1. It’s Finally Out in the World!

Jared, Oriana and Ned kick things off with an introduction to the podcast, recent developments in Tolkien news and adaptations, and how they all learned about Tolkien to start with. Treks to central Finland, developing languages as a teenage writer, initially trying (and failing) to read The Lord of the Rings, and slightly suspicious cover illustrations are all on the agenda.

Show Notes.

A quick sampling of Tove Jansson’s illustrations for The Hobbit. Be sure to learn more about Jansson herself!

Oriana’s Finnish travels! Start here and just keep hitting the ‘next’ button.

Berwick-upon-Tweed per Wikipedia. It’s quite north, you know.

Amazon’s Second Age of Middle-earth map, as linked from their @LOTRonPrime Twitter.

Oriana’s recent Vox article “Dothraki Spoken Here” on conlangs, short for constructed languages, as featured in Game of Thrones, Avatar and more besides.

The official website for Tolkien, released via Fox Searchlight.

The Montclair Film Festival.

How much of a Tolkien nerd is Stephen Colbert? Beyond measure.

Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth, hosted by the Morgan Library in New York City. You’ve got until May 12!

Marquette University’s Tolkien collection

The opening few minutes of Rankin-Bass’s The Hobbit.

A little more on the history of Topcraft in Japan and their Rankin-Bass partnership, along with more on the other Japanese studios Rankin-Bass worked with.

The ‘shippy’ Legolas-Gimli Two Towers cover mentioned by Oriana and Jared. They do seem very comfortable with each other.

More on Elias Lönnrot and the Kalevala, via an English-language page hosted by the Finnish Literature Society.

The conversation between Frodo and Gandalf on pity, mercy and ‘death in judgment’ as created by Peter Jackson and his team for The Fellowship of the Ring.

Seamus Heaney’s (very justly famed) Beowulf translation and presentation.

Alissa Wilkinson in Vox talking about how she couldn’t read Harry Potter when she was younger, per Jared’s observation on growing up in a conservative religious household.

Ned in Oxford in 1992 for the Tolkien Centenary conference, visiting Tolkien’s grave along with fellow attendees. Spot the VERY-tousle haired guy near the headstone...

The J.R.R. Tolkien Fandom Oral History Collection project at Marquette.