Showing posts with label the lord of the rings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the lord of the rings. Show all posts
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Xenite.Org Begins Publishing Interviews with Tolkien Scholars
Ever since the new Middle-earth Website launched in July of this year I have been planning to add a section or series of articles unlike any other such series you'll find on the Tolkien fan Web. Although there are scattered interviews with Tolkien scholars around the globe, there has been no organized, systematic attempt to talk with them all (of which I am aware).
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
A Little Touch of Tolkien on the Web
Tolkien Studies on the Web has a new blog post, The Much Bemusing Bloggery of Online Tolkien Scholarli, which lists a couple dozen Websites either published by various Tolkien scholars or which publish the works of various Tolkien scholars. You may be surprised by some of the names that were included on the list. You may also want to read another recent article, Tolkien Geek: A Reader's Journey through Middle-earth.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Can't attend Tolkien Moot 2010? Watch it live online August 13-15
Tolkien Moot 2010 is scheduled for the weekend of August 13-15 in the city of Spokane, WA. However, people who cannot be at the event may watch the sessions live via the Internet. Tolkien Moot 2010 features three live performances (open to the public) from elvish music artist Rehtaeh (Heather Downing).
Monday, April 26, 2010
Warner Brothers announces LoTR Blu-Ray sweepstakes
A Warner Brothers representative dropped by the SF-Fandom forums to announce a Lord of the Rings sweepstakes announcement tied to their upcoming Blu-Ray release for Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" movies.
I mentioned this news in Episode 21 of Middle-earth Talk Radio, which we recorded last night. You can almost here me describe it (sorry about the audio quality -- that will be fixed in an updated version).
The chess set is designed "by The Noble Collection with an ancient map of Middle-earth mounted beneath the playing surface and a base with actual images of the memorable characters and scenes from the thrilling motion picture trilogy."
By the way -- when I said (on the talk show) that no one cared about TORN's birthday, I was only swept up in the passion of the competitive moment. Of course it's great that they've been going strong for 11 years. I check their site often and they are a great bunch of people.
Normally our off-the-cuff remarks are reviewed and edited before the Middle-earth Talk Radio episodes are released for download. I just wanted Hawke to get a scoop up on the Web this time.
So, congratulations to TheOneRing.net on their 11th birthday!
____________________________________________ SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
I mentioned this news in Episode 21 of Middle-earth Talk Radio, which we recorded last night. You can almost here me describe it (sorry about the audio quality -- that will be fixed in an updated version).
The chess set is designed "by The Noble Collection with an ancient map of Middle-earth mounted beneath the playing surface and a base with actual images of the memorable characters and scenes from the thrilling motion picture trilogy."
By the way -- when I said (on the talk show) that no one cared about TORN's birthday, I was only swept up in the passion of the competitive moment. Of course it's great that they've been going strong for 11 years. I check their site often and they are a great bunch of people.
Normally our off-the-cuff remarks are reviewed and edited before the Middle-earth Talk Radio episodes are released for download. I just wanted Hawke to get a scoop up on the Web this time.
So, congratulations to TheOneRing.net on their 11th birthday!
Monday, December 14, 2009
Finally: the truth about Balrogs wings debates
People keep seeking me out to discuss Balrog wings with me. I've written a couple of essays through the years that I felt, on each occasion, should put the issue to rest -- at least as far as people's perception of my position on the matter is.
Unfortunately, there are some Websites that mislabel me as being a pro-Wings advocate. That's just plain wrong.
I have objected to both the Pro-Wings and Anti-Wings positions for many years. Neither side can put together a solid, reasonable, logical case for its position.
So I've tried once again, on the Tolkien Studies on the Web Blog, to explain where I stand (which is not with either group).
Read "The Truth About Balrogs (Again)".
It's about as short and simple an essay as I can write.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Unfortunately, there are some Websites that mislabel me as being a pro-Wings advocate. That's just plain wrong.
I have objected to both the Pro-Wings and Anti-Wings positions for many years. Neither side can put together a solid, reasonable, logical case for its position.
