The Making of Smaug

Smaug is one of those monsters/characters that just keeps getting better every time you watch the latest Hobbit movie. And now Weta has released a short video about the making of Smaug, brought to us by the folks at the Hollywood Reporter. Jump past the break to enjoy the fascinating (and brief) film!

Review: The Desolation of Smaug

You know, I expected this post to be a long spew of me shouting/raving about how insanely cool the Desolation of Smaug was––instead . . . I've got decidedly mixed feelings about the latest installment of the Hobbit trilogy. It's not that I didn't like the movie. Far from it. Like all of Peter Jackson's Middle-earth movies so far, Desolation definitely ranks as one of my favorite movies of all time. What I can't decide, is how it stacks up against it's predecessor, An Unexpected Journey, and how well it did at retelling Tolkien's story. Jump past the break, and I'll do my best to explain.

Oh, and I'm too tired to even care about watching what I'm saying, so BEWARE SPOILERS!

Coming Soon: A Review of the Movie

See, I was there. I promise.

Hey folks . . . just in case you were wondering, I DID go to the movie on opening night, and I DO have a review in the works. It's just that the last few days have involved a lot of travel and only a little down time––but in case you were wondering, my goal is to have it up by tomorrow.

Later!

JRR Tolkien Sings "That's What Bilbo Baggins Hates"

I always enjoy hearing the songs of Middle-earth out of the Maker's own mouth. Enjoy!

Denney's 'Exclusive' Bag End Featurette

Denney's Bag End featurette has broken loose on the interwebs . . . it's not all that secret anymore. Enjoy!

The Hobbit Reread 4: An Unexpected Party

Ok, so I know I'm gonna have to start doubling up on these because I've been lazy and not posted every week. But . . . I'm gonna get it all done before Dec. 14 rolls around. You have my word. Today we'll start the fourth post of this reread and the first post dealing with a chapter from the actual book. Chapter 1, that is, An Unexpected Party.

The Hobbit Reread 3: The Quest of Erebor

Gandalf and Thorin by Bentos

All right-ee, here is the third installment of the Great Hobbit Reread, and the last of the reread posts that doesn't actually come from The Hobbit. Today we'll be reviewing Tolkien's essay The Quest of Erebor, which I only recently stumbled across (as in several months ago). It's an incredibly interesting little piece that sheds light not only on Gandalf's motivations in working with Thorin and nudging Bilbo into the quest, but also reveals the dwarves' less than admiral opinions of our hobbit hero. Enjoy!

Hobbits and Dwarves from the New Trailer!

The hardest thing about this post was figuring out which awesome picture to use as the opening image. Sheesh! We're getting a deluge of Hobbit images, hopefully just a hint of what's to come tomorrow with the release of the new trailer. Any speculations on what that big chunk of crystal something might be? If I were to hazard it guess, it might be ithildin (thus it's association with Thorin's map) . . . of course, if memory serves me right, ithildin is made with mithril, so this crystal stuff might be something else entirely. If you have a guess, drop it in the comments below!

New Hobbit Pics from USA Today

A special week indeed! Here are some brand new photos courtesy of USA Today. Read on past the break to see them all.

Better Late than Never . . . New Dwarf Pics and Descriptions!

Ok, I apologize for the extra long break in posts (and even this one is going to have to be a quicky). My family and I just made a long move to Seattle, we're still in the middle of unpacking, and we don't really have internet access yet. In fact, at the moment I am mooching of our apartment complex's rec room computer. Anyways, while I've been busy shoving boxes around, the rest of the world has gotten a glimpse of some amazing new Hobbit pics, courtesy of the new iOS Hobbit app that was recently released. No, I'm not glaring jealously at all you iPhone and iPad owners out there. I'm not. Really.

In addition to the awesome new pics, the app gives official descriptions of each of the dwarves in Thorin's Company, which I'll include below the break. Enjoy!

25,000 views and a Free "Hole in the Ground" T-Shirt Give Away!

So the old blog hit 25,000 views today, and I figure it's time to celebrate. So, in honor of the occasion, I'll be giving away TWO free Hole in the Ground t-shirts. The image below shows the design of the t-shirts (open the image in a new tab to see it larger). And yes, you can choose from any of the three colors.

