Middle-earth News

This week on Best Of Middle-earth News for 4th October 2026

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 11:00:00 +0100

Best of Middle-earth News, our sister website, is posting treasure from the Middle-earth News archives every day from Monday to Friday. Here's what Daisy has unearthed this week!

EXCLUSIVE: David Thorn Wenzel Interview

David Wenzel is the artist behind the iconic graphic novel adaptation of The Hobbit. Valdís interviewed Mr. Wenzel about his latest projects for Middle-earth News at Dragon Con 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia.

‘The Hobbit’ Gets A Marathi Translation

The Hobbit has been translated into many languages, but until 2013, there was not a licensed Marathi edition. Anastasia posted this story on Middle-earth News about the newest translation.

Book Recommendations: For Those who are Hobbits

Myla did a series for Middle-earth News with book recommendations. This was the first in the series, published in 2014.

Why You Should Treasure Your LOTR & Hobbit Extended Editions

Back in 2014, Lily highlighted the accidental censorship that could come from streaming platforms, especially when it comes to the availability of the Extended Editions of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In a funny turn of events, the articles she quoted from and linked to are now no longer available, making this one of the last places you can read these old quotes from a Netflix executive.

Sendak’s Sample Artwork for ‘The Hobbit’

Maurice Sendak, the author and illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are produced some sample illustrations of The Hobbit. Middle-earth News reporter Evie shared what Tolkien thought of them!

Keep on visiting bestofmiddleearthnews.com for fantastic articles from the past like this, with posts every day from Monday to Friday!

The Lights Of The Past #1 - Chetreo remixes

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 11:00:00 +0100

"The Lights Of The Past" is a planned series of posts here at Middle-earth News; we're going to be looking back at some of the great fan-made creations from the past few years that time has largely erased and enjoying them once again!

Our very first one was an easy pick.

Around the time of the Hobbit movies coming out, there came a fan who loved Middle-earth and who loved music. Armed with nothing more than an Autotune license, a sampler and an unfathomable level of editing patience, Chetreo made songs out of The Lord of the Rings movies.

Not out of the soundtrack music in the movies, that's too easy. Not out of the songs from the books, the job there is half done already. No, what Chetreo did was take sounds and speech from the movies and created a trilogy of completely original songs that captured the spirit of the films in wildly creative ways.

If you've found these songs before and forgotten then welcome back, you know the fun you're going to have if you press play on these.

If they're completely new to you, then you're in for a treat.

These songs take something you're already deeply familiar with and turn them into something that's just as enjoyable. Be warned, they will earworm you! Lines from the films are turned into fantastic chorus hooks, sounds become percussion loops, so much fun is had! I promise you will be singing "Don't you lose him Samwise Gamgee" the rest of your day after one listen to the Fellowship Of The Ring song.

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The Two Towers song is perhaps even better, making the most of some actual singing in the movie to craft into an absolutely killer hook. The fan service of the pause after the "They're taking the hobbits to Isengard" line (had to be included, right?) is absolutely delicious.

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Then we come on to the Return of the King song.....except we don't. One was created and posted some 14 years ago, fans were clamouring for it, yet it no longer exists on YouTube, or at least is no longer easily accessible. Quite why that is perhaps you, dear curious reader, will be able to find out?

As for Chetreo, well there was no stopping such a creative run! The Chetreo YouTube channel is filled with many other remixes in the same genre, with an especially popular deep dive into Rick and Morty remixes a few years ago. Even today Chetreo is still making absolute bangers out of what appears to be the most unlikely raw materials, dropping a new track featuring Brennan Lee Mulligan only last week.

What are some other fan creations of the past we should feature in "The Lights Of The Past"? Let us know!

New Hobbit fashion drop!

Thu, 24 Sep 2026 10:47:16 +0100

OK, fine, its actually new behind the scenes photos from shooting at the Hobbiton set for the "Hunt For Gollum" movie (we miss you, OG fan-made movie of that name!) but we're here for cosplay (be you stealth cosplay or all-in) fans with the new Hobbit autumn-winter fashion drops that have come with this.