So I've tried once again, on the Tolkien Studies on the Web Blog, to explain where I stand (which is not with either group).
Read "The Truth About Balrogs (Again)".
It's about as short and simple an essay as I can write.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Harvard offers second Tolkien course in January 2010
Dr. Marc Zender contacted me yesterday about a new Tolkien class he is teaching at Harvard starting in January. I'm helping spread the word so if you have the opportunity to the class, take it. Trust me, his two guest speakers will make it well worthwhile.
You can read full details about the class here. It is ANTH E-164 "Tolkien as Translator: Language, Culture and Society in Middle-Earth".
The guest speakers are Robert Foster and Dick Plotz. I'm very, very impressed.
Dr. Zender contacted me last May about his first Tolkien class which was offered over the summer.
I'll be starting a discussion about the class at The Tolkien Forum on SF-Fandom.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
You can read full details about the class here. It is ANTH E-164 "Tolkien as Translator: Language, Culture and Society in Middle-Earth".
The guest speakers are Robert Foster and Dick Plotz. I'm very, very impressed.
Dr. Zender contacted me last May about his first Tolkien class which was offered over the summer.
I'll be starting a discussion about the class at The Tolkien Forum on SF-Fandom.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Where Middle-earth came from
I have been to England twice. On both occasions I was confined to the town of merry old London, so it is with some regret I must confess I have virtually no knowledge of English geography and landscape, except what I can find in books or online.
As someone who has studied the works of J.R.R. Tolkien for many years, I have often come across claims from scholars and locals that such-and-such-a-place is the inspiration for Middle-earth, or served as the model for Middle-earth, or some connection has been observed, claimed, or otherwise inferred, fabricated, and forced into the Tolkien mythology (by which I refer to the mythology that has grown up around J.R.R. Tolkien, not his Middle-earth mythologies).
And I am in no position to discuss, disclaim, dispute, ridicule, or otherwise diminish the merits of these claims -- which probably extend into the hundreds, if not the thousands. Any writer can tell you that when we write we write from personal experience, and J.R.R. Tolkien's personal experiences took him to many places including forests in northern England, seaside resort towns, Ireland, France, Switzerland, and Italy.
The vivid imagery Tolkien infused into his stories about Middle-earth, Beleriand, and even Numenor no doubt owe a great deal to the things he saw and experienced -- which of course only renders Middle-earth more unrealistic, because it's a bit like dragging parts of northwestern Europe across the globe. One simply cannot reproduce England in Brazil, so to speak.
And Tolkien was not trying to do that. He wanted to model Middle-earth after our world so that it seemed familiar and knowable to his readers. To that extent, Tom Shippey's place-name analysis for countries like Rohan makes perfect sense. Even drawing upon such obscure items as Tolkien's work on an archaeological dig in 1929 makes a certain sense, for 10 to 15 years later Tolkien would have had those memories to draw upon.
And yet one cannot help but see a pattern emerging, a social need for mythological identification with one of England's greatest authors. Here in the United States we have seen the phenomenon develop for many of our national heroes and characters from popular folklore. Daniel Boone, Johnny Appleseed, Davy Crocket, and George Washington (to name only a few) are commemorated in many places around the country. There is no doubt those guys got around. But one has to ask how fast they traveled and how briefly they stayed in the various places that have laid some partial claim on their legacies.
Mythology is not about making up unbelievable stuff. Mythology is about remembering things that are believed. In other words, myths are not fiction -- they are explanations, memories, and resonances. The chief differences between mythology are that science is a bit more organized than mythology and mythology is a bit more stable than science. Science constantly challenges itself to question what is currently believed. Mythology is more conservative and it really is a consequence of our instinct to preserve and memorialize the things we have lost to time.
To Tolkien, a linguist, language itself must have seemed like a living mythology, preserving and memorializing things lost to time that we can barely imagine or understand now. The English language may one day be populated with random words and expressions equivalent to "Tolkien was here" -- concepts that only a philologist a thousand years from now might devine from a few scraps of paper.
