I'll Say This, Then I'll Try To Shut Up

I suppose I must comment on the situation, or it will just rankle me in silence. I think anyone who has read and loved The Lord of the Rings has fostered at least one private ‘fan fiction’ of it. Heck, Dennis L McKiernan started his Mithgar books as basically a clone of the trilogy and a fictional ‘Return to Moria,’ though I understand that he has evolved beyond that (I’ll never know). Most of us have had the good sense to put aside such fictions, at most inflicting them on friends or fringe publishing. You can find my own here on NOT, titled There and Back Again, Again. But with the marketing of Middle-earth as an IP franchise and no longer gate-kept as ‘a heartbreaking work of staggering genius’ the rule has passed to lesser men of mundane vision. One cannot help but think “If [Tolkien] came back and saw what was being done in his name, he'd never stop throwing up.”

 

I’ve always liked Stephen Colbert as a Tolkien admirer, a nerd who at least knew the Lore, but I’ve never seen him as an inspired writer who could tackle Middle-earth even on a mediocre level. That Piter Jeksun has handed him the keys of the car to be at least one of the writers on a new ‘sequel’ does not inspire me with confidence. Colbert knows all the trivia, so maybe (the lure of cultural influence is strong, though), maybe he will at least not make any major blasphemies against established Tolkien ‘facts.’ This seems like a cold cash grab move on Warners Brothers part, a way to keep the license to Middle-earth a while longer, and not an artistic decision. I can only cradle my head wearily and await the outcome. We’ve all had our fan-fiction, our head canons, and they are privately amusing. But

“… proudly smiled that old man
To see the eager lad
Rush madly for his pen and ink
And for his blotting-pad -
But, when he thought of PUBLISHING,
His face grew stern and sad.”

-Poeta Fit, Non Nascitur [Poets Are Born, Not Made], Lewis Carroll

Terrible ‘Tolkien’

I will be the first to admit that I am a sucker for branding. Slap ‘Tolkien’ or ‘Middle-earth’ on anything and I’m likely to buy it – unless it’s too expensive or seems a little ‘sus’. But if it’s deeply discounted or at bargain prices, I can seldom resist. 

This has led me to several poor purchases. For every true scholar like Tom Shippey or Holly Ordway there are at least half-a-dozen grifters like David Day or David Colbert, attaching themselves like leeches onto the juggernaut of The Lord of the Rings, or numbers of ‘scholastics’ like Anne C. Petty or Randall Helms, who use the popularity of Middle-earth as a launching platform for their own inimical philosophies, or evangelists tacking their own messages onto Tolkien rather than mining the admittedly Christian subtext of the books, or biographers* just wanting to make a quick buck on his sudden popularity thanks to the films. I include several DVD documentaries which must be, by their very nature, superficial. There is even a LOTR 'oracle', which would no doubt make Tolkien recoil, as he did with people using replicas of the One Ring for wedding rings. "You know nothing of my work."

But I have got them all, searching each volume, hoping to glean one new fact or insight about Tolkien or at least about the ‘deplorable cultus’ that has accreted around his work. Do I need them or even want them at this point? Almost certainly not. But once having expended my time and money, it really wouldn’t help much to get rid of them – unless I really needed the space.

I was brought to this meditation by ‘Tolkien Geek’ on the Tolkien Lore channel, about just such a book:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNPRAlPK3Js

This sounds like the sort of book I would have been tempted by during the lean years of Tolkien fandom. Thanks to this video, I am well warned away from it. But if I found it cheaply in a used book outlet? Who can say what I’d do? It is, after all, ‘about’ Tolkien – for a certain value of ‘Tolkienity.’

*How many copies of the terrible biography by Daniel Grotta-Kurska do I have to have? Thanks, Brothers Hildebrandt!

The War of the Ro-ho-hum: Some Thoughts

 

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024, New Line Cinema)

I … I grow weary in the face of writing a review of another disappointing LOTR ‘sequel’. To start with, why does everyone insist on slapping ‘The Lord of the Rings’ onto every Middle-earth movie these days? I’ll tell you why. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy was a huge, improbable success, and the producers want a share of that juju, like people who desire to touch the big winner of a bingo game for good luck.

