Everything about Works Inspired By J R R Tolkien totally explained
The works of
J. R. R. Tolkien have served as the inspiration to
painters, musicians, film-makers and writers, to such an extent that Tolkien is sometimes seen as the "father" of the entire genre of "
high fantasy. The production of such derivative works is sometimes of doubtful legality, because Tolkien's published works will remain copyrighted until
2043. The film, stage and merchandise rights of
The Hobbit and
The Lord of the Rings are owned by
Tolkien Enterprises, while the rights of
The Silmarillion and other material remain with
The J.R.R. Tolkien Estate Ltd.
Art and illustration
The earliest illustrations of Tolkien's works were drawn by the author himself. In 1937,
The Hobbit was first illustrated by professional draughtsmen for the American edition. Tolkien was very critical of these, and in 1946 he rejected illustrations by
Horus Engels for the German edition of the
Hobbit as "too
Disnified."
Milein Cosman illustrated
Farmer Giles of Ham in 1948, and
Tolkien wasn't happy with this work, either. In 1949, Cosman was replaced by
Pauline Baynes, who became Tolkien's favourite illustrator and who created drawings for
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil as well as for
Farmer Giles of Ham.
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, an accomplished and critically-acclaimed painter, was inspired to illustrations to
The Lord of the Rings in the early 1970s. She sent them to Tolkien, who was struck by the similarity to the style of his own drawings. In 1977, Queen Margrethe's drawings were published in the Danish translation of the book, which was reissued in 2002, redrawn by the British artist
Eric Fraser.
Tim and Greg Hildebrandt were also well-known Tolkien illustrators during the first decades after the publication of
The Lord of the Rings.
In the 1970s, British artist
Jimmy Cauty created a best-selling poster of the
Hobbit for the retailer
Athena.
Probably the widest-known Tolkien illustrators of the 1990s and 2000s are
John Howe,
Alan Lee, and
Ted Nasmith — Alan Lee for illustrated editions of
The Hobbit and
The Lord of the Rings, Ted Nasmith for illustrated editions of
The Silmarillion, and John Howe for the cover artwork to several Tolkien publications. (Howe and Lee were also involved in the creation of
Peter Jackson's
movie trilogy as concept artists — Nasmith was also invited to take part in the films, but was forced to reluctantly decline due to a personal crisis at the time.) In 2004, Lee won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction for his work on the third film in the trilogy, .
Other artists who have found inspiration in Tolkien's works include
Catherine Karina Chmiel,
Inger Edelfeldt,
Anke Katrin Eißmann,
Roger Garland,
Michael Hague,
Tove Jansson (of
Moomin fame, illustrator of a Finnish translation of
The Hobbit),
Angus McBride,
Kay Miner, and
Jenny Dolfen.
Audio
Three
radio plays based on
The Lord of the Rings have been made, broadcast in 1955–1956, 1979 and 1981 respectively. The first and last ones were produced by the
BBC.
Music
Donald Swann set music to
The Road Goes Ever On, a collection of Tolkien's lyrics and poems. The work was approved by Tolkien himself.
Tom Rapp set most of The Verse of the One Ring ("Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky...") to music as "Ring Thing" in
Pearls Before Swine's second album,
Balaklava (1968).
The
Tolkien Ensemble published four CD's from 1997 to 2005
with the aim to create "the world's first complete musical interpretation of the poems and songs from
The Lord of the Rings". The project was given approval by both the
Tolkien Estate and
Harper Collins Publishers. Queen Margarethe II of Denmark gave permission to use her illustrations in the CD layout.
"
The Hobbitons" released a CD in 1996 with song versions of poems of the
Hobbit and from
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.
Other musicians inspired by Tolkien include
Za Frûmi,
Battlelore,
David Arkenstone,
Summoning,
Blind Guardian,
Mostly Autumn,
Bo Hansson, and
Led Zeppelin (certainly "Over The Hills and Far Away", "Misty Mountain Hop", "
The Battle of Evermore," and "
Ramble On," with debate about some parts of
Stairway to Heaven).
Neil Peart, Canadian rock composer and drummer for
Rush, has based many of his lyrics on Tolkien, most notably "Rivendell" and "the Necromancer".
Blind Guardian has written many songs relating to Middle-earth, including the full concept album
Nightfall in Middle Earth that follows
The Silmarillion.