I occasionally go looking for pictures and other information of places Tolkien is said to have drawn upon for inspiration, such as the Forest of Dean. There is rarely mention of these influences in the traditional biographies. Certainly he does not discuss them in the letters that have been published. And Christopher Tolkien does not clarify his father's exposition very often by mentioning places or projects from his father's youth.
The omission of references in the traditional sources in no way invalidates the claims that people put forth about Tolkien's connections with their landmarks. Rather, quite the opposite -- these omissions call for increased research and scholarship. Logical conclusions must be shared, published, and analyzed. We need to look at these things now, fifty years from now, and 500 years in the future. Before it is too late. Before they are forgotten.
For in the end it is not so important to know where exactly Tolkien got Middle-earth from -- we know it came from his heart. Rather, we have an opportunity here to look into the evolving ideas and myths that create exactly what Tolkien was trying to show us -- we have the opportunity to see the world as he must have seen it, an ever-changing landscape of memories, traditions, and claims the truth of which no one could prove or know unfailingly, but which all enrichened our collective heritage.
That is really what Middle-earth is all about, is it not? The remembering of things that have almost been forgotten -- passing on the mantle of the Story to new generations, so that the Story itself will continue rather than fade.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
As someone who has studied the works of J.R.R. Tolkien for many years, I have often come across claims from scholars and locals that such-and-such-a-place is the inspiration for Middle-earth, or served as the model for Middle-earth, or some connection has been observed, claimed, or otherwise inferred, fabricated, and forced into the Tolkien mythology (by which I refer to the mythology that has grown up around J.R.R. Tolkien, not his Middle-earth mythologies).
And I am in no position to discuss, disclaim, dispute, ridicule, or otherwise diminish the merits of these claims -- which probably extend into the hundreds, if not the thousands. Any writer can tell you that when we write we write from personal experience, and J.R.R. Tolkien's personal experiences took him to many places including forests in northern England, seaside resort towns, Ireland, France, Switzerland, and Italy.
The vivid imagery Tolkien infused into his stories about Middle-earth, Beleriand, and even Numenor no doubt owe a great deal to the things he saw and experienced -- which of course only renders Middle-earth more unrealistic, because it's a bit like dragging parts of northwestern Europe across the globe. One simply cannot reproduce England in Brazil, so to speak.
And Tolkien was not trying to do that. He wanted to model Middle-earth after our world so that it seemed familiar and knowable to his readers. To that extent, Tom Shippey's place-name analysis for countries like Rohan makes perfect sense. Even drawing upon such obscure items as Tolkien's work on an archaeological dig in 1929 makes a certain sense, for 10 to 15 years later Tolkien would have had those memories to draw upon.
And yet one cannot help but see a pattern emerging, a social need for mythological identification with one of England's greatest authors. Here in the United States we have seen the phenomenon develop for many of our national heroes and characters from popular folklore. Daniel Boone, Johnny Appleseed, Davy Crocket, and George Washington (to name only a few) are commemorated in many places around the country. There is no doubt those guys got around. But one has to ask how fast they traveled and how briefly they stayed in the various places that have laid some partial claim on their legacies.
Mythology is not about making up unbelievable stuff. Mythology is about remembering things that are believed. In other words, myths are not fiction -- they are explanations, memories, and resonances. The chief differences between mythology are that science is a bit more organized than mythology and mythology is a bit more stable than science. Science constantly challenges itself to question what is currently believed. Mythology is more conservative and it really is a consequence of our instinct to preserve and memorialize the things we have lost to time.
To Tolkien, a linguist, language itself must have seemed like a living mythology, preserving and memorializing things lost to time that we can barely imagine or understand now. The English language may one day be populated with random words and expressions equivalent to "Tolkien was here" -- concepts that only a philologist a thousand years from now might devine from a few scraps of paper.
I occasionally go looking for pictures and other information of places Tolkien is said to have drawn upon for inspiration, such as the Forest of Dean. There is rarely mention of these influences in the traditional biographies. Certainly he does not discuss them in the letters that have been published. And Christopher Tolkien does not clarify his father's exposition very often by mentioning places or projects from his father's youth.
