Monday, January 12, 2009

Unquedor


Unquedor Tolkien Genootschap is a Dutch Tolkien society. Founded in 1981 their website indicates they're an active society.

There is an up to date news page, the society's agenda is on line, Tolkien history, links, message forum and much more. They do not however, have an English version of this website.

As they say in Dutch, "Spreek, vriend, en treed binnen".

Unquedor Tolkien Genootschap

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Rolozo Tolkien



Rolozo Tolkien (hosted by TheOneRing.net) created by Ryan Eric Lovett of California has collected quite a few images, drawings and paintings of Tolkien images on the web. The artists range in the most successful to the amateur and in itself is pretty amazing.

The gallery is quite easy to follow. It is sectioned out easily with topics ranging from book illustrations to Tolkien calendars. There is even one page for images of Tolkien himself.

It is sad however that no images have been added since 2006. But when you think of the work involved to keep such a huge site up to date it is understandable. The site is truly a gem.

Rolozo Tolkien

The Tolkienion



The Tolkienion is one of the top notch Tolkien sites out there and was created in 2001 by Steven White. It is well organized and easy on the eyes. A small image page provides links to several major artists work including the site owner Steven White himself.

Also included are a text page which includes a terrific assortment of written works by Tolkien, a lexicon and a HUGE links page.

Have fun at the The Tolkienion.

Free map of Middle-earth to down load

Not a very pretty page however, begun by Chris Taylor and now kept by Chris Guerette this down loadable map, this free gift from the Chris's is for you to take. Last updated 11.24.04 here is a message from the webmaster.

"I am the webmaster of this internet site that has the 506 KB map of Middle-earth with the annotations of source information in the upper right hand corner and ANYONE has permission to print a copy of the file image for personal use."
-Christopher Guerette


The complete map of Middle-earth

Saturday, January 10, 2009

The Last Homely House


@ Alan Lee

The Last Homely House is a small site that includes an illustrations page solely of Rivendell. Not much else is Tolkien related other than a few passages from the Lord of the Rings books on the bottom of the illustrations page.

The site owner Aaron Fuegi does however have links to the artists websites on the Rivendell page. And that is worth a look.

The Last Homely House

The Tolkien Society Forodrim


The Tolkien Society Forodrim

As you will see The Tolkien Society Forodrim was created in 1972 in Stockholm, Sweden. Many of the pages are in Swedish however there are a few English gems in them.

Included in this blog already is the Forodrim's Mellonath Daeron, a terrific source of the Elvish language including a guide to the diacritic characters Tolkien uses for said languages and much more.

The site is small but it is a good link if you are planning to meet up with a Tolkien friend in Sweden.

The Tolkien Society Forodrim

The Tolkien Forum



The Tolkien Forum has been around for quite some time. Their vast forums cover every aspect of Middle-earth and than some. Other than the literary discussions there are forums for members art and writing, language discussions, articles written by the members in academic fashion, gaming and of course movie talk.

I said vast and that is the truth. It's large but not unmanageable and many to participate with.

The Tolkien Forum

War of the Ring



War of the Ring offers quite a lot. Starting with the New Line Cinema LoTR craze the site posted up to date news regarding the movies. Currently they still do post news Tolkien related and have an active message forum. Also included in their pages are book reviews, photo forums, a shop (includes everything from shirts to weapons), fan fic page and downloads.

They also have a large archive section for news and such prior to 2004. It's worth a look for a variety of reasons.

War of the Ring

Tolkien Estates



Tolkien Estates showed up on the scene in 2007 just prior to the release of The Children of Húrin. They promise great things from this site and what you'll see here is a start up version if you will.

Some of the subjects written about which will be included on this site wince completed are articles, the portfolio of Tolkien's artwork and an extensive F.A.Q. page. When completed it will boast at least 100 pages.

All very exciting news and I'm sure it will live up to its name hopefully soon.

