23 Lord of the Rings Facts You Might Not Know About the Classic

First Off: Who Was J.R.R. Tolkien?

Tolkien was a devout Catholic. He served successful the British Army during World War I. His experiences successful the trenches and his grief astatine his friends’ deaths aboriginal influenced aspects of his fiction. He studied astatine Oxford University, wherever helium aboriginal became a Professor of English Language and Literature. He besides studied philology, a subdivision of linguistics that analyzes the origins of languages.

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Lord of the Rings Facts

Tolkien created his languages first, past built mythologies astir them.

Tolkien had been fascinated by languages — and trying to invent them — since helium was a child. He’d created Quenya by 1917, 20 years earlier The Hobbit was published. Then helium spent decades penning what would go The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.

What’s the quality betwixt Quenya and Sindarin, anyway?

Some radical are experts successful the grammar of Tolkien’s Elvish languages. I’m not; these are conscionable the basics. Quenya was inspired by Finnish, which was past a uncommon connection successful England. Welsh influenced Sindarin.

Quenya is the much ancient, High Elven connection utilized ceremonially and by the Elves successful Valinor (the Undying Lands successful the West). The Gray Elves, who unrecorded successful Middle-earth, and immoderate educated humans, similar Aragorn, talk Sindarin.

How agelong did it instrumentality Tolkien to constitute The Lord of the Rings?

Sources vary, but astir hold that it took Tolkien astir 12 years to constitute the series. Tolkien’s broad legendarium was ne'er finished.

Aragorn and Arwen’s romance wasn’t successful the main narrative.

In the books, the abbreviated communicative “The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen” is successful Appendix A, not the main books, and presented arsenic an excerpt of a longer work. Most of their romance successful the movie trilogy was adapted from the appendices.

Tolkien’s steadfast thought The Lord of the Rings was excessively agelong to people arsenic 1 volume.

As Colbert’s publication and galore different sources mentioned, Tolkien primitively wanted to publish The Lord of the Rings arsenic 1 book. It was implicit 1,000 pages and astir half a cardinal words long, so, the steadfast divided it into 3 books.

Tolkien coined the connection “tween.”

Before it acquired its much caller meaning of preteen, Tolkien utilized the connection tween to notation to “a hobbit betwixt the ages of 20 and 33.” Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin are each successful this property group, considered young adults — astir adolescents. Bilbo was a youthful 50 in The Hobbit. The Fellowship of the Ring famously opens with Bilbo’s 111th day party.

Tolkien primitively wanted his follow-up to The Hobbit to beryllium much like The Silmarillion than The Lord of the Rings.

After publishing The Hobbit, Tolkien gave his steadfast an incomplete mentation of his legendarium, hoping it would beryllium published next. The steadfast rejected it arsenic being excessively obscure and “too Celtic,” asking for a sequel instead — which became The Lord of the Rings.

In 1977, 4 years aft Tolkien died, his lad Christopher edited and published The Silmarillion, J. R. R. Tolkien’s past and mythology of Middle-earth, based connected Tolkien’s unfinished legendarium and different notes.

The traveling LOTR movies grounds visited lone ONE determination successful the U.S. successful 2004: Boston’s Museum of Science.

And I was there! Friends, family, and I saw props, costumes, and sets from the films and conception creation of the Eye of Sauron. We photographed 1 different utilizing the forced position tricks that made Gandalf look truthful overmuch taller than Frodo. We watched clips of an histrion taking a nap during the hours it took to use his Orc makeup.

Christopher Lee primitively wanted to play Gandalf, not Saruman.

As Peter Jackson said successful a 2015 interview, Lee was a immense instrumentality of the books, who reread them each twelvemonth and memorized agelong passages. He’d met Tolkien and dreamed for galore years of playing Gandalf. By the clip helium met Lee, Jackson was already considering Ian McKellen for Gandalf. Also, Gandalf’s relation was bigger, with much falls and horseback riding.

In 1965, Ballantine’s official, mass-market paperback made the books much affordable to U.S. readers.

