Hobbit goes for the rings...in Sydney

by Michael Martinez, Tuesday, September 12, 2000

The legacy of J.R.R. Tolkien may debut at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games when a New Zealand athlete with the nickname of 'Hobbit' makes her appearance despite her dashed hopes for a role in Peter Jackson's 'The Lord of the Rings'. Helen Townsend will most likely bid farewell to international softball competition after the Olympic games. In an interview with Stuff writer Tony Smith, Townsend says a teammate nicknamed her "Hobbit" despite the fact she was tall (or perhaps as a reverse joke) when she was just a teenager. Townsend curiously shares the surname of the actor (Stuart Townsend) who was originally cast as Aragorn in Peter Jackson's movies, but then replaced by Viggo Mortensen. Hopefully the New Zealand athlete will fare better in the upcoming games than the actor did in the movie production.

Intomovie.com adds Liv Tyler bio page

by Michael Martinez, Tuesday, September 12, 2000

Everything you might ever want to know about Liv Tyler can now be found at Intomovie.Com's new Liv Tyler page. The site provides a growing index of star biographies with associated filmographies and links to fan sites. Xenite.Org's Liv Tyler is Arwen page, featuring a brief Liv biography and an Arwen biography (along with a RealAudio file of Xenite.Org owner Michael Martinez talking about the character of Arwen) was selected as one of the fan links by Intomovie.Com. The site also provides news, reviews, and information on movie studios. Tyler is so far the only actress from Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" to earn a page from Intomovie.Com.

The hobbits are coming! The hobbits are coming!

by Michael Martinez, Tuesday, September 12, 2000

While checking out Sir Ian McKellen's Web site for another story, we stumbled across a picture of a magazine cover we hadn't seen before. It appears that the October issue of Vanity Fair will have a Lord of the Rings spread, featuring never-before seen pictures of Sir Ian as Gandalf. The pictures are stunning, and doubtless will help to reassure fans who are concerned about Peter Jackson's vision of Middle-earth that he does indeed have a feel for Tolkien's characters, and that Sir Ian is undoubtedly a perfect Gandalf. Fans who want to see the whole spread will have to buy the magazine, or hope some enterprising Webmaster risks Conde Nast's ire and posts scans of the pictures. The official Vanity Fair Web site provides a link to a site which summarizes the current issue's contents but do!esn't give away any real content. But wait! Alas, it appears the actual photos are in the UK edition. Elijah Wood and Cate Blanchette may also be featured in the article (the blurb names them). The issue is on sale now.

Scottish article says Galadriel to wield sword now...

by Michael Martinez, Tuesday, September 12, 2000

Tolkien-Movies.Com has reproduced an article from a Scottish newspaper which reveals a surprising detail about Peter Jackson's 'The Lord of the Rings' movies. Galadriel is going to wield a sword in the movies. Well, that seems to be their interpretation of something Sir Ian Mckellen wrote on his official Web site, but darned if we can find the reference. The article also provides a little insight into actor Billy Boyd's background, mentioning he had appeared on a television show called TAGGART. Most LOTR movie fan sites have only identified him as the ubiquitous "rent boy" from a movie about Oscar Wilde. Boyd plays Peregrin "Pippin" Took in Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" movies, and is therefore rising quickly to secondary film star status.

Tolkien-movies.com soliciting questions to ask the LOTR film crew

by Michael Martinez, Tuesday, September 12, 2000

Matthew Bass, operator of Tolkien-Movies.Com, a New Zealand-based fan site, has an unnamed friend who has agreed to ask 2 questions of Peter Jackson's 'The Lord of the Rings' film crew. Bass provides no details on when and where the questions will be asked, or what topics may be off-limits, but he says he cannot think of anything interesting to ask so he is inviting fellow fans to suggest ideas. He'll select the two best questions and submit them to his friend. The answers, if printable, will be posted on Tolkien-Movies.Com at some future date.

