Posted on 03/14/2002 5:07:26 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
This is a continuation of the infamous thread New Zealander Builds Hobbit Hole originally posted on January 26, 2001 by John Farson, who at the time undoubtedly thought he had found a rather obscure article that would elicit a few replies and die out. Without knowing it, he became the founder of the Hobbit Hole. For reasons incomprehensible to some, the thread grew to over 4100 replies. It became the place for hobbits and friends of hobbits to chit chat and share LoTR news and views, hang out, and talk amongst ourselves in the comfort of familiar surroundings.
In keeping with the new posting guidelines, the thread idea is continuing here, as will the Green Dragon Inn, our more structured spin-off thread, as soon as we figure out how to move all the good discussion that has been had there. As for the Hobbit Hole, we will just start fresh, bringing only a few mathoms such as the picture above with us to make it feel like home, and perhaps a walk down memory lane:
Our discussion has been light:
It very well may be that a thread named "New Zealander builds Hobbit hole" will end up being the longest Tolkien thread of them all, with some of the best heartfelt content... Sorry John, but I would have rather it had been one with a more distinguished title!… post 252 - HairOfTheDog
However, I can still celebrate, with quiet dignity, the fact that what started as a laugh about some wacko in New Zealand has mutated and grown into a multifaceted discussion of the art, literature, and philosophy that is Tolkien. And now that I've managed to write the most pompous sentence of my entire life, I agree, Rosie… post 506 - JenB
Hah! I was number 1000!! (Elvish victory dance... wait, no; that would be too flitty) … post 1001 - BibChr
Real men don't have to be afraid of being flitty! Go for it. – post 1011 – HairOfTheDog
Seventeen years to research one mystical object seems a bit excessive… post 1007 - JenB
Okay...who's the wise guy who didn't renew Gandalf's research grant?… post 1024 – Overtaxed
To the very philosophical:
…Judas Iscariot obviously was a good man, or he wouldn't have been chosen to be one of the Apostles. He loved Jesus, like all of the Apostles, but he betrayed him. Yet without his betrayal, the Passion and Crucifixion would never have occurred, and mankind would not have been redeemed. So without his self-destruction infinite good would not have been accomplished. I certainly do not mean this to be irreverant but it seems to me that this describes the character of Gollum, in the scenes so movingly portrayed above… Lucius Cornelius Sulla
To fun but heartfelt debates about the integrity and worth of some of the characters…
…Anyone else notice how Boromir treats the hobbits? He's very fond of them but he seems to think of them as children - ruffling Frodo's hair, calls them all 'little ones'. He likes them, but I don't think he really respects them… post 1536 - JenB
Yes... Tolkien told us not to trust Boromir right off the bat when he began to laugh at Bilbo, until he realized that the Council obviously held this hobbit in high esteem. What a pompous dolt… post 1538 - HairOfTheDog
…I think almost every fault of his can be traced directly back to his blindness to anything spiritual or unseen. He considers the halflings as children, because that is what they look like. He considers the only hope of the ring to be in taking it and using it for a victory in the physical realm. He cannot see what the hobbits are truly made of, he cannot see the unseen hope of what the destruction of the ring might mean--the destruction of Sauron himself, and he cannot see the unseen danger that lies in the use of the ring itself… I just feel sorry for Boromir--he is like a blind but honorable man, trying to take the right path on the road but missing the right path entirely because he simply cannot see it… post 1548 - Penny1
Boromir isn't a jerk, he's a jock… post 2401 – Overtaxed
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Oh, I think by the time Frodo reaches the Cracks, he's not even himself anymore! I think he's not only on the brink of a dangerous place physically, he's on the brink of losing himself completely during the exchange with Gollum. But for some reason, the take-over isn't complete till he actually has to throw the Ring in. The person speaking to Gollum is not Frodo, but the "Wheel of Fire" that Sam sees. After the Ring is destroyed, Frodo not only comes back to himself, but comes back with the unbearable (to him) knowledge of what it's like to be completely without compassion. I think that's why it's so important to him to be compassionate in the Shire… post 2506 - 2Jedismom
…Regarding Frodo's compassion... it's a little too much at the end. Even Merry tells him that he's going to have to quit being so darn nice. But you're right. He's learned a lesson about evil that very few ever learn since it wasn't an external lesson but an internal one. (Those kinds of lessons have the greatest impact) Not only did he totally succumb to it, but he was rather ruthless to my little Smeagol… post 2516 - carton253
Well that Frodo was a big mean bully! (to Smeagol)… post 2519 – Overtaxed
So as you can see, everything JRR Tolkien (and Peter Jackson) is welcome here in our New Row, our soon-to-be familiar New Hobbit Hole…; philosophy, opinion, good talk and frequent silliness.
