What Kinds of Questions Does Michael Martinez Answer?

Q: What Kinds of Questions Does Michael Martinez Answer?

ANSWER: In June 2017 one of our long-time readers submitted this series of questions:

I wonder whether there is a reason why almost all of your questions are about the lore of the books. Do you have a personal policy to stick with that kind of stuff? I’d like to hear your thoughts on the way the Tolkien Estate is handling everything right now.

You are, if I’m reading you correctly, probably someone who is okay with people expanding on Tolkien’s works to create their own take on it. Would you wish for a more liberal approach by the Tolkien Estate? Would you want to see the rights of Silmarillion, for example, fall into someone’s hands?

I don’t have a written policy although I do have some mental guidelines I follow when answering questions. But the vast majority of questions that people submit are concerned with the books. It could be that people see so many questions about the books answered on this blog they don’t think of questions about the movies. And yet, truth be told, some of the most popular articles on this blog really are movie-related questions (which is not to say the book-based questions are not popular).

Here are a few examples of movie-based questions I have addressed in the past:

• Why Did Peter Jackson Change Azog from the Book?
• Is Tauriel in the Book, The Hobbit?
• Why Did Saruman’s Uruk-hai Come Out of Pods?
• Why Is Azog Called the White Orc?
• Why Did Thranduil Refuse to Help the Dwarves of Erebor?
• How Is Thranduil Different from the Book?

Those questions fall in the top 20-30 posts on the blog (going back to late November 2012). I think the movies are fairly well covered in the topics I address, but it’s up to all of you to decide which questions are submitted.

Admittedly, when I am not feeling well (which has been a chronic problem since the beginning of 2017, probably because I was affected by the smoke from some very bad wildfires) I tend to choose questions that require less research. So one reason why it takes me more than a year to get to some questions is that I just cannot find time to do justice for them. I usually receive new questions when I publish a new article. So if I answer a question about the movies people probably ask more movie-related questions soon afterward. And if I answer a question about the books, people are more likely to ask book-related questions.

In terms of how I decide, well, the oldest question in the queue is about Maiar. It’s actually several questions (as yours is) bound together, starting with how many Maiar were on the “good” and “bad” sides (short answer: I have no idea – that will take time to research). I chose to answer this question because it was after midnight and I need to get the article written as quickly as possible to meet my self-appointed Monday morning publishing deadline.

As for the Tolkien Estate, I don’t know any more about their policies than has been publicly shared by various Tolkien scholars who have worked with them through the years. And also Christopher Tolkien’s occasional disclosures. He certainly resisted, if not outright opposed, the creative additions to his father’s works that have appeared over the past few decades. I think the attention that the movies received may have made him feel like his father’s work was being overshadowed. I’m not sure that was true, but his antipathy toward the movies was well-known.

Many people have submitted projects to the Tolkien Estate through the years. Most of the projects, I am told, are either rejected or ignored. The people who don’t receive any response at all may eventually turn to the other licensor (Middle-earth Enterprises, which is owned by the Saul Zaentz Company). Even there, I hear a lot of proposals are rejected.

A professional book packager who had worked with Dean Koontz and some other big names approached me and a major, well-known Tolkien artist some years ago to produce a book about Middle-earth. He wanted us to create a visual guide to Middle-earth unlike anything previously attempted (and to date no one has published anything similar to his proposal). The artist had already worked with the Tolkien Estate. While I have never worked with the Tolkien Estate, I did do some research for Weta (as I have mentioned before). On the advice of some Tolkien scholars who have worked with the Tolkien Estate, I never attempted to get a paying consultancy associated with the movies (one was offered) for fear that might alienate the Tolkien Estate. But we’ll never know if any of that mattered. The book proposal never got off the ground.

So, on the basis of hearsay and my own limited experience I can only say that the competition for authorized projects is very intense and both the Tolkien Estate and Middle-earth Enterprises can cherry-pick whatever works they want to greenlight. It certainly helps to know someone who can help get you in the door, in my opinion, but I’ve spoken with people who not only know someone but had met members of the Tolkien family and their projects went nowhere.

Am I Okay with People Expanding Tolkien’s World?

Yes and no.

Yes — in the sense that I cannot stop it so I’m not going to waste any energy trying to. And yes, in the sense that some people strive to be very faithful to Tolkien’s ideas while adding to them. Of course, their elaborations don’t in any way represent Tolkien’s work to me. But I appreciate their creativity and, in some cases, genius in extrapolating ideas Tolkien might have considered.

No — in the sense that I am appalled by some of the extravagant and unnecessary inventions people attach to Tolkien’s world (like pointed elf ears, which Tolkien never included in any story or illustration).

Would I Wish for a More Liberal Approach by the Tolkien Estate?

“Would you want to see the rights of Silmarillion, for example, fall into someone’s hands?”

Probably not. I can’t imagine how anyone could “fix” it (and it’s very broken, as Christopher pointed out when it was first published). So while a lot of Peter Jackson fans are hoping he’ll one day get a chance to do some Silmarillion movies or something, I’m not eager to see anyone do them.

Now, that said, I wouldn’t mind seeing some movies based on the “Great Tales of Middle-earth” (Beren and Luthien, Turin Turambar, and Earendil). I think those stories could be done better than, say, “The Lord of the Rings”, which was very weak in the end (I have always felt the first movie was the best). If you don’t have to carry the story into three movies, but have to get from point A to point B in about two hours, then maybe those would be the best stories to tell. But I’m no screenwriter. I don’t feel The Hobbit should have been a one-movie project, but I was bothered by all the filler just like other people were. So I’m not convinced my ideas for films would be workable.

FOR FAN FICTION WRITERS AND GAMERS

I have always supported your enthusiasm for exploring Middle-earth outside of Tolkien’s books. Who would not want to venture into Middle-earth, if we had the chance? You cannot stop at the door with your fannish enthusiasm. You have to cross over the threshold and see where the Road takes you. For some people, that leads to fan fiction. For others it leads to role-playing games. And for a fortunate few it leads to new books, movies, plays, and convention programming.

I wouldn’t stop any of that for the world. I can live with the pointed elf ears and celebrating Bilbo and Frodo’s birthday on the wrong calendar date. And I’ll keep taking your questions, as long as you want me to answer them as best I can. Middle-earth is larger than any of us and big enough for all of us.

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Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?

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