New Line commits to advance screening of LOTR films on American college campuses

by Michael Martinez, Tuesday, September 12, 2000

In a move that is sure to inspire non-students to ask their friends, relatives, and neighbors to get them into campus theaters, New Line Cinema has promised to include Peter Jackson's 'The Lord of the Rings' in a 10-film deal with YouthStream Media Networks. YouthStream operates theaters on almost 80 college campuses across North America. While most of the world will have to wait until December 13, 2001 to see "The Fellowship of the Ring", hundreds of thousands of college students and their guests will be able to see the movie before everyone else. The Internet connections of the various colleges will undoubtedly be lit up with spy reports going out to the Web and news groups. The 10 movies will be publicized in campus publications, billboards, and other media advertising controlled by YouthStream. There is virtually no chance that these movies will sneak up on their potential audiences. YouthStream's campus network reaches a potential audience of over 1,000,000 college students.

Tom Shippey's latest Tolkien book released -- get some salt

by Michael Martinez, Monday, September 11, 2000

Many people regard Tom Shippey to be Tolkien's greatest critic and defender. Shippey actually knew Tolkien himself, and also taught at Oxford in the same position Tolkien once held. So Shippey's latest book is being widely hailed as a must-buy. Here are some observations about the faithfulness of Shippey to Tolkien's literature. J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century was requested by Shippey's publisher when they realized that they could reap a financial windfall from the upcoming Peter Jackson movies based on Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Shippey, who felt he had said all he could say in The Road To Middle-earth, pointedly ignores much of what Tolkien himself said about his own work, and virtually calls the author a liar when examining his sources. Does Tolkien really need a defender like Shippey? His knowledge of Anglo-Saxon is unquestionably sound, and he is well able to grasp the roots and significance of many of Tolkien's own reconstructed Anglo-Saxon words and Tolkien's modern English constructions which follow Anglo-Saxon conventions. But Shippey misses the boat on several critical points, a fault he admits to in the "Acknowledgements and Abbreviations" section of Road to Middle-earth: I have had several clear warnings as to the dangers of writing this book, not least from Professor Tolkien himself: who, on reading a very short and early draft of it more than twenty years ago, replied kindly, but with the! hint that he would like to 'talk more' with me 'about "design"' as it appears or may be found in a large finished work, and the actual events or experiences as seen or felt by the waking mind in the course of actual composition.' Evidently he felt that I had found 'design' too readily, and become, as some critics do, too faithful to my own scheme. Some years before, his Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford (now printed in Memoriam Essays) had made clear his low opinion of literary 'research'; while his letters bear witness to a particular suspicion of source-studies. This book continues to talk about design, and to indicate sources, and to that extent goes against the wishes of its subject, or rather its subject's creator. However, I may hope that, warned early, and educated at all times under a plan that Professor Tolkien had approved (and in most cases himself had followed), I have not become as 'bewildered' as many. My first acknowledgement must then! be to Professor Tolkien himself, for a prompt and salutory tip. Unfortunately, Professor Shippey did not fully comprehend the significance of what Tolkien had said to him, for in the preface to the second edition of The Road to Middle-earth Shippey concedes the following: Yet I do turn back to the letter Professor Tolkien wrote to me on 13 April 1970, charmingly courteous and even flattering as it then was from one at the top of his profession to one at the bottom ('I don't like to fob people off with a formal thanks...one of the nearest to my heart, or the nearest, of the many I have received...I am honoured to have received your attention'). And yet, and yet...What I should have realised -- perhaps did half-realise, for I speak the dialect myself -- was that this letter was written in the specialised politeness-language of Old Western Man, in which doubt and correction are in direct proportion to the obliquity of expression. The! Professor's letter had invisible italics in it, which I now supply. 