Jump to content

The Lord of the Rings

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Crackerbelly (talk | contribs) at 04:48, 4 June 2006 (Disambiguate romantic). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

File:Jrrt lotr cover design.jpg
Cover design for the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien
This article is about the book by J. R. R. Tolkien. For the title role and antagonist of the novel, see Sauron.

For the movie trilogy by Peter Jackson, see The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy saga by the British author J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to his earlier fantasy novel The Hobbit, but soon developed into a much larger story. It was written in stages between 1937 and 1949, with much of it being written during World War II. It was originally published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955, and has since been republished numerous times and translated into many languages. It is perhaps the most popular work in twentieth-century literature.

The action in The Lord of the Rings is set in what is conceived to be the lands of the real Earth, inhabited by humanity but placed in a fictional time. Tolkien gave this setting a modern English name: Middle-earth, a rendering of the Old English Middangeard. The story concerns races such as Hobbits, Elves, Men, Dwarves and Wizards, and centres on the Ring of Power made by the Dark Lord Sauron. Starting from quiet beginnings in The Shire, the story ranges across Middle-earth and follows the courses of The War of the Ring. The main story is followed by six appendices that provide a wealth of historical and linguistic background material.

Although a major work in itself, The Lord of the Rings is merely the last movement of a larger mythological cycle, or legendarium, that Tolkien had worked on for many years since 1917. The earlier stories in this cycle were mostly contained in a work called The Silmarillion. Tolkien described the Lord of the Rings as "much the largest, and I hope also in proportion the best, of the entire cycle".[1] Tolkien had tried to get The Silmarillion published together with The Lord of the Rings, but failed. The Silmarillion would later be published posthumously by Tolkien's son Christopher Tolkien. Some Tolkien biographers regard The Silmarillion as the true "work of his heart"[2] as it provides the historical and linguistic context for the more popular work and for his constructed languages, and occupied the greater part of Tolkien's time.

The Lord of the Rings, along with Tolkien's other writings, has been subjected to extensive literary analysis. Influences on Tolkien and his story range across philology, mythology and religion, and includes influences from earlier fantasy works, as well as Tolkien's experiences in World War I. The Lord of the Rings in its turn is considered to have fathered the modern fantasy genre. The immense and enduring popularity of the story has led to numerous references in popular culture, the founding of numerous societies for fans of Tolkien's works, a large number of books about Tolkien and his works, an academic field of Tolkien studies, and numerous adaptations of his works for a wide range of media. Adaptations have been made for the radio, for the theatre, and for film. The Lord of the Rings has also inspired short stories, artworks and musical works.

Three film adaptations have been made of the story told by the books: the first, by animator Ralph Bakshi, was released in 1978 (as the first part of what was originally intended to be a two-part adaptation of the story); the second, a 1980 television special; and the third, director Peter Jackson's film trilogy, released in three installments in 2001, 2002, and 2003. There are also two Collectible Card Games and multiple video games that take place in the Middle-earth.

Back story

Template:Spoiler The back story begins thousands of years before the action in the trilogy, with the rise of the eponymous Lord of the Rings, the Dark Lord Sauron, a malevolent incarnated spiritual being who possesses great supernatural powers and is the ruler of the dreaded realm of Mordor. At the end of the First Age of Middle-earth, Sauron survives the catastrophic defeat and exile of his master, the diabolos figure, Morgoth. During the Second Age, Sauron schemes to gain dominion over Middle-earth. In disguise as "Annatar", or Lord of Gifts, he aids Celebrimbor and the other Elven-smiths of Eregion in the forging of the Rings of Power, but then secretly forges the One Ring by which he could enslave their wearers. This plan fails when the Elves become aware of him and take off their rings. Sauron then launches a military campaign during which he captures the Seven Rings and the Nine Rings and distributes them to lords of the Dwarves and Men respectively. The Dwarves prove too tough to enslave, but the Men who possess the Nine are slowly corrupted over time and eventually become the Nazgûl, his most feared servants. The Three, he fails to capture, and they remain in the possession of the Elves.

File:NumenorEN.jpg
Númenor was destroyed due to Sauron's corruption

The king of Númenor, Ar-Pharazôn, arrives with overwhelming force. Sauron yields to the Númenóreans, and is taken to Númenor as a prisoner. The Valar, Lords of Valinor, want Sauron turned over to them, but Sauron had already started to poison the minds of the Númenóreans against them. Thus, Sauron sets into motion the events that bring about Númenor's destruction, by corrupting the king's mind, leading to an attempted invasion of Valinor and unleashing the wrath of Ilúvatar upon the Númenóreans, their land and Sauron. This nearly destroys him but he returns in spirit to Mordor, assumes a new form, and launches an attack against the Númenórean exiles (the Faithful), that have escaped to Middle-earth. However, the exiles (led by Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anárion) have time to prepare, and forming the Last Alliance of Elves and Men with the king of the Eldar Gil-galad they march against Mordor and besiege Barad-dûr, at which time Anárion is slain. Sauron himself is ultimately forced to engage in single combat with the leaders. Gil-galad and Elendil perish as they combat Sauron, and Elendil's sword Narsil breaks beneath him. Isildur cuts the One Ring from Sauron's hand with the hilt-shard of Narsil, and at this Sauron's spirit flees and does not reappear for many centuries.

