MetaFilter posts tagged with Tolkien

Bunny Sled!

St. Alia of the Bunnies — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 19:29:34 -0800

Radagast's racing rhosgobel rabbits: A recreational musher looks at the realities of bunny sledding.

The King Under The Rock

JHarris — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 14:36:08 -0800

Hey guys, remember that old show "Fraggle Rock?" And, and you know that recently-released movie The Hobbit? Well, why not combine the two?

Speak "friend" and enter.

MsMolly — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 09:12:44 -0800

Explaining the languages of Middle-Earth. Ever wonder how Peter Jackson and the Lord of the Rings writers developed lines of dialogue for the elves or dwarves when they weren't quoting directly from Tolkien? They asked David Salo, a linguist who specializes in Sindarin and the other languages of Middle Earth. Tolkien said of his own works: "The invention of languages is the foundation. The ‘stories’ were made rather to provide a world for the languages than the reverse." And the list of languages he invented is extensive. Salo's new blog gives a behind the scenes look at the process of building a language, why those with a keen eye might see two different runic alphabets in The Hobbit, and what the connection is between Dwalin's axes and Emily Bronte's dogs.

Is the beard gray? Does he have a donut-shaped beard extremity? Does he look goofy?

Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 13:15:01 -0800

How to identify each Hobbit dwarf by their epic beards

Tootleg Boy audiobook defacement

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 08:47:21 -0800

These audio files contain profanity:
The Lord of the Books of the Fifty-Five Arse-Hymens of Stone
Pride and Prejudice and 367 Pages of Balls and Young Men
Pride and Prejudice and Praise and Porridge and Presents and Pedantic Ponies and Pride and Pride and Pride and Proud and Priiide

Nine French Toast Squares for Mortal Men Doomed to Die

ursus_comiter — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 10:58:37 -0800

Denny's will soon be launching a Hobbit inspired menu. Featuring such delights as Bilbo's Berry Smoothie and Radagast's Red Velvet Pancake Puppies, second breakfast and elevenses will never be the same! (via boingboing)

New Zealand loves its "precious"

reenum — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 11:34:20 -0800

In anticipation of "The Hobbit" movie, New Zealand has issued "Lord of the Rings" themed coins that are legal tender.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit

Wordshore — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:43:31 -0800

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, went on sale 75 years ago today. The first printing, by Allen & Unwin, was for 1,500 copies (which now fetch a premium at auction); the first reviewer, the son of the publisher, was paid a shilling. Through a contorted publishing history, exact or even approximate sales figures are unknown; "over a hundred million" is often quoted. Tolkien was born in the Orange Free State (now South Africa) in 1892. Via Birmingham and Worcestershire, and active service in World War I, he spent much of his life in Oxford where he taught at the university, wrote The Hobbit and several other works, and studied, invented and translated languages. One significant revision to the original text of the Hobbit was made here when Tolkien was drafting The Lord of the Rings, to make the nature of the ring, and its effect on Gollum, compatible with this later work. While some speculate on the endurance of the story, read one of the many companion books, or the ebook version in which Tolkien sings 'Chip the glasses and crack the plates!", replay the ZX Spectrum game adaptation, celebrate the anniversary by partaking of a second breakfast at 11am this morning, or watch the latest trailer for the first in the forthcoming film trilogy (or watch one of the previous adaptations), others may choose to hear the author himself read from The Hobbit, or explain how he wrote the first line. In addition to todays anniversary, many fans celebrate tomorrow (September 22nd) as Hobbit day, marking the birthdays of both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. After a long academic career at Oxford University, Tolkien retired to Bournemouth. He died in 1973. John and Edith, married for 55 years, are buried in the same grave in Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford.

Tolkien, l'anneau de la discorde

ob1quixote — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:02:35 -0800

Last May, Christopher Tolkien, a resident of the South of France since 1975, granted a rare interview to Le Monde. Naturally, the interview and article are in French. For those of us who don't read French, American ex-pat Sedulia Scott provides an English translation.

Invited to meet Peter Jackson, the Tolkien family preferred not to. Why? "They eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people 15 to 25," Christopher says regretfully. "And it seems that The Hobbit will be the same kind of film." The divorce is systematically reactivated by the movies. "Tolkien has become a monster, devoured by his own popularity and absorbed by the absurdity of our time," Christopher Tolkien observes sadly. "The chasm between the beauty and seriousness of the work, and what it has become, has gone too far for me. Such commercialisation has reduced the esthetic and philosophical impact of this creation to nothing. There is only one solution for me: turning my head away."

What Clarke said

infini — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 10:57:44 -0800

Fall, Mortality, and the Machine: Tolkien and Technology From the beginnings of modern fantasy, in the work of Tolkien, technology has always been the enemy of the good life. But does it have to be that way?

And Elmo begat Gladhon

soelo — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 15:12:32 -0800

Emil Johansson is attempting to build a Family Tree that holds all of the characters in Middle Earth. As of today, there are 646 entries.

