In a moment of distraction from the laborious work of marking an “enormous pile of examination papers”, J.R.R. Tolkien flipped to a blank page on a student essay and scribbled, “in a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit”.

This became the first line of The Hobbit (1937). From this doodle Tolkien went on to write one of the world’s most popular fantasy adventure series, The Lord of the Rings (1954).

His main work, however, was not as the writer of fantasies that made him so famous. For the 50th anniversary of Tolkien’s death, I want to celebrate Tolkien’s life as a medievalist and philologist (historian of languages), as well as some of his major contributions to the study of medieval literature.

Tolkein’s first teaching post was at the University of Leeds, where he worked on a translation of the 14th-century Middle English poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. For many, his is still one of the best translations.

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In a moment of distraction from the laborious work of marking an “enormous pile of examination papers”, J.R.R. Tolkien flipped to a blank page on a student essay and scribbled, “in a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit”.

This became the first line of The Hobbit (1937). From this doodle Tolkien went on to write one of the world’s most popular fantasy adventure series, The Lord of the Rings (1954).

His main work, however, was not as the writer of fantasies that made him so famous. For the 50th anniversary of Tolkien’s death, I want to celebrate Tolkien’s life as a medievalist and philologist (historian of languages), as well as some of his major contributions to the study of medieval literature.

Tolkein’s first teaching post was at the University of Leeds, where he worked on a translation of the 14th-century Middle English poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. For many, his is still one of the best translations. Fight back against disinformation. Get your news here, direct from experts A black and white photograph of J.R.R. Tolkien. Photograph of J. R. R. Tolkien in the 1920s upon leaving Leeds University. Bodleian Library

In 1925, Tolkien won a professorship at the University of Oxford. A year later he translated the Old English poem, Beowulf. He remained a professor of English language and literature for the next 20 years.

Tolkien’s world was in a state of flux. The rudderless turmoil of the two world wars undoubtedly had affected his writing and this is possibly why his preference for settings was always for pre-industrial England. This can be seen in his love of fairy tales and in his drawings, which are almost all natural landscapes, with little architecture.

His love of trees was so great that he wrote a letter to his publisher saying: “I am (obviously) much in love with plants and above all trees, and always have been and I find human mistreatment of them as hard to bear as some find ill-treatment of animals.” In another, he talks of his fondness for myth, fairy tales “and above all for heroic legend”.

A mythology for England

Tolkien’s biographer, Humphrey Carpenter, argues that he was attempting to create “a mythology for England” through his fantasy fiction, by creating an imaginary world with its own languages, history, cultures and people.

Tolkien did this by drawing not only on his knowledge of languages and literature in Old and Middle English, but also on those languages that influenced the cultural and historical development of Britain, such as Finnish, Welsh, Old Norse, Old High and Middle German.

He loved languages – both ancient and modern – and was well versed in more than a few, including Finnish, Welsh, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Danish, Old Norse, Old English and Old Icelandic, as well as his invented Elvish languages Quenya and Sindarin, which have full etymologies.

Tolkien wrote in a letter in 1951 about his desire to “make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic to the level of romantic fairy-story”. He wanted to dedicate it “simply: to England: to my country”.

The source of inspiration for this “mythology for England” was the medieval world Tolkien knew so well from his scholarly studies.

‘Northern courage’

One theme that Tolkien picked up from his work in medieval literature – and which runs like a thread throughout his fictional worlds – is the reckless bravery and heroic courage that many medieval protagonists exhibit.

Tolkien termed this kind of response to challenge “northern courage” in his 1936 essay, Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics. It was “northern” because this type of courage is highly prevalent in the Old Norse sagas that Tolkien was so familiar with and which grew out of the northern Scandinavian countries between the 9th and 13th centuries. This concept is probably best expressed in a line from the Old English poem, The Battle of Maldon (AD991): “Will shall be the sterner, heart the bolder, spirit the greater as our strength lessens.”

Simply put, northern courage is when one exhibits the courage to keep persevering despite the knowledge that sooner or later defeat is inevitable. In constructing his “mythology for England”, Tolkien drew on medieval poems such as Beowulf and The Battle of Maldon as he argued that the people of ancient England would have had a “fundamentally similar heroic temper”.

