Billy nbffWe finally know Billy Boyd (Pippin from The Lord of the Rings trilogy) will be performing the end credits song for the final film set in Peter Jackson’s cinematic Middle-earth. Warner Bros. have posted their ‘For Your Consideration’ list for “The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies” listing all the people and categories they want Hollywood to pay attention to come Awards Season. On that list for ‘Best Original Song’ is “The Last Goodbye” written by Billy Boyd, Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, and performed by Billy Boyd. It now seems that the use of Pippin’s song “The Edge of Night” in the recently released teaser for the film was a bit of foreshadowing. That song, with the lyrics coming from the last stanza of Tolkien’s ‘A Walking Song’ and the melody written by Billy Boyd himself, demonstrates a great level of empathy on the part of Billy for the melancholic feeling at that point of “The Return of the King”. It seems almost too perfect that Billy should be called upon again to deliver what promises to be a very emotional and fitting ending to all things Middle-earth. And because it’s fun to speculate, you will notice 15 other categories listed ‘For Your Consideration’ on that list, many names familiar to us all. Who do you think might get a nomination this Awards Season?

Ring Cycle by John Cockshaw (2014).
Ring Cycle (2014) by John Cockshaw.
TheOneRing.net has previously chatted with British artist John Cockshaw, and profiled the his evocative Middle-earth landscapes.

In addition to being a Tolkien enthusiast and an artist, Cockshaw is also a film score geek. In this article he draws on the analysis of musicologist Doug Adams to reflect on how Shore deftly employs musical constructs to bring Middle-earth to our ears.
Continue reading “The Ring resounds in Middle-earth”

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.

Sheila ChandraAmong some of the most profound pieces of Tolkien’s writings are those concerning the concepts of death and immortality, and the ultimate fates of Elves and Men. And a little more than a decade ago, as the tale of Aragorn and Arwen unfolded in The Two Towers, it was the evocative voice of Sheila Chandra that spoke to the hope and heartache of their destinies.

A vocalist of Indian descent hailing from the UK, Sheila Chandra performed “The Breath Of Life” (also titled “The Grace Of The Valar“) as Aragorn’s unconscious form floats downriver while Arwen holds him in thought and sends him a blessing from afar – “May the grace of the Valar protect you“.

The song’s lyrics (adapted from Tolkien’s writings) were written by Fran Walsh:

Shadow lies between us, as you came, so you shall leave from us.
Time and storm shall scatter all things. 

Sorrowing you must go, and yet you are not without hope,
For you are not bound to the circles of this world, you are not bound to loss and to silence.

As our exclusive series of interviews with vocalists from The Lord of the Rings continues, join us today as we talk to Sheila Chandra about how the song, its mood, and her delivery of it were all carefully crafted with the aim of conveying the understanding and mature love that is shared between Arwen and Aragorn.

Continue reading “TORn Exclusive: Interview With Sheila Chandra”

april-fools-day_GarfAs many of you might have guessed, there were a couple of stories posted today that were a few facts shy of truthfulness, courtesy of your very tricksy TORn staff on the occasion of April Fools Day. Currently, Warner Bros has no plans to move the release date of “The Hobbit: There and Back Again” to July 2015 or any other date, and no, Peter Jackson has not hired Leonard Nimoy to reprise his “Ballad of Bilbo Baggins” song for the closing credits. We also had a little fun over on the message boards, highlighted by this post by DanielLB. Turns out there were April Fools jokes all over the inter webs today, and even a few with actual advertising, such as the Cheeteau perfume, that smells like Cheetos. None for me, thank you very much. A quick google search should come up with some of the best, but this reporter rather liked the the PBS report on Dolphins shooting rainbows out of their beaks, or Westjet converting to Metric time and giving you a mathematical equation to figure out the time conversion. So if you were scratching your head, wondering if something we said was true or not, rest assured that the two stories mentioned above were not true, but the interview with Luke Evans and the spoiler analysis from Cinemacon were true. And if you would like a walk down memory lane to April Fools past, you can find them on the TORn Mathom-house Wiki.

And for anyone wondering why Garfield the Cat is being used here, the answer lies in my nickname.