Lord of the Rings TV series gets multi-season order at Amazon

[Morthoron]

Well, this explains a lot. C. Tolkien has resigned as Director of the Tolkien Estate...

https://io9.gizmodo.com/j-r-r-tolkie...sta-1820476459

The vultures didn't even wait for the body to get cold.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Well, this explains a lot. C. Tolkien has resigned as Director of the Tolkien Estate...

https://io9.gizmodo.com/j-r-r-tolkie...sta-1820476459

The vultures didn't even wait for the body to get cold.

Man.

Given that Tolkien Estate incorporated in 2011 and Christopher Tolkien is no longer holding the reins, it looks to be open season for Tolkien films, shows, theme parks, or pretty much anything else you could imagine.

That pretty much nails it. My own opinion will not matter a whit to them, but I can at least ensure that I don't give them a penny of my money.

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Well, this explains a lot. C. Tolkien has resigned as Director of the Tolkien Estate...

https://io9.gizmodo.com/j-r-r-tolkie...sta-1820476459

The vultures didn't even wait for the body to get cold.

I wonder who's in charge now.

And it's something I've been thinking for a long time. As much as CJRT / the estate may have been disliked for forcing individual artists and businessmen and other simple people to stop publishing or close businesses that somehow impinge on the rights, he's gonna be missed, and missed a lot, now that he's not in control.

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Well, this explains a lot. C. Tolkien has resigned as Director of the Tolkien Estate...

https://io9.gizmodo.com/j-r-r-tolkie...sta-1820476459

The vultures didn't even wait for the body to get cold.

Well...that's depressing...and the reaction of the corporate predators is hateful.

[Nerwen]

Well. I refer you all to my comment #5 on this thread.

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Nerwen

Well. I refer you all to my comment #5 on this thread.

Holy bananas.

[davem]

I've always had mixed feelings about CT's approach to his father's work. For whatever reasons he tried to relegate the works to the realm of academe. I'm grateful he made the unpublished works available, but the accompanying mass of notes and commentary he added makes them (apart from the Sil) an horrific chore. He clearly hated the fact that his father's creation he been taken up by a bunch of hippies (many of them lefties too ), and sought to return them to their 'rightful' place, by handing them over to a bunch of professors. Most of the stuff he published would have been better if it had been put out with a basic 20 pp intro. The LotR movies (critical as I am of many parts of them) contain more of what touched the hearts of most book fans, than the interminable droning commentaries of CT, Flieger, and Hammond & Scull, et al

[Galin]

I think the notes and commentary in The History of Middle-Earth series, providing a detailed explanation to more betterly understand the true state of the Silmarillion, its external history and related accounts, all of this is rather the point... given that we already have/had an "internal" version (the 1977 constructed Silmarillion), for what I call the reader's experience.

Add to that The Children of Hurin, of course this time presented as a one volume tale after all the fragments and commentaries had been published.

And if I want my "reader's experience" for Tuor's arrival in Gondolin for example (Unfinished Tales), it's pretty easy to skip the brief introduction and the end notes. Same goes for the early Fall of Gondolin published in The Book of Lost Tales II, for instance.


And Nerwen the oracle!

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by davem

He clearly hated the fact that his father's creation he been taken up by a bunch of hippies (many of them lefties too )

CT, as a political animal, is most definitely not his father. Just take a gander at the causes the Tolkien Trust supports.

------------------

I would say, rather, that (especially in the wake of the movies) "He clearly hated the fact that his father's creation had been taken up by a bunch of sloped-forehead mouthbreathers." I would be rather upset at seeing the family silver being used by the mob for screwdrivers, spittoons and dog dishes (while all the while telling me what fans of my silver they are and what wonderful screwdrivers, spittoons and dog dishes it makes).

I think that CT (who after all was a professor) was determined that his father's writings be taken seriously, by scholars, and therefore he took a serious, scholarly approach to his editions. He was, after all, writing the history of his father's legendarium, and there's no way that barn's worth of fragments and unfinished revisions could have been presented coherently without extensive notes and commentary.

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

Originally Posted by davem

He clearly hated the fact that his father's creation he been taken up by a bunch of hippies (many of them lefties too ), and sought to return them to their 'rightful' place, by handing them over to a bunch of professors.

I cannot remember if I have mentioned this before. In Denmark there was a group of very influential authors all named "Kløvedal" (Rivendell). They had all adopted the name in their youth when they lived together in a commune called (freely translated) Mao's Delight. The most prominent of them being Ebbe Kløvedal Reich and Troels Kløvedal.

Of course another well known Danish fan was the future Queen Margrethe II... I think that is what can be described as having a broad appeal.

[Kuruharan]

I will admit to being curious if the production team for the TV show will take the design aesthetic in a direction away from the designs laid out by Jackson and Co.

For example, being a dwarf, it has been very interesting to me to note that things like Jackson's idea that "dwarves don't build anything in circles, only octagons" has pervaded the fantasy genre so that idea now crops up almost everywhere.

I wonder if the new team will forge their own path aesthetically or if they will just follow in the footsteps of Jackson.

Of if, indeed, Jackson is going to end up being involved in the project in some way.

For some reason, the news about C. Tolkien has made me go back to my original idea that this series is going to focus on young Aragorn.

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Nerwen

Well. I refer you all to my comment #5 on this thread.

Except you should have said "in a quarter or two" instead of a "year or two."

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Well, this explains a lot. C. Tolkien has resigned as Director of the Tolkien Estate...

That explains a lot indeed. I think the 2012 interview (mentioned in the article) suggests an attitude of resignation to the exploitation of his father's work, which seems fitting.

And, of course, without being flippant, isn't it a bit like a wise King of Númenor abdicating the throne in his old age, not trying to hang on forever? The responsibility then falls, as it should, upon future generations. The analogy fits all too well, I fear, given what happened in Númenor as the years passed and what's already happening now.