J. R. R. Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State in South Africa. If he was still alive, today he would be 123 years old — and fast catching up on The Old Took!
“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,” he used to say. “You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to. Do you realize that this is the very path that goes through Mirkwood, and that if you let it, it might take you to the Lonely Mountain or even further and to worse places?”
— Frodo about Bilbo in The Fellowship of the Ring.
What Tolkien and his works mean to you Continue reading “Hall of Fire chat today: share what Tolkien means to you”
It resides mostly in Appendix A of Lord of the Rings, yet the story it tells reveals key parts of Aragorn’s character in The Lord of the Rings.
It is, of course, The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen — our Hall of Fire topic for later today.
‘For a moment Aragorn gazed in silence, but fearing that she would pass away and never be seen again, he called to her crying, Tinúviel, Tinúviel! even as Beren had done in the Elder Days long ago.
Then the maiden turned to him and smiled, and she said: “Who are you? And why do you call the by that name?” Continue reading “Hall of Fire chat today: The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen”
This Saturday at 5pm ET, we’ll be turning our attention back to The Return of the King in The Hall of Fire as we examine the very last chapter of the novel: The Grey Havens.
One evening Sam came into the study and found his master looking very strange. He was very pale and his eyes seemed to see things far away.
‘What’s the matter, Mr. Frodo?’ said Sam.
‘I am wounded,’ he answered, ‘wounded; it will never really heal.’
But then he got up, and the turn seemed to pass, and he was quite himself the next day. It was not until afterwards that Sam recalled that the date was October the sixth. Two years before on that day it was dark in the dell under Weathertop.
Continue reading “Today’s chat in The Hall of Fire: The Grey Havens”
A little later today, at 5pm ET, Hall of Fire will be talking about the great Istari Saruman.
“And here you will stay, Gandalf the Grey, and rest from journeys. For I am Saruman the Wise, Saruman the Ring-maker, Saruman of Many Colours!”
Continue reading “Hall of Fire chat topic today: Saruman!”
A little earlier today, Hall of Fire took a detour into movie-land to pull apart the brand-new trailer for The Battle of the Five Armies.
If you missed the discussion, or found the messy first hour very frustrating (sorry about that, it was unusually difficult to direct discussion), then here’s the log from the final two once we got a system going and started analysing what Peter Jackson put in front of us scene by scene.
Hope you find it illuminating.
Oh, and usual warning for movie spoilers over the page!
Continue reading “Hall of Fire chat log: breaking down the Five Armies trailer scene by scene”
Today at 5pm ET (note the time switch because of DST changes) the Hall of Fire will be detouring from our regular book chats back into movie-land as we head into spoiler territory and pull apart the new trailer for The Battle of the Five Armies in what’s sure to be an entertaining and enlightening discussion.
Saruman: Leave Sauron to me.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies trailer chat and analysis! Continue reading “Hall of Fire today: Hobbit Five Armies trailer chat!”
