Latest Tolkien Library Site News and Updates

Tolkien Library Site News

Tuesday 28 July 2015
Tove Jansson illustrated The Hobbit for the Swedish and Finnish editions, creating a dozen enchanting full page drawings plus many smaller vignette pieces. The artwork is now going to be featured in the official Tolkien Calendar for 2016. How exciting is that?

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Monday 27 July 2015
One has to ask why The Lord of the Rings is so popular. What are its peculiar qualities? Time and again it tops, or is a runner up with honours, in various best book reader-voted contests. What is in it that it reaches out to so many. What is it about the book and its writer that pierces and reaches so many?

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Friday 17 July 2015
Research has shown that students' reading book choices are highly dependent on trending movies or even series. This means that a little known book can become an overnight success due to a great movie adaptation.

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Friday 17 July 2015
It is an indisputable fact that despite the today's increase in the children's books with urban fantasies, the tolkien's fantasy books still hold the number one position in children's reading lists.

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Thursday 16 July 2015
HarperCollins have officially announced the world first publication of a previously unknown work of fantasy by J.R.R. Tolkien, which tells the powerful story of a doomed young man who is sold into slavery and who swears revenge on the magician who killed his father.

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Thursday 11 June 2015
Most History of Middle-earth limited editions come each in an individual slipcase, but this set is one of the very few sets that was released with all three volumes together in one slipcase. This rare set is now available in the TolkienLibrary store.

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Saturday 6 June 2015
A first edition copy of J.R.R. tolkien's The Hobbit was sold at Sotheby's auction house in London for 137,000 Sterling Pounds. This more than doubled the world record and makes this copy of The Hobbit the most expensive in the world.

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Sunday 3 May 2015
Building on his recent investigations into the relationship of Middle-earth to tolkien's scholarly search for the lost traditions of the ancient English tribes, Simon J. Cook now looks to tolkien's famous essay 'On Fairy Stories'. The result is a journey into the very heart of tolkien's creative imagination.

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Sunday 19 January 2015
I'm very happy to announce the collector profile of Giulio Torlai, a medical doctor and Tolkien collector, who collects unique and rare Tolkien books. He considers himself an uncommon Tolkien collector, since he never focused on particular editions. Especially rare special Italian rebindings of Tolkien books are at the hearth of his collection.

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Saturday 29 November 2014
Sue Bridgwater reviews Simon Cook's essay J.R.R. tolkien's Lost English Mythology and urges anyone truly interested in tolkien's work to be sure to read it.

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Tuesday 7 October 2014
In December, with the release of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Peter Jackson finishes his The Hobbit trilogy. For some time now fans wonder if there isn't one more work of Tolkien that Peter Jackson could adapt to big screen. The Silmarillion, preceding both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, is the project many desire to see adapted to film. But will it happen?

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Monday 6 October 2014
Great news for all. This week we see the publication of the revised and expanded edition of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. This book brings us tolkien's own hobbit-inspired poetry and includes previously unpublished poems and notes, and is beautifully illustrated by Narnia artist Pauline Baynes.

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Sunday 5 October 2014
While much recent hype about Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has been focused on the captain of the Wood-elf guard, Tauriel, little has been said of her boss, King Thranduil of the Woodland Realm. Tedoras brings us the full history of Thranduil, and a rather different image of the King of Greenwood the Great emerges.

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Friday 3 October 2014
The four-volume, deluxe pocket boxed set contains J.R.R. tolkien's epic masterworks The Hobbit and the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King). Each book features a leatherette cover with stamped title and all four books.

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Monday 29 September 2014
If any book so illuminates the man, his deepest thoughts and truest character, it is The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Tedoras explores tolkien's letter 214 that centers, most intriguingly, on the notion of birthdays; specifically, the notion of who gives whom a present in hobbit culture.

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Sunday 28 September 2014
In the following thought provoking essay Alex Lewis and Ruth Lacon bring an answer to the question: Is the fact that Tolkien is an artist and paints pictures some part of what makes him create in the way that he does?

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Sunday 21 September 2014
The Tolkienaeum is the fourth volume in a series on J.R.R. tolkien's Legendarium by Tolkien researcher Mark T. Hooker. The author wrote us that only the Llyfrawr paperback edition of The Tolkienaeum is published with his consent and cooperation. Those who approve of courtesy (at least) to living authors will purchase it and not download the PDF. Beware!

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Tuesday 02 September 2014
Beyond Bree is producing a new Calendar for 2015! This Calendar will be a very special one because it marks the 30th year since the publication of the first Beyond Bree Calendar. The theme is Mortal heroes and heroines of Middle-earth and we're celebrating the anniversary with extra art!

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Monday 01 September 2014
Simon Cook reviews John Lennard's tolkien's Triumph, an ebook that consists of four solid chapters, which include much interesting background relating to the astonishing popular success of The Lord of the Rings.

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Monday 25 August 2014
Oronzo Cilli is an Italian scholar who made a careful study of British and international Esperanto magazines of the first half of the twentieth century, containing still unpublished interesting details that reveal tolkien's active role to promote Esperanto in the thirties.

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Sunday 24 August 2014
The Iron Parachute is a graphic novel written and designed by Cor Blok which is going to be published by Oloris Publishing in Toronto, Canada. In contrast to Cor Blok's Tolkien paintings, The Iron Parachute is entirely in black and white.

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Thursday 21 August 2014
Brandon Young interviews the critically acclaimed and internationally-known artist, illustrator, storyteller and wizard, Jef Murray. His illustrations of the characters and scenes we find in Tolkien, Lewis and George MacDonald have a capacity for capturing the ineffable. This is why he likes to call him, simply, The Wizard.

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Thursday 21 August 2014
Francisco Brannan was introduced into the world of Tolkien by the Hollywood movie trilogy on The Lord of the Rings. In this article he questions whether there will be another author like Tolkien and asks why you would need one when you already have J.R.R tolkien's creations?

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Wednesday 20 August 2014
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles - Cloaks and Daggers is the latest Hobbit movie related book and the fourth book in the Weta Chronicles series. Filled with over 500 photographs from the film creators, it includes an exclusive foreword from Tauriel herself, Evangeline Lilly.

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Wednesday 20 August 2014
I'm very happy to announce the update of the collector profile of Andrew Ferguson, Tolkien collector from Essex in England, who primarily collects British editions of tolkien's fiction and almost owns every different UK edition. His goal is probably about 98% complete and so it has now become very difficult to find missing items. He is now focusing on collecting signed Tolkien items. All Tolkien collectors are invited to sent in their own profiles or update the ones already online.

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Thursday 7 August 2014
Kate Funk informs us about two motion picture biopics that are in the pipeline, each exploring a different aspect of J.R.R. tolkien's life. Here is everything you need to know about the prospects of the two Tolkien biopics.

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Thursday 7 August 2014
With Tolkien fans buzzing about a new film coming out about the friendship between JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis, it might be easy to miss another project coming up telling their story. Vancouver-based playwright, actor, and director Ron Reed is writing a play about the dramatic relationship between the two Inklings.

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Thursday 24 July 2014
Walking Tree Publishers are proud to announce a new publication Tolkien and Philosophy, edited by Roberto Arduini and Claudio A. Testi. The book is the result of the congress on Tolkien and Philosophy, held in Modena in May 2010, thanks the joined effort of Istituto Filosofico di Studi Tomistici and Associazione Romana di Studi Tolkieniani.

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Thursday 24 July 2014
In this collection, friends and colleagues honor Shippey with 15 essays that reflect their mentor's research interests, methods of literary criticism and attention to tolkien's shorter works.

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Wednesday 23 July 2014
In Peter Jackson's Hollywood rendering of both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, drug references are laid on thick and fast. In the following essay Imogen Reed searches an answer whether drug addiction is a theme in the books as well.

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Saturday 21 June 2014
The Tolkienaeum is the fourth volume in a series on J.R.R. tolkien's Legendarium by Tolkien researcher Mark T. Hooker. The essays range from tolkien's probable literary sources, to his historical allusions; from his philological jests, to his serious linguistics.

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Wednesday 23 April 2014
Tolkien always emphasized the fact that myths followed languages. In the following article Lesley Vos brings us a several examples of words created by Tolkien and an account of tolkien's views concerning the relationship between a language and a myth.

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Friday 20 June 2014
HarperCollins has just reprinted my all-time favorite Tolkien set, a four-volume boxed-set edition of The Lord of the Rings in hardback, featuring tolkien's original unused dust-jacket designs, together with fourth hardback volume, The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion. Includes special features and the definitive edition of the text.

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Friday 20 June 2014
In January of 2013 we interviewed Matthew Dickerson about his new release Hobbit Journey. This time around, the Tolkien Library interviews Dickerson about his new medieval historical novel The Rood and the Torc: the Song of Kristinge, son of Finn.

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Saturday 31 May 2014
This year of course, and 2015, mark the 60th anniversary of the first publication of The Lord of the Rings. This is how the 60th anniversary deluxe edition of the Lord of the Rings will look like. Gorgeous design! Is this the new design for all upcoming deluxe editions?

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Friday 23 March 2014
Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary by J.R.R. Tolkien, tolkien's translation of Beowulf and commentary by J.R.R. Tolkien and also including "Sellic Spell", an unpublished short story by J.R.R. Tolkien, has been released today as hardcover and slipcased deluxe edition.

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Sunday 10 may 2014
What is the relationship between our world and Middle-earth? Simon J. Cook explores the conflicting answers of Kirill Yeskov and William Puck in the final essay of his Tauriel trilogy.

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Thursday 8 may 2014
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.

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Thursday 8 may 2014
J.R.R. Tolkien is one of the most loved, respected and remembered authors. The role model attractiveness of tolkien's writing could be well gauged from the fact that he has given new dimensions and content value to the art of fantasy literature writings, including in it an array of legends, myths and heroic romantic stories.

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Thursday 8 may 2014
The Tolkien Calendar 2015 will feature the beautiful and important full-color artwork from artist Mary Fairburn that brings to life scenes from The Lord of the Rings. The official Tolkien Calendar 2015 includes 12 lush paintings, one for each month.

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Saturday 26 April 2014
J. R. R. tolkien's desire to create a mythology for his homeland, he actually made one for every person, every land, and every age. The Lord of the Rings is a catechism of spiritual warfare cleverly disguised as a fantasy. The struggle against evil that takes place inside its pages is the same one that occurs even now within the soul of each person.

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Friday 25 April 2014
Come face to face with Smaug the Magnificent, the most realistic, breathtaking and destructive dragon ever to appear on screen. Smaug: Unleashing the Dragon, packed with stunning, exclusive new images, it reveals how he grew out of thousands of detailed and fantastical concept designs into the beast that is unleashed in awesome digital glory.

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Wednesday 23 April 2014
Many celebrities do love books or movies and while most of the time we don't know for sure, there are many famous Tolkien fans out there. Here is an updated list of famous Tolkien fans and celebrities who like The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and Tolkien. New on the list are British Royals Prince Charles and William, Venture capitalist Peter Thiel and pope Francis.

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Wednesday 23 April 2014
J. R. R. tolkien's letters and diaries hide many interesting details about our beloved writer. When noticed and revealed, they help us understand his personality and character much better, and make the final conclusion about what kind of a person this genius writer and charismatic man was.

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Wednesday 23 April 2014
Simon J. Cook returns to questions surrounding Tauriel and Tolkien fanaticism in a sequel to his April 1 article.

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Tuesday 1 April 2014
Friends, elves and hobbits, lend him your ears. For with 'The Desolation of Smaug' soon out on DVD Simon J. Cook comes to praise Peter Jackson's interpretation of The Hobbit, not to bury it.

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Thursday 27 March 2014
This year of course, and 2015, mark the 60th anniversary of the first publication of The Lord of the Rings, it can not be a surprise that we will see the release of a 60th anniversary edition on the 19th of June. A sumptuous new one-volume edition of tolkien's classic masterpiece that is fully illustrated throughout in watercolour by the acclaimed and award-winning artist, Alan Lee.

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Wednesday 26 March 2014
J.R.R. Tolkien wrote many books, including the Middle-earth stories. The Lord of the Rings, like many stories of an epic journey, brings us lessons we can apply to our life. No matter how surreal his epic stories are, the pieces of wisdom reflected in them mirror that of the wisdom we must gain to champion our life here on earth.

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Wednesday 26 March 2014
The Tolkien Calendar 2015 will feature the beautiful and important full-color artwork from artist Mary Fairburn that brings to life scenes from The Lord of the Rings. The official Tolkien Calendar 2015 includes 12 lush paintings, one for each month.

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Wednesday 19 March 2014
Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary by J.R.R. Tolkien, tolkien's translation of Beowulf and commentary by J.R.R. Tolkien and also including "Sellic Spell", an unpublished short story by J.R.R. Tolkien, is now available for pre-order as hardcover and slipcased deluxe edition.

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Wednesday 19 March 2014
In a world rights deal, the Tolkien Estate has signed with HarperCollins to publish for the first time Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary by J.R.R. Tolkien. This is truly exciting news! Not only do we get tolkien's translation of Beowulf and commentary by J.R.R. Tolkien but it will also include "Sellic Spell", an unpublished short story by J.R.R. Tolkien.

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Sunday 9 March 2014
Didier Willis, the president of Le Dragon de Brume, did it again! He managed to bring together yet another spectacular volume of superb essays on Tolkien, called Tolkien, le faconnement d'un monde - volume 2, Astronomie et Geographie. Slightly bigger then volume 1, Botany and Astronomy, the result is just fascinating.

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Friday 7 March 2014
Released last year in June, I finally found time to read the book by Scarf on the inklings and their ideals of Kingship. Whilst much has been written about Charles Williams, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien both individually and collectively, Scarf explains their ideals of Kingship common to their works.

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Thursday 6 March 2014
In the last couple of weeks I have been working on a major update in the Tolkien Book Shop, adding a lot of nice boxed editions as well as some very unique pieces. Keep an eye on the store since I'm adding several news books to the store every day.

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Wednesday 5 March 2014
This work is a fresh look at the Maps of the Wilderland in The Hobbit, leading to the discovery that Professor J.R.R. Tolkien drew the imaginary maps from the Map of Wales back to front, or in reverse. The maps of the Shire in The Lord of The Rings are drawn likewise, of England.

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Wednesday 12 February 2014
A fine lengthy letter by Tolkien to an admirer, H. cotton Minchin, regarding publication of The Lord of the Rings, his interests in the Elvish tongues he invented and their attendant fanciful scripts, and his plans to complete The Silmarillion is up for sale right now at rrauction. Here is a full transcript of this amazing letter.

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Wednesday 29 January 2014
tolkien-scholar Devin Brown's latest book Hobbit Lessons, A Map for Life's Unexpected Journeys was released nationwide in October 2013. It presents timeless lessons and tangible bites of wisdom that are moving, fun, and help navigate life's journey. Brown teases out the wisdom that Tolkien has woven into his timeless story in a way that becomes a story in itself.

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Wednesday 29 January 2014
In writing The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R Tolkien set himself up for a massive fan base. The fantasy world he created in his books is amazing interesting and the story has gathered thousands of diehard fans around the world. At this point, the story had a loyal following, but it was nowhere near as widespread as it is today.

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Wednesday 8 January 2014
In September this year HarperCollins will release a sumptuous gift set containing a replica of the very rare first edition of The Hobbit, plus a book about the books's publication history and a CD of previously unreleased archive recordings featuring J.R.R. Tolkien reading from his book. I'm pre-ordering today!

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Wednesday 8 January 2014
The recent publication of The Fall of Arthur, invites an examination of the theological, literary, historical, and linguistic implications of both the actual Arthurian writings by the major Inklings and of an imaginary, composite, Inklings Arthuriad.

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Wednesday 8 January 2014
This article by Robert Morris will help students tackle the challenge of reviewing The Hobbit by suggesting essay topics and providing guidance on the most common study questions associated to this book.

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Thursday 2 January 2014
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are not the only Tolkien gems we can get our hands on. I have to say that his letters are equally entertaining. If you want to know more about the beloved writer, his personal letters, published in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien will help you gain such insight.

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Sunday 15 December 2013
Tolkienlibrary.com and Palgrave Macmillan are happy to announce the three winners of a copy of Adam Robert's fantastic book The Riddles of The Hobbit: Amanda Capley and Myla D'Avanzo from the USA and Douglas Thomson from the UK. Congratulations!

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Tuesday 17 December 2013
J.R.R. Tolkien created a mythology that has been enjoyed by millions all over the world. It is exciting and strange at the same time to see how tolkien's works inspire people all over the globe. These days many authors try to unlock hidden inspirational sources for tolkien's works. But do there hidden sources perhaps have a common hidden theme?

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Tuesday 17 December 2013
Now available for a short time only is a set of 10 reproductions of Tolkien inspired art by Cor Blok. They come unframed, unnumbered, but signed by the artist Cor Blok. Printed on acid-free board using light-fast inks and proofed by the artist. Now available as a set for a limited time only at a special reduced price! A wonderful collection of The Lord of the Rings inspired art that will be admired by any Tolkien fan.

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Monday 15 December 2013
The Ruins of Osgiliath by Alex Lewis, the Ivory Edition, is now available at a special reduced price during this Christmas season. This last run of the 100 limited edition has been specially commissioned to create a beautiful slipcased deluxe edition of this remarkable book. There are only a few copies left.

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Sunday 15 December 2013
Tolkienlibrary.com and Palgrave Macmillan have teamed up to create a spectacular give-away! Here is your chance to win one of three copies of Adam Robert's fantastic book The Riddles of The Hobbit. Win one of the three hardcover copies of The Riddles of The Hobbit as a Christmas Gift!

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Sunday 15 December 2013
Tolkienlibrary.com and the publishers Simon and Schuster have just announced the winner of The Wobbit give-away contest. The copy of the book The Wobbit, a new parody from The Harvard Lampoon, was won by Nicholas Greuel from the USA. Congratulations!

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Sunday 15 December 2013
Tolkienlibrary.com and author Noble Smith have just announced the five winners of The Wisdom of the Shire books give-away contest. Congratulations go to Eric Schreuders from The Netherlands, Janine Pineo, James Wells and Dustin Portesi from the USA and Marcel aubron-Bulles from Germany! Now these are 5 lucky and happy hobbits.

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Thursday 12 December 2013
The New Testament in the Westminster Version of the Sacred Scriptures, published by Sands and Company Ltd in 1947. This copy of the New Testament was previously owned by J.R.R. Tolkien. In the text block are numerous notes and bibliographical amendments by the noted author.

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Sunday 8 December 2013
Jacob Lennarthson send over an update of his collector profile. He now has approximately 350 objects in his collection, of which 200 are books. Also have a collector profile up already, don't hesitate to send over an update as well. If you also are a Tolkien collector don't hesitate to send over your profile to be featured here!

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Sunday 8 December 2013
Easton Press is a publishing company that sells luxury editions of famous books. Wrapped in genuine leather and 22kt gold, their books are collector's editions. They have just released J.R.R. tolkien's latest book The Fall of Arthur.

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Sunday 8 December 2013
Simon J. Cook continues his search for hobbits. This essay situates tolkien's ideas of language, race and British history in relation to those of the Celtic scholar John Rhys, thereby generating a precise statement of the relationship between Rhys's account of the aboriginal inhabitants of the British Isles, hobbits, and some Big People.

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Sunday 8 December 2013
Despite the association of J.R.R. Tolkien with the natural world, Middle-earth as landscape and built environment has been relatively neglected. Tolkien: the forest and the city presents new work by some of the finest scholars in Tolkien studies, as well as research from a number of emerging scholars, addressing this neglect.

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Friday 6 December 2013
Tolkienlibrary.com and the publishers Simon and Schuster have teamed up to create a nice Christmas give-away! Here is your chance to win a copy of the book The Wobbit, a new parody from The Harvard Lampoon

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Friday 6 December 2013
JRR tolkien's inspiration for The Lord of the Rings has always been a mystery. Tolkien himself stated that his ideas came to him as though they already existed, but he couldn't name their source. Countless researchers have sought to identify tolkien's inspiration without success. Now, at last, the answer is at hand. Abyssinia!

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Friday 6 December 2013
Yesterday we saw the release of the Deluxe collector's edition of Unfinished Tales, featuring the definitive edition text and a full-colour facsimile of tolkien's painting, Glorund Sets Forth to Seek Turin, and a Numenorean helmet design by J.R.R. Tolkien stamped on book and matching slipcase.

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Tuesday 3 December 2013
I'm very happy to announce the collector profile of Barry Stead, who collects posthumous first editions and deluxe editions related to Middle-earth and associated reference books on Tolkien. He confesses that he didn't actually realise being a collector until a few years ago, when he ended up buying a deluxe edition of The Silmarillion as a treat.

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Tuesday 3 december 2013
Tolkienlibrary.com and Race Point Publishing wish to thank all participants in this contest! And the winners of the 2 copies of Middle-earth Envisioned: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: On Screen, On Stage, and Beyond are Luca Monterisi from Italy and Dan Christensen from the USA! Congratulations!

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Sunday 1 December 2013
I can imagine many of the fans, and especially friends and family of these The Hobbit and Tolkien fans, are now looking for a gift. So let us have a look and see what is available. This year we saw a lot of The Hobbit related books being released and some can be called the 'perfect Christmas gift for any Tolkien fan'.

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Saturday 30 November 2013
Tolkienlibrary.com and author Noble Smith have teamed up to create a nice give-away! Here is your chance to win one of the following nice copies of The Wisdom of the Shire, A Short Guide to a Long and Happy Life: paperback (x2), audiobook (x1), the UK hardcover (x1) and the French version (x1). Now that makes us hobbits very happy!

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Thursday 28 November 2013
Congratulations to Marta Bonesu from Italy, Ricard Valdivielso from Spain and Tobias Wolf from Germany on winning The Hobbit books give-away contest! Hope you will enjoy the nice The Hobbit books.

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Tuesday 26 November 2013
This work is a fresh look at the Maps of the Wilderland in The Hobbit, leading to the discovery that Professor J.R.R. Tolkien drew the imaginary maps from the Map of Wales back to front, or in reverse. The maps of the Shire in The Lord of The Rings are drawn likewise, of England.

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Monday 25 November 2013
tolkien's World: His sources and Inspirations is a multimedia anthology of some 400 items (over 250 of them books, some newly typeset for this edition) relating to the ancient legends and modern fictions that were the favorites of J.R.R. Tolkien. The anthology is published electronically and is available in the store of the free app Biblioboard, which can be found via iPad or iTunes.

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Sunday 24 November 2013
Tolkienlibrary.com and Race Point Publishing have teamed up to create a nice give-away! Here is your chance to win one of the following nice coffee table book: 2 copies of Middle-earth Envisioned: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: On Screen, On Stage, and Beyond.

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Sunday 24 November 2013
The creative and scholarly masterpiece The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien has been discussed in classroom since the release for most educational institutions believe that through examining this epic fantasy work, students can effectively understand different concepts of writing.

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Friday 22 November 2013
Perfect for fans eagerly anticipating the December 13, 2013 theatrical release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Touchstone is excited to release The Wobbit: A Parody a new book by The Harvard Lampoon.

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Friday 22 November 2013
With classics which were written keeping the kids thinking and imagination in mind has always been something like the Tolkien books which not only captured the attention of the teenagers but also any person who wanted to get lost in the creation which would have come just out of sheer imagination.

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Friday 22 November 2013
J.R.R. Tolkien, the mastermind behind the epic Middle-earth stories like The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, will become the subject of a feature film. His life story will be adapted to the big screen under the project tentatively titled Tolkien.

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Sunday 17 November 2013
With the book telling a magical story of endless adventures and whimsical creatures, J.R.R. Tolkien not only came up with a fantasy-filled story for all ages to enjoy, but also sparked the interest in the fantasy genre itself. The book has influenced many aspects of our lives from books to movies, music, games, and more.

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Sunday 17 November 2013
Tolkienlibrary.com and Tolkien.co.uk have teamed up to create a nice give-away! Here is your chance to win one of the following nice The Hobbit editions: 1 copy of The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings Boxset, 1 copy of The Hobbit Official Movie Guide and 1 copy of The Hobbit, Chronicles, Art and Design.

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Sunday 17 November 2013
Since I love Middle-earth Envisioned so much I wrote to the authors, Paul Simpson and Brian J. Robb, right after reading it and hope this interview sheds some more light on what to expect from this book. It is a big size coffee table book, full of art reproductions and amazing tales. There is something for everyone here! This is a must have book and the perfect gift for any Tolkien and Middle-earth lover.

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Sunday 10 November 2013
Pam Jones is a full time writer and poet. She was inspired by JRR tolkien's fantastic works The Hobbit initially, and then more recently by Peter Jackson's first part, of three, films. Therefore she wrote a range of 40 riddles inspired, and based on the theme of J.R.R. tolkien's The Hobbit, and called the book that holds them Riddles by a JRR Tolkien Fan.

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Thursday 7 November 2013
Alex Lewis tells us the tale of a tour he undertook similar to J.R.R. tolkien's 1911 visit to Switzerland. He took the tour as Tolkien expert and now shares with us his story! Follow Alex Lewis in the footsteps of Tolkien.

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Monday 4 November 2013
HarperCollins has just released a striking one-volume edition to mark the 75th anniversary of Lewis's classic SF trilogy. This special edition includes an exclusive foreword compiled from letters by J.R.R. Tolkien, who inspired Lewis to write the first volume.

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Saturday 2 November 2013
In Wisdom of the Shire, Noble Smith sheds a light on the life-changing ideas tucked away inside the classic works of J. R. R. Tolkien and his most beloved creation, the stouthearted Hobbits. Translated in 8 languages, released one year ago and today available as paperback! Time for an interview.

