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[Edmond Dantès]

I think I only posted a few times but lurk whenever there is new discussion.
Good to have you back Dantès; and good to have the thread flowing.



Regarding the Silmarillion read, I think the daily scheduling may be too aggressive for casual/first time readers. When you get behind its harder to gain momentum and the number of involved readers may drop off as peoples' schedules don't align. Giving a more lenient schedule will also give more time for digestion and thought during discussion.
I say all this as someone who started the Silmarillion over 10 years ago and didn't get 1/4 way through and never participated in a book club outside of school.

Perhaps larger chunks 2-3 times a week for those who have commitments?

Yes, I think your suggestion is far more reasonable than mine. There's a lot detail that can be missed on first readings and more time to discuss such details will allow for a far better understanding of Tolkien's motives with the Silmarillion material.

 

[Loxley]

I was going suggest we merely go on a weekly basis with the breaking up of The Silmarillion; seven days to discuss a specific block of the text. As I mentioned before, Ainulindalë and Valaquenta are both the right length to have their own dedicated week's worth of discussion. After that, for the third week, we could discuss The Beginning of Days (Chapter 1) to the end of Chapter 3 - The Coming of the Elves and The Captivity of Melkor. Then for the fourth week, we'd start at Chapter 4 - Of Thingol and Melian, to the end of Chapter 8 - The Darkness of Valinor.

And so on.

 

[TCRS]

oi edmond! good to have you back.

a silmiarillion read sounds great, it has been years since I've read it. I'm also for a weekly basis. is there going to be a seperate thread? might attract more people.

 

[Loxley]

oi edmond! good to have you back.

a silmiarillion read sounds great, it has been years since I've read it. I'm also for a weekly basis. is there going to be a seperate thread? might attract more people.

Definitely a separate thread. If I can, I'll try to spruce it up with a banner or something so people know that we're actually going to put effort into this

 

[TheMink]

Idk what the schedule is for the Silmarillion, but i recently "read" it for the first time using audio books. The narrator is incredible and i felt my retention was very high. And i did it during work. Took three days of 8 hour listens.

 

[Loxley]

Going through my Alan Lee and John Howe books for poops and giggles, and I was reminded of just how much I love this Rohan piece by Lee:

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Going through my Alan Lee and John Howe books for poops and giggles, and I was reminded of just how much I love this Rohan piece by Lee:

Meduseld in all its beauty.

The Beowulf Tolkien thread is now up.

 

[Red Mage]

Hmm, I suppose it's not explicitly stated, but I think we can put together the pieces from various sources to come up with a pretty solid explanation of why Sauron lost his shape-shifting ability. In Letter 211, Tolkien has this to say about Sauron's experience: "Sauron was, of course, 'confounded' by the disaster, and diminished (having expended enormous energy in the corruption of Númenor). He needed time for his own bodily rehabilitation, and for gaining control over his former subjects." I think this explains the statement you allude to, found in Appendix A to LOTR, that Sauron was "unable ever again to assume a form that seemed fair to men". This interpretation is also in keeping with the theme of decreasing spiritual power by (over)using it, which is what happened to Melkor/Morgoth in the First Age (cf. Morgoth's Ring).

Indeed. I think that Sauron may have intended Numenor to be his new Mordor and, to some extent, recoup the cost of corrupting it. I just wonder if his soul had become so corrupted that he didn't have the power to become fair looking (which doesn't make sense imo) or if he was sort of mode-locked because of what he did to Numenor.

 

[Jacob]

Indeed. I think that Sauron may have intended Numenor to be his new Mordor and, to some extent, recoup the cost of corrupting it. I just wonder if his soul had become so corrupted that he didn't have the power to become fair looking (which doesn't make sense imo) or if he was sort of mode-locked because of what he did to Numenor.

Why do you think it doesn't make sense? The notion of declining spiritual powers occurs several times in Tolkien work. Also, the destruction of Numenor might have been the first time Sauron changed his form since the creation of the Ring, and was almost certainly the first time he stained mortal injuries in that period. We know that recovering from mortal injuries took a huge toll on his abilities, such that even changing his form did not heal the wounds Huan gave him or restore the finger that Isildur cut off.

 

[Red Mage]

Why do you think it doesn't make sense? The notion of declining spiritual powers occurs several times in Tolkien work. Also, the destruction of Numenor might have been the first time Sauron changed his form since the creation of the Ring, and was almost certainly the first time he stained mortal injuries in that period. We know that recovering from mortal injuries took a huge toll on his abilities, such that even changing his form did not heal the wounds Huan gave him or restore the finger that Isildur cut off.

