New Tales From Middle Earth
by Legolas of the Woodland Realm
All those who wander through Middle Earth are not lost. From the days when the light of Telperion and Laurelin shown in Valinor to the rebuilding of Gondor by King Elessar a thousand stories remain to be told.
Instead of covering a set period in Tolkien's literary world "Tales" writers chose either a character from the author's work or a specific event and "fill-in-the-blanks." In "New Tales", you can explore the rebuilding of Gondor under King Elessar, experience the glory period of Moria before Celebrimbor created the three Elven Rings, delve into the mind of a Balrog or visit the rebuilding of Lothlórien by Galadriel and Celeborn.
That’s what the dust jacket says but the novel is rather more complicated. New Tales began several years ago (exact date lost in the great meltdown) as an alternate novel and companion to The One Ring. By allowing writers to choose any time in Tolkien’s universe to write it freed them from the timeline driven plot of The One Ring. Characters already cast at Ring could be recreated and explored by others or written by the same person in both novels. This generated back-story and stimulated participants in both novels.
The main areas being explored are the months prior to Boromir leaving Gondor to join the Fellowship in The House of Stewards and the action immediately after the destruction of the One Ring in King Elessar’s Gondor and The Shire. Planning for these storylines has led to a discussion of how our changes, additions, and new characters would affect The Lord of the Rings and we now plan to begin an alternate history version of the trilogy entitled The War of the Ring in early April.
We are currently looking for writers who are interested in fantasy, JRR Tolkien’s world or who want a new challenge. The open roles include: Thranduil, King of Mirkwood; Elohir, son of Elrond; Elladan son of Elrond; Denethor II, Steward of Gondor; Théodred, son of Théoden of Rohan; Bilbo Baggins; The Witch King of Angmar and Saruman the White. Please contact me if you are interested.
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Featured Character Coordinator: Dr. Taniko Kishimoto
Featured Novel & Reference Book Coordinator: Amashelle
Editor: Myrrhine