Drop Everything Right Now!!!
 

http://tolkien.hcp-uk.co.uk/ Desktops, avatars STUFF

AND a TRAILER for the book http://tolkien.hcp-uk.co.uk/thechildrenofhurin.aspx

Moving to N&N, as this is an announcement rather than a discussion - please drool there! ;)

Well, I think it should be EVERYWHERE!!!!

Sorry, bit over excited....

WOW!

*breathless*

...

(finally takes some breath after a while)

Thanks very much, davem! Shame I already have my own avatar, otherwise I'd use one of these... or should we all for solidarity "wear" one of the avatars for the day the book comes out?

But it still does not mean... (utilizes desktop wallpaper :cool: )

Waiting impatiently for the screensaver :eek: (trailer looks great. I never saw a trailer on a book before :D)

Well, it took me about 50 attempts to get an avatar on here, so don't hold your breath. I've got the nice Beleg & Outlaws (I think that's what it is) as my desktop now.

Just waiting for the Tolkien Estate site now....

You mean that one where they are pointing arrows on him? I have that one too! :Merisu:

But I think it would be good to do something on the day of release, something like "come all wearing red hats", you know... and the avatars are actually the only one I thought of...

Kind of interesting that in the little piece by CT on the site he refers to Morgoth as 'the God', when Tolkien himself stopped calling the Valar 'gods' in the 20's/30's? And the statement that CoH 'became the dominant story in his later work on Middle-earth.' is intruiging. I wonder why CoH came to be the 'dominant story' rather than Beren & Luthien? Or even Tuor & the Fall of Gondolin?

Wow! :eek:

Thanks davem!

*quickly goes to edit his avatar* :)

I've managed to work out how to use the desktop illustrations as screensavers - save the one you want as a jpeg to desktop & select 'Desktop' as the source for the screensaver. Well, it works with macs anyway..

*faints*

"NIce. But I think I'll wait for the F50." => Nice, but I think I'll wait for their screensavers, especially if they look similar to the Trailer :eek: (but you probably won't be seeing me at the Downs so often then, because I'll be watching my screensaver)

Bye-bye, Serious - you don't stand a chance against Húrin!

Nah, Serious we'll be back soon, but for a while I'll stay in the Narn I Chin Hurin mood

I agree. Where are those eagle when you need them?

Fantastic to see the author's publisher finally dipping their toes in to the internet medium.

nicely done

But I'm a trifle annoyed by this "oldest story of Middle-earth" business: untrue, whichever way you look at it.

Well, I guess that will eliminate discussion of the wings variety.

For your second question, the simple answer is that it is the most memorable and dramatic story - I didn't reread the Silmarillion for a long but the story of Turin stayed clearest in the memory.

As for the first... maybe CT is rooting for the wrong side ;) !

Seriously, having just read the Milton Waldman letter in its long form at the start of the Silmarillion second edition, I think it is just using a term which is perhas more understandable than "(angelic) powers", to those who don't perhaps know the Sil but have encountered Norse / Classical mythology..... however it surely should not have been capitalised ...how intriguing if CT did so himself!!!!

It was also the story that was most directly inspired by the Kalevala, which seems to have been the great inspiration for Tolkien to begin the Legendarium. I wonder what that tells us. Did Tolkien feel more affinity for the themes in that story. I still find it odd that Beren & Luthien (with such a personal importance for Tolkien) wasn't the one he wanted to bring to a conclusion, or Tuor, which if Garth is correct was directly inspired by his wartime experiences. CoH seems to have been the one of the three Great Tales that had no 'autobiographical' aspect to it.

Its odd for CT to use the term 'God' or even 'god' at all - was Morgoth ever classed among the 'gods' even of the early Sil? I'm wondering if that little piece will appear on the flyleaf of CoH? Of course, Morgoth is the only 'divine' power to appear in the story as far as I recall (are any of the Valar even mentioned in the tale?).

Yes I think so - the Valaquenta says he was counted "no longer "among the Valar and in the letter Tolkien says that the word Valar is "englished" as gods.