And then, since they can’t explain exactly why the movies work, the writers do their best to mimic what has gone before in the hopes of replicating the formula. They throw everything at the wall, every Middle-earth element they can grab, no matter how improbable in the context of the tale. Thus, in the kingdom of Rohan we see Southrons and Mumakil (Oliphaunts) from the far east of Middle-earth, a Watcher in the Water far from Moria or the deep places of the world, and Great Eagles interacting with humans (or one special human, at least). How Middle-earthy can you get? There are even a couple of Orcs (voiced by Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan – ‘member them?) out randomly searching for rings nearly two centuries before Sauron suspects the One Ring has re-emerged.

Almost as jarring are the echoing of language and language patterns from the LOTR films. They clunk along like speedbumps along the road. Eyes must be kept ‘fixed’ on a diversionary tactic, and so on. There are others. And names, when they are not Tolkien’s, are singularly unsatisfactory and, well, clunky and simple. The Lord Frygt (pronounced Fright) is an alarmist on the council; Wrot (Rot) is the name of an Orc. Wulf’s righthand man is named Targg; I defy anyone to find any name in Tolkien that ends with a double consonant. One name I do approve of is Ashere, the name of Hera’s horse, which is the same (more or less) as Aschere, who was Hrothgar’s counselor in Beowulf.

Which of course brings us to Hera. Hera is an Icelandic name, and fits in well with the ‘H’ naming tradition in the Helm family; but unfortunately it may be more familiar as the name of a Greek goddess (perhaps not entirely a coincidence; the actress who does her voice is named Gaia Wise: in the final defense of the Hornburg, Hera, Olwyn, and old Pennicruik seem evocative of the Triple Goddess of Mother, Maiden, and Crone; goddess power!). It’s also one letter off from ‘Hero’. And Helm’s daughter, who is not even mentioned by name in the two pages in the Appendices that this two-hour fourteen-minute film is based on, is the main hero of this tale.

And what a hero! Where the men are either obtuse or overly macho, she is always insightful, clever, and compassionate. She can defeat warriors, trolls, and beasts that others cannot, and even when she has been trapped in a fortress on starvation rations, she still has the strength and skills to defeat a well-fed professional warrior in his prime. Her only restraints seem to be societal expectations that her culture tries to impose on her and the reluctance of others to see how great she is. I don’t mind there being a strong female lead, but she could at least have some weakness. She’s only human, but as written, she’s something of a Mary Sue. And that isn’t good writing.

In short, The War of the Rohirrim seems to have the same unsatisfactory quality that a line tracing of rich colorful illustration has. If it had tried harder to be its own story, and not a shadow and a ghost of the Trilogy, walking behind it on a ruinous path to the Void, it might have been good. It’s beautifully animated, but it’s an empty grab-bag of echoes and improbable ‘well-it-coulda-been’s and shifty justifications behind the scenes. I’m still on the fence about getting the related action figures. Actually seeing the movie hasn’t moved me any closer. It's no wonder it's already nowhere on the radar anymore.

In a sidenote, I noticed the growth of the Great Eagles with each adaptation of Tolkien. Here one is in the 1977 The Hobbit:

And here is the 'fledgeling' Eagle from Rohirrim:

We see towards the end of the movie that it has grown even larger, into a monstrous, almost kaiju-like size.

Okay, here is Tolkien's own drawing of Bilbo and an Eagle, so we can suppose this is how big they should be.

Tolkien Through Time

J.R.R. Tolkien recites "Namárië" (Galadriel's lament) - YouTube

The Greatest Adventure - The Hobbit Song - YouTube

Where there's a whip, there's a way! - YouTube

The Lord of the Ring 1978 Soundtrack (1) - Theme from The Lord of the Rings - YouTube

The Lord of the Ring 1978 Soundtrack (8) - Mithrandir - YouTube

Enya - May It Be (Official Lyric Video) - YouTube

Into the West - Annie Lennox lyrics video from The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King - YouTube

(23) Misty Mountains (Cold) Full Song And Scene With Lyrics [HD/HQ] - YouTube

The Hobbit - Ending credits ("The last goodbye") - YouTube

"You have grown, Halfling," [Saruman] said. "Yes, you have grown very much."

