Count, count, weigh, divide

by Michael Martinez, Sunday, July 29, 2001

Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin. Count, count, weigh, divide. Those words are familiar to anyone who has studied the Biblical book of Daniel. Belshazzar, son of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, was having a party when a mysterious finger appeared and traced those words on the wall. When the drunken Babylonians could not decipher the cryptic message, they sent for the aged Daniel, and he told them that their kingdom had been numbered, weighed in the balance, found wanting, and divided between the Medes and the Persians. That night, so the story goes, the Medes and Persians did indeed take the city of Babylon. History hasn't been the same ever since. The Romans, especially, loved to decipher omens which appeared just prior to special events. Angelic armies have appeared in the skies prior to extended wars or massive battles. Reportedly, as the Nazi and Soviet representatives signed a non-aggression pact in Russia, Adolf Hitler and several guests were standing on the balcony of his private retreat. The sky turned dark red and thunder rumbled. One of the guests, a woman with psychic abilities, told her host that the phenomenon portended "blood, blood, and more blood." Hitler supposedly replied, "Good. Let it begin." Although Tolkien's stories are filled with omens and portents, few characters ever make much fuss over them. For example, Aragorn warns Gandalf not to enter Moria, and then says little as they wander through the underground passages of the ancient Dwarven kingdom. Only after eight of the nine Walkers escape from Moria does Aragorn remember he had warned Gandalf not to enter the lost realm. There is never any writing on the wall. Prophets do not wander in from foreign lands, warning the righteous to fear the fury of the Lord. Hedge priests don't crop up across the landscape, preaching about salvation and victory for the faithful in the next crusade. There are no visions on the road to Damascus. Middle-earth is devoid of all the trappings of religious prophecy and psychic phenomena. Omens are almost always ill in The Lord of the Rings. When Merry says, "I will be ready, even if you bid me ride with you on the Paths of the Dead," Theoden replies, "Speak not words of omen! For there may be more roads than one that could bear that name." The word "omen" occurs less than ten times in The Lord of the Rings, and it is never used of events such as birds taking flight, clouds moving in certain ways, or blood curling about entrails. Boromir says that Moria "is a name of ill omen". Eomer tells Aragorn that Saruman's "spies slip through every net, and his birds of ill omen are abroad in the sky". Read the full article here.

Electronic Arts starts to rumble, "Yessss...."

by Michael Martinez, Thursday, July 26, 2001

Gaming sites and Tolkien news sites have been reporting for more than a year that New Line Cinema is contracting with Electronic Arts to supply an online game based on Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movies. Well, despite a press release from New Line Cinema, EA has been really slow to commit to the project. Now Gamespot is reporting that they are about to make a big announcement. So, we're right back where we were thirteen months ago, but people are getting excited....

John Rhys-Davies to be at Dragoncon

by Michael Martinez, Thursday, July 26, 2001

The Tolkien and Middle-earth track at Dragoncon has updated its Web site with the latest news about the Tolkien event of the year. John Rhys-Davies, who plays Gimli the Dwarf in the Peter Jackson "Lord of the Rings" movies, will be the fan track's special guest. TheOneRing.net is returning with an even better spy report program than last year. And representatives from gaming companies Games Workshop and Decipher will be on hand to discuss their companies' upcoming movie-derived games.

Tolkien purists will be pleased

by Michael Martinez, Thursday, July 26, 2001

The official Lord of the Rings movies Web site has posted a report from Mythopoeic Society member Bill Weldon. Weldon, a consultant on the movies, visited New Zealand and reports that Arwen will not be visiting Rohan before she marries Aragorn, and that the crystal globe on Saruman's staff is not the palantir.

