Well, the trailer is here! And I think we can all agree that it was well worth the…
Continue ReadingWell, the trailer is here! And I think we can all agree that it was well worth the wait. Quickly, here are twelve moments from it that really knocked our socks off!
The usual warning for spoilers, speculation and analysis goes here.
Number 1. Dwalin: “Bilbo is right, you can not see what you’ve become.” Continue reading “12 definitive moments from the trailer for The Hobbit: the Battle of the Five Armies”
Over at The Guardian, Sarah Crown discusses why she rates Sauron in The Lord of the Rings as the most frightening and enduring villain of all literature.
I think there could be something to this. I recall vividly just how much Sauron’s unseen — yet uncannily tangible — menace frightened me as a teenager reading The Fellowship of the Ring late into the night, especially whenever I reached the following passage from The Mirror of Galadriel.
But suddenly the Mirror went altogether dark, as dark as if a hole had opened in the world of sight, and Frodo looked into emptiness. In the black abyss there appeared a single Eye that slowly grew. until it filled nearly all the Mirror. So terrible was it that Frodo stood rooted, unable to cry out or to withdraw his gaze. The Eye was rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat’s, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing.
Then the Eye began to rove, searching this way and that; and Frodo knew with certainty and horror that among the many things that it sought he himself was one.
Continue reading “Sauron: literature’s baddest of all baddies?”
Over at Entertainment Weekly, writer Darren Franich is arguing that The Walking Dead is beginning to morph into a fantasy (or has been one all along) … specifically high-fantasy of the style of The Lord of the Rings.
I don’t watch TWD (or much telly at all) so I’m going to have to let you all argue this one out yourselves. But the one point I will make is that, if you buy that stuff about there only being seven fundamental plot archetypes, you’re bound to get a certain level of resemblance between any two works. Now, I’ll get out of the road and let Darren have his say… Continue reading “EW proposes The Walking Dead mirrors The Lord of the Rings”
In our latest Library piece, TORn feature writer Tedoras delves deep into J.R.R. Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth to examine what we really know about Thranduil, the Sindarin lord of Mirkwood — a realm largely populated by Silvan elves. How does this make him different? What were the big influences in his political vision for his people? What, in essence, makes him tick?
It’s good stuff, and inadvertently, it’s almost a companion piece to my own musings on Thranduil’s strongest character traits from earlier this year.
Late last month, Warner Bros. put out a new, updated one-pager press release for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.
Within it was a new cast list with one interesting, and very obscure, addition, and one even more interesting exclusion.
I’ll quote the listed cast from the Warner Bros. presser below in full. Continue reading “Is Elijah Wood actually in The Hobbit 3? Warner Bros.’ latest presser adds new uncertainty.”
Just the other day, I was pondering the 12 silver pennies that Barliman Butterbur uses to buy Bill the Pony for Our Heroes in Bree. That, and the coins that he gives Merry as recompense for the ponies that fled Prancing Pony stables and eventually made their way back to Tom Bombadil.
It’s interesting because this is one of the very few times a unit of currency is directly mentioned in the main text of The Lord of the Rings. In fact, the further we get from The Shire, the less money (and economics) becomes a factor within the story.
But how do economies work in Middle-earth? We know that, at least in the Third Age, trade of a sort occurs. Tobacco and other goods make their way to Isengard from The Shire. Bilbo purchases goods from Dale and Erebor for his farewell party. And the elves of Mirkwood do business with Lake-town and the mysterious region of Dorwinion. Continue reading “Where is the money in Middle-earth?”
