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Hello! This community site is based around the world of Hobbits. Anything Hobbit-related is welcome here, whether it be just a place to hang out and chat about the role of Hobbits in books, discuss the rumours relating to the new The Hobbit movie due for release in 2009 or discuss the latest Hobbit PC or console games. And of course, there are role-plays to get involved in via our message-based or play-by-post forum.

If you are new to The Hobbit Forums, the first thing you need to do is register. If you have already registered, you should login (if you have not done so already). Once you are registered and have logged on, we would strongly recommend you read our The Newbie's Guide To The Hobbit Forums - it will tell you must about the site and its features.

So finally, if you have any questions or comments, post a message in the Suggestions and Help forum and the administrators and other members will do their best to assist you. Alternatively, if you wish to contact the site creator directly, please send a private message to Gimwald.

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Hear Christopher Lee talking about The Hobbit! Click to play...

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'The Hobbit' movie is to feature in this weeks Entertainment Weekly, even making the front cover. They will be bringing their readers up to date with all the gossip and the Jackson saga so far. The fact they are giving so much coverage to a movie that as yet doesnt exist probably means they've realised what all of us already knew: there is a lot of interest in 'The Hobbit' movie!

Meanwhile, latest rumours suggest that there is a very generous percentage sharing deal on the table for Jackson subject to the litigation being dropped. Entertainment Weekly says "There has been a detente," says one insider. There is now the beginning of a discourse between Peter Jackson and New Line that's running parallel to the litigation proceedings.

New Line have already been fined by the courts for failing to release their accounts to Jackson's company and that may be enough to satisfy Mr. Jackson's quest for justice.

Bob Shaye of New Line knows only too well that time is running out, with the smart money being on 2010 as the end of New Line's contract to make 'The Hobbit' and one other Middle Earth based movie. No wonder the proverbial olive branches are dangling.

[Comment...]

Compiled by: Gimwald.
Source: the-hobbit-movie.com.

According to ComingSoon.com, a brand new Tolkien movie is in talks and could potentially be coming to theatres. It is "The Tales of The Silmarillion". The novel was the underlying inspiration and source of J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginative writing; he worked on the book throughout his life but never brought it to a final form. It is the story of the First Age of Tolkien's world, the ancient drama to which characters in The Lord of the Rings look back and in which some of them, such as Elrond and Galadriel, took part.

The book includes several other, shorter works beside The Silmarillion proper. Preceding it are "Ainulindale", the myth of Creation, and "Valaquenta", in which the nature and powers of each of the gods is set forth. After The Silmarillion is "Akallabeth", the story of the downfall of the great island kingdom of Numenor at the end of the Second Age; completing the volume is "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age", in which the events of The Lord of the Rings are treated in the manner of The Silmarillion.

[Comment...]

Compiled by: Gimwald.
Source: ComingSoon.com.
Artwork: Sirielle.

The Hobbit is 70 years old today (21st September)! It is 70 years today since The Hobbit first went to print. Assuming the book made it into the shops by the next day, we might have a reason for the importance of 22 September for Tolkien. It would be a big coincidence that Bilbo and Frodo both had their birthday on the 22nd September for some other reason, or perhaps pure luck.

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Compiled by: Gimwald.

We finally get our first look at the Robert Zemeckis film version of 'Beowulf'. Take a quick look at the all new trailer that has just premiered on Apple.com and can also be seen on the new official website for the film. We get our first real look at Grendel who appears to be a cross between Gollum and Pumpkin Head...

Additionally, on their new flash site, they have a synopsis of the film, cool new wallpapers and more... certainly well worth a look.

[Comment...]

Compiled by: Gimwald.
Source: TheLandofShadow.com.

Be the first! See the movie trailer for 'The Hobbit'! Click to play...




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Hobbits are, or were, creature of between two to four feet in height (the average height being 3 feet 6 inches) with slightly pointed ears and oversized furry feet with leathery soles, resulting in many of them never wearing shoes. They are fond of an unadventurous bucolic life of farming, eating and socialising. Living rather longer than humans, Hobbits live an average of about 100 years; their oldest living up 130. The time at which a young Hobbit "comes of age" is 33, as compared to the human 21 years. Thus a 70 year old Hobbit would only be middle-aged. Hobbits also like to drink ale in inns, not unlike the English countryfolk, who were Tolkien's inspiration. We can also see that in the name Tolkien chose for the part of Middle-earth where the Hobbits live, "The Shire", is clearly reminiscent of the English county names (e.g. Lancashire, Shropshire).

Mealtimes, at least according to the Peter Jackson script adaptation of the novel, consist at least of the seven meals known as breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner and supper. Tolkien did say that Hobbits eat "at least six meals a day when they can get it", but he didn't give their names.

Hobbits are evidently related to Men and are represented as a pygmy offshoot of that race. Their exact origin is unknown, but by the early Third Age they were living in the Vales of Anduin in Wilderland.

Hobbits are also called Halflings due to their small stature. However, the term is slightly offensive to Hobbits, as to themselves they are not 'half' of anything and certainly do not use the term to refer to themselves. Tolkien's etymology for 'Hobbit' is interesting as well: obviously constructed without prior intent, it would have been natural for him to connect it to the German prefix hob meaning small (e.g. hobgoblin). However this prefix dates back "only" to the 13th century, too late by Tolkien's standards and so he constructed an alternative etymology, from Old English hol-bytla, "hole-dweller". When later he began to work out the language relations further, Hobbit was to be derived from the Rohirric (actually Anglo-Saxon, which parallels in Tolkien's universe to Rohirric) Holbytlan (hole builders). In the original Westron, the name was Kuduk (Hobbit), derived from the actual Rohirric kud-dukan (hole dweller).