The Great Tales Never End: Into the Archives

 

The Great Tales Never End: Essays in memory of Christopher Tolkien

Edited by Richard Ovenden & Catherine McIlwaine

“Over more than four decades, J. R. R. Tolkien’s son and literary executor Christopher Tolkien completed some twenty-four volumes of his father’s work, much more than his father had succeeded in publishing during his own lifetime. Thanks to Christopher’s extraordinary publishing efforts and scholarship, readers today can survey and understand the vast landscape of Tolkien’s legendarium.

“The book is illustrated with color reproductions of J. R. R. Tolkien’s manuscripts, maps, drawings, and letters, as well as photographs of Christopher Tolkien and extracts from his works. Many of these documents have never been seen before, making this volume essential reading for Tolkien scholars, readers, and fans.”  - Amazon

I really didn’t expect this book to come for another ten to twelve days, so its sudden appearance (it didn’t really turn up on Amazon tracking) was a very pleasant surprise. It is filled with essays by tried-and-true Tolkien scholars and family members, such as Catherine McIlwaine, Priscilla Tolkien (Tolkien’s only daughter just recently deceased this March), Verlyn Flieger, John Garth, Wayne G. Hammond, Christina Scull, Carl F. Hostetter, Tom Shippey, and Brian Sibley. There is a contribution by Baillie Tolkien (Christopher’s second wife) in the form of a translation of the eulogy delivered in French (the couple lived in France for a large part of their life) by Maxime H. Pascal at Christopher’s funeral. These are the kind of “influencers and super-fans” that I need to hear from right now, to reassure myself of the continuity and quality of the Middle-earth legacy.

I have not, of course, read much in it just yet. I suppose I shall probably start with Priscilla’s memoir first. I have to say it is a particularly beautiful book. In time, I expect to see a full biography of Christopher Tolkien produced; in the meantime, this volume of essays can be taken as an opening theme.

I must admit that in the latter half of the Seventies I did not know a great deal about Christopher Tolkien, only what gets mentioned in Carpenter’s 1977 biography of JRRT. I also concede that I was suspicious and even jealous of him: to be the son of the Professor seemed an unearned privilege. That he was to edit together The Silmarillion seemed a presumptuous task and possibly just a money grab. But the more I learned about his scholarly background, and as proof after proof of his zealous conservatorship of his father’s legacy was established, the more my cautious acceptance turned into enormous respect. His death filled me with profound dismay and sadness. What would happen now that Horatio did not hold the bridge?

By a strange coincidence, the arrival of this book coincides with the death of Elizabeth II, another end of an era, which, though long expected, brings with it consequences that cannot be foreseen. I am far from being a Royalist, but I am something of an Anglophile, and Tolkien has much to do with that. Something has gone out of the English Thing that was there all my life, and indeed before I was born. When old trees fall, the skyline changes. And lately the skyline has been changing with the fall of these monarchs.  

Fellow Traveler?

A Middle-earth Traveler: Sketches from Bag-End to Mordor (2018) by John Howe is the last of my post-birthday, pre-postmortem (for The Rings of Power) Middle-earth purchases, a collection of art and reminiscences from John Howe, the lesser concept artist from the Jackson Tolkien films, produced after the Hobbit trilogy. Howe is on the verge of being in my bad books at the moment for his defense of the upcoming Amazon production, but I suppose he must support it for commercial reasons, and from a design standpoint it seems … passable, if occasionally regrettable. I suppose Howe will even release some sort of connected art book. In which case, I might feel doubts about buying it. A Middle-earth Traveler may be the last book of his that I can whole-heartedly support.