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Thursday 31 October 2013
Middle-earth Envisioned: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: On Screen, On Stage and Beyond, is written by Paul Simpson and Brian J. Robb and published by Race Point Publishing. This books explores the artistic legacy of tolkien's world. It is the very first book to include the never-before-published lost art of Mary Fairburn.

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Monday 28 October 2013
Harper Collins has just released a very good looking special collector's hardback boxed set. Presented in sumptuous new cover designs it includes The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It is now available for all fans!

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Monday 28 October 2013
Researchers at Oxford University are interested in hearing from any member of staff who may have worked on a BBC production from March 1968 entitled Tolkien in Oxford, presented by John Izzard.

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Sunday 27 October 2013
When I announced The Riddles of The Hobbit I already said I should ask the author some questions and so I wrote him and was happy to have several questions answered, just in time for the release of the book on the 1st of November 2013. I hope this sheds some light about this new book, that I have enjoyed reading and can only recommend.

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Wednesday 21 October 2013
I'm extremely proud to show you The Ascent of Orodruin, one of the missing pieces of Cor Blok. We had it on file as Orodruin, but had no idea what it looked like. Of course when the owner contacted us, after having read the book on Cor Blok's art, Cor Blok did recognize the piece right away... even while he painted it 54 years ago.

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Tuesday 20 October 2013
I'm very happy to announce the collector profile of Tim Scholz, a 44 year old German who started out as a Lord of the Rings movie statue collector, but fast turned into an all-round Tolkien collector. He plans to turn his huge collection of over 10000 pieces into a small museum. All help to support him is of course welcome!

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Monday 21 October 2013
If someone had to ask you to think of the world, focusing on how it would be different if certain key people never existed, that would be a rather difficult task to achieve. Can we imagine the differences we'd have if people like Leonardo da Vinci or Tolkien were never around to share their brilliant minds with us?

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Monday 21 October 2013
With a lot of help from several Tolkien friends, especially Henk Brassian better known as The Hobbit Hunter and Kelly De Witt, I was able to add many translations of The Hobbit comic illustrated by David Wenzel. Much more need to be added, but as it stands today you will see it is getting a very nice overview!

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Sunday 20 October 2013
Thanks to a tip from Simon Cook we can look into another data set that is much bigger (in time) then Google Trends. Google Books Ngram Viewer displays a graph that confirms that The Lord of the Rings is much bigger compared to The Hobbit and shows us much better that interest into Tolkien is indeed rising again.

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Wednesday 16 October 2013
Around the year 2000 several polls consistently declared that J.R.R. Tolkien was the most influential author of the century, and The Lord of the Rings even the book of the century. Let us look in Google Trends an see how J.R.R. Tolkien scores today.

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Tuesday 15 October 2013
The Deluxe collector's edition of Unfinished Tales features the definitive edition text and includes a full-colour facsimile of tolkien's painting, Glorund Sets Forth to Seek Turin, and a Numenorean helmet design by J.R.R. Tolkien stamped on book and matching slipcase.

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Sunday 13 October 2013
In 1989 The Hobbit was adapted in a three issue comic book series, published by Eclipse Comics. The story was illustrated by David T. Wenzel. Even as a young boy David Wenzel, knew he wanted to be an artist. When he read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, he knew he wanted to be an illustrator. The Hobbit has been a big part of his life ever since.

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Tuesday 8 October 2013
Thanks to Jan-Erik Fries I was able to add the covers of the Lord of the Rings Comics by Louis Bermejo in the Swedish translation. I'm still looking to receive more news on the Bulgarian and Serbian translation and any other existing edition! Don't hesitate to send over any info or images.

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Sunday 6 October 2013
It is my honor to release an inteview with illustrator Jemima Catlin, who created the new illustrated edition of The Hobbit, published in both hardback and a deluxe foiled slipcase edition, containing 150 brand new colour illustrations.

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Saturday 5 October 2013
Despite the association of J.R.R. Tolkien with the natural world, Middle-earth as landscape and built environment has been relatively neglected. Tolkien: the forest and the city presents new work by some of the finest scholars in Tolkien studies, as well as research from a number of emerging scholars, addressing this neglect.

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Wednesday 25 September 2013
The Unofficial Middle-earth Monster's Guide offers tongue-in-cheek life lessons inspired by the evil things that lurk in Middle-earth and is the only comendium of evil you'll ever need to conquer all of life's challenges

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Tuesday 24 September 2013
The Riddles of The Hobbit is the first critical engagement with tolkien's great novel to explore 'the riddle' as a key principle. In this enlightening exploration Adam Roberts uncovers the nature of tolkien's handiwork and illustrates how the act of reading is in fact an act of unriddling.

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Monday 23 September 2013
J.R.R.Tolkien was a prolific storyteller to his children, though few of his early stories survive. Roverandom was a particular favourite, so much so that Tolkien wrote it out and even illustrated it himself. Now it is time for a new edition: a hardcover pocket Roverandom!

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Tuesday 17 September 2013
At least seven titles will be released by all major Tolkien publishing companies early November, in advance of the December 13 debut of the second Hobbit film, called The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

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Monday 16 September 2013
Myla Malinalda send over an update of her collector profile. She now has a little over 300 items in her Tolkien and Middle-earth collection, most of which are books. She moved in a second bookcase this year and looking forward to a third one soon. Also have a collector profile up already, don't hesitate to send over an update as well.

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Thursday 5 September 2013
Penguin Classics is re-releasing several titles that are said to have inspired J R R Tolkien. Legends from the Ancient North brings together some of the magical texts that most influenced J.R.R Tolkien, lowered in price and now with brand new covers by artist Petra Borner, they will be ready before the second The Hobbit movie arrives.

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Thursday 5 September 2013
The Hollywood section of Los Angeles will host what is billed as North America's largest gathering of Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and J.R.R. Tolkien die-hard fans, and this inaugural event boasts appearances by Actors of both franchises. The Trilo3y Fan Convention runs November 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in Hollywood and tickets go on sale from August 19th!

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Wednesday 4 September 2013
James Dunning takes us on a trip to Faery, but maybe not the syrupy realm you would expect. Both The Hobbit and tolkien's poem The Sea Bell show us the raw aspect of Faery. Smith of Wootton Major certainly is a parable, a fable that via its applicability to how the Universe works, points the way into panoramas higher or deeper.

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Monday 26 August 2013
The origin of hobbits has never been satisfactorily explained. Searching for the Red Book of Westmarch on a Welsh-border hillside, Simon J. Cook discovers hobbits behind the explanation of Welsh fairy stories developed by the great Oxford Celtic scholar John Rhys.

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Sunday 25 August 2013
Pam Jones is a full time writer and poet. She was inspired by JRR tolkien's fantastic works The Hobbit initially, and then more recently by Peter Jackson's first part, of three, films. Therefore she wrote a range of 40 riddles inspired, and based on the theme of J.R.R. tolkien's The Hobbit, and called the book that holds them Riddles by a JRR Tolkien Fan.

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Friday 23 August 2013
Once in a while you get in touch with people who wish to share the story behind a book they own. This is always very nice, especially when the book in the story is a rare translation of The Hobbit and signed and dedicated by J.R.R. Tolkien and his son Father John F. R. Tolkien.

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Friday 23 August 2013
Oloris Publishing is pleased to announce the release of a video by artist/photographer John Cockshaw for his book Wrath, Ruin and a Red Nightfall. This lavish art book is scheduled for release in 2014, but a sneak peek is available now by way of the film.

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Thursday 22 August 2013
Parma Eldalamberon, The Book of Elven-tongues, is a journal of the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship a special interest group of the Mythopoeic Society. The current issue presents previously unpublished writings by J. R. R. Tolkien concerning the declension of nouns in Qenya and the origins of noun stucture in Primitive Quendian and Eldarin.

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Thursday 22 August 2013
If ever you longed for experiencing a wonderfully different gathering, this is the opportunity to enjoy the Evening in Middle-earth. A Charity Dinner Dance to be held on October 12, at the Morningside RSL in Australia. Consider supporting this fund raising event in the way of donated memorabilia to be used as prizes or auction items on the night.

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Wednesday 21 August 2013
In October 2013 Harper Collins will release a very good looking special collector's hardback boxed set. Presented in sumptuous new cover designs you can discover the complete story of Bilbo Baggins and the Hobbits' epic encounters with Gandalf, Gollum, dragons and monsters, in the quest to destroy the One Ring.

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Tuesday 20 August 2013
I'm very happy to announce the collector profile of Estellaer, a 19 year old French musician, and an avid Tolkien collector living in the United States. He mainly focuses on limited editions, first printings and signed books. He tries not to purchase cheaper materials, because he strives to acquire real long-term possessions. We can only support that vision!

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Tuesday 10 august 2012
Beyond Bree is delighted to announce its new calendar for 2014. Drums roar loudly from the deep of the mountains as we celebrate the Dwarves of tolkien's world with this fantastic collection of international art featuring: Anke Eissmann, Sylvia Hunnewell, Jay Johnstone, Tim Kirk, Octo Kwan, Nancy Martsch, Jef Murray, Ted Nasmith, David Wenzel, Colin Williams, Maciej Wygnanski, and more!

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Saturday 10 August 2013
I'm very happy to announce the collector profile of Mikko Marcelo, A young collector of from the Philippines, who mainly focusses on anything Hobbit related, trying to collect different kinds of covers of the book and The Hobbit in other mediums such as audio books and has impressive presentation displays to show of his excellent Hobbit collection.

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Friday 9 August 2013
Published in May, The Fall of Arthur has been described by the Mail on Sunday as one of tolkien's finest works. My question is, have you already read The Fall of Arthur and if so what did you think of the book? The Fall of Arthur may be found to have much to recommend it by those who make the effort to actually read it.

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Friday 9 August 2013
The first new illustrated edition of J.R.R. tolkien's The Hobbit since Alan Lee's iconic illustrations brought the much-loved children's tale to life in 1997. The Hobbit, illustrated by Jemima Catlin, will be published in both hardback and a deluxe foiled slipcase edition, and contains 150 brand new colour illustrations.

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Thursday 8 August 2013
James Dunning, author of The Bright Lady and the Astral Wind, reviews The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and coins the terms Tollywood and Feanorean Plexiglas. I truly hope you all enjoy his humourous, tongue-in-cheek review as much as I did! I'm still with tears in my eyes from laughing!

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Thursday 8 August 2013
I'm honored to release an interview with Michael Tolkien about his books Rainbow and Wish, that were released in March 2013. His experience as a verse writer enables Michael Tolkien to create fast-moving stories with many kinds of dialogue in a variety of styles. This is fantasy but set in a place with a complicated history and a challenging landscape.

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Wednesday 7 August 2013
I'm very happy to announce the collector profile of Jacob Lennarthson, A young collector of from Orebro in Sweden, who mainly focusses on collecting Scandinavian Tolkien translations, with his first priority on Swedish and Norwegian. He will try to collect every one of tolkien's books translated into Swedish and Norwegian and with a little help from us all he will of course reach his goal!

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Tuesday 11 June 2013
New research by author Christopher L. Robinson, a professor of English at HEc-paris, examines what makes the personal and place names of tolkien's Middle-Earth so fitting. The nomenclature within tolkien's novels is very carefully done, taking into consideration attributes such as etymology, symbolism, and onomatopoeia.

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Tuesday 11 June 2013
We are proud to give the opportunity to acquire the original paintings by the artist Inger Edelfeldt inspired by the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.

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Tuesday 4 June 2013
How does the modern Tolkien fan choose a major and a college that will help a large obsession with fiction become a career?

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Wednesday 22 May 2013
Next to the Tolkien Calendar there will be released a beautiful gift edition of J.R.R. tolkien's enchanting tale The Hobbit, fully illustrated by Jemima Catlin

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Tuesday 21 May 2013
This is an exciting week! Not only do we see the publication of tolkien's Fall of Arthur, we also have a chance to go and see the original manuscript in an exhibition at the Bodleian Library.

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Thursday 11 april 2013
I'm honored to release an interview with Mark Atherton, who in his book provides the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the many origins, influences and inspirations, biographical, historical, geographical and literary, that, combined with a unique imagination, resulted in the crafting of a new mythology.

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Wednesday 10 April 2013
I'm very happy to announce the collector profile of Marco Maniezzi, a collector of Italian Tolkien books from Milan in Italy. He mainly focusses on collecting books directly related to the Middle-earth history from The Silmarillion and The History of Middle-earth to The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings.

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Wednesday 20 March 2013
Soon we will see the publication of a version of JRR tolkien's poem, The Fall of Arthur. Ruth Lacon has been studying the topic of Arthur for over 10 years and now brings some of the possibilities with regard to The Fall of Arthur and is even willing to risk making a few predictions.

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Monday 21 January 2013
I think it is likely that only a few of the oldest Tolkien fans will remember Paul Raymond Gregory as an artist who briefly appeared on the scene back in the late 1970s and then vanished. It certainly came as a surprise to me that he had been working on tolkien-inspired art ever since, alongside his main career as an album-cover artist and music promoter. The result is the collection of paintings which form part of this book.

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Sunday 20 January 2013
Let's be honest from the off: the new Hobbit movie is disappointing at best. That's not in dispute with the majority of people, both hardcore fans and general moviegoers alike. But what's open to debate is how it affects the entire Tolkien heritage.

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Friday 18 January 2013
In his engaging and thought-provoking book, A Hobbit Journey: Discovering the Enchantment of J. R. R. tolkien's Middle-Earth, Tolkien expert Matthew Dickerson shows how a Christian worldview and themes undergird tolkien's Middle-earth writings and how they are fundamentally important to understanding his vision.

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Thursday 17 January 2013
In October 2012 there was released a book called Aragorn, J.R.R. tolkien's Undervalued Hero by Angela P. Nicholas. Sounds interesting, right. Time to release an interview with the author and learn some more about this book!

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Tuesday 15 January 2013
Are you living in the USA and a serious Tolkien / Hobbit / Lord of the Rings collector? They are probably looking for you! ReelzChannel is now casting passionate collectors for a new show that celebrates all things Hollywood!

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Monday 14 January 2013
A landmark building in Birmingham, Perrott's Folly tower in Edgbaston, which is thought to have provided inspiration for JRR tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy will be restored and permanently opened to the public if enough money can be raised, its owners announced today.

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Thursday 10 January 2013
One of the questions I received this week was from a friend called Dale Spindler, who has become increasingly interested in reading a biography of Tolkien and was hoping I could give him a recomendation. Here follows a lists of books on Tolkien that I like and highly recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about Tolkien.

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Wednesday 9 January 2013
The Frisian translation of The Hobbit by Anne Tjerk Popkema was first released in 2009. It has recently been awarded the Obe Postmapriis, the most prestigious translation award for Frisian literature. To celebrate this accomplishment a special edition with a brand-new cover design was released on the 75th anniversary of tolkien's classic original, 21 September 2012.

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Tuesday 8 January 2013
February will bring us an extremely nice book, called 3-minute JRR Tolkien: A visual biography of the worlds most revered fantasy writer. I was lucky to be speak about the book with Gary Raymond, the author and Tolkien artist John Howe, who wrote the foreword. Hope you all enjoy the interview and perhaps even pre-order the book, since it is a must have for any Tolkien lover.

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Monday 7 January 2013
Early this morning I wrote about the updated edition of The Power of the Ring - The Spiritual Vision behind The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, a guide to vision of virtue, heroism, beauty, honor, and majesty in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. I'm extremely happy and honored to bring an interview with the author Stratford Caldecott.

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Monday 7 January 2013
December 2012 brought us an updated edition of The Power of the Ring, a guide to vision of virtue, heroism, beauty, honor, and majesty in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. The cover by Ted Nasmith is stunning! The spiritual forces and beliefs behind tolkien's compelling novels are elegantly revealed in this second edition of The Power of the Ring.

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Sunday 6 January 2013
Some of the paintings by Cor Blok were sold without any images of them being kept, and hence they don't feature in A Tolkien Tapestry. Surely with such a wide readership of enthusiastic fans, many of whom collect tolkien-related art and know others who do, we could come up with information about at least a few.

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Saturday 5 January 2013
In 2011 The Hobbit was finally published in Bengali. The Fellowship of the Ring followed in 2012, and received an illustrated edition. The following article, by Suravi Chatterjee-Woolman, tells us al about Bengalis and the translation of tolkien's works into Bengali.

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Friday 4 January 2013
Here is an interview with Andrew Murray, the author of the Tolkien Quiz Book. This peerless revised and expanded quiz book offers over 1,200 questions and answers, including easy starter questions and more difficult tie-breakers, to test the depth of your knowledge on anything Tolkien.

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Friday 4 January 2013
J.R.R. Tolkien fans are eager to play Hobbit and Lord of the Rings themed online games... but will the Tolkien estate allow it? Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema (a subsidiary of Warner Bros.) own the merchandising rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. But the lawsuit alleges that the company infringed on the copyright by licensing the famed Middle-earth characters to online gaming sites and online slot machine manufacturers.

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Thursday 3 January 2013
Today we celebrate the Twelfty-First Birthday of the creator of The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien. I thought it was a nice idea to look at some nice Hobbit editions that would make great birthday gifts. Of course, any nice limited edition or older printing would be a nice gift, but I wish to look at some more recent and lovely Hobbits that are not that expensive.

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Wednesday 2 January 2013
Individual members of the Mythopoeic Society are invited to nominate books for the 2013 Mythopoeic Awards, and to volunteer to serve on any of the committees. The deadline for committee volunteers and for nominations is February 1, 2013

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Tuesday 1 January 2013
I'm very happy to announce the collector profile of Pierre Dobrzykowski, a collector of German and Japanese Tolkien books from Munich in Germany, who can sit in front of the books and enjoy their beauty, especially the designs drawn by Tolkien himself, which have significant Japanese elements in them.

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Monday 31 December 2012
Cushing Memorial Library and Archives at Texas AM University houses a J.R.R. Tolkien collection, consisting of sixteen of his philological books in German, two full pages and four fragments of notes and two letters. Here is an article that tells all about these books.

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Sunday 30 December 2012
We have all come to known Bag End as the home of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins and the beginning of many adventures. Not many are aware that Bag End was a name Tolkien borrowed from a real place called Bag End, a farm at Dormston in England. So, I am very pleased to be able to bring an essay on Bag End by Andrew Morton, the person who knows more about the place then anyone else.

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Saturday 29 December 2012
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on 3 January 1892, in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State (now Free State Province, part of South Africa). If Tolkien was alive today he would celebrate his 121st birthda on January 3 2013. And because he lives on in our hearts we do celebrate his birthday every year!

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Tuesday 27 November 2012
I'm very happy to announce the collector profile of Myla D'Avanzo, a Tolkien and Middle-earth movie merchandise collector from Connecticut in United States, who primarily collects Tolkien books and while she focused mainly on the movies and merchandise from that, in the last few years started to branch out. She sees herself as a beginning collector but we are very proud to show her collection!

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Monday 30 october 2012
Two of the world's most beloved authors are C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Both of these legendary English writers wrote about magical lands not too different from our own. Lewis preferred that friends like Tolkien call him Jack. Tolkien preferred to be called Tollers.

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Sunday 7 october 2012
In May 2013 there will be released the world first publication of a previously unknown work by J.R.R. Tolkien, a 1,000-line poem which tells the extraordinary story of the final days of England's legendary hero, King Arthur.

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Wednesday 19 september 2012
Since I know Jef Murray as an artist and a magnificent person, who I love to discuss and talk with, I thought it was a nice idea to set up a small interview about this book Seer: A Wizard's Journal

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Tuesday 18 september 2012
Exclusive to the Enhanced version of the eBook The Hobbit are recently discovered audio recordings by J.R.R. Tolkien, and high-resolution colour images of all of tolkien's illustrations for the book.

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Tuesday 18 september 2012
To celebrate The Hobbit's 75th anniversary of publication, a pocket-sized hardback of J.R.R. tolkien's timeless classic was released. I guess this will be the best selling edition for all people who want to have a copy of The Hobbit closeby or which to read the book well before the release of The Hobbit movies.

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Wednesday 12 september 2012
On the 1st of August a new book was released, called Hobbit to Hero: The Making of tolkien's King, written by Elizabeth M. Stephen, this is a book that places Aragorn in his rightful place as one of the greatest heroes of any mythology.

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Friday 7 september 2012
Since more info is and pictures are being released I have just updated my article on the hobbit film tie-in publications. I have now included bigger pictures of all the books, extra information and some first images on some of the calendars that will be released. More will be added soon as the info comes in.

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Wednesday 5 september 2012
Dr. Dimitra Fimi is a Lecturer in Englishat the Cardiff Metropolitan University and teaches and researches on many fantasy authors. In the Tolkien world she is best known for her fantastic book Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits, and many contributions to higher quality Tolkien bulletins, like Tolkien Studies and of course here online Tolkien courses!

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Wednesday 5 september 2012
J.R.R. Tolkien has inspired so many and it is logic that all over the globe people many locations, items, pets, children, species and even entire genera have been named after elements of J.R.R. tolkien's legendarium. But some Tolkien fans have gone so far to honour the author by naming locations to the author himself.

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Monday 3 september 2012
Mark Atherton provides the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the many origins, influences and inspirations, biographical, historical, geographical and literary, that, combined with a unique imagination, resulted in the crafting of a new mythology.

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Friday 31 august 2012
Since there are many Tolkien fans and Middle-earth lovers who are also vivid writers and do have a desire to write about their passion, I get many emails from Tolkien friends who want to know if I accept guest posts and articles by guest bloggers on Tolkienlibrary.com, and if that is the case, what are the guidelines. The answer to the first question is: Yes, I do accept guest posts.

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Wednesday 29 august 2012
What better way to find out than to visit the places where Tolkien lived, grew up, and worked. Many of these places inspired his creation of Middle-earth, and for any Tolkien fan, there are fifteen places you must see if you want to try to understand the mind of the true master of high fantasy.

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Monday 27 august 2012
Barbour Publishing's award-winning author Ed Strauss's has recently released a brand-new devotional based on J.R.R. tolkien's classic The Hobbit called A Hobbit Devotional- Bilbo Baggins and the Bible. Each reading sketches a scene from The Hobbit, relates it to a contemporary life situation you might experience yourself, and brings in the teaching of a relevant Bible story or verse.

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Sunday 26 august 2012
Jef Murray, best known as Tolkien artists, has released his first collection of short stories, poems, and essays. His book is called Seer: A Wizard's Journal. Jef Murray announces the release of a Middle-earth Calendar for the year 2013.

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Sunday 26 august 2012
A special collector's film tie-in hardback of the best-selling classic will be released, featuring the complete story with a sumptuous cover design inspired by The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and brand new reproductions of all the drawings and maps by J.R.R. Tolkien.

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Sunday 26 august 2012
The unforgettable story of Bilbo, a peace-loving hobbit, who embarks on a strange and magical adventure. A timeless classic will soon be available as a two-part boxed set. This edition will be released as a tie-in with the Hobbit movies, soon to be released on the big screen. I'm however happy to see the publishers decided to make a two and not a three volume edition.

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Sunday 26 august 2012
The winner of the highly coveted Beyond Bree Award was announced during The Return of the Ring at Loughborough University. The award was bestowed on Mark T. Hooker, the author of a number of books on J.R.R. Tolkien, including Tolkien Through Russian Eyes and Tolkien and Welsh.

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Tuesday 21 august 2012
Beyond Bree is delighted to announce its new calendar for 2013. It is time to shine a light on the dark creatures of tolkien's world with this breathtaking collection of international art featuring: Anke Eissmann, Sylvia Hunnewell, Tim Kirk, Octo Kwan, Nancy Martsch, Jef Murray, Ted Nasmith, Colin Williams, Maciej Wygnanski, Patrick H. Wynne and more.

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Monday 20 august 2012
As Halloween approaches just like it does each year, those of us that love to dress up for Halloween for either trick-or-treating or for seasonal parties will probably have the same quandary at the tail end of the summer just like last year and the year before that. Here's a solution that as a fan of The Lord of the Rings you'll probably appreciate.

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Wednesday 11 july 2012
There is more to both Rings than their common roundness, and the resemblance between Tolkien and Wagner goes beyond a Ring of Power and some narrative elements: they shared a number of preoccupations and interests: Nature, nation, the North, death and immortality, language and above all, myth. This is a book about the two great mythmakers of their times, and about what they have in common despite everything that separate them.

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Tuesday 10 july 2012
Tolkien and Welsh (Tolkien a Chymraeg), a collection of articles on J.R.R. tolkien's use of Welsh language and culture by Mark T. Hooker fills in the gaps in Tolkien and Wales by Carl Phelpstead.

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Monday 9 July 2012
Tolkien inspired artist Jay Johnstone takes elements of iconography up to the works of Gustav Klimt and works with traditional techniques to produce art that could have been made in the valleys of Middle-earth or in the libraries of Minas Tirith.

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Friday 15 June 2012
The Unofficial Hobbit Handbook, and with its fun design evokes the feeling of a hobbit's travel journal. The authors hide behind the name The Shire Collective and the subtitle just puts it plainly 'Everything I Need to Know about Life I learned from Tolkien'. Now who does not want to read such a fun looking book.

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Thursday 14 June 2012
This new boxed set, published to mark the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit, offers readers a new opportunity to discover Tolkiens remarkable world of Middle-earth

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Thursday 8 June 2012
At least five titles will be released by all major Tolkien publishing companies early November, in advance of the December 14 debut of the first film. They include, next to the usual calendars and diaries, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Visual Companion by Jude Fisher, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Official Movie Guide by Brian Sibley, The World of the Hobbits, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Activity Book and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Photo Storybook by Paddy Kempshall.

