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Frodo Baggins, bearer of the One Ring, given to him by Bilbo Baggins
Samwise Gamgee, gardener and friend of the Bagginses
Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry), Frodo's cousin
Peregrin Took (Pippin or Pip), Frodo's cousin
Gandalf the Grey, a wizard, leads the Fellowship until his fall in Moria, return
s from death as Gandalf the White to lead the armies of the West against Sauron
Aragorn, descendant of Isildur and rightful heir to the thrones of Arnor and Gon
dor
Legolas Greenleaf, an Elf prince and son of King Thranduil of the Silvan Elves o
f Northern Mirkwood
Gimli, son of Glin, a dwarf
Denethor, ruling Steward of Gondor and Lord of Minas Tirith
Boromir, the eldest son and heir of Denethor
Faramir, younger brother of Boromir
Galadriel, Elf co-ruler of Lothlrien, and grandmother of Arwen
Celeborn, Elf co-ruler of Lothlrien, husband of Galadriel, and grandfather of Arw
en
Elrond Half-Elven, Half-elven Lord of Rivendell and father of Arwen
Arwen Undmiel, daughter of Elrond, love interest of Aragorn
Bilbo Baggins, Frodo's cousin[note 2]
Thoden, King of Rohan, ally of Gondor
omer, the 3rd Marshal of the Mark and Thoden's nephew. Later King of Rohan after T
hoden's death.
owyn, sister of omer, who disguises herself as a male warrior named Dernhelm to fi
ght beside Thoden
Treebeard, oldest of the Ents
Antagonists:
Sauron, the Dark Lord and titular Lord of the Rings, a fallen Maia who helped th
e Elves forge the Rings of Power in the Second Age.
The Nazgl or Ringwraiths, men enslaved by Sauron when they accepted his treachero
us gifts of Rings of Power
The Witch-king of Angmar, the Lord of the Nazgl, and Sauron's most powerful serva
nt, who commands Sauron's army
Saruman the White, a wizard who seeks the One Ring for himself. Originally the c
hief of the order of wizards of which Gandalf is also a member;[12] corrupted by
Sauron through the palantr.
Grma Wormtongue, a secret servant of Saruman and traitor to Rohan, who poisons Tho
den's perceptions with well placed "advice"
Gollum, a river hobbit originally named Smagol
Shelob, a giant spider who dwells in the passes above Minas Morgul
Durin's Bane, a Balrog dwelling beneath the Mines of Moria
Concept and creation[edit]
Background[edit]
The Lord of the Rings started as a sequel to J. R. R. Tolkien's work The Hobbit,
published in 1937.[13] The popularity of The Hobbit had led George Allen & Unwi
n, the publishers, to request a sequel. Tolkien warned them that he wrote quite
slowly, and responded with several stories he had already developed. Having reje
cted his contemporary drafts for The Silmarillion, putting on hold Roverandom, a
nd accepting Farmer Giles of Ham, Allen & Unwin thought more stories about hobbi
ts would be popular.[14] So at the age of 45, Tolkien began writing the story th
at would become The Lord of the Rings. The story would not be finished until 12
years later, in 1949, and would not be fully published until 1955, when Tolkien
was 63 years old.
Writing[edit]
Persuaded by his publishers, he started "a new Hobbit" in December 1937.[13] Aft
er several false starts, the story of the One Ring emerged. The idea for the fir
st chapter ("A Long-Expected Party") arrived fully formed, although the reasons
behind Bilbo's disappearance, the significance of the Ring, and the title The Lo
rd of the Rings did not arrive until the spring of 1938.[13] Originally, he plan
ned to write a story in which Bilbo had used up all his treasure and was looking
for another adventure to gain more; however, he remembered the Ring and its pow
ers and thought that would be a better focus for the new work.[13] As the story
progressed, he also brought in elements from 'The Silmarillion' mythology.[15]
Writing was slow, because Tolkien had a full-time academic position, and needed
to earn further money as a university examiner.[16] Tolkien abandoned The Lord o
f the Rings during most of 1943 and only restarted it in April 1944,[13] as a se
rial for his son Christopher Tolkien, who was sent chapters as they were written
while he was serving in South Africa with the Royal Air Force. Tolkien made ano
ther concerted effort in 1946, and showed the manuscript to his publishers in 19
47.[13] The story was effectively finished the next year, but Tolkien did not co
mplete the revision of earlier parts of the work until 1949.[13] The original ma
nuscripts, which total 9,250 pages, now reside in the J.R.R. Tolkien Collection
at Marquette University.[17]
Influences[edit]
The corner of a street with a public house called The Ivy Bush on the right side
. In the background two tall brick towers can be seen further left.
