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Review: Tolkien's World
Tolkien's World, The Paintings of Middle Earth, coincides with the centenary of his birth. More than a dozen artists, already famous for their interpretations of Tolkien landscapes, some newcomers to the trilogy, have created more than 50 paintings published therein ($15 from Harper Collins).
The full-page images are all illustrated with text from Tolkien's works, and they bring the stories to life in a way that is sometimes dark, sometimes lively, usually haunting. The book is clearly organized -- text on the left, painting on the right.
At the end, the artists -- they are from all over the world -- explain their interpretations and drawings and where applicable, their personal experiences with the trilogy. For a Tolkien afficionado, it's immensely satisfying to match your own imagination against those of artists like Michael Hague and Roger Garland. John Howe's "The Great Goblin" is amazing, and Inger Edelfelt has painted a stark, strange and simplistic "Gollum." As the Hobbit himself put it, "deep down here by the dark water lived old Gollum, a small slimy creature. I don't know where he came from, nor who or what he was. He was Gollum -- as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes in his thin face." There is more good writing in that paragraph than in plenty of fictional and mythological tales.
"Thorin, Prisoner of the Elves," "The Arkenstone," "Frodo and Gandalf." "The Haven of Morionde," "The Brandywine River " -- the collection will intrigue readers who want to prep for the movie, or newcomers who want a sense of what Tolkien's worlds might look like. It would also work beautifully for kids.
The art is uneven -- certain painters' images might not square with your own. But some, like Ted Nasmith's "Glittering Caves of Aglarond," or John Howe's "Gandalf," will make you want to frame them and hang them up. Tolkien's World is a first-rate creative achievement.
I've had this book for a while, it's a nice supplement to any Tolkien collection. Forget D&D artwork, this book breathes a Tolkienesque feel.
You can laugh without eating a sandwhich, but you can do both if bring one.
It's going to be disturbing when kids start getting nine-fingered Frodo action figures in their happy meals...
Seen any BadMarketing lately?
Philology = the scientific study of languages and their development.
;) Please don't mod me up... I'm not karma whoring.
I had to look it up in the dictionary
The order of the books:
1) The Hobbit
2) The Silmarillion (uncompleted)
3) The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Not counting Farmer Geils of Ham and other stories. Doubtless the slashbots will correct me if I am wrong.
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
Why, oh why, can't JonKatz do some very basic research? The Silmarillion was never finished; Tolkien worked on it for many decades (even on the month he died), before and after the other books. After his death 1973 his son Christopher edited and published the material.
I own this amazing book myself and I am also an artist. It's a wonderful thing to see paintings of the most beloved scenes of middle earth rendered by some of Tolkiens biggest fans. I remember painting a scene (for a high school art course)from the hobbit where Bilbo is in the cavern holding the elven blade. I wondered if there was a repository of artwork pertaining to Tolkien and almost 10 years later I discovered this book. When I opened it up to see Sting and the look of Bilbo inside I was floored. I especially enjoy the work of Alan Lee. He is truly a master of fantasy art. If you have a chance see more of his work with Brian Froud in books like Faeries, and Gnomes. Amazing work!
There is no spork.
IMHO, the closest anyone has come is the Brothers Hildebrand, and even there they've got the wrong Aragorn. (The Hildebrand version of Aragorn looks more like a plumber than the descendant of the Kings of Westernesse.)
By the bye, is anyone else as dismayed as I that every bar napkin Tolkien ever scribbled a note on is now being published? It's getting worse than the prolific undead pen of L. Ron! Does every word the man wrote have to be mined for posthumous publication?
This ring, no other, was made by the Elves.
Who'd pawn their own mother to grab it themselves...
1) Started: Silmarillion
2) Started and completed: Hobbit
3) Started and completed: LOTR
4) Tolkien Died
5) Christopher Tolkien and Guy Kay compile Silmarillion
I'm not a Tolkien fanatic, nor a know-all, but I'm a great fan of his books. What I've reacted to reading his books is the drawings of the hobbits and also the way the upcoming movies present them. In my imagination I've made up a picture of creatures closer to dwarfs than to human children. If I don't recall much wrong dwarfs are in fact taller than hobbits.
In the movie Frodo looks like a human child, but wasn't he rather old (40 years or so.) In the paintings in the books and in the movie he looks too young. Although hobbits don't have beards one would expect a more rugged face. In addition hobbits are normally fat - in a jovial sense.
