The Lord of the Rings - Fanlore

The Lord of the Rings

Name: The Lord of the Rings
Abbreviation(s): LotR, LOTR; FOTR [Fellowship of the Ring], TTT [The Two Towers], ROTK [Return of the King]
Creator: John Ronald Reuel (J. R. R.) Tolkien (1892-1973)
Date(s): 1954-1955 (originally published in three volumes, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King)
Medium: book, film
Country of Origin: England, UK
External Links: Encyclopedia of Arda, Tolkien Gateway, Council of Elrond, WarOfTheRing.net, The One Ring.net (TORn)
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In 1954-55 J.R.R. Tolkien published his epic fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings, divided into three books: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King.[1]

Book Fandom

Letters to and from Tolkien after publication show that many readers became fans very quickly, asking questions about Middle-earth, the characters, and so on.[2]. In the 1960s, many people involved in the hippie counter-culture found resonance in LOTR, and it became not just a best-seller, but a part of the generational identity.[3] Groups of Tolkien admirers formed, including the Mythopeic society, The Tolkien Society, and shorter-lived gatherings, such as the Tolkien Fellowship at Michigan State University.[4]

Many words invented or adapted by Tolkien have become part of fannish vocabulary, including moot, mathom, pipeweed and smial. Fans used LOTR and Tolkien's later publications including the Silmarillion to teach themselves various of Tolkien's Elvish and Dwarvish languages and scripts. [5] [6]

The novel Bored of the Rings, a parody by the co-founders of National Lampoon, was published in 1969, suggesting that anti-fans were also quick to seize on the book.

Music Fandom

Tolkien's writings inspired hundreds, perhaps thousands of musical compositions, from classical[7] to death metal, perhaps most famously by Led Zeppelin.[8] [9] Rush's Geddy Lee and Motorhead's Lenny Kilmister both appeared in the Ringers documentary, talking about Tolkien's influence on them. In 2006, the Lord of the Rings Musical played in Toronto, moving to London for 2007-2008, but was not considered a success. [10]

Aca-fen and Academic Analysis of LOTR

  • Acafen started writing about Tolkien. Some were granted access to Tolkien's unpublished papers, with a resulting conflict between them and those who were not.[11].
  • other stuff here?
  • lit crit and college classes?
  • Semi-pro fans like Michael Martinez

The Line Between Tolkien Fandom and "Serious" Scholarly Studies

No clear dividing line. Some feel it lies with those who embrace the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy but have little awareness of Tolkien's lesser and posthumously published works of both fiction and non-fiction.

J.R.R. Tolkien's View on Fandom

He talked of a "deplorable cultus" and stated that ""Many young Americans are involved in the stories in a way that I'm not" [12]

Online Fandom

  • online fandom started early, by 1993: alt.fan.tolkien and rec.arts.books.tolkien
  • 1992 bibliography

Web Sites

Film Fandoms

  • The zine, Triode #18 (May 1960) contains a letter from J. R. R. Tolkien in response to "No Monroe in Lothlorien", in which he says that based on his experience with scripts and 'story-line' he feels that "only an overwhelming financial reward could possibly compensate an author for the horrors of the conversion of such a tale into film." (Hammond and Scull, The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide - Chronology, p. 557).

Early Animated films

Rankin-Bass: Hobbit and Return of the King: Animated television movies

Ralph Bakshi: The Lord of the Rings Animated film, only the first part was produced

Jackson, Walsh, Boyens: The Lord of the Rings film trilogy

A huge amount of fandom activity is based on these films

Main web site: The One Ring.net (TORn)

Before and during filming

Fan response to films

  • yes line parties for FOTR, inspired by Star Wars [13]
  • FOTR comes out, the hoyay is fabulous, and Arwen gets Glorfindel's rescue
  • Lord of the Rings FPF fanfiction ramps up
  • New Zealand fandom site tours start?
  • Extended DVDs with Fellowship of the Cast and commentaries
  • Actor slash: RPS! much shipping! Lotrips
  • Two Towers, definitely line parties
  • TORn party #1
  • Tinhats
  • Collectormanias and Comic Cons, Ring*Con and cons all over the world
  • ROTK comes out, yet more line parties, premieres, most of New Zealand
  • TORn party #2
  • a zillion Oscars

Continuing Fandom Activity

Fan Works

The Lord of the Rings has inspired a very large and creative fandom with literally thousands of web sites and blogs.

Fan Art

Fanart includes:

Fanfiction

The two broadest categories of fanfiction are FPF: Fictional people fiction, about characters from the books and movies) and RPF: Real people fiction, also known as LOTR RPS or Lotrips, which is fic written about the actors. Although some archives, communities, and challenges include both and some fans read and write both, many fans consider them to be separate fandoms.

Fanfiction Communities

These are some communities that encompass both RPF and FPF. See those pages for more community listings.

Fanzines

While the Lord of the Rings movie fandom is primarily an online fandom, it has seen a fair share of print fanzines along with a robust amount of Doujinshi. You can find listings under List of Lord of the Rings Fanzines as well as by clicking on the LOTR Movie Fanzine Category.

Fanvids


Games

References

  1. ↑ Wikipedia:The Lord of The Rings
  2. ↑ Letters of JRR Tolkien
  3. ↑ Wikipedia:Tolkien fandom#1960s USA
  4. ↑ Personal communication, 2008-10-12
  5. ↑ Elvish Linguistic Fellowship
  6. ↑ Ardalambion (Tolkien's invented languages), The Tolkien Language List
  7. ↑ For example, see The Tolkien Ensemble and Johan de Meij's Symphony No. 1 "Lord of the Rings"
  8. ↑ tolkien-music.com
  9. ↑ Works Inspired by JRR Tolkien - Music
  10. ↑ Wikipedia:The Lord of the Rings (musical)
  11. ↑ Wikipedia:Elfconners
  12. ↑ Quoted in Time Magazine, 2002-12-02
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 The Fellowship of the Ring by Erik Davis, Wired, October 2001.
  14. ↑ Announcement that RPF news will be included, March 27, 2008. (Accessed October 24, 2008.)
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