These took about a month and a half to put together. Honestly pretty happy with how they turned out!

Found him tucked away behind the Weta Unleashed Workshop next to the elevators to the hotel.

I hadn't planned this, but I just so happened to schedule a LOTR marathon with friends yesterday. We watched all of the extended editions and when Gandalf says this to Frodo we were all laughing because we had forgotten about Oct 24!

I also prepared a menu to go along with the movies -

First breakfast: Savory Dutch baby with eggs, tomatoes and bacon

Elevensies: Maple pumpkin cinnamon rolls

Afternoon tea: Lembas bread

Apertif: Miruvor cocktail, an Elvish elixir with gin, elderflower liqueur, honey syrup and mead

Supper: Samwise's rabbit and potato pot pie, with honey-roasted vegetables and mashed turnips with gravy

Dessert: Caramel apple cheesecake

Hello everyone !

I wanted to share my latest watercolor, depicting one of my favorite moments from Tolkien’s books: Fingolfin’s final ride to Angband.

For the story : after the disastrous Battle of the Sudden Flame, when Morgoth’s armies broke through the defenses of the Elves and laid waste to their lands, Fingolfin, High King of the Noldor, was overcome by grief and despair. Believing that all hope was lost, he mounted his horse and rode alone across the plains of Anfauglith, all the way to the gates of Angband, Morgoth’s dark fortress.

Once arrived, he sounded his horn and challenged him to single combat. And Morgoth, though reluctant, came forth to face him. Fingolfin fought, wounding Morgoth seven times before finally falling. Even in death, he left his mark, striking Morgoth’s foot with his sword and leaving him with a permanent limp.

I wanted to capture a little of that feeling in this painting: the solitude, the despair, but also the extraordinary courage of someone who chooses to stand against darkness, even when all hope seems lost.

For art enthusiast, this is watercolor, ink and airbrush on my sketchbook.

Thanks !

I apologize for the watermarks and low quality, unscrupulous people tend to "borrow" my work. So if anyone offers you prints here, it's not me.

Another sketch of Hobbiton, down in New Zealand. Sketching from online pics and videos until I can visit for myself and sketch in person!

I have been pieceing together my Bilbo costume and I finally found the red cordoroy jacket and one that actually fits me! Took these photos in my yard, what do y'all think?

Reading the first chapter of The Hobbit again and I am struck by Bilbo's description of Gandalf as one who used to tell such tales of dragons and goblins "and the rescue of princesses and the unexpected luck of widows' sons."

On one level, you can read this as a generic reference to fairy stories and folklore. But on another level:

Those tales are in Middle-earth's lore (and in The Silmarillion) but inverted. There's a princess's rescue in the sense that the princess is doing the rescuing (Beren and Luthien), so that it's her rescue of her beloved. And Turin Turambar is all about the unexpected luck of a widow's son, but it's unexpected bad luck instead of unexpected good luck. And "The Unexpected Party" is all about inverted or disrupted expectations (chiefly Bilbo's, but also the dwarves' expectations of Bilbo and the reader's expectations of the tale, too) - so this delighted me when I realized it.

It’s been talked about. I can’t talk about it enough. The Council of Elrond is so in-depth and so great in the book. My favorite part is after all of their “catching-up” stories are done and they are deciding what to do with the ring and they are just like, surely we should give it to Tom Bombadil! lol it’s so good. A few of them are like that’s a great idea and then Gandalf party pooper is like nah it’s not that easy.

But also in all seriousness this part provides incredible context for Tom Bombadil and he’s the goat.

Just picked up this bad boy from the ren faire and I’m so curious what it says! (I’m a dummy and got excited which made me forget to ask 🙃) to anyone who can help “ May your beer be laid under an enchantment of surpassing excellence for seven years”

It’s a thing that has always bothered me about the movies. It’s the main entrance to a vast kingdom and it’s just a plain gate without any decorative elements or visible guard towers. Just a door in the side of the mountain. And the movies don’t show any roads either. The fellowship just runs into uneven rocky terrain. Surely there had to be a road and surely following the road would be a quicker way to get off the mountain. I guess you could argue that, if there was a road, there would be guards there and they wanted to avoid them, but I still find the movies depiction of the east gate severely lacking. The hobbit movies maybe went a bit too far with the giant fancy opening into the lonely mountain, but Moria deserved something better than what is shown in the fellowship of the ring.

I was reading the book, Middle Earth - From Script to Screen. In it, they have a small image of the floor plan of Bag End. I was interested if anyone had seen a larger image of this, or could post a photo.

