The Lord of the Rings

This article is about the novel. For other uses, see The Lord of the Rings (disambiguation).

The Lord of the Rings

File:Jrrt lotr cover design.jpg Tolkien's own cover designs for the three volumes of the first edition
Author	J. R. R. Tolkien
Country	United Kingdom
Language
Genre	High fantasy, Adventure novel, Heroic romance, Action adventure
Publisher	Geo. Allen & Unwin
Publication date	1954 and 1955
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	1216 pp (total pages)
Preceded by	The Hobbit

The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel written by the English philologist J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit (1937), but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in stages between 1937 and 1949, much of it during World War II. Although intended as a single-volume work, it was originally published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955, due to post-war paper shortages, and it is in this three-volume form that it is popularly known. It has since been reprinted numerous times and translated into many different languages, becoming one of the most popular and influential works in 20th-century literature.

The story of The Lord of the Rings takes place in the Third Age of Middle-earth, embedded in Tolkien's larger conception of a legendarium about an alternate mythological past of the world.

The title of the book refers to the story's main antagonist, the Dark Lord Sauron, who creates a magic ring, the One Ring, in his desire to conquer and rule all of Middle-earth. From quiet beginnings in the Shire, a hobbit land which is not unlike the English countryside, the story ranges across Middle-earth following the course of the War of the Ring through the eyes of its characters, most notably the hobbits, Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee (Sam), Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry) and Peregrin Took (Pippin).

The Lord of the Rings, along with Tolkien's other works, has been subjected to extensive analysis of its themes and origins. Although a major work in itself, the story was only the last movement of a larger work Tolkien had worked on since 1917, that he described as a mythopoeia. Influences on this earlier work, and on the story of The Lord of the Rings, include philology, mythology, religion and the author's distaste for the effects of industrialization, as well as earlier fantasy works and Tolkien's experiences in World War I. The Lord of the Rings in its turn is considered to have had a great effect on modern fantasy, and the impact of Tolkien's works is such that the use of the words "Tolkienian" and "Tolkienesque" has been recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary.

The enduring popularity of The Lord of the Rings has led to numerous references in popular culture, the founding of many societies by fans of Tolkien's works, and the publication of many books about Tolkien and his works. The Lord of the Rings has inspired, and continues to inspire, artwork, music, films and television, video games, and subsequent literature. Adaptations of The Lord of the Rings have been made for radio, theatre, and film. The 2001–2003 release of Peter Jackson's widely acclaimed Lord of the Rings film trilogy prompted a new surge of interest in The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's other works.

Synopsis

Template:LotR navbox The story of the The Lord of the Rings is divided into six "books" and has been published in both one and three volume editions. The three volumes are entitled The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King.

The Fellowship of the Ring

Main article: The Fellowship of the Ring

Book I in The Fellowship of the Ring begins in the Shire with Bilbo's 111th birthday party, about 60 years after the end of The Hobbit, and his subsequent disappearance using a magic ring of invisibility which he found in the previous novel. Departing to retire to the Elven haven of Rivendell, he leaves many of his belongings, including the ring, to his kinsman and adoptive heir, Frodo Baggins.

17 years pass. Their old friend Gandalf the Grey, who has been investigating the ring, confirms it is in fact the One Ring, the instrument of Sauron's power, for which the Dark Lord has been searching for most of the Third Age. The Ring corrupts others with desire for it and the evil power it holds. Unknown to Gandalf, Gollum, who owned the Ring before Bilbo, has made his way to Mordor, where he is captured and the little information he has about the Ring and its whereabouts extracted through torture. Sauron sends his greatest servants, the nine Nazgûl or Ringwraiths, to the Shire in search of the Ring.

Frodo escapes, with the help of his loyal gardener Samwise "Sam" Gamgee and three close friends, Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck, Peregrin "Pippin" Took, and Fredegar "Fatty" Bolger. While Fatty acts as a decoy for the Ringwraiths, Frodo and the others set off to take the Ring to Rivendell. In their travels they are aided by the enigmatic Tom Bombadil and later by a Ranger called Aragorn, also known as "Strider". Aragorn leads the hobbits to Rivendell on Gandalf's request.