Mentioned at the beginning of The Lord of the Rings, the Ivy Bush[18] is the clo
sest public house to Birmingham Oratory which Tolkien attended while living near
Edgbaston Reservoir. Perrott's Folly is nearby.
Main article: J. R. R. Tolkien's influences
The influence of the Welsh language, which Tolkien had learnt, is summarised in
his essay English and Welsh: "If I may once more refer to my work. The Lord of t
he Rings, in evidence: the names of persons and places in this story were mainly
composed on patterns deliberately modelled on those of Welsh (closely similar b
ut not identical). This element in the tale has given perhaps more pleasure to m
ore readers than anything else in it."[19]
The Lord of the Rings developed as a personal exploration by Tolkien of his inte
rests in philology, religion (particularly Roman Catholicism[20]), fairy tales,
Norse and general Germanic mythology,[21][22] and also Celtic,[23] Slavic,[24][2
5][26] Persian,[27] Greek,[28] and Finnish mythology.[29] Tolkien acknowledged,
and external critics have verified, the influences of George MacDonald and Willi
am Morris[30] and the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf.[31] The question of a direct inf
luence of Wagner's The Nibelung's Ring on Tolkien's work is debated by critics.
Tolkien included neither any explicit religion nor cult in his work. Rather the
themes, moral philosophy, and cosmology of The Lord of the Rings reflect his Cat
holic worldview. In one of his letters Tolkien states, "The Lord of the Rings is
of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at firs
t, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut o
ut, practically all references to anything like 'religion', to cults or practice
s, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story
and the symbolism."[20]
Some locations and characters were inspired by Tolkien's childhood in Birmingham
, where he first lived near Sarehole Mill, and later near Edgbaston Reservoir.[3
2] There are also hints of the Black Country, which is within easy reach of nort
h west Edgbaston. This shows in such names as "Underhill", and the description o
f Saruman's industrialisation of Isengard and The Shire. It has also been sugges
ted that The Shire and its surroundings were based on the countryside around Sto
nyhurst College in Lancashire where Tolkien frequently stayed during the 1940s.[
33] The work was influenced by the effects of his military service during World
War I, to the point that Frodo has been "diagnosed" as suffering from Posttrauma
tic Stress Disorder, or "shell-shock," which was first diagnosed at the Battle o
f the Somme, at which Tolkien served.[34]
Publication history[edit]
A dispute with his publisher, George Allen & Unwin, led to the book being offere
d to Collins in 1950. Tolkien intended The Silmarillion (itself largely unrevise
d at this point) to be published along with The Lord of the Rings, but A&U were
unwilling to do this. After Milton Waldman, his contact at Collins, expressed th
e belief that The Lord of the Rings itself "urgently wanted cutting", Tolkien ev
entually demanded that they publish the book in 1952.[35] Collins did not; and s
o Tolkien wrote to Allen and Unwin, saying, "I would gladly consider the publica
author David Brin have interpreted the work to hold unquestioning devotion to a
traditional elitist social structure.[72] In his essay "Epic Pooh", science fic
tion and fantasy author Michael Moorcock critiques the world-view displayed by t
he book as deeply conservative, in both the 'paternalism' of the narrative voice
and the power-structures in the narrative.[73] Tom Shippey cites the origin of
this portrayal of evil as a reflection of the prejudices of European middle-clas
ses during the inter-war years towards the industrial working class.[74]
Other observers have cited Christian and Catholic themes in The Lord of the Ring
s.[75]
The book has been read as fitting the model of Joseph Campbell's "monomyth".[76]
Adaptations[edit]
Main article: Adaptations of The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings has been adapted for film, radio and stage.
The book has been adapted for radio four times. In 1955 and 1956, the BBC broadc
ast The Lord of the Rings, a 12-part radio adaptation of the story. In the 1960s
radio station WBAI produced a short radio adaptation. A 1979 dramatization of T
he Lord of the Rings was broadcast in the United States and subsequently issued
on tape and CD. In 1981, the BBC broadcast The Lord of the Rings, a new dramatiz
ation in 26 half-hour instalments. This dramatization of The Lord of the Rings h
as subsequently been made available on both tape and CD both by the BBC and othe
r publishers. For this purpose it is generally edited into 13 one-hour episodes.