So begins the Third Age of Middle-earth. Two years later while journeying to Rivendell, Isildur is ambushed by a band of Orcs and killed at the Disaster of the Gladden Fields. The Ring slips from his finger into the Great River Anduin and is lost for millennia. In The Hobbit, the prologue to the saga, Tolkien relates the story of the seemingly accidental finding of the Ring by the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. However, the tale related in The Hobbit is myopic in scope, and neither Bilbo nor the wizard Gandalf (nor the reader) are aware at this point that the magic ring is actually the evil One Ring forged by the Dark Lord.

File:Middle earth map showing prominent locations.PNG
Middle-earth during the Third Age

Synopsis

Main articles: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King

The Lord of the Rings takes up the story about 60 years after the end of The Hobbit. The story begins in the first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring, when the hobbit Frodo Baggins comes into possession of a magic ring found by his uncle Bilbo. Bilbo's old friend, the wizard Gandalf, whose involvement of Bilbo in The Hobbit led to the discovery of the ring, discovers that this is in fact the One Ring, the instrument of Sauron's power and the object for which the Dark Lord has been searching since the end of the Second Age.

Sauron sends his servants, the sinister Ringwraiths (the Nazgûl in the guise of riders in black) to the Shire in search of the Ring. Frodo, with the help of his loyal servant Sam Gamgee and two close friends, Merry and Pippin, smuggles the Ring to Rivendell on Gandalf's request. At Rivendell, the man the hobbits know as "Strider" is revealed to be Aragorn, the heir to the kingship of the realms of Men. The hobbits also learn that Sauron's forces can only be resisted if Aragorn takes up his inheritance and fulfills an ancient prophecy by wielding the sword Anduril, which has been forged anew from the shards of Narsil, the sword that cut the Ring from Sauron's finger in the Second Age. A high council, attended by representatives of the major races of Middle-earth; Elves, Dwarves, and Men, and presided over by the Lord Elrond, decides that the only course of action that can save Middle-earth is to destroy the Ring by taking it to Mordor and casting it into Mount Doom, where it was forged.

Frodo volunteers for the task, and a "Fellowship of the Ring" is formed to aid him. Their journey takes them through the Mines of Moria, where they are followed by the wretched creature Gollum, whom Bilbo had met in the Goblin-caves of the Misty Mountains years before. (The full tale of their meeting is told in The Hobbit.) Gollum had long possessed the Ring before it passed to Bilbo. Gandalf explains that Gollum originated from a race "not unlike hobbits" before he came upon the Ring, which corrupted him. A slave to the Ring's evil power, Gollum desparately seeks to regain his "Precious". As they proceed through the Mines, Pippin unintentionally betrays their presence and the party is attacked. Gandalf battles a giant subterranean demon, the Balrog, and falls into a deep chasm, apparently to his death. By the end of the first volume the Fellowship is scattered, with two members dead (Gandalf and Boromir), leaving Frodo and Sam to make the trip to Mordor on their own.

In the second volume, The Two Towers, a parallel story (told in two books) details the remaining Fellowship's aid to the country of Rohan in their war against the evil Saruman, leader of the order of wizards, whom Sauron has corrupted. Gandalf returns to Middle-earth as "Gandalf the White": We find out that he slew the Balrog of Moria, and although the battle also proved fatal to Gandalf, he was then "reborn" with greater powers. At the end of the first book of the second volume, four members of the Fellowship (Gandalf, Aragorn, the elf Legolas and the dwarf Gimli) help to defeat Saruman's armies at the Battle of Helm's Deep. The second book of the volume shows how Frodo and Sam manage to capture and "tame" Gollum. Gollum then shows them a way to enter Mordor secretly (as opposed to the Black Gate), albeit through the Witch-king's dread realm of Minas Morgul. At the end of the volume, Gollum betrays Frodo to the great spider, Shelob, while Sauron launches an all-out military assault upon Middle Earth, with the Witch-king leading a fell Morgul host into battle against Gondor, in the War of the Ring.

In the third volume, The Return of the King, Sam defeats Gollum and rescues Frodo. As they near Mount Doom, the Fellowship assists in the final battles against the armies of Sauron, including the siege of the tower-city of Minas Tirith and the climactic life-or-death battle before the Black Gate of Mordor, where the alliance of Gondor and Rohan fights desperately against Sauron's armies in order to distract Sauron from the Ring, hoping to gain time for Frodo to destroy it. According to the Tolkien timeline, the events depicted in the story occurred between Bilbo's announcement of his T.A. September 22, 3001 birthday party, and Sam's re-arrival to Bag End on T.A. October 6, 3021. Most of the events portrayed in the story occur in 3018 and 3019, with Frodo heading out from Bag End on T.A. September 23 3018, and the destruction of the Ring six months later on T.A. March 25 3019. Template:Endspoiler

