It’s one thing to just be a reporter who covered The LOTR Trilogy during it’s lengthy production — but it’s another thing entirely to be embedded in the mix for many years while publishing Sir Ian McKellen’s extraordinary stories on his evergreen website www.McKellen.com — and thus Keith Stern, webmaster and author, provides the goods in his NEW tell-all book: For Entertainment Only: Behind the Scenes of The Lord of the Rings. Next Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, there’s even a special Book Launch Party to be held at Hollywood’s famous geek destination Scum & Villainy Cantina!
Only someone who had been that close to the action, the many rehearsals, the Big-atures, and the gargantuan effort made by the Cast and Crew could have written such a revealing volume! What amazing stories Keith Stern has to reveal here!
In his words: “Delve into the captivating world of “The Lord of the Rings” with exclusive behind-the-scenes insights and anecdotes. Discover untold stories from the making of the iconic movies, featuring interviews and experiences ‘from one who knows,’ as endorsed by Ian McKellen himself. Available for pre-order now, this memoir by Keith Stern offers a unique perspective on the filming process and the journey of bringing Middle-earth to life.
Early KIRKUS REVIEWS are positively the best they could be — and they are known to be very tough critics:
A titillating, but never salacious, memoir from a music and movie insider’s perspective.
The above image is from May 25, 2011, Wellington NZ. Birthday party for Sir Ian McKellen. Peter Jackson previews some footage of THE HOBBIT for Stephen Hunter, Dean O’Gorman and Fran Walsh. Photo by Keith Stern “For Entertainment Only”
Continuing from their Kirkus Review: “As the author of the landmark 1993 book Queers in History, Stern has been at the forefront of promoting the biographies of LGBTQ+ luminaries, including that of his close personal friend Ian McKellen, who plays a central role throughout the book’s second half. The author’s stream-of-consciousness writing style offers an engaging read, and the text is accompanied by a high-resolution online photo gallery of snapshots taken by the author of Hollywood stars.”
Behind this nondescript door in Wellington, all kinds of amazing movie magic happened where KING KONG climbed and fell from the Empire State Building! Photo by Keith Stern: “For Entertainment Only”
As we get closer to the Party date (Nov. 12, 2024) more surprises and images will be revealed on Keith’s official FaceBook page here:
There are so many wonderful appearances in the pages of this volume from Rock & Roll stars and movie actors galore. What sets this remarkable book apart is the intimacy and self-awareness of the author himself — a man who worked hard to bring Sir Ian and his wisdom to all the fans waiting to hear from him during the earliest days of the Internet.
Clifford Broadway will be hosting an EXCLUSIVE interview with Keith Stern during next week’s broadcast of TORn Tuesday — so be sure to tune in for that livestream! If you are in Southern California on Nov. 12, 2024, then join us at Scum & Villainy Cantina, 6377 Hollywood Blvd. from 7pm until 9pm Pacific Time — for a smashing good party, free to attend! Books will be available and the author will be happy to sign copies.
The above photo shows us the 2001 Gandalf the Grey contact sheet. Photos by Pierre Vinet. Ian has marked with an X those that should not be used for publicity or marketing. His contract allowed him to reject a certain amount, about 1/2 but the rest were fair game for the studio marketing and publicity departments to use for posters, advertisements and illustrations.
The above picture: November 28, 2012, Wellington NZ: Elijah Wood on the red carpet for the premiere of “The Hobbit”. Photo by Keith Stern “For Entertainment Only”
If you’ve ever wished for “precioussss” versions of Gollum & Sméagol figures that capture every conflicted, crawling moment, look no further! Asmus and Sideshow have just dropped two stunning sixth scale figures, bringing The Lord of the Rings’ most tragic character to life. And thanks to Asmus, this marks an epic return to Middle-earth collectibles after a dark pandemic pause. In the words of Andy Hsu, Director of Asmus Toys: “Characters that were promised, were anticipated, that were wished for, are now back on the menu!”
