TolkienNut16 has posted an auditorium version of the video introduction given by Peter ahead of last night’s screenings of the extended version of The Two Towers. Most of the production background he described will be familiar to fans who have seen the supplements and listened to the commentary tracks of the extended-version DVDs.

Peter did say one thing that seemed new to me, though perhaps he has said it somewhere before and I just missed it. He says that Fran Walsh suggested and wrote the famous “Go away and never come back!” argument between Smeagol and Gollum. She also directed it, since it was a very late addition to the film. Fran has always been quite modest about this and said she simply directed the scene the way Peter wanted her to. But it does sound as though that scene was pretty much hers from inspiration to execution, and here Peter graciously gives her credit. Of course, it has become one of the most famous scenes in the film.

I have an analysis of it in an essay, “Gollum Talks to Himself,” in a forthcoming anthology of essays about the film, Picturing Tolkien, to be released by McFarland on July 31 and edited by Jan Bogstad and Phil Kaveny. (It’s available for pre-order on Amazon, and given how these things go, it may well come out before July 31.) I hope to post an interview with Jan and Phil about the book in July.

The Mythopoeic Society has announced its 2009 award winners. In the “Inklings Studies” category, the winner is John Rateliff for his two-volume The History of the Hobbit. It’s a well-deserved win, since the book was a major achievement. As Christopher Tolkien did for The Lord of the Rings in the late volumes of the “History of Middle-earth” series, John includes the major drafts for The Hobbit, along with copious well-informed annotations and essays. I’ve known John for many years, and I can’t imagine anyone better qualified to take on such a project.

(For some reason, only vol. 1 currently seems to be available on Amazon, though you can buy both as part of a boxed set with a copy of The Hobbit. I happen to have about half a dozen copies of The Hobbit, so I just bought the two volumes. If Amazon doesn’t rectify its mistake soon–yes, they actually do make mistakes–I’m sure you can track it down elsewhere.)

John wasn’t at the society’s banquet to accept the award, but he has posted an acceptance speech anyway, on his blog. It’s good to hear that he will have even more to say on the subject:

After he plowed through The History of The Hobbit, Charles Noad wrote “surely nothing remains to be said.” Happily he was wrong. Trying to get to the bottom of a Tolkien story is like staring into an ent’s eyes: deep wells very much in the present but filled with the memory of ages. But who wouldn’t drink deep of that well, given the chance? So: the work goes on.

There’s no significant film connection in these books. Still, John is a big fan of Peter Jackson’s trilogy and has been a defender of it among the those people in the world of Tolkien scholarship who deplore the adaptations.

I also know that he reads this blog, so congratulations, John!

I haven’t posted for quite some time now. Partly I’ve been dealing with accumulated tasks that awaited me on my return from the Vancouver trip, including an epic entry for the “Observations” blog. Plus, alas, there hasn’t been a whole lot of big news lately. There are a few items on my heap of possible entries for this blog, though, and I plan to post on some of them soon.

I received a note this morning from Steve Newman, of David and Charles, the British publisher of John Howe’s new book, Forging Dragons. He alerted me to the fact that there’s a short promotional film about the book on YouTube. It’s about three minutes long and features John talking about dragons and his reasons for writing the book.

Forging Dragons recently came out from Image in the U.S., and I plan to review it soon. In trying to link to the book on Amazon.uk, I discovered that they’re listing it as coming out on October 31, 2009! Clearly a typo, and I assume, or at least hope, that people pre-ordering it will have to wait a week, not a year. The British publisher is David & Charles.

Those of you who missed it might want to take a look at this entry, where I reproduce my own dragon sketch, done by John.

Again I must apologize for not posting for so long. In part it’s because I’ve been traveling and was away from the internet for several days. Right now I’m in London, and naturally I took the opportunity to see the Lord of the Rings musical, playing at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Not that I was terribly keen on seeing it. I’ve read several reviews, and with few exceptions they’re pretty dismissive. Still, I felt I should keep up on such things.

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Browsing through Amazon recently, I came across a DVD called T & T’s Real Travels in Middle Earth. Naturally I was intrigued and ordered a copy, hoping it would be something that I could recommend to those who may never get to New Zealand to see the Lord of the Rings locations for themselves. Alas, it proved disappointing, and I am more inclined to warn fans to avoid it. more »

This morning Amazon emailed me to let me know that John Howe’s new book, John Howe Fantasy Art Workshop, is available for pre-order. The release date is September 24, so we don’t have all that long to wait. more »