Can't you talk to the teacher about that?
You missed ElfBash!
Rude surprise awaits `Fellowship' DVD buyers
By Glenn Lovell, Associated Press, 08/14/2002
According to J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, whoever possesses the One True Ring will be drawn to the dark side and, among other things, be consumed by greed. Obviously New Line -- still drooling over the success of "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," the first of its three "Rings" movies -- has fallen under the spell of Dark Lord Sauron and the Ruling Ring. How else to explain the company's "Fellowship" DVD, which is, for all intents and purposes, a shameless marketing tool?
For $29.95 (discounts available at stores), you get two discs, meager liner notes and a $5 rebate certificate for something called the "Special Extended Edition" of "Fellowship," due in stores Nov. 12 for $39.99.
What?! The set you've just purchased isn't the one true "Fellowship" DVD? Sorry, no. In a classic bait-and-switch, New Line has sold you the Oscar-winning adventure (in pan-and-scan or original widescreen aspect ratio), a couple of recycled behind-the-scenes shorts and hard-sell come-ons for the next "Fellowship" DVD and the next "Rings" movie, "The Two Towers" (due Dec. 18). The upcoming "special edition" DVD, we're told, will contain six hours of production goodies plus 30 minutes of scenes deleted from the first saga -->How does "Rings" director Peter Jackson feel about double-dipping into his fans' pockets? He's fine with it, in a contradictory kind of way. "I'm not a big fan of the term `director's cut' ... but I'm a huge fan of special edition DVDs," he explains during a teaser for the DVD you thought you were buying instead of the one now in front of you.
So what was dropped from the original "Fellowship"? Quite a bit, judging from this advance peek at the November DVD. Jackson filmed, then deleted, a more elaborate introduction to Hobbiton, scenes of Bilbo (Ian Holm) working on his memoirs, more footage of Gandalf (Ian McKellen) counseling Frodo (Elijah Wood) on the powers of the ring, more intrigue among the elves of Lothlorien, and a touching sequence in which Gimli the warrior dwarf (John Rhys-Davis) confesses his love for Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), the elven queen.
According to a New Line news release, the extended edition "will plunge the viewer into the complex landscape of Middle-Earth, and reveal how Jackson and his team of skilled artists and technicians created a painstakingly beautiful and faithful re-creation of Tolkien's world."
Actually, the current DVD does plenty of plunging -- albeit through two repackaged TV specials. We learn more about New Zealand locations, casting, costumes, weapons and ghastly makeup effects than even the most die-hard Tolkien buff would want to know.
Everyone interviewed -- from McKellen to Blanchett -- swoons over the "realistic" sets and overall Middle-Earth ambience of "Fellowship." McKellen adds that he always had the book "to hand" to catch production errors or inconsistencies, and Blanchett tells us she always wanted to wear pointy ears. During a tour of the makeup shop, Jackson is caught fretting over oversize Hobbit feet that "jiggle."
That advance look at "Two Towers"? Disc 2 reveals the upcoming film to be darker and more violent that the first installment. Jackson, who leads us on a tour of the armory and workshops, describes it as "a story of genocide." We see a lot more of Gollum, the digital creature who is only glimpsed in the first movie. The new movie will climax with the epic battle of Isengard, which, we're told, will be a combination of live action, digitally rendered soldiers and a miniature bastion under siege.
