In conjunction with our friends at Fantasy Records, TheOneRing.net is proud to present the exclusive debut of the score of the classic 1978 animated Lord of the Rings movie, directed by Ralph Bakshi and scored by Leonard Rosenman. This very special release is on vinyl and is accompanied by an amazing set of collector’s items from the beloved film. The exclusive (and very clever) video below shows everything that is included.
The set is available for purchase for $69.98 USD on Amazon here. Also, Fantasy Films has graciously donated copies to TheOneRing.net to give away to two lucky readers! The contest can be entered at the link at the bottom of the page and is available to people world-wide! The contest will run through September 19th with winners to be announced on September 20th.
Read the official press release below, and be sure to enter to win and/or order your own beautiful collector’s set today!
Fantasy Records presents the classic score to the 1978 animated feature J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, from Academy Award-winning composer Leonard Rosenman (East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, Barry Lyndon). This highly collectable, vinyl box set will be a must-have for fans of the landmark film and audiophiles alike. Inside the box, there is a wealth of ephemera, including reproductions of rare items from the original Tolkien Fanclub!
Contents include:
-Two 180-gram vinyl LPs, housed in a reproduction of the original gatefold jacket
-24” x 36” theatrical poster, featuring Gandalf
-12” x 8.5” map of Middle-earth
-Lobby card, reproduced from the original theatrical release
-Sticker
-Replica Production cel, suitable for framing
-16-page illustrated booklet, featuring behind-the-scenes photos, a new Leonard Rosenman appreciation by Jon Burlingame, the nation’s leading writer on the subject of music for films and television, plus liner notes by Tolkien Enterprises’ Laurie Battle. Also in the booklet is a backstage look at the making of the film by music historian and reissue producer Bill Belmont.
Available for pre-order now is allegedly one of Tolkien’s darkest stories, which (if any of you are familiar with my books) has me all kinds of excited.
Here’s the official press release we have received:
THE STORY OF KULLERVO
The world first publication of a previously unknown work of fantasy by J.R.R. Tolkien, which tells the powerful story of a doomed young man who is sold into slavery and who swears revenge on the magician who killed his father.
• The Story of Kullervo is the first piece of prose fiction that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote
• This is its first appearance in book form
• 2015 is the centenary of its creation
• Illustrated on the cover by one of Tolkien’s own paintings
Kullervo son of Kalervo is perhaps the darkest and most tragic of all J.R.R. Tolkien’s characters. ‘Hapless Kullervo’, as Tolkien called him, is a luckless orphan boy with supernatural powers and a tragic destiny.
Brought up in the homestead of the dark magician Untamo, who killed his father, kidnapped his mother, and who tries three times to kill him when still a boy, Kullervo is alone save for the love of his twin sister, Wanona, and guarded by the magical powers of the black dog, Musti. When Kullervo is sold into slavery he swears revenge on the magician, but he will learn that even at the point of vengeance there is no escape from the cruellest of fates.
Tolkien himself said that The Story of Kullervo was ‘the germ of my attempt to write legends of my own’, and was ‘a major matter in the legends of the First Age’. Tolkien’s Kullervo is the clear ancestor of Túrin Turambar, tragic incestuous hero of The Silmarillion. In addition to it being a powerful story in its own right, The Story of Kullervo – published here for the first time with the author’s drafts, notes and lecture-essays on its source-work, The Kalevala – is a foundation stone in the structure of Tolkien’s invented world.
The book will be released in the UK on the 27th of August 2015 and is scheduled for release in April 2016 in the US.
While I doubt the rights will be released any time soon, this sounds like an edge-of your seat read that would make a fantastic film. With stories like this kicking around in his desk drawers (or wherever the Professor kept them!), one has to wonder what would be his chosen medium if alive and publishing today. Would he be like J.K. Rowling and write not only novels, but for the stage, and the screen as he expanded his magical world? Or do you think he would’ve just stuck to books? Before you go into a lecture about Jackson’s films “ruining everything,” remember that Tolkien willingly sold the rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, knowing full well their stories would be told on the big screen with all kinds of changes to match the cinematic storytelling medium.
*Please Note: This was one of TheOneRing.net’s annual April Fools Jokes – We are not really being sued…yet?*
TheOneRing.net, the largest Tolkien-related fan-site on the internet, and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), professional wrestling entertainment powerhouse, have been unable to resolve recent legal disputes over TheOneRing.net name. TheOneRing.net’s desires to keep the communications private were dashed this week, with WWE breaking off discussions and proceeding with a copyright infringement claim in court.
