I am so excited that there is a new wallpaper generator out for The Desolation of Smaug! The first hobbit movie had a great generator but this one may be even better. You can make Facebook, twitter, and even phone background wallpaper with this website. I think I may even use this one on my phone.
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So what could follow The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey? Well it was sort of a toss up to what the second movie would be called for awhile, but it now officially has a name. The second installment comes to theaters in the United States on December 13, 2013 under the name of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
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I really liked The Hobbit! I saw it the weekend it came out with all of the other Tolkien fans. Bilbo was fantastic and exactly how I pictured he would be. Some complain the movie starts out a bit slow. The book actually starts out slow and descriptive which is how this kind of book/movie should, I think. I thought the movie pretty much stuck to the story in the book or tried to create some back story for some of the characters, such as Thorin Oakenshield. Overall, I think it did a fine job of telling the tale of The Hobbit.
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Here is the first installment of my Hobbit lessons. The Hobbit An
Unexpected Journey is coming to theaters in December so what would be
better that reading The Hobbit once again? I couldn't really think of
anything. I reread the book to complete this vocabulary study and found
it to be as delightful as I remembered it. This product has over 90
pages of vocabulary words from The Hobbit in graphic organizers. Many
of these organizers have student-friendly definitions, ways for students
to rate their understanding of the word, and space for non-linguistic
representations. Take a look at the preview below. If you like it, it
can be found in my store at:
The Vocabulary of The Hobbit
Hobbit Vocab Preview
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Here is a new bookmark just listed on my Etsy shop. Gandalf the Grey is now in bookmark form. He is made of wool and eco-felt and 100% cotton thread.
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There is a very cool wallpaper generator for The Hobbit out currently. This generator lets you crop and expand a collage of scenes from The Hobbit and Unexpected Journey. It can also generate mobile wallpapers, Facebook covers, and twitter skins. I think it's a great idea and look forward to creating a Facebook page or something equally fantastic with it. You can zoom out and in and scan the entire picture for a great image. Here is an example:
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To "future proof" The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey for years to come, Peter Jackson elected to shoot The Hobbit in 48fps (frames per second). Some previewers of The Hobbit disliked this saying that it took away the warmth of the film and made it look like a sporting event or a behind the scenes featurette. Peter Jackson countered the criticism by saying that it is easier to watch in 3D and the smoothness and clarity is enhanced.
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| The Battle of Helm's Deep Lego Set |
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I have been browsing the web for some time in search of Middle Earth inspired treasures. You could say I am an "expert treasure hunter." Here is a list of some of my favorite Tolkienish (is that a word) sites.
Badali Jewelry : Officially licensed to sell The One Ring and many other jewels of the realm.
Medieval Bridal Fashions : Here you can find the type of circlets worn by Galadriel. Amazing metalwork.
Medieval Collectibles : The largest online distributor of Medieval and Renaissance items.
Haldir's Elven Archers : An Elven armor costume tutorial website.
Alley Cat Scratch Costume : An absolutely wonderful costume research site. They already have a page for The Hobbit.
Tolkien Library : A descriptive and illustrated guide to collecting Tolkien books.
Fair Lady of Rohan : An Eowyn/ Rohirrim Fansite. Wonderful background music too.
The Hobbit Hunter : 400 covers of The Hobbit in 59 languages.
Planet Tolkien : A UK site devoted to literature discussion and fan information.
The Tolkien Society : A site devoted to Tolkien and his works and life.
The One Ring.net : A fan website, and a very good one!
Daniel Reeve : Best know for his calligraphy and cartography on the film trilogy Lord of the Rings.
I hope you visit some of these very interesting and fun sites. If you have any more that should be added, leave me a comment!
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Peter Jackson has released a new production video that highlights the locations where the second part of The Hobbit was shot. The video contains really stunning terrain from New Zealand not unlike Lord of the Rings. There are very different locations for The Hobbit, however. I really enjoyed watching this new video. The scenery is just exquisite and some of the characters are funny as well. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey comes to theaters December 14, 2012. The second part will be released in 2013. Check the video out here:
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I decided to create a free crossword for Chapters 1-3 after having
so much success with my other Hobbit crossword. This crossword has
three pages; a full color page, a plain page without a picture, and an
answer sheet. It was created at puzzle-maker.com for use commercially.
Enjoy!
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Well here it is, the official trailer from The Hobbit which comes to theaters December, 2012. I hope you like it.
