I remember sitting in the theater in December of 2001, not fully aware that something formative was unfolding before me. The Shire appeared on screen, warm and unhurried, a place both fantastical and familiar, like a memory I had yet to have. Only later did it become clear that The Fellowship of the Ring, first releasedContinueContinue reading “Walking the Long Road from The Shire: Remembering ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’”
Category Archives: Observances
Observing an Anniversary: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
Every journey eventually asks its price. When The Battle of the Five Armies was released on December 17, 2014, it brought Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy1 to its conclusion. Not with riddles or songs, but with fire, steel, and reckoning. This final chapter is less about discovery and more about consequence, less about setting out and more aboutContinueContinue reading “Observing an Anniversary: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)”
Walking the Long Road to Mordor: Remembering ‘The Return of the King’
When The Return of the King was released on December 17, 2003, there was a sense that the journey we had shared with these characters for two full years was approaching its end. The road had grown heavy, marked by sacrifice, exhaustion, and the weight of battles fought both outside and within. Unlike the beginnings in theContinueContinue reading “Walking the Long Road to Mordor: Remembering ‘The Return of the King’”
Observing an Anniversary: ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ (2012)
Long before dwarves knocked on Bilbo’s round green door, I had already walked the edges of Tolkien’s map in my imagination. That little book, The Hobbit, was the kind you read as a child and then reread as an adult, discovering new corners of courage every time. Today I’m marking the anniversary of The Hobbit:ContinueContinue reading “Observing an Anniversary: ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ (2012)”
Observing an Anniversary: ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ (2013)
I first walked into Middle-earth in the mid-70s through a brand-spanking-new paperback copy of The Hobbit. Bilbo’s unexpected adventure was playful, sharply drawn, and rooted in a storyteller’s wink. Decades later, Peter Jackson invited us back again, but with a different tone, different scale, and (for many of us) a different set of expectations. Today I’mContinueContinue reading “Observing an Anniversary: ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ (2013)”
Veni, Vidi, Scripsi 