The omission of references in the traditional sources in no way invalidates the claims that people put forth about Tolkien's connections with their landmarks. Rather, quite the opposite -- these omissions call for increased research and scholarship. Logical conclusions must be shared, published, and analyzed. We need to look at these things now, fifty years from now, and 500 years in the future. Before it is too late. Before they are forgotten.
For in the end it is not so important to know where exactly Tolkien got Middle-earth from -- we know it came from his heart. Rather, we have an opportunity here to look into the evolving ideas and myths that create exactly what Tolkien was trying to show us -- we have the opportunity to see the world as he must have seen it, an ever-changing landscape of memories, traditions, and claims the truth of which no one could prove or know unfailingly, but which all enrichened our collective heritage.
That is really what Middle-earth is all about, is it not? The remembering of things that have almost been forgotten -- passing on the mantle of the Story to new generations, so that the Story itself will continue rather than fade.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Harvard University to mix Tolkien with anthropology summer 2009
Dr. Marc Zender contacted us to let us know that he is launching a new recurring course this summer at Harvard University which is of interest to Tolkien fans.
Anthropology and Archaeology S-1641 may sound rather dry and academic but Dr. Zender, a lecturer for the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, will take students on a tour through Middle-earth that examines how Tolkien used language as both narrator and story-teller.
At Dr. Zender's request we have added a listing for the course to the Tolkien College Courses resource on Tolkien Studies on the Web.
Educators teaching Tolkien courses in U.S. and Canadian universities and colleges are welcome to contact us with information about their classes. We'll be happy to add recurring courses to our catalog.
You can read more at the Tolkien Studies Blog to see what our requirements are.
Good luck to Dr. Zender and his students!
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Anthropology and Archaeology S-1641 may sound rather dry and academic but Dr. Zender, a lecturer for the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, will take students on a tour through Middle-earth that examines how Tolkien used language as both narrator and story-teller.
At Dr. Zender's request we have added a listing for the course to the Tolkien College Courses resource on Tolkien Studies on the Web.
Educators teaching Tolkien courses in U.S. and Canadian universities and colleges are welcome to contact us with information about their classes. We'll be happy to add recurring courses to our catalog.
You can read more at the Tolkien Studies Blog to see what our requirements are.
Good luck to Dr. Zender and his students!
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
LoTR Music Event at Radio City Music Hall
As I mentioned in yesterday's post, TheOneRing.Net is helping to promote a special event this October to be held at Radio City Music Hall. Howard Shore's soundtrack will be performed in concert. Doug Adams will be giving a lecture prior to the concert starting at 7:30 PM.
Xenite.Org may be able to offer some free tickets to fans, courtesy of TheOneRing.Net. I'll let you know about all that when I have worked out the details with the good folks at TORN (and if it doesn't happen for some reason, I'll also post a word here).
The official Web site is located at www.TheRadioCityLOTRConcert.com.
You can also follow news on these sites as well:
You can now see pictures from the London performance as well as fan reviews on the official site (and maybe a couple of others). News has been breaking fast over the past week and I cannot really keep up with all the details any better than TORN has been able to (naturally).
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Xenite.Org may be able to offer some free tickets to fans, courtesy of TheOneRing.Net. I'll let you know about all that when I have worked out the details with the good folks at TORN (and if it doesn't happen for some reason, I'll also post a word here).
The official Web site is located at www.TheRadioCityLOTRConcert.com.
You can also follow news on these sites as well:
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Theradiocity-Lotrconcerts/848340526
- http://twitter.com/RadioCityLOTR
- http://www.myspace.com/theradiocitylotrconcerts
You can now see pictures from the London performance as well as fan reviews on the official site (and maybe a couple of others). News has been breaking fast over the past week and I cannot really keep up with all the details any better than TORN has been able to (naturally).
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Support your local Tolkien theater
I have taken it upon myself to spread the word to Tolkien fans everywhere: Let's get together and support local theatrical productions of "The Hobbit".