Now, for the rules: in order to enter the contest you have to make a comment on this post and "follow" the blog. In two weeks I'll number the comments and then randomly draw two of the numbers, and . . . BAM!!! You've potentially won an awesome new Hobbit t-shirt.

Now, a quick note: these t-shirts will be handmade . . . high quality, but handmade. I think you'll like them.

So, the contest starts today . . . follow the blog and leave a comment and then cross your fingers.

Thanks for all the views!

Video Blog #8: What did we learn?

Ok, so I'm a little late getting the production video up, but there's good reason for that: first, as you can see . . . the old blog has been undergoing some renovations; second, well . . . life is busy; and third, has to be my favorite production video so far, and there is a lot of info to glean from it.

So, if you haven't seen the video yet, go ahead and watch it, then jump past the break to take a look at some screen shots (courtesy of DarkJackal) and we'll talk a bit about the new hints/clues/revelations we get in this little reel!

Fridays at the Mathom-House: Belomlinsky

The Mathom-house it was called; for anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a ‘mathom’.

–The Fellowship of the Ring; Prologue 

Yeah, I started this post like a week in advance to make sure I got it up on time. Cheating? Probably. Necessary? Definitely. 'Course, the good thing is, nobody cares if it's cheating, because today is Friday and that means two things: freedom, and great Hobbit art here at the Mathom-house!

This week we're expanding our horizons a little and looking at some great (and a little goofy) Hobbit art from the Soviet Union, as featured on the blog Real USSR (which is a fascinating blog to browse through, even if you don't consider the Tolkien-related stuff).

These illustrations were included in a Russian translation of the Hobbit (the 1971 edition, if I'm remembering correctly), and were the work of Belomlinsky, who did a bang-up job, IMO. Now, as you look through these images, you'll not that not all of them are strict interpretations of the events in the book; however, I think the artist does a good job of capturing the "feel" or "spirit" of the Hobbit . . . that fantastic element that has captivated so many of us.

So, jump past the break and enjoy a little bit of Middle-Earth, brought straight to you from Mother Russia!

Friday at the Mathom-House: Julia Alekseeva

The Mathom-house it was called; for anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a ‘mathom’.

–The Fellowship of the Ring; Prologue 

Okay, okay . . . so I'm a little late on this one again. But any Friday is a cause for celebration, right? Even if that celebration has to be a bit, um . . . retroactive. Anyways, this week we'll be checking out the amazing art of Julia Alekseeva, better known as CG-Warrior over at deviantart.com. CG-Warrior has shared some amazing Middle-Earth art, both from The Hobbit and from LOTR. She's got other great stuff as well, but we'll try and keep our focus on the Tolkien-related pieces.

What makes Julia's stuff so good? My favorite thing about her art is that it looks like it could have come straight from an illustrated edition of Tolkien's work. I mean, check out Bilbo below . . . hand's down this is my favorite interpretation of the world's greatest hobbit.

So, jump past the break and enjoy the rest of Julia's art:

Bilbo Baggins

The town of Dale

The super-sleuths at the German Lord of the Rings movies fan-site Herr Der Ringe Film have released the first ever photos of the town of Dale! For those of you who might not remember, Dale is the town of Men that was nestled at the foot of the Lonely Mountain. Thorin describes it to Bilbo near the start of the Hobbit:

Anyway they grew immensely rich and famous, and my grandfather was King under the Mountain again and treated with great reverence by the mortal men, who lived to the South, and were gradually spreading up the Running River as far as the valley overshadowed by the Mountain. They built the merry town of Dale there in those days.

––The Hobbit; Ch. 1: An Unexpected Party

 Sadly, Dale was destroyed by Smaug . . . and by the time Bilbo and his crew reach the Lonely Mountain, nothing remains of the once merry town but ruins.

HDRF asked that their images not be posted on other sites (sorry . . .) so I'll just give you the link to the pictures. As a quick note: the buildings all look to be in good condition, so I wonder if what we're seeing is Dale before the arrival of Smaug . . . and that just makes me wonder what the place will look like when Bilbo and the dwarves finally arrive.