According to Tolkien, the word hobbit was the first element of the book "The Hobbit" that he created. As a university lecturer, he was in the process of correcting reports when he started scribbling on a piece of paper and wrote, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit" and the multitude of stories sprang from that. The idea of a little hole dwelling creature was introduced to Tolkien by one of his students in a story he had written.

Dominions: The Shire.
Languages: Westron (Shire dialect).
Average height: 2-4 feet (often less than three feet in later days).

Skin color: Nut-brown to White.
Hair color: Typically curly brown, rarely blond (until the Fourth Age), and white and grey in later years.
Distinctions: Mortality, diminuitive stature.
Lifespan: c. 100 years.
Famous Members: Marcho and Blanco, Smeagol, Bandobras Took, Bilbo Baggins and Frodo Baggins.

[Comment...]

Compiled by: Gimwald.
Source: http://tolkiengateway.net.

J R R Tolkien was born John Ronald Reuel Tolkien on 3 January 1892 and died on 2 September 1973. He was a prolific writer and the author of many stories including The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

Since his death, his son Christopher Tolkien has put together many of his fathers notes and essays about Middle Earth and had them published posthumously. The most famous is The Silmarillion which is a collection of notes showing the fictitious history and family trees of the many characters brought to life first in The Hobbit and then later in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

The Lord Of The Rings has long been a firm favorite among readers and has remained ever present in reader surveys since the 1960's. In a survey carried out by the BBC in 2003, Lord Of The Rings was Britain's favorite book of all time.

As a firm favorite throughout the world it was probably only a matter of time before the story reached the big screen once cinema had reached a level that could do the books justice.

Most Tolkien fans agree that the Lord Of The Rings movies did the books fair justice. The director Peter Jackson and the film company New Line, seemed to be well aware of how worried the books fans were.

The actors too displayed and spoke of a kind of honor at being chosen to bring their character to the big screen. They lived and worked together for over 18 months in New Zealand and strong friendships were made. The nine actors who played the Fellowship of the Ring each now wear a tattoo as a reminder of their role. The tattoo is of the elvish symbol for the figure "9".

As the films were such a huge success it was inevitable The Hobbit Movie would be next. It is worth noting though that The Hobbit is very much a children's story and the tone of the book is very different to the books that followed.

Tolkien originally started The Lord Of The Rings as another children's book but the plot of the story quickly became much darker. In some ways this makes making The Hobbit movie more difficult than the LOTR trilogy.

[Comment...]

Compiled by: Gimwald.
Source: http://the-hobbit-movie.com.

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."

And so is the case for a very well-to-do hobbit by the name of Bilbo Baggins in J.R.R. Tolkien's famous novel The Hobbit. Bilbo is descended from a long line of hobbits that "never had any adventures or did anything unexpected," but all that changed the day a wizard named Gandalf and thirteen dwarves came to tea. They had a proposition to make for the unsuspecting hobbit. He would accompany them on a long journey to the dwarves' ancestral home in the east and aid them in winning back their treasure from the fire-breathing dragon that had driven them all from their kingdom under the mountain.

Bilbo reluctantly agrees to help them and travel along as their "burglar". And so off goes Burglar Bilbo with thirteen dwarves and a wizard. The road ahead is fraught with peril and Bilbo finds himself facing hungry trolls, running from goblins, playing riddles in the dark, and experiencing a rather significant case of finders-keepers. Along the way, he also meets some fascinating people and creatures. From the fair and wise elves to a mysterious shape-shifter, Bilbo's adventures take him across many lands and bring out the formerly dormant Took side of him.

Neither wolves nor spiders nor wary woodland folk can keep the irrepressible Bilbo down for long, and he finally arrives in the east at the Lonely Mountain. Welcomed warmly (though with decidedly different connotations) by the people of Lake-town and Smaug the Golden, Bilbo proves himself to be both a worthy burglar and courageous adventurer. When Smaug becomes enraged and war breaks out over the mountain, the hobbit hero must find a way to outwit the clever but cruel dragon and keep his allies from becoming his enemies. All in all, The Hobbit is a delightful tale of courage, resourcefulness, and the discovery that we are often capable of far more than we think.

[Comment...]

Written by: Celtic Lady.

How cool is this house? It reminds me so much of a 'typical' Hobbit's home. But in fact, this is a low impact woodland home located in Wales. A family of four actually lives in the house.

It was built by Simon Dale and his father-in-law with help from passers by and visiting friends. And only four months after starting, they moved in. They estimate 1000-1500 man hours and $6000 invested this project. Not really so much in house buying terms!

The house was built with maximum regard for the environment and by reciprocation gives the family a unique opportunity to live close to nature. Simon says that "being your own architect is a lot of fun and allows you to create and enjoy something which is part of yourself and the land rather than, at worst, a mass produced box designed for maximum profit and convenience of the construction industry. Building from natural materials does away with producers profits and the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings."

According to Simon, the main tools used were a chainsaw, hammer and a 1 inch chisel. He has also made it known that he is not a builder or carpenter by trade, but his experience is only "having a go at one similar house two years before and a bit of mucking around inbetween". He belives this kind of building is accessible to anyone; his main relevant skills being able bodied, having self belief and perseverence and a mate or two to give a lift now and again.

Sounds like a pretty cool concept to me. Perhaps we should all give it a go...

[Comment...]

Compiled by: Gimwald.
Source: Simon Dale.

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