Starting with Gollum: this 20 cm figure has over 22 points of articulation for all those sinister, slinking poses we know and love. With a smirking expression, rotatable eyeballs, and haired hobbit feet, Gollum is ready to stir up trouble on your shelf. And no Middle-earth journey is complete without provisions – this little guy even comes with wrapped and unwrapped Lembas bread accessories.
Then there’s Sméagol — the tortured soul behind the sneer. Sméagol’s innocent, haunted expression captures the side of him that Tolkien fans cherish. He has the same exclusive Gollum body by Asmus, complete with seamless limbs and multiple hands and legs to bring his story to life.
So, if you’re ready to give these two a home, both Gollum and Sméagol are up for grabs, allowing fans to continue this adventure together with Asmus and Sideshow. And by purchasing through our links, you’ll support TheOneRing.net.
Available for pre-order from our friends at Weta Workshop is this beautiful statue depicting Radagast the Brown in Rhosgobel. This piece is superbly done, as usual, and perfectly recreates the quirkiness of Radagast and his home. There’s also a very cool easter egg that represents the beautiful place in which the films were made, New Zealand. You can pre-order this amazing piece for $999.
If you have been collecting the classic series, then this second statue of Radagast is for you. This classic series piece is available for $399. Both Radagast statues are due to ship in the first quarter of next year.
For lovers of the monsters of Middle-earth, who need a little eight legged friend in their collection, you could grab the very cool mini-Shelob statue for $179, this statue is also due to ship in the first quarter of next year.
If you have read The Lord of the Rings, there is a good chance that you skipped over one or more of the 75 songs and poems in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy epic. Yet long before he was the “father of modern fantasy”, Tolkien’s great ambition was to be a poet.
He wrote hundreds of poems throughout his life, running the gamut from playful limericks to lengthy verse epics in Old English alliterative meter (verse that focuses on alliteration, the repetition of consonant sounds in two or more words or syllables). But despite his prolific poetic output, Tolkien remains best-known for his prose. Published by Harper Collins, The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien – the first tome to bring together all of his poetry – will not alter its author’s reputation as a storyteller first and foremost, but it will offer readers illuminating new insights into this oft-neglected side of his personality.
This new book has been in the works since 2016, when Christopher Tolkien sent editors Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull several folders of his father’s unpublished poetry. Hammond and Scull are two of the world’s most respected Tolkien scholars, having written painstaking reference works such as the J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide (2017) and The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion (2008). They have also edited previous works by Tolkien, including the short poetry collection The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (2014).
Between them, Hammond and Scull have precisely the obsessive eye for detail and encyclopaedic knowledge of Tolkien’s corpus required to pull off such an undertaking. And once you hold this deluxe, three-volume, 1,500-page tome in your hands, you will grasp just how monumental an undertaking it is.
The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien contains nearly 250 individual works spanning more than five decades, 70 of them previously unpublished.
Hammond and Scull do not present the poems as standalone texts. They meticulously document the manuscript history of each poem from initial fragments to final drafts, tracing their evolution over the course of years or even decades.
This is because Tolkien would frequently return to the same poem throughout his life, revising and reworking it over and over – much as he did with his literary mythology.
The Sea-Bell is a perfect example. In 1934, Tolkien published a poem in The Oxford Magazine entitled Looney. It describes a man’s voyage to an enchanted other-world and his desolation upon returning to ordinary life afterwards.
Almost 30 years later, Looney underwent major redrafting to become The Sea-Bell, which was published in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil in 1962. The poem’s basic narrative arc remained the same, but the imagery was darker, more evocative, more devastating. The protagonist is utterly cut off from his contemporaries, with no words to communicate an experience they cannot understand.
But The Sea-Bell is not merely a revision of its predecessor. Looney was conceived and published as an independent work. In The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, on the other hand, The Sea-Bell is framed as a text written by an unnamed hobbit within Middle-earth, which Tolkien had discovered and translated for modern readers. This conceit invites readers to put the poem in direct conversation with the themes of melancholy and sea-longing which run throughout The Lord of the Rings.
