Interesting article in the Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/lif...cle6289190.ece which mentions both the series (which was shown to some teenaged schoolchildren) & Tolkien -
Quote:
The pupils also enjoy spotting references to The Lord of the Rings. While Tolkien’s imagination may have created an entire world of Middle-earth, the film points out that in Anglo-Saxon it meant “land between heaven and hell, where men walk”. None of the pupils knows that Tolkien was a leading expert on Anglo-Saxon literature.
The Saxon characters in the film think that they see elves in the words (sic - I think that should be 'woods'). Then they come face to face with Orcs. Orc meant foreigner or demon; in this case the feared Normans. The battle scenes were consciously modelled on those in The Lord of the Rings films, with a similar level of violence. The narration is by Bilbo Baggins himself, the actor Ian Holm.
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Interesting that these pupils spot references to Lord of the Rings in the story of 1066 (& probably in Sigurd & Gudrun if they were to read it), rather than seeing references to history & legend in LotR - but Tolkien (even if only via the movies) is familiar to them, & their history & myth is unknown....... What would Tolkien think?