Tolkien wasn’t an inhabitant of earth, as we know it. Yup, he lived in his own world, the world as we know it in the Lord of the rings. He was born out of the normal timeline and hence had the unique ability to commute seamlessly between the two worlds. He, like Gandalf, had the knowledge and power to travel all over this otherworld and was omnipresent out there. He could travel between the worlds by blowing a smoke ring and shooting an arrow through it, which symbolized his shooting through the barrier that separated the worlds. This being easy to achieve with some practice, he made several sojourns at the other-world returning more and more briefly to our world only to record the events that were occurring, aided amply by Bilbo in this undertaking. This is what we’ve come to know as the Lord of the Rings, Silmarillon, Hobbit and sundry other works. This needs to real effort to prove, as the sheer level of detail in the book is possible only when there is an actual experience of the events and places involved. He’s not only reproduced a map of the whole world as he knew it, but also the history, ancestry of the different races, their stereotypical characteristics, their likes and dislikes, the history of weed and pipe (courtesy Tommy Hornblower, who probably initiated Tolkien to the art of smoking), their attire and language and their interrelationships. I’ve was intensely overawed by the massive scope of what I mistakenly assumed to be a work of fiction, until I realized from repeated perusals that this was indeed a work of a more historical nature. This only added to my reverence for the author and his work, and I remain truly devoted to them.
Tolkien retired to the other world ruled by Aragorn, when he realized that his travails were over and he could look forward to a beautiful restful stay there as a recompense for all his efforts during their troubled times. He became their official bard, fter the elfs crossed the sea, and he collaborated with Bilbo, who lived much longer than any one could have imagined in the western earth, producing some of their best works of art. The children of Aragorn, finding the scrolls rather old and dusty, asked their godfathers, Gandalf and Tolkein, to get them a easier access to the entire story. And that’s when Tolkein with his unique knowledge of both our worlds suggested a movie based on these books. After serious and minute sifting through the several possible choices for the movie, they chose Peter Jackson, who apart from being a huge follower of Tolkien’s works had a nice hobbitty look to him. And the rest as we know is history. Though, one little detail is not generally known, that Gollum was not a graphically modeled character but was actually the wraith of gollum who fell into the mount of doom with the ring and resurfaced after Frodo took pity on him. He lives with Frodo now(nice masssterrr.. ), and still retains a cankerous relation with Bilbo(tricksy hobbit.. ), and there is a separate fan club for both of them, which decides all their major debates by means of puzzles and trick questions calling themselves the Precious Puzzlers.
The movie came out beautifully, with perfect locales, perfect cast choices, perfect music and retaining the entire soul of the book, in fact adding in good measure to the beauty of the descriptions in the book. This was in good measure the result of the first hand information they had from the people who’d seen it all happen.
Three cheers to the creators of the most beautiful book-movie combinations ive ever seen. Hip Hip Hurrah!!
Ok, there ends my post and I need to get back to Bilbo’s seventeenthythird birthday... Forth Shadowfax, may the flame of Anor guide us on our way.
8 months ago
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