Issue 28 of Other Hands arrived today and I eagerly opened it because I’d been looking forward to some articles I had heard were coming. Jeff Erwin wrote about the Tatyarin Avari (those Elves from the second clan who did not go to Aman with their kindred, the Noldor). Thomas Morwisnky composed a history for Mount Gundabad. And David Salo provided a history of the Nandor, those Elves who turned away from the Great Journey in the Vales of Anduin. From them came the Green-elves of Ossiriand and (in part, at least) the Silvan Elves of Mirkwood and Lorien.
But Salo also provided an extremely lengthy, detailed grammar and dictionary for Silvan Elvish. The dictionary includes an English index to the Elvish words. Salo’s work is extraordinary (and prefaced by a clear note disclaiming any direct derivation from the works of J.R.R. Tolkien). But he is not the first linguist to advance extensions to Tolkien’s Elven languages. Anthony Appelyard proposed some extensions to Quenya several years ago.
Salo and Appleyard are both knowledgeable enough about language and Tolkien’s languages in particular that their efforts receive serious attention from other Tolkien researchers. Tolkien linguistic research has long been available on the World Wide Web. It’s a challenging field of study for most people, but seems to be growing in popularity.
The study of Tolkien’s history has given rise to a yet broader, if less fully developed, field of study. There are too many Tolkien and Middle-earth Web sites too adequately discuss them all here, but many Webmasters enjoy recapitulating the broader history of Middle-earth as a way of introducing people who may not have read the books to Tolkien’s imaginary secondary world.
A few of us go an extra step and actually strive to document the pseudo-history as much as possible. My own collection of essays, Parma Endorion: Essays on Middle-earth, Revised Edition has been available for several years and I am proud to say it has been used as a research source by students around the world, ranging from high school (or secondary school) students to Ph.D. candidates. And Parma Endorion represents only the tip of the iceberg for my own research. I hope one day to publish an extremely detailed study of the pseudo-history of Middle-earth.
Although many great works of literature give rise to serious fields of scholarship, what is unusual about Tolkien’s works is that they have given rise to three areas of scholarship: the literary field, which has languished in recent years, except for Christopher Tolkien’s History of Middle-earth series; the linguistic field, which has always seemed the province of a select few to most fans; and the historical field. Tolkien historians have a wealth of information to sift through and study, and the field probably won’t slow down for years to come. There is simply so much that Tolkien wrote about Middle-earth, comprehending it all is an incredible task. I’m not sure anyone will learn it all in one lifetime.
Tolkien researchers have produced some interesting and sometimes debilitating work through the years. Early literary criticisms often display a complete lack of understanding of Tolkien’s world and his characters. One easily gets the impression early critics were rushing to battle without fully preparing themselves, and may have read The Lord of the Rings only once before sitting down at the typewriter and composing the Final Word in Tolkien Criticism. Later generations of critics have been more careful than their predecessors, and seem to have a better understanding of Tolkien’s world and sources.
The linguists have suffered a sort of “black eye” through the publication (and reprinting) of several books on Tolkien’s languages which have just not met the rigorous standards of the small but steadfast Tolkien researchers. One book in particular has been reviled by Tolkien fans as a “book of horrors” because it contains a great deal of erroneous and/or outdated information.
The historians fare no better. What’s worse, we take it on the chin from multiple sources: gaming systems, artists, and alleged Tolkien historians have produced a horde of simply awful and poorly researched models for Tolkien’s world. Some authors appear to go so far as to make up their own facts. Their extrapolations are regarded as pure fantasy, and the books they produce are better regarded as new works of fiction rather than critical or referential works. David Day is considered to be one of the worst Tolkien historians ever to find a publisher, but J.E.A. Tyler’s Tolkien Companion contained so many wrong guesses and errors of fact that his vision of Middle-earth little resembled Tolkien’s. Tyler, at least, rushed a revised edition to print when The Silmarillion was published so as to correct most of his nonsense. But the damage was done.
The most reputable reference work available is Robert Foster’s The Complete Guide To Middle-earth. This book started out as a series of articles in the fanzine Niekas (no longer published, so far as I know) in the 1960s. Foster produced A Guide To Middle-earth in the early 1970s, and it was an adequate glossary for The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Road Goes Ever On, and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. The Guide included some privately acquired information but was very dedicated to the task of using only primary sources.
When The Silmarillion was published in 1977 Foster revised and expanded the Guide and a wealth of new information was collated in the glossary. He also included some additional sources, such as Pauline Baynes’ Map of Middle-earth (from 1969 — she consulted Tolkien on its content, but it’s now virtually impossible to find a copy) and Clyde Kilby’s Tolkien and the Silmarillion. Foster did include some speculations in this edition, although he mostly kept them clear of the main text. His chronology for the First Age was the first attempt by anyone (other than J.R.R. Tolkien himself) to actually produce a table of events similar to the “Tale of Years” in Appendix B of The Lord of the Rings. The dates he suggests turned out to be remarkably close to the “actual” dates which were published many years later in Morgoth’s Ring and The War of the Jewels, the 10th and 11th volumes in The History of Middle-earth.
