A Conversation with Smaug

Three weeks ago, I posted about the Middle-Earth Map Chrome Experiment. At that time, one location was still locked. That location, the Lonely Mountain, has since been opened. Honestly, I think that it features the most interesting interactive content yet—of any of the five previous locations. You enter the Lonely Mountain. Smaug addresses you, as…

A Mundane Middle-Earth Map

When Google announced that they were creating a Middle-Earth map, I was frankly very excited. The best map that I have of Middle-Earth currently resides within the Lord of the Rings Online video game, and even then, it’s a game map, which means that it’s embellished by game features. It’s a very detailed map, and…

The Desolation of Smaug: Sneak Peek

December 13th simply cannot come soon enough. With this new (third) trailer, we see much that we’ve already seen in the previous two trailers. However, we are given more tidbits that we haven’t seen or heard—tidbits that maintain our excitement for the upcoming film. We at first hear Bard reciting an adaptation of the song…

Review: An Unexpected Journey

A title worthy of this film. As we tread on sticky floors in a noisy theater towards empty seats, our minds are filled with expectations. Sometimes our expectations are met, sometimes they are surpassed, and sometimes we are met with the entirely unexpected. When I found my seat, my own mind was expecting a journey…

Review: The Hobbit Trailer

I teach a class primarily focused on British Literature. One of the novels we read every year is The Hobbit, because J.R.R. Tolkien is a legendary British author. We started reading the novel in class on December 20, 2011. Little did I know that the announcement trailer for the new film would be released that…