Two film adaptations of the book have been made. The first was J. R. R. Tolkien'
s The Lord of the Rings (1978), by animator Ralph Bakshi,[77] the first part of
what was originally intended to be a two-part adaptation of the story; it covers
The Fellowship of the Ring and part of The Two Towers. A three-issue comic book
version of the movie was also published in Europe (but not printed in English),
with illustrations by Luis Bermejo. When Bakshi's investors shied away of finan
cing the second film that would complete the story, the remainder of the story w
as covered in an animated television special by Rankin-Bass. Stylistically, the
two segments are very different. The second and more critically and commercially
successful adaptation was Peter Jackson's live action The Lord of the Rings fil
m trilogy, produced by New Line Cinema and released in three instalments as The
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The
Two Towers (2002), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). Al
l three parts won multiple Academy Awards, including consecutive Best Picture no
minations. The final instalment of this trilogy was the second film to break the
one-billion-dollar barrier and won a total of 11 Oscars (something only two oth
er films in history, Ben-Hur and Titanic, have accomplished), including Best Pic
ture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
The Hunt for Gollum, a fan film based on elements of the appendices to The Lord
of the Rings, was released on the internet in May 2009 and has been covered in m
ajor media.[78]
Born of Hope, written by Paula DiSante, directed by Kate Madison, and released i
n December 2009, is a fan film based upon the appendices of The Lord of the Ring
s.[79]
In 1990, Recorded Books published an audio version of The Lord of the Rings,[80]
who had previously starred in his own one-man sta
with British actor Rob Inglis
ge productions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
reading. A large-scale mu
sical theatre adaptation, The Lord of the Rings was first staged in Toronto, Ont
ario, Canada in 2006 and opened in London in May 2007.
Legacy[edit]
Main article: Works inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien
Influences on the fantasy genre[edit]
The enormous popularity of Tolkien's epic saga greatly expanded the demand for f
antasy fiction. Largely thanks to The Lord of the Rings, the genre flowered thro
ughout the 1960s, and enjoys popularity to the present day. The opus has spawned
many imitators, such as The Sword of Shannara, which Lin Carter called "the sin
gle most cold-blooded, complete rip-off of another book that I have ever read".[
81] Dungeons & Dragons, which popularized the role-playing game (RPG) genre in t
he 1970s, features many races found in The Lord of the Rings, most notably halfl
ings (another term for hobbits), elves (who are distinct from dark elves, follow
ing Tolkien's example), dwarves, half-elves, orcs, and dragons. However, Gary Gy
gax, lead designer of the game, maintained that he was influenced very little by
The Lord of the Rings, stating that he included these elements as a marketing m
ove to draw on the popularity the work enjoyed at the time he was developing the
game.[82]
Because D&D has gone on to influence many popular role-playing video games, the
influence of The Lord of the Rings extends to many of them as well, with titles
such as Dragon Quest,[83][84] the Ultima series , EverQuest, the Warcraft series
, and the Elder Scrolls series of games[85] as well as video games set in Middle
-earth itself.
Research also suggests that some consumers of fantasy games derive their motivat
ion from trying to create an epic fantasy narrative which is influenced by The L
ord of the Rings.[86]
Music[edit]
In 1965, songwriter Donald Swann, who was best known for his collaboration with
Michael Flanders as Flanders & Swann, set six poems from The Lord of the Rings a
nd one from The Adventures of Tom Bombadil ("Errantry") to music. When Swann met
with Tolkien to play the songs for his approval, Tolkien suggested for "Namri" (G
aladriel's lament) a setting reminiscent of plain chant, which Swann accepted.[8
7] The songs were published in 1967 as The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle,[88]
and a recording of the songs performed by singer William Elvin with Swann on pia
no was issued that same year by Caedmon Records as Poems and Songs of Middle Ear
th.[89]
In 1988, Dutch composer and trombonist Johan de Meij completed his Symphony No.
1 "The Lord of the Rings", which encompassed 5 movements, titled "Gandalf", "Lot
hlrien", "Gollum", "Journey in the Dark", and "Hobbits". In 1989 the symphony was
awarded the Sudler Composition Award, awarded biennially for best wind band com
position. The Danish Tolkien Ensemble have released a number of albums that feat
ure the complete poems and songs of The Lord of the Rings set to music, with som
e featuring recitation by Christopher Lee.