Books

For character information see: List of Middle-earth characters

Writing

J.R.R. Tolkien did not originally intend to write a sequel to The Hobbit, and instead wrote several other children's tales, including Roverandom. As his main work, Tolkien began to outline the history of Arda, telling tales of the Silmarils, and many other stories of how the races and situations that we read about in the Lord of the Rings came to be. Tolkien died before he could complete and put together The Silmarillion, but his son Christopher Tolkien edited his father's work, filled in gaps, and published it in 1977.[3]

Tolkien had a deep desire to write a mythology for England, especially after his horrific experiences during the First World War. Thus to understand his writings we must be aware of how Tolkien the scholar influenced Tolkien the author. The writer of this mythology emerges as an Oxford philologist well acquainted with Northern European Medieval Literature including the great mythic works such as the Hervarar saga, the Völsunga saga, the influential Beowulf as well as other Old Norse, Old and Middle English Texts. He was also greatly inspired by the Finnish epic Kalevala, which gave him many themes he used in Lord of the Rings. Tolkien even based his elves' language Quenya on Finnish. A man who had created his own language by the age of seven, he was driven by a desire to write a mythology for England influenced by his exposure and expertise of these ancient traditions. The need for such a myth was often a topic of conversation in his meetings with the Inklings, fellow Oxford scholars who have been described as Christian Romantics, meeting weekly and discussing Icelandic myths and their own unpublished compositions. Tolkien agreed with one of the other members of the group, C.S. Lewis, that if there were no adequate myths for England then they would have to write their own. Tolkien's work has been commonly interpreted in this light.

Persuaded by his publishers, he started 'a new Hobbit' in December 1937. After several false starts, the story of the One Ring soon emerged, and the book mutated from being a sequel to the Hobbit, to being, in theme, more a sequel to the unpublished Silmarillion. The idea of the first chapter (A Long-Expected Party) arrived fully-formed, although the reasons behind Bilbo's disappearance, the significance of the Ring, and the title The Lord of the Rings did not arrive until the Spring of 1938. Originally, he planned to write another story in which Bilbo had used up all his treasure and was looking for another adventure to gain more; however, he remembered the ring and its powers and decided to write about it instead. He began with Bilbo as the main character but decided that the story was too serious to use the fun-loving Hobbit and so Tolkien looked to use a member of Bilbo's family. He thought about using Bilbo's son but this generated some difficult questions — Where was his wife? How could Bilbo let his son go into that kind of danger? — so he looked for an alternate character to carry the ring. In Greek legend, it was a hero's nephew that gained the item of power, and so the Hobbit Frodo came into existence.

Writing was slow due to Tolkien's perfectionism, and was frequently interrupted by his obligations as an examiner, and other academic duties. The first sentence of The Hobbit was in fact written on a blank page which a student had left on an exam paper which Tolkien was marking — "In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit".[4] He seems to have abandoned the book during most of 1943 and only re-started it in April 1944. This effort was written as a serial for Christopher Tolkien and C.S. Lewis — the former would be sent copies of chapters as they were written while he was serving in Africa in the Royal Air Force. He made another push in 1946, and showed a copy of the manuscript to his publishers in 1947. The story was effectively finished the next year, but Tolkien did not finish revising earlier parts of the work until 1949.

A dispute with his publishers, Allen & Unwin, led to the book being offered to Collins in 1950. He intended The Silmarillion (itself largely unrevised at this point) to be published along with The Lord of the Rings, but A&U were unwilling to do this. After his contact at Collins, Milton Waldman, expressed the belief that The Lord of the Rings itself 'urgently needed cutting', he eventually demanded that they publish the book in 1952. They did not do so, and so Tolkien wrote to Allen and Unwin, saying "I would gladly consider the publication of any part of the stuff".

Publication

For publication, due largely to post-war paper shortages, but also to keep the price of the first volume down, the book was divided into three volumes: The Fellowship of the Ring: Books I and II, The Two Towers: Books III and IV, and The Return of the King: Books V and VI plus 6 appendices. Delays in producing appendices, maps and especially indices led to these being published later than originally hoped — on 29 July 1954, 11 November 1954 and 20 October 1955 respectively in the United Kingdom, slightly later in the United States. The Return of the King was especially delayed. Tolkien, moreover, did not especially like the title The Return of the King, believing it gave away too much of the storyline. He had originally suggested The War of the Ring, which was dismissed by his publishers.[5]

File:LotR book1968.png
Dust jacket of the 1968 UK edition

The books were published under a 'profit-sharing' arrangement, whereby Tolkien would not receive an advance or royalties until the books had broken even, after which he would take a large share of the profits. An index to the entire 3-volume set at the end of third volume was promised in the first volume. However, this proved impractical to compile in a reasonable timescale. Later, in 1966, four indices, not compiled by Tolkien, were added to The Return of the King. Because the three-volume binding was so widely distributed, the work is often referred to as the Lord of the Rings "trilogy". Tolkien himself made use of the term "trilogy" for the work, though he did at other times consider this incorrect, as it was written and conceived as a single novel.