Honestly, these feel like photos from a Voriagh collection drop and we are here for those vibes.

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I feel a grave disturbance in the thrift stores, as cosplayers rush to enhance their hobbit outfits for these new styles!

What are you liking the most from these new images? Any plans to follow these new inspirations?

Well, its back

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 11:00:04 +0100

Its always the same isn't it, you wait ages for a Middle-earth News website to come along again and then two come at once.

We're absolutely tickled pink to be able to celebrate this Hobbit Day by launching not one but two Middle-earth News websites!

Right now you're on middlearth.news and this site will be fan focused on the latest goings-on across the length and breadth of Middle-earth...but another was made!

There is also our sister site, bestofmiddleearthnews.com, which will be bringing back some gems mined from the archive of the original Middle-earth News website, which passed into the west some time ago now. With the blessings of many of the original Middle-earth News team including past directors and assistant directors, we'll be posting an article from the archives every Monday to Friday. There's some amazing treasures that we can't wait to bring you and make these amazing fan-written and fan-audience articles widely available for the whole fandom to enjoy once more.

Over here on middleearth.news things will be a little less regular for now, as we find our feet and follow them into the wilds of regular Middle-earth news posting. We're intending to be very much focused on the fans over big business Middle-earth, for it is their wholehearted expressions and experiences of Middle-earth joy that we enjoy seeing and talking about the most of all.

We're not going to be posting celebrity news just because an actor was once in Middle-earth and we're not going to be posting wild rumours and speculation about forthcoming productions. We're not scholars of Middle-earth, qualified or self-appointed, but we are enthusiasts and we do like pouring over a little detail or two. There's plenty of other websites out there in the lands of Middle-earth that have those things in spades and all credit to them, there's just no point to us trying to replicate that if they're already doing all that well.

If you've missed the heyday of Middle-earth News then we're thrilled that you're here and that we can say "Well, its back". Not the same, perhaps, but we'll be striving to make it as proper 1420 as possible.

If Middle-earth News is completely new to you then you're especially welcome, would you like to come with us on an adventure? No contract required and absolutely no mention of incineration.

We'll see you in The Shire!

Its Brandywine time!

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 11:00:02 +0100

A whole crowd of people took a chance last year on embracing their hobbity dreams and got to spend a few days living like hobbits in the very first Brandywine Festival.

In the unlikely setting of rural Kentucky, this multi-day LARP could have easily sunk without a trace or turned into a Middle-earth Fyre Festival, but it seems those big folk who are at least hobbit-adjacent are made of stern stuff too; with doughty spirit from both organisers and attenders the Brandywine Festival was a success last year and has grown this year into multiple locations. The first Brandywine Festival in the UK, following the same LARP format, was just a couple of weekends ago and its only a couple of weekends until the festival returns to where it began in Kentucky for its second appearance.

Curious about it all? NGL, we are too, though we're far too fond of hobbit home comforts to contemplate some nights under canvas even if they are in The Shire. Adventures really do make you late for dinner after all!

Thankfully some of those aforementioned doughty hobbits recorded some of their experiences from last year, so if you're wondering what its like to be a hobbit for a few days then wonder no more, with some of the best videos that came from last years festival and, perhaps most interestingly, the impact that the days of hobbit LARP had on them and the thoughts it engendered with some further reflection. It seems you really can't easily pick up the threads of an old life after some adventures.

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Jess Less is always a joy to watch and her video is a really great overview of the whole event; so inspiring to see fans enjoying themselves so freely!

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Abby Cox goes full on dressmaking at Brandywine Festival, accidentally becoming a Middle-earth fashion expert and having a lot of fun along the way.

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"I lived like a hobbit for 5 days and found myself", Sara of Mysfit House says that going to Brandywine Festival changed her life. That's quite a review, its a feel-good watch for sure. If you're wondering why Middle-earth News came back again its because of fans like Sara and such beautiful expressions of Middle-earth joy that we can all get to share in together!

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"What a week as a hobbit taught me about capitalism" Nicole Rudolph brings some deep thought and reflection to her thoughts about going to Brandywine Festival that you wouldn't imagine would be inspired by a LARP.

