for several years now. This superb looking piece recreates the sequence where the Hobbits have to get off the road as the Nazgul track them. All we know right now is that this piece will be limited to 500 pieces world-wide. Price and shipping timeframe won’t be unveiled until this goes live; so we absolutely suggest standing by, ready to order this piece as soon as it goes up, because there is virtually no chance this makes it through the day.
Brian Sibley and Pauline Baynes are names which will be instantly familiar to many Tolkien fans. Author, broadcaster and screenwriter Sibley scripted a radio version of The Lord of the Rings for the BBC, and his wonderful book The Maps of Middle-earth was illustrated by John Howe. Sibley also wrote The Making of the Movie Trilogy for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies, and the three ‘Official Guides’ for his Hobbit trilogy.
Artist Pauline Baynes, who died in 2008, worked with Tolkien himself, creating maps and illustrations for his works. Many fans will have had her art work on their walls, as she illustrated Middle-earth posters in the early seventies. Her work adorned covers of various editions of the Professor’s works, and she first collaborated with Tolkien when she illustrated Farmer Giles of Ham back in 1949. She also illustrated all of C S Lewis’ Narnia books.
Baynes and Sibley were friends for many years, and together they created a tale of Osric the Extraordinary Owl. TORn’s good friend Jay Johnstone has finally been able to publish this wonderful work, in a limited edition of just 250 – with a foreword by none other than Tolkien scholar Wayne G. Hammond! Here’s what the official press release tell us:
Osric the Extraordinary Owl resulted from the collaboration of two friends: artist and illustrator Pauline Baynes and writer, dramatist and broadcaster Brian Sibley. It was a friendship spanning more than two-and-a-half decades, with many shared interests, among them the work of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis famously illustrated by Pauline and the subject of acclaimed dramatisations by Brian.
Sibley’s tale of a small grey owl in search of the courage to establish his individuality and ‘be himself’ (but which can be also be read as a ‘coming-out story’) was written in 1970 but had to wait until 2007 to find an artist at a time when Baynes was without any commissions and was wanting opportunities to keep drawing and painting. As a result she produced 22 delightful, double-page illustrations featuring not just Osric and his owl family but also an entire aviary of the most spectacular, colourful birds from black swans and peacocks to flamingos and toucans.
Baynes completed her pictures for Osric the year before her death in 2008 but ‘the extraordinary owl’ had to wait another decade to find a publisher. At the Tolkien Society’s 50th anniversary conference in 2019 noted Tolkien artist Jay Johnstone met Brian Sibley and another of Pauline’s friends, Wayne G. Hammond who, with his wife Christina Scull, is responsible for many key works of Tolkien scholarship and who, as Librarian of the Chapin Library of Rare Books at Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, has curatorship of the Pauline Baynes bequest of paintings, drawings. Out of that Tolkien encounter came the decision to finally get Osric’s saga into print.
After a delay, caused by the Covid pandemic, Jay Johnstone is now pleased to announce the publication of Osric the Extraordinary Owl. This collector’s edition hardback book is written by Brian Sibley and illustrated by Pauline Baynes, with a foreword by Wayne G. Hammond. It is designed and produced by Jay Johnstone and comes in a gilded presentation box. Each book is individually numbered and comes with signed book plates by Brian, Wayne and Jay.
Fans of Bayne’s art and Sibley’s writing will not want to miss out on this very limited release. You can find out more by clicking here.