Sadly, Foster’s books are no longer really useful for the Tolkien historian, as much more information has been published by Christopher Tolkien through Unfinished Tales and the History series. Combing these works for new and relevant data is a bit like performing literary archaeology. The author revised and recanted so much of his work that the greatest peril for the Tolkien historian is to accept as canonical something which was rejected, or to ignore a vital piece of information which seems to be superfluous.
But though new secondary books have appeared throughout the 1980s and 1990s, much of the Tolkien “canon” has been regarded as inviolate, sacred territory by purists in the fannish community. Less authoritative works such as the various Middle-earth games which have been produced through the years have diluted the fan community’s knowledge of Tolkien’s world by introducing extensions to the histories and languages. These games don’t do as much harm as, say, a disreputable reference book, however, because the information they provide is at least relevant to the games themselves. And the writers for the most widely distributed game, Iron Crown Enterprises’ Middle-Earth Role-Playing (discontinued in September 1999 along with a card-playing game of which 2,000,000 copies had been distributed), began to benefit from the information published by Christopher Tolkien in recent years.
ICE actually recruited new writers who were more knowledgeable in Tolkien’s world than the first generation of MERP module writers. I’ve had the chance to consult with some of these writers and their knowledge of Tolkien’s geography, history, cultures, and languages is quite impressive. Several of them have contributed articles to Other Hands (which was created as a supplement to MERP gaming, but has also published serious Tolkien research through the years as well).
Writing background material for a gaming system, however, requires that one extend Tolkien’s world. As much as he devised in the way of characters, peoples, and cultures, Tolkien only scratched the surface of the needs for a fully detailed gaming world. It is therefore incumbent upon any gaming system to provide a broad base of information which cannot come from Tolkien’s works or the posthumously published sources that Christopher Tolkien and others have made available. In short, the gaming systems have boldly extended Middle-earth in directions many people did not want it to go (I myself was appalled to lurk on a conversation by a group of ardent gamers who felt Tharbad should be a veritable thieves’ den).
Some people have been completely blown away by the creativity which has all but buried the original works. “How can this be happening?” I’ve heard many a purist demand in anger. Well, the answer is quite simple. Tolkien sold the rights years before he died. Not the rights to produce new books in his world (new stories are verboten, and should remain the realm of fan fiction until the copyrights expire in another 40-50 years, although Marion Zimmer Bradley did write two stories about Arwen). The rights J.R.R. Tolkien sold were the film rights for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He had decided, after a bitter experience with an attempt to bring LOTR to film in the late 1950s, to settle for Art or Cash.
Well, he never got the Art, so he went for the Cash. And the rights ended up in the hands of Saul Zaentz, who still controls them (through Tolkien Enterprises {now Middle-earth Enterprises}, a division of the Saul Zaentz Company). Tolkien Enterprises, as part of the great merchandising movement started by Georga Lucas with Star Wars in the 1970s, has been crafting merchandising deals with various companies for around 20 years now. They don’t just license movies any more, they license everything. In fact, most of the Tolkien-related trademarks are owned by Tolkien Enterprises, not the Tolkien Estate.
The merchandising licensees are prohibited from using material outside The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Although some fans might feel that’s a blessing, it’s also the reason why so much of the material has fallen away from the right hands. When I agreed last year to answer some discreet questions for a company engaged in a currently highly visible Tolkien-related project, I recommended they use some of the material in The History of Middle-earth. I was told they couldn’t do that.
They didn’t have the rights to that material. So a very special aspect of Tolkien’s world will not be reflected in the highly visible project, and it’s only because the rights to use the material are not there. I’ve no doubt fans will look at this project, when it is completed, and say bad things about some of the exclusions. But in some cases their hands were tied, though their hearts were in the right places.
The spirit of commercialization does sometimes interject its views into Tolkien-related development. The much anticipated online game that was being developed by Sierra Games last year (and I’d provide a link to the Web site, but it has been shut down for now) was temporarily discontinued, reportedly due to differences of opinion between the designers (who wanted to be as faithful to Tolkien as the constraints of a 10,000-player-per-server Internet game would allow) and new management, who allegedly felt the game should have “more mass market appeal”.
We on the outside of the wheeling and dealing will never know exactly what happened, although one finds it hard to imagine that Tolkien’s world — represented by more than 100,000,000 books which have been sold through the decades — lacks “mass market appeal”. Sierra dispersed or released the entire development team, but they announced they would be putting a new team together (perhaps one less concerned about being faithful to Tolkien — but here’s hoping they’ll take the time to read the books before getting started).
Several people (not affiliated with Sierra) asked me if I’d be interested in working with the new development team. My answer is: I’m not sure. I guess it depends on whether they have any use for a Tolkien purist who keeps the books close to hand and seldom writes on the subject of Middle-earth without opening at least one volume to check his facts.
I do play a small role in another commercial extension of Tolkien’s world. I write background essays for Toy Vault’s Middle-earth Action Figures (EDITOR’S NOTE: Toy Vault no longer sells these action figures — 2011). Though their license comes from Tolkien Enterprises, Toy Vault’s people are not insensitive to the desires and views of Tolkien purists. They have even actively solicited input from Tolkien fans by making available pre-production art for comment. Unfortunately, their artists and target audience have…certain expectations…which defy all credible logic for us purists, and I’ve found myself standing on the fence concerning more than one issue over Toy Vault’s sometimes controversial designs. There is no lack of love or appreciation of Tolkien at Toy Vault. They just have to deal with market realities.
