The Lord of the Rings is arguably the most iconic fantasy series of all time. But what
are the real stories behind author J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved literary classics, and their
cinematic adaptations? This is the untold truth of The Lord of the Rings.
"Well, it began as you might expect. In a hole in the ground, there lived a Hobbit."
As Tolkien explains in his foreword to The Fellowship of the Ring, the tale of The Lord
of the Rings "grew in the telling," with the author discovering more of it as he went along.
This was largely due to the fact that the story had found its beginnings as a sequel
to Tolkien's previously published children's book The Hobbit. The thing is, The Hobbit
was initially supposed to be a one-off thing. In a letter to his publisher, Tolkien discussed
how he was struggling with the sequel to his beloved work, which had only been connected
to his other Middle-earth writings by virtue of an occasional name-drop, or the odd character
crossover appearance — such as Elrond, the son of Earendil the Mariner.
However, the success of The Hobbit led to such demand for more that, eventually, a sequel
became inevitable. Even as the new book slowly took shape, though, it continued to be seen
as another Hobbit book rather than its own story. For example, Tolkien's close friend
and literary sounding board, C.S. Lewis, was known to refer to the work simply as the "new
Hobbit." Once Tolkien settled on making Bilbo's ring the connecting point from one book to
the other, however, the "new Hobbit" grew into a massive story — one that could easily
stand on its own.
It didn't take long before The Fellowship of the Ring alone dwarfed The Hobbit in size.
It turns out, though, that lengthening his story was actually one of Tolkien's main goals
in writing it. The author points out in the foreword that:
"The prime motive was the desire of a tale-teller to try his hand at a really long story that
would hold the attention of the readers."
Tolkien also notes that, while many readers might find his work to be overly-long or boring,
his opinion is that the most critical defect of the whole story is the simple fact that
it's too short.
Tolkien didn't always feel that way about The Lord of the Rings, though. In a letter
to his editor in December 1939, he wrote that he feared that the story was "growing too
large." This wasn't a fleeting feeling, either. In a letter to his son five years later, he
reiterated:
"I'm afraid I have made a great mistake in making my sequel too long and complicated."
Fortunately for his readers, Tolkien didn't let his initial desire for brevity diminish
the growing scope and scale of the story.
Tolkien's writings went through a number of huge revisions over the course of his life.
While this is especially true for many of the stories that ended up in The Silmarillion,
it also affected The Lord of the Rings. One of the particularly egregious examples lies
with the short-lived character of Bingo Baggins.
"Hobbits."
According to author David R. Collins, when Tolkien first began to write what eventually
became The Fellowship of the Ring, he created the character of Bilbo's son Bingo to carry
on the story. However, this wasn't much to his liking, so he changed the character to
Bingo Bolger Baggins, the nephew of the hero of The Hobbit. The thought was initially that
Bingo would find a ring as his father or uncle had beforehand. As the story grew and became
more serious, however, Tolkien eventually decided to change Bingo's name — to the
familiar Frodo that we all know and love.
Middle-earth wasn't built in a day. In fact, Tolkien started creating his world in 1917,
when he first composed the early drafts of The Fall of Gondolin, and continued until
his death over half a century later. During that time, The Hobbit and The Lord of the
Rings were published, but Tolkien's lifelong labor also yielded a treasure trove of other
stories. Many of these were collected into his epic myth The Silmarillion, while some
found their way into other publications, including Unfinished Tales. This collection of literally
unfinished stories filled in many of the gaps of knowledge that had been left out of The
Lord of the Rings.
While some scenes in Peter Jackson's movies might seem like elaborations on the original
manuscripts, many of them actually find their origin in Unfinished Tales. From Isildur being
ambushed by orcs, to an account of the death of Theodred at the Battles of the Fords of
Isen, to the story of the Black Riders' hunt for the ring, Unfinished Tales was doubtless
a huge factor in helping to round the story as it was translated from book to script.
While the world at large may see The Lord of the Rings as the pinnacle of Tolkien's
writing, in many ways the story ended up being more of a bother to the author than anything
else. In a letter to his publisher in February 1938, Tolkien explained that:
"For the moment the story is not unfolding. [...] I squandered so much on the original
‘Hobbit’ (which was not meant to have a sequel) that it is difficult to find anything
new in that world."
In his foreword to The Fellowship of the Ring, he explains:
"I had many duties that I did not neglect, and many other interests as a learner and
teacher that often absorbed me."
And then, of course, there was the rather hefty distraction of World War II, which happened
to overlap neatly with the period of time in which he wrote The Lord of the Rings.
But even when war, work, and family didn't call him away, Tolkien's greatest passion
was still reserved for his other writings. In another letter to his publisher later in
1938, he said his mind was really preoccupied with The Silmarillion. While the world clamored
for more adventures with Hobbits, Tolkien's mind swirled with stories such as the Tale
of Tinuviel, the fall of the elvish city of Gondolin, and the foundation of Middle-earth
itself by Illuvatar and his mighty Valar. In many ways, The Lord of the Rings was little
more than a tangential distraction from the real story of Middle-Earth.
From countless acting accolades to his epic military career to his passion for heavy metal
music, Christopher Lee was a truly extraordinary man — and he was also head over heels about
all things Middle-earth. Lee read Tolkien's books every year, and was so passionate about
the story that when he heard Peter Jackson was putting together a film adaptation, he
wanted in as soon as possible.