The company encounters the Ringwraiths at the hill of Weathertop where Frodo is gravely wounded. Because the weapon that wounded him was enchanted with evil magic, Frodo takes ill and slowly wanes. With the help of his companions and the Elf-lord Glorfindel, he enters Rivendell's borders by crossing the river Bruinen. The Ringwraiths, in close pursuit, are swept away by an enchantment of the river when they entered its waters. Book I ends with Frodo losing consciousness. Book II reveals that Frodo recovers under the care of the Half-elven lord Elrond, master of Rivendell. Frodo meets Bilbo, enjoying his retirement, and sees Elrond's daughter Arwen. Later, much of the story's exposition is given during a high council, attended by representatives of the major races of Middle-earth (Elves, Dwarves, and Men) and presided over by Elrond. Gandalf tells them of the emerging threat of Saruman, the leader of the Order of Wizards, who wants the Ring for himself. Aragorn is revealed as the heir to the kingships of the sister realms Gondor and Arnor. In order to fulfil an ancient prophecy about the return of the King of Gondor and Arnor, Aragorn must go to war against Sauron armed with Narsil, the broken sword of Elendil, who founded the kingdoms with his sons. The shards of the sword are subsequently reforged and the weapon is renamed Andúril.

The Council decides that the only course of action that can save Middle-earth is to destroy the Ring, which can only be done by casting it into the fires of Mount Doom in Sauron's land of Mordor, where it was forged. Surprising all, even himself, Frodo volunteers for the task, and a "Fellowship of the Ring" is chosen to accompany Frodo, comprised of his three Hobbit companions, Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir of Gondor, Gimli the Dwarf, and Legolas the Elf.

The company journeys along the foothills of the Misty Mountains, and attempts a mountain-pass crossing, but an overwhelming storm makes this impossible. Instead they are forced to travel underground through the abandoned Mines of Moria, where they are tracked by Gollum, who, having been released by Sauron, desperately seeks to regain the ring he calls his "Precious". When they are almost through the mines the party is attacked by Orcs, and Gandalf battles a Balrog, an ancient demon creature, and falls into a deep chasm, apparently to his death.

Escaping from Moria the Fellowship, now led by Aragorn, take refuge in the Elvish wood of Lothlórien, the realm of the Lady Galadriel and the Lord Celeborn. The Fellowship then travel down the great River Anduin by boat, and Frodo eventually decides to continue the trek to Mordor on his own, largely due to the Ring's growing influence on Boromir and the threat it poses to the others. At the end of the book, Frodo attempts to continue his mission alone, but Sam is able to catch him at the last minute, and the two of them go off together towards Mordor.

The Two Towers

Main article: The Two Towers

The second volume, The Two Towers, deals with two parallel storylines, one in each of its books. Book III details the exploits of the remaining members of the Fellowship who aid the country of Rohan in its war against Saruman. At the beginning of the book, the remaining members of the Fellowship are attacked by Saruman's Orcs, and in the battle Boromir is killed and Merry and Pippin are kidnapped by the Orcs (Saruman, now turned traitor and seeking the One Ring himself, has sent them to intercept the Fellowship and bring any Hobbits to him alive). Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli pursue Merry and Pippin's captors, and meet Gandalf, who has returned as "Gandalf the White". He has defeated the Balrog at the cost of his life, but has been sent back to Middle-earth because his work is not finished. The four help Rohan defeat Saruman's armies at the Battle of the Hornburg. Meanwhile Merry and Pippin, freed from captivity, motivate the ancient, tree-like Ents to attack Saruman at his stronghold of Isengard. The two groups are reunited in the aftermath of battle. Saruman refuses to repent of his folly and Gandalf casts him from the Order of Wizards, stripping Saruman of most of his power.

Book IV tells of Frodo and Sam's exploits on the way to Mount Doom. They capture Gollum and convince him to guide them to the Black Gate, which they find to be impenetrable. Gollum then suggests a secret path into Mordor, through the dreaded valley of Minas Morgul. While travelling there, the three are captured by Rangers of Gondor led by Boromir's brother Faramir. After hearing the story of his brother's death, Faramir is convinced that the Ring would be better destroyed than used as a weapon. He spares Gollum's life, resupplies the hobbits, and warns them about the path they are to take. At the end of the volume, Gollum betrays Frodo to the great spider Shelob, hoping to scavenge the Ring from Frodo's remains after she has consumed the hobbit. Shelob's bite paralyses Frodo, but Sam fights her off using Sting. Thinking his master dead, Sam takes the Ring for safekeeping. Frodo's body is soon taken by Orcs to the nearby fortress of Cirith Ungol, and Sam is left to find Frodo's whereabouts. Meanwhile, Sauron launches an all-out military assault upon Middle-earth, precipitating the War of the Ring, with the Witch-king (leader of the Ringwraiths) leading a large army into battle against Gondor.

