💎 Treasures #018: April '23 Tolkien Treasures
New Tolkien Boxed Sets and LOTR returns to theaters! Plus LOTR videogames, board games, and music covers
Namárië! Hello all! Today’s newsletter is a roundup of recent Tolkien Treasures1 I’ve heard about or stumbled upon and want to share with you all!
Tolkien Treasures
1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Returns to Theaters!
As The Hollywood Reporter initially reported, the entire The Lord of the Rings trilogy is headed back to participating theaters next month, June 8–10!
UPDATE—since it was initially announced, a second weekend of screenings (June 22–24) has been added! We’ve had one weekend of screenings, yes. What about second weekend?
From the Hollywood Reporter article:
The versions screened will be Jackson’s extended editions (so you might want get the jumbo tub of popcorn), and also the versions that the filmmaker remastered in 2020 for a 4K Ultra HD rerelease.
You can head to the Fathom Events site to see which local theaters might be participating. If you haven’t ever had the chance to see these films as they were made to be experienced (or it’s been a long time), I highly encourage it!
2. History of Middle-earth Boxed Set #2
In the practical guide to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien that I wrote at the beginning of this year (and which you can now download as an ebook on Gumroad), I mentioned the 12-volume The History of Middle-earth, which collects and analyzes a vast library of Tolkien’s Middle-earth related drafts, notes, essays, and works.
To celebrate the 100-year anniversary of Christopher Tolkien’s birthday, publisher Harper Collins is releasing a new edition of The History of Middle-earth in 2024. Collected in four separate boxed sets, this edition will have reversible dust jackets—one side featuring artwork by John Howe and the other with original graphic treatments. These four boxed sets include not just the twelve volumes of HoMe but also The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and an Index to HoMe.
Box Set #1 — including The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and The Book of Lost Tales Parts 1 and 2 (which are books 1 and 2 of The History of Middle-earth) — is already available for purchase and was released in December of last year.
Box Set #2, containing Books 3-5 of HoMe,2 has already been released in the UK and will be released in just a few days here in the U.S. on May 14th (preorder it on Amazon).
I recently acquired both the first and second boxed sets and they’re absolutely gorgeous! And they look especially good next to the boxed set of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings boxed set with cover art by Alan Lee.
The remaining two sets will release in August and September in the U.S. and you can preorder them as well!
Set #3 contains Books 6-9 of The History of Middle-earth3 (📚🔗 Amazon or Blackwell’s) and Set #4 contains Books 10-124 plus an index to the series (📚🔗 Amazon or Blackwell’s).
More details on all four are available at Tolkien Gateway and the Tolkien Collector’s Guide.
Note: If you would like to support your local bookstore instead of Amazon, I have these boxed sets as part of my Tolkien Treasures list on Bookshop.org!
3. Tales of the Shire Announcement Trailer
A new Lord of the Rings game is coming soon from Wētā Workshop. This game is a Hobbit life sim and looks like a promising way to live out your dreams of Hobbitmaxxing and living your best Shire life!
Check out the trailer here:
4. TikTok Covers “Roads Go Ever, Ever On”
If you’ve seen the animated Rankin/Bass version of The Return of the King, you’ll doubtless remember the song “Roads Go Ever, Ever On” that plays at the conclusion of the film.5 The original version is performed by Glenn Yarbrough and based on Tolkien’s own “The Road Goes Ever On” walking song from The Lord of the Rings.
TikTok user @fritzhagermusic shared his version of the song recently and it went viral several times: the original, then a duet below, as well as a full orchestral version too.
It’s a lovely arrangement in each of its forms, so check it out! (If you’re reading this via email, clicking the below will take you to the web or app version of the newsletter)
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5. Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-earth
If you love board games, this last Tolkien Treasure may be right up your alley.
In an Instagram post, publisher Asmodee Games describes “The Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle-Earth” as “a brand new, competitive strategy game ft. 7 Wonders mechanics set in a LOTR world full of powerful alliances, iconic travel, and of course, The One Ring.”
It’s coming Fall 2024 and is for 2 players. For those who have played 7 Wonders: Duel, the game mechanics will be based on that game.
There we have it, my Tolkien Treasures for April.
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Farewell, friends. Go towards goodness!
Appendices
Coming next week: Which of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies is my favorite?
The response to my tribute to Bernard Hill has been overwhelming! For all those who liked, commented, shared, restacked: thank you! It was the top piece in ‘Humor’ on Substack (though it was definitely sincere and not humorous haha) on both Monday and Tuesday this week.
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“Tolkien Treasures” is an occasional section of Jokien with Tolkien. For an overview of the different Jokien with Tolkien “sections” that this newsletter has, see here.
The Lays of Beleriand, The Shaping of Middle-earth, and The Lost Road
The Return of the Shadow, The Treason of Isengard, The War of the Ring, and Sauron Defeated
Morgoth’s Ring, The War of the Jewels, and The Peoples of Middle-earth
Well, my wife, who has seen it before, laughed when she read this sentence because she doesn’t remember it. Touché.
I hope the rumor of the original 3 films coming back to theatres is true! That would be great.
I think we should all be thankful to CS Lewis for pushing Tollers to finish his books. So fun to ponder that both jack and tollers influenced each other’s most popular writing.
Oh my gosh, I want all of the box sets 😭 and I have been on pins and needles about the video game for a long time haha, I just hope it’s good!