“Combining concept work produced for films, existing Middle-earth art, and many new paintings and sketches exclusive to this book, A Middle-earth Traveler will take the reader on a unique and unforgettable journey across Tolkien’s magical landscape”. – Amazon.

Wishes Do Come True

I spent all yesterday waiting for delivery of this book, which Amazon assured me was going to arrive before 8 PM. At 8 PM they finally gave in and admitted that it would be arriving late, and I could stop obsessively checking the porch every half hour. I was a little worried. It was the last of my ‘birthday books’ and had cost almost $70; I didn’t want it sitting out all night with possible rain in the forecast or vulnerable to theft. But it was there at 9 AM, delivered this morning, and soon safe in my waiting arms.

“Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth explores the huge creative endeavor behind Tolkien’s enduring popularity. Lavishly illustrated with three hundred images of his manuscripts, drawings, maps, and letters, the book traces the creative process behind his most famous literary works—The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion—and reproduces personal photographs and private papers, many of which have never been seen before in print.” – Amazon.

It is edited by Catherine McIlwaine, Tolkien Archivist at the Bodleian Library, and also contains six essays covering aspects of Tolkien’s life and imagination by the likes of Tom Shippey, John Garth, and Verlyn Flieger. This hardback clocks in at 146 pages, is 9.5 inches wide and 10 inches tall, and a full one and a half inches thick. It is connected to and commemorates the Bodleian Libraries’ summer 2018 exhibition of Tolkien’s life and works and was published on July 25^th of that year – on my birthday!

McIlwaine has also edited Tolkien: Treasures which showcases the highlights of the Tolkien archives held at the Bodleian Library and is kind of a slimmed down, less expensive version of Maker, and she has contributed to the recently published The Great Tales Never End: Essays in Honor of Christopher Tolkien, which is definitely on my radar.

The book itself is a beautiful object. You can’t tell from the picture, but that TOLKIEN on the cover is in gold leaf. Although I have many of the pictures contained therein, scattered around in other books that I own, there are, as stated, many others that have never been published. There is one of Tolkien’s drawings, labeled “The Back of Beyond” which is alone almost worth the price of admission. The reproduction of every picture is of the highest quality and the size reveals details clearer than ever. One can see the texture of the original papers themselves, so it is nearly like handling the genuine artifact. It seems to put you one step closer to Tolkien and his world.

Right now, the book resides on the top shelf of the Inkling Archive, but I believe I will have to demote some lesser work and find a place for Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth in the Tolkien Shrine itself.

The Battle for Middle-earth: Not in the Sense of the Game

The Battle for Middle-earth: Tolkien’s Divine Design in The Lord of the Rings (2004), by Fleming Rutledge. Cover by John Howe. This is the first book of a batch that I ordered in the wake of my birthday, all books about Tolkien and his works; it was also done in anticipation (in the negative sense of the word) of what is almost sure to be the tinkling brass of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised with the show, but I’ve seen little signs of hope there so far.

          It is issued by the William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company (“located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, it's an independent publisher of religious books, from academic books and scholarly works in theology, biblical studies, and religious history to popular titles in spirituality, ministry, and cultural criticism”). I have several titles that they’ve published through the years, including works by George Macdonald, Charles Williams, and C. S. Lewis. Rutledge’s book would fall under the heading of cultural criticism (criticism in the technical sense of analysis).

          As one might surmise from the term “Divine (in the sense of holy) Design” in the title, Rutledge has ‘divined’ (in the sense of discerned) a theological purpose or plan supporting Tolkien’s classic adventure fantasy (a plan that Tolkien himself asserted several times, and which, as a faithful practicing Catholic, he probably could not have avoided in his work). Rutledge does not try to pull these elements out of the tale for proselytizing purposes, but “has carefully avoided reducing Tolkien’s thrilling stories to doctrine or characters to typology. – Thomas H. Luxon.” (Unlike, that is, slighter books such as Walking with Frodo or Following Gandalf.) This is a big, substantial book, and I look forward to finding new and unsuspected elements.