"In The House Of Tom Bombadil" is an instrumental song from Nickel Creek's self-titled album from 2000.
"Riddles In The Dark" is an instrumental song from
Nickel Creek mandolinist
Chris Thile's solo album
Not All Who Wander Are Lost, released in 2001.
Enya composed and recorded a song entitled, "Lothlórien", on the release, "Shepherd Moon". This song is also available in "A Box of Dreams" (Clouds) and in, "Only Time-The Collection" (disc two).
Ensio Kosta composed in 1980–1982 a chamber music series called "Music Of Middle-earth",
with movements like "Awakening of Shire", "Incantation", "Winding Paths", "Lament of Galadriel", "Riders of Rohan", and "Grey Havens".
Johan de Meij’s first symphony “The Lord of the Rings” is based on the novel. The symphony consists of five separate movements, each illustrating a personage or an important episode from the series. The symphony was written in the period between March 1984 and December 1987, and had its première in Brussels on 15th March 1988.
The movements are:
I. GANDALF (The Wizard)
II. LOTHLORIEN (The Elvenwood)
III. GOLLUM (Sméagol)
IV. JOURNEY IN THE DARK
a. The Mines of Moria
b. The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm
V. HOBBITS
Leonard Rosenman composed music for the
Ralph Bakshi animated movie and
Howard Shore composed the music for the three
Peter Jackson films (see
Music of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy).
A.R. Rahman collaborated with
Värttinä to compose the music for the stage adaptation "The Lord of the Rings Musical".
The Loss and the Silence
, a string quartet by
Ezequiel Viñao (inspired by the story of
Aragorn and
Arwen.) The piece was commissioned for the 100th anniversary of the
Juilliard School and was premiered by the
Juilliard String Quartet.
A comprehensive list of music "inspired by or referential to the fiction writings of J.R.R. Tolkien" can be seen at the
Tolkien Music List.
Film
Tolkien originally sold the film, stage and merchandise rights of
The Hobbit and
The Lord of the Rings to
United Artists in 1968, but they never made a film, and in 1976 the rights were sold to
Tolkien Enterprises, a division of the
Saul Zaentz Company.
In the early seventies
John Boorman was planning a film of
The Lord of the Rings, but the plans never went further because of movie studio politics. Some of the work done was resurrected for the film
Excalibur in 1981.
Ralph Bakshi directed an animated movie adaptation of
The Lord of the Rings in 1978 (partly made with the
rotoscope technique), which covered only the first half of
The Lord of the Rings.
Rankin-Bass covered the second half with a children's TV animation
The Return of the King (1980); earlier they'd made a TV animation of
The Hobbit (1977).
The Lord of the Rings was adapted as a
trilogy of films (
2001–
03), directed by
Peter Jackson.
The split of Tolkien's works between
Tolkien Enterprises and the
Tolkien Estate means that none of the Tolkien Enterprises' products can include source material from outside
The Hobbit and
The Lord of the Rings, and therefore a film or stage version of
The Silmarillion is highly unlikely.
Language
Literature
Many authors have found inspiration in Tolkien's work as well. Following the success of
The Hobbit and
The Lord of the Rings in the 1960s, publishers were quick to try to meet a new demand for literate fantasy in the
American marketplace. Ballantine, under the direction of editor
Lin Carter, published public domain and relatively obscure works under the banner of the
Ballantine Adult Fantasy series.
Lester Del Rey, however, sought for new books that would mirror Tolkien's work, and published
Terry Brooks'
The Sword of Shannara (accused at the time of direct
plagiarism of Tolkien's book) and
Stephen Donaldson's
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever.
Nick Perumov created sequel stories about
Middle-earth, and
Dennis L. McKiernan's
Iron Tower trilogy was intended to be a direct sequel to
The Lord of the Rings but had to be altered.
Throughout the next two decades, the term
fantasy became synonymous with the general aspects of Tolkien's work: multiple races including dwarves and elves, a quest to destroy a magical artifact, and an evil that seeks to control the world. The plot of Novelist
Pat Murphy's
There and Back Again mirrors that of
The Hobbit, but is transposed into a science-fiction setting involving space travel.