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In a moment of distraction from the laborious work of marking an “enormous pile of examination papers”, J.R.R. Tolkien flipped to a blank page on a student essay and scribbled, “in a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit”.

This became the first line of The Hobbit (1937). From this doodle Tolkien went on to write one of the world’s most popular fantasy adventure series, The Lord of the Rings (1954).

His main work, however, was not as the writer of fantasies that made him so famous. For the 50th anniversary of Tolkien’s death, I want to celebrate Tolkien’s life as a medievalist and philologist (historian of languages), as well as some of his major contributions to the study of medieval literature.

Tolkein’s first teaching post was at the University of Leeds, where he worked on a translation of the 14th-century Middle English poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. For many, his is still one of the best translations. Fight back against disinformation. Get your news here, direct from experts A black and white photograph of J.R.R. Tolkien. Photograph of J. R. R. Tolkien in the 1920s upon leaving Leeds University. Bodleian Library

In 1925, Tolkien won a professorship at the University of Oxford. A year later he translated the Old English poem, Beowulf. He remained a professor of English language and literature for the next 20 years.

Tolkien’s world was in a state of flux. The rudderless turmoil of the two world wars undoubtedly had affected his writing and this is possibly why his preference for settings was always for pre-industrial England. This can be seen in his love of fairy tales and in his drawings, which are almost all natural landscapes, with little architecture.

His love of trees was so great that he wrote a letter to his publisher saying: “I am (obviously) much in love with plants and above all trees, and always have been and I find human mistreatment of them as hard to bear as some find ill-treatment of animals.” In another, he talks of his fondness for myth, fairy tales “and above all for heroic legend”. A mythology for England

Tolkien’s biographer, Humphrey Carpenter, argues that he was attempting to create “a mythology for England” through his fantasy fiction, by creating an imaginary world with its own languages, history, cultures and people.

Tolkien did this by drawing not only on his knowledge of languages and literature in Old and Middle English, but also on those languages that influenced the cultural and historical development of Britain, such as Finnish, Welsh, Old Norse, Old High and Middle German. Four knights battling in front of a castle. An illustration of knights from a Medieval manuscript. British Library, CC BY-SA

He loved languages – both ancient and modern – and was well versed in more than a few, including Finnish, Welsh, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Danish, Old Norse, Old English and Old Icelandic, as well as his invented Elvish languages Quenya and Sindarin, which have full etymologies.

Tolkien wrote in a letter in 1951 about his desire to “make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic to the level of romantic fairy-story”. He wanted to dedicate it “simply: to England: to my country”.

The source of inspiration for this “mythology for England” was the medieval world Tolkien knew so well from his scholarly studies. ‘Northern courage’

One theme that Tolkien picked up from his work in medieval literature – and which runs like a thread throughout his fictional worlds – is the reckless bravery and heroic courage that many medieval protagonists exhibit.

Tolkien termed this kind of response to challenge “northern courage” in his 1936 essay, Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics. It was “northern” because this type of courage is highly prevalent in the Old Norse sagas that Tolkien was so familiar with and which grew out of the northern Scandinavian countries between the 9th and 13th centuries. This concept is probably best expressed in a line from the Old English poem, The Battle of Maldon (AD991): “Will shall be the sterner, heart the bolder, spirit the greater as our strength lessens.”

Simply put, northern courage is when one exhibits the courage to keep persevering despite the knowledge that sooner or later defeat is inevitable. In constructing his “mythology for England”, Tolkien drew on medieval poems such as Beowulf and The Battle of Maldon as he argued that the people of ancient England would have had a “fundamentally similar heroic temper”.

Northern courage in Lord of the Rings

Northern courage is at work in The Lord of the Rings, when Gandalf confronts the Balrog on the bridge of Khazad-Dûm. In blocking the Balrog – and shouting his famous line, “you shall not pass” – he refuses to allow the enemy to cross the bridge and buys time for the rest of the fellowship to escape. He exhibits magnanimous courage and perseverance in the face of inevitable defeat.

