Barliman's Chat
This Saturday (at 6pm ET (New York time)), Hall of Fire will return to our chapter-by-chapter read-through of The Lord of The rings, rejoining Frodo, Sam and Gollum as they enter The Dead Marshes.

“To do the job as you put it – what hope is there that we ever shall? And if we do, who knows what will come of that? If the One goes into the Fire, and we are at hand? I ask you, Sam, are we ever likely to need bread again? I think not. If we can nurse our limbs to bring us to Mount Doom, that is all we can do. More than I can, I begin to feel.”

Continue reading “Hall of Fire this Saturday: the Passage of the Marshes”

TheOneRing.net StaffEver wondered about the diverse group of individuals behind TheOneRing.net?

Well, now you can meet the talented, and oft-times crazy, volunteers, who diligently delve away in the deepest darkest caverns of Erebor to bring you TheOneRing.net.

*some of the creatures who work here are extremely shy and there is very limited information about them, beyond their names, if you’re extremely lucky you might just spot one as they scurry back into the shadows 😉 *

 

If you like what we do, and would like to see your Tolkien community keep growing and growing, consider making a contribution to our Pledge Drive. Every bit helps defray our costs!

Continue reading “Meet the team behind TheOneRing.net”

Barliman's Chat This Saturday (at 6pm ET (New York time)) Hall of Fire will be discussing one of the great (and tragic) heroes of Middle-earth — Boromir the Brave.

‘The Men of Gondor are valiant, and they will never submit; but they may be beaten down. Valour needs first strength, and then a weapon. Let the Ring be your weapon, if it has such power as you say. Take it and go forth to victory!’ The Council of Elrond.

Continue reading “Hall of Fire this Saturday: Boromir, tragic hero of Gondor”

Everything about TheOneRing.net is big.

Just look at some of these numbers.

33,467. News articles, spy reports and features published on the TORn front page since 2007 alone.

22,300. Spy photos, movie screencaps and fan images in the old TORN scrapbook, and the new one.

616,739. Posts from 9,981 TORnsibs on the “new” TORn gossamer forums since 2007.

700. Megabytes of plain text people have written in our Barliman’s chat since 1999. That’s several million lines of type from thousands of visitors.

These numbers are constantly growing. And it’s all from the passion and enthusiasm of the TORn community.

Your community is an enormous patchwork of brilliant, clever and Tolkien-literate people from all around the world who are passionate about Tolkien and love the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movies.

And they love sharing that passion with each other — through stories, anecdotes, events, videos, music and fan art.

The TORn community is you

We don’t simply mean TORn staff. The community is you, the message board posters from the USA, Canada or France. It’s you, the chatroom regulars from Finland, the Netherlands or New Zealand. It’s you, the folks from Australia, Singapore and Brazil who participate in Hall of Fire and watch TORn Tuesday each week.

If you’ve ever sent in an article, submitted a photo or report, posted on our messageboards, visited our chat, or commented on our twitter, facebook or g+, you’re the reason TheOneRing.net is among the largest and most-respected pillars of the Tolkien community on the web.

Keeping all this afloat, though, takes as much money as it does love and passion.

For new servers. For software upgrades and social media integration apps. For web hosting bills.

If you’d like to make a Pledge to help TORn cover bills to help your community continue to grow, we’d be grateful and appreciative.

Just use the links below.

If you can’t, that’s ok! Keep on contributing to your community whichever way you can — through your thoughts, comments and recommending TheOneRing.net to your friends!

Make a Pledge today

General Pledge Pledge anywhere from $5 to $20!

Bronze Pledge Pledge $25. All Bronze Pledges are listed for one year on TheOneRing.net’s ‘The Tale of Honour’ web page.

Silver Pledge Pledge $50. All Silver Pledges are listed for one year on TheOneRing.net’s ‘The Tale of Honour’ web page and receive a TORn supporter t-shirt!

Gold Pledge Pledge $75. All Gold Pledges are listed for one year on TheOneRing.net’s ‘The Tale of Honour’ web page and receive a TORn supporter t-shirt and a commemorative pin!

Platinum Pledge Pledge $150. All Platinum Pledges are listed for one year on TheOneRing.net’s ‘The Tale of Honour’ web page and receive a TORn supporter t-shirt and a commemorative pin + MORE COOL STUFF!

Mithril Pledge Pledge $400. All Platinum Pledges are listed for one year on TheOneRing.net’s ‘The Tale of Honour’ web page and receive a TORn supporter t-shirt and a commemorative pin + SUPER COOL STUFF!

 

Or make a custom pledge

 

 

TORn logoBeginning last Saturday and running through to September 4, TheOneRing.net is hosting a Pledge Drive (see the banner at the top) as well as a bunch of auctions for some really cool memorabilia and collectibles.

The day-to-day operation of the website, and the events we host, require a lot more resources than when we first started nearly 15 years ago. We sometimes find it hard to ask our readers for the help we need to keep running, so we began discussing what it is that makes TheOneRing.net worth helping out. It started out as a search for the Top Ten Moments of TORn, but the list got so long because each staff member had their own idea of important moments in TORn history. Here, instead, is something more encompassing: Ten Ways TORn helps serve Tolkien and Lord of the Rings fandom (listed in no specific order).

And, if you enjoy what we do, consider a donation (no amount too small, because every bit does help!) to keep us running!

If you can’t, that’s fine as well — keep reading, commenting and contributing. Because TORn is as much you as it is us!

If you’ve ever sent in an article, submitted a photo or report, posted on our messageboards, visited our chat, or commented on our twitter, facebook or g+, you’re the reason TheOneRing.net is among the largest and most-respected pillars of the Tolkien community on the web.

Continue reading “Ten ways TORn serves Tolkien and Lord of the Rings fandom”

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.

Barliman's Chat Last weekend, The Hall of Fire examined what’s undoubtedly the movie topic of the moment — the character and appearance of Beorn. Lots of thoughtful opinions from all sides, and some interesting analysis of the mythic roots of Tolkien’s shapeshifter as well as of Alan Lee, John Howe and Ted Nasmith’s classic illustrations. Plenty of spoilers, too! For those who couldn’t attend, here’s a log.

Also, this weekend (Saturday August 24 at 6pm EDT (New York time)) we’ll be returning to our Lord of the Rings book chats. This week we begin the first chapter of book four — The Taming of Smeagol — so be sure to join us for this exciting topic! Continue reading “Hall of Fire chat log: Can we bear Beorn”

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.