“Clearly the ‘one ring’ refers to our wrestling ring,” said WWE Majority Owner and CEO Vince McMahon in a prepared statement, “and we are confident that any jury will recognize that. When someone is searching online for the ‘one ring,’ they want to find out more about WWE.”
Chris Pirrotta, one of the foundera of TheOneRing.net, disagrees. “While I respect the integrity and success of the world of professional wrestling and the WWE, I believe there are many different uses of the word ‘ring’ and reject WWE’s assertion of a monopoly over the term.”
WWE is no stranger to the courtroom, having lost their previous initials (WWF) in 2002 after the World Wildlife Fund sued the wrestling company over a broken agreement. Pirotta is quick to point out that he has no issue with WWE’s terminology. “They’re welcome to use the word ‘ring’. They’re welcome to call their ring the ‘one ring’. We just ask that we be allowed to keep our name. There’s never been any confusion in the past.”
McMahon disagrees, however, saying “our market research tells us that approximately 90% of first-time visitors to TheOneRing.net are looking for information about WWE superstars such as Roman Reigns or John Cena. Quite frankly, I doubt that many people have actually read Mr. Tolstoy’s books and even fewer know about the films.”
Cliff Broadway, who contributes to TheOneRing.net under the pseudonym “Quickbeam”, believes there is only one way to solve the dispute. “I am issuing a challenge to WWE Champion Seth Rollins for a match at Summerslam,” he says, referring to the upcoming wrestling event. “It will be the WWE Title versus TheOneRing.net name where winner takes all. And I think WWE will find Hell hath no fury like an Ent scorned.”
As of yet, WWE has not responded to the challenge, and TheOneRing.net continues to post news related to The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and the associated personalities.
Any Texas residents who live near the A&M University may want mark February 27th on their calendar – particularly those of you who are fans of author George R.R. Martin (the creator of the Game of Thrones universe).
Back at the start of the summer, staffer GreenDragon generously asked the publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to send me a copy of Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf to review. While I started the book right away, this review has been delayed by producing Happy Hobbit and attending four conventions, along with writing two books and a script on top of daily life and work, which is a long-winded way to say that I apologize for my tardiness!
While still an undergrad, I took a course in Old English which was an introduction to the language, followed by a semester of translating Beowulf. A year isn’t enough time to master a dead language, and I was attempting to master two at once, for I was also taking Latin at the time (an alternate nickname for me could be Hermione), so I won’t be able to go into the nitty gritty mechanics of the language like Tolkien does in his notes, but I will offer what insight my education allows!
This is what studying two dead languages looks like.
To offer some context, I will say that Old English is the name we have given to the Anglo Saxon language, for after a strong French influence after the Norman Conquest of 1066, Old English morphed into Modern English. It is important to note, as well, that Anglo Saxon is the language of our (even if you aren’t of English descent, you’re reading this in English) conquerors, for the Nordic tribes of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes invaded England after the withdrawal of the Roman Empire around 410 CE. They renamed the island Angle-Land. England. So while Beowulf is attributed as being the first great epic in English, it is significant that it is a story from the culture that conquered the island and that its setting is in the conquering nation’s homeland in the north, not England, even though the manuscript was recorded and found in an English monastery, hidden beneath pages of religious text. All of this would have been known to J.R.R. Tolkien at the time of his translation in the 1920s.
Firstly, I will say that my reason for taking Old English was driven by my obsession with Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings. I was first exposed to Beowulf in seventh grade when I read a version of the poem for one of my classes. Enamored with the culture and the exciting, heroic tale, it lingered in my mind in a way that few stories read for school had. In the Humanities Honors Program in college, we were exposed to the literature that laid the foundations for Western civilization and I once again read a translation of Beowulf (picturing Aragorn as Beowulf this time around, of course) and while in my proceeding English courses I avoided the works I had already read, Beowulf was the one text I would read every time I was asked. As such, I have been exposed to three or four translations, including my own.
In conjunction with our friends at Fantasy Records, TheOneRing.net is proud to present the exclusive debut of the score of the classic 1978 animated Lord of the Rings movie, directed by Ralph Bakshi and scored by Leonard Rosenman. This very special release is on vinyl and is accompanied by an amazing set of collector’s items from the beloved film. The exclusive (and very clever) video below shows everything that is included.
Fantasy Records presents the classic score to the 1978 animated feature J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, from Academy Award-winning composer Leonard Rosenman (East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, Barry Lyndon). This highly collectable, vinyl box set will be a must-have for fans of the landmark film and audiophiles alike. Inside the box, there is a wealth of ephemera, including reproductions of rare items from the original Tolkien Fanclub!
The Tolkien Society’s annual Oxonmoot event is due to take place at St Antony’s College, Oxford this weekend with record attendance. 