Because there's also a point at which Melkor is unable to take fair shape again, and it isn't simply because he was diminishing in power, but after he destroys the trees, he never again takes a fair form. Since these are purely spiritual creatures, it would suggest that, at a certain point in Arda, these spirits reach a moral event horizon and they can no longer take a fair form. It'd also fit with Tolkien's dislike of a beautiful outside means a beautiful inside ('seem fair but feel foul'). Plus, we're told that for the Ainur, taking physical form is like changing clothes for us, and Sauron is said to have never taken a fair form again, not change form. This, to me, suggests that he was somehow mode-locked to limit him in his ability to trick others.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

This will be very interesting. Looking forward to seeing Ted's artwork in the flesh.

Open to everyone of course, not just members of the Tolkien Society like me.

Nowt to do with Tolkien, but another year and another Le Mans 24 Hours. Might even make a trip to Marseille and the Château d'If, the place of my imprisonment.

 

[Loxley]

This will be very interesting. Looking forward to seeing Ted's artwork in the flesh.

Open to everyone of course, not just members of the Tolkien Society like me.

Wow, color me jealous Dantès! You'll have to report back on how it was of course

Nowt to do with Tolkien, but another year and another Le Mans 24 Hours. Might even make a trip to Marseille and the Château d'If, the place of my imprisonment.

Since this is just as interesting, I'm going to re-post what I said above:

Wow, color me jealous Dantès! You'll have to report back on how it was of course

 

[The Artful Dodger]

This will be very interesting. Looking forward to seeing Ted's artwork in the flesh.

Open to everyone of course, not just members of the Tolkien Society like me.

Nowt to do with Tolkien, but another year and another Le Mans 24 Hours. Might even make a trip to Marseille and the Château d'If, the place of my imprisonment.

Edmond, This confirms my suspicion that you'd be a cool dude to grab a beer with.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Wow, color me jealous Dantès! You'll have to report back on how it was of course



Since this is just as interesting, I'm going to re-post what I said above:

Wow, color me jealous Dantès! You'll have to report back on how it was of course

Will do my friend.

Edmond, This confirms my suspicion that you'd be a cool dude to grab a beer with.

I already owe Loxley a beer or two, so the more company the merrier.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Fingolfin arrested in Portland after attacking Morgoth...

http://metro.co.uk/2014/05/20/high-elf-battles-evil-attacks-car-in-portland-4733798/

 

[Loxley]

Fingolfin arrested in Portland after attacking Morgoth...

http://metro.co.uk/2014/05/20/high-elf-battles-evil-attacks-car-in-portland-4733798/

That's how we here in 'Merica show our appreciation for Tolkien. On occasion I take my Orcrist replica and patrol the streets of Cleveland at night keeping the goblins at bay (they exist, open your eyes sheeple).

 

[The Artful Dodger]

Fingolfin arrested in Portland after attacking Morgoth...

http://metro.co.uk/2014/05/20/high-elf-battles-evil-attacks-car-in-portland-4733798/

He was arrested. The forces of darkness triumphed.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Octo Kwan's Tolkien art book

His work has been printed in Amon Hen and Mallorn and also been exhibited in Hong Kong and here in the UK. It's a coffee table book sized, softcover with text in Chinese and English.

Here's a review by Ruth Lacon of Tolkien Library.

Octo Kwan is a Hong Kong Chinese artist with a particular interest in the work of J.R.R. Tolkien whose work has been printed in the Beyond Bree calendars as well as in UK Tolkien Society publications. Now he has his own art book, which introduces us to a new world of art inspired by Tolkien. It is a handsome production, well made and well printed, with good-quality paper.

The book’s introductory texts contain a good deal of interesting and useful information on Octo Kwan and on the growing interest in J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings within the Chinese cultural sphere. These text sections are bilingual in English and Chinese. I am not literate in Chinese, but having once worked for Edinburgh University Library, which has one of Britain’s best collections of Chinese books, I will venture some comment. So, to an ex-librarian who well remembers the difficulties of comparing ‘block capital’ book requests with artistic ‘grass script’ fonts on covers, the Chinese text in this book seems clean, modern and highly legible. It does have a flavour of the very old ‘seal script’ style about it; so perhaps the correct western comparison might be Gill Sans, as a modern yet classically inspired and balanced font

The English and Chinese text sections are balanced on pages and within the book so that the overall production is not down-weighed by either and looks good overall. The translation is not quite idiomatic English, but it is clear, smooth and mostly free of obvious mistakes; the few which remain are not of any significance.

