Alt.Fan.Tolkien Highlights (original) (raw)

(Latest 20 entries) (Calendar) (Friends) (alt.fan.tolkien) (rec.arts.books.tolkien) (User info)
Navigate: (Previous 20 entries)

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

8:18PM - Here be highlights

Discussion
+ Who knew the company were in Lorien? - Did Sauron know?

Collecting
+ What Else to Buy - a list of Tolkien-related books, films and collectables.

Books
+ Unfinished Tales - Christian Hannibal praises this often overlooked book.

Chapter of The Week
+ The Hobbit - Chapter 2: Roast Mutton

Suggested things to discuss for this chapter include:
- Did Bilbo really have to clean his entire mansion by himself?
- Let's assume that there is an internal story explanation for why would the troll be named William Huggins. What would it be?
- Can Trolls be saved after they turn to stone?
- How on Arda did the three stupid Trolls get ahold of Turgon's swords???

Did you miss Sunday's alt.fan.tolkien highlights?

And don't forget to get the best of Tolkien news from wee_tolkien

Current mood: bouncy

Sunday, September 14, 2003

11:17AM - Warning: advanced physics

Here's some more highlights from the past month of Alt.Fan.Tolkien, which I should be back up to date with soon. Chapter Of The Week highlights will follow later today.

What if..
+ Gandalf's Intended Plan in the books - What would the fellowship have done if they had completed the journey south together?

Ring Theory
Hasdrubal Hamilcar / Hasan Murtaza puts forth some ideas about the science behind the one ring:
+ Part 1 - Is the ring a superconductor?
+ Part 2 - The lettering on the ring. Magnetic properties. Touching the ring.
+ Part 3 - Eddy currents inside the ring
+ Part 4 - The material of the ring of power.
+ Part 5 - Capacitance effects (not posted yet)
+ Part 6 - Ways to destroy the ring

Did you miss the last bunch of alt.fan.tolkien highlights?

Current mood: nerdy

Thursday, September 4, 2003

5:26PM - Return of the.. stuff

It's nearly a month since the last aft_tolkien update, but I'm glad to report that this is the last week of my working overtime. So once I've recovered from harrasing an elf at the weekend, regular highlights should resume.

Here's some of what's been going on in Alt.Fan.Tolkien in the past month:

+ Queer Sign - Conrad Dunkerson describes the symbols Gandalf scratched onto Bilbo's door.

+ Gondor and the North - How aware was Gondor of events in Erebor and the Battle Of The Five Armies? The thread also evolves into a debate about how much control Sauron had over what Denathor saw through the palantir.

Songs
+ Hobbit Town - new filk by Dr. Ernst Stavro Blofeld

Chapter Of The Week
"The alt.fan.tolkien (AFT) and rec.arts.books.tolkien (RABT) newsgroups are proud to present to you this weekly series of discussion threads. The purpose is to inspire some Tolkien book-reading and discussion on a regular schedule, at a pace most people can manage, and at all levels of expertise from complete newbies to lifelong Tolkien experts."

+ This Week - The Hobbit: Chapter 1 An Unexpected Party

Current mood: hungry

Tuesday, August 5, 2003

11:24PM - A few more highlights

Sorry about the lack of aft_tolkien updates lately, but I'm working extra hours to cover for someone. It was going to be just for 2 weeks, but now it's going to be for another 4 weeks, so the highlights will remain rare and irregular for some time yet.

+ Elf-Dwarf enmity - Why don't Elves and Dwarves like each other?

+ Rings of power - Why did Sauron make the Elves make their rings?

+ Dating elves.. - (not like that!) The folks of AFT try to figure out the ages of the LotR elves.

Current mood: hot

Sunday, July 27, 2003

11:41PM - Shire Murder Mysteries

Sorry, but unfortunatly I don't have time to do the weekend highlights today.

However, I wanted to let you know that Chapter 18 of Death of Heir, written by our very own banazir the Jedi Hobbit, has been posted.

Current mood: crappy

Thursday, July 24, 2003

5:39PM - Thursday Highlights

Current mood: stressed

Monday, July 21, 2003

11:04PM - Shire Murder Mysteries

Current mood: sleepy

Sunday, July 20, 2003

6:25PM - Weekend Highlights

Brought to you by my third packet of cheesy wotsits.

JRRT
+ Cats - "I fear that to me Siamese cats belong to the fauna of Mordor" Tolkien, Letters #219

Movies
+ Een wilde Ier - suggest doing a scene-by-scene anlysis of the failings and strengths of the films

Storytime
+ At the Sign of the Limping Nazgûl - Öjevind Lång starts new bout of silliness

Did you miss Friday's highlights?

Current mood: amused

Friday, July 18, 2003

11:27PM - Friday night sleepy sleepy highlights

Hello to our new readers.

Creatures
+ Entwives - What Tolkien said about their fate.

Analysis
+ A Capital Question - David Salo is wondering about the inconsitancies in LotR over names of species being capitalised or not (eg sometimes it's 'Elves', sometimes 'elves')

+ The Movies - A discussion about people discussing changes made in the movies, turning into a discussion about changes made in the movies.