In a different way, the protagonists Bilbo and Frodo Baggins exhibit courage as they leave the comforts of the Shire to fulfil a greater heroic duty. This is probably best summed up in Frodo’s exchange with Gandalf:

“I wish it need not have happened in my time”, said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

The wizard’s words here are steeped in northern courage. They insist that we must rise to the challenges offered in our time.

Fifty years on from Tokien’s death, that spirit of northern bravery endures as an alluring concept. What makes Tolkien’s fantastical world so appealing is the recurrent suggestion that the courage manifested to defeat the big monsters in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings is the very same courage that can be found in hopeless situations of a more ordinary sort.

Author: Madeleine S. Killacky, PhD Candidate, Medieval Literature, Bangor University

excerpts

This project is going back to the franchise’s cinematic roots and will be an animated fantasy film. Warner Bros. Animation and New Line Cinema are partnering with Sola Entertainment to bring this animated adaptation to the big screen. It seems the film will have both Lord of the Rings and anime influence inspiring it, as notable anime direct Kenji Kamiyama is set to direct and The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films’ co-writer, Philippa Boyen, will serve as executive producer.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim will premiere on December 13, 2024. However, it was initially set to premiere on April 12, 2024, with New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. reportedly fast-tracking the film to get it released by early 2024. Due to the ongoing Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strike, though, the film has been delayed for 10 months. The delay was due to Warner Bros. mixing up its entire release schedule due to the ongoing strike.

Hence, the film will largely focus on the story of Rohan and its ninth King, Hammerhand. Hammerhand was a legendary king, but his reign was rife with chaos as his kingdom faced warfare with the Dunlendings. In particular, the film will explore how Hammerhand defeated Freca, one of the lords of the Dunlendings, who sought the throne of Rothan. However, this incident led Wulf, Freca’s son, to set out in search of vengeance against Hammerhand and the Kingdom of Rohan.

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the work being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Why do we have such an enduring fascination for all things Tolkien half a century after his death? Author Nick Groom believes it’s because his works remains acutely relevant today

JRR Tolkien died 50 years ago on 2 September 1973, but The Lord of the Rings might have been written last week. You’ve probably read the book or seen the films. Or played the video games, bought the merchandise and seen the memes of Gollum, Galadriel and Gandalf. Ian McKellen is now probably more recognisable as Gandalf than as himself. Middle-earth still has a tenacious hold on our imaginations.

But where does that leave a book about Tolkien? Purists will want to focus on his writing, including the posthumous and immensely challenging The Silmarillion. Eighteen further volumes of Middle-earthiana have appeared since 1980, detailing everything from the earliest version of the Dark Lord Sauron (a cat) to the sex habits of the Elves.

But though the seemingly never-ending series of weighty tomes is testament to Tolkien’s imaginative genius, these books are of limited interest to the general reader who really just wants to know a bit more about Hobbits and a lot more about Gandalf. Sir Peter Jackson’s six extraordinary films (each grossing close to $1 billion) are inevitably eclipsing the originals.

That was the starting point for my own book. After over 40 years reading, studying and teaching Tolkien’s work, it became increasingly apparent that whenever I mentioned The Lord of the Rings nearly everyone was thinking of Elijah Wood, Andy Serkis and McKellen.

We can’t return to a ‘golden age’ in which the books are read before the films are watched. People are encountering Tolkien in all sorts of different and meaningful ways, many of which are remote from the literature. Tolkien is no longer simply an author, but a cultural and industry phenomenon, employing thousands, engaging millions and making billions.

What I discovered was fascinating: Tolkien’s stories have a compelling quality that remains acutely relevant today. Tolkien was writing The Lord of the Rings during the dark days of the Second World War, so he is no patriot for victorious human progress. Instead, he focuses on uncertainty, ambiguity, and above all on failure. His stories end in disappointment, in defeat, and ultimately in death. If good triumphs over evil, it does so only at a terrible cost – such as the disappearance of enchantment from the world.

