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Middle-Earth Card

Sitting by your computer, reading this, you are probably thinking: “Middle-Earth Card?” But we can take your simple-minded self and open it to a world of possibility. Consider the following:

Elvish Bow: 200 gold pieces
Elvish knives: 100 gold pieces
Shampoo: 20 gold pieces
Perfect hair after beating an army of orcs: Priceless

Silk dress: 500 gold pieces
Renting Glorfindel’s Horse: 1000 gold pieces
Elvish Sword: 200 gold pieces
Knowing you don’t have your father’s looks and proud of it: Priceless

Fake Spider: 20 gold pieces
Camouflaged armor: 50 gold pieces
Key to Legolas’ house: 10 gold coins
Hiding Legolas’ shampoo as he screams like a fan girl: Priceless

Cup: 5 gold coins
Pint: 7 gold coins
Getting a pint instead of a cup: Priceless

There are some things gold can’t buy; for everything else there’s Middle-Earth Card

by Fëathoron

Long grey robe: $30
Big tall staff: $200
Great big pointy hat: $15
Getting stared at while walking down the street dressed as a wizard: Priceless

Battle Axe: 50 gold pieces
Bronze helmet: 40 gold pieces.
Throwing Axes: 20 gold pieces.
Having to save the world with an elf: Priceless

by Elbereth339

The Eagles are Coming

Almost everyone that we know has seen Return of the King, which is in my opinion the best out of the three Lord of the Rings movies. One thing that we don’t see much is what else goes into this world, is there some higher being out there? Of course, the answer is yes, the Valar. We all have realms, and one would be the realm of Manwë, the Lord of the Eagles. Because of his rule over the great eagles, the scene in Return of the King in which the eagles come and help save Middle Earth has great significance in our realm, so that is why I choose to do a scene analysis of it.

This scene is one of the shortest in all three of the movies, if not the shortest. In the beginning, you see some of our famous fellowship heroes fighting against the great evil of Mordor. All hope is beginning to be lost when Gandalf glances to the sky and sees one of the Nazgul prepared to attack him. A second later, we see the famous moth that appeared in the Fellowship of the Ring, and then the eagles have arrived. With a great amount of joy coming from Pippin’s mouth, we hear the phrase, “The Eagles are Coming!” and at last there seems to be hope for all of these fighters, and a hope for Middle Earth.

The more I have seen this scene from the movie, the more I realize how important it was. It was as if the storm was getting as large as it possibly could with the Nazgul appearing, and then suddenly it started to stop when the eagles appeared. This point is when the story hit one of its many climax points, it showed that the end was near, and there might yet be a happy ending, but much more was needed to succeed.

As well as the eagles helped, many other influences came together to help the Fellowship and their supporters. It took a lot of luck to get where this group did, from wizards, to tiny hobbits, to huge powerful eagles, they all wanted the same thing, and they all succeeded.

by Gimli_and_Gollum

Gil-galad Film Profile

Gil-galad has a small cameo in the Prologue of ‘Fellowship of the Ring’: during the battle of the Last Alliance, on the slopes of Mount Doom, we can see a glimpse of him stabbing an Orc with his spear. If you blink, he’s gone! His part was only included to please the book fans, and it was made so small so the attention wouldn’t be distracted from Elrond.

by Figwit

Gil-galad Book Profile

Surprisingly enough, not much is known about the life of Gil-galad. Even his parentage is somewhat uncertain (though it is now generally considered that his father was Orodreth, not Fingon as it states in ‘The Silmarillion’). His name meant ‘star of radiance’, and he was also known as Ereinion, the ‘descendant of kings’.

Gil-galad was born a little before the year 445 in the First Age. Just prior to the Dagor Bragollach, the fourth Battle of Beleriand, he was sent from his home to live with Círdan in the Isle of Balar. He stayed there for many years, until he eventually became High King of the Noldor after Turgon’s death in the Fall of Gondolin. For the rest of the First Age, he lived with the Exiles from the Hidden Kingdoms at the Mouths of Sirion.

In the Second Age, he lived in Lindon, the only part of Middle-earth to survive the breaking of Beleriand. Also living there was Elrond, to whom Gil-galad became close, and together they rejected Sauron when he came to Lindon, pretending friendship. Gil-galad’s power remained strong in the north of Middle-earth, even when the rest of the lands fell under the wiles of Sauron.

After the Downfall of Númenor, Elendil and his sons ended up in Lindon, and were befriended by Gil-galad and his people. Towards the end of the Second Age, they made a league called the Last Alliance of Men and Elves, both races united to challenge the power of Sauron.

The Alliance marched on Mordor, and laid siege to Sauron’s stronghold for seven years. During these battles, it was said that none could stand against Aeglos, Gil-galad’s spear. Sauron was eventually defeated, but both Gil-galad and Elendil died fighting against him.

by atalante_star

Brian Sibley’s official website

Brian Sibley has just launched his official website. He reveals that he will be appearing on the “extras” on the RotK EE DVD, there’s news about his forthcoming books which include; “a final definitive, lavishly illustrated, book about the film trilogy” and some great pictures in the Wellywood and Wellington gallery including one of PJ on the last day of filming.

Decipher LotR trading card game

The release date for Mount Doom has been postponed to 14th July. There are further details at Decipher.com where you can also read the latest Mount Doom article, “A Blast From the Past” and view the latest card previews which include Éowyn, Lady of Ithilien.

COE TV Guide June 27-July 5

Have you ever wondered when your favorite star from Lord of the Rings will be on TV? Now you can know! The CoE TV Guide will list almost all of the shows featuring actors and actresses from Lord of the Rings, and what channel their show will be on (US only). All times EST.

The South Bank Show on Sir Ian McKellen

There’s a change to the date of The South Bank Show feature on a year in Sir Ian McKellen’s life. The programme will now air on Tuesday 29th June at 11pm on UK TV channel ITV.

Shooting for this programme began in June 2003 and covered re-shoots for LotR and the promotional world tour for the film

The Battle for Middle-earth – latest updates from EA

Last week ithillinde from CoE attended EA’s The Battle for Middle-earth Community Day, you can read EA’s report of the event here. There’s also a new video, Inside the Battle Volume 3: Middle-earth A.I, in which “Mark Skaggs and Dustin Browder talk about the game A.I. and its effectiveness on the game environment.”

A Gateway to Sindarin

David Salo, the Tolkien linguist who worked on the Elvish in the recent films, has written a new book concerning Sindarin, called “A Gateway To Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings”. It is due to be released this October; more details can be found at Amazon.