Browsing the compleat Middle-earth library

by Michael Martinez, Wednesday, July 25, 2001

If you've read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit so many times that your books are dog-eared and you can recite all the rhymes, riddles, songs, and poems by heart, and you're still mystified about where I get all this neat stuff for these essays, well, then you're ready to take your next step into the world of Tolkien research. Most everyone who can get through The Silmarillion and say, "That was neat! Let's have some more!" can probably handle the rest of the Tolkien library in large or small doses, but the books do get a little long-winded thereafter. In fact, for the first five years after Christopher Tolkien started publishing the History of Middle-earth series, whenever I needed to cure a bad case of insomnia, I'd just curl up with The Book of Lost Tales, Part One and in a few minutes I'd be more soundly asleep than an Ent before the Elves got curious about trees. There is just something about 100 pages of editorial commentary which sucks the wind from the sails of one's ship of literary adventure. Which is not to say that Christopher Tolkien's notes about his father's writing aren't interesting in their own right. But you pretty much have to be in the right frame of mind to be able to follow all the "and I wrote on page X of book Y that my father's manuscript D of version 2 was composed after he had sipped wine with his tea" references. There are several reasons for why anyone may want to look at the other Tolkien books. Like me, you probably want to read more cool stories. And there are indeed some cool stories. But as Christopher hinted in Unfinished Tales, the stories become less and less complete from this point onward, too. In fact, the story-to-commentary ratio degrades radically after Unfinished Tales, but there is a method to Christopher's meticulous annotation and once you become familiar with the progression, the commentary becomes more helpful and less hindering. People frequently ask what books they should read and in what order, so that they can simply enjoy the adventures in Middle-earth. All too seldom (in my opinion) are they advised to read The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. The Tolkien library consists of works published both in Tolkien's lifetime and posthumously. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil was one of the books he published himself. So, in my humble opinion, if you want to read the Tolkien books the way he published them, the sequence should be: The Hobbit, 3rd edition (1965) (Douglas Anderson's Annotated Hobbit is recommended) The Lord of the Rings, 2nd edition (1965) (the edited version with the Douglas Anderson "Note on the Text" is recommended) The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962) (now included in The Tolkien Reader, 1966) The Silmarillion (1977) (edited/compiled by Christopher Tolkien -- there is a 2nd edition which contains no textual alterations or additions) Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth (1980) (this is the first book with extensive commentary from Christopher) Read the full article here.

Tolkien's time machine: when literary worlds collide

by Michael Martinez, Saturday, July 21, 2001

Although it may seem obvious that Middle-earth is "the world in which J.R.R. Tolkien sets his Elf and Hobbit stories", that is not precisely the case. There are Elf stories which are not part of the world of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion. I speak of the Elves in The Father Christmas Letters and Smith of Wootton Major. Of course, there are similarities between these worlds. Like a run on bad puns, Tolkien kept resurrecting old ideas and giving them new form. Hence, the Elves help Father Christmas fight off the goblins, and Smith sees Elven warriors returning from strange and foreign wars when he is visiting Faerie. Middle-earth, which Tolkien said is our world in some imaginary time in the past, is distinct from the other worlds. But Middle-earth itself is a hodge-podge of literary worlds, borrowing extensively from the original Hobbit (which Tolkien drew into the Middle-earth canon by proposing a second edition for the book in 1947) and a bit from the 1937 "Silmarillion" text, which itself was a rewrite of an earlier "Silmarilion" which in turn was a complete rewrite of the themes Tolkien had used for The Book of Lost Tales. Numenor came straight out of a science fiction time travel story, "The Drowning of Anadune". And then The Lord of the Rings itself produced new terrain and peoples: Rohan and the Ents, Gondor and Arnor, and the mysterious Eregion whose Elven people only the stones could recall. And, of course, behind these stories lay the older, non-Tolkienien myths and folklore which inspired him to create his own myths and folklore in the first place. Tolkien grew up on stories of Greek gods and heroes, and he discovered the primal beauty of Gothic and Anglo-Saxon verse and poetry. His devotion to Catholicism and Christianity ensured he would absorb Biblical traditions, and his curiosity led him to explore the traditions and sciences of Finland, Egypt, Babylon, and other sources of western civilization. A recurring theme in Tolkien seems to be the clash between civilization and barbarism. The Elves' civilization collides with the barbarous Mannish tribes, and the tribes eventually replace the Elves. The Numenoreans' civilization returns to Middle-earth, where it becomes mingled with the barbarism of the Numenoreans' Edainic cousins. And in the end, the high civilization of Arnor descends into a semi-barbarism which reaches out to the remnants of high civilization in Gondor far to the south. What stands between civilization and barbarism is the power of choice. Those who choose to improve their lives, to study the world and its ways, and to learn from their mistakes, raise up the new civilizations. These civilizations are always born of a sense of wonder, a newness which evokes the symbology of a young world, freshly awakened from a long sleep. Those who have freedom of choice stripped from them live in darkness, and at best roam the world as wild folk (Men or Elves, or Dwarves), outcasts and outlaws, or simply untamed barbarians. The rest become slaves or willing servants and allies of personified evil, the Dark Lords who oppose civilization. Read the full article here.

