Tolkien Gateway News

The Hobbit Film Coming Soon!

Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have settled their lawsuit and have begun work on two films, The Hobbit, and a sequel set to be released in 2010 and 2011 respectively. We'll be posting all the information on our wiki as it comes to us: Peter Jackson's The Hobbit.

P.S. For those concerned about our lack of updates: we've been slaving away over our encyclopedia and working on building a new news system integrated into our wiki so fans can post and edit news items themselves. This should be launched and we'll let you know as soon as it is ready.

The Return to Bag-End Shipping

For fans of The History of The Hobbit who have been patiently waiting on the second volume to be released, it seems Amazon.co.uk is finally fulfilling orders and the volume is being shipped. Order from Amazon.co.uk. If you're over in the United States and hoping to order this from Amazon.com, you'll have to wait until later this year when the set is published by Houghton Mifflin.

5O Years of Tolkien at Marquette

June 7th marks the 50th anniversary of Marquette University's acquisition of J.R.R. Tolkien literary manuscripts by cataloging the 1,000th item in the secondary collection that supports research in Tolkien's literary manuscripts. The "millennial item" was Matthew Dickerson's Ents, Elves, and Eriador. Read more information.

Houghton Mifflin Releases Deluxe Edition of The Children of Hurin

Houghton Mifflin has finally released The Children of Hurin Deluxe Edition in the United States. Order from Amazon.com.

The Children of Hurin Audiobook

It has just been revealed that later this year we will be able to listen to The Children of Hurin narrated by none other than Christopher Lee. The unabridged audio recording is scheduled for a September 3rd release and is available for pre-order on Amazon.co.uk.

Win a Deluxe Edition of The Children of Hurin

Win the Houghton Mifflin Deluxe edition of The Children of H�rin by Alan Lee and Christopher Tolkien. Just fill out the form and enter "DELUXE EDITION" as the code and "HOUGHTON MIFFLIN" as the answer. Contest will run from May 16th 2007 to May 30th 2007. Enter the contest

The Children of Hurin Exceeds Expectations

Now that The Children of Hurin has been out for a couple weeks we have a good idea about how the public feels about it, and it's good news. The book debuted at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List and the publishers are having a hard time keeping up with all the orders. TolkienLibrary.com has some facts and figures on the publication, including details on how many signed copies are floating about.

Women In Tolkien Seminar

Tolkien Society will be 'bearding' Germain Greer 'in her own den' as this year's seminar on the theme �Women in Tolkien� will be in Cambridge.
Saturday 16th June, Wolfson Court, Girton, Cambridge, UK
The 'northern' (the southern one is in Sydney, Australia, in August) seminar weekend will also include an evening mead tasting (over 18s only) and a punt-moot on the Sunday to Grantchester complete with a picnic lunch.

Interested in Giving a Paper?
Papers should be either 20 or 45 minutes long to fit into half-hour or hour slots with time for questions or discussion. There may also be scope to accommodate a number of short 10-minute presentations. Please send the title, a short summary/abstract and the intended length to the Seminar organiser:

Helen Cousins e-mail naath AT chiark.greenend.org.uk

Registration costs and booking info can be found online here

Fun at 'Hobbiton' Mill

11am - 5pm on 19th & 20th May 2007- Admission is freeThe eighth Tolkien Weekend's theme is "70 years of Hobbiton" celebrating 70 years since the publication of The Hobbit. Join the Tolkien Society for a weekend of fun-filled events including: watching Sareholl Mill in action, displays from the Tolkien Society and Birmingham Libraries, a bus tour of Birmingham, performances, live music, readings, guided walks, costume parade, etc. etc. With around 10,000 expected visitors this event is definite must-attend for any Tolkien fan. More information

Mr. Baggins Available Tomorrow

In a rather surprise move, the publication date for The History of The Hobbit: Mr Baggins by John D. Rateliff has been moved up from May 8th to...tomorrow! This is the first volume in a two volume set which will be quite similar to The History of Middle-earth series. The book has been in process for decades and even has the approval of Christopher Tolkien, definitely a must have. Pre-order from Amazon.co.uk