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Lord of the Rings on Film

Lesson 8: The Extended Versions and Wrap Up

Reading The Lord of the Rings itself is of course the best way to find out more about the events and background of the film; however, without reading The Simarillion for background, some of the references in LOTR will not make sense. These are largely the songs and stories told by characters such as Aragorn and as such sre not strictly essential to understanding the plot of LOTR, but if you would like to explore Middle-earth and its history reading The Simarillion is necessary. The Hobbit is also interesting to see how events, particularly the finding of the Ring and the portrayal of Gandalf, were shown before Tolkien himself realised that the Ring was more significant than anyone had previously thought (it was about seventy seven years before even Gandalf knew that this was the One Ring).

Books on Tolkien are abundant, as a search on Amazon or Barnes and Noble will show. Tolkien studies range from academic examinations of Tolkien’s languages to books examining how computer graphics were used to create Gollum in the films. Websites and forums are also very extensive – check out the links section of this course. It is also interesting to read the transcripts of the film scripts themselves – these can be found on sites such as the Council of Elrond: www.councilofelrond.com. Another very useful site is the Encyclopedia of Arda: http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/default.htm, which provides brief information on every aspect of Tolkien imaginable. This site offers a CD of the full encyclopedia, but the online version provides enough detail to start with. Happy reading!

Thank you for taking this course -- I hope you enjoyed it. Cuio nin mellon ar’ cuio mae!

Bibliography

Peter Jackson (dir.), The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Extended Editions), New Line Cinema, 2002-2005.

Tolkien, J.R.R., The Hobbit. Harper Collins, 1991.

Tolkien, J.R.R., The Lord of the Rings. Houghton Mifflin, 2001.

Tolkien, J.R.R., The Simarillion. Harper Collins, 1994.