The Return of the King

Main article: The Return of the King

The third volume, The Return of the King, begins with Gandalf arriving at Minas Tirith in Gondor with Pippin to alert the city of the impending attack. Merry joined the army of Rohan, while the others led by Aragorn elected to journey through the 'Paths of the Dead' in the hope of enlisting the help of an undead army against the Corsairs of Umbar. Gandalf, Aragorn and the others of the Fellowship then assisted in the final battles against the armies of Sauron, including the siege of Minas Tirith. With the timely aid of Rohan's cavalry and Aragorn's assault up the river, a significant portion of Sauron's army was defeated and Minas Tirith saved. However, Sauron still had thousands of troops available, and the main characters were forced into a climactic all-or-nothing battle before the Black Gate of Mordor, where the alliance of Gondor and Rohan fought desperately against Sauron's armies in order to distract him from the Ringbearer, and hoped to gain time for Frodo to destroy it.

Book VI begins with Sam rescuing Frodo from captivity. The pair then made their way through the rugged lands of Mordor and, after much struggle, reached Mount Doom itself (tailed closely by Gollum). However, at the edge of the Cracks of Doom, the temptation of the Ring proved too great for Frodo; he placed the Ring on his finger and claimed it for himself. While the Ringwraiths flew at top speed toward Mount Doom, Gollum struggled with Frodo for the "Precious" and succeeded in taking the Ring by biting off Frodo's finger. Crazed with triumph, Gollum lost his footing and fell into the fire, destroying the Ring. With the end of the Ring, Sauron's armies lost heart, the Ringwraiths disintegrated, and Aragorn's army emerged victorious.

Thus, Sauron was banished from the world and his reign ended. Aragorn was crowned king of Gondor and married Arwen, the daughter of Elrond. Before Frodo left Minas Tirith, Arwen gave to him a necklace with a white gem on it. She gave this to Frodo so that he could take her place on the last ship over the Sea, because she was staying with her love, Aragorn, and living a mortal life. All conflict was not over, however, for Saruman had managed to escape his captivity in Orthanc and enslave the Shire. Although the Hobbits soon overthrew him and the four heroes helped to restore order and beautify the land again, the Shire was not the same as they had left it. At the end, Frodo remained wounded in body and spirit and, accompanied by Bilbo, sailed west over the Sea to the Undying Lands, where he could find peace.

Appendices

The main story in the book is followed by six appendices that provide a wealth of background material, including a timeline of the events of the story, and information on the peoples and the languages of Middle-earth. Notably, Arwen, physically absent for much of the book, is dealt with in full here; her backstory and future with Aragorn are told.

Concept and creation

Background

The Lord of the Rings started as a sequel to J. R. R. Tolkien's earlier work, The Hobbit, that had been published in 1937. The popularity of The Hobbit led to George Allen & Unwin, the publishers, to request a sequel. Tolkien warned them that he wrote quite slowly, and responded with several stories he had already developed. Having rejected his contemporary drafts for the Silmarillion, putting on-hold Roverandom and accepting Farmer Giles of Ham, Allen & Unwin thought more stories about hobbits would be popular. So at the age of 45, Tolkien began writing the story that would become The Lord of the Rings. The story would not be finished until 12 years later, in 1949, and it would not be fully published until 1955, by which time Tolkien was 63 years old.

Writing

Persuaded by his publishers, he started 'a new Hobbit' in December 1937. After several false starts, the story of the One Ring soon emerged. 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 a 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. Once Tolkien considered the Ring, the books really became centred around it and its influence on the inhabitants of Middle-earth.

He began with Bilbo as the main character, but decided that the story was too serious to use the fun-loving hobbit. Thus Tolkien looked for an alternate character to carry the ring, and he turned to members of Bilbo's family. He thought about using a son, but this generated some difficult questions, such as the whereabouts of Bilbo's wife and whether he would let his son go into danger. In Greek legend, it was a hero's nephew that gained the item of power, and so the hobbit Frodo came into existence. (Technically Tolkien made Frodo Bilbo's second cousin once removed, but because of age differences the two were to consider each other nephew and uncle.)

Writing was slow due to Tolkien being frequently interrupted by his obligations as an examiner, and by other academic duties. According to sources, he seems to have abandoned The Lord of the Rings during most of 1943 and only re-started it in April 1944. This effort was written as a serial for Christopher Tolkien, who was sent copies of chapters as they were written while he was serving in South Africa with the Royal Air Force. Tolkien 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.

