Adapting Tolkien

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Doug Anderson asked me to review the new book Adapting Tolkien: Proceedings of The Tolkien Society Seminar 2020, edited by
Will Sherwood for the Journal of Tolkien Research, and I thought folks might find it of interest.

https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolk ... 14/iss1/4/

[Inanna]

There’s a Journal of Tolkien Research?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Yes, that is where my reviews of Beren and Lúthien in 2017, The Fall of Gondolin in 2018 and The Nature of Middle-earth in 2021 all were.

[TolkienJRR]

Doug Anderson asked me to review the new book Adapting Tolkien: Proceedings of The Tolkien Society Seminar 2020, edited by
Will Sherwood for the Journal of Tolkien Research, and I thought folks might find it of interest.

https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolk ... 14/iss1/4/

Great summary of the papers, ty. Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't Tolkien say [I don't have the letter # off hand] he would enjoy LOTR becoming a movie so long as it stayed true to his writings, or, involved a rediculous amount of money?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I think this is the quote that you are thinking of, which is also talked about in Carpenter's biography.

SA back-wash from the Convention was a visit from an American film-agent (one of the adjudicating panel) who drove out all the way in a taxi from London to see me last week, filling 76 S[andfield] with strange men and stranger women -1 thought the taxi would never stop disgorging. But this Mr Ackerman brought some really astonishingly good pictures (Rackham rather than Disney) and some remarkable colour photographs. They have apparently toured America shooting mountain and desert scenes that seem to fit the story. The Story Line or Scenario was, however, on a lower level. In fact bad. But it looks as if business might be done. Stanley U. &: I have agreed on our policy : Art or Cash. Either very profitable terms indeed ; or absolute author's veto on objectionable features or alterations.

[TolkienJRR]

I think this is the quote that you are thinking of, which is also talked about in Carpenter's biography.

SA back-wash from the Convention was a visit from an American film-agent (one of the adjudicating panel) who drove out all the way in a taxi from London to see me last week, filling 76 S[andfield] with strange men and stranger women -1 thought the taxi would never stop disgorging. But this Mr Ackerman brought some really astonishingly good pictures (Rackham rather than Disney) and some remarkable colour photographs. They have apparently toured America shooting mountain and desert scenes that seem to fit the story. The Story Line or Scenario was, however, on a lower level. In fact bad. But it looks as if business might be done. Stanley U. &: I have agreed on our policy : Art or Cash. Either very profitable terms indeed ; or absolute author's veto on objectionable features or alterations.

Indeed it is.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I think I'll put this here, as it is about adapting Tolkien, in part by Tolkien! Really fascinating stuff, and it makes me all the more looking forward to the book referred to in the article.


Hoard of the rings: ‘lost’ scripts for BBC Tolkien drama discovered

[Inanna]

Wow.

[Alatar]

Just came here to post that!

[Eldy]

I just looked at the table of contents for the Christopher Tolkien Festschrift and—wow, it's incredible—but this one looks like it'll be especially fascinating.

[Alatar]

Did we ever get to see the BBC 1956 scripts? I presume they didn’t reproduce the whole thing in Great Tales?


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[Voronwë the Faithful]

You presume correctly. Personally, I found Lee's paper somewhat of an anti-climax after the big build-up, though he does give a good summary of what is in the two separate shows (one of six 30 minute episodes covering FOTR, and the other also six 30 minute episodes covering both TTT and ROTK).

[Alatar]

Any chance you can summarise here? I can’t see myself buying Great Tales just for that


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[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm not sure if you saw that I posted a link to my review of the book in another thread, but I'll quote what I wrote about Lee's paper there (though keep in mind that this is only my opinion!):

A MILESTONE IN BBC HISTORY? The 1955–56 Radio Dramatization of
The Lord of the Rings (Stuart Lee)

When news of the pending publication of Great Tales first started to seep into the
media, it was Lee’s piece that received the most attention. As is often the case,
however, the publicity generated was misleading at best. As an example of the
typical statements made at the time, in an article in The Guardian entitled “Hoard
of the rings: ‘lost’ scripts for BBC Tolkien drama discovered,” McIlwaine is quoted
as stating about Tolkien, “Not only did he agree to the adaptation of his book soon
after publication, but he was willing to work with the scriptwriters, to abridge the
text and adjust the balance of narration and dialogue, so that it fitted the
requirements of radio and the limited time available. It’s a very exciting and timely
discovery.” This implies that Tolkien was deeply involved in the scriptwriting,
almost as a co-collaborator. In reality, his involvement was much less than the quote
implies.

It is interesting to see snippets of Tolkien’s correspondence with producer
Terence Tiller, and to see the process that Tiller went through in this first-ever
adaptation of Tolkien’s best-known work, so soon after its original publication.
Perhaps most telling is how Tiller (and Tolkien) dealt with the increasingly
truncated project in which originally The Fellowship of the Ring was to be adapted
in six episodes of 45 minutes each, which soon were to be reduced to 30 minutes
each, and then both The Two Towers and The Return of the King covered in just six
similarly-lengthed episodes. Perhaps most interesting is the contrast between
Tolkien’s fairly tolerant attitude expressed in his correspondence with Tiller and
the much more disparaging comments that he made about the production elsewhere.
As for his working with the scriptwriters to abridge the text and adjust the balance
of narration and dialogue, the reality is much more limited than what was implied.
The only specific example given is “relating to the attack on Weathertop.
‘Suggestion for alteration of Script’ shows that Tolkien offered two solutions (A
and B), with ‘A’ preferred ‘because F[rodo] was in no condition to give a detailed
description, and because Narrator can do it better anyway’ (150-151). Someone has
written ‘Please Type’ across version A (‘giving description of Wraiths to Narrator’)
and the revised script (note the director’s timings) confirms that Tolkien’s
suggestions were used” (151). Lee suggests that there was one other specific
suggestion made by Tolkien that was not preserved. Otherwise, Tolkien noted that,
with two exceptions, the songs in the book did not have any special music in mind
(and acknowledged that many of them would likely need to be cut) and made a
suggestion about the accents that should be used (146–147). Lee notes that Tiller
responded to Tolkien by acknowledging that cutting had been painful “but with an
odd disregard for Tolkien’s letter of 10 September (above) suggested that Sam,
Merry and Pippin would have strong ‘West-country accents’” (151).
Overall, Lee’s presentation is interesting, but perhaps not quite as momentous
as the advance publicity suggested that it might be. As to how much it contributes
to the books value in honoring and memorializing Christopher Tolkien, the answer
is, sadly, not much.

[Alatar]

That's disappointing, but thanks.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Again, it's only my opinion. I'm sure that there are others.