Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Salo's 'Gateway to Sindarin' - Xoanon @ 16:13 PST
Unawen writes: The University of Utah Press announced in its fall 2004 catalogue that it will publish "A Gateway to Sindarin" by David Salo (the linguistics expert for the LOTR movies). One reviewer said it will to "put to shame not a few published works on real-world languages," another said it should become the standard reference for learning Sindarin. Amazon.com lists the book as coming out in October with a price of $49.95. [Pre-Order]

Sunday, June 20, 2004

New Book; The Best of Tolkien Criticism - Xoanon @ 10:50 PST

Turgon writes: UNDERSTANDING THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE BEST OF TOLKIEN CRITICISM, edited by Rose A. Zimbardo and Neil D. Isaacs ($25.00 hardcover, ISBN 061842251X) has just been published by Houghton Mifflin. It contains fifteen essays, most of which are reprinted from either of the two anthologies edited by Zimbardo and Isaacs in 1968 and 1981 repsectively, but there is a brand new essay by Tom Shippey called "Another Road to Middle-earth: Jackson's Movie Trilogy." The full list of contents can be seen on the back cover. [Order Now from Amazon.com] [Order Now from Amazon.co.uk]

Friday, June 18, 2004

SHOP: Sideshow/Weta Inventory Alerts! THESE ITEMS ARE SELLING OUT FAST - Celeborn @ 23:02 PST
We have learned the following items are almost SOLD OUT at SideshowWeta.com: (We've listed a piece count next to each item to show you how close they are to selling out)

• Elrond Bust (100 pcs.) [Order]
  
• Samwise Gamgee Bust (30 pcs.) [Order]
  
• Numenorean Infantryman Bust (40 pcs.) [Order]
  
• High Elven Infantryman Bust (18 pcs.) [Order]
  
• King Théoden Bust (132 pcs.) [Order]
  
• The Arms of The Fellowship - Collection 2 (230 pcs.) [Order]
  
• The Arms of the Moria Orcs Weapon (185 pcs.) [Order]
  
• The Arms of Gimli Weapon (200 pcs.) [Order]
  
• The Arms of Aragorn (180 pcs.) [Order]
  
• The Arms of Lurtz (121 pcs.) [Order]
  
• Gandalf the Grey Bronze (1 pc.) [Order]
  
• Alan Lee Lithograph and Filmstrip Collectible - Rivendell (150 pcs.) [Order]
  

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

More New Tolkien Books on the Horizon - Xoanon @ 15:33 PST
David Brawn, Publishing Director for HarperEntertainment writes: I've just seen this report on new books coming this fall and I have to make a couple of corrections.

Though you mention Ted Nasmith's revised Silmarillion (47 paintings rather than the 18 in the previous edition), you missed a new hardcover edition of Letters from Father Christmas coming in October, as well as The Complete Visual Companion by Jude Fisher, a trade paperback omnibus of the three individual hardbacks with additional sections covering the end of the story (which PJ wouldn't let us show in the first edition in case they spoilt the ending). The photographic content has had a complete overhaul, and we have a number of previously unseen photos throughout, including a few from the Return of the King extended edition.

In November we have a similar updated omnibus of the three children's Photo Guides, though I'm afraid, contrary to your report, what we don't have is a biography of Peter Jackson. Not this year, anyhow...

Monday, June 14, 2004

New Tolkien Books on the Horizon - Xoanon @ 20:57 PST
Lúthien Rising writes: I took a break from my regular schmoozing at BookExpo Canada today to corner the HarperCollins UK rep and ask about any new Tolkien material coming out -- which, of course, there is!

First, coming in November, is the 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of The Lord of the Rings, a hardcover boxed set with the pages from the Book of Mazarbul, illustrations by Tolkien, and a full-size fold-out map of Middle-earth itself. The design is based on the look of the original publications. It won't come cheap -- the Canadian list price is $230.

Then there's the hardcover Revised Illustrated Edition of The Silmarillion, with illustrations by Ted Nasmith, due out in October. The Canadian list price is $75.

And there's a new Deluxe Edition of The Hobbit, a slipcased hardcover "featuring the definitive corrected and reset text", with Tolkien's art in full colour. That's due out in November, with a Canadian list price of $150.

Related new books are Brian Sibley's authorised biography of Peter Jackson (November) and Gary Russell's The Lord of the Rings: The Art of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, including never-before-published material (December).