In Feanor's Footsteps

by Michael Martinez, Sunday, July 15, 2001

The War of Wrath is a mysterious event. The Silmarillion tells us that it occurred some time after the Feanorians destroyed the haven at Arvernien. The War of the Jewels tells us it began in the year 545 of the First Age of the Sun and that the war lasted for 42 years. The account in The Silmarillion, compressed by Christopher Tolkien from earlier texts, says very little. The armies of Morgoth were vanquished in an unspecified number of battles, and then the Host of Valinor approached Angband, only to be driven back by the winged dragons. Eventually, Earendil and the Eagles of Manwe defeated the dragons. And that's about it. After the dragons were defeated, the Valar (or their army) ransacked Angband, freed Morgoth's thralls, and took him prisoner. 42 years' worth of history are related in the space of a few paragraphs. And J.R.R. Tolkien always intended it to read that way, because his histories are derived mostly from the Elves and Men who participated in the events reported in the tales. The War of Wrath is an exception to this convention, because the narrative states that those Elves who remained free (on the Isle of Balar) did not take part in the war. And these were the Elves who stayed in Middle-earth and conveyed their histories to the Dunedain. Still, some people insist, it would be nice if we knew how Tolkien envisioned the War of Wrath. And you know what? We may indeed have some clues about the way it should have unfolded. That is, Tolkien did once write about an Elven war, in which the Eldar marched into mortal lands to defeat Melko. This was not the Last Battle, of which much has been made through the years by readers and critics alike. Rather, the Elven war was part of the mythology from The Book of Lost Tales, and is called "the Faring Forth (of the Eldar)" or "the March of the Elves of Kor". This earlier tradition bears only a vague resemblance to the War of Wrath, but it sheds some light on the traditions which might have been utilized to construct the tale of the war. In The Book of Lost Tales, the wanderer Eriol is told that the Vala Ulmo saved Earendel (sic) from the ruin of Gondolin so that he might sail west and find Valinor. But Earendel reached Valinor too late: the Elves had already left. Christopher Tolkien pieces together an interesting narrative of the Faring Forth. It appears that when birds from Gondolin reached Elfinesse (sic) with news of the city's destruction, Ingwe, King of all the Eldar, defied the Valar and led the Elves of Kor in a march to the Great Lands (there is no "Middle-earth" in The Book of Lost Tales). There the Elves fought a great war with Melko (Melkor --> Morgoth), and lost. And the Valar left the Elves to their fate, except for Tulkas. Read the full article here.

John Rhys-Davies on LOTR

by The Master, Tuesday, June 26, 2001

John Rhys-Davies (Sliders) has been talking to Popcorn UK about his upcoming role of Gimli in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Three video clips are available on the Popcorn website, where Rhys-Davies talks about Gimli, Peter Jackson, and compares Rings to Star Wars.