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Okay, Arwen and Pippin aren't in The Hobbit. You probably didn't know that Pippin has a thing for Arwen either. No, we aren't talking about the real characters! We are talking yet again about my cats for (I promise) the last time. As you may remember, Pippin was a stray that I adopted, or abducted depending on if you take mine or Pippin's point of view. In any case, Pippin was very lonely and needed a lot of attention. He literally used me as a tree when he was bored. I was beginning to reconsider his name. Maybe shrapnel would have been better. *snort*
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| licky, licky, bitey, bitey |
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Peregrine Took, more commonly known as Pippin, is J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional character from Lord of the Rings. Pippin is a very mischievous hobbit and is prone to making trouble and being a tad on the naughty side! He had some trouble with Gandalf's fireworks, and some more problems in the mines of Moria. He got captured by orcs, and had to go to Minas Tirith due to looking into the palantir of Orthanc. This brings me to my new kitten, Pippin.
Pippin was found at one of the schools in my district as a stray with its litter mate. One of my teacher friends brought him to a meeting and my son happened to be there. My son was quite taken with him and we adopted him the next day.
Pip is only seven weeks old so he is definitely a little wild. He launches himself at your toes and fingers and routinely bites them. He was doing very well with the litter box until I changed his litter to one that tracks less. He was very put out with me and decided to use my formal living room couch and my bed as his new litter box! Good thing I figured out what was wrong. Last night we lost him for awhile and found him in my son's toy box. We have no idea how he got in there. As you can see Pippin is the purrfect name for our newest family member.
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| Adorable Pippin |
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| "I'm thinking of doing something naughty!" |
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Every once in awhile you hear about a fantasy author being the next Tolkien. I have seen this a few times in reviews of George R. R. Martin's book A Game of Thrones and his other books in the Song of Ice and Fire series. I started reading it to find out. My opinion is that he is not at all like Tolkien in his writing. People may be comparing him to J.R.R Tolkien because they both wrote long epic tales that span many books. They are both writers of the same genre. Here is really where the comparisons stop, unless you count their names being similar; J.R.R Tolkien, George R. R. Martin. That is kind of weird.
Tolkien wrote of elves and dwarves and magical things. Lord of the Rings was linguistic in nature as well. There were hardly any women in Tolkien's stories. This was remedied in the Lord of the Rings movies by creating larger roles for Arwen and Eowyn. Also, in The Lord of the Rings the big bad guy marched a few thousand orcs at you when he felt like being a jerk.
George R. R. Martin's work is very different. There is some magic or supernatural things that go on but it isn't the same style as Tolkien. It is almost written as a medieval history. There are many women and a whole lot of wenching that goes on. Lots of smut and violence. The people in his stories are about as awful as orcs, maybe worse. Many of the characters you like end up dead or maimed or wronged in some way.
Don't get me wrong. I did love A Game of Thrones. It is a very different read than most fantasies. I have to say I still love my Tolkien with his underlying message of "don't count the little guys out!" I will have to see where Martin takes me in the rest of the series. A good thing about his books is that they are very long, as I am a very fast reader.
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I have been thinking about the reasons I liked the hobbit when I was a child. One reason is the very cool maps of Middle Earth. I enjoyed following the character's travels along these maps while reading the story. I remember doing this with Lord of the Rings also.
The other thing that I really liked as a kid were hidden things that could only be discovered by being in the right place at the right time. An example is the Indiana Jones film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indiana had to take a staff with some sort of crystal attached to the top of it to a certain place at a certain time. Light from sun passed through the crystal and pointed the way to the ark. For some reason, I love that stuff!
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Many of the characters from Lord of the Rings will be back for The Hobbit. Obviously Bilbo (Martin Freeman/Ian Holm) will be back since this story is about him finding the ring. Gandalf (Ian McKellen), and Legolas (Orlando Bloom) will be included in the cast of The Hobbit as will Gollum (Andy Serkis) and Saruman (Christopher Lee). Some of our elf friends will be back including Elrond (Hugo Weaving), and Galadriel (Kate Blanchett). Missing from the elf line up is Arwen (Liv Tyler) who was not in the original story "The Hobbit" so that makes sense. Actually, most of her part for Lord of the Rings the movie was taken from the appendices in the books. I guess otherwise it would be mostly a guy film without her and Eowyn who also had a bigger role in the movies. I don't know how they will work him in but Frodo (Elijah Wood) will be back for The Hobbit. Frodo was not originally in The Hobbit story by J.R.R Tolkien and since this movie is a prequel to Lord of the Rings I am not sure what his role will be. I guess we will all have to stay tuned...
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Well I finally reread The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. I am really looking forward to the movie that is now in production in New Zealand. Peter Jackson is the director (thank goodness) after others that were interested in the movie dropped out. I just got a look at the first day of filming which is posted on Peter Jackson's blog. The sets are amazing! He walks around the set of Rivendell and in some caverns where they most likely will film Bilbo's exchange with Smaug the dragon.
What does this have to do with a crossword you ask? While I was reading The Hobbit I made some notes on characters and such and created a crossword for the book. At first I thought of doing more than one, but in the end I just went with a big crossword that covered the entire book. Here it is with a very nice background:
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