Adaptations of The Lord of the Rings

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Many adaptations of The Lord of the Rings, an epic by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien, have been made in the media of film, radio, theatre, video games and recorded readings.

Contents

Motion pictures

Early attempts to adapt Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings were made by Walt Disney, William Snyder, Forrest J. Ackerman, Denis O'Dell (who considered Richard Lester to direct, but approached star directors David Lean, Stanley Kubrick and Michaelangelo Antonioni instead), Peter Shaffer, John Boorman and George Lucas. These attempts resulted in some unproduced concept art and scripts and an animated short of The Hobbit. [1]

Three cinema adaptations have been completed. The first was The Lord of the Rings by the American animator Ralph Bakshi in 1978, the first part of what was originally intended to be a two-part adaptation of the story. [2] The second, The Return of the King in 1980, was a television special by Rankin-Bass. [1] The third was The Lord of the Rings film trilogy by the New Zealand director Peter Jackson in the early 2000s, released in three installments as The Fellowship of the Ring , The Two Towers , and The Return of the King . [3]

A Swedish live action television film, Sagan om ringen , inspired by the music album Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings by Bo Hansson was broadcast in 1971. [4] A Finnish live action television miniseries, Hobitit , was broadcast in 1993 based on the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. [5] [6] A live-action TV special of The Hobbit was produced in the Soviet Union in 1985, a pilot for an animated Hobbit series in 1991, and a live-action television play of The Fellowship of the Ring, Khraniteli has newly been discovered and uploaded in Russia's Channel 5 YouTube Channel in 2 parts. The adaptation had been aired in Russia once and was thought lost. [7] [8] [9]

Radio

Tolkien's novel has repeatedly been adapted for radio both in the United States and in Europe, from soon after its publication in the 1950s onwards. In 1955 and 1956, the BBC broadcast The Lord of the Rings, a 12-part radio adaptation of the story. The Fellowship of the Ring was adapted as six 45-minute episodes, then The Two Towers and The Return of the King together were compressed into six 30-minute episodes. [10] Tolkien disparaged this dramatisation, referring to the portrayal of Tom Bombadil as "dreadful" and complaining bitterly about several other aspects. [11] The recordings were lost, but in 2022 the original scripts by the producer Terence Tiller, including a sheet with handwritten suggestions by Tolkien, were rediscovered in the BBC archives. [10]

In 1981, BBC Radio 4 produced a new dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings in 26 half-hour stereo instalments. The script by Brian Sibley and Michael Bakewell attempts to be as faithful as possible to the original novel. It was a critical success and Ian Holm, who voiced Frodo Baggins in the radio serial, went on to play Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's movie trilogy.

The New York radio station WBAI-FM broadcast a reading from the book in 1972, narrated by Baird Seales; since then, they have rebroadcast it annually. [12] A 1979 dramatisation was broadcast by National Public Radio in the United States. The series was produced by The Mind's Eye. It was produced by Bob Lewis and adapted for radio by Bernard Mayes. [13] [14] In 1981 the BBC broadcast its version in 26 half-hour instalments. It starred Ian Holm as Frodo Baggins, Bill Nighy as Sam Gamgee and Michael Hordern as Gandalf. [15] In 1992 the German radio stations Südwestrundfunk and Westdeutscher Rundfunk broadcast Der Herr der Ringe , a 30-episode adaptation directed by Bernd Lau with music by Peter Zwetkoff. It had a cast including Hans Peter Hallwachs, Walter Renneisen, and Rufus Beck, and was narrated by Ernst Schröder. [16] In 1999-2000 the Danish radio station Danmarks Radio broadcast Eventyret om Ringen, a Danish language retelling by Rune T. Kidde. The music was by The Tolkien Ensemble, Hedningarna, Sorten Muld and Kim Skovbye. [17] In 2001, 2002 and 2003, the three volumes of the novel were adapted into a Slovak radio series, consisting of three annual series of fully cast radio plays, each of six episodes. The Hobbit character Bilbo Baggins served as the narrator. The eighteen episodes were produced and broadcast as a co-production between the public broadcaster Slovak Radio (now Radio and Television Slovakia) and the private broadcaster Rádio Twist (later known as Rádio Viva). [18] [19] [20] [21]

Stage

An actor as Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings comedy musical in Cincinnati Frodo CSC pic.jpg
An actor as Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings comedy musical in Cincinnati