One thing I'm sertain about are their feet and toes. They should be hairy, but I've never seen drawings of their feet.
What do other people think. Are the pictures of hobbits correct, as the book presents them.
Look a monkey!
In a way, however, you're right, in that the majority of the work on the Silmarillion was produced between The Hobbit and LOTR.
Tom.
Oh arse
Kinda OT but the artwork got me thinking about how I liked the artwork done by (now defunct) Iron Crown Enterprises in the Middle-Earth Role-Playing game. I used to love that game but we died a lot - stupid critical charts... ("Strike through ears. Big lummux dies immediately. Any earwax is removed").
Any word on whether a new game is going to be released? Hopefully with better game mechanics? Hopefully not by WOTC using d20?
I'm afraid of crass commercialization too but I'd rather people collecting Frodo stuff and reading Tolkein's books than say, Garfield...
Katz writes:
after World War II,
"The Hobbit" was published in 1937. World War II ended in 1945.
This month's Wired magazine has a whole cover story on Tolkein's works. I don't like them talking about it as a 'virtual world,' it sounds too much like one of Jon's articles. :)
The scariest thing, as usual, are the obsessed fanboys and geeks who take it *way* too seriously. I mean, I'm a big music fan, but going after rare CD bootlegs where John Lennon farts halfway through a demo of "Imagine" just does not interest me in the least.
Nobody will be able to appease the hardcore geeks 100%, because even they diagree on things, and will argue over minutiae that regular people simply couldn't care less about. If you can't get a suitable distance from the material, IMHO you have serious problems.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
To the best of my knowledge, the Silmarillion was nothing more than a collection of notes until after J.R.R. Tolkien's death. Afterwards, Christopher Tolkien collected those notes and assembled the Silmarillion.
It is also my belief that the Hobbit literally started it all, that Tolkien started delving into Middle Earth, creating it, to entertain his children. I.e. he did not start off attempting to create a world, a history, and multiple languages, but instead that they are a by-product of the story he constructed to entertain his children.
You may also want to check out The Marvelous Land of Snergs by E.A. Wyke-Smith. This book is considered to be the source Tolkien pulled the concept of Hobbit's from. ISBN: 1882968042
There's a very good book "An Introduction To Elvish" (Ed. Jim Allen), that I used to borrow from my University library....
Tom.
Oh arse
He's right. The language in the books is stilted "I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn, blah blah, and this is the sword that was Broken!" (cave men were undoubtely more eloquent at times), the characters lack depth (hell, you don't even know what they look like - except they're often clad in gray).
If you mean "The Hobbit" you are partially right. While the language of Men in the story seems crude and coarse, notice how the Hobbits themselves are more apt to offer some sense of proper english. I belive Tolkien was trying to show man (humans) as a brutish race when compared to Hobbits and Elves.
On the other hand, If you are reffering to LOTR, dont forget the eloquent musings of Tom Bombadill or Treebeard Hoom Hoom!There is no spork.
__ elacin
I don't believe that Tolkien would have agreed that his family convinced him to write about more worldly events. Tolkien and the other Inklings (esp Lewis and Williams) were quick to say that they were using man's ability as a sub-creator (below God) and not corrolating any of their mythology to wordly events. Especially denied were any connections between The Lord of the Rings and any wars during the 20th century.
Its an epic you twit. It follows rules within the english language. Read Beowolf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and some of the other classics of English Lit. All flat as a friken pancake. You might see what genre he was working from and understand what he created. Also don't forget that all of this was made up to explain the nuances of a created language. All of the books are just to explaine why its pronouced this way instead of that way. That and to shut his kids up.
F34nor
You only say that because he uses a lot of big words that you don't understand, jackass.
...All I can say is that my life is pretty strange...
Speaking as an old fart, yes, these books are about as entertaining as other of their ilk.
Ah, but if you had asked me when I was 15, I would have spoke of such such grand images, inspired lofty thoughts and inspiration to engage in great causes.
From what I understand (and I could be wrong on this one) the stories were originally for his children and were published with some prodding. If that's the case, what a legacy !
healyourchurchwebsite.com - WWJB?
There's a book I've been reading by Humphrey Carpenter called The Inklings... it's about the association between Tolkein, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams andd others. Fascinating stuff... sort
of a quasi-biography of all three and the confluence of their lives. Carpenter also wrote
a whole bio of Tolkein and collected a book of
his personal letters, both of which I've read bits of and are pretty good.