I was writing my book during our own dark days of pandemic restrictions, and so these themes – of disillusionment and despondency, isolation and loneliness, and helplessness before an implacable and inhuman force – were painfully vivid. Not that Tolkien offers solutions, just the resolution that it is enough to carry on, even in the face of imminent, permanent loss. In other words, I was thinking about the pandemic through Tolkien, and realised that his works can provide a consolation in times when we are victims of circumstances far beyond our control, or even our understanding.

There is an unusual hesitancy and uncertainty in Tolkien’s writing – the author, as well as his characters, frequently seems lost and unsure how to proceed. This is because Tolkien wrote without a plan, preferring to ‘discover’ the plot rather than map it out in advance. So there are dozens of loose ends and false trails, and the experience of reading is shared with the characters themselves, lost in an unfamiliar world and not knowing how to make sense of it. Remarkably, this quality is reflected in Jackson’s movies, as he would typically film the same scene in different ways, meaning that the actors did not know which take would be used in the final edit, or even how their own characters might develop.

In researching the movies, I also realised how far they drew on earlier film and radio adaptations as much as on the books. The much-derided and unfinished Ralph Bakshi production of 1978, for example, in which animation is mixed with live action, was in fact crucial in bringing Jackson’s films to the screen by solving problems of pace and structure, providing details of characters, and even supplying the template for some of the most memorable scenes in the later movies.

The Tolkien industry is here to stay. There will be more seasons of The Rings of Power, more films (including The War of the Rohirrim next year), and doubtless more of Tolkien’s papers to be published. And what makes all of these productions distinctive is their attention to non-human species – whether immortal elves or humble hobbits – in offering new perspectives on the human condition. In doing so they remind us all that we humans are not at the centre of things, but instead just one part of a wide and mysterious world.

Twenty-First-Century Tolkien: What Middle-Earth Means To Us Today by Nick Groom is out in paperback on 1 September (Atlantic Books, £12.99). You can buy it from The Big Issue shop on Bookshop.org, which helps to support The Big Issue and independent bookshops.

This article is taken from The Big Issue magazine, which exists to give homeless, long-term unemployed and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income. To support our work buy a copy!

If you cannot reach your local vendor, you can still click HERE to subscribe to The Big Issue today. Or give a gift subscription to a friend or family member. You can also purchase one-off issues from The Big Issue Shop or The Big Issue app, available now from the App Store or Google Play

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Lol! I'm inclined to agree.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/11/the-silmarillion-by-jrr-tolkien-audiobook-review-the-lord-of-the-rings-andy-serkis full review

Actor Andy Serkis narrates the posthumously published prelude to Tolkien’s epic masterpiece – a dense yet rich compendium of meticulously crafted lore

The origin story of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion is drawn from a collection of manuscripts written over several decades by JRR Tolkien, and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977 with the help of the fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay. The foreword, written by Tolkien Jr, explains how outlines of these stories existed “in battered notebooks extending back to 1917 … often hastily pencilled”, and how the task of collating and editing them was “so complex, so pervasive and so many-layered that a final and definitive version seemed unattainable”.

The stories include the legend of the creation of Eä, the world taking in Valinor, Beleriand, the island of Númenor and Middle-earth, and a history of events leading up to the First Age. In this era, Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, is at war with the High Elves, who are intent on recovering the Silmarils, three gemstones stolen by Morgoth that contain the light that illuminates Middle-earth.

The actor Andy Serkis, famed for playing Gollum in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit and Lord of the Rings film series, is the narrator, bringing his customary clarity, gravitas and an impressive range of voices to Tolkien’s often dense prose. These stories are rich yet complex, and the listener’s enjoyment will depend on their knowledge of the Tolkien universe and their ability to absorb a whole new set of people, places and legends (I’d advise having the text, with its maps, family trees and glossary, to hand). The Silmarillion shows how The Lord of the Rings was merely the endpoint of a far bigger and richly imagined story by the master of high fantasy.

• The Silmarillion is available via HarperCollins, 19hr 24min

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/4172937

He is not a hobbit, neither a man, but what is he? Is he a dwarf? A wizard? A god? Something else entirely?