A 1999 (Millennium Edition) British (ISBN 0-261-10387-3) 7-volume box set followed the six-book division authored by Tolkien, with the Appendices from the end of The Return of the King bound as a separate volume. The letters of Tolkien appeared on the spines of the boxed set which included a CD. To coincide with the film release, a new version of this popular edition was released featuring images from the films, such as:

  • I - Frodo climbing the steps to Bag-end
  • II - Aragorn and Arwen in Rivendell
  • III - Gandalf in Moria
  • IV - A swan boat from Lothlórien
  • V - A black rider from the 'Flight to the Ford' sequence
  • VI - The tower of Cirith Ungol (although this image featured in many of the promotional books (e.g. the 'FotR Photo Guide') from the first film, it did not feature in the films until Return of the King)
  • App. - Frodo's hand holding the One Ring

This new imprint (ISBN 0-007-63555-9) also omitted the CD. The individual names for books in this series were decided posthumously, based on a combination of suggestions Tolkien had made during his lifetime and the titles of the existing volumes — viz:

  • T Book I: The Return of the Shadow
  • O Book II: The Fellowship of the Ring
  • L Book III: The Treason of Isengard
  • K Book IV: The Journey to Mordor
  • I Book V: The War of the Ring
  • E Book VI: The Return of the King
  • N Appendices

The name of the complete work is often abbreviated to 'LotR', 'LOTR', or simply 'LR', and the three volumes as FR, FOTR, or FotR (The Fellowship of the Ring), TT or TTT (The Two Towers), and RK, ROTK, or RotK (The Return of the King).

Note that the titles The Return of the Shadow, The Treason of Isengard and The War of the Ring were used by Christopher Tolkien in The History of The Lord of the Rings. Some locations and characters were inspired by Tolkien's childhood in Sarehole (then a Worcestershire village, now part of Birmingham) and Birmingham.

Publication history

The three parts were first published by Allen & Unwin in 1954–1955, several months apart. They have since been reissued many times by multiple publishers, as one, three, six or seven volume sets. The two most common current printings are ISBN 0-618-34399-7 (one-volume) and ISBN 0-618-34624-4 (three volume set). In the early 1960s, Donald A. Wollheim, science fiction editor of the paperback publisher Ace Books, realized that The Lord of the Rings was not protected in the United States under American copyright law because the US hardcover edition had been bound from pages printed in the United Kingdom, with the orginal intention being for them to be printed in the British edition. Ace Books proceeded to publish an edition, unauthorized by Tolkien and without royalties to him. Tolkien took issue with this and quickly notified his fans of this objection. Grass-roots pressure from these fans became so great that Ace books withdrew their edition and made a nominal payment to Tolkien, well below what he might have been due in an appropriate publication. However, this poor beginning was overshadowed when an authorized edition followed from Ballantine Books to tremendous commercial success. By the mid-1960s the books, due to their wide exposure on the American public stage, had become a true cultural phenomenon. Also at this time Tolkien undertook various textual revisions to produce a version of the book that would have a valid US copyright. This would later become known as the Second Edition of The Lord of the Rings.

The books have been translated, with various degrees of success, into dozens of other languages.[6] Tolkien, an expert in philology, examined many of these translations, and had comments on each that reflect both the translation process and his work. The fact that The Lord of the Rings is purportedly a translation of the Red Book of Westmarch, a book which Bilbo Baggins writes in the Westron language, gives translators an unusual degree of freedom in many aspects, and allows for such translations as elf becoming Elb in German. Elb does not carry the connotations of mischief that its English counterpart does and therefore is more true to the work that Tolkien created. In contrast to the usual modern practice, names intended to have a particular meaning in the English version are translated to provide a similar meaning in the target language: in German, for example, the name "Baggins" becomes "Beutlin", containing the word Beutel meaning "bag".

Influences

The Lord of the Rings began as a personal exploration by Tolkien of his interests in philology, religion (particularly Roman Catholicism), fairy tales, as well as Norse and Celtic mythology, but it was also crucially influenced by the effects of his military service during World War I.[7] Tolkien detailed his creation to an astounding extent; he created a complete mythology for his realm of Middle-earth, including genealogies of characters, languages, writing systems, calendars and histories. Some of this supplementary material is detailed in the appendices to The Lord of the Rings, and the mythological history later woven into a large, biblically-styled volume entitled The Silmarillion. However many parts of the world he crafted are influenced by others.

Tolkien's largest influence in the creation of his world is that of the Roman Catholic Church and the bible. Tolkien once described The Lord of the Rings to his friend, the English Jesuit Father Robert Murray, as "a fundamentally religious and Catholic work, unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision."[1] There are many theological themes underlying the narrative including the battle of good versus evil, the triumph of humility over pride, and the activity of grace. In addition the saga includes themes which incorporate death and immortality, mercy and pity, resurrection, salvation, repentance, self-sacrifice, free will, justice, fellowship, authority and healing. In addition the Lord's Prayer "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" was reportedly present in Tolkien's mind as he described Frodo's struggles against the power of the One Ring.[1]

Non-Christian religious motifs also had strong influences in Tolkien's Middle-earth. His Norse-like pantheon of gods, the Valar and Maiar (greater and lesser gods/angels), who are responsible for the creation and maintenance of everything from skies (Manwë) and seas (Ulmo) to dreams (Lórien) and dooms (Mandos), closely echo Norse mythology, although these Valar and Maiar are themselves creations of a monotheistic entity — Ilúvatar or Eru, "The One".

