J. R. R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973) is the author of The Hobbit and its sequel The Lord of the Rings.

Art based on Tolkien's works

See also Works inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien.

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In a 1951 letter to Milton Waldman (Letters 131), Tolkien writes about his intentions to create a "body of more or less connected legend", of which

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:The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama.

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The hands and minds of many artists have indeed been inspired by Tolkien's legends. Personally known to him were Pauline Baynes (Tolkien's favourite illustrator of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Farmer Giles of Ham) and Donald Swann (who set the music to The Road Goes Ever On). Queen Margrethe II of Denmark created illustrations to the Lord of the Rings in the early 1970s. She sent them to Tolkien, who was struck by the similarity to the style of his own drawings.

Related Topics:
Pauline Baynes - The Adventures of Tom Bombadil - Farmer Giles of Ham - Donald Swann - The Road Goes Ever On - Margrethe II of Denmark - 1970s

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But Tolkien was not fond of all the artistic representation of his works that were produced in his lifetime, and was sometimes harshly disapproving.

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In 1946 (Letters, 107), he rejects suggestions for illustrations by Horus Engels for the German edition of the Hobbit as "too Disnified",

Related Topics:
1946 - Disnified

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:Bilbo with a dribbling nose, and Gandalf as a figure of vulgar fun rather than the Odinic wanderer that I think of.

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He was sceptical of the emerging fandom in the United States, and in 1954 he returned proposals for the dust-jackets of the American edition of the Lord of the Rings (Letters, 144):

Related Topics:
Fandom - United States - 1954

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:Thank you for sending me the projected 'blurbs', which I return. The Americans are not as a rule at all amenable to criticism or correction; but I think their effort is so poor that I feel constrained to make some effort to improve it.

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And in 1958, in an irritated reaction to a proposed movie adaptation of the Lord of the Rings by Morton Grady Zimmerman (Letters, 207) he writes

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:I would ask them to make an effort of imagination sufficient to understand the irritation (and on occasion the resentment) of an author, who finds, increasingly as he proceeds, his work treated as it would seem carelessly in general, in places recklessly, and with no evident signs of any appreciation of what it is all about.

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He went on to criticize the script scene by scene ("yet one more scene of screams and rather meaningless slashings"). But Tolkien was in principle open to the idea of a movie adaptation. He sold the film, stage and merchandise rights of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to United Artists in 1968, while, guided by scepticism towards future productions, he forbade that Disney should ever be involved (Letters, 13, 1937):

Related Topics:
United Artists - 1968 - Disney - 1937

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:It might be advisable to let the Americans do what seems good to them – as long as it was possible to veto anything from or influenced by the Disney studios (for all whose works I have a heartfelt loathing).

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United Artists never made a film, though at least John Boorman was planning a film in the early seventies. It would have been a live-action film, which apparently would have been much more to Tolkien's liking than an animated film. In 1976 the rights were sold to Tolkien Enterprises, a division of the Saul Zaentz Company, and the first movie adaptation (an animated rotoscoping film) of The Lord of the Rings appeared only after Tolkien's death (in 1978, directed by Ralph Bakshi). This first adaptation, however, only contained the first half of the story that is The Lord of the Rings. In 1977 an animated TV production of The Hobbit was made by Rankin-Bass. In 2001–2003 The Lord of the Rings was filmed in full and as a live-action film as a trilogy of films by Peter Jackson.

Related Topics:
John Boorman - 1976 - Tolkien Enterprises - Saul Zaentz - Rotoscoping - 1978 - Ralph Bakshi - 1977 - Rankin-Bass - 2001 - 2003 - Trilogy of films - Peter Jackson

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