Influences

Main article: J. R. R. Tolkien's influences

The Lord of the Rings developed as a personal exploration by Tolkien of his interests in philology, religion (particularly Roman Catholicism), fairy tales, Norse mythology and related Germanic, Celtic and Finnish mythology. Tolkien based his Elvish language Quenya on Finnish. Tolkien acknowledged the influences of William Morris and his Huns and Romans, as in The House of the Wolfings or The Roots of the Mountains.

Specific literature influences on The Lord of the Rings from European mythologies include the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, which influenced the figures of the Rohirrim. Tolkien may have also borrowed elements from the Völsunga saga (the Old Norse basis of the later German Nibelungenlied and Richard Wagner's opera series, Der Ring des Nibelungen, also called the Ring Cycle), specifically a magical golden ring and a broken sword which is reforged. In the Völsungasaga, these items are respectively Andvarinaut and Gram, and very broadly correspond to the One Ring and Narsil/Andúril.

Some locations and characters were inspired by Tolkien's childhood in Sarehole and Birmingham. It has also been suggested that The Shire and its surroundings were based on the countryside around Stonyhurst College in Lancashire where Tolkien frequently stayed during the 1940s. The work was influenced by the effects of his military service during World War I. After publication, these influences led to 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.

Publication history

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."

For publication, due largely to post-war paper shortages, but also to keep the price 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 six appendices). Delays in producing appendices, maps and especially indices led to the volumes being published later than originally hoped — on 21 July 1954, on 11 November 1954 and on 20 October 1955 respectively in the United Kingdom, and 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.

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 three-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". In a letter to the poet W. H. Auden (who famously reviewed the final volume in 1956), 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 book. It is also often called a novel; however, Tolkien also objected to this term as he viewed it as a romance.

Editions and revisions

The three parts were first published several months apart, in 1954 and 1955 by Allen & Unwin. The novel has since been reissued many times by multiple publishers, as one-, three-, six- or seven-volume sets. There were significant changes in the text from the first editions of the three separate parts to the next three-volume print.

In the early 1960s Donald A. Wollheim, science fiction editor of the paperback publisher Ace Books, theorized that The Lord of the Rings was not protected in the United States under American copyright law because the U.S. hardcover edition had been bound from pages printed in the United Kingdom, with the original 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 novel, due to its 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 an unquestioned US copyright. This would later become the Second Edition of The Lord of the Rings.

By the begining to mid 1980's, Guild Publishing published The Lord of the Rings along with The Hobbit, and The Simarilion. Guild publishing editions were scarce and have now greatly increased in worth.

Since the second edition many different printings of The Lord of the Rings have appeared. In the 1990s (partly in anticipation of the forthcoming The Lord of the Rings film trilogy) several new editions were released, including a three-volume hardback edition from Houghton-Mifflin, featuring colour illustrations by Alan Lee. In 2004 a new edition was published for the fiftieth anniversary of the book's original publication.

Harper Collins published a seven-volume 'Millenium Edition' box set in 1999 which followed Tolkien's original six-book division, with the Appendices from the end of The Return of the King bound as a separate volume. The individual names for the books were decided based on a combination of suggestions Tolkien had made during his lifetime and the titles of the existing volumes. From Book I to Book VI, these titles were The Ring Sets Out, The Ring Goes South, The Treason of Isengard, The Ring Goes East, The War of the Ring, and The End of the Third Age [2]. The titles The Treason of Isengard, The War of the Ring, and The End of the Third Age were also used as volume titles by Christopher Tolkien in The History of The Lord of the Rings.

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

Translations

Main article: Translations of The Lord of the Rings

The novel has been translated, with various degrees of success, into at least 38 other languages. Tolkien, an expert in philology, examined many of these translations, and had comments on each that reflect both the translation process and his work. To aid translators, and because he was unhappy with some choices made by early translators such as the Swedish translation by Åke Ohlmarks, Tolkien wrote his "Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings" (1967). Because it purports to be a translation of the Red Book of Westmarch, with the English language in the original purporting to represent the Westron of the original, translators need to imitate the complex interplay between English and non-English (Elvish) nomenclature in the book.

Reception

Main article: Reception of J. R. R. Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings has received mixed reviews since its inception, ranging from terrible to excellent. Recent reviews in various media have been, in a majority, highly positive and Tolkien's literary achievement is slowly being acknowledged as a significant one. 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 its 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." W. H. Auden, a huge admirer of Tolkien's writings, regarded 'The Lord of the Rings' as a 'masterpiece,' furthermore stating that in some cases it outdid the achievement of Milton's Paradise Lost. Other supporters of the book from the literary world included Iris Murdoch, Naomi Mitchison, Richard Hughes and C.S. Lewis.