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Wednesday 30 May 2012
A decade ago the traditional artistic covers of the Lord of the Rings were ditched and replaced with screenshots and new concept designs from the movie trilogy. So it comes as no surprise to learn that HarperCollins, the publisher of tolkien's works, is releasing a movie tie in edition of The Hobbit to coincide with Peter Jackson's latest take on one of his books.

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Tuesday 29 May 2012
It is always exciting to see what the next Tolkien calendar will be like. As we now the last two years the calendar featured the art by Cor Blok. This year the official Tolkien calendar will be containing new and classic artwork for The Hobbit by Oscar-winning artists Alan Lee and John Howe.

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Monday 28 May 2012
The Christian World of The Hobbit will serve as a balanced guide for readers who want to uncover the essential Christian aspects that lie at the center of the classic book. Here follows an interview with the author Devin Brown about his upcoming book The Christian World of The Hobbit.

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Monday 28 May 2012
The latest incarnation of Bilbo Baggins, the unlikely Tolkienian hero is Biolbo Baigin and the publishers Evertype proudly announced the launch of a fully illustrated and translated version of the tale in Irish Gaelic. In addition, a new Latin translation of The Hobbit will be published in September this year.

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Sunday 13 May 2012
The Locus Science Fiction Foundation has announced the top five finalists in each category of the 2012 Locus Awards. The good news is that A Tolkien Tapestry: Pictures to accompany The Lord of the Rings has been selected as one of the five finalists in the category Art Books.

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Thursday 3 May 2012
James Dunning of Dolmen Tree Art, who illustrated Mark T. Hooker's Mathomium and Hobbitonian, released a novel The Bright Lady and the Astral Wind. It can be succinctly portrayed using parapsychological metaphors that impassioned readers of Tolkien will immediately recognize.

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Wednesday 2 May 2012
Charlie Ross, also the star of One Man Star Wars Trilogy, will be bringing his internationally-acclaimed worldwide tour of One Man LOTR to The Return of the Ring this August for an exclusive one-off show.

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Tuesday 1 May 2012
News has reached us of the imminent release of two children's books from the descendents of J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles Dickens, published by Thames River Press.

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Sunday 11 March 2012
The Tolkien Society is pleased to announce that, in celebration of this momentous year, the theme for this years Tolkien Reading Day on 25th March will be celebrating 75 years of The Hobbit

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Monday 5 March 2012
I guess by now all have seen that the 2012 Tolkien Official Calendar again features the art by Cor Blok. I would love to review this years calendar, but I have come to love Cor Blok's art so much I would not give an objective opinion. So I was extremely glad to receive the following review by Ruth Lacon to feature here at my website.

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Thursday 1 March 2012
Walking Tree Publishers known for their high quality books on anything Tolkien have released a book called Hobbit Place-names - A Linguistic Excursion through the Shire. This book centres on the place-names as found in the Shire as well as Breeland. All those names that are referenced on tolkien's map of the Shire, plus those few that are not found on the map but mentioned in the text.

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Monday 27 February 2012
Hari Istvan es Zalan Emese is a remarkable person. One day he wondered how the Red Book of Westmarch really must have looked like, three years later he had the result in front of him. Here follows an interview with Hari Istvan who created the facsimile handwritten edition of The Hobbit

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Sunday 26 February 2012
Asbury University English Professor Devin Brown signed a contract with Abingdon Press to write a book with the title The Christian World of The Hobbit. This book will serve as a balanced guide for readers who want to uncover the essential Christian aspects which lie at the center of the classic book.

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Saturday 14 January 2012
Why should there be any question about whether or not it is right to produce visual images inspired by the writings of Tolkien? Well, the short answer is that J. R. R. Tolkien himself said that he did not want his books to be illustrated - but at the same time, he allowed several of them to be published with illustrations, by himself and by other people.

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Monday 9 January 2012
While I normally don't talk about games at this website, I decided to make an exception. For some time now I see many people on Facebook play the game called The One Ring, which is clearly made by Tolkien fans. So I decided to write to the makers and did an interview with Sam Roads, the creative director at MGames.

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Saturday 7 January 2012
J.R.R. Tolkien, whose The Lord of the Rings has sold over 200 thousand copies and has won over millions of devoted fans all over the world, was passed over for the 1961 Nobel literature prize after his books were described as second rate.

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Tuesday 3 January 2012
To celebrate tolkien's birthday, each year Tolkien fans around the world are invited to raise a glass and toast the birthday of this much loved author 21:00 (9 pm) your local time.

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Sunday 1 January 2012
I'm happy to announce that the Tolkien calendar for 2012 will present even more Cor Blok art and that there was also released a book that brings together all the Lord of the Rings art by his hand, now exactly 50 years after they were created.

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Thursday 29 December 2011
In the summer of 2012 we will see the release of Tolkien and Welsh (Tolkien a Chymraeg), a collection of articles on J.R.R. tolkien's use of Welsh language and culture by Mark T. Hooker. It fills in the gaps in Tolkien and Wales by Carl Phelpstead.

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Sunday 25 December 2011
A trailer for Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was released last Tuesday, a year ahead of the film's release. For some the big wait has now officialy begun. It was a bumpy ride so far, but it seems it is now finally going to happen!

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Saturday 24 December 2011
There have been rumors around for some time about a Museum which is being build in Switzerland that is totally dedicated to Tolkien, or better said to Middle-earth the land Tolkien created. There are talks about a real hobbit hole, hundreds of original pieces of Middle-earth art, etc.

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Sunday 11 December 2011
After the release of the Tolkien Calendar 2011 and 2012, and a book to show all the art by Cor Blok, I'm happy to announce that some of the original art to accompany The Lord of the Rings created by Cor Blok in 1958 to 1962 is now available for sale.

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Thursday 8 December 2011
This nicely designed CD box set contains the highly-acclaimed BBC Radio dramatisations of The Lord of the Rings and its fantastic prelude The Hobbit, along with two CDs of thrilling music.

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Tuesday 6 December 2011
Astrid Tuttle Winegar, also the author of Why Does "Frodo Live?", got a book deal with Quirk Books to write A Hobbit's Cookbook: Eleventy-one Sweets, Snacks, and Savories Inspired by Middle-earth.

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Monday 28 November 2011
Oronzo Cilli just send me an update of his Tolkien collector profile. He is a Tolkien collector from Puglia in Italy and copy-editor of the Second edition of The Annotated Hobbit, by Douglas A. Anderson. All Tolkien collectors are invited to sent in their own profiles or update the ones already online.

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Sunday 27 November 2011
This vibrant illustration is one of a set of five, painted by Tolkien in the summer of 1937 for the first American edition of The Hobbit. It is on display at the Bodleian Library until 23 December 2011.

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Sunday 6 November 2011
Beyond Bree is pleased to present its 2012 calendar featuring art focused on the Elves of tolkien's Middle-earth. The calendar will feature classic art from Beyond Bree's past as well as new works by a host of artists from around the globe.

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Wednesday 26 October 2011
After the Friesian translation of The Hobbit by Anne Tjerk Popkema, I'm proud to announce that The Lord of the Rings will also receive a Frisian translation. On Friday 25 November in Leeuwarden (in the Netherlands) there will be a presentation of the first volume of this new translation.

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Wednesday 19 October 2011
HarperCollins is starting its celebrations for the 75th anniversary of The Hobbit ahead of time, with the publication of a collection of tolkien's artwork and a cute pocket-sized edition of the novel at the end of this month.

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Monday 26 September 2011
The latest book by Robert S. Blackham, Tolkien and the Peril of War, charts tolkien's life from 1914 to 1918, using old postcards, maps and photographs to paint a picture of the places and times that relate to one of the leading authors of the twentieth century.

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Sunday 25 September 2011
Interview with the publisher and translator of the Hobbit in Marathi. The cover art is by Alan Lee, it is an illustrated edition and hardback. Since there will be printed 5000 copies it should be easy to add a copy of the first printing to your collection.

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Saturday 24 September 2011
Many celebrities do love books or movies and while most of the time we don't know for sure, there are many famous Tolkien fans out there. Here is a list of famous Tolkien fans and celebrities who like The Lord of the Rings.

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Thursday 22 September 2011
Today is 22 September and so it is Hobbit Day. We all love Tolkien and his worlds, so why not host a party at your home or office to celebrate his most beloved of characters, the Hobbits? Here are 5 Tips for Hosting a Proper Hobbit Party.

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Sunday 18 September 2011
Some time ago I was contacted by Didier Willis, the president of Le Dragon de Brume about their first publication on Tolkien, called Tolkien, le faconnement d'un monde (volume 1, Botany and Astronomy). I asked Didier Willis to write about this new book and also about Le Dragon de Brume and here is his answer.

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Wednesday 7 September 2011
D.G. Pashte of Pune-based Diamond Publications and his son Nilesh set out to secure the copyright for translating The Hobbit into Marathi six months ago. Today, the translated version is ready for a formal launch, making it the first one in any Indian language.

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Tuesday 6 September 2011
In May this year The Frisian translation of The Hobbit was released as audio book and was read by the translator of the book, Anne Tjerk Popkema. As a Dutch speaker to me this is still kind of understandable, but I guess it is none the less interesting for all people interested in languages.

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Monday 5 September 2011
Back in 1986 the only brick-and-mortar shop in the world entirely dedicated to J.R.R. Tolkien was founded in Leiden, Holland. While we get set for the onslaught of The Hobbit movies it is time to celebrate the 25th anniversary with a nice Tolkien festival in the shop in Leiden.

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Sunday 4 September 2011
It is Tolkien month at the World's Stongest Librarian Blog! It is always a nice idea to write and discuss about all things Tolkien and so the World's Strongest Librarian thought it a good idea to spend one complete month discussion anything Tolkien. Guess it is time to join in and have some fun!

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Saturday 3 September 2011
The Journey to Middle-earth begins again in October 2011! We are delighted to announce that the UWIC Masters Level online course J.R.R. Tolkien: Myth and Middle-earth in Context will run again during the autumn semester, beginning in October 2011. Enrolment is now open! Potential students are advised to enrol as soon as possible as places are limited.

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Sunday 28 August 2011
Next week, on the 1st of September, there will be released the book called A Tolkien Tapestry, that brings together all art by Cor Blok. I'm very proud to announce this, since I was asked to edit the book and find and scan all of the art that was sold all across the globe. Hope you will all enjoy the result.

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Sunday 28 August 2011
Henk Brassien, the Hobbit Hunter, just send me an update of his profile. He is specialized in collecting The Hobbit. He currently owns all the Dutch imprints (75 out of 75 imprints since 1960) and at least one copy of any language in which The Hobbit ever was published. All Tolkien collectors are invited to sent in their own profiles or update the ones already online.

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Tuesday 2 August 2011
The Art of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien has been written and edited by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, two of the leading experts on Tolkien and authors of the acclaimed J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator, The Lord of the Rings: A Readers Companion, and The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide. Here follows an interview about The Art of the Hobbit.

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Monday 1 August 2011
It is always exciting to hear a Tolkien friend is about to have a book released, but this time it also was a big surprise. Jason Fisher managed to gather around him a group of the greatest Tolkien scholars and finish the project of his dreams without most of us - other Tolkien fans - to know much about it. So I'm double happy to announce this interview with Jason Fisher about his book Tolkien and the Study of His Sources.

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Sunday 31 July 2011
I'm happy to publish the following essay by Ruth Lacon that reviews the Tolkien Calendar of 2011 that featured art by Cor Blok. In the mean time the new Tolkien calendar by Cor Blok is ready available and the book about his complete collection of Lord of the Rings works is one month away of being released.

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Saturday 30 July 2011
To celebrate The Hobbits 75th anniversary of publication, a pocket-sized hardback of J.R.R. Tolkiens timeless classic will be released in October of this year, perfect for little Hobbits everywhere.

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Thursday 2 June 2011
To celebrate the 75th Anniversary we will receive a One Volume Edition of The History of The Hobbit and A Fascimile Edition of The Hobbit, but also a sumptuous full colour art book containing the complete collection of more than one hundred Hobbit sketches, drawings, paintings and maps by J.R.R. Tolkien.

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Thursday 26 May 2011
It is a news item that I remember to see some times before, for example when we would celebrate the 70th anniversary of The Hobbit. But this time I really get the feeling HarperCollins is really going to do it: make a true facsimile edition of The Hobbit. In a recent interview with David Brawn, publishing director at HarperCollins, we were told that this edition will only be released in 2012, still it is good news so let us have some ideas about such an edition put down here

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Thursday 28 April 2011
Original Art by World famous illustrator Ted Nasmith is on auction at ebay! Hurry up, since there is only one day left! Ted Nasmith has credted the fully illustrated Silmarillion, JRR Tolkien calendars, many Tolkien books and scenes from the Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and more recently the illustrated guide to the Universe of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin.

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Wednesday 27 April 2011
Just as the last few years I contacted David Brawn, the publishing director of Harper Collins, to get some more information. Here follows some more info on the new Tolkien books that will be released this year. 2011 will be very exciting for the Tolkien fans and as you will read, we can expect many fine editions in the future!

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Tuesday 26 April 2011
In one volume for the first time, this revised and updated examination of how J.R.R. Tolkien came to write his original masterpiece The Hobbit. Like Christopher tolkien's The History of Middle-earth before it, this is a thoughtful yet exhaustive examination of one of the most treasured stories in English literature.

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Monday 25 April 2011
Presented to J. R. R. Tolkien on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday, with dedicatory verses by W. H. Auden, this book was originally released in 1962 by Allen and Unwin. I believe it is wonderful to see that now after 50 years HarperCollins honors this moment by reprinting this wonderful book.

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Tuesday 15 March 2011
It is my pleasure to show the cover of A Tolkien Tapestry which will bring together all pictures to accompany The Lord of the Rings by Cor Blok. For the cover the was chosen The Battle of Hornburg the painting that was bought by J.R.R. Tolkien.

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Tuesday 15 March 2011
The School of Education at UWIC has the pleasure to present Tom Shippey - Professor Emeritus of English, St. Louis University who will be delivering an Open Lecture entitled: Writing into the Gap: tolkien's The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun

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Tuesday 8 March 2011
This brand new full-colour art book reveals in sumptuous detail more than 100 paintings based on The Lord of the Rings by acclaimed Dutch artist, Cor Blok, many of which appear here for the first time. After the Tolkien Calendar 2011 and the next Tolkien Calendar we can now officialy say that 2011 is the year of Cor Blok! It is exactly 50 years since the creation of the Cor Blok paintings and this book, of which i was honored to be the editor, will for the first time present a complete overview of all Cor Blok's works.

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Friday 4 February 2011
This volume covers new ground, and treads some well-worn paths; but here the well-worn path takes a new turn, taking not only scholars but general readers further into the complex and provocative world of Middle-earth, and beyond.

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Thursday 3 February 2011
Yvan Strelzyk from elrondslibrary.fr sent over scans of the Icelandic translation of the Lord of the Rings comics by Luis Bermejo. Hopefully more will be added soon.

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Wednesday 2 February 2011
This an anthology of scholarly articles about Tolkien and religion brings a chronological overview of the major arguments and themes that have engaged scholars about the impact of Christianity on tolkien's oeuvre, with particular reference to The Lord of the Rings.

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Tuesday 1 February 2011
Just like the Tolkien Calendar 2011, the Official Tolkien Calendar 2012 features 13 paintings by the Dutch artist, Cor Blok. Most of the paintings included have never been seen before. This delightful collection of scenes takes the reader on a unique journey through the beauty and drama of Middle-earth. It represents a truly charming addition to the series of official calendars by a gifted artist, and promises to be a memorable calendar for fans.

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Monday 31 January 2011
What copies of The Hobbit are worth over USD 100.000? And what do they look like? Let us try and see in this article which are the most expensive copies of The Hobbit and let us determine why they are so expensive. Take a look at the most fabulous copies of The Hobbit in existence.

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Sunday 30 January 2011
As last week I have once again gathered some news that did not make it into blog posts. It is a variety of news items and if I missed something please do send it over to me. So here follows the latest news of all things Tolkien from 24 to 30 january 2011.

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Friday 28 January 2011
The first comics of The Lord of the Rings were published in 1979 in Italy and were drawn by Luis Bermejo. They are based on the Ralph Bakshi movie adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. Translation were made in Spain, Finland, The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden and most probably in many more places.

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Thursday 27 January 2011
It has been a nice four days, looking at some of the most beautiful copies of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and the incredible book art by Philip Smith. We have seen bindings by some of the most re-known companies, we have seen craftsmanship and book art. Today we will look at The Silmarillion. It was very difficult to find nice rebindings of The Silmarillion, in fact it seems not a lot have been made.

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Wednesday 26 January 2011
Today we will look at some splendid fine bindings of The Hobbit. Some have a very lavish binding, other a perfect classic binding, some can only be catalogued as pieces of book art.

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Tuesday 25 January 2011
Today we continue our journey and I will show you a lot of Lord of the Rings copies that I like a lot. Some have a very classic binding, of the highest possible quality, others can only be catalogued as pieces of art. The Lord of the Rings is a wonderful book and it seems also a big inspiration for bookbinders, since all the of the best binders all across the globe like to show their take on the amazing art of bookbinding The Lord of the Rings.

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Monday 24 January 2011
Over the next days I'll talk about the amazing art of bookbinding, in a series of articles where I will first look at The Lord of the Rings and show some amazing book art. In this first article in the series I am obliged to start with the best art binder in the world, Philip Smith. He is one of today's most unusual and extraordinary bookbinders.

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Sunday 23 January 2011
As last week I have once again gathered some news that did not make it into blog posts. Once again it is a bit of everything and if I missed something please do send it over to me. So here follows the latest news of all things Tolkien from 17 to 23 january 2011.

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Saturday 22 January 2011
This year it is exactly 30 years ago that we saw the publication of The Letters by J.R.R Tolkien. Since then many fans have hoped for a second volume. Here I will write down my opinion on the possibility of such a volume and the value of Tolkien letters in general. We will also have a closer look at tolkien's use of template letters, much before the computer existed!

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Friday 21 January 2011
I have already announced that Tolkien and the Great War by John Garth is being reprinted in paperback by HarperCollins - it's due out on 28 April. On the same day we will see a reprint of J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter. Let us hope it also gets some corrections, like Garth's book.

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Thursday 20 January 2011
It seems since a week a new trend has started on YouTube to read Tolkien books, since in one week alone several video clips have been posted where people read a part of tolkien's work. Some pick up The Hobbit and read it - guess we will see more of those video clips being posted as the Hobbit Movie comes closers. Other share with us their favorite parts and try to do their best to read it as nice as possible and others takes us with them to their Tolkien meetings.

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Wednesday 19 January 2011
Recently I stumbled upon a very strange print on demand copy of tolkien's Middle English Vocabulary. Actually it took me some time to find out what this book was all about. What I discovered was all together strange and so I just need to share it with all of you!

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Tuesday 18 January 2011
Parma Eldalamberon, The Book of Elven-tongues, is a journal of the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship a special interest group of the Mythopoeic Society. The current issue presents previously unpublished writings by J.R.R. Tolkien concerning his Elvish languages.

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Monday 17 January 2011
From the brush of Donato Giancola, one of the world's most recognized fantasy artists, comes a book filled with illustrations that apply his legendary Renaissance craftsmanship to JRR tolkien's fantastic Middle-earth. Dramatic lighting and deft draftsmanship reminiscent of master painters like Caravaggio explain Donato's popularity with millions of fans.

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Sunday 16 January 2011
Here follows a round-up of all news items I noticed last week that might be of interest to any Tolkien fan, but did not make it into a blog post yet. Also some ideas and thoughts for the future will be posted every Sunday. In the end this year Tolkien Library will exist 10 years and I hope to make it a year to remember. Here follows news about a Tolkien desktop wallpaper, Walter Hooper, reading the History of Middle-earth, the first Inkling chair, poker mystery Isildur1 and the Hobbit movie on twitter

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Saturday 15 January 2011
Just read on facebook, on the wall of John Garth, that his Tolkien and the Great War is being reprinted in paperback by HarperCollins - it's due out on 28 April. The cover has been revamped using a new scan of the 1914 photo of Tolkien, allowing a much tighter crop than the old paperback. It's not a new edition but John Garth has taken the opportunity to make a few corrections to the text.

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Friday 14 January 2011
Tolkien and Wales: Language, Literature and Identity. This book explores how that love influenced tolkien's ideas about language, many aspects of his creative writing, and his sense of an English identity. It describes more fully than before the extent and depth of tolkien's debt to Welsh language and literature, and argues that tolkien's love of Wales and Welsh is inseparable from his love of, and sense of belonging to, England.

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Thursday 13 January 2011
I woke up this morning and as usual checked my emails, finding a press-release about a book called Mirkwood: A Novel About JRR Tolkien by Steve Hillard, said to describe undiscovered manuscripts by Lord of the Rings author. Enough to trigger my attention. It was very obvious there where no real undiscvovered manuscripts and that this book is actually a fantasy novel that uses JRR Tolkien as a character.

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Wednesday 12 January 2011
I'm very happy to announce the collector profile of Andrew Ferguson, Tolkien collector from Essex in England, who primarily collects British editions of tolkien's fiction and almost owns every different UK edition. His goal is probably about 98% complete and so it has now become very difficult to find missing items. He is now focusing on collecting signed Tolkien items. All Tolkien collectors are invited to sent in their own profiles or update the ones already online.

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Tuesday 11 January 2011
Mark your calendars, from 20 to 22 May 2011 Unquendor organizes once again THE event no Tolkien fan wants to miss. Every 5 years Tolkien friends from all over the world come together to celebrate at the Lustrum celebration of the Dutch Tolkien Society Unquendor. Since it only happens once in 5 years it is always a great feast, with lots of international Tolkien friends and speakers.

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Monday 10 January 2011
Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull have just posted on their blog, Too Many Books and Never Enough, that the latest issue of The Tolkien Collector, no. 31, is almost ready.In addition to the usual description of recent books by and about J.R.R. Tolkien, Tolkien Collector 31 contains a lengthy comparison by Christina of the editions to date of tolkien's Father Christmas letters.

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Monday 10 January 2011
When you combine the love for books and a passion for the works of J.R.R. Tolkien then somehow it always turns into a massive or very specialized Tolkien book collection. Around 2006 I started one section on this website that focuses completely on Tolkien collecting. Still, since then I have seen and learned a lot. So now I have decided to rewrite that section completely and rework it into a more comprehensive section of the website. I'll hope to take you on a small trip that will show all aspects of Tolkien collecting.

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Sunday 9 January 2011
Last week I have been sending out a lot of Tolkien calendars signed by the artist Cor Blok. Now I have a small amount still lying here and so I believe some people might be interested to buy one. So if you are interested in obtaining this lovely calendar please contact me. It is probably one of the more beautiful calendars out there for the year 2011 so don't miss out a chance to obtain a signed one now!

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Saturday 8 January 2011
John from Mind on Fire is organising a Book a Day: Giveaway... a nice idea! There is no better thing then giving away books! Today they are on day 8 and are giving away: tolkien's World: Paintings of Middle-earth.

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Friday 7 January 2011
Anything with the name Tolkien on it is valuable and people with the wrong intentions like to abuse the name Tolkien to make profit. It is sad and a pity Tolkien friends and fans spend their money on worthless items like these. I hope examples like this somehow help to avoid buying fake items online.

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Thursday 6 January 2011
After a 13 month absence, my friend Michael Kaisar is back with a new episode of Middle-earth Minutes. This is just a quick update to introduce his newest co-host. Make sure to follow this podcast, since it once again promoses to become very interesting! I'm looking forward to the new episodes - and very happy to hear the introduction of this podcast once again. Always nice to hear tolkien's voice!

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Wednesday 5 January 2011
In April this year there will be released a book by Arne Zettersten that I very much look forward to, tolkien's Double Worlds and Creative Process. It will offer a personally informed analysis of tolkien's fiction. In the light of his unusual life experience and enthusiasm for the study of languages, Zettersten finds in tolkien's fiction the same animating passions that drove that great author as a youth, a soldier, a linguist, and an Oxford Don.

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Tuesday 4 January 2011
The masterful trilogy that is the Lord of the Rings saga is hardly the ultimate fantasy work, but for parents looking to introduce their children into this magnificent fantasy realm, the reading material may seem too advanced for a child. How is it possible to find a means of making a child interested in such a large book? Especially in modern times, children are reading less and less.

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Monday 3 January 2011
Today is J.R.R. tolkien's 119th birthday, which is as good an excuse as any to praise The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion and the Professor himself. Make sure to surf to the Tolkien Society website to bring a toast and enjoy the following interview with Tolkien.

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Monday 13 December 2010
Have you or has someone you know, got any extreme, bizarre and downright ludicrous Lord of the Rings wish? Dreams you want to fulfil, but have never had the guts or the means to do it? Now is your chance... LET MTV MAKE THAT DREAM COME TRUE!

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Friday 10 December 2010
I'm very happy to announce the collector profile of Thomas Denys, a Tolkien collector from Belgium who collects anything Tolkien. He is a very young collector but already we can see he acquired a fabulous collection to be proud of. All Tolkien collectors are invited to sent in their own profiles or update the ones already online.

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Monday 6 December 2010
In April 2010 The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun was released in France. The translation was done by Christine Laferriere and Vincent Ferre. For the release of La legende de Sigurd et Gudrun there was organized a chat event by Tolkiendil. Now, I present you with the translation of this chat session.

