Hell on Middle-earth? The Rings of Power fails to spin streaming gold
Most expensive TV show ever is in its second season, but reviews are disappointing and audiences are staying away
August 2024
Beyond Bilbo: JRR Tolkien’s long-lost poetry to be published
Long-lost verse from the Lord of the Rings author will reach bookshops 50 years after his death
From the Guardian archive
The Fellowship of the Ring reviewed: ‘epic romance’ – archive, 1954
20 August 1954: The first volume of a trilogy in which Mr Tolkien is to tell the history of the ‘The War of the Ring’
Rory Kinnear: ‘I congratulate everyone who is on the brink of baldness’
He was sworn to secrecy on Bond and is about to take on a fan-favourite character in The Rings of Power. But, for all the blockbuster roles, the British actor is a very sensible star
June 2024
Week in geek
Hunt for Gollum: are Ian McKellen and Viggo Mortensen being quietly dropped?
News of Peter Jackson and Andy Serkis’s eyebrow-raising return to Middle-earth seems to have passed the two stars by. Are Aragorn and Gandalf to be replaced?
May 2024
Week in geek
The Hunt for Gollum: are Peter Jackson and Andy Serkis making a Lord of the Rings fan film?
The Hunt for Gollum: Peter Jackson and Andy Serkis to work on new Lord of the Rings film
March 2024
When an outgoing Tory minister like Robert Halfon channels Gandalf, the magic of Tolkien begins to pall
Alex Clark
From hippies to death metal and MPs, one book seems to rule them all but, oh, how I wish it didn’t
December 2023
My plan to topple the Tory dark lords in 2024
Stewart Lee
Brief letters
Items ‘donated’ to the nation are simply what taxpayers are owed
Tolkien and CS Lewis manuscripts among treasures made available to public in 2023
Copyright claim against Tolkien estate backfires on Lord of the Rings fanfiction author
November 2023
Italy’s far right embraces Middle-earth as PM opens Tolkien show
How did The Lord of the Rings become a secret weapon in Italy’s culture wars?
Jamie Mackay
October 2023
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria review – mining a shallow vein
The books of my life
Richard Armitage: ‘I used to stand on the Lord of the Rings to reach the top shelf in my wardrobe’
August 2023
Audiobook of the week
The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien audiobook review – The Lord of the Rings’ mythical forerunner
The Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale review – the greatest show on Middle-earth
July 2023
First edition of The Hobbit found in Dundee charity shop sells for £10,000
The book, which is one of the first 1,500 copies printed in 1937 and contains illustrations by JRR Tolkien, was discovered in the backroom at a Cancer Research UK store
May 2023
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum review - boil it, mash it, stick it in the bin
A derivative, uninteresting and fundamentally broken stealth action adventure that fails to capture anything interesting about Tolkien’s fiction