By charting how the poem and its context changed over time, Hammond and Scull show how its meaning changed too.
Many of us live with a nagging sense that industrialised modernity has cut us off from the cosmos, from nature and from our authentic selves. The Romantics and their inheritors believed that art could reconnect us to what is deepest and truest in ourselves and in the world around us – could re-enchant the world.
This is one way to read Tolkien’s entire literary project. He suggests as much in his famous essay On Fairy-Stories (1947).
Eminent Tolkien researcher Verlyn Flieger reads The Sea-Bell as a profound expression of disenchantment, a reflection perhaps of Tolkien’s service in the first world war. But the powers of re-enchantment are at work elsewhere in his work, in the elven-realm of Lothlórien for instance. This dialectic of disconnection and reconnection lies at the heart of Tolkien’s enduring appeal.
As The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien attests, that same dynamic is at play in his poetry as much as his prose. But be forewarned: this book is not for the faint of heart. Its massive scope, and the academic presentation of the material, are better suited to the Tolkien scholar than the casual reader – certainly not the one who leapfrogs the songs in The Lord of the Rings.
But if you, like me, feel a compulsion to own everything released under the professor’s name, that is hardly going to stop you.
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.
TheOneRing.net will be at Griffith Park Sunday, September 22nd, starting at 11:30am to celebrate Bilbo and Frodo’s birthdays with a picnic and festivities. Please join us if you are in the area!
This is a Potluck, so please bring a food item to put on the community potluck table–main courses, sides, snacks, fruit, salads, sweets–anything is welcome. We will also need plates, cups, napkins, utensils, etc. but check the Facebook sign-up so we don’t end up with too many. And if you have an ice chest to help keep beverages cool, fill it with ice and bring it along. Please RSVP in the discussion section on Facebook (see below) with what food, beverage or picnic supplies you plan to bring.
CAKE CONTEST: Instead of an official birthday cake, there will be a competition for everyone to show off their baking skills. All cakes and cupcakes designs with a Baggins Birthday or Middle-earth theme will be entered into the contest. Put your creative thinking caps on!
You can find detailed event information and a section to RSVP on Facebook athttps://www.facebook.com/events/8264139026978984/ Please read the About info, and open it to reveal more because there is a lot of info in there, including driving directions. If you don’t do FB, RSVP to Garfeimao@TheOneRing.net with what food or other supplies you will be bringing.
WHAT TO BRING (Besides food): As you can see from the above image, portable chairs, pop up tents, blankets, sunscreen, hats, sunglasses are all standard. Bring a cloak because it can be surprisingly cool some years.
COSTUMES: Any and all cosplay is welcome and encouraged. You can wear a full set of armor, dress like a Hobbit, or turn to the dark side. If you just want to wear a geeky themed shirt, that’s okay, too. Anything is welcome, but be forewarned, there is usually a costume contest, so be creative.
SKITS: If time allows, there will be a chance to do your rendition of Gollum, act out a scene from the films, read a poem or book passage, or sing a song. So figure out what you want to do and practice ahead of time.
TRIVIA CONTEST: Brush up on your Tolkien Trivia, the competition is usually fierce, but it’s a lot of fun, and everyone is welcome to participate.
Hope to see you all there this year! Don’t forget to check the Facebook page for more info.
Additional note: There is a second Hobbit event planned somewhere in Griffith Park on Sunday. If their signage does not say Baggins Birthday Bash or TheOneRing.net, they are not our Baggins Birthday Bash. This other event will be charging for attendance, and as you know, for the past 23 years, we’ve always been free. As long as you follow the directions to the Mineral Wells location we’ve been at the past decade or more, you will find your TORn Sibs waiting for you.
Also, kids and pets are welcome, we are always a family-friendly event. Dogs must be leashed, and we suggest you bring a water bowl for your pet. It is predicted to be quite hot that day.
