Our One Last Party giveaway had such a huge response that, to celebrate J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday (born January 3 1892, folks!), we’ve decided to hold another for all those who pledge $10 or more between now and 6pm EST on Monday January 5!
Happy Birthday to Christopher Tolkien, who turns 90 today the 21st of November. From all of us here at theonering.net ,”Many Happy Returns!”.
Christopher John Reuel Tolkien (born 21 November, 1924) is the third child and youngest son of J.R.R. Tolkien and Edith Tolkien. He is the literary executor of the Tolkien Estate and has edited much of his father’s work for posthumous publication.
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.
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.
In 1982, Beam Software and publisher Melbourne House brought Tolkien’s world to computers with a text adventure based on The Hobbit. (An emulator of the ZX Spectrum version is available to play online.)
Back then, the original licensor — in this case the Tolkien Estate itself, or Tolkien Enterprises (now Middle-earth Enterprises) — would allow licensees to sometimes resell the license. It appears that at this time the animated films shared a license with the first round of video games.
Enthusiasm for Tolkien adaptations ramped up in the wake of the 1980 animated film The Return of the King, based on the final book in Tolkien’s trilogy. Following Beam’s text adventure, developer Interplay Productions turned over an in-production fantasy role-playing game, changing the theme to a Lord of the Rings adaptation. Writer Jennell Jaquays, now the owner of Dragongirl Studios, said she was hired by Interplay to write background and some “adventuring” for the RPG.
Fairly wide-ranging interview from Deadline with Peter Jackon conducted around the time of the San Diego Comic-Con.
It actually contains little that’s new: the fact that The Dam Busters film is still on the cards will be of interest to war-buffs who remember the 1955 original. And apparently Jackson and Mortensen have chatted about those 3D comments that Viggo made to press a couple of months back, too. Something something misquote. Supposedly.
Over the years J.R.R. Tolkien corrected a number of typographical errors and inconsistencies within The Lord of the Rings. The 50th anniversary edition, released in 2004 and overseen by Christopher Tolkien, remains the most recent such revision.
In this TORn library article Barliman chatter and Hall of Fire regular Puma examines one error regarding Aragorn’s age that was actually introduced in the transition to the revised editions, and has seemingly remained unnoticed ever since.
The tale of one word
The Lord of the Rings is a complex book with just as complex a history. Through all the revisions there is one error in the appendices that has persisted even into the 50th anniversary edition, which is the most correct version we have. Continue reading “Regarding Aragorn: a matter of age”
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.