News from Bree and other random discussions

[Voronwë the Faithful]

No the items are not for sale!! But can you can buy a catalog of the exhibit for $60.

[RoseMorninStar]

Oh that looks lovely. Hopefully it will travel to my shores too.

I've been down to see the collection before, but this appears to have more than has previously been exhibited here, such as items on loan from the Bodleian library in Oxford etc.. I doubt it's going to travel.

Tolkien fans are encouraged to participate by adding to the digital collection by answering 3 questions in 3 minutes. They are hoping to collect 6,000 recordings.

[Inanna]

I’ve seen some of these Bodleian ones when an exhibit came to NY.

[RoseMorninStar]

Interesting article from AFAR.
Following in the Footsteps of J.R.R. Tolkien in Switzerland’s Mystical Lauterbrunnen Valley
From the Shire to Rivendell to the Misty Mountains, many locations in “The Lord of the Rings” were inspired by real landscapes.

[Jude]

In this episode of The Antiques Road Show, they examine a first edition of The Hobbit - which contains a hand-written note from Tolkien and other interesting features. What a thing to have in the family!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Wow!

[RoseMorninStar]

Stay overnight in Hobbiton? AirBnB

I read somewhere that there were 3 bookings available in 2023 but I couldn't find the dates.

New Zealand Guide.

[Jude]

I managed to acquire Tolkien's translation of The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrun, which seems to be out of print. I learned something new: the episode in the Tale of Beren and Lúthien, where Beren and his companions are imprisoned and killed one-by-one by a wolf until the last one remaining manages to kill the wolf, comes from this Legend:

"In the forest fettered,
faint and naked,
her ten brethren
torment suffered.
There one by one
a wolf rent them;
by night after night
another sought she.

"What found ye in the forest,
my fair servants?"

"Nine brothers' bones
under night gleaming;
yet were shackles broken,
she-wolf lying
torn and tongueless
by the tree riven."

[RoseMorninStar]

A lovely (if tragic) bit of verse.

[Frelga]

On a much lighter note, this made me giggle.

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[Inanna]

Rofl!

[RoseMorninStar]

That has a ring of truth to it...

[Frelga]

But seriously, this makes a great point.

Tolkien the Professor chose the form and style of his writing, but the stories were shaped by the experiences of Tolkien the soldier.

I suspect that Tolkien wrote Bilbo as a fully grown adult because he couldn't bear to tell a story of another boy going off to "an adventure" that turned out to be a war.

i think all quiet on the western front and the lord of the rings are in direct conversation with each other, as in theyre the retelling of the same war with one saying here’s what happened, we all died, and it did not matter at all and another going hush little boy, of course we won, of course your friends came back


someone should remake lord of the rings as a grandfather telling a fantasy story to his grand child with flashbacks to world war one showing the dead boys and men the characters were based on. grandpa why didn’t they just fly. because they didn’t. they didn’t.

Source: https://www.tumblr.com/mochimochacatte/ ... nt-and-the

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[Inanna]

That’s very insightful, Frelga. And yeah, makes sense.

[Jude]

This is absolutely lovely:



Also, did you know that today is the anniversary of the destruction of the Ring?

[Frelga]

Just noticed this.

It was Sam who had insisted on choosing [the pony] declaring that Bill (as he called him) would pine, if he did not come.

Half a page later.

Bill, my lad,’ he said, ‘you oughtn’t to have took up with us. You could have stayed here and et the best hay till the new grass comes.’

Whose fault is that, Sam?

[RoseMorninStar]

I wonder what became of poor little Bill..

I think the Hobbits had no idea what they were getting themselves into.

Men of the West podcast does its own take on Bill.
From 3 years ago on April Fool's day.

[Alatar]

Bill made it back to the Prancing Pony didn't he? They were reunited on the way home.

Reminds me of this peculiar image. "Sam was standing by the pony, sucking his teeth" I mean, that's devotion for you.

[RoseMorninStar]

[Jude]

You know the walking song, "Upon the Hearth the Fire is Red"? The narrator says the words were by Bilbo, but the tune was as old as the hills. Presumably Tolkien had an actual folk song in mind - like Sam's Troll Song was based on The Song of the Fox.

Does anyone know what song "Upon the Hearth the Fire is Red" is based on?