The rep said to keep an eye on the HarperCollins UK website (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/) for updates and the final versions of the cover art (which weren't available for the catalogue).

Saturday, June 05, 2004

Rhapsody Artist Talk LOTR, Peter Jackson & Christopher Lee - Xoanon @ 19:00 PST
RHAPSODY keyboardist Alex Staropoli recently spoke to Holland's Lords of Metal about the group's upcoming full-length effort, "Symphony Of Enchanted Lands Part 2 - The Dark Secret".

"Every album is a step in RHAPSODY's career," Alex said when asked about the group's musical evolution on the new album. "We are going through an unbelievable majestic progress. We have the orchestra, we have the choir and we have Christopher Lee narrating. This project will show you what we had in mind all along with RHAPSODY: the most majestic sound possible. We call it film-score metal. That is a great feeling: finally we sound like what we wanted to. That was not possible in the past, due to various reasons: technology, money, support and the right contacts."

Asked how much influence the "Lord of the Rings" films have had on the new RHAPSODY CD, Alex replied, "The movies changed the way I look at our music and fantasy in general. Luca has always been the visionary of RHAPSODY, the one who imagined all the stories and translated them to lyrics. He always had this big picture in his mind about what the world in our saga looked like, but it never really came across to me. 'Lord of the Rings' was a revelation for me: this long fantasy movie that was epic and impressive. For the first time I was able to understand what Luca tried to create all along with RHAPSODY: images of snowy mountains, fast forests and large battles. I can imagine people might link [director] Peter Jackson's works to our new album: the music very much works as the score to an epic fantasy movie. We originally intended to write an album entirely dedicated to the 'Lord of the Rings' films. Unfortunately, we could not get the rights to use the original names and events, so we decided to record instead the album that became 'The Dark Secret'."

With regards to "Lord of the Rings" actor Christopher Lee's involvement on the new CD, Alex said, "We could not believe it when we heard that we had the possibility of having him on our new album. That was such an honor. We were blown away. He has this voice… amazing! We recorded his parts during a couple of days in a London-based studio. He was a pleasant man to work with.

He liked to have fun in the studio. How much did we pay him? I cannot say that. It was a lot, but it was worth it. It was all about delivering the message to the listener in the most compelling way possible."

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

'Gnomish Lexicon' to be Reprinted - Xoanon @ 19:58 PST
Ostadan writes: Elvish linguists may be glad to learn that JRRT's very early "Gnomish Lexicon", which was published a few years ago in Parma Eldalamberon #11, but has been unavailable for some time, has gone back into print. Gnomish, or Noldorin, is the language which became the basis for the Grey-elven Sindarin tongue seen in Lord of the Rings. Official announcement below:

Reprint of PARMA ELDALAMBERON No. 11

The Grammar and Lexicon of the GNOMISH TONGUE.
By J. R. R. Tolkien.
Edited by Christopher Gilson, Carl F. Hostetter, Patrick Wynne, and Arden R. Smith.

Parma Eldalamberon No.11 presents the Gnomish Lexicon (selections from which were published in the Appendices to _The Book of Lost Tales_ ) in its entirety. This is the dictionary of the language called Goldogrin, or I-Lam na-Ngoldathon, which Tolkien eventually transformed into the Noldorin of The Etymologies and later into the Sindarin of The Lord of the Rings. This issue also includes Tolkien's own partial grammar of Gnomish, contemporary with the lexicon, which covers the inflections and syntax of the article, noun, and adjective. The lexicon itself also contains much grammatical information, frequently citing verbs in both their present and past tenses, and nouns in both singular and plural. Other parts of speech are also well-represented in what is a quite comprehensive dictionary, and there are a number of sample sentences in Gnomish.

The original lexicon fills a 150-page notebook and consists of about 3000 entries. Compiled in 1917, this remarkable document reveals the well-spring of Tolkien's linguistic genius in its 'Celtic' mode. It also displays the basic phonological nature of the historical relation between Noldorin and Quenya at its inception, with numerous etymological annotations and the citation of many cognates, some of which are Quenya words that occur nowhere else.

A reprint of Parma Eldalamberon No. 11 is currently in preparation. We expect copies to be available for shipping on June 7, 2004.

Orders: The cost is $20.00 per copy including postage and handling world-wide.

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