The Lord of the Rings

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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 other uses of the phrase 'The Lord of the Rings', see The Lord of the Rings (disambiguation).

The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy book by the British author J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to his earlier fantasy book 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.[1] It was originally published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955,[2] and has since been reprinted numerous times and translated into many languages, perhaps becoming 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.[3] The story concerns peoples such as Hobbits, Elves, Men, Dwarves, Wizards and Goblins (whom Tolkien calls Orcs), 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.[4]

Along with Tolkien's other writings, The Lord of the Rings has been subjected to extensive analysis of its literary themes and origins. Although a major work in itself, the story is merely the last movement of a larger mythological cycle, or legendarium, that Tolkien had worked on for many years since 1917.[5] Influences on this earlier work, and on the story of The Lord of the Rings, include philology, mythology and religion, 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 impact on modern fantasy, and the impact of Tolkien's works is such that the use of the words Tolkienian and Tolkienesque have been recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary.[6]

The immense and 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 a large number of books about Tolkien and his works being published. The Lord of the Rings has inspired, (and continues to inspire), short stories, video games, artworks and musical works. Numerous adaptations of Tolkien's works have been made for a wide range of media. Adaptations of The Lord of the Rings in particular have been made for the radio, for the theatre, and for film. The 2001-2003 release of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy saw a surge of interest in The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's other works.[7]

Back story

Template:Spoiler The back story begins thousands of years before the action in the book, 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 who will later become 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 Devil-like 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 can enslave the wearers of the Rings of Power. This plan fails when the Elves become aware of him and take off their Rings. Sauron then launches a war during which he captures the Seven Rings and the Nine Rings and distributes them to lords and kings of Dwarves and Men respectively. The dwarf-lords 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. The war ends as the Númenóreans help the besieged Elves, and Sauron's forces retreat from the coasts of Eriador. At this time he still held most of Middle-earth, excluding Imladris (Rivendell) and the Lune.

File:NumenorEN.jpg
A map of Númenor (called Andor by the Elves).

Over 1500 years later, word reaches the then king of Númenor, Ar-Pharazôn, that Sauron has been bearing the title 'Lord of All Middle-Earth'. This provokes Ar-Pharazôn and gives him an opportunity to show the glory and strength of Númenor. He arrives in Middle-earth with such overwhelming force that Sauron's armies flee at the sight of them. Abandoned by his minions, Sauron surrenders to the Númenóreans, and is taken to Númenor as a 'prisoner'. Sauron then starts to poison the minds of the Númenóreans against the angelic powers of the world, the Valar. Thus, Sauron sets into motion the events that bring about Númenor's destruction. He does this by corrupting the King's mind, telling him that the immortality of the Elves is his to take if he sets foot upon the Blessed Lands. With old age on his mind, Ar-Pharazôn leads an invasion of Valinor with the greatest host seen since the War of Wrath. Manwë, King of the Valar, calls upon Ilúvatar, who opens a great chasm in the sea, destroying Númenor, and removes the Undying Lands from the mortal world. The destruction of Númenor nearly destroys Sauron, but he returns in spirit form to Mordor and assumes a new form. Over 100 years later, he launches an attack against the Númenórean exiles (the Faithful), that had 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 Elven-king Gil-galad, they march against Mordor and besiege Barad-dûr, at which time Anárion is slain. After seven years of siege, 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. However, Sauron is overcome, and 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 and his soldiers are 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, set 60 years before the events in The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien relates the story of the seemingly accidental finding of the Ring by the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. Story-externally, the tale related in The Hobbit was written before The Lord of the Rings, and it was only later that the author developed Bilbo's magic ring into the "One Ring". Neither Bilbo nor the wizard, Gandalf, are aware at this point that Bilbo's magic ring is the One Ring, forged by the Dark Lord Sauron.

Synopsis

Main articles: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King
File:Middle earth map showing prominent locations.PNG
Middle-earth during the Third Age

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 Frodo Baggins, Bilbo's adoptive heir, comes into possession of Bilbo's magic ring. Bilbo's old friend, Gandalf the Grey, who got Bilbo involved in the adventures in The Hobbit that led to the discovery of the ring, discovers that the ring is in fact the One Ring, the instrument of Sauron's power and the object for which the Dark Lord has been searching for most of the Third Age, and which corrupts others with desire for it and the power it holds.

Sauron sends his servants, the sinister Nazgûl or Ringwraiths (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 Brandybuck and Pippin Took, and later a man called "Strider", smuggles the Ring to Rivendell on Gandalf's request. At Rivendell, "Strider" is revealed to be Aragorn, the heir to the kingship of Gondor and Arnor, two great 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 Andúril, 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 Half-elven 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 — which includes himself, Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir of Gondor, Gimli the Dwarf, Legolas the Elf, and his Hobbit companions. 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 belonged to a people "of hobbit-kind" before he came upon the Ring, which corrupted him. A slave to the Ring's evil power, Gollum desperately seeks to regain his "Precious". As they proceed through the Mines, Pippin unintentionally betrays their presence and the party is attacked by creatures of Sauron. Gandalf battles a giant subterranean demon, the Balrog, and falls into a deep chasm, apparently to his death. Escaping from Moria, the Fellowship, now led by Aragorn, goes to the Elven realm of Lothlórien. Here, the Lady Galadriel shows Frodo and Sam visions of the past, present, and future. Frodo also sees the Eye of Sauron, a metaphysical expression of Sauron himself, and Galadriel tempted by the Ring. By the end of the first volume, after the Fellowship has travelled along the great River Anduin, Frodo decides to continue the trek to Mordor on his own, largely due to the Ring's growing influence on Boromir; however, the faithful Sam insists on going with him.

In the second volume, The Two Towers, a parallel story, told in the first book of the volume, details the exploits of the remaining members of the Fellowship who aid the country of Rohan in its war against the emerging evil of Saruman, leader of the Order of Wizards, whom Sauron has helped corrupt, and who wants the Ring for himself. At the start of the first book, the Fellowship is further scattered; Merry and Pippin are captured by Sauron and Saruman's Orcs, Boromir is mortally wounded defending them, and Aragorn and the others go off in pursuit of their captors. The three meet Gandalf, who has returned 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, Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli help defeat Saruman's armies at the Battle of the Hornburg while Saruman himself is cornered by the tree-like Ents and Huorns, accompanied by Merry and Pippin, who have escaped from captivity.

The second book of the volume tells of Frodo and Sam's exploits on the way to Mount Doom. They manage to capture and "tame" Gollum, who then shows them a way to enter Mordor secretly (as opposed to the Black Gate), albeit through the dread realm of Minas Morgul. At the end of the volume, Gollum betrays Frodo to the great spider, Shelob, and though he survives he is captured by Orcs. Meanwhile, Sauron launches an all-out military assault upon Middle-earth, with the Witch-king (leader of the Ringwraiths) leading a fell host from Minas Morgul into battle against Gondor, in the War of the Ring.

In the third volume, The Return of the King, the further exploits of Gandalf, Aragorn and company are related in the first book of the volume, while Frodo and Sam's are related in the second, as with The Two Towers. As told in the first book, the Fellowship assists in the final battles against the armies of Sauron, including the siege of the tower-city of Minas Tirith in Gondor 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 him from the Ring, hoping to gain time for Frodo to destroy it.

In the second book, Sam rescues Frodo from captivity. After much struggle, they finally reach Mount Doom itself, tailed by Gollum. However, the temptation of the Ring proves too great for Frodo and he claims it for himself. However, Gollum struggles with him and manages to bite the Ring off. Crazed with triumph, Gollum slips into the fires of the mountain, and the Ring is destroyed.

Finally, Sauron is defeated, and Aragorn is crowned king. However, all is not over, for Saruman manages to escape and despoil the Shire. At the end, Frodo remains wounded in body and spirit, and goes west over the Sea to Valinor, where he can find peace.

According to Tolkien's 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

The Lord of the Rings was started as a sequel to The Hobbit, a fantasy story that Tolkien had written for, and read to, his children, which was published in 1937.[8] The popularity of The Hobbit led to demands from his publishers for more stories about Hobbits and goblins, and so that same year, 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.

Tolkien did not originally intend to write a sequel to The Hobbit, and instead wrote several other children's tales, including Roverandom.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] Tolkien died before he could complete and put together this work, today know as the The Silmarillion, but his son Christopher Tolkien edited his father's work, filled in gaps, and published it in 1977.[9] Some Tolkien biographers regard The Silmarillion as the true "work of his heart",[10] 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. As a result The Lord of the Rings ended up as the last movement of Tolkien's legendarium and in his own as a "much larger, and I hope also in proportion the best, of the entire cycle".[11]

Persuaded by his publishers, he started 'a new Hobbit' in December 1937.[8] 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.[8] 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.[8] 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.[8] 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.[8]

Writing was slow due to Tolkien's perfectionism, and was frequently interrupted by his obligations as an examiner, and other academic duties.[citation needed] 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".[12] He seems to have abandoned The Lord of the Rings during most of 1943 and only re-started it in April 1944.[8] 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.[citation needed] He made another push in 1946, and showed a copy of the manuscript to his publishers in 1947.[8] The story was effectively finished the next year, but Tolkien did not finish revising earlier parts of the work until 1949.[8]

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".[8]

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.[13]

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". In a letter to W. H. Auden, Tolkien himself made use of the term "trilogy" for the work (The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, #163) though he did at other times consider this incorrect, as it was written and conceived as a single book (Letters, #149). It is also often called a novel; however, Tolkien also objected to this term as he viewed it as a romance (Letters, #329; "romance" in this sense refers to a heroic tale).

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' (Tolkien himself used L.R.), 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 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 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.[14] 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, Tolkien wrote his Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings. Because The Lord of the Rings is said to be a translation of the Red Book of Westmarch, translators have an unusual degree of freedom when translating The Lord of the Rings. This 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.[15] 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 woven into a large, Biblically-styled volume entitled The Silmarillion. However many parts of the world he crafted, as he freely admitted, are influenced by others.

Tolkien's largest influences in the creation of his world were his Catholic faith and the Bible.[16] 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."[11] 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.[11]

Non-Christian religious motifs also had strong influences in Tolkien's Middle-earth. His Ainur, a race of angelic beings who are responsible for conceptualizing the world, includes the Valar, the pantheon of "gods" who are responsible for the maintenance of everything from skies and seas to dreams and doom, and their servants, the Maiar. The concept of the Valar echoes Greek and Norse mythologies, although the Ainur and the world itself are all creations of a monotheistic deity — Ilúvatar or Eru, "The One". As the external practice of Middle-earth religion is downplayed in The Lord of the Rings, explicit information about them is only given in the different versions of Silmarillion material. However, there remain allusions to this aspect of Tolkien's mythos, including "the Great Enemy" who was Sauron's master and "Elbereth, Queen of Stars" (Morgoth and Varda respectively, two of the Valar) in the main text, the "Authorities" (referring to the Valar, literally Powers) in the Prologue, and "the One" in Appendix A. Other pre-Christian mythological references can be seen, including other sentient non-humans (Dwarves, Elves, Hobbits and Ents), a "Green Man" (Tom Bombadil), and spirits or ghosts (Barrow-wights, Oathbreakers).

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 books — 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 speculation that the One Ring was an allegory for the nuclear bomb.[17] 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,[18] 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. Some also say 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). Many, however, believe Tolkien's most likely source was the Norse tale of Sigurd the Volsung. Tolkien also based his elves' language Quenya on Finnish.[19]

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."[20]

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." [21] 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."[22] 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!"[23] 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 what he perceived to be 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.[24] Michael Moorcock, another famous science fiction and fantasy author, is also a fervent detractor of The Lord of the Rings. In his essay, "Epic Pooh", he equates Tolkien's work to Winnie-the-Pooh and criticizes it and similar works for their perceived Merry England point of view. [25] Incidentally, Moorcock met both Tolkien and Lewis in his teens and claims to have liked them personally, even though he does not admire them on artistic grounds.

The Lord of the Rings, despite not being published in paperback until the 1960s, sold well in hardback.[26] 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.[27] 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.[28] In a 1999 poll of Amazon.com customers, The Lord of the Rings was judged to be their favourite "book of the millennium".[29] 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.[30]

Adaptations

Film

Three film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings have been made. The first was 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. The second, The Return of the King (1980), was a television special by Rankin-Bass. The third was director Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, 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).

Early efforts

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.[31] 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.[32] 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.[33]

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.[34]

Animated films

Main articles: The Lord of the Rings (1978 film) and The Return of the King (1980 movie)
File:Lord of the Rings Part 1(b).jpg
Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings

In 1978, shortly after the Rankin-Bass animated television film of The Hobbit, Saul Zaentz produced an animated adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring and part of The Two Towers.[35] 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.[36]

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.[37] However, 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.[38]

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 owner Disney 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 success. 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. However, certain changes made in the adaptation offended some fans of the books. The overall reaction however is that is a worthy interpretation of the book, most changes stemming from putting the book into a modern context.