“Eldest, that’s what I am… Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn… He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless - before the Dark Lord came from Outside.”

https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Tom_Bombadil u/[email protected]

He’s a merry fellow, bright blue his jacket is and his boots are yellow. u/[email protected]

Tom represents the incomplete knowledge of mankind and our pre-modern inability to firmly grasp the natural world we live in (and to some extent our continued struggle).

The fantasy world of Middle-Earth is in most ways supernatural to our own. So how much more incomplete would our understanding and knowledge of it been?

Tolkien was a professor of language and mythology and steeped in the ancient epics of the Anglo-saxons and Norse cultures. His career was putting together what these people knew and how they saw the world, but also what they couldn’t understand and how they explained their ignorance.

Others here are hinting at what Tom is, but not why he is. He’s a manifestation of ignorance. That’s why pinning him down is so tricky. It’s like pointing at a shadow with a flashlight. u/[email protected]

extract

"Prime Video’s The Rings of Power explores the Second Age of Middle-earth, which is set millennia before the movies, and follows the story of Sauron’s initial rise to power, the creation of Mordor, and the forging of the great rings... And according to Kate Hawley, the costume designer for Rings of Power, a big part of her job was to find a way to honor what has come before in the world of Middle-earth while charting a new path—one that has never actually been represented onscreen before.

As for the Second Age covered in The Rings of Power, Tolkien never specifically set any of his books during that time period, though he made frequent references to the events that took place during it.

“I think we approached [everything] in a very organic way to relate more to the First and Second Age feeling that we were wanting to create. It has a sort of rawer quality to it,” she says.

“You look at the elves and Valinor and the vanity and everywhere you read there’s talk of jewelry and discussion about it. He talks about elves being born on shores of pearl and he doesn’t necessarily mean that in a literal way, but he’s always talking about ways to reflect the light and those qualities. There’s jewelry everywhere woven into clothes.”

Asked to avoid “a huge amount of prosthetics” when coming up with their ideas for what Second Age dwarves should look like, Hawley and her design team decided to emphasize “character more than anything.”

The last known photograph of J.R.R. Tolkien is taken, in front of his favourite tree, the Pinus Nigra (named Laocoon), at the Botanic Garden in Oxford, 9th of August 1973.

A formidable cast journey through folk via Bollywood to pop – not to mention mountain treks and orc attacks – in a compressed revival of the 2007 musical

First seen in the UK in 2007 at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane – a 1996-seat theatre – the show is revived at the 220-capacity Watermill. This means that Simon Kenny’s design and Anjali Mehra’s choreography are a theatrical equivalent of stunts designed to find how many people can fit in a Mini.

...During the long sections inside the tiny theatre, they cram in battles, orc attacks, treks across land, over mountains or through caves and lavish production numbers involving 20 actors or musicians (several performers also play instruments).

...speech and score sometimes feel more competitive than complementary.

The songs, though, move with enjoyable eclecticism through folk via Bollywood to pop, echoing the musical backgrounds of the Indian/Finnish/Anglo-American compositional team of AR Rahman, Värttinä, and Christopher Nightingale.

But the cast is a blast.

The original London run is more known for losing money than winning friends. On a stage about 30 times smaller – with budget presumably reduced proportionately – this spectacle of compression, by aiming small, brings big rewards.

extract

“The Battle of Maldon, together with The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth,” edited by Peter Grybauskas. “The Battle” is a fragment of poetry from the end of the first millennium that Tolkien translated from Old English.

...the history of Middle-Earth that Tolkien was working on at the same time, “The History of the Hobbit” includes five different “phases” of the book’s creation, many, many plot notes, and a scheme that shows original word choices along with Tolkien’s final text—which was sometimes penned in on top of rubbed-out pencil.

“Tolkien in the Twenty-First Century: The Meaning of Middle-Earth Today” by Nick Groom. This fascinating book explores “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” from their genesis through all the different major adaptations of the Tolkien “legendarium.”

The reader will learn a great deal about the licensing of Middle-Earth, a realm I thought I already knew fairly well. There were plans for a “Lord of the Rings” film starring the Beatles, for instance, directed by Stanley Kubrick. Another fever dream of a movie would have had Galadriel seduce Frodo, and a 12-minute animated monstrosity released in 1966 has a princess named Mika and a dragon named Slag.