Octo Kwan is a trained artist, and also a writer who has produced his own translation of The Lord of the Rings. In this work – which he hopes to see published one day – he has followed Tolkien’ own indications in the Apendices to The Lord of the Rings, and paid much more attention to the linguistics of the work than the current Chinese translations do. This thorough exploration of Tolkien’s world is reflected in Octo Kwan’s artwork, albeit in an ‘anime’ style which many of us in the West are unfamiliar with in this area. It is easy to underestimate these images, as at a first glance they often look cartoonish. Behind the seemingly simple style, though, is a great deal of skill and thought, a real knowledge of Tolkien’s work, and often a delightful sense of humour.

Although the book’s title references only The Hobbit, it contains works inspired by that book, by The Lord of the Rings, and by The Silmarillion, as well as a section ‘Just for Fun’. Pictures of characters such as Faramir and Galadriel reveal a fresh vision and light touch; unusual subjects such as ‘Luthien’s Dance before Morgoth’ are tackled as well as such staples as ‘The Bridge of Khazad-Dum’. Some of the black-and-white work is just as good as the colour pieces, and the use of simultaneous narrative in page layout in, for example, ‘A Knife in the Dark’, is fine. At the lighter end, I know of few ‘parody’ pieces as genuinely funny as Octo’s ‘The Fellowship of the Ring in Hong Kong’.

There is something else about Octo Kwan’s work which becomes clear on seeing this book. In his art, J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings and the long traditions of Chinese art meet and adapt to each other. Octo Kwan’s Galadriel is not just the fairy of many a modern animation serial; she carries echoes of eldritch Ladies all the way back to Gu Kaizhi and the Nymph of the Lo River (4th/5th century; Tang Dynasty).

Since Octo Kwan has an unusual knowledge of Tolkien’s writings, his imagery raises an interesting question. Is he just using Hong Kong staple images or is his imagery as thought-through as his writing? I will cheerfully admit that when it comes to East Asian art, I am more used to Guo Xi’s landscapes and Hiroshige’s prints than modern anime. Octo Kwan’s work seems to me to have recognizably Chinese features. So is there a Chinese ‘fictional translation’ matching Tolkien’s own work in Appendix F underlying it? What seems to me to be the Manchu look of Theoden suggests that might be the case. I hope so, since the book makes it clear that there is new and growing interest in Tolkien in the Chinese cultural sphere. It is good to see Octo Kwan’s fresh vision; it will be good to see more innovative artistic responses to Tolkien’s writing that emerge from the ‘leaf-mould’ of this new habitat, rather than just copying Western ideas.

This will not be an easy book to get hold of, but for anyone with a serious interest in art inspired by Tolkien’s writings, it is an unusual and rewarding work. I for one hope that we will see much more work by this most intriguing artist in years to come.

Always great to see new interpretations of Tolkien's work. His take on Ungoliant is interesting and indicates quite clearly which theory he ascribes to (an Ainu).

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Other Tolkien news:

The letter from Tolkien to Rayner Unwin auctioned at Bonhams recently, sold for £10,625.

================================================================

The redevelopment of the plot at 19 Lakeside Road, Poole in Dorset where Tolkien and his wife Edith moved after his retirement is now complete. Where the bungalow stood there are now two modern family homes. Their names, Beren House and Luthien House, their prices £1,375,000 and £1,295,000.

Beren House:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-29579869.html

Luthien House:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34617488.html

================================================================

Pat Acton, a lifelong fan of Tolkien from Iowa spent 1000 hours between 2007 and 2010 building a model of Minas Tirith from matchsticks. The replica contains 420,000 matchsticks and stands over six feet tall. Details include hundreds of city buildings, the Citadel, the Tree of Gondor and the White Tower of Ecthelion.

 

[hunnies28]

Hi guys! Do we have an update on the Silmarillion book club? I finally managed to get a copy of the book.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Hi guys! Do we have an update on the Silmarillion book club? I finally managed to get a copy of the book.

Loxley's working on it (banners and stuff). I'll also be contributing with some essays.

 

[Loxley]

Yep, working on it as we speak. The thread is still planned to go up sometime tomorrow with an expected "start date" for the read-through of Sunday, June 1st.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Yep, working on it as we speak. The thread is still planned to go up sometime tomorrow with an expected "start date" for the read-through of Sunday, June 1st.