Update
+ Matthew Bladen and Conrad Dunkerson - explain Iglishmêk in more detail

Did you miss the highlights on Wednesday?

Current mood: exhausted

Wednesday, July 16, 2003

7:16PM - Wednesday Highlights

Current mood: working

Tuesday, July 15, 2003

1:48PM - Highlight catch-up

Sorry for not doing some of this sooner. It's too hot for much computer work.

Artifacts
+ The Ring of Barahir - It's serpant design is based on the badge of Finarfin and his house. Graham Lockwood also provides links to where you can buy a copy of the ring from the films (seen on Aragorn's hand).

Influences
+ The Desolation before Mordor - From letter 226 of Tolkien's letters:
"The Dead Marshes and the approaches to the Morannon owe something to Northern France after the Battle of the Somme."

Storytime
+ Shire Murder Mysteries: Death of Heir - Chapter 14 has been teuncily posted.

Did you miss the Friday highlights?
Remember to get the best of Tolkien news at wee_tolkien

Current mood: hot

Saturday, July 12, 2003

12:12AM - Late Late Highlights

Dontcha hate it when someone hogs the line all night when they're supposed to be packing to leave the country? *sigh*

Discussion
+ Orcs cannibals? - Tolkien indicated they are, and Öjevind Lång provides the references.

Films
+ LotR Exhibition Comes to London - 16th September 2003 to 11th January 2004 at the Science Museum

Off Topic
+ Book related at least. Deep in the Merits of Harry Potter thread, someone gave this quote from Phillip Pullman:

"One mistake that adults used to make about children's books is to think that children's books deal with trivial things - little things that please little minds and little concerns about little people. Nothing could be further from the truth. Quite the contrary, it's been my observation that a lot of highly praised adult books, or highly successful adult books, of recent years have dealt with trivial things, such as 'Does my bum look big in this?', 'Will my favourite football team win the cup?' or "Oh dear, my girlfriend's left me, whatever am I going to do?'. Whereas the children's books have dealt with ultimate questions: 'Where do we come from?', 'What's that nature of being a human being?', 'What must I do to be good?'. These are profound questions, very deeply important questions, and they're being dealt with, largely, not in the books that adults read, but in the books that children read."

Current mood: sick

Thursday, July 10, 2003

5:43PM - Late Afternoon Highlights

Current mood: bouncy

Wednesday, July 9, 2003

3:59PM - Late Lunch Highlights

Current mood: sore

Tuesday, July 8, 2003

4:18PM - Late Lunch Highlights

Not much happening in AFT today. The discussions about Gollum's Travels and The Desolation before Mordor are continuing.

From Rabt
+ Something from the Elven Menses thread I just had to quote:

Graham Lockwood said (jokingly): Yeah. I bet the male Elves didn't ejaculate either. They just calmly deposited their genetic code in the proper receptacle...
jchase replied: Sound suspiciously like the mating habits of the octopus

Did you miss yesterday's highlights?

Current mood: amused

Monday, July 7, 2003

6:31PM - Teatime Highlights

Current mood: cheerful

Sunday, July 6, 2003

7:56PM - Weekend Highlights

and you thought I'd forgotten, ay?

Ponderings
+ Card Games for Hobbits? - Ernst Stavro Blofeld explains the rules to a card game he thinks would suit hobbits, with a variation for Breelanders.

Hanness
+ Terry Han - has filled out the Who's Who form. Yes my friends! its joke. (He will of course get listed, if you were wondering)

From RABT
+ Elwing and the Silmaril - Stan Brown lays out the reasons why Elwing and Dior didn't give back the silmaril.

+ Most Intriguing Silmarillion Character? - Thread about which Silm characters people find most intriguing, and why.

Did you miss Friday's highlights?

Current mood: hungry

Saturday, July 5, 2003

6:41PM - Saturday Timewarp

AFT is always slower on weekends, so highlights will usually be saved for Sundays (not that you're missing anything today anyway).
This means that on Saturdays we can take a dive deep into the AFT archives.

The week I've uncovered some gems from 4 years ago, in July 1998

+ Sauron's Finger - Speculation on what happened to the finger Isildur cut off Sauron

+ Multi-dialectal Tolkien - Carl Edlund Anderson considered translating some LotR speech into Middle English dialect, and prompted discussion on what dialects would suit who.

+ A Evening In Rivendell - A CD of Tolkien songs

Current mood: sore

Friday, July 4, 2003

11:50PM - Friday Highlights

Today in alt.fan.tolkien

Movie
+ Troels Forchhammer has a theory:
"The cynical might get the impression that one of the reasons for the late release of the extended DVD is that they're looking at what way the fan critique is pointing. IIRC the extended DVD of FOTR essentially addressed the worst points of the criticism - more of the Shire, Frodo was played up, Galadriel was much improved etc."

Games
+ LotR: Lords of Midnight and Doomdark's Revenge are still very much alive and kicking, apparently.

Storytime
+ Death of Heir - Chapter 10 has been posted

Did you miss yesterday's highlights?

Current mood: curious

Thursday, July 3, 2003

2:05PM - Late Lunch Highlights

Current mood: full

Navigate: (Previous 20 entries)