'I am in agreement with nearly all that you say, and I only regret that I have not the time to talk more about your paper: especially about design as it appears or may be found in a large finished work, and the actual events or experiences as seen or felt by the waking mind in the course of of actual composition.' It has taken me twenty years (and the perusal of fifteen volumes unpublished in 1970) to see the point of the italics. Tolkien, however, closed his letter to me with the proverb: 'Need brooks no delay, yet late is better than never?' I can only repeat his saying, question-mark and all. The problem, however, is that Shippey refused to let go of his preconceived notions. Notions preconceived on the basis of an extensive foundation of literary and philological study which parallels Tolkien's own. He is so convinced that everything in The Lord of the Rings is somehow derived from or intended to emulate Anglo-Saxon literature that even when he stumbles across obvious disagreement by Tolkien himself Shippey's only recourse is to say As has already been remarked, though, the Riders according to Tolkien did not resemble the 'ancient English ... except in a general way due to their circumstances: a simpler and more primitive people living in contact with a higher and more venerable culture, and occupying lands that had once been part of its domain.' Tolkien was stretching the truth a long way in asserting that, to say the least!.... The previous "remark" referred to goes thus: ...Thus of the Riddermark and its relation to Old English he said eventually 'This linguistic procedure [i.e. translating Rohirric into Old English] does not imply that the Rohirrim closely resembled the ancient English otherwise, in culture or in art, in weapons or modes of warf!are, except in a general way due to their circumstances...' (III, 414). But this claim is totally untrue.... Such an profoundly absurd statement, belying a complete ignorance of the facts, has been accepted by numerous Shippey readers as holy writ. Yet the ignorance is not ignorance as in "that which one does not know" but rather as in "that which one elects to ignore". In his attempt to rationalize his interpretation of the Rohirrim, Shippey notes that "the Rohirriam cannot be equated with the Anglo-Saxons of history, but with those of poetry, or legend." Of course, he goes on to compare "Beowulf" with elements of The Lord of the Rings concerning the Rohirrim, never once mentioning the fact that the subject matter of "Beowulf" though preserved in an Anglo-Saxon manuscript in a form no doubt written by an Anglo-Saxon poet, concerns Danes, not Anglo-Saxons, and Geats. And Shippey even concedes that Tolkien draws upon Gothic and non-Germani!c sources for depicting the Rohirrim in custom and culture (mentioning specifically the Huns and Tartars, and their horsetail plumes). Such conveniences of oversight serve to underscore the fact that Shippey is at heart a propagandist, not determined to find the truth of the story or to present the true sources, but rather intent on overwhelmingly propounding the Anglo-Saxonist cause as the heart of Tolkien's inspiration. The bald-faced strangulation of Tolkien's work is tantamount to a wholesale slaughter of the innocents, a base betrayal of the ideals Tolkien esteemed in both literary study and the construction of his fiction. In his haste to present the entire work as a boundless stream of Anglo-Saxon enthusiasm, Shippey barely pays lip-service to the Biblical and classical influences which Tolkien himself acknowledged, and even glosses over the immense significance of the clearly non-Anglo-Saxon traditions which took over the legends of the First Age, the cycle which !originally began as an attempt by Tolkien to create an Anglo-Saxon (heathen) mythology from a distinctly English point of view. In considering the value of his new book, Shippey's departures from Tolkien and outright brutalizations of the subject matter in past efforts should be kept in mind by the reader. The critic will bring intricate knowledge of Anglo-Saxon and Tolkien's work to the reader, but he will also weave a dazzling spell of bewilderment which easily entices one to accept the fantastic as fact and eschew the reality of Tolkien's own cautions against this very sort of behavior. For an analysis of Tolkien's portrayals of Middle-earth and the Rohirrim which doesn't ignore the considerable wealth of facts, read Michael Martinez's Suite101 articles Middle-earth doesn't look like Medieval Europe and How did !Tolkien actually portray the Rohirrim?.