Several musical theatre adaptations, whether serious or parodic, have been made based on The Lord of the Rings; they have met with varying success. Full-length productions 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. [22] [23] Lifeline Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, produced individual plays of each of the three books, with The Fellowship of the Ring in 1997, The Two Towers in 2000, and The Return of the King in 2001. Karen Tarjan and Ned Mochal were involved in adapting and directing the plays, with varying roles. [24] In 2006, a large-scale three-and-a-half-hour The Lord of the Rings musical was produced in Toronto. The expensive production lost money and closed six months later. It was edited for a production at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London, and ran from May 2007 until July 2008; The Guardian wrote that "at £25m, it was the most costly musical mistake in West End history". [25] A musical parody of The Fellowship of the Ring, titled Fellowship! , ran in Los Angeles for a stint on two occasions, coming back 3 years after its debut for a number of shows in the middle of 2009. [26]

Video games

Numerous computer and video games have been inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien's works set in Middle-earth. Titles have been produced by studios such as Electronic Arts, Vivendi Games, Melbourne House, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. [27] [28]

Readings

The Library of Congress, which makes versions especially for the blind, recorded an unabridged version of The Lord of the Rings in 1967, narrated by Livingston Gilbert, on vinyl media. This version was taken out of circulation at the time of the recording of the 1978 version. [29] It recorded a second unabridged version of The Lord of the Rings in 1978, narrated by Norman Barrs, on 4-track tape media. This version was taken out of circulation at the time of the recording of the 1999 version. [30] It recorded a third unabridged version of The Lord of the Rings, A trip to Mordor in 1999, narrated by David Palmer, on 4-track tape media. This version is also available on the new digital players provided for Library of Congress patrons. [31]

In 1990, the Australian actor Rob Inglis read and performed an unabridged version for Recorded Books in their New York studio. [32] While not strictly a dramatisation, Inglis created voices for all the characters, and along with project producer Claudia Howard, he created music for all the songs, which he performed. The project took six weeks to record, not counting preparation time. [32]

In 2021, the British actor Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in Peter Jackson's films, recorded an unabridged version of all three volumes of The Lord of the Rings for HarperCollins and Recorded Books. [33]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gandalf</span> Fictional character created by J. R. R. Tolkien

Gandalf is a protagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He is a wizard, one of the Istari order, and the leader of the Company of the Ring. Tolkien took the name "Gandalf" from the Old Norse "Catalogue of Dwarves" (Dvergatal) in the Völuspá.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lonely Mountain</span> Fictional mountain home of dwarves and dragon in J. R. R. Tolkiens The Hobbit

In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Lonely Mountain is a mountain northeast of Mirkwood. It is the location of the Dwarves' Kingdom under the Mountain and the town of Dale lies in a vale on its southern slopes. In The Lord of the Rings, the mountain is called by the Sindarin name Erebor. The Lonely Mountain is the destination of the protagonists, including the titular Hobbit Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, and is the scene of the novel's climax.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bilbo Baggins</span> Protagonist in J. R. R. Tolkiens The Hobbit

Bilbo Baggins is the title character and protagonist of J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel The Hobbit, a supporting character in The Lord of the Rings, and the fictional narrator of many of Tolkien's Middle-earth writings. The Hobbit is selected by the wizard Gandalf to help Thorin and his party of Dwarves reclaim their ancestral home and treasure, which has been seized by the dragon Smaug. Bilbo sets out in The Hobbit timid and comfort-loving and, through his adventures, grows to become a useful and resourceful member of the quest.

The Red Book of Westmarch is a fictional manuscript written by hobbits, related to the author J. R. R. Tolkien's frame stories. It is an instance of the found manuscript conceit, a literary device to explain the source of his legendarium. In the fiction, it is a collection of writings in which the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were recounted by their characters, and from which Tolkien supposedly derived these and other works. The name of the book comes from its red leather binding and casing, and from its having been housed in the Westmarch, a region of Middle-earth next to the Shire.

<i>The Return of the King</i> (1980 film) 1980 animated musical television film by Jules Bass

The Return of the King is a 1980 American-Japanese animated musical fantasy television film created by Rankin/Bass and Topcraft. It is an adaptation of part of J. R. R. Tolkien's 1955 high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. It takes its name from The Return of the King, the third and final volume of the novel, and is a sequel to the 1977 film The Hobbit.

<i>The Hobbit</i> (1977 film) 1977 animated film directed by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin, Jr.

The Hobbit is a 1977 American animated musical television special created by Rankin/Bass and animated by Topcraft. The film is an adaptation of the 1937 book of the same name by J. R. R. Tolkien; it was first broadcast on NBC in the United States on Sunday, November 27, 1977. The teleplay won a Peabody Award; the film received a Christopher Award.

<i>The Lord of the Rings</i> (1981 radio series) Radio dramatisation of book

The Lord of the Rings 1981 radio series is an epic fantasy adventure for BBC Radio 4, adapted from J. R. R. Tolkien's 1955 novel of the same name. It is the third radio dramatisation of the novel, following a 1955 BBC Radio adaptation, and a 1979 adaptation for NPR in the United States.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the real-world history and notable fictional elements of J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy universe. It covers materials created by Tolkien; the works on his unpublished manuscripts, by his son Christopher Tolkien; and films, games and other media created by other people.