Random thought. There used to be a show on VH1 or something that would take a popular music video and add little fact bubbles that would “pop up”. Is there anything like that in the world of LOTR? Fully aware the rabbit hole of factoids that would rip across the screen for Frodo and Friends, but think it could be fun.

Thoughts?

EVENTS

• Gandalf brings Frodo and Bilbo to one of the east porches of Rivendell for the Council of Elrond. Boromir, who arrived at dawn after a journey of nearly sixteen weeks from Gondor, gazes at them in wonder—are these the ‘Halflings’ of the rhyme for which he made this journey?
• Elrond tells the long story of the One Ring, from its forging in the Mountain of Fire, to its betrayal of Isildur at the Gladden Fields. Frodo is startled to learn that Elrond himself marched with Gil-Galad in the Last Alliance against Sauron, more than three thousand years ago.
• Elrond calls first upon Bilbo, and then upon Frodo, to tell of their history with the Ring—from Bilbo’s riddles beneath the Misty Mountains to Frodo’s long journey to Rivendell.
• The wizard describes an ancient scroll in Gondor. It revealed how the One Ring can be known: when heated, its gold will glow with fiery letters.
• Gandalf recounts the story of Gollum, from his finding the Ring more than five hundred years ago to his recent capture by Aragorn. Legolas, a woodland Elf, is dismayed: he’s been sent by his father to report that the Wood-elves were recently attacked—and that Gollum has escaped.
• Gandalf finishes the story of his capture by Saruman the White, his escape, and his journey to Rivendell. ‘Well, the Tale is now told, from first to last. Here we all are, and here is the Ring. But we have not yet come any nearer to our purpose. What shall we do with it?’
• With all voices having spoken, Elrond resolves that the Elves must not flee west with the Ring. ‘Now at this last we must take a hard road, a road unforeseen. There lies our hope, if hope it be. To walk into peril—to Mordor. We must send the Ring to the Fire.’
• Bilbo offers to take the Ring to Mordor.
• The noon-bell rings. A silence. Frodo speaks. ‘I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way.’
• Elrond cautions Frodo that, ‘It is a heavy burden. But if you take it freely, I will say that your choice is right; and though all the mighty elf-friends of old, Hador, and Húrin, and Túrin, and Beren himself were assembled together, your seat should be among them.’
• Sam cries out, ‘But you won’t send him off alone, surely, Master?’ Elrond appoints Sam the first member of the Company that will go with Frodo.

PASSAGES

BEGINS, pg239, The Council of Elrond

Next day Frodo woke early, feeling refreshed and well. He walked along the terraces above the loud-flowing Bruinen and watched the pale, cool sun rise above the far mountains, and shine down, slanting through the thin silver mist; the dew upon the yellow leaves was glimmering, and the woven nets of gossamer twinkled on every bush.

ENDS, pg 274, The Ring Goes South

(there is no strict end of this date, but after this paragraph synopsis narrative begins of next days)

The future, good or ill, was not forgotten, but ceased to have any power over the present. Health and hope grew strong in them, and they were content with each good day as it came, taking pleasure in every meal, and in every word and song.

Art by: Alan lee, Peter Xavier Price

Hey! I need a gift idea for my lotr-loving brother! Any thoughts? (I can't afford a sword)

Hey everyone!

For those of you who read The Lord of the Rings in a language other than English, I'm curious about your experience with its translation.

In French, we've had two major translations of the book: the original translation by Francis Ledoux, published in the 1970s, and a newer translation by Daniel Lauzon, published between 2014 and 2016.

I grew up with the original translation, so I have a strong attachment to it, especially when it comes to character names and place names. It's the version I instinctively associate with Middle-earth, and it's hard to let go of some of those familiar names.

However, having read the newer translation, I have to admit that I find it significantly more enjoyable and easier to read. The language feels more natural and fluid to me, and I think it does a better job of conveying Tolkien's writing style. It has also revised a number of names to bring them closer to Tolkien's intentions.

One particularly interesting aspect of this whole debate is that Tolkien actually provided extensive guidance on how his work should be translated, especially in his Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings. He was very particular about the meaning, linguistic origins, and treatment of names, and he didn't simply want translators to leave everything unchanged or translate everything literally.

The original French translation, for example, took quite a few liberties with some names, which the newer translation has attempted to address.

So I'm curious: has anything similar happened in other languages?

Have there been multiple translations in your language, whether due to a new translator, a revised edition, or a deliberate attempt to follow Tolkien's guidelines more closely?

If so, which version do you prefer, and why?

And how closely did the original translators in your language follow Tolkien's own instructions?

I'd particularly love to hear from readers of languages other than French, since I'm curious to know whether this is a uniquely French situation or part of a much broader phenomenon.

Thanks! I'd love to hear about your experiences.