Each of these very different books offers a brilliant peek or deep dive into very different aspects of the man who changed speculative fiction forever. Choose your own adventure into the world of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Link

Hardly anyone can understand what J.R.R Tolkien is saying in resurfaced interview | Ladbible

Or: 'Shut up!'

Title text: No, we actually do have a woman who's basically part of our fellowship. She lives in Rivendell, you wouldn't know her.

From TolkienBooks.net:

Songs for the Philologists is perhaps the rarest and most difficult to find Tolkien-related publication (although Sir Orfeo could also state a claim). It began life as a set of duplicated typescripts prepared by E.V. Gordon in 1922-1926 for the amusement of English students at Leeds University. These typescripts included verses by Gordon and Tolkien, as well as other traditional songs in Old and Modern English and a variety of other languages.

In 1935 or 1936 Dr. A.H. Smith of University College London, formerly a student at Leeds, gave a copy of one of the typescripts to a group of students to print at their private press. The group included, amongst others, G.T. Ilotson, B. Pattison and H. Winifred Husbands. The booklet was printed in hand-set type as an exercise on a reconstructed wooden hand-press.

Dr. Smith later realised that he had not asked for permission from Tolkien or Gordon, so the completed booklets were not distributed. University College was bombed during the Second World War and the press, and most of the stock of printed items, were lost in the ensuing fire. Evidently some copies of Songs for the Philologists survived - those retained by Smith and the students who printed them. The number that survived the fire is unknown, but is undoubtedly very small - according to one report "more than thirteen".

This is a poem that Tolkien wrote about a noble couple that wanted to start a family, and the corrigan that meddled with their dreams.

Link to site

direct large image link

extract

Tolkien disliked Shakespeare so much that he once expressed regret at referring to one of Middle-earth’s races as Elves. While elves “is a word in ancestry and original meaning suitable enough,” he wrote to a friend in 1954, “the disastrous debasement of this word, in which Shakespeare played an unforgivable part, has really overloaded it with regrettable tones, which are too much to overcome.” Although he does not specify any plays, Tolkien must have had A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merry Wives of Windsor in mind. Both present elves as whimsical, lighthearted creatures who live in enchanted woods — a far cry from noble beings inhabiting the dark and dangerous forests of Middle-earth.

Ironically, the greatest influence Shakespeare had on The Lord of the Rings resulted from Tolkien wanting to rewrite a plot line he felt Shakespeare mishandled. In addition to the poorly worded prophecy concerning Macduff, Macbeth is also promised that he “shall never vanquished be until the Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come.” Later in the play, Macbeth watches his life flash before his eyes as an army of trees marches on Dunsinane. Except they aren’t trees; they are soldiers hiding underneath branches and foliage.

Tolkien was deeply disappointed at this revelation, which installed in him the desire to “devise a setting in which the trees might really march to war.” He did just that in The Two Towers when Middle-earth’s Ents — walking, talking tree-like creatures — besiege Saruman’s stronghold of Isengard to take revenge for the deforestation that fueled the wizard’s war machine.

...he may have had more in common with the Bard than he cared to admit. In addition to their mutual interest in the fantastical, both men were deeply connected to the English countryside — a country that gave them a deep appreciation for the simple things in life. For Shakespeare, this manifested in the bawdy humor and the unorthodox wisdom of characters such as Falstaff. For Tolkien, it found expression primarily through the Hobbits, whose humble existence rendered them immune to the corrupting power of the One Ring.

This fantastic artwork is by Ruben de Vela. I think the sense of scale and immense power are remarkable.

But Earendil came, shining with white flame, and about Vingilot were gathered all the great birds of heaven and Thorondor was their captain, and there was battle in the air all the day and through a dark night of doubt. Before the rising of the sun Earendil slew Ancalagon the Black, the mightiest of the dragon-host, and cast him from the sky; and he fell upon the towers of Thangorodrim, and they were broken in his ruin. The Simarilian chapter 24

I came to the realization that while Durin's Bane likely hid shortly after the War of Wrath and missed the events of the Second Age entirely, Gandalf might not have been the first Ring-bearer it encountered.