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." 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." Even within Tolkien's literary group, The Inklings, reviews were mixed. Hugo Dyson complained loudly at its readings, and Christopher Tolkien records Dyson as "lying on the couch, and lolling and shouting and saying, 'Oh God, no more Elves.'" However, another Inkling, C. S. Lewis, had very different feelings, writing, "here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron. Here is a book which will break your heart." Despite these reviews and its lack of paperback printing until the 1960s, The Lord of the Rings initially sold well in hardback.

Several other authors in the genre, however, seemed to agree more with Dyson than Lewis. Science-fiction author David Brin criticized the book for what he perceived to be its unquestioning devotion to a traditional elitist social structure, its positive depiction of the slaughter of the opposing forces, and its romantic backward-looking worldview. Michael Moorcock, another famous science fiction and fantasy author, is also critical of The Lord of the Rings. In his essay, "Epic Pooh", he equates Tolkien's work to Winnie-the-Pooh and criticises it for its deeply conservative world-view and infantilism. Moorcock met both Tolkien and C.S. Lewis in his teens and claims to have liked them personally, even though he does not admire their works.

A few critics have described what they consider to be elements of racism in The Lord of the Rings, based upon the imagery depicting forces of good and evil as related to the darkness or lightness of characters' skin color or other aspects of the characters' race (e.g., Elf, Dwarf, Hobbit, Southron, Númenorean, Orc) that affect or determine their behavior. Scholars such as Anderson Rearick and Sandra Ballif Straubhaar have refuted these arguments by pointing out the omission of relevant textural evidence and the influence of imagery from adaptations rather than the work itself, alongside citing the absence of evidence of racist attitudes or events in the author's personal life.

In 1957, it was awarded the International Fantasy Award. Despite its numerous detractors, the publication of the Ace Books and Ballantine paperbacks helped The Lord of the Rings become immensely popular in the 1960s. The book 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. 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." In similar 2004 polls both Germany and Australia also found The Lord of the Rings to be their favourite book. In a 1999 poll of Amazon.com customers, The Lord of the Rings was judged to be their favourite "book of the millennium."

Adaptations

Main article: Adaptations of The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings has been adapted for film, radio and stage multiple times.

The book has been adapted for radio four times. In 1955 and 1956, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) broadcast The Lord of the Rings, a 12-part radio adaptation of the story. In the 1960s radio station WBAI in New York produced a short radio adaptation. A 1979 dramatization of The Lord of the Rings was broadcast in the United States and subsequently issued on tape and CD. In 1981, the BBC broadcast The Lord of the Rings, a new dramatization in 26 half-hour instalments. This dramatisation of the Lord of the Rings has subsequently been made available on both tape and CD both by the BBC and other publishers. For this purpose it is generally edited into 13 one hour episodes. In this version, Frodo Baggins was played by Ian Holm who plays Bilbo in Peter Jacksons film version.

Three film adaptations have been made. The first was J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1978), by animator Ralph Bakshi, the first part of what was originally intended to be a two-part adaptation of the story (hence its original title, The Lord of the Rings Part 1). It covers The Fellowship of the Ring and part of The Two Towers. The second, The Return of the King (1980), was an animated television special by Rankin-Bass, who had produced a similar version of The Hobbit (1977). The third was director Peter Jackson's live action The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, produced by New Line Cinema and released in three installments as The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). The final installment of this trilogy was only the second film to break the one-billion-dollar barrier, after 1997's Titanic, and, like Titanic, won a total of 11 Oscars, including 'best motion picture' and 'best director'. The live-action film trilogy has done much in recent years to bring the novel back into the public consciousness.

In 1965, songwriter Donald Swann, who was best known for his collaboration with Michael Flanders as Flanders & Swann, set six poems from The Lord of the Rings and one from The Adventures of Tom Bombadil ("Errantry") to music. When Swann met with Tolkien to play the songs for his approval, Tolkien suggested a different setting for "Namárië", which Swann accepted. The songs were published in 1967 as The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle, and a recording of the songs performed by singer William Elvin with Swann on piano was issued that same year by Caedmon Records as Poems and Songs of Middle Earth. In 1990, Recorded Books published an audio version of The Lord of the Rings, with British actor Rob Inglis – who had previously starred in one-man stage productions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings – reading. Inglis uses distinct voices for each character and reads the entire text, including performing the songs.