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One thing seems very clear about Brandywine Festival; its the source of vast amounts of Middle-earth joy and oh do we love that!

It may well be too late to make it to Brandywine Festival for this year with it beginning on October 1st, but there's always 2027 and more locations around the world to come.

We'll be sure to bring our favourite videos from the 2026 festivals once they drop and we can all revel in the Middle-earth joy together!

In a hole in the ground there lived...

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 11:00:01 +0100

In a hole in the ground there lived.....unexpectedly whimsical outdoorsy men?

The summer just past was a weird one here in the Shires, as the whole country struggled through drought and heatwaves. Lots of time draped indoors and trying to keep cool, rather than being out in the garden, meant looking for some zero-energy distractions and I heard the siren song of YouTube on the TV.

I have a liking for a genre of video called silent vlogs, like a standard vlog but instead of lots of speaking to camera its lots of quiet (usually very hobbity-cosy) activities and no speaking. All very calm and chill and enjoyable.

Then, as one video finished, it suggested another of a man building a cabin in the woods entirely from wooden pallets. As someone who lived through the original nineties pallet wood craze I was duty bound to click. What I discovered was manly men silent vlogs....and they were bizarrely compelling.

I could sit back, with my fan and a cold drink, and watch 45 minutes to an hour of men (and bizarrely they are always men) going into the woods with an axe, a shovel, a saw and what seems like an entire backpack of absurdly long nails and see them craft a one room cabin entirely from scratch. They were rustic and simple and the style was almost always "outdoorsy man", but they're not even using power tools, so really each one was a remarkable creation.

Then I discovered that some of them were making hobbit holes and that was a hole I was more than happy to tumble headlong into.

These men were digging out entire hillsides by hand, crafting stone fireplaces and chimneys with rocks they dug out and a mortar made from the soil, fashioning round windows and even solving the round door hinge dilemma in creative ways.

I was beyond hooked. Who knew that outdoorsy manly men were so darn whimsical? I watched a lot of those videos this summer, mainly from one channel (Lesnoy, a Ukranian outdoor survival channel that has seriously branched out) but there are other makers having similar ideas. From their efforts was the seed of the return of Middle-earth News planted; the fans needed to see these too!

Its best not to be too misty-eyed about these though; they are impressive and whimsical and beautiful, but they are still decidedly rustic. If electricity, bathrooms and running water are absolute essentials for you then these won't be the hobbit holes of your dreams, but they may still induce some very nice daydreaming and they are so darn wholesome to watch that I do think you'll still enjoy seeing them!

So, without further ado and rambling backstory I give you....the top 5 solo outdoorsy man hobbit hole builds on YouTube!

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#1 Living Underground Building a warm dugout deep in the forest

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It's the video that's going to make you go "I want one... maybe I could build one?" The building of the fireplace is incredible, this is the hobbity-est by far.

#2 Into the hill: One man's journey to build the perfect underground hobbit house

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A whole different approach to this build, but the outcome is still very much hobbit hole! A clever solution to the round door conundrum and a very good doggo (Farmer Maggot would be jealous) make this exceedingly watchable. Daydreaming will inevitably follow.

#3 To build a shelter among the stones - like a hobbit house

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What do you do if you want to make videos about building hobbity shelters in wild and remote places, but you also want to make cooking videos? You do both! Strictly this build is only like a hobbit hole, but look at it, the vibes and whole build process are amazing. Would find this one very difficult to leave....and very difficult to access, to be fair, this one is seriously high and remote!

#4 I built a hidden house in the forest in 5 days

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So you fancy the idea of your own little hobbit hole by now, but you don't have much time to make one? You could copy this man and take your power tools to speed things up. You could be only 5 days from your very own hobbit hole (not counting the years of time developing all the skills to use the tools and learning to work with materials, admittedly, but we're daydreaming here, let's hand wave that we already know how to do that!)

#5 I built a free house from abandoned pallets start to finish

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What if you want to live in Buckland, near to a stream flowing into the Brandywine? You do this!

This is the video that started the obsession for me (ignore the thumbnail, it's so much better for real) and the stars here are the ingenious rotating hobbit door and the very good doggo.