<i>The Lord of the Rings</i> (1955 radio series) Radio play

During 1955 and 1956, a condensed radio dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings, adapted and produced by Terence Tiller, was broadcast in two series of six episodes each on BBC Radio's the Third Programme. These radio broadcasts were the first dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings, a book by J. R. R. Tolkien, the final volume of which, The Return of the King, had been published in October 1955. The script had been thought lost, but it was rediscovered in the BBC archives in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Road Goes Ever On (song)</span> Walking songs from The Lord of the Rings

"The Road Goes Ever On" is a title that encompasses several walking songs that J. R. R. Tolkien wrote for his Middle-earth legendarium. Within the stories, the original song was composed by Bilbo Baggins and recorded in The Hobbit. Different versions of it also appear in The Lord of the Rings, along with some similar walking songs.

The first authorised adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel The Hobbit was a stage production by St. Margaret's School, Edinburgh in March 1953. Subsequently, The Hobbit has been adapted for a variety of media including stage, screen, radio, board games and video games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gollum</span> Monster in Tolkiens fantasy series

Gollum is a monster with a distinctive style of speech in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He was introduced in the 1937 fantasy novel The Hobbit, and became important in its sequel, The Lord of the Rings. Gollum was a Stoor Hobbit of the River-folk who lived near the Gladden Fields. In The Lord of the Rings it is stated that he was originally known as Sméagol, corrupted by the One Ring, and later named Gollum after his habit of making "a horrible swallowing noise in his throat".

Meriadoc Brandybuck, usually called Merry, is a Hobbit, a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, featured throughout his most famous work, The Lord of the Rings. Merry is described as one of the closest friends of Frodo Baggins, the main protagonist. Merry and his friend and cousin, Pippin, are members of the Company of the Ring. They become separated from the rest of the group and spend much of The Two Towers making their own decisions. By the time of The Return of the King, Merry has enlisted in the army of Rohan as an esquire to King Théoden, in whose service he fights during the War of the Ring. After the war, he returns home, where he and Pippin lead the Scouring of the Shire, ridding it of Saruman's influence.

Elrond Half-elven is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. Both of his parents, Eärendil and Elwing, were half-elven, having both Men and Elves as ancestors. He is the bearer of the elven-ring Vilya, the Ring of Air, and master of Rivendell, where he has lived for thousands of years through the Second and Third Ages of Middle-earth. He was the Elf-king Gil-galad's herald at the end of the Second Age, saw Gil-galad and king Elendil fight the dark lord Sauron for the One Ring, and Elendil's son Isildur take it rather than destroy it.

Frodo Baggins is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings and one of the protagonists in The Lord of the Rings. Frodo is a hobbit of the Shire who inherits the One Ring from his cousin Bilbo Baggins, described familiarly as "uncle", and undertakes the quest to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom in Mordor. He is mentioned in Tolkien's posthumously published works, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales.

<i>Hobitit</i> Finnish live action fantasy television miniseries

Hobitit is a nine-part Finnish live action fantasy television miniseries directed by Timo Torikka, originally broadcast in 1993 on Yle TV1.

J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954–55), set in his fictional world of Middle-earth, have been the subject of numerous motion picture adaptations across film and television.

<i>Khraniteli</i> Live-action Soviet teleplay adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring

Khraniteli is a Soviet television play miniseries based on J. R. R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring. It was broadcast once in 1991 by Leningrad Television and then thought lost before being rediscovered in 2021. It includes scenes of Tom Bombadil and Goldberry that were omitted from the 1978 film and Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

J. R. R. Tolkien used frame stories throughout his Middle-earth writings, especially his legendarium, to make the works resemble a genuine mythology written and edited by many hands over a long period of time. He described in detail how his fictional characters wrote their books and transmitted them to others, and showed how later in-universe editors annotated the material.

