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The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has broken my relationship with Peter Jackson's take on J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth. I accepted his changes to The Lord of the Rings. Tom Bombadil? Meh. Evil Faramir? What? The Rohirrim run away? Gah, but time heals all wounds. Yet, the middle installment of The Hobbit is a bridge too far.

I sat in the theatre ignoring the changes, the expansion, and the additions, because I had too or else I would've been running out the door. When the film ended, I left in disgust. All I know is that Peter Jackson has taken a trifle of an adventure and stretched it to inconceivable proportions. All the fun has been rung out of the story. Jackson has even made me question why I like Tolkien. I kid, I kid, but he makes me wonder about The Lord of the Rings movies. All that I glossed over and accepted has come back seven fold with a vengeance. Please when will he be done and please don't touch any of The Silmarillion.

I'm going to see the last installment just to see if the forbidden love between dwarf and elf will end in tragedy. I want to see Tauriel die in Kili's arms. Or is that Fili? I want to see them die fighting off the horde of orcs before the gates of Erebor. I want them to die a heroic death and when their bodies are found, King Thranduil will join with Gandalf and forces of good to fight evil Sauron -- 80 years too early.

At the start of The Lord of the Rings, didn't Gandalf not know who was behind the dread in the East? Yes, but Jackson will retcon a new story. Whatever.

I hope Peter Jackson doesn't touch any of The Silmarillion.

2 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review, Tolkien

"The chasm between the beauty and seriousness of the work, and what it has become, has overwhelmed me. The commercialization has reduced the aesthetic and philosophical impact of the creation to nothing. There is only one solution for me: to turn my head away."

Christopher Tolkien, see today's link

Labels: qotd, Tolkien

I'm glad to hear that JRR Tolkien was striving to make The Silmarillion his masterpiece. Unfortunately, his death derailed that dream, but his son, Christopher, fulfilled it. But now Tolkien is remembered as the dude who wrote the stories for Peter Jackson's films. At least his son knows what the real deal is.

http://www.worldcrunch.com/culture-society/my-father-039-s-quot-eviscerated-quot-work-son-of-hobbit-scribe-j.r.r.-tolkien-finally-speaks-out/hobbit-silmarillion-lord-of-rings/c3s10299/

Labels: lotd, Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien was a genius. Not for creating the history of Middle Earth. But for creating the languages of the people of Middle Earth.

Today's link brings you to a thorough study of all the languages Tolkien devised. All of them. Once you see what he did, you'll understand why he created Middle Earth. He needed to hear his languages. He had to create a place for their use. Elves and men, dwarves and orcs, hobbits and ents all had their own tongue. Tolkien created one for each of them. All of them different, and yet some of them the same.

Genius.

http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/

Labels: genius, lotd, nerd, Tolkien

Originally, when you came to Tolkien at a young age, you read The Hobbit first which offered a glimpse of Middle Earth. Searching for more, you then read The Lord of the Rings, which filled in large chunks of Middle Earth, the latter Ages. If you were adventurous and persistent, you would read The Silmarillion and/or Unfinished Tales which expanded Middle Earth, its history, and its cosmology. That was the traditional way if you approached Tolkien through his books.

Now children are exposed to Tolkien from the Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films. They already know Middle Earth, Frodo, Gollum, and Gandalf. They just don't know Bilbo. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is supposed to rectify that. It was supposed to take the big and epic and make it smaller; a personal journey, Bilbo's adventure, There and Back again. Unfortunately, it expanded the personal to epic proportions placing it squarely in Jackson's epic world missing what Tolkien was telling in the tale of Bilbo Baggins.

Jackson's Hobbit film took the appendices and included them for this film. It includes the stories that were background to Bilbo's adventure. Remember when Gandalf disappeared for several days? He went to the White Council. Yeah, they filmed that. You remember when you wanted to know about other wizards. Yeah, they included Radagast and his rabbits. Now I don't remember if Tolkien described it, but I think remember a picture of that.

Including all of that, you forget that it was Bilbo's journey. When he went and had himself and adventure. The Took in him took him across Middle Earth. But Gandalf is there soaking in everything. The movie forgets it was Bilbo's journey. While it is not bad, I wish it had been more of Bilbo's tale.

I'm hoping Peter Jackson doesn't get to do The Silmarillion. I'm hoping that it will be an animated film.

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review, Tolkien

And Thingol answered: 'What of your quest, and of your vow?'
But Beren said: 'It is fulfilled. Even now a Silmaril is in my hand.'
Then Thingol said: 'Show it to me!'
And Beren put forth his empty left hand, slowly opening its fingers; but it was empty. Then he held up his right arm; and from that hour he named himself Camlost, the Empty-handed.