Eragon and
Eldest, the first two parts of the as-yet unfinished
Inheritance cycle by
Christopher Paolini largely rehashed
The Lord of the Rings, and creatures such as
elves and
dwarves in his books bear similar qualities to the elves and dwarves of
Middle-earth. Some people have gone so far as to accuse Paolini of plagiarism, but this is still under debate. Even the
Harry Potter series mirrors themes from and copies names and ideas from
The Lord of the Rings, as the current plot focusing on the destruction of horcruxes to defeat
Voldemort mirrors the destruction of the
One Ring to defeat
Sauron. Name similarities include Longbottom leaf/ Neville Longbottom, Aragorn/ Aragog, and other notable similarities are the obvious similarities between the Nazgûl and the dementors; the spiders in Mirkwood and those in the Forbidden Forest; the
Orcs and Men that fall under Sauron's power and influence and the Death Eaters that fall under Voldemort's influence and power; and the White Council and the Order of Phoenix.
Parody
- Probably the best-known parody of Tolkien is Bored of the Rings (1968).
- The Veggie Tales episode Lord of the Beans.
- "The Dork of The Rings"(2006) is a film by Richardson Productions LLC and stars Bryce Cone as Frudo Buggins. The film features an introduction by Lord Of The Rings actor and stuntman Kiran Shah.
Poetry
Some people were inspired to compose poems in
Quenya or
Sindarin, the two most developed of Tolkien's created languages. For example,
Helge Kåre Fauskanger translated the first two chapters of
Genesis into Quenya.
Tyalië Tyelelliéva is a journal dedicated to poems in the Elvish languages.
Scholarship
Vinyar Tengwar and
Parma Eldalamberon are journals focusing on linguistic study of Tolkien's works.
External link:
A Bibliography of Scholarly Studies of J. R. R. Tolkien and His Works by Michael D.C. Drout
Games
There are multiple model-based games, trading card games, board games and
video games that take place in Middle-earth, most depicting scenes and characters from
The Lord of the Rings. In a broader sense, many fantasy
role-playing games such as
Dungeons and Dragons and
DragonQuest were strongly influenced by Tolkien's works. Such games feature creatures such as Orcs, Trolls, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Ents which are common to Tolkien's mythos even if they don't take place in Middle-earth.
Video games
The books have been reproduced in video game form a number of times during the 1980s and 2000s, 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 and, and the
role-playing game , all based on the Jackson films; and
Sierra Entertainment's action platformer based on
The Fellowship of the Ring. There is also a
PSP Game titled based on the Jackson films, a
MMORPG by
Turbine,
The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar.
The Two Towers (MUD) is also set in Tolkien's world.
Other games
Games Workshop have made a
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.
Several other 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, Inc. All of these predate Jackson's film trilogy except for Decipher's card game, which is part of the latter's merchandise.
Decipher also created the
Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game, a role-playing game based on the Jackson films.
Board games include and another simply entitled
Lord of the Rings, as well as the
Middle Earth Games from
Simulations Publications, Inc. containing the games
War of the Ring (strategic, covering all three books),
Gondor (tactical, covering the siege of Minas Tirith) and
Sauron (covering the decisive battle of the Second Age) in
1977. A more recent strategic game covering all three books, called
War of the Ring, was released in
2004. There are also
Trivial Pursuit and
Monopoly editions based on
The Lord of the Rings, as well as a
The Lord of the Rings Trivia Game quiz game. Chess sets have also been created with the figures based on people and other characters from
The Lord of the Rings.
Homages
The creators of the
Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game were also strongly influenced by Tolkien. The game has (clearly Tolkien-influenced) dwarves and elves as playable characters, and formerly had hobbits as well. After being threatened with a lawsuit by the Tolkien estate, they replaced hobbits with the similar "halflings" — a term also used in
The Lord Of the Rings. In most versions of the game, halflings were especially good at being thieves/rogues, a nod to Bilbo the thief in The Hobbit. The
Kender of
Krynn (from the
Dragonlance Campaign setting) are again essentially renamed hobbits, although the innate racial personalities contrast greatly. His works also indirectly inspired the
Warcraft series via their use in
Games Workshop's battle games.
Equally common is the use of the term
orc for a variety of hobgoblin type creatures in later fantasy although Tolkien created this modern usage of the word. Even more removed genre games such as
Shadowrun and
Warhammer 40,000 use the term, therein spelt Ork, possibly to sidestep possible legal issues (though Tolkien actually preferred
-k in late writings).
The
Canadian animated television series:
Odd Job Jack had an episode in the second season called "The Lord of the Three Ringed Binder" which parodied the Lord of the Rings.
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