References

  1. 1 2 Culhane, John (27 November 1977). "Will the Video Version of Tolkien Be Hobbit Forming?". The New York Times . p. D33. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  2. ↑ Ebert, Roger (1 January 1978). "Review of The Lord of the Rings". The Chicago Sun Times . Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  3. ↑ Tyler, Joshua. "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King". Cinema Blend. Retrieved 11 January 2011.
  4. ↑ K-Special, "I trollkarlens hatt Archived 2015-10-27 at the Wayback Machine " (at 24m30s), Sveriges television, 23 October 2015. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  5. ↑ "Yle teettää oman sovituksen Taru sormusten herrasta-sadusta" [Yle to produce its own version of the tale of The Lord of the Rings]. Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). 18 June 1991.
  6. ↑ Kajava, Jukka (29 March 1993). "Tolkienin taruista on tehty tv-sarja: Hobitien ilme syntyi jo Ryhmäteatterin Suomenlinnan tulkinnassa" [Tolkien's tales have been turned into a TV series: The Hobbits have been brought to live in the Ryhmäteatteri theatre]. Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish).(subscription required)
  7. ↑ Romain, Lindsey. "Russian 'Lord of the Rings' Adaptation Makes Its Way Online". Nerdist. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
  8. ↑ Selcke, Dan (2 April 2021). "Watch a lost Soviet adaptation of The Lord of the Rings". Winter is Coming. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
  9. ↑ Roth, Andrew (5 April 2021). "Soviet TV version of Lord of the Rings rediscovered after 30 years". The Guardian . Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  10. 1 2 Alberge, Dalya (12 March 2022). "Hoard of the rings: 'lost' scripts for BBC Tolkien drama discovered". The Guardian . Retrieved 12 March 2022.
  11. ↑ Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (2023) [1981]. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Harper Collins. no. 175. ISBN   978-0-35-865298-4.
  12. ↑ "Hour of The Wolf: Our Annual Reading from Lord of the Rings". WBAI-FM. Retrieved 4 April 2021. Thursday, December 31, 2015 1:30 AM - 3:00 AM Our annual reading of "The Council of Elrond" from The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, re-broadcast from 1972.
  13. ↑ "Mind's Eye The Lord of the Rings (1979)". SF Worlds. 31 August 2014. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  14. ↑ "Lord of the Rings Radio Drama". audiotheater.com. Archived from the original on 8 February 2008.
  15. ↑ "Riel Radio Theatre — The Lord of the Rings, Episode 2". Radioriel. 15 January 2009. Archived from the original on 15 January 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  16. ↑ "Das Hörspiel »Der Herr der Ringe«". Herr der Ringe. Archived from the original on 10 August 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
  17. ↑ "Imladris - Danmarks Tolkienforening, den danske guide til Tolkien".
  18. ↑ "The Lord of the Rings - Worldwide radio premiere". sk.radiotv.cz. RadioTV.sk. 10 November 2001. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  19. ↑ "Marián Labuda as the hobbit Bilbo". www.radioservis-as.cz. Týdenník Rozhlas (online archives). Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  20. ↑ "The Lord of the Rings: Behind the scenes". devin.rtvs.sk. Rádio Devín, Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska (online archives). 25 November 2016. Archived from the original on 6 December 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  21. ↑ "J. R. R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings (Radio play)". devin.rtvs.sk. Rádio Devín, Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska (online archives). 24 November 2016. Archived from the original on 6 December 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  22. ↑ "Lord of the Rings Musical will Embark on 2015 World Tour". Archived from the original on 9 October 2007. Retrieved 24 August 2006.
  23. ↑ Hetrick, Adam (11 November 2013). "Lord of the Rings Musical Will Embark On 2015 World Tour". Playbill. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  24. ↑ Jones, Chris (18 October 2001). "Lifeline wraps up Tolkien trilogy in jaunty style". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved 4 April 2021.
  25. ↑ "The fastest West End flops – in pictures". The Guardian . Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  26. ↑ "Fellowship: The Musical Parody of 'The Fellowship of the Ring'". Fellowship the Musical. Archived from the original on 10 June 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
  27. ↑ "Warner Bros. Games are coming out of the Shadow of its Movies". 15 June 2017. Archived from the original on 4 July 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
  28. ↑ "Warner Bros. and Tolkien Estate Settle 80 Million Hobbit Lawsuit". The Hollywood Reporter . 3 July 2017. Archived from the original on 3 July 2017. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  29. ↑ Library of Congress reference numbers were TB 03367 (The Fellowship of the Ring), TB 03369 (The Two Towers), and TB 03368 (The Return of the King).
  30. ↑ Library of Congress reference numbers were RC 10975 (The Fellowship of the Ring), RC 10976 (The Two Towers), and RC 10977 (The Return of the King).
  31. ↑ Library of Congress reference numbers are RC 47486 / DB 47486 (The Fellowship of the Ring), RC 47487 / DB 47487 (The Two Towers), and RC 47488 / DB 47488 (The Return of the King).
  32. 1 2 Menta, Joseph P. (December 2001 – January 2002). "Talking With Rob Inglis". AudioFile . Archived from the original on 2014-01-08. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  33. ↑ Butler, Mary Anne (7 July 2021). "Andy Serkis-Read "Lord of The Rings" Audible is Coming this Fall". NerdBot. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
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