So, even in the world of action figures we find that Tolkien’s world has been extended. Hence, we get green-skinned Orcs and a Forest Balrog (the packaging for the latter does stipulate it was an extrapolation, not intended to represent an actual creature in the book). Well, I can’t say that Tolkien would have been appalled by a Forest Balrog. Melkor had many servants. The firey Balrogs were a very small minority among them.
I did try to complain about the green-skinned Orc a couple of years ago at a large convention. As I was saying Tolkien’s Orcs weren’t green-skinned, an eager prospective customer came up to the Toy Vault booth, picked up the green-skinned Orc, and said, “Sure they were!” There was really nothing to say after that. The market had spoken, and a shrewd business gives its customers what they want. I do intend to keep writing essays for Toy Vault as long as they wish to keep our contract current, and I complete sets of all the action figures for which I’ve written essays. Even the Forest Balrog.
Many Tolkien purists are expressing increasing alarm at the developments in Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” movies. Some of the alarm strikes me as hype and hysteria (such as the irrational fear that the movies will suddenly lead to a lot of games and action figures being promoted in the stores — look around, people, they’ve been there for years). Some of the alarm is due to people taking rumors a bit too seriously. I report a few rumors myself on The Lord of the Rings Movie / Hobbit Movie Fact/Rumor Roundup, the Web’s oldest dedicated news and rumor site about the upcoming movies. But rumor reporting takes too much time, and quite frankly I have disbelieved most of the rumors I’ve heard. I’ll leave the depth and details to others, thank you. The other sites (such as Theonering.net and Theonering.com) seem to get more publicity than mine anyway. Such is life on the Web.
Nonetheless, Jackson has made changes to the story. Some people say they can live with them, some people are appalled. It’s not like he could have included everything from the books in three movies — but it hurts to know the parts most important to you are being cut, shortened, or somehow blended with other parts. I think the movies will be well-received by general audiences, but I’m sure talk shows and entertainment news reporters will dredge up a few (and probably previously unknown to the rest of us) “experts” who will cast aspersions on the travesty of film adaptations of Truly Great Works of Literaure or deplore the short-sightedness of a “small minority” of the true fans. It’s almost guaranteed that someone will try to manufacture some sort of controversy over the films, but they won’t have to dig hard to find that a few fans are upset.
Will Jackson’s films provide the definitive view of Middle-earth for decades to come? I don’t believe so. They will most likely set a standard for fantasy movie-making and for film adaptations for The Lord of the Rings which will stand for years. But these movies are telling Peter Jackson’s story, which just happens to be about the events portrayed in The Lord of the Rings. What I mean is that every story teller adds his or her own embellishments. Every story teller speaks about the things which are important to him or her. Tolkien put in his embellishments, and he emphasized what was important to him. Jackson’s story will differ by comparison, but the main elements will still be there: hobbits, the Ring, Aragorn’s quest to restore the kingship of his ancestors, Gandalf’s valiant struggle to bring the free peoples of Middle-earth together.
More than 500 versions of the Cinderella story have been published or produced on film since the original Chinese fairy tale made its way to western Europe and the United States. Many fans of “Ever After” argue that it’s the best adaptation yet. I enjoyed the movie myself, and have watched it numerous times, although I still can’t figure out why people in France should all speak with bad British accents. Still, I liked the motif of introducing and ending the story with a meeting between Danielle de Barbarac’s descendant and the Brothers’ Grimm (who first popularized the story). She sums up with, “And though they did live happily ever after, the point, gentlemen, is that they did live.”
Although it’s true we’ve lost sight of the original Chinese story (which may still exist in a few archives), I don’t believe people will ever lose sight of Tolkien’s story. It’s been too widely published. And just the mere announcement of a new series of movies based on The Lord of the Rings spurred an increase in Tolkien book sales. When the movies start hitting the theaters, I’m sure people will start hitting the stores. We may end up with a few more calendars showing bigfooted hobbits, pointy-eared Elves, Medieval castles and towns in a time set 6,000 years ago — but we’ve had all that nonsense for years now anyway. It hasn’t stopped people from reading the books or learning what Tolkien really had in mind.
What has become more and more clear to me in the past few years is that Middle-earth is no longer simply the world that J.R.R. Tolkien created. It’s a large canvas to which many artists have added their perspectives and interpretations of a timeless love for that which never was, and which never shall be, but which has always been with us.
The stories of Middle-earth clearly inspire the imagination. And that to me is the most important aspect of all these games, reference books, movies, and whatnot. Middle-earth is a vibrant, evolving world. I hope to see many more movies based on Tolkien’s works. Please, don’t let it stop here. Not now, when we are so close to validating Middle-earth as a legitimate facet of our cultural heritage. It must go on. It will go on. And the point, my fellow fans, is that it is going on.
This article was originally published on January 28, 2000.