Warning: it's a different experience than reading
Tolkein's fiction. Tolkein spins grand myths; these are biographical.
Enjoy.
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
C'mon Taco... high time for a LOTR/Tolkien icon on slashdot methinks...
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
I thought I was the only one revisiting Middle-Earth. I made a commitment earlier this year to complete the LOTR+H before the movie came out. I started reading the Hobbit in July. I will likely complete RotK this weekend. I thought I had given myself sufficient time to finish the books before Dec, but I didn't count on how much I would be sucked in, again, to Tolkien's wonderful prose and terrific setting. At night, instead of reading Maisy's Next $6 Throwaway, I have been reading Tolkien to my 4-year-old son. The language is too difficult for him to understand, but he recognizes the names of the Hobbits and Gollum. In troubled times, I hope, hearing his father's voice as he fades to sleep help calm his fears. I had not anticipated these books bringing me closer to my son, but I should have known that Tolkien's magic, like Hobbits, is always more powerful than you expect.
"I like to play with things a while... before annihilation!" Ming the Merciless
Yes! I have that book! Frito,Goodgulf, Tim Benzedrine! Attack Sheep!
Best Slashdot Co
If you are going to create a sales promotion, at least get your facts correct. Is there any truth to any of this? Bill J. Clinton, are you reading this?
Besides that, I'm so glad that he took this advice and applied his imagination to "wordly" things.
Yep, straight out of the Tolkein parody "Bored of the Rings". Can't remember who published it though.
If anyone is interested, J.R.R. Tolkien's original manuscripts are kept at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI.
First of all, katz needs to spend a little time doing a thing called RESEARCH!
Second I hate when people imply or say that LOTR had anything to do with WWII. Tolkien said on MANY occasion that it had nothing to do with it. In fact he even gave an example of how the books would have been, and what the charaters would of done differently if it had been based on the evens in WWII. Of course some of it being written before WWII should clue people in.
...Floop went the tar pit...
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Damn, should've included these in the first message. Here are links to the publisher, and the publisher's previews of the introductory game and the full RPG. Having skimmed these, it's not clear to me now that the introductory game has an automatic upgrade path to the RPG.
The publisher will not be Games Workshop.
Other Catholics that we can also throw out as neither thinkers or artists would then have to include:
GK Chesterson
Henry Ford
John Kennedy
Louis Pasteur
Pablo Picasso
Henri Matisse
Salvador Dali
Alec Guinness
Federico Fellini
Michelangelo
Leonardo da Vinci
William F. Buckly Jr
Alfred Hitchcock
Other members of Tolkeins inner circle of "inklings" we also very religious. CS Lewis an Anglican. Charles Williams an Anglican, Dorthy Sayer I believe was also an Anglican.
Three OS's from corporate-kings in their towers of glass;
Seven from valley-lords where orchards used to grow;
Nine from dot.coms doomed to die;
One from the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Redmond where the Shadows lie.
One OS to rule them all! One OS to find them!
One OS to bring them all and in the darkness bind them,
In the Land of Redmond where the Shadows lie.
(Until the wizard of Finland frees them all.)
If you are a Tolkien fan and haven't already seen it, please check out this site.
After his father's death, Chris has published twelve annotated volumes of his father's notes in the
"History of Middle Earth" series. These are unpublished tales, alternative drafts, and background notes.
An incrediable amount of "what if" detail for the most ardent fans. Its been a while since I read
one of these, but I recall the material thinning out later in the series, as one leaves the main trilogy.
A flavor of these are in the appendix of the main LOTR volumes.
There are some pictures that I too possess and many more on this site. An url I know by heart longer since I had Internet Access, at a time when I had to actually visit one of the very first Internet Cafés in my country, while owning a 14'400 modem but no inet access.
/
:)
Amazingly, the url is still valid and works fine.
ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/pictures/fantasy/Tolkien
I hope the server owners forgive me
CU
Draxinusom
(PS, the famous and great albeit now stopped Ultima game series by Richard Gariott is/was heavily influenced by Tolkien which can be seen by his "borrowing" of the runic alphabet as well as familiarly sounding locations and people. Read the name of the big swamp in U7:2 backwards!)
The "great quote" was not that he detested analogy.
He detested allegory. Big Difference.
-D
http://fan.theonering.net/rolozo/
Huge image gallery. Check it out.
At least, I loved reading through them.