Other pre-Christian mythological references can be seen:

  • a "Green Man" (Tom Bombadil)
  • wise men (the White Council, especially the Istari or Wizards)
  • shapechangers (Beorn)
  • undead spirits or ghosts (Barrow-wights, Oathbreakers)
  • sentient non-humans (Dwarves, Elves, Hobbits and Ents)

In addition The Lord of the Rings was crucially influenced by Tolkien's experiences during World War I and his son's during World War II. The central action of the trilogy — a climactic, age-ending war between good and evil — is the central event of many world mythologies, notably Norse, but it is also a clear reference to the well-known description of World War I, which was commonly referred to as "the war to end all wars".

File:Tolkien ring.jpg
Artist's impression of The One Ring

After the publication of The Lord of the Rings these influences led to widespread speculation that the One Ring was an allegory for the nuclear bomb. Tolkien, however, repeatedly insisted that his works were not an allegory of any kind. However there is a strong theme of despair in the face of new mechanized warfare that Tolkien himself had experienced in the trenches of World War I. The development of a specially bred Orc army, and the destruction of the environment to aid this, also have modern resonances.

Nevertheless, Tolkien states in the introduction to the books that he disliked allegories and that the story was not one, and it would be irresponsible to dismiss such direct statements on these matters lightly. Tolkien had already completed most of the book, including the ending in its entirety, before the first nuclear bombs were made known to the world at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

While Tolkien plausibly denied any specific 'nuclear' reference, it is clear that the Ring is a broad allegory for the concept of Absolute Power and its effects, and that the plot hinges on the view that anyone who seeks to gain absolute worldly power will inevitably be corrupted by it. There is also clear evidence that one of the main subtexts of the story — the passing of a mythical "Golden Age" — was influenced not only by Arthurian legend but also by Tolkien's contemporary anxieties about the growing encroachment of urbanization and industrialization into the "traditional" English lifestyle and countryside. The concept of the "ring of power" itself is also present in Plato's Republic and in the story of Gyges' ring (a story often compared to the Book of Job). However Tolkien's most likely immediate source was the Norse tale of Sigurd the Volsung, with which he was intimately familiar with and heavily influenced by.

Critical response

Tolkien's work has received mixed reviews since its inception, ranging from terrible to excellent. Recent reviews in various media have been, in a majority, highly positive. On its initial review the Sunday Telegraph felt it was "among the greatest works of imaginative fiction of the twentieth century." The Sunday Times seemed to echo these sentiments when in their review it was stated that "the English-speaking world is divided into those who have read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and those who are going to read them." The New York Herald Tribune also seemed to have an idea of how popular the books would become, writing in its review that they were "destined to outlast our time."[8]

Not all original reviews, however, were so kind. New York Times reviewer Judith Shulevitz criticized the "pedantry" of Tolkien's literary style, saying that he "formulated a high-minded belief in the importance of his mission as a literary preservationist, which turns out to be death to literature itself." [9] Critic Richard Jenkyns, writing in The New Republic, criticized a perceived lack of psychological depth. Both the characters and the work itself are, according to Jenkyns, "anemic, and lacking in fiber."[10] Even within Tolkien's social group, The Inklings, reviews were mixed. Hugo Dyson was famously recorded as saying, during one of Tolkien's readings to the group, "Oh no! Not another fucking elf!"[11] However, another Inkling, C.S. Lewis, had very different feelings, writing, "here are the beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron."

Several other authors in the genre, however, seemed to agree more with Dyson than Lewis. Science-fiction author David Brin criticized the books for their unquestioning devotion to a traditional elitist social structure, their positive depiction of the slaughter of the opposing forces, and their romantic backward-looking worldview.[12] Another famous science fiction and fantasy author, Michael Moorcock is a fervent detractor of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. He met both Tolkien and C. S. Lewis in his teens, and claims to have liked them personally even though he does not admire them on artistic grounds. Moorcock criticizes works like The Lord of the Rings for their Merry England point of view, famously equating Tolkien's work to Winnie-the-Pooh in his essay "Epic Pooh".[13]

The Lord of the Rings, despite the numerous detractors, became immensely popular in the 1960s and has remained so ever since, ranking as one of the most popular works of fiction of the twentieth century, judged by both sales and reader surveys.[14] In the 2003 "Big Read" survey conducted by the BBC, The Lord of the Rings was found to be the "Nation's Best-loved Book". Australians voted The Lord of the Rings "My Favourite Book" in a 2004 survey conducted by the Australian ABC.[15] In a 1999 poll of Amazon.com customers, The Lord of the Rings was judged to be their favourite "book of the millennium".[16] In 2002 Tolkien was voted the ninety-second "greatest Briton" in a poll conducted by the BBC, and in 2004 he was voted thirty-fifth in the SABC3's Great South Africans, the only person to appear in both lists. His popularity is not limited just to the English-speaking world: in a 2004 poll inspired by the UK’s "Big Read" survey, about 250,000 Germans found The Lord of the Rings to be their favourite work of literature.[17]

Adaptations

Film

Early efforts

Main article: The Lord of the Rings (1978 film)
File:Lord of the Rings Part 1(b).jpg
Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings

The rights to The Lord of the Rings were held by Walt Disney for ten years, but the Disney company was unable to put together a film production. There were plans for the Beatles to do a version of The Lord of the Rings but those plans came to nothing. It was even said that Stanley Kubrick had looked into the possibility of filming the story, but he abandoned the idea as too "immense" to be made into a movie. In the mid-1970s, film director John Boorman collaborated with current film rights holder and producer Saul Zaentz to do a live action picture, but the project proved too expensive to finance at that time; he ended up making Excalibur instead.[18]

In 1977, Rankin-Bass studios produced the first real film adaptation of any of Tolkien's works with an animated television version of The Hobbit. Shortly after, Saul Zaentz picked up where Rankin-Bass left off by producing an animated adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring and part of The Two Towers in 1978. The Lord of the Rings Part 1 (later J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings), originally released by United Artists was directed by Ralph Bakshi and used an animation technique called rotoscoping in which footage of live actors was filmed and then traced over.

The film was part one of what was originally to be a two-part adaptation of Tolkien's story, Part I ending after the battle of Helm's Deep, but before Sam, Frodo and Gollum traverse the Dead Marshes, and Part II picking up from where the first left off. Made for a minimal budget of US$8 million, the film made over US$30 million dollars at the box office.[19] United Artists viewed the film as a flop, and refused to fund a Part II (covering the rest of the story), leaving the door open for Rankin-Bass to do the work for him with the 1980 animated television version of The Return of the King.

New Line Cinema films

Main article: The Lord of the Rings film trilogy

Miramax Films developed a full-fledged live action adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, with Peter Jackson as director. Eventually, with Miramax becoming increasingly uneasy with the sheer scope of the proposed project, Jackson was given the opportunity to find another studio to take over. In 1998, New Line Cinema assumed production responsibility (while Miramax executives Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein retained on-screen credits as executive producers). The three films were shot simultaneously. They featured extensive computer-generated imagery, including major battle scenes utilizing the "Massive" software program. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released on December 19 2001, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on December 18 2002 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King worldwide on December 17 2003. All three won the Hugo Award for Best (Long-form) Dramatic Presentation in their respective years.

The films were met with both critical and commercial sucess. Jackson's adaptations garnered seventeen Oscars, four for The Fellowship of the Ring, two for The Two Towers, and eleven for The Return of the King; these covered many of the award categories. The Return of the King in fact won all of the eleven awards for which it was nominated, including Best Picture. With a total of 30 nominations, the trilogy also became the most-nominated in the Academy's history, surpassing the Godfather series' 28. Its 11 Oscars at the 2004 Academy Awards tied it for most awards won for one film with Titanic six years earlier and the 1959 version of Ben-Hur. It also broke the previous "sweep" record, beating Gigi and The Last Emperor (which each took 9 out of 9). The Return of the King also made movie history as the highest grossing film opening on a Wednesday and was the second film after Titanic to earn over US$1 billion worldwide.

Dramatic productions

2001-2003 Cincinnati productions

Original three full-length stage adaptations of The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), and The Return of the King (2003) were staged in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America. The first production unfortunately suffered from lack of funding and a clear artistic vision from the producing company. Sequels (TTT and RotK), however, were well received by audiences and critics alike. All three adaptations were written by Blake Bowden, an American child psychologist, actor, and playwright. Huge puppets were created by Carus Waggoner and Rick Couch; a full orchestrated score was composed by Grammy nominee Steve Goers; graphics, inspired by Tolkien's original artwork, were designed by Jay Nungesser. Aretta Baumgartner directed the puppetry work and was awarded a Cincinnati Entertainment Award for her portrayal of Gollum. The latter two productions were directed by actor, director, and SAFD fight choreographer Gina Cerimele-Mechley. Joe Sofranko played Frodo. The Return of the King was produced as the inaugural production of Clear Stage Cincinnati. It was presented at the Aronoff Center for the Arts in Cincinnati. All three productions were endorsed by The American Hobbit Association and approved by Tolkien Enterprises.

2006 musical production

London-based theatre producer Kevin Wallace and his partner, Saul Zaentz, representing the Tolkien estate, in association with Toronto theatre-owner David Mirvish and concert promoter Michael Cohl, have produced a three-hour stage musical adaptation of The Lord of the Rings that has a cast of 55 actors and cost approximately C$30 million (US$26.9 million). The show was written by Shaun McKenna and Matthew Warchus, with music by A. R. Rahman and Värttinä, collaborating with Christopher Nightingale. The director is Matthew Warchus; choreography is by Peter Darling; set and costume design are by Rob Howell. The production began performances on February 4, 2006, had its press opening on March 23 2006 at Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre, the day before its gala premiere. The production received mostly mixed to poor notices from the press, however as the show changes the audience response is increasingly positive from all ages.

Games

Video games

Main article: Middle-earth in video games

The books have been reproduced in video game form a number of times over the last two decades. The first of these games was the 1982 The Hobbit text adventure. Due to its sucess many similiar titles were released throughtout the decade, including Melbourne House's Lord of the Rings, Shadows of Mordor, War in Middle-earth as well as Interplay's Lord of the Rings Vol. 1 and Lord of the Rings Vol. 2. However, due to the falling popularity of the books, no The Lord of the Rings video game was released after 1991 until the film trilogy in 2001-2003.

