The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings is an epic fantasy story by J. R. R. Tolkien, a sequel to his earlier work, The Hobbit. It was published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955. Three movie productions have been made, the first, by animator Ralph Bakshi was released in 1978 (as part one of what was originally to be a two-part adaptation of the story), the second being a 1980 television special, and the third being director Peter Jackson's film trilogy released in 2001, 2002, and 2003.

Publication history

The three parts were first published by Allen & Unwin in 1954–1955 several months apart. They were later reissued many times by multiple publishers, as one, three, six or seven volumes. Two current printings are ISBN 0-618-34399-7 (one-volume) and ISBN 0-618-34624-4 (three volume set).

Related Topics:
Allen & Unwin - 1954 - 1955

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In the early 1960s, Donald A. Wollheim, science fiction editor of the paperback publisher Ace Books, realized that The Lord of the Rings was not protected in the United States under American copyright law because the US hardcover edition had been bound from pages printed in the UK for the British edition. Ace Books proceeded to publish an edition, unauthorized by Tolkien and without compensation to him. Tolkien made this plain to US fans who wrote to him. Grass-roots pressure became so great that Ace books withdrew their edition and made a nominal payment to Tolkien, well below what he might have been due in an appropriate publication. However, this poor beginning was overshadowed when an authorized edition followed from Ballantine Books to tremendous commercial success. By the mid-1960s the books, due to their wide exposure on the American public stage, had become a true cultural phenomenon. The Second Edition of the Lord of the Rings dates from this time — Tolkien undertook various textual revisions to produce a version of the book that would have a valid U.S. copyright.

Related Topics:
1960s - Donald A. Wollheim - Science fiction - Ace Books - United States - Copyright - Ballantine Books

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The books have been translated, with various degrees of success, into dozens of other languages.

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Tolkien, an expert in philology, examined many of these translations, and had comments on each that illuminate both the translation process and his work.

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The enormous popular success of Tolkien's epic saga greatly expanded the demand for fantasy fiction. Largely thanks to The Lord of the Rings, the genre flowered throughout the 1960s. Many well-written books of this genre were published (comparable works include the Earthsea books of Ursula K. Le Guin, the Thomas Covenant novels of Stephen R. Donaldson, and in the case of the Gormenghast books by Mervyn Peake, and The Worm Ourobouros by E. R. Eddison, rediscovered. It also strongly influenced the role playing game industry that achieved popularity in the 1970s with Dungeons & Dragons which featured many creatures that could be found in Tolkien's books.

Related Topics:
Fantasy fiction - 1960s - Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin - Thomas Covenant - Novel - Stephen R. Donaldson - Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake - The Worm Ourobouros - E. R. Eddison - Role playing game - 1970 - Dungeons & Dragons

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As in all artistic fields, a great many lesser derivatives of the more prominent works appeared. The term "Tolkienesque" is used in the genre to refer to the oft-used and abused storyline of The Lord of the Rings: a group of adventurers embarking on a quest to save a magical fantasy world from the armies of an evil "dark lord", and is a testament to how much the popularity of these books has increased, since many critics initially decried Lord of the Rings as being "Wagner for children" (a reference to the Ring Cycle) — a specially interesting commentary in light of a possible interpretation of The Lord of The Rings as a Christian response to Wagner, for exemple following ATimes' pseudo-Oswald Spengler.

Related Topics:
Dark lord - Wagner - Ring Cycle

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