A few news items of interest, lifted shamelessly from other blogs and/or newsgroups I subscribe to:
Bernard Cornwell's Agincourt headed to the big screen. I enjoyed Cornwell's take on this legendary battle from the Hundred Years' War a lot (if you're interested, my full review can be found here at The Cimmerian), if not as much as The Warlord Trilogy or The Saxon Stories. I'm already giddy with the thought of seeing French knights charging English longbowmen and the ensuing slaughter in the mud. And Henry's pre-battle speech, of course.
E.R. Eddison's Styrbiorn the Strong to be reissued. I plucked this bit of news off a new blog I recently added to my roll, Tolkien and Fantasy. Styrbiorn the Strong is a book I've long had on my "to be read list" but haven't yet obtained, as it's been long out of print. This new edition by the author of the incomparable The Worm Ouroboros is due out in August and I'll be purchasing it with glee. How can you go wrong with Eddison's style combined with a rousing viking tale?
Hobbit titles, dates revealed. So we've got the dates--December 14, 2012, and December 13, 2013--and the respective names of the two-part film: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and The Hobbit: There and Back Again. Sounds promising! The associated news that Orlando Bloom is reprising his role as Legolas is decidedly less so. I actually don't mind this deviation, provided that it's a minor role and doesn't involve Bloom single-handedly slaying Mumakil (or wargs, or the entire Bodyguard of Bolg) at the Battle of Five Armies. This is Beorn's turn to shine, and he had better not be upstaged by an uber-elf.
The E. R. Eddison work interests me. I am intrigued by his name-Styrbiorn- especially the last part--biorn. Beorn?
ReplyDeleteSaw a comment on the story at yahoo that I think will come to pass - Legolas will be involved with the Mirkwood scenes and probably again show up at the mountain with the woodland elves.
ReplyDeleteOr he'll be the one that takes the ring from Gollum and slays Smaug...whatever.
Feeling oddly ambivalent about the whole project.
Michael Mann is directing Agincourt? Well, let's hope he gets the military tactics right. Last time around in his Last of the Mohicans (nothing like the book), Redcoats fell before Hurons as wheat before the scythe without forming square. Sharpe would frown a lot.
ReplyDeleteI am intrigued by his name-Styrbiorn- especially the last part--biorn. Beorn?
ReplyDeleteHi Fred, I found this on Tolkien Gateway:
Beorn is an Old English word meaning "a warrior, a hero, a man of valour" (also, poetic "man"), cognate to Old Norse björn ("bear").
Feeling oddly ambivalent about the whole project.
Yeah, I'm trying not to get too high or low about part one of a movie not due out for a year and a half.
Martin: I did not see Last of the Mohicans, but lets hope he sticks with what Cornwell wrote, which struck me at least as very historically plausible.