The Battle Of Maldon

dng — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:29:41 -0800

The Battle Of Maldon is an Old English poem (here in the original Old English, here in a modern translation) retelling the events of a battle that took place in England in 991, in which a small army of Saxons attempted to halt an invading Viking force only to suffer a crushing defeat. This battle, and the disastrous rout suffered by the Saxons, led to the introduction of the Danegeld, the payment of silver in tribute to the Vikings to buy off their invading forces. The poem is incomplete, missing both the beginning and the end, and only 325 lines survive. The original manuscript, which even then was incomplete, was destroyed in the Cottonian Library fire of 1731, but fortunately a copy had been transcribed just 5 years previously, so the poem was not completely lost. In 1953, JRR Tolkien wrote a short sequel to the poem, The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorthelm's Son. In 2010, as is now obligatory, The Battle Of Maldon was re-enacted in Lego.

"Yes."

Fizz — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:42:43 -0800

The Fantasy Novelist's Exam: "Ever since J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis created the worlds of Middle Earth and Narnia, it seems like every windbag off the street thinks he can write great, original fantasy, too. The problem is that most of this "great, original fantasy" is actually poor, derivative fantasy. Frankly, we're sick of it, so we've compiled a list of rip-off tip-offs in the form of an exam. We think anybody considering writing a fantasy novel should be required to take this exam first. Answering "yes" to any one question results in failure and means that the prospective novel should be abandoned at once."

The Hobbit - There in 1977 and Back Again in 2012

Effigy2000 — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:31:52 -0800

As the trailer for Peter Jackson's film adaptation of The Hobbit premieres online, it's worth remembering that this isn't the first take on the journey of one Bilbo Baggins. There was the 1977 animated version as well. Here's some screencaps and a trailer. Of course, if that's not enough for you, you could just watch it on Youtube (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). And before it was a film, it was something called... a book? Here's pictures of the cover of this 'book' thing from all over the world.

Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo! I WILL EAT YOUR SOULS! Ring a dong! hop along! fal lal the willow! I WILL EAT YOUR SOULS! Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo! I WILL EAT YOUR SOULS!

fearfulsymmetry — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:04:05 -0800

Oldest and Fatherless: The Terrible Secret of Tom Bombadil (previous)

Back and There Again.

SpacemanStix — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:17:41 -0800

Many ages ago, before some had yet to hear of The Hobbit or the Lord of the Rings or the collectible LOTR glasses sold at Burger King, critics did their initial reviews. Here's the original review by the New York Times of The Hobbit in 1938. Then came The Fellowship of the Ring, followed by The Two Towers, and of course The Return of the King. Here's a 1967 interview with Tolkien after the influence of his work was starting to be felt. One interesting detail noted is that Tolkien typed the entire 1200+ page manuscript of TLOTR with two fingers. Of course, not everyone viewed the books so favorably. The BBC has detailed some initial criticism against the books, but this seems to have been the minority response within a generally broad and warm literary reception.

Mordor’s going about it all wrong, incidentally. Harness all that geothermal energy, sell it to the humans, LIVE LIKE KINGS.

The Whelk — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 11:20:49 -0800

SF author and Mefi's Own Jscalzi was alone one night during a LOTR marathon and decided to live-tweet a running commentary.

Of all the hobbit holes in this broken down Shire she had to walk into this one

Sebmojo — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 06:08:37 -0800

An astonishing feat of archival reconstruction has turned up the original 1944 Lord of the Rings motion picture

[The opening page] took the most time of all, I think about seventy or eighty hours.

hippybear — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 12:19:56 -0800

TolkienLibrary.com interviews Benjamin Harff about his hand-illuminated edition of The Silmarillion. Complete with click-to-see-larger pictures of his work.

Howard Shore's music for Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy

Trurl — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 20:42:58 -0800

The annotated scores for [*and Filmtracks.com's reviews of] Howard Shore's soundtracks to The Fellowship of the Ring*, The Two Towers*, and The Return of the King*

His feet are faster

Jpfed — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:45:34 -0800

Who is Tom Bombadil? [Via a more wide-ranging discussion on reddit.]

Epic doesn't begin to describe it.

empath — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 10:46:02 -0800

Minecraft: Middle Earth - A tour of a nearly full scale recreation of Middle Earth in Minecraft.

Tolkien infographics

Trurl — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:11:32 -0800

The inmost circle is a geographically accurate map of Middle Earth according to Tolkien's design, and the journey of the Fellowship is plotted according to major destinations and places of action. - JT Fridsma A less elegant but more comprehensive version of the idea Also: The tortured 73 year history of The Hobbit film

The Illustrated Hobbitses

curious nu — Mon, 02 May 2011 10:17:48 -0800

Hobbitish is a site that collects the various cover and interior paintings and illustrations of The Hobbit from versions around the world. Some random examples: Swedish: cover, a simple Gandalf Bulgarian: cover, Bilbo French: cover, Smaug

Pauline Baynes

puny human — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 10:16:26 -0800

Pauline Baynes: Queen of Narnia and Middle-Earth