![]() The German composer began work on the libretto and music for his cycle almost a century before Tolkien first introduced his rings to readers with the publication of The Hobbit in 1937. It's sometimes assumed that Tolkien was inspired by the most famous ring in opera, Wagner's Ring of the Nibelungs. One thing is certain: even as it harnesses all the cinematic razzle-dazzle that its mega-budget can buy ( it's reportedly the most expensive television series ever made), in channelling the imagination of an Oxford don writing in the middle of the last century, the series will also be tapping into lore and legend from literature too ancient to be accurately dated, whose narratives are full of heroism and tragedy, dwarves and elves – and of course magical rings. By necessity – legal as well as creative (Amazon doesn't own the rights to posthumously published materials in which Tolkien goes into greater depth on the Second Age) – the show's writers have had to alter and embellish, compressing time frames, inventing new characters and tinkering with the storylines of some canonical creations.Īs the series gets underway, there's sure to be plenty of debate over how faithful it is to Tolkien's vision, but just how original that vision was in the first place is a subject that's long enthralled scholars. ![]() ![]() This was a time when the legendary rings were forged and the dark Lord Sauron rose to power, a time when the island kingdom of Númenor flourished (and then fell), and elves and men were compelled to band together in order to do battle for the soul of Middle-earth. The series takes its cue from an appendix Tolkien wrote for the final instalment of his epic, slenderly outlining the history of Middle-earth's Second Age. ![]() Hobbits and hippies: Tolkien and the counterculture Why the world's most difficult novel is so rewarding Its characters include Galadriel and Elrond (both elves, who are conveniently immortal in Middle-earth) and small folk known as Harfoots that turn out to be the Hobbits' evolutionary predecessors – and then there are the iconic symbols that provide the series with its title: The Rings of Power. There's some debate over whether this is specifically a reference to Valinor or to Tol Eressëa, but regardless it is unquestionably referring to the Undying Lands in some capacity.Despite being set thousands of years before the novel itself, Amazon Studios' new prequel to The Lord of the Rings promises to contain many of the ingredients beloved by Tolkien fans. In Letter 91, Tolkien links this dream explicitly to Frodo going "over the Sea":įrodo will join and pass over the Sea (linking with the vision he had of a far green country in the house of Tom Bombadil). Return of the King Book VI Chapter 9: "The Grey Havens" And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise. He ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. This is referenced again at the end of Return of the King, when Frodo departs on the Elven-ship: But either in his dreams or out of them, he could not tell which, Frodo heard a sweet singing running in his mind a song that seemed to come like a pale light behind a grey rain-curtain, and growing stronger to turn the veil all to glass and silver, until at last it was rolled back, and a far green country opened before him under a swift sunrise.įellowship of the Ring Book I Chapter 8: "Fog on the Barrow-Downs" This dialogue from the film borrows from a dream Frodo has in Bombadil's house:
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