Electronic Arts obtained the licences for the three films while Sierra Entertainment, having lost out on the film licences, obtained the licence to produce games based on the books from Tolkien Enterprises instead. What resulted was EA producing adaptations of The Two Towers and The Return of the King, whereas Sierra produced a "complete trilogy" of games (albeit unofficial). Typical reviewers gave Sierra's entry to the series average reviews, and Electronic Arts' entries rave reviews, although Peter Jackson has criticized EA for leaving him out of the development process and has declared that he is unhappy with the quality of the titles.[20] Some fans of the novel, on the other hand, took issue with liberties taken in the games.

The popularity of real-time strategy (RTS) titles led Sierra and EA to independently produce two RTS games with Sierra producing The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring a title which was well received by the press and fans, but criticized for its derivative nature.[21] A year later, EA released The Battle for Middle-earth, based on the films. The title was given rave reviews in the gaming media and sold well.[22] EA has also released The Third Age and Battle for Middle-earth II with The Lord of the Rings: The White Council in development.[23] Despite glowing reviews by typical reviewers, some fans of the novel, as ever, take issue with liberties taken in the games.

Strategy battle game

Similar to "Warhammer Fantasy" players, Lord of the Rings players commonly collect and paint one army (or more) of their choice and find opponents (with similarly collected armies) to play against. Armies can be built up from the purchase of boxed sets (usually having 20 or 24 plastic miniatures in each) or "blister packs" (usually containing no more than three finely detailed metal miniatures) to build up a reasonable sized fighting force. Others simply collect the miniatures because they like the way they look. One popular way of collecting is through "Battle Games in Middle Earth" (sic) - a DeAgostini magazine which comes with a free miniature (some of which are exclusive to the publication) and painting guide. Recently, Games Workshop began to discontinue some of their metal miniatures, so that they could replace them with plastic miniatures. They justified this action by saying that the quality in plastic moulding has improved to a point where they are almost as detailed as metal, and that plastic is cheaper to produce.

Audio

The BBC produced a 12-part radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings in 1955-6, and a 6-part version of The Hobbit in 1966. In The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien Tolkien disparages the radio dramatization of The Lord of the Rings, referring to the portrayal of Tom Bombadil as "Dreadful" and complaining bitterly about several other aspects of the dramatization. No recording of the 1956 series is known to exist, but The Hobbit has survived. It is a very faithful adaptation, incorporating some passing references to The Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion.

A 1979 dramatization was broadcast in the USA and subsequently issued on tape and CD. No cast or credits appear on the audio packaging. Each of the actors was apparently recorded separately and then the various parts were edited together. Thus, unlike a BBC recording session where the actors are recorded together, none of the cast are actually interacting with each other and the performances suffer badly as a result. In 1981 the BBC broadcast a new, ambitious dramatization of The Lord of the Rings in 26 half-hour instalments. See: The Lord of the Rings (1981 radio series). In addition many songs in The Lord of the Rings have also given inspiration to many musicians to set them to music. Most notable is the music of Donald Swann because it was approved by Tolkien himself and the music of The Tolkien Ensemble because they, with backing from the Tolkien estate, have set all the songs and poems from The Lord of the Rings to music.

Art

Many illustrators have rendered their vision of Middle-earth in various media, and some have used their Tolkien illustration as a stepping-stone to larger careers. Two of the most notable of these are John Howe and Alan Lee. Both began their career illustrating various editions of The Lord of the Rings. Due to this Peter Jackson chose the two as lead artists for his movies based on the books. In 2004, as a result, Lee won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction for his work on the third film in the trilogy, The Return of the King.[24] Both have since gone on to do conceptual design for various other films, including King Kong and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Queen Margrethe II of Denmark is also an accomplished and critically-acclaimed painter, and has held many art shows over the years. It is often said that were she not the Queen, she could easily make a living as a professional artist. Her illustrations were used for the Danish edition of The Lord of the Rings published in 1977 and the re-issue in 2002.[25]

Other notable The Lord of the Rings artists include Jimmy Cauty, Ted Nasmith, Tove Jansson, and Jenny Dolfen.

Influences on the fantasy genre

The enormous popular success of Tolkien's epic saga greatly expanded the demand for fantasy fiction. Largely thanks to The Lord of the Rings, the genre flowered throughout the 1960s. Many other books in a broadly similar vein were published (including the Earthsea books of Ursula K. Le Guin, the Thomas Covenant novels of Stephen R. Donaldson), and in the case of the Gormenghast books by Mervyn Peake, and The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison, rediscovered.