Now that the trailer for The War Of The Rohirrim is out, and a wider audience has been able to see footage, the thoughts of some of us return to Stephen Gallagher’s score. And Galllagher has, in fact, been very busy while we’ve all been staring at animation and musing aobut character designs. TORn Discord moderator Lasswen is here with the low-down.
The Sounds Of The Rohirrim: Gallagher Concludes Scoring; Big Tip on End-song Vocalist?
by TORn Discord moderator Lasswen
Trailer 1 began with Howard Shore’s iconic theme for Rohan, but then merged into what seemed to be somewhat generic trailer music.
While it was quite awesome and not out of place, it seems we are yet to hear any new music for Rohan. In June, Staffer Demosthenes published this report on the scoring to that point in time.
Let’s take a look at what has been happening since.
Again, Instagram is our friend. We are very much appreciative of Gallagher and others who have posted about their work so we can follow the journey.
In the later part of June, Gallagher travelled to England. While there was no mention of recording sessions, he did state that there was more music to score and record. At the end of July there was another update: he was nearing the finishing line of the score.
August saw a lot more activity, starting with the final round of recording in New Zealand, with Stroma Ensemble.
That included at least harp (with a small and orchestra-sized harp) and the return of Tudor Consort for additional choral recording. The inclusion of a small harp has me curious about the potential for maybe an accompanied vocal song, or a poignant scene with a singular instrument for a different sort of emotional effect than a large orchestra.
The final run of recording saw Mark Willsher (music producer and mixer, pin3hot) joining remotely from England, but then the recording sessions swapped to London and it was Gallagher that was joining remotely from New Zealand.
The three days of London recording included brass, taiko, timpani, and more crumhorns and shawms. It’s interesting that the shawms worked from the trumpet score, and transposed on sight for this final session, perhaps indicating it was a late decision to try a different sound than originally conceptualised, or to add shawms on top of the trumpets.
Something that does not seem to have occurred (as yet) that was alluded to back in mid-June was more recording in/from Mexico, presumably for more hardanger fiddle from Karen Bentley Pollick.
Yet, that’s not quite the end of it!
In recent days I spotted a mysterious credit on IMDb for “London Voices … choir theme song”. So, if there’s a theme song who could be a soloist to sing on that theme song? It seems we may actually have an answer for that! Staffer Kellie from Happy Hobbitwas the first to make the connection: the theme song for War Of The Rohirrim may be sung by Paris Paloma, after the singer shared the trailer.
Paloma’s songs often convey powerful messages on women’s issues, and with Héra as its protagonist, she seems like a good fit for a War Of The Rohirrim theme song. For now, this is unconfirmed and speculation.
However, one notes that WOTR writer Arty Papageorgiou has been following Paloma for a few months now. Additionally, the singer seems to already have a fondness for anime with a scene from Howl’s Moving Castle providing some inspiration for another song, as well including an iconic John Howe Gandalf imagine in an picture dump at the start of the month.
Now that we have reached this point, just what do we know about the score for War Of The Rohirrim?
Orchestra instrumentation includes typical woodwinds, brass, strings, percussion
Some unusual medieval instruments such as crumhorns and shawms are also present
There will be a choral section (editor’s note: chorals seemed prevalent in the trailer, but maybe that’s just me)
The iconic sound of Rohan from the Jackson films returns with the hardanger fiddle
Japanese taiko drums and Tibetan singing bowls are being used
There may or may not be Éowyn playing cowbell (at least that’s what I keep saying about Gallagher’s Weta epic mini being in most of his Insta pics hehe)
It appears there will be a theme song, possibly sung by Paris Paloma
Gallagher posted on August 28 that scoring had wrapped, so now we await hearing the results of all the talented musicians in bringing this new imagining of the sounds of Rohan to life.
About the author: Lasswen is a former primary and classroom music teacher, who played bass clarinet in high school and community concert bands. As well as being a long-time player of Lord Of The Rings Online, Lasswen makes use of the game’s music system to arrange and perform music in virtual Middle-earth.