There have been several stage productions based on the book. Full-length stage adaptations of each 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 [3]. A large-scale musical theatre adaptation, The Lord of the Rings was first staged in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 2006 and opened in London in May 2007.

Legacy

Main article: Works inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien

Influences on the fantasy genre

The enormous popularity 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 Riftwar Saga by Raymond Feist, The Belgariad by David Eddings, The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks, the Thomas Covenant novels of Stephen R. Donaldson; the "Wheel of Time" books of Robert Jordan, and, in the case of the Gormenghast books by Mervyn Peake and The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison, rediscovered.

With a significant overlapping of their respective followings, there has been and still is extensive cross-pollination of influence between the fantasy and science fiction genres. In this way, the work also had an influence upon such science fiction authors as Frank Herbert and Arthur C. Clarke and filmmakers such as George Lucas.

It is often assumed to have strongly influenced the RPG industry which achieved popularity in the 1970s with Dungeons & Dragons, a game which features many races found in The Lord of the Rings, most notably halflings (another term for hobbits), elves, dwarves, half-elves, orcs, and dragons. However, Gary Gygax, lead designer of the game, maintained 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 popularity the work enjoyed at the time he was developing the game. Many also believe that some popular video games have been influenced by the legacy of The Lord of the Rings, with titles such as Ultima, EverQuest, and the Warcraft series, as well as, quite naturally, video games set in Middle-earth itself.

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 it as being "Wagner for children" (a reference to Der Ring des Nibelungen) — an especially interesting commentary in light of a possible interpretation of the books as a Christian response to Wagner. The book also helped popularize alternative spellings for the plurals of elf and dwarf (using -ves instead of -fs).

Music

The book, along with Tolkien's other writings, has influenced many musicians. Rock bands of the 1970s were musically and lyrically inspired by the major fantasy counter-culture of the time; British 70s rock band Led Zeppelin are arguably the most well-known group to be directly inspired by Tolkien, and have several songs that contain explicit references to The Lord of the Rings (Ramble On, The Battle of Evermore, Over the Hills and Far Away, and Misty Mountain Hop). Later, from the 1980s to the present day, several (mostly Northern European) metal bands have drawn inspiration from Tolkien, often with a focus on the 'dark' or evil characters and forces in Tolkien's Middle-earth. Furthermore, several bands from this metal subgenre have taken their names from Tolkien's story (Burzum, Gorgoroth, Amon Amarth, Ephel Duath and Cirith Ungol for example), and even band members have adopted stage names borrowed from the story, such as Count Grishnackh and Shagrath.

Outside of rock music, a number of classical and New Age music artists have also been influenced by Tolkien's work. The New Age artist Enya wrote an instrumental piece called "Lothlórien" in 1991, and composed two songs for the film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - "May It Be" (sung in English and Quenya) and "Aníron" (sung in Sindarin). Swedish keyboardist Bo Hansson released an instrumental album entitled "Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings" in 1970. The Danish Tolkien Ensemble have released a number of albums that have set the complete poems and songs of The Lord of the Rings to music, with some featuring recitation by Christopher Lee.

Impact on popular 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 - "Frodo Lives!" and "Gandalf for President" were two phrases popular among American Tolkien fans during this time. More recent examples include The Lord of the Rings-themed editions of popular board games (e.g., Risk: Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition, chess and Monopoly); and parodies such as Bored of the Rings, Lord of the Beans, the South Park episode The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers, the Mad Magazine musical send-up titled "The Ring And I," and The Very Secret Diaries. The relatively new HBO series The Flight of the Conchords also has band members singing a spoof song entitled "Frodo." Its influence has been vastly extended in the present day, largely due to the Peter Jackson-directed live-action films.

See also

• The History of The Lord of the Rings
• The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion

References

Further reading

Secondary literature on The Lord of the Rings:

• Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion (2005), ISBN 0-618-64267-6.
• Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond, The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide (2006), ISBN 0618391134 .
• Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The History of The Lord of the Rings, 4 vols (1988–1992).
• Lin Carter, Tolkien: A Look Behind "The Lord of the Rings" (1969)

External links

• The official Tolkien website
• Official The Lord of the Rings publisher website
• Guide to U.S. editions of Tolkien books including The Lord of the Rings
• The Lord of the Rings wiki on Wikia
• The Lord of the Rings Fantasy World
• The Tolkien Library
• The Lord of the Rings at the Internet Book List