It also strongly influenced the role playing game industry which achieved popularity in the 1970s with Dungeons & Dragons. Dungeons & Dragons features many races found in The Lord of the Rings most notably the presence of halflings, elves, dwarves, half-elves, orcs, and dragons. However, Gary Gygax, lead designer of the game, maintains that he was influenced very little by The Lord of the Rings, stating that he included these elements as a marketing move to draw on the then-popularity of the work.[26] The Lord of the Rings also has influenced Magic: The Gathering. The Lord of the Rings has also influenced the creation of various videogames, including Baldur's Gate, Everquest, The Elder Scrolls, Neverwinter Nights, and World of Warcraft.[27]

As in all artistic fields, a great many lesser derivatives of the more prominent works appeared. The term "Tolkienesque" is used in the genre to refer to the oft-used and abused storyline of The Lord of the Rings: a group of adventurers embarking on a quest to save a magical fantasy world from the armies of an evil "dark lord", and is a testament to how much the popularity of these books has increased, since many critics initially decried Lord of the Rings as being "Wagner for children" (a reference to the Ring Cycle) — an especially interesting commentary in light of a possible interpretation of The Lord of The Rings as a Christian response to Wagner.[28]

Pop culture references

Main article: The Lord of the Rings in pop culture

The Lord of the Rings has had a profound and wide-ranging impact on popular culture, from its publication in the 1950s, but especially throughout the 1960s and 1970s, where young people embraced it as a countercultural saga. Its influence has been vastly extended in the present day, thanks to the Peter Jackson live-action films. Well known examples include:

  • "Ramble On" Led Zeppelin's ode to Lord of the Rings which is based entirely upon the epic.
  • Likewise, "The Battle of Evermore" by Led Zeppelin contains explicit references to The Lord of the Rings.
  • "Rivendell" Rush's song about the joys of a stay at the Elven Haven is found on Fly by Night, 1975.
  • Popular American board games (e.g., Risk (game) and Monopoly (game)) now have Lord of the Rings-themed editions.[29]

Further reading

  • Carpenter, Humphrey (2000). J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography, Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-618-05702-1
  • Ready, William (1981). The Tolkien Relation, New York: Warner Books. ISBN 0-446-30110-8

See also

Template:Middle-earth portal

References

  1. ^ a b c Tolkien, J.R.R. (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-618-05699-8.
  2. ^ Shippey, Tom (2000). J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century. Harper Collins.
  3. ^ Shippey, Tom (2003). The Road to Middle-earth (Revised and expanded edition ed.). Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0618257608. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
  4. ^ Socher, Abe (April 19, 2005). "Grading Blues". Chronicle Careers. Retrieved 2006-04-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  5. ^ Tolkien, J.R.R. (2000). The War of the Ring: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part Three. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-618-08359-6.
  6. ^ ""How many languages have The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings been translated into?"". Retrieved 3 June. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ ""Influences of Lord of the Ring"". Retrieved 16 April. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ ""From the Critics"". Retrieved May 30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ ""Hobbits in Hollywood"". Retrieved May 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ Richard Jenkyns. "Bored of the Rings." The New Republic. January 28 2002. [1]
  11. ^ Wilson, A.N. (2001-11-24). "Tolkien was not a writer". telegraph.co.uk. Telegraph Group Limited. Retrieved 2006-04-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); External link in |work= (help)
  12. ^ ""We Hobbits are a Merry Folk: an incautious and heretical re-apprisal of J.R.R. Tolkien"". Retrieved 9 January. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ ""Epic Pooh"". Retrieved 27 January. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ Seiler, Andy (December 16, 2003). "'Rings' comes full circle". USA Today. Retrieved 2006-03-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  15. ^ Cooper, Callista (December 5, 2005). "Epic trilogy tops favorite film poll". ABC News Online. Retrieved 2006-03-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  16. ^ O'Hehir, Andrew (June 4, 2001). "The book of the century". Salon.com. Retrieved 2006-03-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  17. ^ Diver, Krysia (October 5, 2004). "A lord for Germany". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2006-03-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  18. ^ ""The One Ring" forum thread "John Boorman's LOTR Screenplay"". Retrieved 9 January. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ "IMDB box office data". Retrieved 9 January. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ Thorsen, Tor (October 26, 2005). "Report: Peter Jackson displeased with Lord of the Rings games". Retrieved 2006-05-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  21. ^ Paulsen, Jakob (June 3, 2003). "War of the Ring impressions". Retrieved 2006-05-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  22. ^ Adams, Dan (December 3, 2004). "The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-earth". Retrieved 2006-05-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  23. ^ Adams, David (January 9, 2006). "EA Crafting Second Lord of the Rings RPG?". Retrieved 2006-05-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  24. ^ "76th Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2006-05-29.
  25. ^ "Queen Margrethe II of Denmark". Hello Magazine. Retrieved 2006-05-29.
  26. ^ "Gary Gygax - Creator of Dungeons & Dragons". Retrieved 2006-05-28.
  27. ^ Douglass, Perry (May 17, 2006). "The Influence of Literature and Myth in Videogames". IGN. Retrieved 2006-05-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  28. ^ "The Complete Spengler". Asian Times Online. May 29, 2006. Retrieved 2006-05-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  29. ^ Drake, Matt (June 29, 2005). "Review of Lord of the Rings". RPGnet. Retrieved 2006-05-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
Wikiquote has quotations related to The Lord of the Rings.

Official sites

Wikis and encyclopedias

News and fan sites

Scholarship and analysis

Informational

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=The_Lord_of_the_Rings&oldid=56776877"