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.

March comes in like a . . .

Production video straight from New Zealand!

History of the Dwarves: Update

So, thanks to my tech-savvy wife, I've fixed the issue with the dwarf infographic. You can now access it by clicking on the image below, which has a link to the full-resolution image. Enjoy!

Fridays at the Mathom-House: Justin Gerard

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 

After too long a break, it's Mathom-time again! Friday is here, freedom is near . . . and I've stumbled upon what might just be my favorite Tolkien artist of all time. Here for your enjoyment is the fantastic work of Justin Gerard. He maintains several great websites, all of which can be found through the previous link; but, his blog is a particular treat, since the artist goes into detail explaining the process behind his artwork. Enjoy:

A History of the Dwarves (in color!)

So, a big apology for being so derelict in my blogging. School finally caught up with me and started kicking me in the butt, so I've been focusing on that for the past few weeks. Luckily, my responsible side took over during a time when not too much was going on on the Hobbit Movie front . . . now, I know some people who are more interested in casting and actors might disagree, but as I have next to no interest in that aspect of the movies, I don't feel too bad.

Anyways, even though I haven't been posting, I have been busy working on a little something . . . a map! I've always loved maps, and I am also a huge fan of infographics, so I thought I'd try my hand at combining the two.

So, here for your enjoyment is an infographic detailing the history and travels of the dwarves from the beginning of the First Age down to Mr. Baggin's adventures with Thorin & Co. I'm pleased with how the map turned out, but keep in mind this is my first shot at this sort of thing . . . hopefully I'll improve as time goes on.

The image below is just a crop from the whole map, which can be found and downloaded by clicking on the image:

P.S. The map is pretty detailed, so you'll have to zoom in and scroll around to get the full effect.

Later!

There and Back Again; Or, How do you get 2 movies from 1 book?

So just how, you might ask, is Peter Jackson possibly going to make two movies out of one book? You might also ask why he'd want to do that, but I don't really have an answer for that . . . although I expect New Line and Warner Bros. making more money has something to do with it. But the first question is most definitely answerable, and I, good reader, am about to reveal all. Or most of all, at least.


It won't come as a surprise to anyone familiar with The Hobbit (the book, I mean) that during Bilbo's grand adventure, Gandalf keeps disappearing . . . usually right when he'd be the most help. As mysterious as that may seem, the book does give us some hints about where the wizard was sneaking off to and what he was doing. What's more, the Appendices at the end of the ROTK fill in a lot of details about the double-life Gandalf was leading during the events of the Hobbit.


Various leaks and hints from cast and crew have revealed that The Hobbit will be expanded into two stories by including and elaborating on the busy-work that kept dragging Gandalf away from Thorin & Co. in the book. And this is where things get interesting. More after the break!