Volume 102/Issue 12

The One Expected Party Ebay Auctions
We are just funneling back to our hotel rooms after an amazing night at ‘The One Expected Party,’ but before we allow ourselves a bit of sleep, we want to make sure you all have the URL for our exclusive auctions for items displayed at the event. [Read more]

Monaghan and Boyd at The One Expected Party
Dominic Monaghan dropped in at The One Expected Party last night in Hollywood. Here are a few photos of them entertaining guests with a routine on the main stage. [Read more]

TORn Message Boards Weekly Roundup – February 25, 2013
The following event(s) took place in Middle-earth on February 26th: [Read more]

Today in Middle-earth, February 26
The Comic-Con six are now complete. At last years Comic-Con Weta Workshop had displayed six statues for what is wave 1 of statues for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Last but certainly not least of the six and the first statue of the regular line to be numbered is Bombur. [Read more]

Collecting The Precious – United Cutlery The Sword of Fili
Our friends at United Cutlery have a brand new awesome sword that you saw in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The newest item from UC is the Sword of Fili. The sword measures 25 1/2? long with 3/8? thick blade and hilt of solid metal. [Read more]

TORn Message Boards Weekly Roundup – February 25, 2013
Welcome to our collection of TORn’s hottest topics for the past week. If you’ve fallen behind on what’s happening on the Message Boards, here’s a great way to catch the highlights. Or if you’re new to TORn and want to enjoy some great conversations, just follow the links to some of our most popular discussions. [Read more]

TORn party and art show draws Oscar coverage from LAWeekly.com
We are fully aware of how much we pumped up the One Expected Party and Art Show this past weekend. We poured our website’s resources and our personal resources into the event and then spent days in Los Angeles preparing and pulling off one amazing party (if we don’t say so ourselves) that featured every single “Hobbit” Oscar nominee before the night was over. We didn’t do it alone of course. [Read more]

Dan Hennah enjoys Oscar ceremony, One Expected PartyDan Hennah talked Oscars with the Nelson Mail (part of the Stuff.co.nz network) after the awards ceremony and the One Expected Party where he rated the official ceremony as the best of the five he has attended. [Read more]

Geekexchange reports the One Expected Party
It is a little difficult to imagine what event might have had more geek credibility on Oscar night than our own One Expected Party. GeekExchange.com certainly managed a solid report complete with the YouTube video above that shows highlights from many of the events that took the stage. [Read more]

Note from the Mods: We would like to invite the moderators of other fandom communities to become 'reporters' or 'scouts' for middleearthnews. All we ask is that you send us formatted updates on your own communities for posting here.

* tolkien_weekly (drabbles) updates:
Homesick (Gilraen, Elrohir, Aragorn; rated PG) by silverstarspray
Left Out of the Stories (OFC; rated PG) by azalaisdep

* hobbitfilmfic updates:
Musings on the Nature of Stories, by Fili (rated PG) by eldanna
The Very Unexpected Diary of Radagast the Brown (rated PG) by windfallswest
Musings on the Nature of Stories, by Fili; part 2 (rated PG) by eldanna
Confidence Games (no pairing given; rated M; warning for graphic depictions of torture) by chizwiffle
5 Life-changing Kisses (Thorin/Dwalin + gen; rated G to NC17) by chainer_morgana
Beneath the Mountains Music Woke -- Chapter Three (Bilbo/Thorin; rated R) by emilianadarling
Ghelekabad Books (Part III) (Bilbo, Ori, Bifur, Dori, Dwalin, Bofur, Nori, dwarf OCs. Bilbo & Bifur & Ori, Dori & Nori & Ori, Bifur & Bofur, Bilbo & everybody, Dwalin & Balin; rated PG-13) by icarus_chained

* heirs_of_durin updates:
In the Heart of Certainty, Therein Lies Fortitude (Fili/Kili; rated PG-13 for torture) by anoriell
Honey (Bilbo/Thorin, (brief Fili/Kili, implied Bilbo/Dwarves and just Dwarves/Dwarves in general); rated NC-17) by htebazytook
Confidence Games (no pairing given; rated M; warning for graphic depictions of torture) by chizwiffle

* oeam updates:
Elladan’s Light, part 3/4 (Elladan/Glorfindel, Elrond, Erestor/Lindir; rated NC-17) by phyncke

The current challenge at tolkien_weekly is Ailments: Stomach Ache

From lotricons:
25 LotR icons (Legolas, Arwen, Frodo, Gandalf, Bill the Pony, Eowyn, Sam, Gimli, Theoden, Gamling, Galadriel) by alfiri
16 LotR icons (Aragorn, Arwen, Legolas, Eowyn, Gandalf, Shadowfax, the Ring, Frodo) by equanimousicons

From AO3 - Archive of Our Own:
-- TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works
-- Lord of the Rings - All Media Types-- The Hobbit - All Media Types
-- Lord of the Rings RPF
-- The Hobbit (2012) RPF

* Via the TORn forums:
Bilbo's Choice in who to protect
I just re-read the book again and I came to think - why do you think Bilbo decides he wants to protect the Elven King instead of his friends or even Bard? Why Thranduil?
So I get that at this point he's not on the best terms with the dwarves, but not all the dwarves had defriended Bilbo, but I do get that one.
But then there's Bard. Do you think it's his fascination with elves? Or maybe to displease the dwarves and siding with the elves? He doesn't really know the elven king at this point. Just by looks.

Middle-earth Conspiracy Theories
So why did Tom Bombadil keep himself apart from the wider world anyway?

Via silwritersguild:
On Sindarin/Quenya sexual orientation vocabulary and Elven conceptions of queerness
I'm working on a femslash fic in mid-Second Age Imladris and was pondering possible ways to describe sexual orientation (or some analogous concept) in Sindarin or Quenya. I'd welcome people's thoughts on the matter.

I started off looking for an analogue to "queer" - something along the lines of "strange, odd" seems like a natural piece of vocabulary for the majority to apply to minority sexuality of whatever stripe - but the closest I could find in any Sindarin or Quenya dictionary was "foreigner" (S. athal, Q. ettelëa), which is a bit far off. [Read more]

Your friendly middleearthnews mods are constantly on the lookout for all things LotR-related, from fics to fandom events, comics to current news. Make them happy by emailing them at middle_earth_news@yahoo.com.

From estelanui:
Of Elves.
They are as tall as Men, and often taller. Of all living creatures in Middle-earth, they are the ones described as the most beautiful and gifted.

Monday's BOOK question: What did the Mouth of Sauron say the men of Gondor and her allies would have to rebuild?
Answer: Isengard.

rakshi, bagma and frolijahfan answered correctly.

Today's MOVIE question contributed by estelle3974: Who does Theoden order to summon all able-bodied men to Dunharrow?

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, glorfindelghost!

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