LoTR news roundup -- nothing Earthshattering

by Michael Martinez, Saturday, June 23, 2001

Nothing really Earth-shattering has happened in LoTR news lately. TheOneRing.Net and Tolkien Online have been scarfing up bits and pieces of news and spy reports. John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) is talking about LoTR, Jimcalagon's spoofy LoTR news site is now selling Cafepress merchandise with an image of Gandalf facing a Barney-like Balrog, a new spy report indicates that Gimli will try to destroy the One Ring in the movie (why? who knows?), more LoTR-inspired comics are appearing, props and old editions of Tolkien books are being offered for sale over the Internet, etc., etc. Joram Manka has finally put up a new Ringbearer.Org. The original Ringbearer was bought out by the now-defunct Fandom.Com, and Joram has returned to his Webroots. Ralph Bakshi is still trying to milk sympathy from the news media and unforgiving Tolkien fans over the travesty he produced in the 1970s (the original "Lord of the Rings" movie). Christopher Lee (Saruman) was awarded a CBE (Commander of the British Empire). Weta F/X has updated their Web site. More toys are coming out. So on and so forth. It's really slow when you can summarize two or three weeks' news in just a few paragraphs. :)

Simple hobbits have lots of friends

by Michael Martinez, Saturday, June 23, 2001

One of my pet peeves through the years has been the injection of thieves guilds and other role-playing motifs into Middle-earth. I once watched in disbelief as a mailing list of gamers defined Tharbad to be a din of iniquity, dominated by a thieves guild, without any apparent regard for the way Tolkien's world actually worked. I should say, "without any apparent regard for the way I believed Tolkien's world actually worked." It took a silly movie to make me think about Tolkien and thieves' guilds in a new way. I'm referring to Eddie Murphy's "Dr. Doolittle 2", in which the doctor (who hardly resembles the now less-famous literary doctor of yesteryear) is recruited by the animals of an endangered forest to help them save their turf. The movie is cute, filled with jokes and gentle jabs at the Mafia. The endangered forest is secretly run by a beaver who sends out a possum (that's Opossum for those of you who like silent vowels) and a raccoon as his messenger boys. "When you meet the beaver, you should treat him with the respect he deserves," the raccoon tells the doctor at one point. "Listen, when the beaver offers you a fish, you take it!" he admonishes in another scene. "I am just a simple fisherman who is blessed with a lot of friends," the beaver tells Murphy's character. Not exactly a thieves guild, but there are certain elements of the Mafia mystique which have crept into role-playing games. A well-designed thieves' guild always has a mafia-like atmosphere. You don't just casually break into the guild and demand to see the bosses. They're busy people. They have wives and children to support. They need their space, just like everyone else. Read the full article here

Scaling the walls of war in Middle-earth

by Michael Martinez, Sunday, June 17, 2001

In their Egyptian-like fashion, the Numenoreans built on a massive scale, according to Tolkien. That is, they liked to build really large things. We are provided glimpses of the large architecture in The Lord of the Rings, such as the Argonath, the two huge statues of Isildur and Anarion carved into the cliffs overlooking Anduin. The Argonath were built by Minalcar in the 13th century of the Third Age, and they may represent the last gasp of the ancient Numenorean architectural style. Ecthelion rebuilt the White Tower of Minas Tirith in the third millennium, but was the tower really one of those massive structures? The Egyptians built large tombs (the pyramids being the best-known examples), temples, and obelisks. The Sphinx (apparently associated with a temple) is a symbol of ancient Egypt's power and culture. Except for the tombs, the Numenoreans did not built things for the same purposes as the Egyptians. The Dunedain of Gondor did apparently practice embalming in an effort to preserve their bodies. Numenorean architecture is more imperial than religious. Like ancient Rome, Osgiliath sent out armies to control its empire. Great fortresses were built around Mordor, and in Calenardhon. Minas Ithil and Minas Anor were secondary cities. A few monuments decorated the countryside: Isildur's huge black stone at Erech, the statue of the king at the crossroads in Ithilien. Read the full article here.

