Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 4:21 pm
Thanks, RR. I did know about the maps being pulled from the 'net, but not about the use of words. So is Adam Christopher's son? Maybe he is introducing his dad to the joys of the Internet!
It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door…You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.
http://www.middle-earth-journeys.com/forums/
http://www.middle-earth-journeys.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=49

Tolkien inspired by Galway landscape
by Deirdre O'Shaughnessy
'Lord of the Rings' author JRR Tolkien spent time in Galway while writing his masterpiece, it has been revealed.
Tolkien was an external examiner of English at NUI, Galway (then UCG) on several occasions during the 1950s. While in Ireland he stayed at the home of his fellow Professor of English, Diarmuid Murphy, whose daughter Rose recently spoke fondly of the "gentle, observant man" who visited her family during the 1950s and became a close friend.
Rose was a teenager when Tolkien first visited, but during his later visits she would have been a student at NUIG, and it's possible that he marked her papers. Although she cannot remember many "serious conversations" with the Oxford don, Rose told the Galway Independent that he was very interested in nature, and hated any blot of industry on the landscape, a passion reflected in the last book of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The fantasy writer and scholar of Old English was also awarded an honorary doctorate by the National University of Ireland in 1954, the same year his seminal work was published.
According to Professor Kevin Barry, Dean of Arts and a former Head of English at NUIG, Tolkien was well known as an "extraordinary storyteller", and he was always welcome, due to his "incredible fund of stories and gossip, not just about fantasy but also about his university colleagues".
© Galway Independant


What is an Oxenmoot
Oxonmoot is held in Oxford in September every year, usually on the weekend closest to the 22nd of September: Frodo and Bilbo's birthday. Most of the event is held in an Oxford college. There are usually around 100 to 200 in attendence.
The moot usually includes talks, a quiz, an art show, a masquerade and other entertainments, a visit to Tolkien's grave in north Oxford, and last, but not least, the chance to spend a weekend in the company of other fans of Tolkien's work.
© The Tolkien Society
For more information visit The Tolkien SocietyI'll say! I have a fairly new Hobbit paperback but I'm starting to prefer hardcovers - and a Hobbit History would be fabulous. And the drawings are wonderful. Another item for the wishlist!!Iolanthe wrote: getting it all as a bundle with an illustrated 70th edition is terrific.
What a great anecdote, bringing in Tolkien's love of the english pub, ear for language and dialect, and his eccentricity all on one go!Actor Robert Hardy, 81, talking at his Magdalen College, Oxford, 'gaudy' - reunion feast - said he was taught by Hobbit creator John Tolkien. 'In our first tutorial he summoned six of us to the pub, put his hands over his eyes, asked us to swap places and read out our essays. He then proceeded to tell us exactly where we were from in the country and what our background was - all from our voices. He got it exactly right with all of us.'
© Daily Mail