Not content to just flog the upcoming DVD and the next movie, the current disc also pushes publisher Houghton Mifflin's book supplements, including "The Fellowship of the Rings Visual Companion." In a thinly disguised ad, we meet the late Rayner Unwin, the son of Tolkien's original publisher. Unwin recounts how he was paid a shilling at age 10 to review the first book, "The Hobbit." Later, when he inherited the Tolkien account, Unwin recommended that the sprawling epic be divided into three more manageable volumes. "Tolkien hated the idea," he recalls.
My advice: Buy this disc (in widescreen, of course), or wait three months for the Special Edition. Don't get both and encourage Hollywood in this practice of selling variations on the same product over and over again. Should the two-disc and four-disc "Fellowship" both turn huge profits, what do you bet that "Two Towers," when it comes to DVD next year at this time, will be followed by a second, third and fourth edition, each more special than the one that preceded it?
don't mean to be so serious...nor do I wish to give the impression that I am 'angry' or worried...trust me, I am able to convey that quite well when I want to. But truely, FR is the only forum where I can bring up a subject like this, even in passing comment, and not be castigated for my views, or preached at for being so moralistic. The last thing I wish to be is moralistic.
But I guess it bothers me, as someone who writes herself, to read about a gentleman (whom I would have liked to write a letter to myself) who was so imaginative and passionate about his vision as someone that others laughingly chalk up as having had a psychedelic experience.
That's probably why it bothers me, Hair. As a writer, I can well imagine that it's rather disheartening to have all that you poured your heart and soul into being dismissed as something vulgar like drugs. Tolkien poured quite a bit of himself into the story (Beren and Luthien). And as someone who has tried for years to create her own 'secondary world', I can only imagine what he must have felt when reports came in about how SERIOUS fans were taking his writing...or how TWISTED they made it.
I think he mispelled "Helm's Deep".
hehehe - Sorry to give you a hard time... lol... really! :~D
I guess as the only one here who will admit to ever being "there", I will say that rather than "dismissing it as something vulgar like drugs" they "get it" more than you think, and they really mean it to be a compliment to great imagery and events. Your vision of drugs is ugly and vulgar, there's isn't, they have fun with it.
To them, it reminds them of a good thing, hard as that is for you to imagine. They know how cool the story is if they are equating it to their best stuff. Hahahahaha - never mind! - This isn't gonna work with you I know it even as I write it, but what the heck.
I bet his picture is beside the definition of "Bald-faced Moron" in the dictionary, don't you?
I got this from Tahanu:
Hi Kim,
We'll be doing something, but we don't have time to think about it until after DragonCon at the end of August. We're busy planning for that right now. There is a huge multi-website event being mooted which we are looking at getting involved in. It's called the Tolkien Gathering - your search engine should find that OK. They'll try and show all three movies one after the other, among other things. Cheers, Tehanu
As time goes on we're going to see a lot of these; all credit to Josephina for getting the ball rolling sooner than most. Here's her invitation:
"Dear Tolkien fans all over the world,
We have started to work out the details for the Fan Fellowship Gathering in Dallas, Texas to celebrate the release of the first LOTR movie "The Fellowship of the Ring," together as fans from all over the world.
If you are already on the attending list please send me your email address so I can contact you and keep you personally posted. If you are not yet on our list and wish to join us please send me an email. And please send me your true name also - it will look better on the list we send to the contact people . Your email address will not pass me. Only your names for attendance information. Thanks .
I will arrange a Motel for fans to stay at the night before and the night after the movie. ( you will have to provide the costs yourself but I will see if I can make this as cheap as possible for you )
As far as we know the date is SET for the 19th of December 2001. Let us have a tad more confirmation on that, hopefully within the next week or so, then we can start ordering our flight tickets.
We have wonderful contacts and it looks like this is going to be a promising event
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