Sam does the Silmarillion

by Michael Martinez, Wednesday, June 13, 2001

That's Sam R. Balcomb, writer/producer for the upcoming independent film 'Ancanar', we're referring to. Balcomb is the featured June artist for The Scream. Among the pieces on display are "Turin's Grave" (color and black-and-white), "Ecthelion", "Idril", and "Maeglin". Spawn fans will have something to enjoy, too. Thanks to Wolf of Morgoth for the heads up.

Who is like the wise Elf?

by Michael Martinez, Sunday, June 10, 2001

Gildor Inglorion, Glorfindel, Elrond, Galadriel, Celeborn, Luthien Tinuviel, and Finrod Felagund all share something in common: they are members of that vaguely defined group of Elves whom J.R.R. Tolkien called "the Wise". What did Tolkien mean when he used the word, "wise"? As a philologist he would not simply have grabbed the word at random. He would have studied its history and elected to use it for reasons which were very clear to him. In examining "wise", we can see that it is a very powerful, ancient, and flexible word. "Wise" comes to us from the Indo-European root word "weid-", "to see". The adjective "wise" refers to something perceptive, shrewd, prudent, or to a person who possesses great knowledge, keen judgement, or the ability to perceive what is right and true. As a noun, "wise" may be used to refer to "a way" (as of doing things); or it may refer to people who are deemed to be wise, as in the Bible's references to "the wise (who did something prudent)". Tolkien's Elven-wise, the Wise, are not simply prudent people, although both Gildor and Glorfindel seem rather prudent. Nor are they merely knowledgeable or perceptive people. Elrond is a master of wisdom and lore, but he also foresees many things, and perceives hidden meaning behind events. Galadriel, too, possesses great wisdom, though hers seems more born of experience than learning (as Elrond's seems to derive mostly from study), but Galadriel is also very perceptive, seeing deeper into the hearts of others than anyone else. Read the full article here.

Free copies of The Hobbit to be given out at Dragoncon

by Michael Martinez, Saturday, June 2, 2001

Del Rey Books has launched a promotional campaign for its line of J.R.R. Tolkien books. Xenite.Org has been invited to participate in the promotional campaign, and accordingly we have arranged to give away five free copies of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit at Dragoncon, which will be held in Atlanta, GA this August 31 - September 3. Details of the giveaway will be announced later on. Other Web sites may be invited to participate in the promotional campaign.

Ancanar.com turns one, posts major update

by Michael Martinez, Saturday, June 2, 2001

Elemental Films has announced a major update for their Ancanar.com Web site. "Ancanar" is a fantasy movie inspired by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. It tells the story of a young man who sets out in search of a hidden city of the Elves after his people have been ruined by war. The latest update to the Web site, which turns 1 year old on June 15, includes Quicktime interviews with six cast members: Tom McCafferty (Ertho, a thief), Erik Ekholm (Fingoldin, an Elven archer), Ralph Lister (Finlome, a captain of the Elves), Dan Francis (Tazuk, a thief), Carolyn Palmer (Maerim, an Elf), and Serge Lartelier (Carandil, an Elf scout). Some of the actors speak about the impact of immortality on the Elven psyche, and they reveal a strong familiarity with the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. The clips show a few scenes from the movie, which is due to be released later this year, including some scenes not previously released on the Web. !The update also includes a new chapter from The Book of Rammoth, the background history for the movie, more questions and answers from the cast, and scattered spoilers about the movie's storyline. A special contest for Webmasters is also being featured this month. The first Webmaster to find a picture of the new Ancanar poster hidden somewhere on the site will receive a free copy autographed by Sam R. Balcomb, the writer/producer of the movie.

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