We totally revised the cit system before playing, of course. But some of them were great to read.
And you have to admit, they did come closer to making medieval style combat realistic than, say, AD&D. (where on one memorable occasion, a level 20 fighter got breathed acid on by a black dragon and was able to continue fighting at no penalty, still having over half his hit points.)
In post-9/11 America, the CIA interrogates YOU!
Ok sure, this may not be totaly "on topic" but it is the background to what turned me into a Tolkien fanatic.
I play a LARP, called Dagorhir battlegames, that combines Tolkien's Middle Earth, the Dark Ages, and pure fantasy in a full contact combat sport. It is the most fun that I have had in years and is an amazingly cheap yet rewording hobby.
Check out the website. Look at the pictures. See you at the next battle!
~~ What's stopping you?
God bless America. Lock-n-Load!
"Amen brother, and pass the ammunition!" -common Christian saying
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Who said anything about killing all Moslems? The topic on hand is the killing of terrorists. Start with those who have "claimed responsibility" for fatal bombings -- in other words, confessed to murder. Continue with those heads of states, and their cabinets, that support terrorism. Yeah, it's war. But it's necessary, unless you want to see a mushroom cloud over an American city one day.
This is a great opportunity for advancement of Moslem societies, as they'll have a little help in the removal of their most ignorant, medieval elements. Maybe they'll now be able to catch up to the level of democracy, freedom, and prosperity of, say, sub-Saharan Africa. Maybe you should ask Germany and Japan if eliminating their evil leaders was a good thing or not for their countries.
He made another common error as well. To quote Douglas Anderson, who wrote the 'Note on the Text' published in the 1994 Harper Collins edition of Lord of the Rings:
"The Lord of the Rings is often erroneously called a trilogy, when it is in fact a single novel, consisting of six books plus appendices, sometimes published in three volumes."
This fact is confirmed by Tolkien in his Foreward, where he often refers the tale as one large volume.
The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we're uncool. -Crowe
Not only was the Silmarillion compiled after Tolkien's death, but The Hobbit was first published in 1938. That's quite an accomplishment if, as Katz says, Tolkien's family inspired to write it after WWII.
Part of the beauty of paganism, neo or otherwise is that it promotes acceptance rather than rejection even when it comes to deities. If you have many gods, whats one more even if his name is J.C.?
One doesn't have to acknowledge anything good in christianity but you do not have to deny there's anything good either.
[Shrug] open your mind bub.
Sadly, I must face the fact that I've entered the world of parenthood when I see "Tolkien's World" and immediately think of "Elmo's World".
La la la-la, (la la la-la), Tolkien's World...
m00.
Here we have what was potentially an interesting review of a book covering a topic that many of us love. How sad is it that the introduction to the story contains several errors. I'm not the biggest fan of the Professor's work, but can we have some elementary research?
The Silmarillion was begun (I believe) while Tolkien was a teen. It really began taking shape during his service in WWI and during his college years.
The Hobbit literally began as a bedtime story Tolkien created for his children. The decision to publish it, after much debate, ultimately came from the son of one of the publishers.
Upon the moderate success of The Hobbit, Allen & Unwin asked Tolkien for another work describing Hobbits. Tolkien resisted for a while, but finally agreed sometine during WWII. During the late 40's, Tolkien wrote to his publishers saying that the project was bigger than he originally anticipated. The Lord of the Rings was in progress.
Contrary to what many believe, LOTR was not his Life's work (it is also not a trilogy, a point he argued many times). It and The Hobbit are merely sidebars to the project he worked on for most of his life, revising and editing, and ultimately never finished: The Silmarillion. Tolkien did prefess the purpose for this work was to be an alternate mythology for Earth, because he feared that so much mythology from many cultures had been lost.
So, not only was Tolkien inpsired enough to create these stunning works, he also regarded it as a gift to all, past present and future.
Hopefully JonKatz will respect what has been given him by presenting factual information about Toklien and his Works in his future articles on the subject.
Jon,
Being a fan of Dr. Tolkien for my entire life I feel a need to point out that your timeline is wrong in the opening statement. The Hobbit was a originally a story he told his children as they were growing up. He published the first edition of the Hobbit in 1936. This story actually followed the "lie" the Biblo told the Dwarves regarding how he acquired the The Ring. It wasn't until the Lord of the Rings came out in the early 50's that he went back to revise the Hobbit to follow the Prelude he incorporated in the Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit was such a success that his publishers immediately started clamouring for a "sequel". The trilogy is in actuality a single book but it was published in three separate parts for the consumers. He started writing the books in 1938. The Silmarillion as it was published was a collection of short stories that Christopher his oldest son put together and edited into one story, published in 1977, 4 years after his death. It was a work in constant revision, check out Unfinished Tales. The stories characters relations and interactions changed from story to story. It was never finished by John himself. Now that the history lesson is over, I'll get off my soapbox.
