Before the Third Age: Revisiting Tolkien's Middle-earth

by Theresa Gauthier

 

  Whenever I hear that a favorite book is about to be adapted into a film or TV series, I get a little nervous. That's because most adaptations are, to be kind about it, disappointing. Even when they're good, it's unlikely that they conform to ever preconceived notion every reader has made about the source material.

Case in point, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.

    I enjoyed the Peter Jackson screen adaptations of these stories—though the first ones I ever saw were the 1977 (The Hobbit,  Directors Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Julian Bass) and 1978 (Lord of the Rings, Director Ralph Bashki) animated films. I saw these at school. We were shown “filmstrips” of these classics. I was mesmerized.

    Looking back at the cast lists, I admit, I’m surprised to discover that Anthony Daniels played Legolas in the LOTR adaptation and Thurl Ravenscroft (Tony the Tiger and the singer of The Grinch song from the animated Christmas special) was in it as well. Not to mention Otto Preminger as Thranduil. 

    Of course, it’s the Peter Jackson films that most people think of today, and what a joy these were. There were issues that some people can’t quite accept. Some people lament the loss of Tom Bombadil, while others make it clear that Legolas being blond is a major issue. 

    These films set the bar high for screen adaptations. The casting was brilliant, the scripts were so well done, and even the music added so much to the story.

    Now, the world of Tolkien is about to become a playground for a new series. Amazon Prime will be presenting The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power in September. This is set thousands of years before The Lord of the Rings, and, as the title implies, concerns the forging of the Rings of Power and the rise of Sauron and is mostly set in the Second Age, but with flashbacks to the first. The original film trilogy was set in the Third Age. Delving so far back opens up the possibilities for exploring the myths and legends that permeate the original trilogy. 

    I’ll be honest. I’m not really sure how I feel about this. I’ve read that Amazon doesn’t have the right to The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, or The History of Middle-earth, but that they’re basing their story on The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, the appendices, and The Hobbit. It seems a bit baffling that they could make such an ambitious series without at least one of those. 

    The trailers look visually appealing. They seem to be at least comparable to the Peter Jackson films—in that they are similar in appearance. You can believe these are in the same world. 

    I’ve long thought there was plenty of material in Tolkien’s works to make a series or another set of films, but I was thinking of The Silmarillion. I can’t help but think it might skew to the tragic since we know whatever groundwork gets set out in the second age, and The Fellowship is a long time away.

    Tolkien’s world is fertile ground for film and television, partly because Middle-Earth is such a rich tapestry of details beautifully imagined and beautifully described. Middle-Earth is as much a character as Aragorn and Frodo. Tolkien breathes life into his creation making it easy to imagine it and to fall in love with it. Sights, sounds, smells, histories, flora and fauna, and all going back millennia, languages, politics—it’s mind-boggling the degree of detail Tolkien created. 

    The series has a lot to live up to, but if they manage it, this will be well worth watching.