Rock bands of the 1970s were musically and lyrically inspired by the fantasy emb
racing counter-culture of the time; British 70s rock band Led Zeppelin recorded
several songs that contain explicit references to The Lord of the Rings ("Ramble
On", "The Battle of Evermore", and "Over the Hills and Far Away"). In 1970, the
Swedish musician Bo Hansson released an instrumental concept album based on the
book titled Sagan om ringen (translated as "The Saga of the Ring", which was th
e title of the Swedish translation of The Lord of the Rings at the time).[90] Th
e album was subsequently released internationally as Music Inspired by Lord of t
he Rings in 1972.[90] The songs "Rivendell" and "The Necromancer" by the progres
sive rock band Rush were inspired by Tolkien. Styx also paid homage to Tolkien o
n their "Pieces of Eight" album with the song "Lords of the Ring," while Black S
abbath's song, "The Wizard", which appeared on their debut album, was influenced
by Tolkien's hero, Gandalf. The heavy metal band Cirith Ungol took their name f
rom a mountain pass in Middle-earth. Progressive rock group Camel paid homage to
the text in their lengthy composition "Nimrodel/The Procession/The White Rider"
, and Progressive rock band Barclay James Harvest was inspired by the character
Galadriel to write a song by that name, and used "Bombadil", the name of another
character, as a pseudonym under which their 1972 single "Breathless"/"When the
City Sleeps" was released; there are other references scattered through the BJH
oeuvre.
Later, from the 1980s to the present day, many heavy metal acts have been influe
nced by Tolkien. Blind Guardian has written many songs relating to Middle-earth,
including the full concept album Nightfall in Middle Earth. Almost all of Summo
ning's songs and the entire discography of Battlelore are Tolkien-themed. Gorgor
oth and Amon Amarth take their names from an area of Mordor, and Burzum take the
ir name from the Black Speech of Mordor. The Finnish metal band Nightwish and th
e Norwegian metal band Tristania have also incorporated many Tolkien references
into their music. A Swedish metal band, Sabaton, based their song "Shadows" on t
he nine ring wraiths.[91] American heavy metal band Megadeth released two song t
itled This Day We Fight! and How the Story Ends which were both inspired by the
Lord of the Rings series, particularly Aragorn's speech in the third film for th
e latter song.[92]
Enya wrote an instrumental piece called "Lothlrien" in 1991, and composed two son
gs for the film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring "May It Be" (sun
g in English and Quenya) and "Anron" (sung in Sindarin).
Impact on popular culture[edit]
"Welcome to Hobbiton" sign in Matamata, New Zealand, where the film trilogy was
shot.
The Lord of the Rings has had a profound and wide-ranging impact on popular cult
ure, beginning with its publication in the 1950s, but especially throughout the
1960s and 1970s, during which time young people embraced it as a countercultural
saga.[93] "Frodo Lives!" and "Gandalf for President" were two phrases popular a
mongst United States Tolkien fans during this time.[94]
Parodies like the Harvard Lampoon's Bored of the Rings, the VeggieTales episode
"Lord of the Beans", the South Park episode "The Return of the Fellowship of the
Ring to the Two Towers", the Futurama film "Bender's Game", The Adventures of J
immy Neutron: Boy Genius episode "Lights! Camera! Danger!", The Big Bang Theory
episode "The Precious Fragmentation", and the American Dad! episode "The Return
of the Bling" are testimony to the work's continual presence in popular culture.
In 1969, Tolkien sold the merchandising rights to The Lord of The Rings (and The
Hobbit) to United Artists under an agreement stipulating a lump sum payment of 1
0,000[95] plus a 7.5% royalty after costs,[96] payable to Allen & Unwin and the
author.[97] In 1976, three years after the author's death, United Artists sold t
he rights to Saul Zaentz Company, who now trade as Tolkien Enterprises. Since th
en all "authorized" merchandise has been signed-off by Tolkien Enterprises, alth
ough the intellectual property rights of the specific likenesses of characters a
nd other imagery from various adaptations is generally held by the adaptors.[98]
Outside any commercial exploitation from adaptations, from the late 1960s onwar
ds there has been an increasing variety of original licensed merchandise, from p
osters and calendars created by illustrators such as Pauline Baynes and the Brot
hers Hildebrandt, to figurines and miniatures to computer, video, tabletop and r
ole-playing games. Recent examples include the Spiel des Jahres award winning (f
or best use of literature in a game) board game The Lord of the Rings by Reiner
Knizia and the Golden Joystick award-winning massively multiplayer online role-p
laying game, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar by Turbine, Inc..
The Lord of the Rings has been mentioned in numerous songs including The Ballad
of Bilbo Baggins by Leonard Nimoy, Led Zeppelin's Misty Mountain Hop, Over the H
ills and Far Away, Ramble On, and The Battle of Evermore, Genesis' song "Stagnat
ion" (from Trespass, 1970) was about Gollum, and Argent included the song "Lothl
orien" on the 1971 album Ring of Hands.
Steve Peregrin Took (born Stephen Ross Porter) of British rock band T. Rex took
his name from the hobbit Peregrin Took (better known as Pippin). Took later reco
rded under the pseudonym 'Shagrat the Vagrant', before forming a band called Sha
grat in 1970.
See also[edit]