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That's the top 5 for you to start some serious Hobbit hole dreaming with, but my absolute favourite of all of these builds is.....not even a Hobbit hole! I know, I should be ashamed, but look at it. It's glorious and the whimsymaxxing going on here is on a whole other level.

I hope you enjoy your trip down this Hobbit hole rabbit hole and maybe get to realise your own Hobbit hole dreams in the future.

Get to visit Middle-earth? That sounds Epix

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 11:00:00 +0100

Do you ever find yourself wishing you could visit somewhere in Middle-earth, just for a few hours, just to look around only a little, to absorb the ambience? Not to be there in person, but only to observe, to be able to float around, in and out of buildings, experiencing the sights and sounds but without getting caught up in some wild adventure?

Oh, the Internet got you, courtesy of Epix Ambience.

Formed of real-life sisters Ella and Ana and joined by Leo, this trio of makers craft ambience videos on YouTube.

What's an ambience video? Its a long (usually multiple hours) video in which nothing happens, but you get to experience the vibes of a place, taking in the sights and sounds and enjoy a little of the magic of being there. They are videos that are passively, rather than actively watched, put on the TV in the background while you're reading or working or even accompanying you as you go to sleep. They are often real life places, filmed by people with more patience than I could possibly contemplate, but many are the creations of artists....with more patience than I could possibly contemplate!

Crafting a realistic feeling environment from scratch in a tool designed to make 3D computer games is no small feat, but the Epix Ambience trio make it look easy and they keep getting better and better.

Best of all, they like to go to Middle-earth. A lot. Especially The Shire. Do you really want to go to Middle-earth? Then lets get you there, with the top 5 Middle-earth ambience videos from Epix Ambience!

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#1 Cozy Autumn Hobbit Tour

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Very timely and probably our current top choice because of that, this 3 hour tour of a pumpkin-strewn corner of The Shire in the golden light of autumn is glorious. Start here if you're not sure what ambience videos are about, you'll soon get the idea.

#2 A Cosy Walk Through The Shire Hobbit Night Tour Ambience

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Lets go a little further than in the Autumn tour and step out into The Shire at night! The details are exquisite, the vibes are perfect, and if the opening half hour of songs that accompany this aren't your thing then you can use the chapters to skip ahead.

#3 Elven Forest of Lindon Autumn Ambience

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I'm kind of in awe of this one, not just because of how detailed a copy the Epix trio made of the Lindon environment from season 1 of Rings of Power, but of how quickly they made it! This one is a regular go-to for me, its just stunning, full of autumnal magic and great to revisit before the new season of Rings of Power drops.

#4 Hobbit Lake Ambience peaceful day in The Shire

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Can I interest you in a bright summer's day beside Bywater pool? Just a couple of hours there to explore and get out on the water? The sound work here is particularly good!

#5 Cozy Rainy Night in a Hobbit nook ambience

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Why is there a squirrel asleep in a little bed besides an open window in the rain? This is one of the things I like about Epix, they manage to fit story into their ambiences. This sleepy squirrel first appeared in the daytime version of this ambience, leaping from a tree to the open window. Presumably the lil' guy has been adopted and made a home with the hobbits resident in this smial! I don't think there's anything cosier on the Internet than this ambience and its filled with amazing little details in the interior parts, but its that view out into the rainy night of other hobbit holes nestling into the hills that fills me with joy.

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This is by no means an exhaustive list of all of the Epix Ambience visits to Middle-earth; they've done 28 videos just in Middle-earth alone and they visit a whole lot more places than that, even creating their own worlds. Their latest autumn fantasy ambience video might not be Middle-earth but it is utterly sublime and practically glued to my TV.

I imagine I'll come back to the topic of ambience videos in the future, because there's some amazing makers out there on YouTube, but there's also a lot of GenAI slop, so mind where you step if you go exploring for more.

I hope you'll enjoy discovering the ambience of Middle-earth for yourself!

Send Us News

Thu, 17 Sep 2026 07:43:55 +0100

Its not always easy to keep track of all the fan goings-on across all the lands of Middle-earth, so if there's something that we're missing and that we need to look at then let us know using the form below, its always good to hear from fellow fans!