Why specify that the Ballantine variation was authorized (and truthful legal)? It wasn’t the archetypal paperback variation published successful the U.S. Months earlier, Ace Books had utilized a copyright instrumentality loophole to people an unauthorized (pirated) version.

Fan works and adjacent merchandise existed mode earlier the movies.

I was successful mediate and precocious schoolhouse erstwhile the LOTR movies were archetypal released. I saw them successful the movie theatre with friends. Then, we saw LOTR enactment figures, games, posters, and standees for merchantability astatine the mall. But that wasn’t the opening of merchandising LOTR — not by a agelong shot. As an undergrad successful Boston successful the precocious 1960s and aboriginal ‘70s, my ma often saw the slogan FRODO LIVES connected buttons and bumper stickers.

Frodo was a 1960s counterculture icon.

This BBC nonfiction offers respective reasons LOTR was considered counterculture successful the 1960s — beyond Gandalf and the hobbits’ emotion of pipe-weed. Éowyn is simply a badass who fears a “cage” and kills the Witch-king of Angmar, whom “no surviving man” tin defeat. Many feminists loved her.

The horrors of warfare and of Saruman’s industrialization resonated with readers who protested the Vietnam War and pollution. People often exaggerate Tolkien’s distrust of technology. Still, immoderate fans admired him for riding a bike, alternatively of owning a car, and for praising the joys of remainder and the outdoors.

In the 1960s, the Beatles wanted to marque — and prima successful — their ain movie philharmonic adaptation of LOTR.

This anecdote is successful Peter Jackson’s 2021 documentary series, The Beatles: Get Back. The BBC nonfiction I linked earlier breaks it down: Paul arsenic Frodo? John arsenic Gollum? I’ve been a instrumentality of some the Beatles and Tolkien for implicit 20 years, but I inactive don’t recognize however that would person worked. Would it person been a silly caper, similar the Beatles’ movie Help!? Or a psychedelic cartoon, similar Yellow Submarine? Sadly, we’ll apt ne'er know.

Liv Tyler’s elf ears melted — not during filming, though!

In this hilarious clip from Stephen Colbert’s speech show, Liv Tyler tells him she kept a brace of her prosthetic elf ears aft playing Arwen. After she near them connected her car dashboard connected a blistery day, they melted!

Stephen Colbert famously has encyclopedic cognition of the books, stumping adjacent the formed and unit of the LOTR movies astatine trivia. He made a cameo successful the movie The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Some aboriginal movie reviewers didn’t get it, either.

This 2001 review called the One Ring a MacGuffin, but I deliberation its value makes it the other of a MacGuffin. Other aboriginal reviews complainted The Fellowship of the Ring didn’t person overmuch of an ending. Some viewers expected a emblematic trilogy for the time: a deed movie with 2 sequels, alternatively of 1 communicative successful 3 installments.

Some archetypal reviewers loved the films.

At the other extreme, the writer of this 2001 The Guardian review loved the archetypal movie, viewing the changes arsenic indispensable improvements.

Controversies implicit practice aren’t new.

There was Gimli’s enactment “Nobody tosses a dwarf” successful the archetypal movie. This was arguable due to the fact that it was a caller gag astir an enactment that’s highly unsafe and ableist to Little People successful the existent world.

Tolkien ever denied immoderate affinity for arguable composer Richard Wagner.

This fascinating BBC article explores Tolkien’s galore imaginable influences. He ever rejected the mentation that Wagner’s Ring Cycle influenced him: “Both rings were round, and determination the resemblance ceases.” Wagner was 1 of Hitler’s favourite composers — and inactive a favourite of achromatic nationalists contiguous — and Tolkien despised Hitler.

Eight of the 9 formed members who portrayed the Fellowship of the Ring got matching tattoos.

John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) was the lone Fellowship subordinate who didn’t get one, but his stunt double, Brett Beattie, did. Rhys-Davies joked that of people helium asked his stunt treble to bash thing unsafe connected his behalf.