Angela Dotchin not currently slated for either LOTR or Star Wars movies

by Michael Martinez, Sunday, September 10, 2000

At Xenite.Org's request, several other Web sites joined the search for the facts about the Angela Dotchin story. TheOneRing.Net has heard from Ms. Dotchin's manager. "At this stage there is no truth to this rumor," they were told as Xoanon reports. Apparently Angela is not yet cast in either George Lucas' "Star Wars: Episode II" or Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" movies. Thanks to all who helped spread the word. Hopefully, Angela Dotchin fans will get some exciting news soon.

Tolkien Trail Opens up Rivendell Section

by Michael Martinez, Saturday, September 9, 2000

Ben Milder and Joshua Truitt, creators of The Tolkien Trail, have added a new Rivendell section to their interactive fan site. When Xenite.Org last visited the Tolkien Trail we said "as fan Web sites go, this one is a rare gem in our experience." The new addition to the site is a pleasing and imaginative shift in content. Separated from your guide, Gandalf, you arrive at Rivendell before he does (but you get to see him again before you leave). There you are free to browse through Elrond's library of fan fiction (undoubtedly destined to grow as the site becomes more popular) and MP3 selections (posted with permission from at least some of the artists) and even listen to readings from Bilbo's book (performed by Robert W. Gardner, who is recording his readings at a Barnes and Noble store in Alabama). It's hard to believe Milder a!nd Truitt are only teenagers. But then again, they seem to fit the stereotype of the dynamic young Web geniuses who are gradually broadening our Internet horizons. Where will these gentlemen be in 10-15 years? Older, tradition-encrusted programmers and Web designers might be looking over their shoulders to see who is breathing down their necks. We're looking forward to Lothlorien when it becomes available, guys. Here's hoping Inspiration doesn't desert you as the pressure to match pass successes mounts. Remember, as soon as it stops being fun for you, it won't be worth doing any more. And then it won't be fun for the rest of us.

Six degrees of Angela Dotchin or, how not to track down rumors

by Michael Martinez, Saturday, September 9, 2000

It's been a wacky 24 hours. We heard that Xena: Warrior Princess was being cancelled and then, hooray!, the fans had saved the day and the show is not being cancelled. And we've learned more about Angela Dotchin than you can imagine, but we still have no idea of whether she'll appear in George Lucas' 'Star Wars: Episode II' or Peter Jackson's 'The Lord of the Rings'. While scouring New Zealand news sites for Angela Dotchin stories, we learned that in April a writer decided that the world-famous New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street could serve as the basis for a Six Degrees game. Did you know more than 2,000 actors had appeared on the series? We didn't know New Zealand had 2,000 actors (no offense intended to our Kiwi friends). Then we learned that Robyn Malcolm was helping to form a national acting troupe called the New Zealand Actors Company with Simon Bennett, who helped nurture the budding career of Angela Dotchin on Shortland Street (and she now not only stars in her own syndicated television series, Jack of All Trades, she occasionally directs for Shortland Street). Malcolm, you may recall, won brief international recognition when it was discovered she had been given a small role in Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings". She even received some followup attention. While cruising around the official Jack of All Trades Web site we noticed that Stephen Papps, who plays the ruthless and luckless Captain Brogard, also happened to co-write the play "Blowing it" with LOTR co-writer Stephen Sinclair. And then one shouldn't overlook the fact that the talented Ms. Dotchin also co-starred with Kevin Smith in "Lawless 2", a telemovie made and broadcast in New Zealand. Smith has appeared as Ares and Hercules' mortal brother Iphicles on numerous episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess, and Young Hercules. So, there appear to be no news stories about Ms. Dotchin and any upcoming blockbuster movies in New Zealand, but she and her 2,000+ Shortland Street compadres don't lack for publicity or international appeal. Maybe if the New Zealand Defense Forces don't come through for Peter Jackson, he can hire the Shortland Street Irregulars to fill in as hobbits, Rohirrim, and Dunedain for his "Lord of the Rings" movies.

Seeking the Wayward Children of Numenor

by Michael Martinez, Friday, September 8, 2000

Something should be said about the founding of Arnor and Gondor, but it's not easy to assign the establishment of the Dunadan realms in exile their proper place in the Tolkien legendarium. In letter 276, written to Dick Plotz of the Tolkien Society of America in 1965, JRRT said, "...Of all the mythical or 'archetypal' images this is the one most deeply seated in my imagination, and for many years I had a recurrent Atlantis dream: the stupendous and ineluctable wave advancing from the Sea or over the land, sometimes dark, sometimes green and sunlit." One gets the impression that Tolkien was immensely moved by this legend, and yet only the year before he had told Christopher Bretherton, in letter 257, "Another ingredient, not before mentioned, also came into operation in my need to provide a great function for Strider-Aragorn. What I might call my Atlantis-haunting. This legend or myth or dim memory of some ancient history has always troubled me. In sleep I had the dreadful dream of the ineluctable Wave, either coming out of the quiet sea, or coming in over the green inlands. It still occurs occasionally, though now exorcized by writing about it. It always ends by surrender, and I awake gasping out of deep water. I used to draw it or write bad poems about it...." Here again he admits to being moved by it, and yet concedes that it only entered the world of Middle-earth as a resolution for his "need to provide a great function for Strider-Aragorn." The incorporation of the Atlantis legend was easy enough in that respect. Tolkien had already written an early version of the Downfall ("The Drowning of Anadune") and he had the primary characters defined. But he had yet to contrive the aftermath of the Downfall, and to work it fully into Middle-earth. Elendil's kingdom, for example, started out in Beleriand (more of which had survived in early efforts to map out this strange new world than eventually decided upon for the published stories). Read the entire article at Suite101.