About

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 19:23:27 +0100

Middleearth.news is the sister site to bestofmiddleearthnews.com.

Where the Best Of site is looking back and showcasing once more some of the fantastic articles that were posted in the heyday of the original Middle-earth News website, middleearth.news is looking ahead for the fans of today, once again bringing together a little team with an all-women core to remember and focus on the fun and the joy and the excitement that Middle-earth brings us.

The original Middle-earth News website may have diminished and gone into the west, but we're fortunate enough to have the support of some of the core members of the original Middle-earth News team, including past directors and assistant directors, as we explore the future of what a fan-focused news site looks like nowadays.

One thing we want to be sure to do is to h/t to the mother of Middle-earth News, who started out with just a Twitter account and subsequently brought the website and everything else beyond that into being. None of us would have ever come together without you, so definitely go and check out what Arwen is up to now, there's some very big things that might surprise you.

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The Internet and the world is a very different place to how it was in 2011, so we think its important to talk about our values and what our priorities for this site are.

Middle-earth joy

Our priority is to focus on the joy, the excitement, the euphoria, the happiness that Middle-earth brings us and to write about things that bring those feelings. We can always find something good in everything in Middle-earth, but if we ever fail to, then we just won't write about it. There's plenty of people making takedowns, critiques, and hate bait, but we're not doing that here.

Fans, fans, fans

We love seeing fans' unrestrained enjoyment of the world of Middle-earth: passion projects, cosplays, makes, micro-detail commentaries, art, comedy, music, we love seeing things that are created just for the fun of it. Writing for those fans but also about those fans is what this website is most about.

No monetisation

We're non-commercial to a T; no advertising, no sponsorships, no partnerships, no subscriptions. Middleearth.news and bestofmiddleearthnews.com will always stay that way. If we ever write about something that can be purchased, it will be from a fan-made microbusiness, generally only just one person behind it. Lots of other websites exist for you to enjoy discussions about big business merch and products; its just not something that we're going to do.

Inclusiveness

Middle-earth is already vast and wide and is constantly growing; there's room for everybody. Books, movies, TV shows, radio plays, fanfilms, podcasts, gaming, art...wherever you find your Middle-earth joy is great. There is no one true way to be a fan, there is no TrueFan™, there is no exclusion here. Do you find genuine joy in Middle-earth? That's it, you're in.

Posting

Our posting policy is "we'll post something when there's something to post"! Not for us the swiftness of the 3 runners, we're much more ent-like in our approach to the latest news. We'd much prefer to write a good post than a fast post! We might be a long way behind the times on a topic, but we get there. This is a passion project for us, but we have to fit it in around life responsibilities and so we won't always be able to post as much as we would wish to.

This isn't a place for actor news, or celebrity rumours, or wild speculation disguised as fact.

No Generative AI

Generative AI remains a hot topic and our position is a very simple "No, that's not for us". That's just for us and our website, we're not dictating to anyone else, only declaring our own position. We can't promise that we won't sometimes be fooled, especially if someone disingenuously passes off something from GenAI as their own creation, but our aim is not to include it at all.

Social Media

We are kinda on social media, but our presence there is fairly experimental also; it is 2026 after all. Our policy is be kind and if we encounter someone who is unable to reciprocate then we delete, block and move on. Its not personal, we're just not here to absorb someone else's upset for them.

We're going to be figuring out exactly how we'll use our social media accounts as we go, but if you'd like to follow along as we work all that out you can find us being active on Instagram and BlueSky; we might yet pop up again on Facebook and YouTube as well, but we're not planning to actively be using them right now. If you see a Middle-earth News account being active on any other platform than those right now its not us.

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We're excited to be going on an adventure with this new website. We've got no idea where we'll end up or even what the road looks like around the next bend, but we hope that people will enjoy reading and that our site will enhance people's enjoyment of Middle-earth as they discover something new to them.

We're curious, we've stepped on to the road and we've memorised the song of Tom Bombadil in case our need is near us.

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Heather, Daisy, Blossom & Primrose, your Middle-earth News websites team