Tolkien Estates.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Middle-earth Tours



Middle-earth Tours is hosted by TheOneRing.net and created by their member Kyriel. It's a lovely tour that includes images both by artists and the New Line Cinemas movies of LoTR. Included are a timeline from The Silmarillion. The images are collect from another hosted site entitled Rolozo Tolkien. It's not certain if this site has been worked on recently. Like Rolozo Tolkien I believe once the hype of New Lines LoTR movies faded so did the interest to improve on this site.

I did add it here however, because of the unique way they have covered the timeline and subjects of Tolkien's Middle-earth stories.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Mellonath Daeron



Mallonath Daeron is an amazing endeavor. I couldn't begin to tell you how I know however, I am in awe of anyone who can read and write in any of Tolkien's languages. This site is dedicated to the elvish languages in particular. Mellonath Daeron is actually a small part of the Swedish Tolkien Society Forodrim.

Besides the mechanics of the languages there is a page for Mellonath Dearon's publications and a page of members own work translated and other poems. Their links page is quite extensive and includes other sites involved in languages.

The One Ring.net



TheOneRing.net was founded in 1999 by Xoanon and Tehanu. Primarily driven for news regarding Peter Jackson/New Line Cinemas's LoTR movies they hunted for any pre-production news they could find. This site truly is one created by fans for fans and you can read about their history here.

This site has grown to an immense size even out growing it's original one which you can still view in their archive.

Besides current news on the Hobbit movie in pre-production and any news to do with Tolkien including gaming, the site also holds a message forum, Barlimans Chat, polls, a scrapbook from events, a page just for merchandise, events and much more.

It is vast, fresh and fun.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Tolkien Collectors Guide

The Tolkien Collectors Guide is a simple data base to use. With links to specific subjects you can find much of what you are looking for. With a message forum attached you can also find others looking for items you may have knowledge of. Also included is a live chat function.

This is a good place to start and converse with others of like interests. Looks quite easy to use too.

Have fun at The Tolkien Collectors Guide.

Friday, January 2, 2009

John Howe


@John Howe
Hobbiton


John Howe, along with several other artists, is a master at his craft. Having been published in books, calendars and what ever else you can find Tolkien related images he is one of the most recognized artists out there.

His website is teaming with information, images with explanations and blog like entries to linger in. Even his links page is a wealth of information. And last but not least the man even as a forum on his site.

To visualize Tolkien's world remember John Howe.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Encyclopedia of Arda

The Encyclopedia of Arda lives up to its name. This website has literally put every aspect of Arda and it's tales in alphabetical order. From races, places, flora and fauna this amazing collection of information makes it so easy to follow from all, accept for the most earlier works (due to the many inconsistencies), of Tolkien's writings regarding Middle-earth with ease.

Also included are songs, time lines and calendars. Where else could you find out quickly how long an Ent-stride was.

As the Ents travelled through Fangorn Forest, they measured the distances they travelled not in yards and miles, but in Ent-strides. The exact distance of an Ent-stride is never specified in detail, but what notes we have suggest that a single stride for Treebeard would cover approximately four feet (about 1.2m). By that approximate calculation, one mile would be equivalent to 1,320 of his Ent-strides. However, since the Ents seem to have been of varying sizes, it would seem that Ent-strides must also have varied in length from Ent to Ent.

The are only two known distances given in Ent-strides, and one of those is rather vague. The first is Treebeard's stated distance between the hill where he first encountered Merry and Pippin, and his Ent-house at Wellinghall. This journey took seventy thousand Ent-strides, corresponding to just over fifty miles. Later Pippin tried to count the Treebeard's Ent-strides as he travelled to Entmoot, but only managed to reach about three thousand: in other words, he lost count after a journey of less than two and a half miles.


One can spend hours roaming around it's pages from link to link to link. It is a vast amount of work to roam through but very easy to use.

Encyclopedia of Arda