1000 well-funded researchers to get History of Middle-earth in 3 volumes

by Michael Martinez, Thursday, September 7, 2000

A special edition of the 12-book series The History of Middle-earth is being published in 3 volumes, due out in October 2000, April 2001, and October 2001. The edition is limited to 1000 copies and each volume is being sold for 100 GBP (subject to change, depending on the publisher). Thornton's Bookstore is offering a discount to anyone who pays by the end of September. For further information, see http://www.thorntonsbooks.co.uk. Thornton's specializes in rare and collectors' editions and often sells high-quality Tolkien merchandise. The History of Middle-earth series depicts in 12 volumes how J.R.R. Tolkien came to write The Lord of the Rings and the source materials that his son Christopher Tolkien used to compile the published Silmarillion. The series is a must-have for any serious Tolkien researcher.

Cirdan says John Noble to play Denethor

by Michael Martinez, Thursday, September 7, 2000

Cirdan says New Line Cinema told him that Australian actor John Noble will play Denethor in Peter Jackson's 'The Lord of the Rings' production. Cirdan's site lists Noble's credits as "Virtual Nightmare" (2000), "Airtight" (1999) (TV), "The Nostradamus Kid" (1993), "A Sting in the Tail (1989)", "The Dreaming" (1988), and "Call Me Mr. Brown" (1986).

The Sounds of Middle-Earth Come to the Web

by Michael Martinez, Thursday, September 7, 2000

Kenneth Magnusson is a Tolkien fan with a mission. He wants to create an Internet radio station which plays only Tolkien-inspired music. His first selections aren't necessarily earth-moving but they aren't bad. The neat thing is that he's soliciting requests from other Tolkien fans. We listened to Eriador, or at least a few of its current selections, and found the playlist to be somewhat relaxing. The best piece of our small playlist was Pavel Fomitchov's "Galadriel" from the CD "Music of the Elves". New Age music devotees may want to give the CD a try. We don't know what artists MP3s.com carries, but if Led Zeppelin and Rush are in the mix we expect numerous fans will request that songs by those famous Rock groups be added to the playlist, which is limited to 20 songs. Kenneth plans to rotate songs in and out of the list once he gets to 20. MP3S.COM provides this service because it hopes to sell people CDs. Well, no system is perfect when it's free, but we've heard worse on the Internet. Now if only Glass Hammer and Lothlorien are requested...

The Magic of the Minstrels

by Michael Martinez, Friday, September 1, 2000

Two things you won't find any mention of in Tolkien's Middle-earth are clowns and actors. Nor will you find any reference to plays, drama, jugglers, acrobats, or theaters, carnivals, fairs, and circuses. What did the people of Middle-earth do for their entertainment? They appear not to have had any great arenas like the Romans, no theatrical houses, nor travelling entertainers, nor any of the trappings of a tradition of drama or comedy. The two great forms of exposition in Middle-earth were story-telling and song. But though everyone seems to like a good story or song, there is little evidence of professional development for either form of exposition. In fact, only two professional minstrels are mentioned in The Lord of the Rings. Gleowine was Theoden's minstrel, and after he wrote the funeral song which the Riders of Rohan sang around Theoden's mound he never made another song again. And some unnamed minstrel of Gondor composed the lay of "Frodo of the Nine Fingers and the Ring of Doom" (assisted with the title of the lay by Sam). For a book that is filled with songs and references to ancient lays, one might almost expect to see a scop or bard leap out of every chapter, roaming from town to town to keep the masses entertained. But instead there is no real indication of a roaming class of entertainers. In Eriador the Rangers occasionally bring stories to the Bree-folk, and the hobbits who travel between the Shire, the Buckland, and Bree share stories, but that's about it. Read the entire article here.

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