It's going to be fun.

 

[whatsinaname]

Loxley's working on it (banners and stuff). I'll also be contributing with some essays.

Cool. I pulled my book out of storage. I seem to have lost the dust jacket though.

Edit: The map looks intact. The gilt embossing always looks cool.

 

[Loxley]

Prepare yourselves.

 

[The Artful Dodger]

Oh man, looking forward to this!

 

[Loxley]

Silmarillion thread is up.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Lo! it has arrived.

Further images and impressions in this thread:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=819502

 

[Finrod]

Mae govannen, TolkienGAF.
I have been a lurker on these forums for quite a while now, and finally decided to make an account of my own.
As a big fan of Tolkiens work i have always enjoyed the discussions in GAF's multiple tolkien threads and look forward to participating in them.
Luckily, my account got validated (much quicker than expected) just in time for the Silmarillion read you guys are planning. Its been a while since i have read through it, so i'll definitely join in!

 

[Loxley]

Mae govannen, TolkienGAF.
I have been a lurker on these forums for quite a while now, and finally decided to make an account of my own.
As a big fan of Tolkiens work i have always enjoyed the discussions in GAF's multiple tolkien threads and look forward to participating in them.
Luckily, my account got validated (much quicker than expected) just in time for the Silmarillion read you guys are planning. Its been a while since i have read through it, so i'll definitely join in!

Welcome aboard

 

[The Artful Dodger]

Mae govannen, TolkienGAF.
I have been a lurker on these forums for quite a while now, and finally decided to make an account of my own.
As a big fan of Tolkiens work i have always enjoyed the discussions in GAF's multiple tolkien threads and look forward to participating in them.
Luckily, my account got validated (much quicker than expected) just in time for the Silmarillion read you guys are planning. Its been a while since i have read through it, so i'll definitely join in!

Awesome. Welcome!

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Mae govannen, TolkienGAF.
I have been a lurker on these forums for quite a while now, and finally decided to make an account of my own.
As a big fan of Tolkiens work i have always enjoyed the discussions in GAF's multiple tolkien threads and look forward to participating in them.
Luckily, my account got validated (much quicker than expected) just in time for the Silmarillion read you guys are planning. Its been a while since i have read through it, so i'll definitely join in!

Welcome to our ever increasing Fellowship.

 

[Finrod]

Welcome to our ever increasing Fellowship.

It has grown a fair bit beyond the nine companions it set off with.

Thank you all for the warm welcome. and Loxley, is that a Master and commander avatar? Great movie, very underrated if you ask me.

 

[Loxley]

It has grown a fair bit beyond the nine companions it set off with.

Thank you all for the warm welcome. and Loxley, is that a Master and commander avatar? Great movie, very underrated if you ask me.

It is indeed, always happy to find a fellow fan of M&C.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Lost Tolkien Voice Recording Discovered

The Middle-earth Network and Legendarium Media have announced that a lost audio recording of Tolkien has been discovered and will undergo restoration. Significantly for Tolkien scholarship, it includes a previously unpublished poem.


More details will be released soon, and an additional sample of the recording will be previewed this Saturday during the Online Beowulf Launch Party. So do tune in!

John Di Bartolo, a founder of the Middle-earth Network, described the moment he first listened to the recording:

"My eyes swelled with tears the first time I heard the tape. To be a Tolkien fan all my life and then to hear the professor’s voice from ‘beyond the Western Seas” was truly a dream come true. I know the recording will have a similar effect on Tolkien fans and scholars around the world. This recording has an important message for our time in it. We’re treating this project with the utmost respect and honor as wardens of this lost recording and poem."

http://legendarium.mymiddleearth.com/2014/05/22/lost-tolkien-audio-recording-discovered/


The following will feature in the Beowulf launch party:

Michael D. C. Drout, Professor of English at Wheaton College and editor of Beowulf and the Critics.

Corey Olsen, Tolkien podcaster, president of the Mythgard Institute and author of Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

Dimitra Fimi, Lecturer in English at Cardiff Metropolitan University and author of Tolkien, Race and Cultural History.

Nelson Goering, scholar of Old English, Old Norse and Gothic at Oxford.

Deborah Higgens, director of the C.S. Lewis Study Centre and author of Anglo-Saxon Community In J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’.

Anke Eißmann, Tolkien artist and illustrator of Beowulf and the Dragon.

David DelaGardelle, artist and sword smith.