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Monday 4 December 2010
The Magical World of the Inklings by Gareth Knight reveals how each of these writers created a magical world which initiates the reader into hidden and powerful realms of the creative imagination. Originally published in 1990, this new edition has been substantially revised and expanded.

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Friday 3 December 2010
My fellow Tolkien friends. Today my mail program suddenly decided I no longer needed all my emails and erased them all. There where however many that needed replying or needed to be posted online. I think about some Tolkien collector profiles, a translation of an interview from French, info on a book on LoTR music, and so on. Well, I all lost it know. So if you wish you can resend your questions, comments and info.

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Tuesday 30 November 2010
Next year will be the year we will look forward to the release of the first The Hobbit movie and so this Christmas it would be a good idea to put a nice copy of the Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien under the Christmas tree. I'm certain this will be a perfect gift - who does not like to read a good book? - and with the first movie coming next year I'm certain there will be a lot of people willing to read the tale before the tale is put on the silver screen.

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Thursday 18 November 2010
Here follows an article about Paul Corfield Godfrey and his Tolkien music. Jeroen Bakker explains us how he discovered the music by this artist and came in contact with him. After this introduction follows an interview that Jeroen conducted with the musician and will be of interest to any Tolkien lover.

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Friday 5 November 2010
In Looking for the King we follow the American Tom McCord, a 23-year-old aspiring doctoral candidate, who is doing research on King Arthur and hopes to discover some historical evidence for the legendary king. Right in the beginning of the book he meets a girl called Laura Hartman, a fellow American staying in Oxford, who has been having mysterious dreams and visions that relate to the subject of research of Tom and so he hires her as his assistant. Aided by the Inklings they set out on a treasure hunt and leads in the end to much more then Tom and Laura were initially looking for.

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Tuesday 26 October 2010
Beyond Bree is pleased to celebrate its 30th Anniversary with a special 2011 calendar featuring art focused on the Istari, the wizards of Tolkiens Middle-earth.

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Tuesday 26 October 2010
I'm very happy to announce the collector profile of Jeroen Bakker, a Tolkien collector from The Netherlands, who is a very passionate music lover, collector of Tolkien Books, Inspired Music, Motion Pictures and Soundtracks. All Tolkien collectors are invited to sent in their own profiles or update the ones already online.

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Wednesday 20 October 2010
Very interesting lot of letters discussing Charles Williams, C.S. Lewis. and the unpublished book by W.H. Auden on J.R.R. Tolkien. The collection includes 4 JRR Tolkien letters written in 1966 and 1967.

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Tuesday 19 October 2010
In this letter Tolkien gives his permission in principle to Mr. Tiller to produce a radio adaptation of The Two Towers and The Return of the King.

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Friday 13 August 2010
In November 2010 there will be released a fiftieth anniversary reissue of Christopher Tolkien masterly translation of the Icelandic Heidrek Saga, including the dramatic Battle of the Goths and the Huns, the lyrical Waking of Angantyr, and the unique riddle-contest between King Heidrek and the god Odin. Christopher Tolkien originally published Saga of King Heidrek the Wise: Translated from the Icelandic with Introduction, Notes and Appendices in 1960.

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Thursday 12 August 2010
Some prefer to read Tolkiens books in the order they were published and others want to read the books in chronological order. This is a very difficult quest and I believe it is very hard to enjoy it since you'll have to jump from the one book to the other constantly. Here I will tell you my personal preferred reading order, which is not based on any logic; except maybe from my own taste.

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Thursday 5 August 2010
The usual sample book prints the half-title, title pages, copyright page and the first 32 pages of the text followed by a couple of hundred blank pages to fill out the book. This copy is different since it is completely filled with blank pages!

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Thursday 5 August 2010
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Published by Unwin Hyman in 1987, this Limited Numbered Signed Edition was published to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the original publication of The Hobbit. Bound in dark green leather, and housed in the original publishers slipcase, as issued. This copy is numbered 51 of 500, and is signed on the Limitation Notice by the Editor, Christopher Tolkien. Only the 1st 100 copies are signed.

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Wednesday 14 July 2010
It is no surprise that there are many people who want to find out more about the man behind The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. In the decades since his death in September 1973, millions have read his books and many have become fascinated about the very private man, the creator, behind these books. Here we have a look at some Tolkien biographies, some good, some better,...

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Tuesday 13 July 2010
Today a newly released book called Wish caught my attention. It is written by the great grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien and is a children story written in verse, based on the timeless childrens story called The Rose-coloured Wish by Florence Bone. The cover is inspired on Tolkiens illustration of the fair valley Rivendell.

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Tuesday 13 July 2010
This collection of stories drawn and blended from the fabric of Middle-earth by JRR Tolkien, written by Alex Lewis, was first issued in a series of 3 comprehensive booklets for members of the Tolkien Society in 1990. In 2005 they were expanded and beautifully illuminated by the hand of Ruth Lacon. The 2005 edition was limited to 100 copies and sold out very quickly. Most of these are in the hands of Tolkien Completist's and are very hard to find. This new edition is also limited to 100 copies and are individually hand tipped and signed by Alex Lewis and Ruth Lacon. It is an ivory edition that comes in a matching ivory slipcase.

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Wednesday 7 July 2010
Good news! The Tolkien Calendar featuring the art by Cor Blok has been released and is now shipping. All reactions I heard so far are very good and most people who sent me there comments find it just fabulous. So time to order the calendar now! Enjoy every single illustration.

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Monday 5 July 2010
Yvan Strelzyk, a Tolkien collector from Thonon-les-Bains in France, specialized in Tolkien translations, French and English Hobbits and Lord of the Rings editions just send me an update of his profile. He now has over 700 volumes in his collection. All Tolkien collectors are invited to sent in their own profiles or update the ones already online.

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Friday 2 July 2010
Festival in the Shire just announced the main music performance on Sunday evening will be Rick Wakeman. Guess a lot of older Tolkien fans are going to be very happy! Rick Wakeman has said of the festival in the shire: I very much look forward to being a part of the festival and learning more about the uniqueness of Tolkien and his work. I'm genuinely a big admirer of Tolkien.

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Thursday 1 July 2010
Since the release of Black and White Ogre Country, the Lost Tales of Hilary Tolkien we were all waiting for the bigger biography. This biography of Hilary Tolkien, brother to J.R.R. Tolkien, is now ready and will be released shortly. Sharing their formative years together and then heading into the trenches of The Great War, the book shows the correspondence between the Tolkien brothers and their wives during the war and since, with family photographs and letters.

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Thursday 24 June 2010
Peter Kenny aka Fortinbras Proudfoot, a Tolkien collector from Brisbane, which is in the far away land down under, called Oz, a long way from the ancient lands of Middle Earth across the Encircling Seas, just send me an update of his profile. He now has over 800 items in his collection. All Tolkien collectors are invited to sent in their own profiles or update the ones already online.

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Thursday 24 June 2010
Because it seems the week of talking about paperbacks, let us look at another one today, J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century by Tom Shippey. This paperback was already released in May, but it is good to mention it now. Before I say much more I wish to say that any serious Tolkien fan or anyone who is interested in the man behind The Lord of the Rings, should read this book. Buy this paperback edition and take it along on your holiday!

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Wednesday 23 June 2010
Yesterday we talked about the Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun paperbacks, today I wish to talk about another work by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Children of Hurin. This book has just been released in a Mass Market Paperback edition by Del Rey, and is another good candidate to take along on your next holiday.

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Tuesday 22 June 2010
When looking for Tolkien collectables, like calendars, games, figurines, jewelery,... I go to The Tolkien Shop in Leiden, Holland; the only brick-and-mortar shop in the world entirely dedicated to J.R.R. Tolkien! Let us have a look at the signed letters and books that are available from The Tolkien Shop.

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Tuesday 22 June 2010
Summer is coming, and it is time to go out and about, travel and read books outside! Most will know about the previously unknown work by J.R.R. Tolkien, which tells the epic story of the Norse hero, Sigurd, the dragon-slayer, the revenge of his wife, Gudrun, and the Fall of the Nibelungs, that was released in 2009. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun is now available in Paperback from different publishers, so time to obtain a copy.

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Monday 21 June 2010
Tolkien Thing is the annual convention of the German Tolkien Society and welcomes more than a hundred fellow Tolkien fans from all over Europe. This year it will be held on 15/16 until 18 July 2010 in Hersfeld. Special guests are the Danish Tolkien Society Bri, Caspar Reiff and Peter Hall from the Tolkien Ensemble and the harp virtuoso Kim Skovbye.

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Monday 21 June 2010
The Quiz book was originally offered in limited release in 1979 in the US and in 1980 in the United Kingdom, and was reprinted several times (using different covers). Now The Middle-earth Quiz Book is being offered again to devoted and new fans of Tolkiens legendary works, with permission of the Tolkien Estate. Congratulations Suzanne Coon to get this book back, we are most gratefull for this!

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Sunday 20 June 2010
After the very successful release from Tales from the Perilous Realm by BBC Audiobooks America in 2008, the hardback and deluxe edition by HarperCollins in the same year, we had to wait until now to receive the unabridged audio edition of Tales from the Perilous Realm.

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Saturday 19 June 2010
Interview with Mark Faith, organizer of Festival in the Shire, that was conducted by Alex Lewis and myself, Pieter Collier, representing the Tolkien Library. It will give you more insight about the person behind this brilliant event, his passion, believes and an invitation to join and come over to celebrate your own passion for all things Tolkien together in Wales! Festival in the Shire, will be the biggest and most exciting event for Tolkien enthusiasts in 2010. It will be held on August 13 to 15 at Pafiliwn Bont, Ponthrhydfendigaid in Wales.

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Tuesday 20 April 2010
After the Tolkien calendar for The Lord of the Rings (2007), The Children of Hurin (2008) and The Silmarillion (2009) and The Lord of the Rings (2010) we will get a very interesting new take on the Tolkien calendar 2011. The official Tolkien calendar, this year will contain 13 paintings inspired by The Lord of the Rings, and will feature many previously unseen works of art by the Dutch artist, Cor Blok.

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Thursday 1 April 2010
This enchanting little hardback is an essential companion for any reader journeying through The Silmarillion or The Children of Hurin. Featuring an entertaining text and detailed gazetteer by acclaimed Tolkien author Brian Sibley, this gift edition also contains a stunning fold-out poster-map of the First Age of Middle-earth. The map is based on the original map by Christopher Tolkien. Embellished with heraldic emblems and dramatic scenes from The Silmarillion, it completes the trio of authorized Tolkien maps by John Howe which can be removed for reference or even for framing.

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Thursday 1 April 2010
It has been a while since the First (1969) and Second (1971) Conferences on Middle-earth. But I have been informed by Thain Peregrin Took II that there will be held a 3rd Conference on Middle-earth on 26 March 2011 at the Westford Regency Inn in Westford, MA, USA. A Tolkien Compass edited by Jared Lobdell came from the first two conferences, so I'm certain this 3rd one will be very interesting to visit, follow or support!

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Thursday 1 April 2010
If you read and liked The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, learned more about tolkien's mythology by reading The Silmarillion or even worked your way through the series of The History of Middle-earth. I can imagine that now you want another great reading of Tolkien fantasy? Maybe you should skip this book and go for a copy of Unfinished Tales, since The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun is something different and can bee seen as a scholarly work. However if you are into Norse mythology, and have for example already read Beowulf, Sir Orfeo and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, you will love this book as well. As of today you can enjoy it in paperback.

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Monday 29 March 2010
This book by Oliver Loo contains over 1100 words and is intended to be a quick reference guide for the reader of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, where old, uncommon and archaic words can be quickly looked up and their meaning made clear.

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Thursday 25 March 2010
Together with the History of Middle-earth hardback series we will see the publication of the hardback edition of the History of Middle-earth Index, the complete integrated indices of History of Middle-earth volumes. See the cover here.

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Thursday 25 March 2010
25 March means Tolkien Reading Day! Time to take up your books and read your favorite passages, or even better go outside and read them out loud in a public place or join a local Tolkien Reading Day event in your area! Here at Tolkienlibrary.com we very much like the Reading Event and we very much like to spread our love about Tolkien books. That is why we will have Jason Sadler from iwearyourshirt.com wear a Tolkien Library T-shirt today and read Tolkien books all day long!

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Tuesday 23 March 2010
Many collectors are waiting for the release of the hardback History of Middle-earth series. Originally the books were planned to be released on 4 March 2010, but this has been delayed. The republication of the History of Middle-earth series is now planned to coincide with the relaunch of the Tolkien website, www.tolkien.co.uk. So, the books will be available from 7 April. Also the publication of the limited edition poster of Oliphaunt will be delayed to the 7th of April. We can except interviews and other special features on this new site.

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Wednesday 10 March 2010
I'm extremely happy to publish the following interview with the artist Cor Blok, where we talk about the art he created 50 years ago, the Tolkien Calendar 2011 and we learn some more about this very talented and interesting person.

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Tuesday 9 March 2010
The printing of The Oliphaunt poster will be strictly limited to a run of 100 copies which are for sale worldwide. There will be no further copies produced. This letterpress poster have been printed and numbered by hand by the designer, Richard Ardagh, and Graham Bignell at New North Press. It is a truly unique item that will form an elegant part of any collection. Once framed, it will prove a talking point and treasured heirloom for many years to come.

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Thursday 4 March 2010
Just as the last few years I contacted David Brawn, the publishing director of Harper Collins, to get some more information. The questions were sent before I announced the 2011 Tolkien Calendar, as well as the announcement of the reprint of The History of Middle-earth and news about the Oliphaunt poster. Here follows some more info on the new Tolkien books that will be released this year. 2010 will be very exciting for the Tolkien fans and as you will read, we are in for some nice editions.

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Thursday 4 March 2010
On March 1 the author Jeremy M. Robinson released another Tolkien book, J.R.R. Tolkien: Pocket Guide, a new guide to the life and work of J.R.R. Tolkien, the premier British fantasy author of the 20th century, and his great works: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.

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Thursday 4 March 2010
Oliphaunt is a poem by J.R.R. Tolkien which was first published in The Lord of the Rings, now it has been released as a Limited Edition Poster. It was created by Richard Ardagh. Here is an image of the poster.

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Tuesday 16 February 2010
The world first publication of a previously unknown work by J.R.R. Tolkien, which tells the epic story of the Norse hero, Sigurd, the dragon-slayer, the revenge of his wife, Gudrun, and the Fall of the Nibelungs will be released in paperback format on 1 April 2010.

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Friday 12 February 2010
On March 1 the author Jeremy M. Robinson will release another Tolkien book, J.R.R. Tolkien: Pocket Guide, a new guide to the life and work of J.R.R. Tolkien, the premier British fantasy author of the 20th century, and his great works: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.

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Friday 12 February 2010
As already announced earlier, The History of Middle-earth hardcover series will be reprinted. Today I reveal the covers that will be used. Now I am very much waiting to see the cover of the hardcover Index volume. I will add it here as soon as an image is available.

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Friday 5 February 2010
A new reissue has been released of the b-format edition of JRR Tolkiens legacy of short stories which inhabit the realm of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. It now uses a cover of Ted Nasmith. Hopefully we see an illustrated 30 Anniversary Edition released further this year!

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Friday 5 February 2010
In the following interview Anke gives an account of her relationship to Tolkien and his works, her passion for art as well as the luxury edition of the Dragon Episode taken from Beowulf which is published by Walking Tree Publishers. The interview was conducted by Andre Gand and published on November 21th, 2009 at www.tolkien-buecher.de. We wish to thank him to give the kind permission to reproduce this interview here.

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Friday 5 February 2010
HarperCollins will now reprint all volumes and keep the original look and feel, so that people wishing to complete there series will be able to do so now! Also exciting is that we will see a hardcover edition of the History of Middle-earth Index released that will match the original series!

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Friday 5 February 2010
HarperCollins is slowly giving more info on the rerelease of the very succesfull maps of Middle-earth. In total the series exists of three hardbacks. One has already released and two can now be pre-ordered. Each element in the three collectors packages are special: together they provide an enchanting and desirable artefact that will be a prized possession of Tolkien readers of all ages. All three new editions will be completely revised and updated in a new format. See pictures of all three here for the first time.

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Saturday 23 January 2010
The official Tolkien calendar, this year will contain 13 paintings inspired by The Lord of the Rings, and will feature many previously unseen works of art by the Dutch artist, Cor Blok. Cor Blok, now a retired Dutch professor in history of art, made more than 100 illustrations for The Lord of the Rings as a graduation project at his art college. This was in 1960 and 1961, so now over 50 years ago. His work is well-known in The Netherlands and Belgium because three of his paintings were on the first Dutch paperback edition of The Lord of the Rings.

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Saturday 23 January 2010
Most scholarship about J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis describes their shared faith and academic interests or analyzes each writers fantasy works. War of the Fantasy Worlds: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien on Art and Imagination is the first to focus solely on their contrasting concepts of fantasy. The authors views of art and imagination, the book shows, are not only central to understanding the themes, value, and relevance of their fantasy fiction, but are also strikingly different.

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Wednesday 20 January 2010
Henk Brassien, the Hobbit Hunter, just send me an update of his profile. He is specialized in collecting The Hobbit. He currently owns all the Dutch imprints (73 out of 73 imprints since 1960) and at least one copy of any language in which The Hobbit ever was published. All Tolkien collectors are invited to sent in their own profiles or update the ones already online.

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Tuesday 19 January 2010
It is my pleasure to announce the following event: The Rose on the Ash-heap, a dramatisation with harp music of Owen Barfields 1929 novella. The event will take place on thursday 25th March 2010, also Tolkien Reading Day. I am sure any Tolkien fan will enjoy both events.

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Tuesday 19 January 2010
Oliphaunt is a poem by J.R.R. Tolkien which was first published in The Lord of the Rings, Book IV, Chapter 3, and reprinted with the title Oliphaunt in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book (1962). It is now long out of print and has now been announced to be released as a limited edition poster by Richard Ardagh and published by Harper Collins in March. Preorder a copy now, since the print run will be very limited.

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Monday 18 January 2010
It is my great pleasure to announce that the new Lembas Extra, the annual magazine of the Dutch Tolkien Society Unquendor, has been released. Once again it is packed with essays on Tolkien and Middle-earth, all written in English so that all Tolkien fans across the globe can enjoy the articles. The theme of this Lembas Extra is Tolkien in Poetry and Song. There are several essays about Tolkien poetry, like Mythopoeia and The Song of Durin, but there is also tolkien-inspired poetry from Dutch and foreign authors.

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Tuesday 1 December 2009
J.R.R. Tolkien: The Books, The Films, The Whole Cultural Phenomenon, Including a Scene By Scene Analysis of the 2001-2003 Lord of the Rings Films by Jeremy Mark Robinson is a new critical study of J.R.R. Tolkien, creator of Middle-earth and author of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and other books. This new book draws on contemporary cultural theory and analysis and offers a sceptical but sympathetic and illuminating account of the Tolkien phenomenon. This book is designed to appeal to the general reader (and viewer) of Tolkien: it is written in a clear, jargon-free and easily-accessible style.

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Tuesday 1 December 2009
Peter Jackson has hinted that production for The Hobbit will be delayed from the original estimate of March 2010 to the middle of 2010. Speaking to German site Movie Reporter, the producer stated the production will be started after scripts for the two films are complete. Following Jacksons statement, there has been a speculation that the release dates for The Hobbit and The Hobbit 2 will also be pushed back.

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Tuesday 24 November 2009
The Lord of the Rings fan movie The Hunt For Gollum has now been seen by over 4 million people from all over the world. While it was only made on a very tiny budget of GBP 3000 and freely distributed through the internet it has proven to be an enormous hit. The 40 minute film, directed by the unknown Chris Bouchard, depects events leading up to the Peter Jackson trilogy, giving the Middle-earth fans some fresh material while waiting for The Hobbit movies.

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Monday 23 November 2009
Full Tilt Poker has been benefitting from the extra buzz of excitement created by having a mysterious player appear out of the blue on the site one day and take on the biggest names in the business. Isildur1, the poker player, and Isildur, from Tolkiens books, seems to be kind of the same package.

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Monday 23 November 2009
The Art of John Howe - Sculptures from Middle-earth is a series of sculptures from John Howes iconic representations of Tolkiens world, sculpted by Weta sculptors Daniel Cockersell, Brigitte Wuest and Eden Small under the creative guidance of John Howe and Richard Taylor. Here are the first two statues both available in bronze (20 pieces worldwide ) or in faux-bronze (300 pieces worldwide). Once more are available, I will add them to this page.

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Thursday 19 November 2009
t took another few months, and a very long night of work, but we have finally managed to create another episode of the Middle-earth Minutes Podcast. Good thing is that we actually managed to record some other news as well, so you can expect a new episode real soon! This episode covers the news and events from the last couple of months, where Michael Kaiser and Pieter Collier (thats me) bring you up to date on specific items of interest to any fan of Tolkien.

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Tuesday 17 November 2009
It is expected that in one of the following weeks the latest book by Walking Tree Publishers, Music in Middle-earth, will be released. Simultaniasly a German version will be published by Verlag der Villa Fledermaus, Musik in Mittelerde. The editors are Friedhelm Schneidewind and Heidi Steimel. Both copies will hold the same essays, which are written by authors like Bradford Lee Eden and Fabian Geier.

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Sunday 15 November 2009
Parma Eldalamberon, The Book of Elven-tongues, is a journal of the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship, a special interest group of the Mythopoeic Society. They have just announced the release of issue 18, which presents previously unpublished writings by J. R. R. Tolkien concerning his Elvish languages and early versions of his invented scripts. These have been edited and annotated by Christopher Gilson, Arden R. Smith and Patrick H. Wynne, under the guidance of Christopher Tolkien and with the permission of the Tolkien Estate.

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Sunday 15 November 2009
As we all know J.R.R. Tolkien is best known for his The Lord of the Rings, but his work is far more immense and so multilayered that the average reader or viewer tends to easily miss his point. In the book The Lord of the Rings: Quilting an English, Pagan-Christian Mythology, the author Hosszu Csilla Timea tries to open up and clarify certain things and thus bring Tolkiens world closer to present and would-be readers.

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Saturday 14 November 2009
Yvan Strelzyk, a Tolkien collector from Thonon-les-Bains in France, specialized in Tolkien translations, French and English Hobbits and Lord of the Rings editions just send me an update of his profile. He now has over 670 volumes in his collection. All Tolkien collectors are invited to sent in their own profiles or update the ones already online.

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Saturday 14 November 2009
J.R.R. Tolkien is very famous for his The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, some even know his other book the Silmarillion and that he was professor at Oxford. He is however less well known as a sub-editor to a work at least as important and maybe more influential then The Lord of the Rings, namely the Oxford English Dictionary. This paperback edition of The Ring of Words explains all about Tolkiens link to the OED and takes us on a trip of word studies.

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Saturday 14 November 2009
It is a short German biography and introduction to the works by J.R.R. Tolkien on approximately 150 pages. Above all it cites J.R.R Tolkien himself (reproductions of Tolkiens letters), making it a book where Tolkien presents himself and his ideas. In addition of a pure biography this books also tries to discuss Tolkiens books and there internal connections. Next to these book descriptions follow Tolkiens own considerations and reactions about his works. In this book there are also about 50 pictures.

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Friday 13 November 2009
War of the Ring Collectors Edition will release worldwide in December 2009. A second batch will be released begin 2010. This game is limited to 2000 copies worldwide (1500 English, 500 German) and will NEVER be reprinted. Dont miss this once-in-a-lifetime chance!

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Friday 13 November 2009
The Etymologies is a document edited by Christopher Tolkien which appears in English in the The History of Middle-Earth: the Lost Road and Other Writings. The reader will find explanations of many Elven names and discover the starting points of many tales imagined by Tolkien. Published with the help of the Tolkien Estate and Christopher Tolkien, illustrated by Alan Lee, this work is single in its kind. It has now been released in French as a paperback version by Christian Bourgois Editeur.

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Friday 13 November 2009
For fans of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Elvenquest (BBC Audio), this is the epic fantasy series first heard on BBC Radio 4 in 1980 that wonderfully parodies J.R.R. Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings. It contains some good ideas but the series has, these days, been largely forgotten. Here are all four episodes of the classic radio series - now available for the first time on Audio CD.

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Sunday 8 November 2009
A beautifully captured moment in which the Lady of Lothlorien gently bids farewell to the ring bearer, Galadriels Blessing - Framed Lithograph Fine Art Print by renowned artist Jerry Vanderstelt can now be a part of your Middle-Earth collection by placing your Pre-Order through SideshowCollectibles.com!

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Saturday 7 November 2009
Once in a while one finds a book that seems to be talking about the Lord of the Rings, you had not noticed it before, and when you find it you doubt if it was a good thing that it surfaced. Here is a book that is called Cinematic Scripture: The Structure and Usage of The Lord of the Rings as Equipment for Living and was published in May 2009 by VDM Verlag.

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Saturday 7 November 2009
It seems to become a monthly thing that Heritage Auction Galleries is selling some nice Tolkien related art. Especially the art from book covers and Tolkien calendars is coming out on the market. If only I had some very deep pockets I would have tried to buy some Tolkien art last October. Also this month one is able to place bids on a nice piece of Tolkien art, this time by Rowena. Here follows the description of that painting and the results of some other Tolkien art that sold last month.

