Evanna Lynch, who portrayed Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter movies, recently visited the Hobbits' Shire.

Once Chewbacca visits Hogwarts, the circle will be complete.

Two forgotten 80-year old poems by J.R.R. Tolkien discovered.

Written in 1936 before The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, or anything else that might bring him fame, J.R.R. Tolkien published two poems in the annual of Our Lady's School in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England. Somehow, as things came to pass, the poems were largely forgotten.

Wayne Hammond, a Tolkien Scholar, contacted the school's headmaster recently after research told him Tolkien had published the poems eight decades earlier. The poems--titled "The Shadow Man" and "Noel," a Christmas poem--will now be the centerpiece to a Tolkien exhibition at the school.

Let's hope "Noel" is just code for "hobbit," since no one will want to read it otherwise.

'Lord of the Rings' map annotated by Tolkien found in rare book shop.

Acclaimed illustrator Pauline Baynes was working on a detailed map corresponding with a new edition of The Lord of the Rings in 1960. During her time crafting the finer points of places Hobbits like to hang out, she worked with J.R.R. Tolkien closely--and the author was a stickler for minutia.

According to The Guardian, Tolkien annotated an older version of a map included with earlier editions of his book, which included notes on where trees might exist, and telling Baynes that Hobbiton "is assumed to be approx at latitude of Oxford," where he was teaching.

Baynes folded the map up and placed it inside her copy of the book--which, over the decades since, largely remained forgotten until it ended up in a rare book store.

Now up for sale for £60,000, the map is on display at the University of Oxford until a map fiend or Lord of the Rings addict gets a second mortgage on their house and purchases it.



photo: Blackwells, via The Guardian

Vacation like a Hobbit

All those geeky dreams you've had since childhood to live like Bilbo Baggins can finally come to fruition.

Located at Deadwood in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the Chateau De Soleil is a 4,100sq. ft. vacation spot available for rent. While a lovely property on its own (4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 3 decks, a hot tub, etc.), the vacation rental also includes a Hobbit-inspired tree house.

The Hobbit house is 16ft off the ground, with rounded windows and doors, Elvish-language signs, a gauntlet with a gold ring, a mask worn by Sauron--and Hobbit-inspired slippers custom tailored for every guest.

The price to stay varies from $595-$675 per night, Gandalf not included.




photos: vrbo.com

Amazon releases Kindle Unlimited. And by 'unlimited' they mean kind of limited.

Amazon announced a new Kindle Unlimited subscription service, where for $10 a month you are allowed unlimited access to 600,000 e-books and over 8,000 audio books.

While the likes of Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and Hunger Games are all available, publishing giants Penguin Random House, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette aren't fully available.

So, you know, unlimited limitations.

JRR Tolkien's version of 'Beowulf' to be published for the first time.

Tolkien wrote his own translation of the Old English epic poem back in 1926, but never bothered to have it published. Ninety years later that's about to change, as HarperCollins will publish The Lord of the Rings author's interpretation next month.

HarperCollins won't say how Tolkien approached the debatable beginning of Beowulf. The Old English 'Hwæt'--the very first word in the poem--has varied in translations over the years, from "listen" to "hark," "so" to "behold." How Beowulf should begin is a matter of fierce debate amongst Old English scholars.

What's not debatable? Smaug is just Beowulf's dragon on 'roids. Even the best writers steal borrow.

Gandalf is now stopping trams in Poland.

In The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf stands up to Balrog, yelling "Go back to the shadow!" to buy some time for Frodo and crew to get away.

Now, a Polish prankster skit group in Warsaw reenacted the same scene, swapping out Balrog for a tram full of commuters.

Every Lord of the Rings character should have a Polish accent. I think we can all agree on this point.

Google Maps now has Hobbit maps.

That subject line sounds a lot better for Lord of the Ring geeks than it actually is.

That's because Google's maps of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth aren't a deep, expansive view you might expect from those that brought us Street View, but instead a cross-promotion between Google and the variety of movie studios overseeing the film production--where the maps lazily examine the topography where Hobbits mingle while strangely, yet routinely, encouraging you to download Google Chrome to gain the full mapping/movie hustling experience if you dare use a different browser.

So if you're really desperate to get a satellite-like view of the Misty Mountains that looks just like the Appalachians, don't anger the Google machine.

Is Khaleesi truly speaking a real language or just pulling our chain?

Whenever Khaleesi appears ready to kill someone in Game of Thrones, she usually whips out some Dothraki, admonishes them with a few clipped consonants, and finds a creative was to take out her enemy. (Why, hello there, fire-breathing dragons! How convenient!)

But is Dothraki--the language constructed by George R.R. Martin, and furthered by the creators of the television show--a real language? Is Klingon on Star Trek? Elvish in The Lord of the Rings?

TedEd (a branch of the famous TedTalk series) explains how Khaleesi isn't just taking us for a linguistic ride when she's irked: