For readers of The Hobbit, which became an almost overnight classic following its 1937 debut, the new movie may elicit some puzzlement. Seemingly extraneous flourishes clog up what many remember as a simple fairy tale, and random characters appear at every twist and turn throughout Middle Earth.
Yet those fans who went on to immerse themselves in J.R.R. Tolkien’s wider lore will find inspiration. For the most part, director Peter Jackson does not exercise an extra heaping of artistic license. Rather, Jackson—reportedly something of a nerd himself—borrows from the larger Tolkien literature to create a rich Hobbit tableau.
“Jackson knows the lore pretty well and wanted to bring that larger material in there wherever he could,” said Michael Drout, an English professor at Wheaton College who founded the academic journal Tolkien Studies and edited the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. It’s this so-called textuality—or texts behind texts behind other texts—that lends Tolkien’s work the air of reality, he said, and which Jackson seeks to capture in his films.
Jackson isn’t free to tap into any detail he wants from Tolkien’s wider works, however. “He had a very difficult task in that the movie rights extend only to The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings,” said John Rateliff, an independent Tolkien scholar and author of The History of the Hobbit. “He’s well aware that there’s a great deal more material set in that world, but contractually not allowed to use that material in the movies.”
[Read More]
Posted in:
Share:
Wherever you are in the world, come online and watch our Live Video channel for a special Tolkien birthday edition of TORn After Dark: join the Los Angeles smial of the Tolkien Forever group holding our Tolkien Birthday Toast event at the famous Cat & Fiddle Pub (where they shot scenes from Casablanca). You’ll be a welcome dinner guest as we have classic Brit food and spirits and debate the new Hobbit film! Fans will be arriving a little after 7:00pm Pacific Time and we will go live during dinner at 7:30 via our live streaming video account (hosted by Stickam). Be part of the fun and frolic with Barliman’s Chatters here on our Live Event Page! See you there as we toast……. “To the Professor!” at 9:00pm.
Posted in:
Share:
Unconfirmed rumours are circulating that Universal is talking with Tolkien Estate about creating a Middle-earth theme park. The rumours emerged on New Year’s day on the Orlando United forum where a user reported claims that Universal Studios asked Warner Bros. to raise the topic with Tolkien Estate. At this point, it is unclear whether the user has insider knowledge, or is simply reporting what others have said.
From the source post:
“…here is how I heard that it played out. Universal asked Warner Bros. to approach the Tolkien family since the Tolkien’s trust WB with the success of the LOTR series. WB described how Universal was willing to work with JK Rowling and how the 2 of them (WB and JK) held Universal’s feet to the fire to uphold Rowling’s vision of the IP. And I believe that the Tolkien’s may have actually talked to JK Rowling. This was before Universal said a word to the Tolkien’s. So after WB stoked the fire, Universal entered the picture with an impressive plan.
As of now there is a lot of hammering out to go, but Universal has gotten a lot farther than Disney ever did.”
Tolkien aficionados would recall, of course, that the professor had a notoriously low estimation of the creative works of Walt Disney. Letter #13 in Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien makes his position clear:
“It might be advisable […] to let the Americans do what seems good to them — as long as it was possible […] to veto anything from or influenced by the Disney studios (for all whose works I have a heartfelt loathing).”
That’s not to say that Universal would fare any better with Tolkien Estate in any quest to create a Middle-earth theme park. The Estate is well-known to be wary of merchandising, and is currently engaged in a legal stoush with Warner Bros. and Saul Zaentz, alleging that the companies are merchandising beyond what was contractually agreed upon in the 1969 rights deal.
Micechat, a site that specialises in theme park news, claims Universal “is very close to acquiring the rights to develop and produce attractions based on the successful Lord of the Rings franchise of films”. So we might see whether there’s anything to this rumour quite soon.
Posted in:
Share:
The Huffington Post recently posted a story about why many critics currently savaging The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will regret it in the long run. It has more to do with the fuller history of Middle-earth, of which most critics are completely unaware, and less to do with them reviewing the first part of a trilogy that has yet to play out. This article gives a run down of the pertinent bits of Middle-earth history before The Hobbit, and the time between the two stories, to more fully connect them and give a proper perspective to character motivation.
Please note that there are some SPOILERS in this article for those who have not yet read the book.
Read for more
Posted in:
Share:
J. R. R. Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State in South Africa to English parents. If he’d lived, today he would be 121 years old — almost as many years as The Old Took!
To celebrate this event, The Tolkien Society invites Tolkien fans around the world each year to raise a glass and toast the birthday of our much-loved author. When? Today, January 3 at 21:00 hours (9pm) in your local timezone. Continue reading “January 3: time for the Tolkien Toast!”
Posted in:
Share:
Hobbits, notes Tolkien at the start of their eponymous story, are largely forgotten, easily missed and have little or no magic about them.
Or not. In the 75 years since he penned those words, The Hobbit has sold more than 100 million copies. In its opening weekend, Peter Jackson’s first instalment of the movie version broke records around the world. Clearly there is something a little magical about Hobbits after all.
The interesting question, however, is what that magic is. Why should an English boffin’s fairytale of elves, wizards and dragons continue to command such devotion? What craving does it satisfy?
To its literary critics, The Hobbit’s success is simply a sign of widespread immaturity. The story, with its faux mediaeval cadences and reactionary archetypes, is mere escapism – intellectual comfort-food for the politically disengaged.
[Read More]
Posted in:
Share:
For readers of The Hobbit, which became an almost overnight classic following its 1937 debut, the new movie may elicit some puzzlement. Seemingly extraneous flourishes clog up what many remember as a simple fairy tale, and random characters appear at every twist and turn throughout Middle Earth.