Incidentally, Lee's greatest desire wasn't to play Saruman the White, but rather Gandalf
the Grey. While he didn't get to fulfill that particular dream, his presence as a seasoned
Tolkien expert was invaluable for the film's cast and crew. While some actors came into
the project still playing catchup with the source material, Lee's annual return to Middle-earth
ensured that he knew exactly where the story was going at all times. He also had the distinguished
honor of being the only person on the entire set that actually had met Tolkien in person.
Decades earlier, Lee had run into the author while visiting the Eagle and Child, one of
Tolkien's favorite watering holes.
While Viggo Mortensen's portrayal of Aragorn has been stamped on the hearts and minds of
Middle-earth fans, the actor was actually nowhere to be seen when the cameras started
rolling. Instead, it was none other than Stuart Townsend who initially took on the role of
Aragorn. However, a mere three days into filming, Townsend left the project, and Mortensen was
quickly tapped to replace him.
As the dust settled, it became clear that the switch simply had come about because Townsend
was too young to play the fearless king-in-exile — a feeling that, according to Jackson,
Townsend himself shared. That didn't make matters easy for the incoming Mortensen, though.
He had never read the books before that point, and he was jumping into a key role next to
actors that had been prepping for months. One thing he had going in his favor, though,
was that he was already familiar with many of the old Norse sagas that had originally
inspired Tolkien. Luckily, things worked out in the end — and Mortensen delivered an
Aragorn for the ages.
While Ian Holm is lovingly remembered for his portrayal of Bilbo in both The Lord of
the Rings and certain scenes in the Hobbit trilogy, playing hobbits was actually old
hat for the veteran actor long before he ever stepped foot on any of Jackson's sets. In
fact, Holm's Middle-earth debut actually came in the form of a much younger character — none
other than Bilbo's younger cousin, Frodo.
Holm was cast as the ring bearer in a BBC radio broadcast of The Lord of the Rings in
1981. While the radio broadcast was a nice way to get his oversized, hairy hobbit feet
wet, however, there's no doubt that he ratcheted things up a notch when he joined Jackson's
mammoth cinematic production.
Most people are familiar with Peter Jackson's iconic Lord of the Rings trilogy, but more
savvy fans will know that they aren't the first film adaptation of Tolkien's saga. In
1978, animator Ralph Bakshi directed a Lord of the Rings film that brought The Fellowship
of the Ring and part of The Two Towers to life on the big screen. While the film did
quite well with audiences, bringing in tens of millions of dollars, in the grand scheme
of things it didn't capture the saga quite as thrillingly as the Jackson films that followed
two decades later.
Bakshi himself, however, disagrees. In a 2002 interview, he scoffed at the idea of watching
Jackson's adaptation, wondering:
"Who needs the aggravation?"
Jackson clearly used Bakshi's animation as inspiration for many shots in his own film,
too — and Bakshi wasn't happy about this either, pointing out that it wasn't properly
acknowledged in the films, while Jackson had denied it had any bearing on the issue until
later. One thing the two directors had in common, however, is a true love of the source
material. Bakshi says:
"The books are absolutely perfect. There isn't a sellout moment in them. The characters and
setting are staggering. Nothing like it in fantasy can touch it."
In an era when motion-capture characters have become as commonplace as they are breathtakingly
realistic, it's easy to forget one of the greatest breakthroughs in mo-cap history:
Gollum. Peter Jackson and company faced a huge challenge when it came to adapting Smeagol
to the silver screen. He was integral to the storyline, required a lot of close-up screen
time, and was practically buck naked too, so you couldn't settle for good facial expressions
and throw an overcoat over the character to hide the rest.
Weta Digital, the New Zealand-based company co-founded by Jackson, brought Gollum to life
in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, as well as the Hobbit films that followed. But while
they were focused on the technical aspects of the job, what they really needed was an
actor brilliant enough to play the character on the set. Enter Andy Serkis, who delivered
a performance for the ages, as he acted out many of Gollum's scenes while covered from
head to toe in motion capture gear.
The mingling of Weta Digital and Serkis was magical, to say the least, delivering one
of the first truly believable motion capture performances in cinema history.
"Caught in a web, soon he'll be… eaten."
It was a benchmark and an inspiration that spurred the development of countless other
characters, including Marvel's Thanos and Caesar from Rise of the Planet of the Apes
— the latter of whom, it's worth pointing out, was also played by Serkis.
Peter Jackson is inextricably linked to The Lord of the Rings, and he will be for a long,
long time. Even Amazon's grand plans for a series set in Middle-earth couldn't get started
without him, with rumors suggesting that Amazon have made at least some effort to incorporate
Jackson's vision into their new project.
However, before Jackson, there were... the Beatles? Yes, the Fab Four actually tried
to get the rights to make The Lord of the Rings films themselves. And they didn't just
want to produce them — they wanted to star in them as well. Paul McCartney would play
Frodo, George Harrison would play Gandalf, Ringo Starr was to be Sam, and John Lennon
would be Gollum. They wanted to use original songs in the production, and even approached
Stanley Kubrick to direct. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Tolkien put an end to that particular adaptation
before it could ever really begin.
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