New Harper Collins Tolkien site

[Pitchwife]

Just finished watching the video.

Originally Posted by davem

Christopher's comments on the Machine are very interesting - love the 'train' annecdote -(as are his later thoughts on why his father was unable to bring The Silmarillion to completion).

Yep, that anecdote was very nice - the White Horse and the Railway, isn't that in a way the whole of LotR in nuce? Also the bit about JRRT realizing that we have to live in this world as it is, e.g. his interest for and use of the tape recorder (made me wonder what he'd think of our activities on the Internet nowadays...).
More highlights: definitely the interviews with Shippey and Flieger, esp. Shippey tearing snobbish academic criticism of Tolkien to bits: "You just can't do that" - yay! And Queen Margarete outing herself as a first generation Tolkien fangirl is absolutely charming, with an illustration of the Scouring of the Shire by her that's spot on to how I'd imagined it.
Not to forget, that clip of an interview with JRRT himself where he quotes Simone de Beauvoir, of all people, to illustrate the importance of death as a theme in LotR. Absolutely the first name you'd have associated with him, isn't it? Shows that the range of his mind was much broader than is commonly imagined.
Everybody who hasn't seen that video yet, go watch it!

[The Might]

Thanks for the tip Legate, just googled "Nasmith Blue" and I found the original, very nice one indeed.

Here's the link: http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/...eying_East.jpg

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by The Might

Thanks for the tip Legate, just googled "Nasmith Blue" and I found the original, very nice one indeed.

Here's the link: http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/...eying_East.jpg

And thanks to you for looking for it *saves*
It's really beautiful, isn't it? I wonder what the location was supposed to be, if anything. That looks just so cool (thinking about the implications also, after all, we really don't know basically anything about these guys...)

[The Might]

Well, if the picture is meant to be based on the books, then the location must be somewhere in the far east of Middle-earth, because there is no Saruman in there, meaning it shows the Blue Wizards after Saruman departed and returned to the west. Who knows, some old forgotten mountain chain in the east, maybe where the fell beasts came from?!

I must agree, I also like it because of the mystery surrounding their mission and its outcome, we really don't know anything.

[garm]

I agree with all that has been said about the film - I bought a copy on VHS when it came out, and it's a treat to watch.

The Blue Wizards picture is featured on the cover of the catalogue of ADC books (ADC being Ted's agent). I'm scratching my head; I've had the pleasure of seeing most of Ted's original works 'in the flesh' as it were, and I'm pretty sure I haven't seen this one - yet! I wonder whether it'll feature at his exhibition at Moreton-in Marsh later this year?

[davem]

The Blue Wizards picture is on the cover of the new Harper Collins paperback of Unfinished Tales, & is the March picture on the 2010 Tolkien Calendar. I love the landscape but, as with most of Ted's work, I don't like the figures - why are they both dressed exactly alike, & both in silly pointy hats? The only wizard referred to in Tolkien's work with a pointy hat is Gandalf, & I think its best assumed that's a bit of eccentricity on his part (actually, I think Tolkien just lazily adopted a standard fairy tale trope when he created the character for The Hobbit, & continued on with it when he came to write the 'sequel' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy...nd_conventions.