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Saturday 7 November 2009
In the last couple of days I have been working on a major update in the Tolkien Book Shop, adding a lot of nice custom rebound editions as well as all major deluxe editions, india paper limited editions and folio society numbered editions. Some very unique pieces will be added in the next few weeks. I have acquired some signed Lord of the Rings sets and signed The Hobbit books, so keep an eye on the store or enquire about these now.

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Saturday 17 October 2009
HarperCollins is slowly giving more info on the rerelease of the very succesfull maps of Middle-earth. In total the series exists of three hardbacks. One has already released and two can now be pre-ordered.

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Friday 16 October 2009
The days are getting shorter and over here in Belgium the first cold also arrived. I can almost smell it is that time of the year again. Christmas is coming, as is the yearly tradition of reading out loud from one particular book. My kids just love it, The Father Christmas Letters by J.R.R. Tolkien. This year I will read from the new 10th Anniversary paperback edition, that just has been released.

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Friday 16 October 2009
The official Tolkien calendar 2010 and Tolkien diary 2010 each contain 16 magnificent landscape paintings by renowned artist Ted Nasmith, selected from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, and featuring several brand new works of art. They are now available and will make a perfect present for any Tolkien lover.

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Thursday 15 October 2009
Having been very busy lately, Im running a bit behind on all fronts. Still in the next few weeks Ill hope to write some short articles to get back on track and talk about some interesting new releases. I am for example very excited about the new volume (No. 19) in the Cormare Series by Walking Tree Publishers. One thing is certain, whenever they release a new book it is always very interesting! This time it is a book in which we can learn a lot about the man behind The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien himself.

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Thursday 17 September 2009
Today is a happy day, because The Hobbit has finally arrived in Frisian. Im certain many Hobbit collectors will be very excited, but the Frisians will be even more so! Now the adventurous travel of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins can be followed in the Frisian language. Frisian Anne Tjerk Popkema has released the translation of The Hobbit from J.R.R. Tolkien and was published by the Frisian publisher Elikser. Firstly published in 1937, it has already been translated into over fifty languages.

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Tuesday 15 September 2009
After a long summer sleep Im back with something nice - I was asked by Michael Kaiser, the creator of the lovely Middle-earth Minutes Podcast, to join in and to discuss news and views about all things Tolkien: Literature, Art, Film, Festivals and more. As of now I hope to be contributing to all the following Middle-earth Minutes, and I certainly hope that you will enjoy the news that we have brought you - some of which is being heard here for the very 1st time.

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Wednesday 22 July 2009
Here I announce a book that will appear at the end of the year, addressing the lack of discussion of Tolkiens style in scholarly interrogations of that writer, this book uncovers the multifaceted appeal of Tolkiens prose style. It is called The Power of Tolkiens Prose: Middle-earths Magical Style and is written by Steven C. Walker. Here follows an interview with the author Steven C. Walker about his upcoming book.

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Wednesday 22 July 2009
The wait is over! It has been four long years since Weta last released any new collectibles from The Lord of the Rings. Their new license covers a wide range of new product categories, beginning with the following new items to be launched at San Diego Comic-Con on July 22-26, 2009. See them here: A full scale replica of Gollum, a very limited-edition of the most authentic swords from The Lord of the Rings, Miniature Shield Collectibles and the Gandalf the Grey Cloak.

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Monday 13 July 2009
This new paperback is part of a series that explores links in Tolkiens writings with the Arthurian tradition. The first book in the series has just been released and has received once again a very fabulous cover design by Ruth Lacon. I expect this book to be genuinely thought-provoking, and readers will find plenty to get their teeth into - if this books follows the same path as the previous publications. For sure I look forward to read about the links between Beren and Luthiens tale and the Arthurian Legends.

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Friday 10 July 2009
On one of my wanderings around the internet I stumbled upon the article Edel-Silmarillion als Diplomarbeit. As by chance I discovered the most beautiful copy of The Silmarillion I had ever seen. With a little help from the kind people of Der Herr der Ringe I got into contact with the creator of this Edel-Silmarillion, Benjamin Harff. He accepted to do an interview about his art work. I truly hope to see more Tolkien art from this upcoming Tolkien artist! But for now enjoy this interview and the pictures of his version of The Silmarillion.

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Thursday 9 July 2009
Im very happy to release an interview with the author Andrew H. Morton about his new book Tolkiens Bag End. In Tolkiens Bag End, Andrew Morton sets out to uncover the significance of the Worcestershire manor house that famously gave its name to the home of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I hope this interview will shed light on the author and his latest Tolkien related book.

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Friday 3 July 2009
Members of the famed Inklings literary circle lived in the university city of Oxford. What were the places there like where people like C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien met to talk and to share their writing? You will find the answer in this lively book, whose stunning photographs and insightful text will deepen your knowledge of Oxford and the Inklings alike.

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Thursday 2 July 2009
In only a few weeks time a very special meeting will take place at the beautiful medieval castle of Rieneck in Northern Bavaria. The annual convention of the German Tolkien Society, the Tolkien Thing (i.e. moot), will get together not only friends and guests from all over the continent but also one special guest we are very happy to have with us: Tom Shippey.

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Wednesday 1 July 2009
Most of you probably remember Andrew H. Mortons book Tolkiens Gedling 1914, that talked about Tolkiens aunt Jane Neave and Tolkiens connection with Gedling. Now Andrew is back with a new book and it is called Tolkiens Bag End.

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Wednesday 1 July 2009
The Hobbitonian Anthology: of Articles on J.R.R. Tolkien and his Legendarium by Mark T. Hooker has been published. This new book, The Hobbitonian Anthology, is the second volume of articles by Mark T. Hooker that picks up where A Tolkienian Mathomium left off. Hookers analysis is from a linguistic perspective similar to Tolkiens.

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Sunday 28 June 2009
Added to the Tolkien Book Store: The Hobbit, 1987 Super Deluxe Signed Limited Edition, 13 of 100 Signed Copies. A wonderful copy of an extremely collectable book. In unread condition, a must for the serious collector.

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Thursday 25 June 2009
Arda Reconstructed: The Creation of the Published Silmarillion by Douglas C. Kane was published in March 2009. Today Im very happy to say that a reader from TolkienLibrary.com has contributed a review of this book. I hope this review will not only provoke people to leave a comment at the bottom of the article, but also to inspire them to sent in there own reviews of Tolkien books. It would be a big honor to publish them here.

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Thursday 18 June 2009
Philologist, author, mythmaker and creator of Middle Earth - a biography of J.R.R Tolkien, probably one of the first articles I wrote and later published in The Art of Ruth Lacon. It gives an overview of Tolkien from the early years up to Tolkiens legacy.

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Wednesday 17 June 2009
The Children of Hurin is now a manjor bestseller. But because not everyone will be able to read The Children of Hurin in English I thought it a good idea to create a small list of all the translations out there. Ill add any extra info as it comes in so that in the end I hope this page will give all the info about all the Children of Hurin translations. Please sent me info on your local translations!

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Wednesday 17 June 2009
Amazons book blog Omnivoracious has got Fantasy Author China Mieville as a guest blogger this week. He has got several posts and a podcast up, but the best so far is his article: Here and Back Again: Five Reasons Tolkien Rocks. The article is not a real turn around, but Mieville is pretty famous for ripping into Tolkien. He now turns and even praises and thanks Tolkien. Here is a reproduction of the article and some more about China Mieville.

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Monday 15 June 2009
At the end of this month there will be released a very interesting book about the influence of languages on Tolkien. It will shed a light on all languages that had a great impact on Tolkiens creative writing, give us a good insight in Tolkiens academic carreer and give a nice introduction to Tolkiens invented languages. The book is written by no one less then Dr Elizabeth Solopova and here is an interview with the author on her new book, Languages, Myth and History.

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Monday 15 June 2009
An important association copy, inscribed by the author on the front flyleaf, with - To Stella Mills, from her old friend, J.R.R. Tolkien, - will be offered for auction at PBA galleries in San Francisco (USA) on the 25th of June. Stella Marie Mills was a student of E.V. Gordon and J.R.R. Tolkien at Leeds and she later edited and translated, under the guidance of Godron, The Saga of Hrolf Kraki an Icelandic or Viking epic, which was published by Oxford University Press in 1933.

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Thursday 11 June 2009
At the end of this month there will be released a new book about J.R.R. Tolkien, and more specific about the influence of languages on Tolkien. The book is written by no one less then Dr Elizabeth Solopova and this means that it will be very interesting! Have already added this book to my pre-order list! Languages, Myths and History: An Introduction to the Linguistic and Literary background of J. R. R. Tolkiens Fiction introduces languages and literatures which were particularly important for Tolkien as a writer.

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Wednesday 10 June 2009
It seems in December there was released a very interesting paperback set, that only now showed up in Amazon. According to David Brawn at HarperCollins this set was produced for the export market only and there fore it is logic the sets only showed up very late on Amazon and appeared first on the German retail market. It is now better available and will also be released in Australia on 1/08/2009 and probably will be released globally very soon. Here are some better pictures of the set and all latest info.

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Wednesday 10 June 2009
Normally the cover art of the Tolkien Calendar and Diary are very simular, this year however both feature a unique and amazing work by the Tolkien artist Ted Nasmith. Today Im glad to reveal the cover art for the Tolkien Diary 2010. It looks absolutely stunning.

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Wednesday 10 June 2009
We are delighted to bring you some exclusive material which inspired the new Tolkien book; including a rare extract from an original page from Tolkiens own manuscript of The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun. Also find here some illustrations used in the book.

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Wednesday 10 June 2009
There has just been announced a fun contest by the Tolkien Team of HarperCollins. Here is your chance to win a Hobbit audio book on CD by just sending in your review of the latest Tolkien book The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun.

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Thursday 4 June 2009
A number of people have expressed interest in what the status of the Tolkien/New Line lawsuit is, and whether it still represents a threat to the Hobbit films. Because Douglas C. Kane had written about the subject before, I asked if he would be willing to write a brief update on the situation now. He was happy to do so. Thanks Douglas!

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Thursday 4 June 2009
HarperCollins has already announced it will replace the paperback version of the book, called The Map of Tolkiens Middle-earth, which sold more than 100,000 copies when published for the Tolkien Centenary in the 1990s, and out of print for more than five years. This new hardback is called the Road Goes Ever On and On. Now HarperCollins has announced they will also republish the other two paperbacks, The Map of Tolkiens Beleriand and the map of The Hobbit in this new Harback format.

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Tuesday 2 June 2009
It does not happen often, but sometimes it seems that Amazon only lists new Tolkien related books after they have already been published. Today I noticed a thin book of 72 pages with a very long title, Roots of Middle-Earth Seeds of Fantasy: Mythical and Literary Heritage in The Lord of the Rings, and J. R. R. Tolkiens Classic as Fantasy. This book was published in October 2008 and only now showed up on Amazon. In this work, the reader may discover the way and the extent to which certain character-level elements of the literary affiliates of myths, legends and fairy-tales effected the creation of such important characters in Tolkiens classic as Dwarves, Elves, Hobbits, and Wizards. Besides, the most prominent features of The Lord of the Rings based on which this book can be characterised as fantasy will also be presented, together with a comprehensive description of this literary mode.

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Tuesday 2 June 2009
The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun is a previously unpublished work by J.R.R. Tolkien, written while Tolkien was Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford during the 1920s and 30s, before he wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It makes available for the first time Tolkiens extensive retelling in English narrative verse of the epic Norse tales of Sigurd the Volsung and The Fall of the Niflungs. It includes an introduction by J.R.R. Tolkien, drawn from one of his own lectures on Norse literature, with commentary and notes on the poems by Christopher Tolkien. Today the Deluxe edition by the US Tolkien publisher Houghton Mifflin has been released.

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Saturday 30 May 2009
Perhaps most unknown about J.R.R. Tolkien is that he was an editor of The Jerusalem Bible, published in 1966 just after the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council. Tolkiens contribution was the translation of Jonah, one of the most famous bible stories. In August Tolkiens translation of Jonah will be published by the original publishers of the 1966 Jerusalem Bible. It will feature previously unpublished material. Here is all info about this new Tolkien book.

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Friday 29 May 2009
The Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies is one of the four awards given by the Mythopoeic Society. It is given to books on J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis or Charles Williams that make significant contributions to Inklings scholarship. The finalists for the 2009 Mythopoeic Awards have just been announced and feature once again the best authors and books in the field of Inkling scholarship. Tolkienlibrary.com would like to congratulate all the nominees. The winners of this years awards will be announced during Mythcon 40 in Los Angeles, California. Here is a list of the finalists for the Award in Inkling Studies.

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Saturday 7 February 2009
After the Tolkien calendar for The Children of Hurin (2008) and The Silmarillion (2009), the 2010 Calendar will focus on the landscapes of Lord of the Rings. The official Tolkien calendar 2010 will contain 16 magnificent landscape paintings by renowned artist Ted Nasmith, selected from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, and featuring several brand new works of art.

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Wednesday 27 May 2009
Here is your chance to see and hear The Fellowship of the Ring live at Radio City Music Hall on Friday, October 9th and Saturday October 10th. For this extraordinary event, 300 musicians - a 75-piece orchestra and a 225-member choir - have been gathered to perform the complete score to 2001s The Fellowship of the Ring live with the motion picture on a massive screen towering above the stage. This once-in-a-lifetime, family-friendly event, held at the most prestigious concert venue in the world, is a milestone affair not to be missed by fans of The Lord of the Rings and classical music lovers everywhere! Tickets are on sale now! Do not miss it!

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Saturday 16 May 2009
The author of Arda Reconstructed: The Creation of the Published Silmarillion, Douglas C. Kane, has been so kind to sent over some signed stickers to stick inside your copy of the book. If you are interested to have a signed Douglas C. Kane sticker please sent me an email with your postal adress and Ill be happy to sent you one over.

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Saturday 9 May 2009
On the 5th of May was released The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun. Because a new Tolkien book is not being released every day, or even not every year, I thought it a good thing to organise an online release event. Online Release Events always have some common features, like a lot of chatting about J.R.R. Tolkien and his books, giveaways or contests and chat sessions with special guests. Because the new Tolkien book was not Middle-earth related and because neither HarperCollins or Houghton Mifflin were doing a live release event (remember the Children of Hurin release parties in London and New York!) I thought it good to make it a one day only event. One day, one guest... only one person came in my mind: Professor Tom Shippey.

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Tuesday 5 May 2009
The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun Contest has ended and the winners are announced. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun Release Party has also ended and I must admit that it was big fun! Glad so many joined in to celebrate the new book. Thanks to Tom Shippey to participate! Transcript will be posted at Tolkienlibrary.com as soon as possible.

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Saturday 2 May 2009
According to the Telegraph, the new Tolkien book is already one of Britains most pre-ordered titles, stating that fans of Tolkiens book will seek clues to the characters and events in his later novels, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The new Tolkien book is however something completely different, but nonetheless incredibly fascinating. The new book consists of two closely associated poems, to which Tolkien gave the titles The New Lay of the Volsungs and The New Lay of Gudrun, based on the legends of Volsung and Nibelung. The two poems are written in modern English fitted to the Old Norse metre, and now appear for the first time as The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun.

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Wednesday 29 April 2009
The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun Release Party is an online event to celebrate the publication of The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, the new book by J.R.R. Tolkien, first released worldwide on Tuesday 5th of May 2009. It will be released in the UK by Tolkien publisher HarperCollins and in the US by Houghton Mifflin. The event will take place online on May the 5th, 2009 and is being organized by TolkienLibrary.com. Next to chatting and celebrating the release of the new Tolkien book there will be giveaways and a chat session with special guest Tom Shippey, one of the best Tolkien scholars on this planet.

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Thursday 23 April 2009
On Amazon there has been released Part I of the foreword for the new Tolkien book. It is brilliantly written by Christopher Tolkien and really makes you want to read the upcoming book. Here it is reproduced.

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Monday 20 April 2009
Today, I am very happy to be able to release the following interview with Bill Sanderson. He is part of a talented generation that matured in the 1970s and has carried on working in much the same way to the present. His book illustration work includes a series of Penguin covers for the novels of Anthony Burgess in the 1980s, Harry Harrison and Felix Dennis. Now, early May his art will be seen in the upcoming The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun.

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Monday 30 March 2009
On April 4th you can go and enjoy J.R.R. Tolkien and Fantasy Inspired Art Exhibition: Land of Enchantment in England, but if you live at the other side of the world you can go to the Peruvian Tolkien Society annual meeting: The Great Council in Lima, Peru. There will be talks, theater, language sessions, giveaways and a lot of fun.

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Saturday 28 March 2009
The audio book of The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun will be read by Brian Denis Cox, who is a BAFTA- and Emmy Award-winning, Golden Globe-nominated British actor. Cox narrated an abridged audio book version of Sir Walter Scotts novel Ivanhoe, and an unabridged audio book of JRR Tolkiens The Silmarillion.

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Saturday 28 March 2009
When we celebrated the release of The Children of Hurin, during The Children of Hurin Release Party on 7 April 2007, one of the sheduled guests for the chat event was the author of Tolkien and the Great War, John Garth. Sadly enough he fell sick and he was replaced in the last hour by an equally interesting author John D. Rateliff, author of The History of The Hobbit. Since it is now about 2 years since the publication of The Children of Hurin I am happy to say that I am finally able to release the following interview to the Tolkien community and very gratefull for the time John Garth has put into it. I truly hope you all enjoy this interview as much as I did and learn some more about John Garth and his fantastic Tolkien and the Great War, one of the Tolkien biographies that should be read by anyone interested in to Tolkien.

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Thursday 19 March 2009
Now this is something fabulous. It seems that the BBC J.R.R. Tolkien documentary, made in 1997, finally made it onto DVD. This is good news, it will be fun to see the faces again of some of the Tolkien Society Members that I have learned to know since then. Now Im going to order the DVD and see if it is so good as I remember it.

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Wednesday 18 March 2009
Harper Collins has just released the cover for the new Tolkien book called The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun

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Sunday 15 March 2009
Members of the famed Inklings literary circle lived in the university city of Oxford. What were the places there like where people like C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien met to talk and to share their writing? You will find the answer in The Inklings of Oxford by Harry Lee Poe, whose stunning photographs and insightful text will deepen your knowledge of Oxford and the Inklings alike. Here follows more info on the book and an interview with the author Harry Lee Poe.

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Thursday 12 March 2009
Last year I did an interview with the author Mark Wolf, just before the book was first released. It is always nice to re-read Mark Wolfs answers and hear him talk about the book once again, especially now the book will be reprinted with a brilliant new cover.

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Wednesday 11 March 2009
There has just been released a very beautifully slipcased audio book collection, which includes The Hobbit, Tolkiens magical prelude to Lord of the Rings, and all three volumes of the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. The slipcase features original cover art by John Howe, the world re-knowned leading Tolkien illustrator and conceptual artist on Peter Jacksons film version of the trilogy. He is now working on the Hobbit movies.

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Monday 9 March 2009
It is my pleasure to announce the following J.R.R. Tolkien and Fantasy Inspired Art Exhibition: Land of Enchantment. From Friday the 3rd of April until Monday the 6th there will be held a wonderful art exhibition in Moreton-In-Marsch in England. Some of us may have been to previous art exhibitions which were held there and know how wonderful these events are; yet this time it will be even better.

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Monday 9 March 2009
Once in a while there are written books that come forth from a very deep love for Tolkien and his mythology. One of these books is Arda Reconstructed: The Creation of the Published Silmarillion by Douglas C. Kane, the co-founder of the Tolkien internet discussion site thehalloffire.net. Here follows more info on this book, that every serious Tolkien fans should have, and an interview with the author.

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Tuesday 17 February 2009
According to Associated Press The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, will be published in May by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

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Tuesday 17 February 2009
The Road Goes Ever On and On: The Map of Tolkiens Middle-earth is the essential companion for any reader journeying through The Lord of the Rings, illustrated by John Howe, conceptual artist on the Lord of the Rings films and written by Brian Sibley. It will be a perfect Tolkien learning aid for schools and younger readers and an ideal gift for all Tolkien fans - contains the only official and authorised full-colour map of Middle-earth published.

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Tuesday 17 February 2009
It will be a commemorative diamond anniversary edition of Tolkiens classic book, including a map, a copy of Tolkiens unpublished short story which he expanded for publication, his notes for an aborted sequel, and the original first edition illustrations by Pauline Baynes. It will be limited to 500 pieces and features a brand new dust jacket.

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Tuesday 17 February 2009
HarperCollins is to publish a new book by the late Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, edited and introduced by Tolkiens son Christopher, will be published on 5 May 2009. Here is a FAQ with all info on the new book by Tolkien.

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Thursday 12 February 2009
Just as the last few years I contacted David Brawn, the publishing director of Harper Collins, to get some more information. The questions were sent before I announced the 2010 Tolkien Calendar and Diary, as well as the announcement of the hardback and super deluxe edition of The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun. Here follows some more info on the new Tolkien books that will be released this year. 2009 will be very exciting for the Tolkien fans and as you will read, we are in for some nice surprises.

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Sunday 8 February 2009
The world first publication of a previously unknown work by J.R.R. Tolkien, which tells the epic story of the Norse hero, Sigurd, the dragon-slayer, and the revenge of his wife, Gudrun, upon the Niflungs, called The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, is now available through Amazon. This is the hardcover version.

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Saturday 7 February 2009
After the Tolkien calendar for The Silmarillion (2009), the 2010 Calendar will focus on the landscapes of Lord of the Rings. The official Tolkien calendar 2010 will contain 16 magnificent landscape paintings by renowned artist Ted Nasmith, selected from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, and featuring several brand new works of art.

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Saturday 7 February 2009
The world first publication of a previously unknown work by J.R.R. Tolkien, which tells the epic story of the Norse hero, Sigurd, the dragon-slayer, and the revenge of his wife, Gudrun, upon the Niflungs, called The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, will be released as a Limited Signed Slipcased Edition.

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Saturday 31 January 2009
It seems in December there was released a very interesting paperback set, that only now showed up in Amazon. I have not seen the set myself and will probably order a copy today. This is an interesting set, I do not know (yet) which paperbacks are inside. Since on the only (small) image I found the set looks to be put in a black box I assume they will hold the black paperback editions of The Simarillion and Unfinished Tales and the Children of Hurin paperback with the famous Alan Lee cover.

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Friday 30 January 2009
All info on Mythcon 40

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Tuesday 20 January 2009
The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, due for worldwide release in May 2009, and published in the UK by HarperCollins Publishers will also be published in many other countries and many other languages. This list is based on information sent by the publishers and contributors from around the globe or found at on line bookstores, if you want to add information or edit some info please sent me an e-mail.

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Thursday 15 January 2009
What were the places there like where people like C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien met to talk and to share their writing? You will find the answer in this lively book, whose stunning photographs and insightful text will deepen your knowledge of Oxford and the Inklings alike.

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Thursday 15 January 2009
These days Tolkien lovers think Facebook is an ideal place for connecting up, to learn to know new friends and keep track of what others are doing. Many Tolkien societies have opened up Tolkien groups and many Tolkien lovers have inscribed themselves to Facebook. Here is an article that lists all Tolkien Societies on Facebook and talks about the phenomenon Facebook and Twitter.

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Wednesday 14 January 2009
This month appears the Lost Tales of Hilary Tolkien, an 88 page ilustrated hardcover book that consists of several short tales written by Hilary Tolkien, Tolkiens brother. The tales were written down in a notebook that was re-discovered by a grand-child of Hilary Tolkien and thought it a good idea to have it published. The book is illustrated by Jef Murray, who kindly answered several questions about the book.

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Thursday 8 January 2009
Time flies when you are having a good time! 2008 was a year which started of with a large amount of paperbacks editions of all major Tolkien works. The middle of the year was the period when we saw the release of some books by Tolkien scholars and the end of the year we saw audiobooks and the Tales of the Perilous Realm come out. All together a very interesting year it was. Let us walk through it again in chronological order.

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Thursday 8 January 2009
The book is just one of an entire series of family name books in the Our Name in History Collection. Each book in the collection is printed on demand and is compiled from hundreds of millions of records from the worlds largest online resource of family history, Ancestry.co.uk.

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Thursday 8 January 2009
To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Hobbit Presse they have invented a very fun contest to win a fantastic prize, a special limited edition of Herrn der Ringe. Write an original letter to the author J.R.R. Tolkien! Write down the words you always wanted to say to your favorite writer, or ask the questions you always wanted to ask.

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Tuesday 6 January 2009
HarperCollins is to publish a new book by the late Lord of the Rings author J R R Tolkien. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, edited and introduced by Tolkiens son Christopher, will be published in hardback in May 2009.

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Thursday 18 December 2008
GTC Roadshow AG announces the acquisition of the most expensive Tolkien book ever sold; a signed first edition of The Lord of the Rings dedicated to the Queen of the Hobbits, for 104.000 USD. A further 5 lots were acquired in the same auction: the first translation of The Hobbit dedicated to E. Griffiths, a signed US first edition Lord of the Rings, P. Baynes original art, a signed map of Middle-earth and a book dedicated to Tolkiens son Michael. The pieces will add to the largest Tolkien collection ever compiled and will be offered to the public in a unique exhibition.

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Sunday 7 December 2008
From 2 December 2008 Tuesday untill Saturday 3 January 2009, the library in Oss (the Netherlands, near Den Bosch) will host a tolkien-exhibit together with Unquendor. Next to a comprehensive exhibition on Tolkien, there will be other activities such as a lecture, workshops and a reading day. All this will be in Dutch.

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Wednesday 3 December 2008
GTC AG, a Swiss based company, announces the acquisition of the second most expensive Tolkien book ever sold; a signed Hobbit bought from Peter Harringtons for GBP53,000 setting a new benchmark for a signed book. This signed Hobbit will be one of the showpieces for the largest private Tolkien collection to be exhibited around the world beginning in 2011 by the GTC Roadshow, which coincides with the release of the new Hobbit film.

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Monday 1 December 2008
It is the season again when nights gets longer and over here in Europe all leaves have fallen from the trees, the cold weather is back and we all huddle together around the fire. The quest has begon again to find an original gift? This year Im going to make some nice suggestions, by creating two lists which will help you find a perfect gift for any Tolkien and Hobbit lover or collector. Part I will cover all items related to The Hobbit, the bestseller by J.R.R.Tolkien, that soon will be turned into a movie adaptation. Part II will cover other nice Tolkien collectables, books and perfect Christmas gifts.

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Monday 10 November 2008
The newly released edition of the Tales from the Perilous Realm Radio Dramatization comes as four stories on three disks, each containing elements of fantasy and faerie, or in total 3hrs of listening pleasure. It has exactly the same size as the Hobbit dramatization, so they fit well together on a shelve. Included are Farmer Giles of Ham, Smith of Wooten Major, and the wonderful Leaf by Niggle, the most neglected pearl by Tolkien. Theres also The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, which is a small treat for Tom Bombadil fans, who have aired their displeasure at seeing this important character excluded from the Peter Jackson film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.

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Monday 10 November 2008
The newly released edition of the Hobbit Radio Dramatization includes 4 CDs and a bonus CD featuring expanded versions of music composed by David Cain, specially commisioned for the dramatization and a rare interview with Tolkien. Here is my review of this set.

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Saturday 8 November 2008
Hazael Design are pleased to announce an exhibition of limited edition furniture handmade from the timber reclaimed from JRR Tolkiens last home, Woodridings. Also The Tolkien treasures discovered in Poole go on display next saturday, on the 15th November, at Hazael Design, unit 12 Mill Lane Wimborne, England. I will myself come over to the opening of the exhibition and hope to see many Tolkien fans there. It would be great to discuss all about Tolkien and Tolkien collecting, in the nice envirement of Wimborne.

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Saturday 8 November 2008
BBC Audiobooks America and Tolkien Library presented you a trivia to win a copy of the BBC Lord of the Rings Radio Dramatization, which has been released by BBC Audiobooks America on September 9, 2008. Congratulations to Elizabeth Trogdon, Albert Peruzzo, Jessica Burke and Derek Broughton, who all won one copy of the BBC Lord of the Rings Radio Dramatization.

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Tuesday 21 October 2008
BBC Audiobooks America and Tolkien Library present you a trivia to win a copy of the BBC Lord of the Rings Radio Dramatization, which has been released by BBC Audiobooks America on September 9, 2008. If you live in America or Canada enter the contest to win one of the four copies of the BBC Lord of the Rings Radio Dramatization.

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Sunday 19 October 2008
Some, who know me very well, are aware that every day I have an hour drive to office (and back again in the evening) and that during that ride I always listen to either BBC World Service, or to Tolkien Audio Books. When the two come together, be sure that it is of interest to me. Here follows a review of the 1981 BBC dramatization of the Lord of the Rings, which has just been re-released in the US, and I highly recommend to any Tolkien fan.

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Wednesday 15 October 2008
Yesterday, to celebrate the release of the Children of Hurin paperback, Houghton Mifflin together with Tolkienlibrary.com organized a chat event with the illustrator Alan Lee. Here is the transcript of the interview with Alan Lee, illustrator of The Children of Hurin.

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Tuesday 14 October 2008
The Children of Hurin Paperback Release Party has begun. The chat with Alan Lee will take place in 5 hours and a half from now, so if you want to join in now is the time. All info on the event can be found at tolkienlibrary.com. Come and celebrate the paperback edition of The Children of Hurin with us.

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Saturday 11 October 2008
The Children of Hurin Release Party will take place on the 14th of October to celebrate the release of The Children of Hurin Paperback Edition by Houghton Mifflin. Here is all the latest info. The time schedule has changed a little, and the chat box is already open to the Tolkien fans. See you all on Tuesday.

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Saturday 11 October 2008
It was my pleasure to find out, from David Brawn, that the Deluxe Edition will be limited to 2500 copies only and that it will match the other Deluxe Editions recently published. It will be released in December and will have a green color. The first 500 copies will be signed by Alan Lee and will be sold, probably from early November, through tolkien.co.uk. It will be just regular copies of the Deluxe Edition and will be sold at the normal price as well. The only difference will be that they are signed by Alan Lee. There are no plans so far to release a super deluxe edition.

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Wednesday 8 October 2008
The Chat box of Tolkienlibrary.com is no live. To Connect to the Chat Forum and chat with other web site visitors, make sure the Connect Tab is visible then: Enter the Username you wish to use into the Chat Username box. This must be at least 3 characters and a maximum of 15 characters, no spaces. If you have a Password associated with this Username (Registered/Staff/Admin users only), enter it into the Password box. 3-15 characters, no spaces. If you do not have a password leave this box empty. If you would like to add a few details about yourself that other Chat Forum users can view while you are connected, you can add an optional Profile via the Profile Box. Maximum 200 characters. If you do not wish to add a Profile leave this box empty. Click the ENTER Button to connect to the Chat Forum. The Applet will connect to the Chat Forum Server and log you in. You are now ready to chat!

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Sunday 28 September 2008
The Children of Hurin Paperback Release Party is an online event to celebrate the publication of The Children of Hurin Paperback Edition by Houghton Mifflin, the new book by J.R.R. Tolkien, first released on Tuesday 17th April 2007 in hardback edition. The event will take place online on October 14, 2008 and is being organized by TolkienLibrary.com and Houghton Mifflin. Next to chatting there will be giveaways and a chat session with special guest Alan Lee.

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Sunday 21 September 2008
On September 21, 2007 the UK The Hobbit turned 70 and this year on March 1, 2008 we celebrated 70 years of the US edition of the Hobbit. It is a good occasion to look back at 70 years of Tolkien collecting and The Hobbit collectables and ephemera, since most Tolkien collectors all started by reading and buying a copy of The Hobbit. Ill create here a series of articles on The Hobbit collecting and will try and touch some of the less common Hobbit books and collectables, present an overview of the first and the deluxe editions. Here is the first article in the series on 70 years of Hobbit collecting.

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Thursday 11 September 2008
This book, Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits, presents an exploration of the evolution of Tolkiens mythology within the framework of its cultural and historical context. It contributes significantly to Tolkien studies, as well as understanding of many elements of popular culture in the pre-WW1 period. This is the first book to look at issues of race and ethnicity in Tolkien with any kind of historical knowledge. Tolkien, Race and Cultural History explores the evolution of Tolkiens mythology by examining how it changed as a result of Tolkiens life story and contemporary cultural and intellectual history.

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Sunday 31 August 2008
This book, Tolkiens Heroic Quest, by US author Robert Rorabeck looks at the heroic fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien, looking at major works such as The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, and lesser-known books. Since Im unable to find any info on this title I give here a view on a Master Thesis by the same author on the same subject, expecting this book to be an update of his 2003 study.

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Sunday 31 August 2008
The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook will be released in a sumptuous large-format trade paperback for the first time. The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook hardback edition, published in 2005, was a major best seller for over two years in a row and the new paperback will be very succesful for sure. It is being announced for tomorrow, but no cover has been revealed so far. I hope Harper Collins can hold up the publication date. More news on this later.

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Sunday 31 August 2008
Since yesterday they started shipping out the 2009 Tolkien Calendar. It focuses on The Silmarillion and features illustrations from the revised illustration edition by Ted Nasmith. While we celebrated The Silmarillion 30th anniversary last year, it is great to see it is now in the picture again. The Calendar looks great and will find a nice place on my wall. Time to remove the Children of Hurin Calendar of 2008 and hang up the new one.

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Sunday 31 August 2008
The book focuses on the business of the event film, and includes chapters on techniques and meanings ranging from music to spirituality. It offers essays on multimedia products associated with the films and contains a dossier of reviews, interviews, production details and box-office returns. It should be released tomorrow on September 1, 2008.

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Friday 22 August 2008
In April 2006 Robert Blackham published a little guidebook to Tolkien sites in Birmingham (called The Roots of Tolkiens Middle Earth); apparently he has now done the same for Oxford. The new book wil be called Tolkiens Oxford: Oxford through the eyes of Tolkien.

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Thursday 21 August 2008
Tolkien on fairy-stories, a new expanded edition of Tolkiens most famous, and most important essay On fairy-stories, which defined his conception of fantasy as a literary form, and which led to the writing of The Lord of the Rings has just been released and is now available.

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Thursday 21 August 2008
It was my pleasure to find out, from David Brawn, that the Deluxe Edition will be limited to 2500 copies only and that it will match the other Deluxe Editions recently published. I heard rumors that it would come in a dark blue box, but can not confirm that yet.

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Thursday 21 August 2008
Every year The Mythopoeic Society gives away their prestigious Literary and Scholarship Awards. The most interesting award for Tolkien fans is The Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies. It is given to books on J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis or Charles Williams that make significant contributions to Inklings scholarship. This year it was given to The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community by Diana Pavlac Glyer. Here is a round-up of all winners.

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Friday 8 August 2008
While I was expecting a very similar front of the Tolkien Calendar and the Tolkien Diary (which so far has been a habit of the publishers), this year it seems they did something different. See the cover of this years Tolkien diary here.

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Monday 28 July 2008
I am pleased to be able to release the official cover of the Tales of Perilous Realm which I was sent by David Brawn, the publishing director of Harper Collins.

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Tuesday 15 July 2008
On August 1st Tolkien will go mobile and the following OMA Tolkien Editions will be available: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Children of Hurin, The Silmarillion and many more...

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Thursday 10 July 2008
Yvan Strelzyk, a Tolkien collector from Thonon-les-Bains in France, specialized in Tolkien translations, French and English Hobbits and Lord of the Rings editions just send me an update of his profile. In it youll see that a new Hobbit translation is to be published in September in Norwegian nynorsk (cf. haugenbok.no). All Tolkien collectors are invited to sent in their own profiles or update the ones already online.

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Tuesday 8 July 2008
Tolkiens former home in Poole is going to be demolished and the last remaining features have been removed by the demolisher. These include a wonderful Adam-style fireplace, some garden decorations, doors and a postcard he found behind the fireplace. Here is now your chance to own a piece of Tolkien history because all the items recovered from the house are now up for sale in the Tolkien Library Store.

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Wednesday 2 July 2008
World at Large came up with a brilliant idea. To honour the move of the book The Hobbit to the big screen, their weekly podcast now features an interview with Rayner Unwin. I have also added a video interview with Rayner Unwin by the New York Times.

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Tuesday 1 July 2008
This new collection is fully illustrated throughout by Oscar-winning artist, Alan Lee, who provides a wealth of pencil drawings to bring the stories to life as he did so memorably for The Hobbit and The Children of Hurin. Alan also provides an Afterword, in which he opens the door into illustrating Tolkiens world. Here you can see the new cover.

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Thursday 19 June 2008
As some of you might know I am quit a big fan of Tolkien Audio Books. I have an hour drive to work every day and if not listening to BBC World I tend to listen to Audio Books. It makes the drive to work a lot more fun and enjoyable. Now it seems I will be able to add some very nice Tolkien Audio Books to my collection. Here is an overview of new Tolkien Audio Books to be released this year.

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Friday 13 June 2008
After the Tolkien calendar for The Lord of the Rings (2007) and The Children of Hurin (2008), the 2009 Tolkien Calendar will focus on The Silmarillion and will feature illustrations from the revised illustration edition by Ted Nasmith. While we celebrated The Silmarillions 30th anniversary last year, it is great to see it is now in the picture again. Here you can see the new cover.

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Friday 6 June 2008
J.R.R. Tolkiens On fairy-stories is his most-studied and most-quoted essay, an exemplary personal statement of his views on the role of imagination in literature, and an intellectual tour de force vital for understanding Tolkiens achievement in the writing of The Lord of the Rings. Here is an interview with the authors of the soon to be released gem of Tolkien studies Tolkien on fairy-stories.

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Monday 2 June 2008
Normally Tolkien Studies is being released in April or May, but this year it will be a bit later and be released around Mid-July. They are currently being pressed by the West Virginia University Press. While the cover is not yet available I can tell it will be Chaucers Reeve, from the Ellesmere msnuscript of The Canterbury Tales. Here are the final contents.

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Friday 9 May 2008
Last month I announced the book Tolkiens Gedling 1914 The Birth of a Legend by Andrew H. Morton and John Hayes, and I was, as most of us, very intrigued by the content of this book. Here is an interview with the author Andrew H. Morton about the book.

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Friday 25 April 2008
The Academy Award-nominated writer-director has just been signed to helm back-to-back epics adapted from J.R.R. Tolkiens The Hobbit, which, after various delays, are finally going forward with Peter Jackson set to produce and together with Fran Walsh to deliver the script.

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Sunday 13 April 2008
In 1914 Tolkien stayed at his aunts farm, called Phoenix Farm, in Gedling. While the farm has now been demolished, it is said that it was there that Tolkien wrote the poem that in the end led to the Lord Of The Ring. Now, Andrew Morton, has published a book about Tolkiens Aunt Jane Neave.

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Thursday 10 April 2008
The French edition of the Fantasy Art Workshop is due out April 17th, so John Howe will be in Paris for a little show at the Galerie Arludik. The next day he will be signing in the Paris FNAC. The exhibition will stay open until may 17th.

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Tuesday 1 April 2008
The flagship book this year will be The Tales from the Perilous Realm, planned to be the definitive reading edition of Roverandom, Farmer Giles of Ham, Leaf By Niggle, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and Smith of Wootton Major. Here is all information.

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Tuesday 25 March 2008
A French booksite has released an interview with Adam Tolkien, the grand-son of J.R.R. Tolkien. Because the interview was conducted in French, I have provided a translation here.

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Monday 24 March 2008
After winning the 2007 Imperishable Flame Award the wonderful book by Diana Glyer has now been nominated for a Hugo Award, as Best Related Book.

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Thursday 20 March 2008
It was my honor to do an interview with Alan Lee in Paris on March 15, 2008. I hope this interview will shed some light on the illustrator Alan Lee, his wonderful art, and about his live long association with Tolkien books.

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Wednesday 19 March 2008
Please take a little time to read this, here is a chance to help out a brave Hobbit.

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Tuesday 18 March 2008
The Queen of Hobbits, a very rare 1937 first issue of the first edition of J.R.R. Tolkiens much-loved classic The Hobbit was sold today (18 March) by international fine art auctioneers Bonhams in London for a staggering GBP 60,000 (USD 120,800), twice its presale estimate and a new world record price at auction for an inscribed copy of the book.

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Sunday 9 March 2008
Today we see the publication of a new book by Walking Tree Publishers called Tolkiens Shorter Works. In this article I will also list all latest must-read books published by the same publishing company, namely The Lord of the Rings and the Western Narrative Tradition, How we became Middle-earth and Myth and Magic Art according to the Inklings.

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Sunday 9 March 2008
A sumptuous large-format trade paperback containing sketches and paintings, by Alan Lee, from the Lord of the Rings, together with brand new and previously unseen material from the books and the Peter Jackson movie adaption, will be published by Harper Collins Publishers in September 2008.

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Sunday 9 March 2008
Original manuscripts from Tolkiens Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and Mary Shelleys Frankenstein will be among a number of national treasures put on display in a new exhibition hall. The new centre will be named the Blackwell Hall.

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Thursday 14 February 2008
From the 5th of April until the 7th there will be held a wonderful art exhibition in Moreton-In-Marsch in England. Here is an update on the artists attending and some of the latest informations on the event.

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Thursday 14 February 2008
For the release of Les Enfants de Hurin, the French translation of the Children of Hurin, Tolkiendil will organize some very interesting online chat events and contests. Les Enfants de Hurin will be released on Thursday February 21. If you speak French and are interested in Tolkien then here are some items to add on your calendar.

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Tuesday 12 February 2008
On Monday The Tolkien Estate and HarperCollins Publishers sued New Line Cinema to claim their long-forgotten gold in Los Angeles Superior Court. New Line refused to say whether the Tolkien Estate legal action would have an immediate impact on the development of The Hobbit movies. But if successful, the lawsuit has the potential to toss the films into the fires of Mt. Doom.

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Saturday 9 February 2008
A signed first impression of the Hobbit and the last known photograph by Tolkien will be sold at Bonhams Printed Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Photographs sale in New Bond Street on 18th March 2008. The signed and dedicated first edition of the Hobbit, from the library of Elaine Griffiths, has been valued at 20.000-30.000 British Pounds. Read here why this Hobbit can be called the Queen of Hobbits.

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Monday 4 February 2008
In February 1968 J.R.R. Tolkien was interviewed in conjunction with the BBC television documentary Tolkien in Oxford, of which also a part has been included in the J.R.R. Tolkien: An Audio Portrait. As far as I know this interview was only released last year for the Children of Hurin Release on April 7, 2007. Since then a small part of that interview could be found in the BBC News Archives, yet the interview is far from complete. I managed to locate some other parts of the same interview which were released by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on April 19, 2007. It also includes an interesting interview with Adam Tolkien, the grand-son of Tolkien on the Children of Hurin, conducted by Razia Iqbal from the BBC program Newsnight.

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Sunday 3 February 2008
From the 5th of April until the 7th there will be held a wonderful art exhibition in Moreton-In-Marsch in England. Some of us may have been to previous art exhibitions which were held there and know how wonderful these events are, yet this time it will be even bigger and better. On the guest list are Ted Nasmith, John Howe, Alan Lee, Ruth Lacon and Roger Garland.

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Sunday 3 February 2008
In the interview we get some view on the media Anke Eisman likes to work with, her favourite artwork, her favorite Tolkien illustrators, opinion on the Lord of the Rings Movies and the fortcoming books with her artwork. The interview was done by Rowns for Tolkienguide.com.

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Thursday 31 January 2008
This year marks the 4th International Art Competition of ST Wieza City Culture and Art Centre of Bielawa in association with City Promotion and Strategy Department of Bielawa in Poland. The Tolkien theme of this years competition is Battles and Combats of the First Age and competitors are free to submit any piece of art on this subject.

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Tuesday 29 January 2008
We seem to be some days or even hours away from some official announcements by New Line and MGM. Yesterday the Hollywood Reporter announced that Guillermo del Toro is in talks to direct back-to-back installments of J.R.R. Tolkiens The Hobbit. However no official announcement was made so far. Howard Shore will probably be composer of the new movies.

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Saturday 26 January 2008
To celebrate the release of Les enfants de Hurin the French publisher Christian Bourgois Editeur has invited Alan Lee to come to France to do several book signing sessions. The Children of Hurin will be released in France on the 21st of February.

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Tuesday 22 January 2008
Contained within On fairy-stories are the roots of the tree of tales that bore such glittering fruit in Tolkiens published and unpublished work. Here, at last, Flieger and Anderson reveal through literary archaeology the extraordinary genesis of this seminal work and discuss, in their engaging commentary, how what Tolkien discovered during the writing of the essay would shape his writing for the rest of his life.

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Tuesday 22 January 2008
Some weeks ago we had a look back at the last year in the article the best Tolkien books of 2007. Now it is time to look ahead and see what new publications we can expect this year. Like last year I contacted David Brawn, the publishing director of Harper Collins, to get some more information.

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Monday 21 January 2008
A series of audio CDs has been produced of talks given at Church House, Westminster relating to the Inklings: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and other writers who influenced them, including George MacDonald. The recordings were made by Nigel Sustins, the Manager of Church House Bookshop. Each CD is 70-75 minutes in length. Speakers are Priscilla Tolkien, Humphrey Carpenter, Rayner Unwin, Tom Shippey, to name some...

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Saturday 19 January 2008
Daily Records tells us that a rare Tolkien book worth GBP 5000 was handed to an Oxfam shop in Troon, Ayrshire, by a mystery donor. It seems they have noticed the book is special but are complete off when it comes to the value of this book.

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Wednesday 16 January 2008
Here I publish a transcript of an interview with Tolkien that I found on youtube. The interviewer is Dennis Gerrolt from the BBC Radio 4 program Now Read On, who in many ways manages to ask a lot of fine questions and provokes even more interesting answers.

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Sunday 13 January 2008
John Browne Simon is for many an unknown author in the field of Tolkien, as is Fridtjof Nansen, the author of The first Crossing of Greenland. The author John Browne Simon claims that The first Crossing of Greenland has been the single greatest influence on J.R.R. Tolkiens work. He has recently published a book about it. Here is some info.

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Thursday 10 January 2008
These days the books The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are put to the test. We are talking about the translations into the Dutch language, In de ban van de Ring and de Hobbit. They have a chance to be choisen as the best Foreign book and the best children book. Let us have a look at these chances and some important polls in the past.

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Thursday 10 January 2008
The Lord Of The Rings - The Ultimate Critical Review will be publihed in two days from now. It will include two DVDs and one book featuring remarkable new insights into Tolkien by international authorities, including Emmy award winning screenwriter Bob Carruthers and author Patrick Curry, this powerful film takes you deeper into this great book than ever before.

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Sunday 6 January 2008
2007 was a year most Tolkien fans will remember since it marked the release of the new Tolkien book The Children of Hurin, the 70th anniversary of the Hobbit, the 30th anniversary of The Silmarillion, the 25th anniversary of the Mr. Bliss and was the year The Hobbit Movie was announced. In this article I will look back on the year 2007 and tell all about the editions any Tolkien collector should know about. There have been so many nice releases and special editions that this will be a long list and I have opted to put them in chronological order.

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Friday 4 January 2008
Im very proud to introduce Peter Kenny, a Tolkien collector from Brisbane, which is in the far away land down under, called Oz, a long way from the ancient lands of Middle Earth across the Encircling Seas. Read about his passion for collecting Tolkien in his profile. Hopefully it will inspire more collectors to sent in their own profile.

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Tuesday 25 December 2007
With a short delay The North East Tolkien Society has announced this years winners of the Imperishable Flame Awards. The awards cites the accomplishments of individuals in each of 3 categories, Tolkien/ Inklings Scholarship, Tolkien/ Inklings Fan Appreciation and Tolkien/ Inklings Inspired Creativity. Since I won the Tolkien Fan Appreciation Award last year, I was also asked to nominate some people I thought would deserve to win an Award. I was very happy to see that my nominations did so well and actually won! Congratulations to the winners!

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Tuesday 18 December 2007
This is the news we were all waiting for and has finally been officially announced. The Hobbit movie will be made. Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema join with MGM to produce it. The two Hobbit films are scheduled to be shot simultaneously, with pre-production beginning as soon as possible. Principal photography is tentatively set for a 2009 start, with the intention of The Hobbit release slated for 2010 and its sequel the following year, in 2011.

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Friday 14 December 2007
Yesterday a lot of fabulous Tolkien books and one letter were sold at an auction held by Sothebys in London. While the Tolkien books and letter fetched very high prices, the real highlight of the auction was a book by J.K. Rowling called The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

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Thursday 13 December 2007
Of Words and Worlds: The Imagination and Subcreation of J.R.R. Tolkien provides an introduction to Tolkiens life, thought, and legacy that focuses specifically on how his imagination and his imaginary world relates to his life, works, and faith. In it Mark J. Wolf examines numerous themes in Tolkiens work as well as the works themselves: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, his shorter fiction, his drawings, and his scholarly writings. Here is an interview with the author

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Monday 10 December 2007
Added a lot of original cloth bindings to the Tolkien Library Store, including some very nice works like Farmer Giles of Ham, Smith of Wootton Major and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. There is now a lot of nice books in the shop that would make perfect Christmas gifts.

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Sunday 2 December 2007
2007 marks the 30th anniversary of The Silmarillion. To celebrate this occasion we see the publication of a high quality academic book, called The Silmarillion - Thirty Years On, published by Walking Tree Publishers (known for there high quality articles on Tolkien translations, ed.) and edited by Allan Turner. It includes 6 articles by renowned Tolkien scholars like Rhona Beare, Michael D.C. Drout, Michael Devaux, Nils Ivar Agoy,...

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Friday 30 November 2007
Christmas shopping is something we all need to do, but how can you find an original gift. This year Im going to make some nice suggestions, by creating two lists which will help you find a perfect gift for any Tolkien and Lord of the Rings lover or collector. Part II covers all nice Tolkien collectables, books which make perfect Christmas gifts.

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Friday 30 November 2007
Christmas shopping is something we all need to do, but how can you find an original gift. This year Im going to make some nice suggestions, by creating two lists which will help you find a perfect gift for any Tolkien and Lord of the Rings lover or collector. Part I covers all items related to The Children of Hurin, the new book by J.R.R.Tolkien, and worldwide bestseller.

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Sunday 25 November 2007
I am very proud to be able to offer up for sale a lot of correspondence between J.R.R. Tolkien and Timothy J. Wheeler. This lot includes two letters by J.R.R. Tolkien to T.J. Wheeler, a letter by Tolkiens assistant and the rare article by Jared Lobdell from the August 1966 issue of Rally. In this lot is also the original sketch of J.R.R. Tolkien used to illustrate the article, a carbon copy of a letter to J.R.R. Tolkien and a 2 page typed letter to Christopher Tolkien talking about the Tolkien related Rally issues and a visit of Christopher Tolkien to Mythcon.

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Saturday 24 November 2007
We all know this year we will celebrate the 70th anniversary of The Hobbit and the 30th anniversary of The Silmarillion. Also this year we saw the publication of a brand new Tolkien book, The Children of Hurin. But what most people do not know that we also celebrate the 25th anniversary of Mr. Bliss.

