Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Tally, Robert T

Titel

THREE RINGS FOR THE ELVEN-KINGS: TRILOGIZING TOLKIEN IN PRINT AND FILM

Ist Teil von

• Mythlore, 2017-10, Vol.36 (131), p.175-190

Ort / Verlag

Alhambra: Mythopoeic Society

Erscheinungsjahr

2017

Quelle

ProQuest_Literature Online_英美文学在线

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• [...]Tolkien only grudgingly relented in his insistence that The Silmarillion be published first, or at least alongside, The Lord of the Rings, for he considered "the Saga of the Three Jewels and the Rings of Power" to be one story, and he feared that The Lord of the Rings on its own, "as indivisible and unified as I could make it," would not make sense without the long backstory and "deep" history provided in the former epic collection of tales (Letters 138). First of all, Tolkien had organized his one narrative into six books, and Allen and Unwin's decision to publish The Lord of the Rings in three volumes meant that each volume would contain two books apiece. Any film adaptation will require compromises, as material will be omitted, dramatically altered, or even supplied afresh in order to satisfy the perceived requirements of a blockbuster film. [...]Tom Bombadil was omitted entirely (a decision, it seems, even Tolkien may have favored, since he admitted that "Bombadil is not an important person-to the narrative" [Letters 178]), Arwen's role was enhanced (which had a dual purpose of creating an additional female hero and of providing depth to Aragorn's love story, not to mention allowing viewers to admire actress Liv Tyler for a few additional scenes), elves of Lothlórien rather than Aragorn's fellow human rangers join the fight at Helm's Deep (the more elves, the better!), and so forth. [...]climaxes were built in where they did not exist, or were quite different, in the book: a showdown between Aragorn and a particularly notable but unnamed orc in The Fellowship of the Ring, plus a battle of Osgiliath added to the one at Helm's Deep in The Two Towers; arguably, the climactic events of The Return of the King functioned as the climax of the entire trilogy as well, with the Last Battle, the destruction of the Ring, and the "return" of the King rounding out both that discrete film and the series as a whole.