Would Durin VI have had his Ring when the Balrog was first unearthed? I see no reason for this to not be the case, but I can't find any reference one way or another. Further, would his son Náin I also have, after Durin VI was killed?

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/954190

As the title says, I brewed a Brown Wheat Ale with Applewood-Smoked Leaf Hops. This was my first time using smoked hops and I'm happy with the result. They imparted more of a subtle smoke flavor than smoked malt. Recipe is available here if anyone is interested.

I was thinking of watching The Hobbit withthae family, but my opinion is that The Hobbit trilogy is a big, bloated, unwatchable mess. I found a Reddit post highlighting some fan edits to remove the bloat and thought I'd post it here too (below). Have you all tried any of these? Any you'd recommend?

There are a lot of Hobbit fan edits floating around online. Too many, actually. But after seeing a post on r/movies the other day about yet another edit being released, I thought it might be helpful to provide a list of some of the best and/or most popular ones. That way it’s not as confusing or overwhelming for those of you looking for an alternate take on Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy.

This is not an exhaustive list, nor is it intended to be. Some edits will not be listed, such as Topher Grace’s fan edit, since no one besides Topher (that I know of) has actually seen it and does not exist anywhere online. Special thanks to u/DanielU92 for originally compiling a list of edits a few years back!

Full Disclosure: I am the editor of the Maple Films cut aka J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Obviously my own edit is my personal favorite, but there are many solid edits out there that have done different things with the source material than I did. Something that I cut might still be in another version, and you might decide you like that one more!

So here goes. I’m going to sort them by release date. I will also indicate if these are listed on www.fanedit.org. Being listed on their Internet Fanedit Database (IFDB) is a big deal because they have to vet submissions and require a certain level of quality with fan edits. It’s an excellent site to join...tons of awesome fan edits can be found there (and not just for the Hobbit). Other than that, no direct links!

• THE TOLKIEN EDIT: This was the one that started them all. Released while the Battle of Five Armies was still in theaters, it received a lot of press for being the first fan edit of the Hobbit trilogy. However, the audio/visual quality was quite poor. All of the footage from the Battle of Five Armies actually came from a pirated screener DVD, which looks awful on any screen. The editor stated that he did most of the editing “over the weekend,” which I can assure you is not a lot of time for a project this big. Lots of sloppy cuts without regard for pacing or decent audio transitions. Running time: 4hrs 30min Release date: January 2015 Special Features: Box art IFDB: Not listed

• THERE AND BACK AGAIN: DAVID KILLSTEIN’S HOBBIT EDIT This was the first 3-hour edit to make headlines. On a technical level, it is assembled with much more care than The Tolkien Edit. I recall watching it and thinking it moved a little too quick for my taste, but others out there seemed to dig the faster pace. Unfortunately, Killstein and his edit were both nuked off of the internet and I can’t seem to find a copy of it anywhere. Possibly still floating around on torrents somewhere. Running time: 3hrs Release date: January 2015 Special Features: Unknown IFDB: Not listed

• THE HOBBIT: THE SPENCE EDIT Out of all the Hobbit fan edits besides my own, this is probably my favorite and the most well-assembled. Spence is a veteran fan editor and his goal was to imagine what Peter Jackson might have made if they decided to turn the Hobbit into a single film. It’s not a book-accurate edit...Beorn is completely gone and we still have Radagast and some of the Dol Guldur plotline intact. No special features that I know of either. Even so, it is still worth checking out. Running time: 3hrs 25min Release date: April 2015 Special Features: Digital copy IFDB: https://ifdb.fanedit.org/the-hobbit-the-spence-edit/

• THE HOBBIT: THE TWO-HOUR EDIT by FIONA VAN DAHL This one is a fast and wild ride. Fiona literally cut a nine-hour trilogy down to two hours! Obviously this is not for book purists, but it’s probably the closest we’ll ever get to seeing what Topher Grace’s two-hour cut might be like. Editing quality is decent and the pacing is insanely fast...I simply missed a lot of the scenes she removed. But it might be good for those of you that liked how brisk the Rankin/Bass animated Hobbit film was (I know there’s some fans out there). Running time: 2hrs Release date: November 2015 Special Features: Digital copy IFDB: Not listed