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Thursday 22 November 2007
This book presents findings from the largest film audience project ever undertaken, drawing from 25,000 questionnaire responses and a wide array of other materials. It sheds fresh light on the extraordinary popularity of The Lord of the Rings and provides important new insights into the global reception of cinema in the twenty-first century.

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Thursday 22 November 2007
The History of the Hobbit - Mr. Baggins and The History of the Hobbit - Return to bag-end by John D. Rateliff will be released as paperbacks, designed to match The History of Middle-earth paperbacks. Also The Lord of the Rings - A Readers Companion by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull will be released in the same format.

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Monday 19 November 2007
Next to the limited Children of Hurin, Harper Collins is also offering two exclusive sets. Available only at the tolkien.co.uk store, you will find the complete boxed set of Tolkiens Middle-earth tales - The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and The Children of Hurin. This boxed set is yours to own for GBP200. To mark the release of the audio edition of The Children of Hurin, read by screen legend, and star of The Lord of the Rings films Christopher Lee, you can also buy the boxed edition of The Children of Hurin with the full, unabridged CD audio for only GBP65. I am still looking into if non UK residents will be able to order. More on this later.

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Saturday 17 November 2007
The audio book is shipping today both from UK and US. See how the front looks like here. Hear the latest Tolkien book read by Christopher Lee, and enjoy one extra CD read by Christopher Tolkien.

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Thursday 15 November 2007
New information always leads to more questions and so I contacted Harper Collins and received some extra information from David Brawn, the publishing director. Here are the answers to the questions you have been asking.

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Wednesday 14 November 2007
This new calendar is an instant collectors item. The first-ever calendar issued by The Northeast Tolkien Society will feature Shire Reckoning format with Gregorian offsets Moon Phases and all important dates in Middle-earth. It will also feature previously unpublished art by Ted Nasmith and Jef Murray.

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Wednesday 14 November 2007
See here for the first time the Exclusive Limited Signed Edition of The Children of Hurin. Harper Collins has just revealed this new edition and also gives you the chance to register your interest in the book.

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Friday 9 November 2007
The Lord of the Rings: A Readers Companion by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull will be released as a paperback, to match The History of Middle-earth paperbacks. Also two volumes of The History of the Hobbit will be released in the same format.

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Friday 9 November 2007
After the Tolkien calendar for The Lord of the Rings and The Children of Hurin, the 2009 Calendar will focus on The Silmarillion and will feature illustrations from the revised illustration edition by Ted Nasmith. Here is a small interview with Ted Nasmith about the new calendar.

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Thursday 8 November 2007
I have received some new information on The J. R. R. Tolkien Deluxe Edition Collection. It will be limited, slipcased and not available through amazon. Find all the new information about this set here.

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Thursday 8 November 2007
The Children of Hurin unabridged audio CD has just been produced and goes on sale next week. It will include 7 CDs read by Christopher Lee, 1 CD read by Christopher Tolkien, a booklet with art by Alan Lee which has not been published in the book. Read all about it here.

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Thursday 8 November 2007
Next spring paperback editions will be released from the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, designed to perfectly complement the new paperback edition of The Children of Hurin. These will be illustrated by Alan Lee. Find the new covers here.

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Wednesday 31 October 2007
Here you can see a very fine example of Tolkiens well know flourishing signature. It is most probably the very last signature J.R.R. Tolkien put inside a book before he died. The book will be sold by auction on Wednesday 13 November 2007 by Bonhams.

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Tuesday 30 October 2007
It seems Harper Collins has just listed the Super Deluxe Edition at Amazon.co.uk. It is still not available for pre-order, but it for sure gives us some hope we wil be able to acquire a copy through Amazon.

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Tuesday 30 October 2007
This week Harper Collins announced the J.R.R. Tolkien Deluxe Edition Collection. It comprises the deluxe editions of The Children of Hurin, The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

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Monday 29 October 2007
The first copies of the new de luxe celebration edition of The Silmarillion have been shipped. If you are a collector and wish to obtain a first impression it is now time to order.

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Monday 29 October 2007
Also this year the readers of herenistarion.org have a chance to vote for the nominees in three categories. This years polling will run until December 1st, 2007.

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Wednesday 24 October 2007
Today I can announce two new editions of The Children of Hurin. One is for the serious Tolkien collectors and one for the mass market. The first can be called a Super Deluxe Edition and the second will be the paperback edition of The Children of Hurin.

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Monday 22 October 2007
Alison Milbank has published a new book on Tolkien and Chesterton, a topic that has been touched before by several authors. Tolkien, Lewis and Chesterton are often put on one line. Yet here is a book that goes much deeper and adds a lot of new perspective into the subject. It will for sure proof to become a very valuable source on Tolkien and Chesterton.

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Saturday 20 October 2007
Richard Claraval is an artist that has been around for a very long time but has remained unknown to many Tolkien lovers. His work is however amazing and especially his latest etchings are just stunning pieces of art.

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Tuesday 9 October 2007
Now here is something you do not see everyday. These are the rare proof copies of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien to be sold by auction on Wednesday 24th October 2007 by Bloomsbury.

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Tuesday 9 October 2007
This book is directed toward any individual, musician or film enthusiast, who appreciates the ability for a film score to heighten the overall movie experience.

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Monday 8 October 2007
RRauction will offer a very interesting Tolkien letter in which he discusses the name Honeybourne, describes Smith of Wootton Major and Pippins ride with Gandalf.

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Friday 5 October 2007
The Children of Hurin Audio Book is finally available for download at both iTunes and Audible. Both feature a small preview.

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Friday 5 October 2007
Because I do not know yet what will be on this soon to be released Audio CD with J.R.R. Tolkien recordings, I have created a small summary of all audio recordings of Tolkien which were ever made.

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Friday 5 October 2007
Low vision readers who find the regular type-size of The Children of Hurin difficcult to see will be pleased to know that this bestseller is now available in large print. It matches the 2002 Large Print Edition of The Lord of the Rings.

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Thursday 4 October 2007
To begin the 2nd Annual Award Nomination process The North East Tolkien Society spoke with last year winners to get their thoughts on who should be nomintated for the 2006-07 awards. See the nominees for this year and read what the previous winners are up to today.

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Wednesday 26 September 2007
Jos, a Dutch artist, made in 2006 a series of 13 oil paintings on canvas based on The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. They were published in a 2007 calendar and a birthday calendar. Until the end of October there is an exhibition of the Tolkien art by Jos in The Tolkienshop in Leiden, Holland. The originals are also available from The Tolkien Shop.

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Saturday 22 September 2007
In the Tolkien Library Store you can now see, and buy if you wish, some very rare Tolkien ephemera. Two catalogs from 1937, by Allen and Unwin Publishers, who very likely include the first announcements in print of the forth-coming publication of The Hobbit. A nice way to celebrate 70 years The Hobbit.

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Saturday 22 September 2007
The page with all known translations of The Children of Hurin has been updated. I have added some new covers, information and also some new countries, who recently acquired the rights to get a translation of The Children of Hurin ready in their respective languages.

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Thursday 13 September 2007
Saint-Ursanne will be auctioning off the sculptures and the banners, as well as the ink-jet prints from the exhibition in the Cloister. Since John Howe does not sell his original art this is the closest you will ever get to a real John Howe. Here is your chance to obtain a piece of art that has been admired by tens of thousands visitors of the event in Saint-ursanne.

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Thursday 13 September 2007
This edition is one of the most beautiful I have seen. In all ways the 70th anniversary edition is improving a lot on the current hardback edition of the Hobbit. Here is my review and some nice photographs. Happy birthday Bilbo Baggins.

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Thursday 13 September 2007
Here you can see how the new deluxe edition of The Silmarillion Anniversary Edition will look like. It perfectly matches the already existing deluxe editions. In this article I also reveal the printing numbers of the already existing UK deluxe editions of the Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings and the Children of Hurin by Harper Collins.

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Wednesday 15 August 2007
Two days after doing an interview with John Howe I went to see Cedric Cerf, the project coordinator of Saint-Ursanne La Fantastique. He works for Ursinia, who is the association who organises the John Howe 2007 event.

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Wednesday 15 August 2007
The 70th Anniversary Edition has just been printed. It is the third book in the History of the Hobbit boxed set, and is a slightly different version of the deluxe edition we published three years ago. It replaces our standard hardcover edition - with a few additional features. It will become the new standard edition of the Hobbit for another 5 years

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Wednesday 15 August 2007
Today I will bring some major updates on the Children of Hurin Audio Book. First of all, there has been added one narrator, namely Christopher Tolkien! Secondly, there will not only be made 8 Audio CD, but the Audio Book will also be available as a download in both a Windows Media edition and an Audible edition.

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Tuesday 7 August 2007
The Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies was given this year to The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide by Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond.

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Tuesday 7 August 2007
It was my honor to do an interview with John Howe in Saint-Ursanne.Hope this interview will shed some light on the illustrator John Howe and about the event Saint-Ursanne La Fantastique.

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Wednesday 1 August 2007
Other Minds Magazine made available its first issue today! It is The unofficial, International Role Playing Gaming magazine dedicated to exploring J.R.R. Tolkiens Middle-earth and beyond.

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Wednesday 1 August 2007
The second conference will be at Lessius Hogeschool in Antwerp, Belgium, on August 8 - 11, 2007. Everyone with a serious interest in Tolkiens invented languages is invited to participate, and encouraged to prepare, bring, and deliver a paper on any aspect of Tolkiens languages.

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Thursday 26 July 2007
A Tolkien collector from Puglia in Italy, copy-editor of the Second edition of The Annotated Hobbit, by Douglas A. Anderson.

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Thursday 26 July 2007
Some months ago I contacted the author Kristin Thompson, and send her an e-mail full of questions since I had been reading some news about the book The Frodo Franchise she was writing and wanted to know more about it. I was very grateful for the long and wonderful answers. Some days before the release of her new book I hope this article with questions and answers will give you some more insight in what to expect of her new book. It for sure promises to be very interesting.

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Wednesday 25 July 2007
RRauction will offer a very interesting Tolkien letter in which J.R.R. Tolkien discusses the motivation behind his most famous creation, the Lord of the Rings.

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Wednesday 4 July 2007
On April 15, 2007 we saw the release of Tolkien Sudies Volume IV. Luckily I had pre-ordered it and was reminded all about it when it arrived this morning. This is a journal of Tolkien scholarship which every serious Tolkien fan should buy, read and enjoy.

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Tuesday 3 July 2007
I did announce you earlier that a celebration boxed set of the Hobbit, Mr Baggins and the Return to bag-end would be published. It would be a three-book slipcased edition comprising of The Hobbit and the two volumes of the History of the Hobbit. Today I can show you how the back of the slipcase will look like.

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Friday 29 June 2007
The Secrets of the Lord of the Rings is a thrilling audio podcast that takes listeners on a voyage through the mythological and religious themes that have made J.R.R. Tolkiens fictional work loved around the world.

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Thursday 28 June 2007
It is my great pleasure to announce Saint-Ursanne La Fantastique, an exclusive exhibition of John Howe paintings. Actually, it is much more then just an exhibition, it is a two month fantasy art and music festival around Johns exhibition, which takes place in the cloisters and cellar galleries, and even in the streets and all around the small town Saint-Ursanne in Swiss Jura.

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Wednesday 27 June 2007
To claim that Tolkien tapped into some kind of mystical or prophetic Bible-Code, like ancient knowledge, and that The Lord of the Rings is genuine history is very controversial. Here is an interview with the author Dirk vander Ploeg who has written a book about this subject, namely The Quest for Middle-earth.

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Wednesday 27 June 2007
In Oktober 2007 we will also get a brand new edition of the story Mr. Bliss, written and illustrated by Tolkien himself. Originally published in 1982, the book has been out of print since the 1990s. This edition marks the 25th anniversary of publication. It has now a completely different cover and has been completely redesigned to make it the definitive edition, ideal for collectors and newcomers to the story.

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Wednesday 13 June 2007
Tolkien manuscripts reside now 50 years at the Department of Special Collections and University Archives at Marquette University in Milwaukee. That of course need some celebration. As a part of the celebration a lecture will we held on October 4, 2007 at 4:00 p.m by John D. Rateliff.

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Wednesday 13 June 2007
The finalists for the 2007 Mythopoeic Awards have just been announced and feature once again the best authors and books in the field of Inkling scholarship: Marjorie Burns with Perilous Realms, Verlyn Flieger with Interrupted Music, Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall and Edmund Weiner with The Ring of Words and Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond with The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide.

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Friday 8 June 2007
It has been 70 years now since the Hobbit was published. For this reason I thought it nice to look back at some article I wrote some years ago.

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Wednesday 6 June 2007
Tolkien Library gives you the ability to subscribe to the content on his website. Not only can you receive all updates and Tolkien book news straight into your mailbox, you can also add it on your personal site or blog and also consume the Tolkien Library Feed through a variety of tools, like an RSS reader.

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Monday 4 June 2007
Today we see the publication of a hardcover illustrated companion of The Lord of the Rings stage show, which features exclusive interviews and photographs of the creation of one of the worlds most ambitious theatre adaptations.

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Monday 4 June 2007
Some new pictures and text has been added to the amazing collector profile of Yvan Strelzyk. He is the lucky owner of some very rare Tolkien translations. People interested to share their collector passion can always sent in a collector profile and it will be added at tolkienlibrary.com.

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Monday 4 June 2007
I have been interviewed by Marty Weil, the driving force behind ephemera.typepad.com on 3 June 2007. He is an ephemera dealer, consultant, and researcher. He is also a freelance journalist. I have added some extra pictures of the items mentioned in that interview in my collector profile.

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Wednesday 30 May 2007
It is with great pleasure that I announce the winners of a Deluxe edition of The Children of Hurin by Houghton Mifflin. The winners are Alessandra Luisa Silva and Matt Carrier.

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Wednesday 30 May 2007
To celebrate 70 years of the Hobbit we will see a new edition of The Hobbit by the US Tolkien publisher Houghton Mifflin. it will feature a short introduction by Christopher Tolkien, a reset text incorporating the most up-to-date corrections, and all of Tolkiens own drawings and color illustrations, including the rare Mirkwood piece.

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Wednesday 30 May 2007
Today I can announce some very good news. The person who will read The Children of Hurin Audio Book is the famous actor Christopher Lee.

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Wednesday 30 May 2007
This is the latest info I received from David Brawn, the publishing director of Harper Collins. The Silmarillion deluxe will match the specifications of The Children of Hurin deluxe, as this is what some fans have written to us to as for. It will be a text edition, not the Ted Nasmith version, and is planned to be GBP 60, the same as The Hobbit and The Children of Hurin deluxe editions.

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Saturday 19 May 2007
Now to celebrate 30 years of the Silmarillion we will see the first publication of a deluxe edition of The Silmarillion, featuring a revised, reset text. This revised The Silmarillion will be bound in cloth and leather and set in a clothbound slipcase. It will be published on the 5th of November 2007 and cost 60 GBP.

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Tuesday 16 May 2007
Tolkien Library and Houghton Mifflin are teaming up to celebrate the publication of the deluxe edition of The Children of Hurin by Houghton Mifflin. For the release we will be giving away 2 copies of the deluxe edition of The Children of Hurin by Houghton Mifflin (a true 1st printing, 1st impression). The giveaway will last from May 16th 2007 to May 30th 2007. To be able to win enter code DELUXE EDITION and answer HOUGHTON MIFFLIN.

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Tuesday 16 May 2007
Today we finally see the publication of the Deluxe Edition of The Children of Hurin by Houghton Mifflin, the official American Publisher of J.R.R. Tolkien for over 65 Years.

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Tuesday 15 May 2007
An audio book of The Children of Hurin will already be released this year. This unabridged edition of The Children of Hurin will be released on the 3rd of September 2007 and is already available for pre-order.

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Saturday 12 May 2007
The Tolkien Library Store has been updated and next to some very rare Deluxe Editions, I have added for sale some copies of The Children of Hurin signed by Christopher Tolkien and Alan Lee to Publisher Bookplate. A wait list has been opened for the UK Deluxe edition of The Children of Hurin with signed bookplate. Multiple copies will be available soon. Sent a mail if interested.

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Monday 7 May 2007
On Saturday 28 April De kinderen van Hurin, the Dutch translation of The Children of Hurin, was officially presented at a most suitable venue, The Tolkien Shop in Leiden, Holland. The release event was a big success. Even so is the Dutch translation of The Children of Hurin, since the first 25000 copies have been sold out and the Dutch publisher is already reprinting.

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Monday 7 May 2007
While many had sent in questions for Mark Hooker, which he would answer during his Question and Answer session at The Children of Hurin Release Party, he was unable to attend because of family matters. Im most grateful to Mark Hooker that Im now able to release the answers to the many questions, with a small introduction by himself.

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Wednesday 2 May 2007
The Children of Hurin, which came out April 17, has topped numerous best-seller lists. For the release of the book there where held two official publication events, one in London and one in New York. For these events there where made signed bookplates which where glued inside the books. Collectors pay a lot of money for copies of The Children of Hurin featuring bookplates, since these where signed by both the editor Christopher Tolkien and the illustrator Alan Lee. This article will try and give some insight on how rare the bookplates actually are and will also bring some light on the total amount of copies printed of both the UK and US hardback and deluxe editions.

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Tuesday 1 May 2007
The first part of The History of The Hobbit by John D. Rateliff, a new study of J.R.R. Tolkiens The Hobbit, has been published today. To celebrate the publication of the first part of the History of the Hobbit, I release today the chat session with John D. Rateliff which was done life during the Children of Hurin Release Party on the 16th of April.

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Friday 27 April 2007
In celebration of the publication of The Children of Hurin, the first complete book by JRR Tolkien in 30 years, Houghton Mifflin has put together an essential collection of Tolkien books. This set makes a great gift that every Tolkien fan should own. This collection includes everything from the first books that made Tolkien famous to the entire History of the Middle-earth to works indispensable in navigating Tolkiens great vision and creation.

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Tuesday 17 April 2007
A Barnes and Noble Exclusive. A limited quantity of THE CHILDREN OF HURIN signed by Christopher Tolkien and Alan Lee will go on sale. The following info is sent LIVE from the NYC Release of the Children of Hurin. It will be updated as the event progresses.

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Tuesday 17 April 2007
The most impressive book that has been published this year is for sure the two volume book set called the J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide by Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond. By far this book is the best reference ever written on Tolkien and his works. Im very proud to be able to post the following interview with Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond.

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Wednesday 4 April 2007
It is my pleasure to have been ask to add the following Tolkien collector profile.Yvan Strezlyk is a Tolkien collector from Thonon-les-Bains in France, specialized in Tolkien translations, French and English Hobbits and Lord of the Rings editions.

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Sunday 1 April 2007
If there is one book that really has impressed me, it is Diana Glyers The Company They Keep - C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community. I read the review by Josh B. Long and needed to read the book for myself. And read I did, while the content of the book is very great, important facts are discussed and compared, and there is tons of interesting information, it remains easy and is very enjoyable to read. This book will probably become the standard book when people need to know something about The Inklings. If you are interested in the Inklings, this is the book to read. Im very proud to offer you all an interview that I did with Diana Glyer.

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Sunday 1 April 2007
We are now counting down the days towards the publication of The Children of Hurin. The excitement for this new book makes us almost forget that this year we also celebrate the 70th anniversary of The Hobbit. There for this interview with John D. Rateliff, the author of The History of the Hobbit.

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Tuesday 27 March 2007
Join Waterstones for a daylong extravaganza of readings, competitions and activities in store including illustrator Alan Lee signing the new novel. Signed bookplates will be awarded to the first 50 people through the doors. Another great event to celebrate the release of the Children of Hurin.

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Saturday 24 March 2007
Enter now with code Hurin and answer signed at the Children of Hurin Release Party Contest form to win a deluxe Children of Hurin signed by Christopher Tolkien and Alan Lee. The winner will be announced at the Release Party.

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Saturday 24 March 2007
The Children of Hurin Release Party is an online event which will take place around the release date of The Children of Hurin, the new book by J.R.R. Tolkien, due for worldwide release on Tuesday 17th April 2007. The release party will take place online at irc.tolkiengateway.net for three days in a row on April 15th, 16th and 17th 2007, and is being organized by TolkienLibrary.com and TolkienGateway.net. There will be an after party on April 18th. Next to chatting there will be numerous games, competitions, giveaways and interviews with special guests like David Brawn, James Dunning, Jeff Murray, Johan Vanhecke, Mark T. Hooker, Matt Blessing, Michael Drout, Michael Duveaux, Nils Ivar Agoy, Roger Garland, Verlyn Flieger, and others.

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Thursday 22 March 2007
A limited quantity of THE CHILDREN OF HURIN signed by Christopher Tolkien and Alan Lee will go on sale at Barnes and Nobles at New York City. Not a real signing event, yet VERY interesting for all people living in the area! Make your plans for a chance to be one of the lucky few to get your hands on a signed edition of the first complete book by J.R.R. Tolkien in three decades. The books have exclusive bookplates previously signed by Tolkien and Lee. Books will be sold on a first come first served basis. Limit 5 books per customer. Be early and join the Line Party by herenistarion.org.

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Tuesday 13 March 2007
While we do have a lot information about the English edition of Children of Hurin already, it is very difficult to find any info on The Children of Hurin translations. Because not everyone will be able to read The Children of Hurin in English I thought it a good idea to create a small list of all the translations out there. Ill add any extra info as it comes in so that in the end I hope this page will give all the info about all the Children of Hurin translations.

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Tuesday 13 March 2007
It is my great pleasure to share this image with you! Here is Alan Lees painting Beleg Departs Menegroth from The Children of Hurin, opposite page 96. It is the first interior painting released by HarperCollins and a great honor that I was asked to put this on line.

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Monday 12 March 2007
This is the eleventh newsletter send by the Tolkien Library. It summarizes the events of what has happened on the site in the last months and brings the latest news. Since a lot of members did not inscribe from the beginning they have now the opportunity to have a look at the old newsletters in this archive. If you have not subscribed yourself please go to the Tolkien Library homepage and follow the link at the top of the page.

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Sunday 11 March 2007
Here follows an interview with Squire, one of the contributors of the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia and also the man behind the J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia - A Readers Diary.In october 2006 We saw the publication of Michael Drouts J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. From day one we could read on Michael Drouts blog the news that instead of 2500 there were only made 800 copies of this book. He was very frustrated in the way that the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia was rushed into print without adequate final editing and not happy with the result. Then there where not many reviews on line, except from some contributors. Maybe the book turned out to be too expensive. It seems most people expected the book to be something more for such a lot of money. Ironically if they had printed more copies, the price might have been cheaper. Still, I believe the project was a good one, and so do many people. Especially the on line community has now taken over the project and is starting to turn the book into a very usefull unit after all. There are some interesting projects, of which the J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia - A Readers Diary is by far the most interesting contribution so far.

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Saturday 10 March 2007
While the publication date of both volumes of The History of the Hobbit by John D. Rateliff is still uncertain, probably around may or june, it is now certain that we will get a commemorative boxed set in September. This box wil comprise a hardback gift edition of The Hobbit and the two-volume companion as seen above. It will be called THE HOBBIT, MR BAGGINS AND THE RETURN TO bag-end: Boxed Set Anniversary Collectors edition. For now im unable to give any images, but I do have some info already.

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Friday 9 March 2007
Contents data are machine generated based on pre-publication provided by the publisher and info was recovered from the Library of Congress. Contents may have variations from the printed book or be incomplete. This table of content comes from The Children of Hurin first proofs of the Houghton Mifflin Edition.

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Thursday 8 March 2007
Another update to the Children of Hruin FAQ. I received many emails from people who wanted to know what The Children of Hurin was all about. There for I made a brief summary of the tale. Others asked for a guide to read the published excerpts of the story. So I answered both questions and have added them inside the Children of Hurin FAQ.

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Thursday 8 March 2007
The rare Tolkien book store for serious Tolkien collectors has seen an update. The Tolkien Library Store always has a large amount of rare and collectible Tolkien books up for sale. The books in the Tolkien Library Store always have a high collectible value and are of the finest on the market. Tolkien books available include both the UK and US editions, original cloth bindings, custom fine bindings, and Signed, Numbered and Limited Editions. Rare Tolkien items are also available, including books and letters signed by Tolkien, proof copies and books from Tolkiens personal library. Not all items are on display here, so please do not hesitate to make requests about Tolkien books you are trying to find. Whatever you are looking to buy or sell, we will always try to help.

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Monday 5 March 2007
Now one month before for the publication of the Children of Hurin it seems all attention is focused on this new book. Next to this major news topic there is a lot of other important books being published and written. Fantastic news came my way about a reprint of Mr. Bliss, being a 25th anniversary edition, The Hobbit, Mr Baggins and the Return to bag-end: An Anniversary Collectors Edition of the Hobbit marking exactly 70 years since The Hobbit was first published. This commemorative boxed set comprises hardback gift editions of The Hobbit and the two-volume companion work which includes the very different unpublished draft version of Tolkiens masterpiece, The History of the Hobbit. We will also receive a hardback edition of Tales from the Perilous Realm: Roverandom and Other Classic Faery Stories, available for the first time in A-format! More info on all these editions will follow real soon. This month, March 2007, is no less an interesting month. We see the publication of some very interesting Inkling related books.

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Monday 5 March 2007
It may not be a surprise, this year the annual Tolkien Calendar and Tolkien Diary contain 13 of the finest watercolours by Alan Lee, selected from The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien and other works illustrated by Alan Lee. They are accompanied by numerous pencil sketches, many unique to this calendar and diary. The images of both have just been released and can be seen now in the growing Children of Hurin FAQ.