From 11am EST, 4pm BST and 5pm CEST on Saturday 24 May for a whole host of talks and activities. There will be interviews with top Tolkien scholars, including experts in the field of Beowulf and Old English studies, renowned artists, sword smiths and more!

 

[Edmond Dantès]

A sample of Anke Eißmann's Tolkien art.

Luthien

Orome sights the Elves

Three is Company

 

[Finrod]

My eyes swelled with tears the first time I heard the tape. To be a Tolkien fan all my life and then to hear the professor’s voice from ‘beyond the Western Seas” was truly a dream come true. I know the recording will have a similar effect on Tolkien fans and scholars around the world. This recording has an important message for our time in it.

Well, this sounds promising.

Beautiful artwork too, i especially like the second picture. It captures the sense of wonder pretty well.

 

[Loxley]

I swear, Tolkien's words and watercolor paints go together like bread and butter.

Lost Tolkien Voice Recording Discovered


http://legendarium.mymiddleearth.com/2014/05/22/lost-tolkien-audio-recording-discovered/


The following will feature in the Beowulf launch party:

Michael D. C. Drout, Professor of English at Wheaton College and editor of Beowulf and the Critics.

Corey Olsen, Tolkien podcaster, president of the Mythgard Institute and author of Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

Dimitra Fimi, Lecturer in English at Cardiff Metropolitan University and author of Tolkien, Race and Cultural History.

Nelson Goering, scholar of Old English, Old Norse and Gothic at Oxford.

Deborah Higgens, director of the C.S. Lewis Study Centre and author of Anglo-Saxon Community In J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’.

Anke Eißmann, Tolkien artist and illustrator of Beowulf and the Dragon.

David DelaGardelle, artist and sword smith.

From 11am EST, 4pm BST and 5pm CEST on Saturday 24 May for a whole host of talks and activities. There will be interviews with top Tolkien scholars, including experts in the field of Beowulf and Old English studies, renowned artists, sword smiths and more!

Wow, I can't wait to hear the whole thing.

 

[TitusGroan]

I always love seeing new artistic interpretations of Tolkien art. As much as Alan Lee and John Howe have created the most visible depiction of Middle Earth in popular culture (and as phenomenal as they both are), neither of them quite nailed how I saw Middle Earth in my head.

I absolutely loved the illustrations that came in the reference books by David Day: A Guide To Tolkien. and the Middle Earth Bestiary. Ian Miller in particular drew Middle Earth with strong surrealist elements that I always really dug.

 

[peanutbutterlatte]

I love David Day, and his illustrations. I carried that guide round with me everywhere as a 10 year old, even though I didn't fully understand words like "Illuvatar".

No Silmarillion for me this week guys; final university exams!

 

[The Artful Dodger]

These pictures are fantastic. it's great to see this have new life breathed into it.

 

[TitusGroan]

This image was listed in my guide as a Barrow-Wight, but I think it may have actually been two of the Nazgul. Either way, it's one of my favourite fantasy pictures ever, and inspired me to take up drawing with inks.

This is also probably my favourite picture of Galadriel, by an artist named Victor Ambrus. I think he captures a certain quality in the character that I have yet to see anyone else replicate, in that she looks both young and old. It's a shame I can't post the entire pic, as he also includes the Mirror of Galadriel, and it looks lovely.

I'll stop spamming the place with pics now. I could quite happily trawl through my entire book collection digging up awesome illustrations of Middle Earth...

 

[The Artful Dodger]

I love all these illustrations. Keep it up.

 

[TitusGroan]

On a purely artistic note, I absolutely love love love the wraith picture, just for how much texture it's got, despite being done with inks (a medium which offers far less flexibility in terms of gradients). You've got the patterns of aged exotic cloth folding back on itself, the circle plates of ancient armour, shoulder pads etched with ancient designs, plus hints here and there of decayed, withering flesh.

That to me is how I always envisioned Tolkien's Middle Earth- full of texture. And it's something I never quite got from Howe or Lee's work, amazing though it is. I love being able to look at an illustration of something Tolkien, and feel like even a tattered scrap of cape has some kind of story behind it. Tolkien's work is mythological history, and I love art that tries to emphasize that, rather than trying to present it as its own credible realistic fantasy setting.