In this weeks Hobbit News I mentioned several local theater productions for "The Hobbit" had been announced on their local news Web sites too late to really do much good. Today is the second of two days in which cast auditions for "The Hobbit" are being held in El Paso (that is a local stage production, NOT the Guillermo del Toro movies being produced in New Zealand).
Jacksonville, FL and Savannah, GA both staged performances of "The Hobbit" in their local community or children's theater this weekend. If you live in any of these areas, did you know about these opportunities in advance?
I'm calling upon fans of J.R.R. Tolkien (and C.S. Lewis and L. Frank Baum) to put their considerable resources together to help promote community theater when it stages science fiction and fantasy plays. These productions may not be as newsworthy as the world-wide release of a new fantasy movie, but there is no reason why fans cannot come together in their local communities and help celebrate Tolkien's fiction, Lewis' fiction, or Baum's fiction with local theater groups.
If you have a Web site you can use it to share information about your local theater season. In larger U.S. cities there may be several local theater groups. You can link to their Web sites, share their press releases, interview their cast and crews, and review their productions and offer pictures of the events.
Local fan groups can set up their own activities (like fan dinners, pre-show festivities such as costume contests, etc.). Local fan groups can also volunteer to help with these productions, or schedule events to complement (rather than compete with) the productions. Local fan groups can also contact their library systems and help organize children's (or adults) programming that focuses on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, L. Frank Baum, J.K. Rowling, Madeline L'Engle, et. al.
I think the online fan community has become insular. We'll pull together to support our own events (like line parties, after-awards events, etc.) but we virtually ignore mainstream community celebrations of the authors we love. Why? I think it's important that people reach out and connect with each other without drawing lines between "fans" and "mundanes".
There is growing widespread interest in fantasy authors because of the wild success of the "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter Movies", and even the Sci Fi mini-series "Tin Man" helped revive interest in "The Wizard of Oz".
The iron is hot, and now is the time to strike, before enthusiasm for the topic cools off. Give it some thought and see what you can do to help promote your favorite authors' works in your local area.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
In this weeks Hobbit News I mentioned several local theater productions for "The Hobbit" had been announced on their local news Web sites too late to really do much good. Today is the second of two days in which cast auditions for "The Hobbit" are being held in El Paso (that is a local stage production, NOT the Guillermo del Toro movies being produced in New Zealand).
Jacksonville, FL and Savannah, GA both staged performances of "The Hobbit" in their local community or children's theater this weekend. If you live in any of these areas, did you know about these opportunities in advance?
I'm calling upon fans of J.R.R. Tolkien (and C.S. Lewis and L. Frank Baum) to put their considerable resources together to help promote community theater when it stages science fiction and fantasy plays. These productions may not be as newsworthy as the world-wide release of a new fantasy movie, but there is no reason why fans cannot come together in their local communities and help celebrate Tolkien's fiction, Lewis' fiction, or Baum's fiction with local theater groups.
If you have a Web site you can use it to share information about your local theater season. In larger U.S. cities there may be several local theater groups. You can link to their Web sites, share their press releases, interview their cast and crews, and review their productions and offer pictures of the events.
Local fan groups can set up their own activities (like fan dinners, pre-show festivities such as costume contests, etc.). Local fan groups can also volunteer to help with these productions, or schedule events to complement (rather than compete with) the productions. Local fan groups can also contact their library systems and help organize children's (or adults) programming that focuses on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, L. Frank Baum, J.K. Rowling, Madeline L'Engle, et. al.
I think the online fan community has become insular. We'll pull together to support our own events (like line parties, after-awards events, etc.) but we virtually ignore mainstream community celebrations of the authors we love. Why? I think it's important that people reach out and connect with each other without drawing lines between "fans" and "mundanes".
There is growing widespread interest in fantasy authors because of the wild success of the "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter Movies", and even the Sci Fi mini-series "Tin Man" helped revive interest in "The Wizard of Oz".
The iron is hot, and now is the time to strike, before enthusiasm for the topic cools off. Give it some thought and see what you can do to help promote your favorite authors' works in your local area.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
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