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Originally Posted by Bęthberry
There is no copyright on the imagination, copyright being a legal fiction.
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But breaching it can still get you locked up. Tolkien spent most of his life creating his Legendarium & legally (something he was very careful to uphold) he, & subsequently his literary heirs held/hold the legal rights to the written work. Now, to the extent that the movie rights have been sold (& I'm assuming that the game rights are an extension of the movie rights) the holders can do pretty much as they will with them. However, many of us will not consider what is done by the owners of those rights to be authentic if it departs from Tolkien's creation.
And I would suspect that the company responsible for the game are just as jealous in their guardianship of their 'rights' - for which they probably paid a good deal....