On the southern limits of the Shire (Oxfordshire, specifically) lie the Berkshire Downs, part of the greater North Wessex Downs. It is stated in various sources that J.R.R. Tolkien visited this area - once on a hiking trip in 1912, and later with his family while working on either The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings - and that it inspired the ( Read more... )

If asked what J.R.R. Tolkien wrote that would be appropriate to retell to children, you would probably immediately think of The Hobbit. Maybe you'd then go to Roverandom, or Farmer Giles of Ham, or - if you're particularly up on your obscure Tolkien books - Mr. Bliss.

You probably wouldn't think of the Silmarillion, Tolkien's posthumously- ( Read more... )

On January 14th, the Amazon 'Lord of the Rings' show revealed its first? main? fifteen cast members. In the absence of any other information, I thought it'd be fun to guess who (or mostly what) they might be playing ( Read more... )

It's official: Amazon will be making a Middle-earth TV series. But it's not going to be The Lord of the Rings; the press release is very clear that they're looking elsewhere for their stories:

"We... are thrilled to be taking The Lord of the Rings fans on a new epic journey in Middle Earth ( Read more... )

I made a trailer for an OFUM movie. ^_^

Turned on the radio to hear:

"A-ai a-a-a-niron Undo-o-o-miel..."

Fifteen years. And it threw me right back to the first movie without even a blink.