I'm planning on pseudo-distributing this quote - if you'd like more an attribution than 'peter303' please email me. I (nor anyone else) are going to make any money from it.
-shpoffo
Only took me a few minutes to make, from a nicely rendered 3d wallpaper that I found very long ago. Just reduced the size and changed the background to white.
Click Here. Sorry for the annoying banner ad, but it's free webhosting, so what the heck, eh?
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Don't leave it up to the imagination of the
You might consider going to the Tolkien estate and asking them for icon suggestions. Betcha they've already come up with some good ones... the small one with his initials all merged together is really really nice, but of course that's the official estate logo.
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
... dang whippersnappers ...
------ "Darn floor. Big bite." (Koko the gorilla's best attempt at explaining the experience of an earthquake.)
Since 1994, a free game has existed on the internet for Tolkien fans from around the world to immerse themselves in his world.
The game is created by volunteers, for free. It's a game by Tolkien fans, for Tolkien fans, and it's growing in size all the time.
To play it, you need a computer with internet access, and a good imagination usually helps.
The Two Towers is open to all, and welcomes new players.
I'll see you there!
~J
This space for rent.
Ok. All my friends tell me that I'm very picky for these things, but I must tell them or I'll burst into pieces :-)
Boromir's hair is dark! And not semi-blonde or almost-red like it appears in the trailer. Wrong wrong wrong. Dark. He's a descendant of the Westernesse men, and so his hair is dark. It's said in several places in the book. His hair is dark. Do you know what color is Boromir's hair? Good boy.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I think I've seen Legolas' eyebrows (I think that's the word) ... black. And he's a blonde elf. Someone explain to me. Is it some
kind of fashion? Blonde elves with black eyebrows get more chicks? Did he run
out of painting when trying to dye his hair blonde? What color is his other
corporal hair? Has he any other corporal hair, by the way? If not, that
could explain that appeal that men had for elven girls. You know, "the bear
and the men, the more hairy the more cute" (totally untranslatable saying
around here)
I'm not going to speak about the whole mess that I feel will be introducing Arwen into the mix. But it will be. I'm not going to say that it's fundamentally wrong and that the film could be better without her (though Liv Tyler is utterly cute, of course). But it could be.
Anyway, I'm looking forward a lot to see P. Jackson's film. These are only a few glitches that I don't think can spoil the whole film. It's just that I'm very anal with this kind of things :-)
Xouba
My weblog in spanish
Breakfast served all day!
Tolken:A look behind the Lord of the Rings, Lin Carter 1969 Ballantine Books.
I believe you are the closest to the truth about Tolkiens works. But is wasn't an alternate mythology for Earth. It is a mythology for the English. There are Greek, Roman, Finnish, etc mythology and now there is an English Mythology. In a few millenia the stories will become real mythology and I'm sure Tolkien will be smiling.
I have used this Nick on IRC for as long as I can remember and I use it here on Slashdot. Kudos to whoever knows who it is.
Nice review. Thanks for the research and info, really been a long time since I thought about things "Tolkienesque" (love that word). needed a break any way. May the gods of middle earth smile on you ;-)
Of a lot of what it is worth. The beauty of Tolkien's work in Lord of the Rings, is the ability to amke the reader a part of that world. I'd rather imagine the trolls or Gandalf, or Bilbo etc, than have some one else imprint his/her imagination on me through their images. I'm glad I read that book a few times now, and a few years ago. I plan on watching the movies. I hope I am not disappointed.
A somewhat more optimistic version, one I thought was well known in Linux circles. (I include Peter303's beginning, which is good and which I had not heard.)
Three OS's from corporate-kings in their towers of glass;
Seven from valley-lords where orchards used to grow;
Nine from dot.coms doomed to die;
One from the carefree student, at his icy home
In the bright land of Linux, where the Hackers play.
One OS to rule them all! One OS to find them!
One OS to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them,
In the bright land of Linux, where the Hackers play.
KLAATU, BORADA, NIh*ahem*