In an amusing turn of events, Emily Wilson, the UPenn classicist whose contemporary English translation of The Odyssey was allegedly the basis for the dialogue in the blockbuster 2026 film, panned the movie in an interview which soon went viral. She described the screenplay as "abysmal" and said, "I would be ashamed to have written…

Young people today have likely never heard of this debate. But when the Star Wars movies were digitally edited and then re-released in theatres in 1997, the updated special effects were accompanied by a hugely controversial move; digitally editing the confrontation between Han Solo and the hapless bounty hunter Greedo in the Mos Eisley cantina…

The third season of the lavish but controversial Amazon Prime series The Rings of Power will debut on November 11th. We are promised that it will focus on the forging of the One Ring by Sauron, and his wars with the Elves and, one presumes, with the Numenoreans. This general outline of the plot reveals…

Speaking of language and fantasy, I could not help commenting on the latest Hollywood blockbuster by acclaimed director Christopher Nolan, The Odyssey. This movie has generated some controversy over a range of issues from casting to language, reflected in the gap between professional critical reviews which shower it with effusive praise, and more divided audience…

Fans of Robert E. Howard's work know that he was heavily influenced in his world-building by H.P. Lovecraft, the pioneering horror author. However, Lovecraft himself went through several phases of literary influence, one of which involved the Anglo-Irish fantasist Lord Dunsany. One of Dunsany's best-known works is The King of Elfland's Daughter (1924), a sprawling…

As an update to this much anticipated movie, director Andy Serkis has confirmed that the movie will use AI de-aging for some of the characters. This might reflect the fact that a number of actors in the movie, such as Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, and Lee Pace are now markedly older than when they first…

Speaking of ancient survivals, this is perhaps one of Gandalf’s better known quotes after the Fellowship are forced by circumstance to cross the Misty Mountains through the long dark of the Mines of Moria. This seems at first to a a reference to the dreaded Balrog of Moria, but then we learn that he was…

A similar theme is explored in ‘The Shadow Kingdom’ featuring Conan’s literary and historical predecessor, King Kull of Volusia. Kull, and Atlantean barbarian ruling the ancient and decadent mainland Thurian kingdom of Volusia (much as Conan would rule the Hyborian realm of Aquileia thousands of years later), finds himself caught in a horrifying plot as…

While Robert E. Howard is best known for his Conan stories, he wrote many others not set in the Hyborian age, although most of them had his trademark signatures of pulse-pounding adventure and supernatural horror. ‘Worms of the Earth’ is perhaps one of the best of these. Set in Roman Britain, it features his Pictish…

I will conclude this exploration of Tolkien adaptations in different media with a mention of Tolkien games, both physical and virtual. Of course there is a reciprocal interaction here, because Tolkien’s work was a huge influence on the development of the original Dungeons & Dragons gaming system in 1974, so much so that TSR was required…