The Tale of Beren and Luthien, The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien

Labels: bookish, nerd, qotd, Tolkien

Is it hip to call things prequels? I mean, please, The Silmarillion, a prequel. Yes, technically speaking, but wouldn't it be better thought of as the foundation of the history for The Lord of the Rings? You wouldn't call the US Civil War a prequel would you?

http://fan.theonering.net/middleearthtours/prequels.html

Labels: geeked, lotd, Tolkien

More naming conventions for the new gadgets in my life.

iPhone is Thorin. The MacBook Pro is Gondolin. (I thought that was my big ass hard drive? Must be because I haven't turned it on in a long while that I forgot.)

The IBM ThinkPad is Morgoth.

Yes, that's a PC on the list. Because I needed it for school. Just for one class. And just for one project. $500 bucks. I could've had another MacMini.

Yet, I've been using it lately. It certainly needed to be used as I have had it unplugged from the charger for a year. I wonder if the battery is still good? I've been putting it to good use as the back up machine to my web surfing. Firefox. What other utils should I install to save me from the wicked world of PCs? Also, what games?

Labels: geeked, Tolkien

I had finished this book sometime last week. Loved it, but I had read it already in its various forms. It made me tear up at the Finduilas part. Damn, Morgoth Bauglir! I curse thee! May you stay locked up in The Void for all eternity.

I wonder how those who haven't read The Silmarillion are going to react to this book. Dark and forboding it is, and nothing like The Lord of the Rings. Those elves and men are not as nice. Everyone is more like Boromir. Turin mainly.

B+

Labels: geeked, review, thoughts, Tolkien

With the acquisition of the big ass hard drive and of Margaux's new Mac Book, it's time to think about computer naming conventions.

You just can't let the hardware use the default name, because it'll look funny on the network. For instance, I have named the big ass hard drive Gondolin. As you can tell (or can't) this is a name from Tolkien. Yes it's geeky. Doubly so.

All the computers that I have owned have names derived from Tolkien. Let's see. My PowerBook 190 was Luthien. My Win95 box was Beren. My wifi network is Nargothrond. The MacMini PPC is Dorthonion. The TiBook is Doriath. The Airport Express is Finrod. My shuffle is even named Tinuviel. They're all from Tolkien, the First Age, and The Silmarillion. Told ya it was geeky.

Anyway, the only issue is how to name these computing equipment. I had tried to stick with place names for most of my Apple computers. The older stuff though took the names of my favorite characters from the Silmarillion. I should standardize it where computers are places and peripherals people, but it's so far served me good. But at least sticking within in this naming scheme I won't run out of names to use and it evokes some rather cool imagery of my network.

I should just name all my computers after the 12 dwarf companions of Bilbo from The Hobbit.

Labels: nerd, Tolkien

Geeking out on Tolkien brings me back to his most popular work, The Lord of the Rings. I got so geeked up I did a search for my favorite character of the novel, Eowyn. Here's a rendition of the great scene from the Battle of Pelennor fields. She fulfills her destiny. There's more I'll have to say about her later.

Labels: Tolkien

They had shown the entire on Lord of the Rings trilogy on TBS. I also own the first set of DVDs of the movies. I can't wait for the latest book from the Tolkien estate, The Children of Hurin. It is supposedly one of the three Great Tales that Tolkien had planned on writing about the First Age of Middle Earth. (That sentence will go over the heads of the you out there.) The three are The Children of Hurin, The Fall of Gondolin, and Beren & Luthien. All are supposed tales passed down from the Numenoreans about the great men of the First Age. Surprisingly enough none concern the First Children, the elves. They are somewhat connected (Luthien being the most beautiful of all Illuvatar's children as an elf maiden), but the central character revolves around men.

They are epic stories to tell. If you haven't read the Silmarillion, you're missing out. It contains condensed versions of these tales. They're all great to read as is knowing the history of the First Age of Middle Earth.

My favorite has always been Beren & Luthien. It's actually written as a poem and it's real title is the Lay of Leithan. It tells the tale of Beren of the house of Beor, the first house of man, and his quest to wrench a Silmaril from the crown of Morgoth as the price for the marriage to Luthien. He succeeds.

The Children of Hurin is also a favorite since reading it in the form of the Narn i Hin Hurin in Unfinished Tales. This one more sadder. Turin a great warrior who happiness eludes him. Hurin, his father, witness to Turin's fate from the eves of Thangorodrim watches as the curse of Morgoth robs his family of peace and happiness. Morwen, his mother, has felt a loss unbearable. Turin suffering the greatest curse with his sister. He also kills Glaurung. Great tale. Yet sad.

The Fall of Gondolin is hard to assemble, because it comes in pieces. The tale is of Tuor, kinsman to Turin, who escapes the fate of man. He secures himself a place in the last elven kingdom of Gondolin in the twilight of the First Age. Through him the savior of the Children of Illuvatar in Beleriand is born. Yet, it is an incomplete tale.

Now all three should be a movie. I would like to see it as an animated one. I haven't geeked out enough on Tolkien hoping that you'll read these other works of his.

Labels: Tolkien