NON MOVIE Tolkien discussion

CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter

curiousa2z

Be patient till the last.
ludicrous to think they would have an artist (Barbara Remington) do something without first reading the bloody manuscript!

I like the Queen's work too - but as she was hardly a starving artist
hopefully she gave the money to charity.

Great how they have the galleries so we can compare..the artists had really really different takes on how they envisioned Tolkien's words. quite intriguing.
 

kaonashi.shinu

Keeper of the Nether Eye
We had an assignment for art class in high school that was basically to create art based on Tolkein's novels. A lot of the class essentially copied his own works and interpreted them in their own way, but some of the art was phenomenal. My only regret is that I didn't have access to a camera at the time, so most of them are probably lost or in storage.

My piece was alright, I received full marks, but was never able to truly convey how I felt and what I saw mentally while reading the books. I think because they were on hand while reading I relate most to Tolkein's own art, even though he himself felt it wasn't good enough.

Great article. Makes me want to look into more interpretations, both professional and amateur.
 

CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter

headvoid

Can I have Ops?
I also had daydreams similar to this:

...best thing would be if, while holding a copy of The Lord of the Rings, I slipped into a parallel universe in which Professor Tolkien had not existed. And then I would get someone to retype the book...

I would have liked to hear that speech, I believe he is quite a passionate speaker.
 

curiousa2z

Be patient till the last.
what a wonderful peek into Gaiman's mind. I had no idea we had so much in common. thank you for posting that, Wacky.
 

CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
Grey as a mouse,
Big as a house,
Nose like a snake,
I make the earth shake,
As I tramp through the grass;
Trees crack as I pass.
With horns in my mouth
I walk in the South,
Flapping big ears.
Beyond count of years
I stump round and round,
Never lie on the ground,
Not even to die.
Oliphaunt am I,
Biggest of all,
Huge, old, and tall.
If ever you’d meet me
You wouldn’t forget me.
If you never do,
You won’t think I’m true;
But old Oliphaunt am I,
And I never lie.

(Has nothing to do with anything really.)
 

CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
I want to get The Annotated Hobbit but I already have the regular Hobbit so how can I justify having two versions of the same book!?
 

kaonashi.shinu

Keeper of the Nether Eye
Any books that I really treasure (ie. LOTR, The Hobbit, Little Women, Alice in Wonderland, Lion Witch & Wardrobe, etc) I usually have two copies - one to read and beat the hell out of, and one that is the nicest version I can afford, whether leather or cloth bound or with special annotations, etc.

That's how I justify duplicates in my collection, anyway.
 

kaonashi.shinu

Keeper of the Nether Eye
Plus the annotated version has so many pretty pictures for such a reasonable price. :)
 

CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
I'm picturing you punching and kicking books now.
 

kaonashi.shinu

Keeper of the Nether Eye
:lol:

More like reading them till the pages are stained from the oil of my hands, the corners are curled, and some pages are falling out because the binding can no longer hold them.

My books are like old friends, but they age a lot quicker.
 

kaonashi.shinu

Keeper of the Nether Eye
IT'S TOLKIEN DAY! 5 FACTS ABOUT THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE GEEK LEGEND

Happy 121st birthday, J.R.R. Tolkien!

In honor of Tolkien Day, we're toasting one of the most gifted, geekiest authors in history with five facts about the man, the myth, and the legend behind Middle-earth.

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Mysterious initials:

Between J.R.R. and George R.R. Martin, there are plenty of initials circulating geekdom. J.R.R. stands for John Ronald Reuel, though he was known to his family as Ronald. John came from his grandfather and great-grandfather, and Reuel was his father's middle name.


Lord of linguistics:

As a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College in Oxford, Tolkien was proficient in over a dozen languages. Linguistics played a large role in his literature. He created 11 different tongues for his works, including Elvish, Khuzdul of the Dwarves, and Sauron's Black Speech.

Tomantic:

J.R.R. courted Edith Mary Bratt, three years his senior, at the age of 16. It was a forbidden love, as he was a Catholic and she a Protestant. Tolkien's father forbid the relationship, but J.R.R. held steadfast and five years later declared his love to Edith, who left the man to whom she was currently engaged to marry Tolkien.

Esteemed Beowulf academic:

It's obvious that Tolkien was a bookworm. But he was an esteemed scholastic word nerd, with an influential lecture on the epic poem Beowulf credited to his name. J.R.R. believed Beowulf was addressing human destiny in general, and that the monsters, not just the tribal politics, were essential to the poem.

Anti-industrialization:

In the Lord of the Rings behind-the-scenes featurette, it was revealed that Tolkien, who was born in South Africa, preferred bicycles over cars and hated the industrialization of Europe. It seems that the idyllic Shire is modeled after his simple life of the English countryside.
 

kaonashi.shinu

Keeper of the Nether Eye
This is slightly off-topic, but this apartment in Germany looks like something you would find in Tolkien's books (with the exception of the electronics). You get to sleep in a 19th century beer barrel!!!

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The execution could have been so much better, but it reminded me of hobbitses so much I thought I'd share.
 

kaonashi.shinu

Keeper of the Nether Eye
Along the same lines:

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Link

Alright, alright. Back to topic.
 

CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
Those five facts weren't very obscure. I'M GUESSING it's from a mainstream website trying to pass itself off as "down with the nerds."
 

kaonashi.shinu

Keeper of the Nether Eye
God I hope you meant "down with the nerds." If not that reference went wooshing by me. :)

Yeah, it was pretty mainstream but I didn't know the majority of them. Normally I'm interested in books for the story, not the person who wrote them. As I age I'm finding author background more appealing, especially in the way it affects their writing style.
 

CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
Yeah, down with the "neds" would be something different entirely...

The stuff about Tolkien and his wife reminded me of the most romantic thing ever: their grave.

 

kaonashi.shinu

Keeper of the Nether Eye
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