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Monday 5 March 2007
Alan Lee was one of the two lead concept artists for the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, Alan Lee won an Academy Award in 2004 for his work on The Return Of The King. Now Alan Lee illustrated the Children of Hurin and also the cover image is by his hand. Painstakingly reconstructed by Christopher Tolkien from his fathers manuscripts, this book tells tales of Morgorth, Glaurung and the World before Sauron. Featuring magical illustrations by Alan Lee throughout, this is a missing chapter in the greatest fantasy saga of them all. While the editor Christopher Tolkien will not do any signings, Alan Lee will be signing the book at different locations. Here is a list of signing events where Alan Lee will be signing the Children of Hurin.

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Friday 2 March 2007
The Children of Hurin FAQ is growing. More questions by people result in more answers. Have also added some extra images of both the Deluxe Editions as the Hardback editions. Now we can see how the goldfoil stamp will look like on the Houghton Mifflin Deluxe Edition.

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Thursday 1 March 2007
I have great pleasure to present a JRR Tolkien inspired Art Exhibition being held for 4 days from Saturday 21st to Tuesday 24th April 2007 at The Redesdale Hall, High Street, Moreton in Marsh, Gloucestershire. The Exhibition will contain the largest ever display of the artwork (including new original pieces and new Limited Edition Prints) of the world renowned Tolkien Illustrator, Ted Nasmith who will be attending throughout. In addition the Tolkien inspired artist Ruth Lacon will be exhibiting her artwork and attending throughout. Her wonderful style contrasts dramatically to that of Ted Nasmith and reflects a more mediaeval and eastern style. Her works are seen in many decent Tolkien books, the most famous is the Tale of Gondolin. Also announced is a special guest, no one less then Alan Lee, illustrator of the new Tolkien book The Children of Hurin.

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Tuesday 27 February 2007
It is my pleasure to bring you this interview with James Dunning. His art is featured in A Tolkienian Mathomium by Mark T. Hooker. The Artist James Dunning has read and digested Tolkiens various works for forty years and has constructed evolving mental landscapes of scenes in Middle-earth. He has tried to depict Tolkien themes presented here in a style consistent with J.R.R. Tolkiens own illustrative style.

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Tuesday 27 February 2007
It seems a lot of people do ask me the same questions over and over again. All are very excited about the new Tolkien book and all want to know so many things about it! So I send some questions to HarperCollins and made it into THE CHILDREN OF HURIN FAQ. Once I will have more frequently asked questions, ill try and get an answer from HarperCollins and make this Faq even bigger.

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Tuesday 27 February 2007
Have updated the Tolkien Library RSS Feed and added a link inside the Feed. So now Im able to link towards the full article. Hope this feed is better then the last one.

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Tuesday 13 February 2007
Four days ago I brought you the first view on the final cover of the standard hardback edition (ISBN 0-00-724622-6), today I can share something else! Here is a sneak peek on how the deluxe slipcased edition will look like. This special one-off slipcased edition will prove irresistible to collectors and fans and as an attractive gift!

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Friday 9 February 2007
On September 18th, 2006 The Children of Hurin was announced. Set to be released worldwide on 17 April 2007 the unfinished work edited by Christopher Tolkien will finally be released after 30 years of development. Today the final cover by Alan Lee has been unveiled.

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Friday 9 February 2007
We all know this year we will celebrate the 70th anniversary of The Hobbit and the 30th anniversary of The Silmarillion. Also this year we will see the publication of a brand new Tolkien book, The Children of Hurin. But in Oktober 2007 we will also get a brand new edition of the long unavailable childrens story Mr. Bliss, written and illustrated by Tolkien himself. Originally published in 1982, the book has been out of print since the 1990s. This edition marks the 25th anniversary of publication.

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Thursday 25 January 2007
From april 2007 publicity and marketing coverage will be extensive on the back of the launch of the new book Children of Hurin. Activity includes a newly designed consumer focused website www.tolkien.co.uk, online promotions and 3rd party partnerships. It will also give us a Tolkien calendar and diary! The new Tolkien calendar 2008 and Tolkien diary 2008 will feature art from Children of Hurin by Alan Lee. The Diary will even be more special since it will not only feature the art of Alan Lee, it is also designed by him.

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Thursday 25 January 2007
Another fine two months! We see the publication og The Lord of the Rings: Popular Culture in Global Context, Tree of Tales: Tolkien, Literature and Theology,a re-issue of the famous Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Postcard Books and we announce the game guide for the massive online game Lord of the Rings Online.

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Thursday 11 January 2007
Fans of Tolkien, Lewis, Charles Williams, and the other lesser-known Inklings will be excited by this book. This important study challenges the standard interpretation that Lewis, Tolkien, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and the other Inklings had little influence on one another's work, drawing on the latest research in composition studies and the sociology of the creative process.

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Thursday 11 January 2007
While waiting for the new tolkien.co.uk site of Harper Collins I contacted David Brawn, publishing director of HarperCollins UK and had a nice interview. At first I was thinking to write an article about my new findings, but I believe it is better to post the complete interview here. Most of the questions are about The Children of Hurin, the deluxe edition of The Children of Hurin, yet I did ask also about new deluxe editions for the anniversary of The Hobbit and The Silmarillion, the History of the Hobbit and a chance for an illustrated edition of Unfinished Tales. David Brawn also told they will revamp tolkien.co.uk to be a useful news site and are working towards that. That is maybe very important indeed.

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Monday 1 January 2007
The J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, edited by Michael Drout, is an 774-page book with alphabetically arranged entries on tolkien's life and works. It is intended, says the publisher (Routledge - Tayler and Francis group), to prove both an essential resource for teaching and an invaluable companion to independent study, reliable for fact checking, and a solid starting point for wider exploration.

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Sunday 31 December 2006
Johan Vanhecke, A Tolkien collector from Antwerp, and the author of In de Ban van de Hobbit.

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Sunday 31 December 2006
Added an interview with Mark Hooker - author of A Tolkienian Mathomium

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Wednesday 6 December 2006
The cover design for Children of Hurin has revealed by Uitgeverij M, the Dutch publisher of Tolkien books. Here you can have a look! Also added last week was an overview of the new Tolkien related books for the month december.

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Wednesday 29 November 2006
Added to the Tolkien Shop: Linguaphone Conversational Course English - Complete set - 16 records and 4 booklets in original box -$1400.00. The oldest recording of Tolkien made! Prof. J.R.R.Tolkien speaks at the Twentieth Lesson - At the Tobacconists and the Thirtieth Lesson - Wireless.

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Thursday 9 November 2006
Added two new books to the shop, a wonderfull 1st US Hobbit 1st State - Facsimile dustjacket in slipcase and a 1960 Readers Union Lord of the Rings, Very Good Plus/Near Fine with original dustjackets. Also added to more hobbits in the Hobbits around the globe gallery, bringing the total now to exact 200 hobbits!

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Monday 6 November 2006
The first complete book by J.R.R. Tolkien in three decades - since the publication of The Silmarillion in 1977 - The Children of Hurin reunites fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, dragons and Dwarves, Eagles and Orcs. Now you can pre-order it at Amazon.com!

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Sunday 5 November 2006
It's never too early to start planning your Christmas shopping and this year, we've made it even easier for you with a list of gift ideas! It is always difficult to choose a nice gift for someone else. In the case of Tolkien lovers and especially the collectors, things can get even more difficult.

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Sunday 5 November 2006
A lot of signed Tolkien books, special items, first editions, rare Tolkien books have been added to the Tolkien Library Shop. Need to buy something really special now is your chance.

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Wednesday 1 November 2006
This month we finally see the publication of the most important book written about Tolkien. Designed to be the essential reference works for all readers and students, these volumes present the most thorough analysis possible of tolkien's work within the important context of his life.

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Tuesday 31 October 2006
Added a new article: Tolkien Books published in November 2006 - the month of Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond.

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Tuesday 31 October 2006
The collector profile of Neil Holford was added. He is a Tolkien collector from Birmingham, and the compiler of the website "An Illustrated Tolkien Bibliography".

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Tuesday 31 October 2006
Another 3 hobbits were added to the Hobbits around the globe gallery bringing the total to 199 hobbits.

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Tuesday 31 October 2006
Today I received The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide Box set. We have waited such a long time for this and I can only say that it is brilliant. Now I will start reading and hope to bring a review real soon. For those who did not order a copy yet should do so now, here is all info.

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Sunday 29 October 2006
I am very happy to announce another collector profile. This time an avid Hobbit collector, Henk Brassien, known as the Hobbit Hunter. Read his tale here.

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Wednesday 25 October 2006
The list of Tolkien Societies has been updated and The Almaren Fellowship, The Croatian Tolkien Society has been added.

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Tuesday 24 October 2006
Added a lot of Italian, Polish, Russian and Turkish hobbits in the Hobbits Around the Globe Gallery. We now have 196 Hobbits! Many thanks for all the contributions.

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Tuesday 24 October 2006
Harper Collins is still working on the details of the De luxe edition and they are still being agreed with the Tolkien Estate and Alan Lee, but we can confirm that a De Luxe edition of "The Children of Hurin" will be released. It will be slipcased, feature special binding and will include additional features exclusive to this edition. Read all about it here.

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Monday 16 October 2006
The hobbit gallery just grew a little more, 15 hobbits were added. Now we have 160 hobbits in the Hobbit gallery.

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Monday 16 October 2006
The pleasure was mine to add a new Tolkien Collector Profile, this time Jeremy Edmonds (Rowns) from tolkienguide.com. See his profile here.

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Sunday 15 October 2006
A major update of the gallery of translations of the Hobbit has been made: Hobbits around the Globe. Thanks to a nice program called galerie it will be very easy to add new hobbits in the future. Next week i will start adding some galleries for other Tolkien books. So people can start sending me all high resolution scans of The Silmarillion, Farmer Giles of Ham, Mr. Bliss of their own country in their own language. Please provide year of publication and if possible the ISBN and of course your name (so i can add you to the contributors list).

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Friday 13 October 2006
In the following article History of the Hobbit: An essential resource book for the forthcoming movie adaptation of The Hobbit, i give an extensive update on the book The History of The Hobbit, by John D. Rateliff. Just have a look at those wonderfull dustjackets.

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Wednesday 11 October 2006
In the previous article I announced the publication of The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide on 2 October 2006 (with possible delay). Some people sent me emails to ask where to find the book because they could not find it in their local bookstore. When amazon started sending out emails that the pre-orders could not be delivered in time I got a lot of panic emails. So here I am with an update; the publication of the book set has indeed been delayed until 2 November (UK). But there is also good news! At the website of the authors we can read the following, here reproduced with their permission.

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Sunday 8 October 2006
While last month the world was talking about the publication of the new Tolkien book, The Children of Hurin, it seems this month is dominated by new publications by Michael D.C. Drout. Most people will know him from Beowulf and the Critics, published in December 2002, which was the result of a discovered manuscript for "Beowulf and the Critics" while working on a project in an Oxford library in 1996.

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Sunday 8 October 2006
I have great pleasure to present a JRR Tolkien inspired Art Exhibition by Henning Janssen, being held from Saturday 21st October to Saturday 13th January 2007 at The Tolkien Shop in Leiden, Holland.

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Tuesday 3 October 2006
We will see all major Tolkien works in a new jacket this year. The secondary works are all published in paperback format, while we see some nice re-issues of The Silmarillion (the 30th ann. Edition, with new introduction by J.R.R. Tolkien) and a new Hobbit (the 70th ann. Edition, with first chapter of Lord of the Rings). Here you can see all.

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Monday 2 October 2006
Good news, another update of the Tolkien Library Store! Now available are some of the rarest and finest Tolkien books. We have added some very clean US Lord of the Rings editions, a perfect super deluxe hobbit signed by Christopher Tolkien, a perfect 1st UK Lord of the Rings set. Go and check it out in the Rare Tolkien Book Store.

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Thursday 28 September 2006
A new thing this year are the downloadable audio books. Up to date we could all buy Tolkien Audio Books on CD or even on cassettes. Now, with the success of the iPod, Harper Collins has taken a new road: J.R.R. Tolkien Downloadable Audio Books. No wonder they made an exclusive deal with iTunes who are also having a similar deal for Harry Potter Audio Books. This year we can start downloading the most famous works, read by Rob Inglis, Martin Shaw and Derek Jacobi. Here I will show all the Audio books in one article, now you can take your favorite stories to any place. Even while driving, taking a plane, jogging.

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Wednesday 27 September 2006
One thing is sure if you are a beginner, an expert or an extreme Tolkien collector you can learn from one another. There for I added this section, Tolkien Collector Profiles, where you can see the passion of some of the greatest Tolkien collectors. Hope this will give ideas for beginning collectors and will give collectors a chance to learn more about each other. Any Tolkien collector who wants to contribute his own profile please contact me.

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Monday 25 September 2006
Only one week after the announcement of the new Tolkien book, we can already give a lot more information about the UK edition of the book. The book will be published in the UK on 16 april 2007 and will be a hardback with no less then 320 pages! It will be the first complete standalone Middle-earth book by J.R.R. Tolkien since The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, posthumous Silmarillion in 1977.

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Sunday 24 September 2006
A very nice book aimed at children, but nice for adults also. Read my review here.

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Thursday 21 September 2006
Since 1937, few books have provided more pleasure than J.R.R. Tolkiens The Hobbit. Originally published in England with a first printing of 1,500 copies, The Hobbit today celebrates its 69th anniversary! Read the article about it here.

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Thursday 21 September 2006
Spanish publishing house Espasa Calpe is going to publish The Hobbit's reader's guide for students (in Spanish), as part of the relaunching of their Coleccion Austral, dedicated to the republishing of classical authors of universal literature. For the first time in this collection, Espasa will publish works of contemporary authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien.

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Monday 18 September 2006
It is quite possible that a good movie could be made of some of the stories within the Silmarillion: the tale of Turin Turambar or the soon published The Lay of the Children of Hurin is probably the most suitable, with a hidden elvish city, a dragon and a doomed hero along with liberal helpings of tragedy, betrayal and incest. Here is all the news on the completed Lay of the Children of Hurin which will be published by Harper Collins and Houghton Mifflin spring 2007. Thank you, Christopher Tolkien.

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Sunday 17 September 2006
First I have added more news on The J.R.R. Companion and Guide by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, read it here. And also the announcement of a new Middle-earth and JRR Tolkien inspired art exhibition featuring the works of Ted Nasmith and Ruth Lacon (With the artists in attendance throughout), read about this exhibition, Where many Paths and Errands Meet, here.

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Tuesday 12 September 2006
Can you feel the excitement in the air. Some of us for sure do count the days. All started what now seems ages ago. In twenty days from now we will finally see the publication of The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide, written by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull. This book set has been announced several times now (over the last few years) and has grown in size, now HarperCollins mentions an impressive 1999 pages. Why all this excitement. Read it all here.

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Tuesday 12 September 2006
These days we can hear a lot of rumors about a possible "The Hobbit" movie. Whether the rumors are true or not, no-one can tell for sure. What I can tell is this, next year a wonderful book will be published, namely "The History of the Hobbit: Mr. Baggins" written by John D. Rateliff.

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Monday 11 September 2006
We have added a major update to the book section. It now has the beginning of a list with books about J.R.R. Tolkien. Now reviewed are A Tolkien Compass, The Tolkien Companion, J.R.R. Tolkien: a biography, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien: The Shores of Middle-earth, J.R.R. Tolkien - a descriptive bibliography, Tolkien a Celebration, Author of he Century, Meditations on Middle-Earth, The Real Middle-Earth, Tolkien and the great war: The Treshold of Middle-earth, War and the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien, Reading The Lord of the Rings, and some more coming in a few days. We hope to have created a nice overview here and hope to make it even bigger and better in the future.

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Wednesday 6 September 2006
TolkienLibrary just send out his eight newsletter. If you just missed it, or did not receive it you can always read him here. Also the links page had been slightly updated, as were some slight changes made to the color of the top menu (thanks Neil for the tip). And a final fun message: we just passed 300.000 requests since we started.

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Sunday 3 September 2006
Ever wanted to have the scarcest of all the original Allen and Unwin 1st Editions, as well as the Houghton Mifflin issues, in your collection. Now is your chance. TolkienLibrary is holding a sale of the Super Deluxe Hobbit: buy your copy here before they are gone.

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Saturday 2 September 2006
The rare Tolkien book store, here , has been updated. A lot of new items are added! We currently sell a very nice rebound 1st UK Lord of the Rings, some unique books signed by Pauline Baynes, and with drawings by Allan Lee.Also an original by first edition Lord of the Rings with original dustjackets and much more extremely rare books! Have a look!

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Tuesday 1 August 2006
Inside the little book Oxford Poetry 1915 we can find one of tolkien's early fairy poetry, a poem which achieved great popularity and was reprinted many times in various collections of children's poetry: Goblin Feet.

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Monday 31 July 2006
For years Dr. Richard Purtill lived two lives: by day, professor of philosophy; by night, he wrote fantasy and science fiction books. Weekdays he lectured in classrooms weekends he attended fantasy conventions. When he retired from his day job, he found more time to write, eventually publishing over twenty books

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Monday 26 June 2006
Making a website about Tolkien was (and is) a great way to share your passion about Tolkien books; It creates a path to make new friends, meet interesting people on the road. Now it also seems it can put you in the spotlight! When I received the e-mail some weeks ago that I had been nominated for an award I was absolutely stunned.

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Tuesday 13 June 2006
Let us have a look what 2006 will offer us. For sure it will again become a fascinating year in the field of Tolkien related literature. I'll try here to summarize all the books we will have to look out for this year (making it possible to pre-order them when you like!). My information is gathered from numerous sources and publication dates and covers may change, but I will try to spread new info on the books when it reaches me.

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Thursday 11 May 2006
Every week I'm browsing the internet looking for rare Tolkien books. Signed Tolkien books are especially watched closely and sometimes a lot of e-mails are send around to ask opinions. Buying signatures is a perilous business at the best of times, and one can never be sure the books for sale are not fakes. Also there are numerous sales of signed cut papers on the market; especially these are mostly fakes.

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Sunday 2 April 2006
I have great pleasure to present a JRR Tolkien inspired Art Exhibition being held for 4 days from Saturday 20 th May 2006 at The Redesdale Hall, High Street, Moreton in Marsh, Gloucestershire.

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Saturday 5 November 2005
Next to the editorial work on the 50th anniversary edition of tolkien's The Lord of the Ring, the production of a new index for the same book and completing The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide, Hammond and Scull now also managed to publish The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion.

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Thursday 27 October 2005
In de Ban van de Hobbit is a book for all who visited Middle Earth, by reading the books or seeing the movies, and want to find out know more about the creation of this world. The writer, Johan Vanhecke, has already written a lot of interesting articles concerning Tolkien and these were now brought together and reworked to present a whole.

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Thursday 20 November 2005
Exactly 50 years ago, "the Return of the King" was put in the stores and J.R.R. tolkien's trilogy "The Lord of the Rings" was completed. Immediately 7.000 copies were printed because of the high demand. The publication was six months later then expected due to the difficulties Tolkien experienced trying to bring the Appendices into publishable form.

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Friday 29 July 2005
The Dutch translation of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were not the only books by Tolkien that ended up being translated into Dutch, here are all other books that were translated.

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Friday 29 July 2005
In combination to this article there was made an easy to use identification table for 'De Hobbit', giving a fast overview of every different printing, making the identification of your own De Hobbit a lot more easier.

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Friday 29 July 2005
Next follows the final part of the overview of the three-volume editions. This part covers all the prints of Part III, The Return of the King translated into Dutch + the appendices.

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Friday 29 July 2005
Next follows the second part of the overview of the three-volume editions. This part covers all the prints of Part II, The Two Towers translated into Dutch. In combination to this article there was made an easy to use identification table for In de Ban van de Ring, giving a fast overview of every different printing, making the identification of your own In de Ban van de Ring a lot more easier.

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Friday 29 July 2005
In 1997 a revision of the translation was issued, but the three-volume edition followed the old printing numbers. Since 1997 there are a lot of reprints, different covers and sometimes the text is reset. Next follows an overview of all the three-volume editions, seperated into 3 parts. The first part covers all the prints of Part I, the Fellowship of the Ring translated into Dutch.

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Friday 29 July 2005
In 1997 a revision of the translation was issued, as both publisher and translator thought that the Dutch text had to be updated and refreshed for a new generation of readers. From that moment on the one-volume edition got their own edition numbering, while the three-volume editions followed the old printing numbering.

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Friday 29 July 2005
The Dutch translation of The Lord of the Rings is called In de Ban van de Ring. Back in 1956 it was the very first translation of the book, and it was also the first work of Tolkien translated into Dutch. In 1960 a translation of The Hobbit, called De Hobbit, was published as a small paperback, in order to help to sell the stocks of The Lord of the Rings. Other Tolkien books weren't translated till the seventies.

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Sunday 27 February 2005
J.R.R. Tolkien had the tendency to sign all the books which were in his personal library, which was really huge. Most of tolkien's personal books were donated and/or sold towards libraries (fe. the English Faculty Library of Oxford) a lot of his manuscripts and handwritten papers went to Museum's. Yet on the market came up for sale a lot of his books, mainly philological works, at various times after tolkien's death.

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Monday 21 February 2005
In collecting JR.R. Tolkien first editions, the earlier the better is the rule. The first issue of a Tolkien book is always more desirable and more expensive than a later issue. So for fanatic Tolkien collectors the best copy, or state, of any given book would be Tolkien. This article talks about collecting proof copies.

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Sunday 20 February 2005
When asking a Tolkien collector which book is the most precious book in his collection, it will probably be a perfect first edition of the Lord of the Rings, a signed book, like a Silmarillion signed by Christopher Tolkien, or a nice reading copy of an old the Hobbit (like I treasure one, just because it was the one all started with). Yet when asked what would be the most rare Tolkien book out there, the answer would probably be The Songs for the Philologists.

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Saturday 12 February 2005
The Tale of Gondolin is a book most Tolkien lovers did not hear of yet, maybe because it is a private publication and strictly limited to a Worldwide printing of just 50 COPIES. It is a book Compiled from the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien assembled and revised by author Alexander Lewis, illuminated and illustrated by Ruth Lacon.

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Friday 11 February 2005
Today i was reading in Letters by Humphrey Carpenter, while i was looking on a totally different subject i accidently bumped into letter 98 (18 March 1945), to Stanley Unwin. In this letter Tolkien talks about Leaf by Niggle

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Wednesday 9 February 2005
When collecting Tolkien books most people stop when The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings is on the shelves. Yet there is another treasure to explore. For most in the beginning a hard read, but maybe the most valuable literature treasure for others. I'll try to tell more on this book, The Silmarillion, it's origin and all on collecting this marvellous work, ranging from limited to translated editions.

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Tuesday 8 February 2005
One fine morning Tolkienlibrary.com received a email from Kaloyan Ivanov, from the website Endorion.org. He noticed me that the translations section at the site was still under construction. With a blush, since I wish to fill this big emptiness as soon of possible for a year now, I asked for help. And help came; I'm proud to present you a summary from all Bulgarion Tolkien books, as written by Kaloyan Ivanov.

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Thursday 6 January 2005
On 4 January 2005 Humphrey Carpenter, 58, died after a long illness. He was known as a writer and broadcaster, and especially renowned for the authorised biography of Tolkien, the Letters of J.R.R.Tolkien and Inklings: C.S.Lewis, J.R.R.Tolkien, Charles Williams, and their Friends.

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Wednesday 5 January 2005
The first American edition of The Hobbit was published by Houghton-Mifflin in 1938, one year after the British edition. It is significally different from the UK edition, lacking the Britisch jacket Tolkien designed in favor for a more american jacket. Yet, the first US edition is one of the most beautifully designed of the early editions of the Hobbit.

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Sunday 12 December 2004
These are beautifull days! Whenever there are celebrations the beautifull editions appear all around. I thought it was time to write an article on all the Deluxe editions published by Harper Collins. First i will describe them a little and then go deeper inside the whole 50th Anniversary event. What is it all about, what is new in these editions?

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Saturday 11 December 2004
2005 is the fiftieth anniversary of the complete publication of The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. The first two volumes (The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers) were published in 1954, while the third, The Return of the King, was published on October 20th 1955.

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Thursday 14 October 2004
October 21, 2004, marks the fiftieth anniversary of The Lord of the Rings. It has been called the greatest book of the twentieth century (see author the century by Tom Shippey), an unforgettable adventure story that has captivated nearly one hundred million American readers since it was first published in 1954, and it continues to find new readers every day. This year, Houghton Mifflin celebrates the first U.S. publication of The Fellowship of the Ring.

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Saturday 8 August 2004
A lot of people are asking about ROTK Extended. I see people are getting excited about it, since they start asking questions to me... and i am normally not in to these things a lot. But ok, this is what i know.

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Tuesday 13 July 2004
Waiting for the 50th anniversary of The Lord of the Rings it is time to start looking out for all the new books that will be coming out this year. Of course there will be the spectacular celebratory editions and finally the long expected J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide. I'll try to list all upcoming titles here.

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Sunday 4 April 2004
A Descriptive Bibliography was written in 1993 by Wayne G. Hammond with the assistance of Douglas A. Anderson. Anyone willing to collect books by Tolkien simply must have this book. It covers every known detail about the publication of his books.

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Monday 29 December 2003
There are quite a few places on the web where you can track down out-of-print titles. Here are some places to search, with some tips about where to look for what.

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