Middle-earth Journeys

You know I love that bridge. I'd love to cross it daily.

Made some fantastic acquisitions recently!

Posted the complete collection (eighteen) of calendars from Colin Williams, a recently discovered illustrator, and a newly discovered variant of the 1974 A&U issue from New Zealand on my website today:

www.angelfire.com/tn3/tolkiencalendars

Hope you enjoy them. As always, interested in your comments and visits.

Happy Autumn to all!

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parmastahir

Thanks Parmastahir . I really like his Smaug on the cover of 2004 - his style works really well here, though I'm not so keen on his Hobbits (though I love Bilbo looking at all the washing up on the cover of 2005).

The cover of 2001 intrigues me - it looks dragonish but I'm not so sure. Is it a dragon?

. . . a dragon. Smaug, to be precise. Having gone through all of the illustrations, I can tell you that all of them relate to The Hobbit. I also liked the 2004 Smaug issue (all Smaug, all the time!) . . . actually the most of all of the issues as it was different from the others.

Colin is not a professional illustrator. He is an architect. But he has a passion for The Hobbit and drawing that led him to start creating the illustrations, and he put his first calendar together in 1999 and gave them out to family and friends as Christmas presents. They are handcrafted from really nice materials, and the final product is quite excellent.

Thanks for your reply, Iolanthe!

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parmastahir

Thanks for clearing that up, Parmastahir . It's probably clearer what the picture is at a larger size. It's very well done, none the less.

How wonderful that he puts all his pictures together every year to make calendars for his family and friends!

Hello to all -

Posted the new Calendar of the Month for October today. It is the first of a series of three calendars from The Hobbit from Colin Williams. (OK, that pretty much tells you what November and December will be!) You can find it at:

www.angelfire.com/tn3/tolkiencalendars

And the first of the 2008 calendars are out - which you can also find on my website. Hope you enjoy them. As always, would love to hear your comments and/or questions!

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parmastahir

Thanks Parmastahir . I'm getting much more of a feel for this artist now - I especially like September (with Gandalf), March and August. He's pulled off a lot of the work really sucessfully. Nice to finally see a picture of Bungo . It's interesting the way he almost squashes some of the drawings into the frame as though the pictures can barely contain them, especially as Hobbits are so small. It's very unique to his style.

Looking forward to the next two...

Hi Iolanthe -

It is interesting that you should note the illustration of Bungo. Mr. Williams will often sign his emails to me "Bungo". He has a fondness for that character. So he may be forgiven (or encouraged) for doing an illustration of him in his calendar.

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parmastahir

I added a new Tolkien calendar to my collection and website last weekend. It is the 2008 Middle-earth Fellowship calendar, and is very unusual in that the illustrations are based on "Tales Twice Told The Folklore of Middle-earth". Only 10 have been printed for members. As always, your comments are welcome!

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parmastahir

Received the 2008 calendar from Eldalie. You can find it in either the chronological or society listings at:

www.angelfire.com/tn3/tolkiencalendars

As always, would love to hear from you if you have any questions about Tolkien calendars.

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parmastahir

Updated the Calendar of the Month feature for November. Hope you enjoy the second in this series.

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parmastahir

www.angelfire.com/tn3/tolkiencalendars

I'm beginning to appreciate this artist more and more, Parmastahir! The way he's designed May and June is just fantastic - especially Bilbo at the top of the trees - and I can see that Beren's Hall (March) is drawn just as Tolkien drew it with the same construction of beams based on old Viking halls. But it's a lot more lively .

I can see why you're thrilled to get these calendars in your collection.

Hullo Iolanthe -

Thanks very much for your post. There is a lot to appreciate:

- the fact that he was able to send all 18 (two sizes for each year from 1999 to date) (as I HATE to miss any at all - and in spite of my searches for many years, there are still about 30 calendars that I need to complete my collection)
- his interpretation of the many scenes from The Hobbit (many of which have not been done by the many illustrators over the years)
- the first quality of the construction of the calendars

I suppose that there are other things to appreciate, but that's enough for now. I am glad that the resolution of the photographs that I post are high enough that you can see the detail.

The new year is coming, and with it, there should be many new 2008 Tolkien calendars.

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parmastahir

I also love to see artists illustrate scenes that no one else has tackled! That's a lot of pictures, Parmastahir. Has he done anything else with them apart from the calendars?

No, I don't think that he has. He is an amateur illustrator who started doing the artwork for his own pleasure. The calendars (first created in 1999) were simply a way to share them with family and friends and have been distributed solely as Christmas presents. I discovered him when someone sold a single copy on eBay and I wrote to him (snail mail) at the address that was on that calendar.