Dramatic productions

Three original 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. The first production unfortunately suffered from poor funding and no clear artistic vision from the producing company. The sequels, however, were well received by audiences and critics alike. All three adaptations were written by Blake Bowden, scored with a full orchestra by Grammy nominee Steve Goers and graphically produced by Jay Nungesser (inspired by Tolkien's original artwork). Aretta Baumgartner directed the puppetry work and was awarded a Cincinnati Entertainment Award for her portrayal of Gollum. Bowden portrayed Sam to Joe Sofranko, playing Frodo. The latter two productions were directed by actor, director, and fight choreographer Gina Cerimele-Mechley. The Return of the King was produced as the inaugural production of Clear Stage Cincinnati, and was presented at the Aronoff Center for the Arts. All three productions were endorsed by The American Hobbit Association and approved by Tolkien Enterprises.

London-based theatre producer Kevin Wallace and his partner, Saul Zaentz—stage and film rights-holder and producer of the animated film version of 1978—in association with Toronto theatre-owner David Mirvish and concert promoter Michael Cohl, have also produced a three-hour stage musical adaptation of The Lord of the Rings that has a cast of 65 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.[39][40]

Games

There are multiple real-world and video games that take place in Middle-earth, most depicting scenes and characters from The Lord of the Rings.

Real-world games

Several games have been based directly on The Lord of the Rings and related works, including, amongst many, Iron Crown Enterprises' Middle-earth Role Playing game (1982-1999) and Middle-earth Collectible Card Game (1995-1999), as well as The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game (2001) made by Decipher. All of these predate Jackson's film trilogy except for Decipher's card game, which is part of the latter's merchandise.

There is also a Games Workshop miniature wargame called The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, which, while part of the film trilogy's merchandise, combines elements from both the books and films. Many of Games Workshop's other battle games that are not directly related to the books have had some key background based on it.

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, including Melbourne House's Lord of the Rings, Shadows of Mordor, War in Middle-earth; Interplay's Lord of the Rings Vol. 1 and Lord of the Rings Vol. 2.; Electronic Arts' action platformer adaptations of The Two Towers and The Return of the King, real-time strategy games The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, and the role-playing game The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, all based on the Jackson films; and Sierra Entertainment's action platformer based on The Fellowship of the Ring, and the real-time strategy game, The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring.

Games in development include Turbine Inc's massively multiplayer online role-playing game, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, and Electronic Arts' The Lord of the Rings: The White Council.

Audio

In 1955 and 1956, the BBC broadcast The Lord of the Rings, a 12-part radio adaptation of the story. A 6-part version of The Hobbit was broadcast 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 of The Lord of the Rings 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 The Lord of the Rings, a new, ambitious dramatization in 26 half-hour instalments.

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 in The Road Goes Ever On, 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.[41] 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.[42]

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.[43] 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.[44]

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 the Ring Cycle) — an especially interesting commentary in light of a possible interpretation of the books as a Christian response to Wagner.[45]

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:

  • There are at least three compositions by the British rock band Led Zeppelin that contain explicit references to The Lord of the Rings: "Ramble On," "The Battle of Evermore," and "Misty Mountain Hop."
  • "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 and Monopoly) now have Lord of the Rings-themed editions.[46]

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

Text

  • Tolkien, J.R.R. (1954 [1999]). The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Houghton Mifflin. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help) paperback: ISBN 0618002227
  • Tolkien, J.R.R. (1954 [1999]). The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Houghton Mifflin. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help) paperback: ISBN 078878983
  • Tolkien, J.R.R. (1954 [1999]). The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the Ring. Houghton Mifflin. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help) paperback: ISBN 1594130043
  • Tolkien, J.R.R. (1937 [2002]). The Hobbit. Houghton Mifflin. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help) paperback: ISBN 0618260307
  • Tolkien, J.R.R. (1977 [2004]). The Silmarillion. Houghton Mifflin. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help) paperback: ISBN 0618391118

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External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to The Lord of the Rings.
Official sites
Wikis and encyclopedias
News and fan sites
  • The One Ring.net - Fan and news site relating to The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and books.
  • Tolkien News - News relating to The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's other works.
  • Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza - online Tolkien fan community with role-playing games, lore discussions, debates, and much more
Scholarship and analysis
Informational

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