Having read The Silmarillion and other of the lost tales long ago, I recognize a lot of the base tales referred to here, in the first episode.
This is not Peter Jackson nor is it anybody even slightly related to his production company... Except that Howard Shore wrote the title music starting with E2...
But, like Jackson's take on The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, whoever is making this show has delved deeply into the "Appendices", The Silmarilion, The Lost Tales, and other works by JRR and Christopher Tolkien, and is giving us a version of events that happened in the earliest ages of Middle Earth. Of course, it's all mixed up. But identifiable.
This tale begins with Galadriel as a child in Valinor, and we are shown Morgoth's iconic attack. That is all I can say about it, we are not shown much.
We are given the name "Sauron", but he is not shown. His backstory involves fooling not only the Elves, but The Dwarves and Men. His first main act of deceit involves making the Elves believe he is someone other than who he actually is. This also follows what we know about his origins.
The first episode sets up his "official" entry to Middle Earth. I suspect his identity is being deliberately hidden.
We are also introduced to a group of "Harfoots", who appear to be ancestors of Hobbits. They don't like men...
Watching the 0-numbered preview episodes, I was surprised to see a Balrog as it was shown in Fellowship of the Rings, so the makers of this show also borrowed some design elements from Jackson. I can't wait to see what else...
Something else occurs to me about shows like this appearing. This is something that Tolkien wanted to happen by design, but he basically stopped pursuing it.
Tolkien had a recurrent fear that nobody was ever going to read his work. Well justified, he was 62 when the Lord of the rings did get published (as a whole work)... he had written a letter stating that he had hoped to create a mythology which eventually other people would take over, with Music and art and song. And of course, new narratives. New stories, new characters. Peter Jackson created Tauriel, in order to explore the unlikely relationship between an elf and a dwarf. Where Tolkien gave up such ambitions, fortunately for us fandom did not give up those ambitions.
When we see the appearance of shows like this, and fan made films like "the hunt for Gollum" - and of course Peter Jackson's great take on the hobbit and lord of the rings, where he delves into the appendices... this is something that has actually happened.
Did Tolkien write about the rings of power? Not really, but the stories being told here are at least mentioned in some of his other works, and the lost tales which were carried on by Christopher. So in fact other people have picked up from where JRR left off.
And this is the most ambitious and expansive of those endeavors.
We are brought right into Numenor, during the time when they were deciding to build their fleet and take immortality by force.
"I dreamed I saw a great wave, climbing over green lands and above the hills. I stood upon the brink. It was uppterly dark in the abyss before my feet. A light shone behind me but I could not turn. I could only stand there, waiting." - Eowyn, 3000 years later... (Peter Jackson narrative)The Lost Tales
This is not Peter Jackson nor is it anybody even slightly related to his production company... Except that Howard Shore wrote the title music starting with E2...
But, like Jackson's take on The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, whoever is making this show has delved deeply into the "Appendices", The Silmarilion, The Lost Tales, and other works by JRR and Christopher Tolkien, and is giving us a version of events that happened in the earliest ages of Middle Earth. Of course, it's all mixed up. But identifiable.
This tale begins with Galadriel as a child in Valinor, and we are shown Morgoth's iconic attack. That is all I can say about it, we are not shown much.
We are given the name "Sauron", but he is not shown. His backstory involves fooling not only the Elves, but The Dwarves and Men. His first main act of deceit involves making the Elves believe he is someone other than who he actually is. This also follows what we know about his origins.
The first episode sets up his "official" entry to Middle Earth. I suspect his identity is being deliberately hidden.
We are also introduced to a group of "Harfoots", who appear to be ancestors of Hobbits. They don't like men...
Watching the 0-numbered preview episodes, I was surprised to see a Balrog as it was shown in Fellowship of the Rings, so the makers of this show also borrowed some design elements from Jackson. I can't wait to see what else...
Something else occurs to me about shows like this appearing. This is something that Tolkien wanted to happen by design, but he basically stopped pursuing it.
Tolkien had a recurrent fear that nobody was ever going to read his work. Well justified, he was 62 when the Lord of the rings did get published (as a whole work)... he had written a letter stating that he had hoped to create a mythology which eventually other people would take over, with Music and art and song. And of course, new narratives. New stories, new characters. Peter Jackson created Tauriel, in order to explore the unlikely relationship between an elf and a dwarf. Where Tolkien gave up such ambitions, fortunately for us fandom did not give up those ambitions.
When we see the appearance of shows like this, and fan made films like "the hunt for Gollum" - and of course Peter Jackson's great take on the hobbit and lord of the rings, where he delves into the appendices... this is something that has actually happened.
Did Tolkien write about the rings of power? Not really, but the stories being told here are at least mentioned in some of his other works, and the lost tales which were carried on by Christopher. So in fact other people have picked up from where JRR left off.
And this is the most ambitious and expansive of those endeavors.
We are brought right into Numenor, during the time when they were deciding to build their fleet and take immortality by force.
"I dreamed I saw a great wave, climbing over green lands and above the hills. I stood upon the brink. It was uppterly dark in the abyss before my feet. A light shone behind me but I could not turn. I could only stand there, waiting." - Eowyn, 3000 years later... (Peter Jackson narrative)The Lost Tales
Comments