          “Fleming Rutledge (born 1937) is an American Episcopal priest, author, and preacher. Ordained to the diaconate in 1975, she was one of the first women to be ordained to the priesthood of the Episcopal Church.

Rutledge is widely recognized in the United States, in Canada, and in the UK as a preacher and lecturer who teaches other preachers. Her particular expertise is the intersection of biblical theology with contemporary culture, current events and politics, literature, music and art. She has often been invited to preach in prominent pulpits. She is a noted Tolkien scholar, bringing a Christian perspective to the study of the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, who was a devout Roman Catholic.” – Wikipedia.

Middle Earth: The World of Tolkien Illustrated (Art by David Wenzel, with text by Lin Carter) 1977

Wow. 1977. The very same year of my own Tolkien flowering (the seed had already been planted in 1973). I wonder if I may even have seen it advertised in the same places I saw The Land of Froud (also 1977), but put it from my mind because we were not a mail-ordering family just yet (certainly not to risk the princely sum of $6.95 plus shipping and handling), or because it didn’t look like it could match the Hildebrandt calendar that year, or even because I was not then so confirmed a fanatic.

To put some things in perspective, it came out forty years after The Hobbit’s first printing (in comparison, it has now been approximately 45 years since this art album was released), four years after Tolkien’s death, and twelve years before David Wenzel went on to publish (along with Chuck Dixon and Sean Deming) his graphic novel adaptation. The text by Lin Carter consists of a preface talking about Tolkien’s literary importance and then a paragraph explaining the action in each picture.  At that time, David Wenzel had been mainly a comic book artist (penciller) for such Marvel productions as The Savage Sword of Conan and The Avengers; later he illustrated the 1980 book Kingdom of the Dwarfs by Robb Walsh (see elsewhere in this blog), for which his Middle-earth work had well-prepared him.  

Although the term Middle-earth looms large in the title and might lead one to expect a broader range of subjects, including scenes from The Lord of the Rings, the drawings are confined to the story of The Hobbit, illustrating the tale more or less in order. Due to the size of several double-page pictures and printing constraints, that order is not always maintained. The pictures tend to alternate evenly between black-and-white and colored, until near the very end. But such things need only concern the very obsessively compulsive.

Wenzel’s art is very engaging, and tends to emphasize the humorous, childlike nature of The Hobbit rather than the ‘epic fantasy’ aspect so many want to read back into it once they have discovered The Lord of the Rings. An example of this would be his depiction of Smaug, still menacing, but on an elephantine and not dinosaur-like scale. One can easily see the comic book roots in such things as Bilbo’s stance and attitudes, and even without the publishing history it would be possible to date it smack-dab in the Seventies, I think. Wenzel’s later complete graphic novel adaptation shows how he evolved into a more natural and painterly approach without losing his personal style.

Even though I ‘discovered’ this volume only a few short years ago, I still wonder why I waited so long to get it. Of course, part of the answer was my comparative poverty and its comparative expense – both of which have been somewhat ameliorated. With Amazon’s The Rings of Power looming on the horizon, I am glad to have today finally got this reminder of a simpler time and of at least the related, alternative milieu of my own Tolkien past. 

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles: Cloaks and Daggers, Written by Daniel Falconer

All right, today I got it, the last of these books for my collection (although the 4th in the series). Now my obsessive/compulsive nature can drop the whole thing. That being said, it IS a very beautiful book, being dedicated to weapons, costumes, props, and set dressage. The level of detail can only be appreciated here; in the movies it quietly adds to the scenes and does not insist upon itself, though it is well worth examining.

 

Frodo's Journey

Subtitled "Discovering the Hidden Meaning of The Lord of the Rings", this little book (142 pages of roomy text with some illustrations) by Joseph Pearce (and this copy was apparently signed by Pearce - 2017 'for Jeanne'), gets down to the religious roots of Tolkien's work by literary analysis, with little of the evangelical padding used by other more preachy religious 'looks' at Middle-earth. Pearce seems to have a firm handle on showing the basic Christian roots of the tale, which Tolkien himself called "a fundamentally religious and Catholic work".