• J.R.R. TOLKIEN’S THE HOBBIT aka THE MAPLE FILMS EDIT A four-hour edit, split by an Intermission right where Jackson originally intended to split the Hobbit when it was still two films. This is meant to be as faithful to Bilbo and the spirit of Tolkien’s book as possible, while still telling a complete story for the screen. The edit also features some unused music by Howard Shore, and has been color corrected to match the look and feel of the LOTR trilogy better. I didn’t include the White Council/Dol Guldur subplot, but I did release a companion film that focuses on those scenes. I feel it distracts from the main story, but on its own works as an interesting spin-off. Running time: 4hrs 20min Release date: December 2015 Special Features: Digital/Bluray/DVD. Box and disc art. 5.1 surround. Subtitles. IFDB: https://ifdb.fanedit.org/j-r-r-tolkiens-the-hobbit-maple-films-edit/

• THE HOBBIT: IRONFOOT EDITION This one is actually two separate films with their own titles: An Unexpected Journey and There and Back Again. These were the original titles for the Hobbit when it was still going to be just two movies. They are both 150 minutes each, so together you have a five-hour version of the Hobbit. Some silliness is removed (Smaug chasing the dwarves) but other ridiculous moments remain (the extended CGI chariot sequence). A list of all the changes are on the editor’s site. Running time: 5hrs Release date: January 2016 Special Features: Digital/Bluray. Box and disc artwork. IFDB: https://ifdb.fanedit.org/the-hobbit-ironfoot-edition-part-i/

• THE HOBBIT: THE BILBO EDITION Originally released in June 2015, the editor (u/DanielU92) went and made some updates and fixes, eventually releasing his final version in February 2016. The edit is of high audio/visual quality, and narratively follows a fairly close path to the Maple Films cut. This is where a lot of edits in the 4-hour range come down to personal preference in terms of what’s been cut and what’s been left in. I’d put this one right behind Spence’s edit. Running time: 4hrs 33min Release date: February 2016 Special Features: Digital copy IFDB: Not listed

• THE HOBBIT or THERE AND BACK AGAIN by L8wrtr This is another one I have not seen yet, but it is one of the more popular Hobbit edits on www.fanedit.org. It’s a bit longer than most at 344 minutes long, and is actually split into two separate volumes. Again, I haven’t seen it but given its length, I imagine it retains a good chunk of the trilogy’s story while still getting rid of the mutually agreed-upon annoyances (Radagast, Alfrid, love triangle, CGI antics). Running time: 5hrs 44min Release date: February 2017 Special Features: Digital/Bluray. Box and disc artwork. IFDB: https://ifdb.fanedit.org/hobbit-or-there-and-back-again-the/

• THE HOBBIT: THE ORIGINAL TWO FILM STRUCTURE Excellent audio/visual quality, with nice custom Bluray menus and some special features. My main issue with this fan edit is its length...six and a half hours! There’s still too much cartoonish nonsense, too many extraneous subplots and characters that distract from the main story. Legolas still does his gravity-defying CGI acrobatics, Radagast still gives us some unwanted pothead humor, etc. There’s a reason the best Hobbit edits are around the 3-4 hour mark...this one awkwardly splits the difference between the original films and the much leaner and cleaner versions out there. Running time: 6hrs 35min Release date: August 2018 Special Features: Digital/Bluray. Box and disc artwork. Interactive menus, more. IFDB: https://ifdb.fanedit.org/hobbit-the-original-two-film-structure-the/

So there you have it. A variety of fan edits at a variety of running times, from two hours up to six and a half. Everyone has their preference, and there are plenty of people who would rather just watch the originals! That’s fine too I guess. Personally I would pick any one of these edits over the bloated original releases. Have fun researching and finding your favorite!

It starts a little slow as Boromir makes his journey, but things pick up later as more people start moving around.

If nothing else, I learned a ton about what was actually going on.

Kind of crazy how much Gandalf moves around throughout the whole thing. Eru really should have given him wings.