EDIT

This image of the orcs by Miler always struck me as a particularly memorable depiction. Again, slightly surreal with the texture work and elaborate ornamentation (which some might argue goes against the Industrialisation motif of Sauron's forces) but to me it evokes the perfect sense of fear and evil, without making them look goofy or stereotypical. I would love to see more fantasy films and games adopt a surreal style like this.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

On a purely artistic note, I absolutely love love love the wraith picture, just for how much texture it's got, despite being done with inks (a medium which offers far less flexibility in terms of gradients). You've got the patterns of aged exotic cloth folding back on itself, the circle plates of ancient armour, shoulder pads etched with ancient designs, plus hints here and there of decayed, withering flesh.

That to me is how I always envisioned Tolkien's Middle Earth- full of texture. And it's something I never quite got from Howe or Lee's work, amazing though it is. I love being able to look at an illustration of something Tolkien, and feel like even a tattered scrap of cape has some kind of story behind it. Tolkien's work is mythological history, and I love art that tries to emphasize that, rather than trying to present it as its own credible realistic fantasy setting.

EDIT

This image of the orcs by Miler always struck me as a particularly striking depiction. Again, slightly surreal with the texture work and elaborate ornamentation (which some might argue goes against the Industrialisation motif of Sauron's forces) but to me it evokes the perfect sense of fear and evil, without making them look goody or stereotypical. I would love to see more fantasy films and games adopt a surreal style like this.

Indeed, and it ties in perfectly with Tolkien's thoughts on his work; as a collection of lost tales from our very own past, that even he was just a collector of, conveying to the world.

And of course, never should there be any doubt as to what Tolkien would think, such art is what he would have been pleased to see in all its wonderful variations:

"I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme, and sketched. The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands wielding paint and music and drama."

 

[Loxley]

This image was listed in my guide as a Barrow-Wight, but I think it may have actually been two of the Nazgul. Either way, it's one of my favourite fantasy pictures ever, and inspired me to take up drawing with inks.


This is also probably my favourite picture of Galadriel, by an artist named Victor Ambrus. I think he captures a certain quality in the character that I have yet to see anyone else replicate, in that she looks both young and old. It's a shame I can't post the entire pic, as he also includes the Mirror of Galadriel, and it looks lovely.


I'll stop spamming the place with pics now. I could quite happily trawl through my entire book collection digging up awesome illustrations of Middle Earth...

By all means keep'em coming, they're very impressive illustrations. I envy anybody who can do pen and ink well - it was never my forte. I'm more of a graphite fan, which is probably why I dig Alan Lee so much. His The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook is practically an artistic Bible to me.

 

[TitusGroan]

In many ways I think it's a little sad that Christopher Tolkien has become so protective of the rest of the Middle Earth stuff, given that his father explicitly wanted to inspire the artistic works of others.

But on the flipside, my own mixed feelings on the LOTR films, the generally poor quality of the Hobbit films, and the fact that Christopher Tolkien invested a huge portion of his own life into the Silmarillion, I can see why he's so protective of the rest of his father's literary legacy.

As long as we still get to see artists offer their own visual take on the greater Middle Earth setting, I guess I'll be happy. I remember seeing a fairly good theatre production of the Hobbit when I was a kid, so I presume the Tolkien Estate isn't too against dramatic productions or anything. *Conveniently ignores the woeful Lord of the Rings stage show*

Also, I don't know if they've been mentioned in this thread yet, but the Tolkien Ensemble have done some absolutely wonderful arrangements of Tolkien's songs and poems to music. The arrangement of Treebeard's song with Christopher Lee himself providing vocals is just stunningly beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9468-QKRoCg

 

[Finrod]

Christopher Lee`s voice suits treebeard so well.

As for LOTR songs, one i have always enjoyed very much is this fan-made song, composed of snippets of sound from the movies themselves. i can only imagine the time this would take to put together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJfGnqKoXYY

 

[Loxley]

Christopher Lee`s voice suits treebeard so well.

As for LOTR songs, one i have always enjoyed very much is this fan-made song, composed of snippets of sound from the movies themselves. i can only imagine the time this would take to put together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJfGnqKoXYY

Ha, I knew exactly what that was before I clicked the link. It's still my favorite remix of Pogo's. It makes "They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard" look so pedestrian.

 

[Finrod]

Ha, I knew exactly what that was before I clicked the link. It's still my favorite remix of Pogo's. It makes "They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard" look so pedestrian.

It does, but "They're taking the Hobbits to Isengard" was just made as a joke-song. Although i still dont understand what makes that line so funny.
Murmurs of Middle Earth is actually pleasant to listen to.

On another note, it continues to amaze me how many covers, of various songs from the soundtrack, you can find on youtube. Quality pieces too. Really goes to show how powerful that soundtrack actually was.