For those of you who don't read German, here are the translated photo captions (courtesy of theonering.net):

• Structure of the set of Dale.
• The red roof tiles seem almost mediterranean.
• Archways, doors and arched windows in Romanesque style.
• Dale extends over several levels.
• The set is supported by shipping containers.
• Is this perhaps one of the bell towers of the town?
• The unfinished battlements of Dale.
• Plywood is the preferred building material on set.
• A set bridge or access way is built.
• A finished piece of wall with round battlements.
• The set of Dale.
• In this view one can clearly see the different levels.
• Back view of Dale and the bridge.
• A Dale building and a staircase in the building.

Fridays at the Mathom-House: Joona Kujanen

The Mathom-house it was called; for anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a ‘mathom’.

–The Fellowship of the Ring; Prologue 

A little late, but always better than never, it's Friday (almost) at the Mathom-House. Luckily, Blogger let's me set the date and time automatically, so I can cheat and still make this a Friday post.

This week we're be featuring the artwork of Joona Kujanen, better known as  Tulikoura, who maintains a great gallery of his work at deviantART.com. The artist has a great sub-gallery dedicated to some fantastic LOTR and Hobbit images.

Just like the artist we featured last week, Tulikoura's work caught my eye for its use of traditional mediums instead of the ever-more-common digital stuff we're seeing all over online. Some of of these images look like the lithographic prints you'd find in an old Dicken's novel or something . . . really good stuff. So, get ready to enjoy a whole lot of good art right after the break:

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

A bit of dwarf-ishness: Bilbo's Contract

So, I'm  a little late getting this posted (it's been up on theonering.net for a while now) but it's pretty cool, so I thought I'd better put it up anyways.

Using some high-res images of Bilbo holding the contract from Thorin & Co, DarkJackal managed to decipher some of the test of the contract. You can read more about the process over on his blog, Heirs of Durin. And even if you don't want to read the whole process, you should head over anyway 'cause there's some cool content over there.

To keep this post shorter, I'll just put down the finished "translation" that DarkJackal came up with. Note that he's divided the contract up into lettered sections that correspond to the pictures you can see to the right.

Bilbo Baggins, Burglar Extraordinaire

I probably owe the world an apology. So far, this blog has focused a whole lot on Thorin and his dwarves, and hasn't talked much about anything else (except Trolls, trailers and wizards who aren't falling in love), when in fact the hero of our story is most definitely not a dwarf (or a troll or wizard). Yes, it's about time we sit down and take a good look at the protagonist of this whole affair: a certain Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End, Hobbiton.

Bilbo Baggins, Esquire

Now, call me crazy, but I really like the animated version of Bilbo. My first exposure to this version of our esteemed Hobbit was from books-on-tape that my grandma had. I practically wore the tapes out listening to the story of Bilbo the Burglar over and over, and I was fascinated by the drawings of hobbits and dwarves, wizards and trolls, and especially the Dragon. And you know what? I still like the animated version. Not sure why . . . call it nostalgia, I guess.

Anyways, there's a new Bilbo on the block, take a gander after the break:

The End Draweth Nigh:

Fridays at the Mathom-House: Otis Frampton

The Mathom-house it was called; for anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a ‘mathom’.

–The Fellowship of the Ring; Prologue 

Friday! Another week is over, the weekend is looming and its time to head on over to take a pit-stop here at the Mathom-House, where there's a whole lot of awesome-ness in a hole in the ground to celebrate! This week we'll be looking at the Hobbit/LOTR artwork of Otis Frampton. I stumbled on this guy's work a few months ago and couldn't get over just how good it is. His art has an amazing, stylized look, yet the details don't suffer for it. Frampton also does a great job of imbuing his images with atmosphere. Take a look for yourself:

Bilbo and the Dragon

The thing I like best about this first image is the sheer size of Smaug . . . the guy is HUGE, and Frampton did a great job of making the dragon's tail disappear into the haze of the chamber. Like I mentioned above, effects like that lend a sense of depth and atmosphere that make this picture really fun.

More great art after the break: