The Silmarillion

J.R.R. Tolkien/Christopher Tolkien,editor

Illustrated by Ted Nasmith

Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004

$40.00

First, let me tell what TheSilmarillion is. It is J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium, orcompilation of stories, of the First Age of Middle Earth. They arefor the most part set many thousands of years before Frodo ever cameinto possession of the One Ring. Now let me tell what TheSilmarillion is not. It is not a prequel of any sort to TheLord of the Rings, although the tales found within it are indeedthe ultimate backstory of that trilogy.

The Silmarillion was notpublished until 1977, four years after Tolkien's death. The storiesthat form it, though they had been worked on by the learned professorsince the First World War, were not set down in a truly completedstate at the time of his passing. The task of hammering his writingsinto publishable form was left to his son, Christopher Tolkien, aidedby the young Guy Gavriel Kay, who would later achieve fame as afantasy author in his own right.

This was not an easy orstraightforward task. In many instances Tolkien's thoughts on hisstories changed over time, and required his son to pick and chooseamongst various narrative strands. There were also some serious gapsin the story. There is a definite end to the the tale of the FirstAge, but getting there required the introduction of some supplementalmaterial by Christopher.

It is a commonplace that Tolkien wasdeeply interested in languages, being as he was a professor of suchthings, and this interest comes across markedly in his writings. Insome cases, his interest in words actually drove his writings, andthey contain a marvelous depth because of his philological efforts. There was also Tolkien the philosopher, who interwove his storieswith much that was derived from his Christian, specifically Catholic,heritage and beliefs.

The beginning of The Silmarillionis undeniably religious in tone, if not on a theological basis. Iluvatar (the One; God) makesappearances, as do his angels, called here the Ainur. A number of these are sent into the created world, Arda, to act asdemiurges and guardians. These are the Valar,or archangels, and the maiar,or lesser angels, who aid their superiors the Valar in their tasks.

The Valar dwell in glory in Valinor,in the far west of Arda, under the kingship of Manwe, and go aboutreadying the world for the coming of the Children of Iluvatar, theElves and Men. There is only one problem that troubles them, andthat is that the mightiest and greatest of all the Valar, Melkor, isalso a first-class jerk. Melkor is the Satan-figure of thissoon-to-be lost paradise, and he corrupts and mars all that hetouches in his bid for selfish domination. You might ask yourselfwhy Iluvatar allowed this wretched miscreant, who caused trouble inHeaven even before the creation of the world, to gain entryinto this new realm. This is nowhere answered, at least notsatisfactorily, and you will have to content yourself with knowingthat it is Melkor who will at least provide the dramatic tension thatmakes The Silmarillion great.

Back to the Children. The Elves,immortal and beautiful, are the firstborn children of Iluvatar, andawake in the far east of Middle-earth. They are also bereft of anyreal means to defend themselves from the depredations of Morgoth, whohas established a fortress, Utumno, in the frozen north. From therehe preys upon the Elves, snatching some whom he will twist into thefirst of the orcs.

The Valar bestir themselves to emergefrom their splendid isolation in the western paradise of Valinor, andattack Melkor, taking him captive, and destroying Utumno, albeit notcompletely. The Elves are summoned to join the Valar in the west,and begin a long trek across the face of Middle-earth to the ocean,and thence to Valinor. Some stay behind, and among these are theancestors of the latter-day elves of the woodlands, such as Legolas. Others travel all the way, and become inhabitants of the Valar'sBlessed Realm. Among them is the kindred of the Noldor, who areconsidered to be the most learned and skilled in craft of all theElves. The Noldor are also the most headstrong and willful of theirrace, restless and proud.

Unwisely, the Valar in time releaseMelkor from his long captivity, thinking that he is reformed andrepentant. He is not. Melkor goes amongst the Elves, especially theNoldor, stirring up things, and causing them to chafe at what theydeem to be their confinement in Valinor.

One of the leaders of the Noldor'sdiscontent is Feanor, the greatest craftsman that the Elves or anyother race will ever produce. He creates the Silmarils, threeincomparable gems that capture the holy radiance of the Two Treeswhich provide brilliant light for Valinor. But he is jealous of hisjewels, and also of his station, especially when his father, Finwe,the king of the Noldor, remarries after the death of Feanor's ownmother. He develops a dislike of the Valar, but never allies himselfwith Melkor either, whose anti-Valar poison he nevertheless imbibes.

Melkor, covetous of shiny things,steals the Silmarils, and slays King Finwe, who perishes guardingthem. The Two Trees are sucked dry by a great spider in league withMelkor named Ungoliant. Melkor flees to the North again, where hetakes up residence in another of his fortresses, Angband, and recallsto there all of his servants who survived the incomplete destructionof Utumno.

Feanor vows revenge and follows afterhim, killing innocent Elves who stand in his way. Many other Noldorreturn to Middle-earth, not so much to follow Feanor, but to seekvengeance for their murdered king, and to rule for themselves theirown realms free from the tutelage of the Valar.

This proves to be a gigantic mistake. Great crimes were committed by Feanor on his way out of Valinor, andso the Valar impose a blanket ban on a return trip by all of theNoldor, even for those that bitterly regret their departure. TheNoldor will be essentially on their own against the most powerfulbeing in all the world and his legions of orcs, dragons, and balrogs. Their quest to avenge their king and regain the Silmarils is doomedto failure, they are dramatically warned by the Valar, and they willshed unnumbered tears in the futile attempt. Feanor himself is slainby balrogs soon after the return to Middle-earth, and he realizes ashe lays dying that the Noldor will never overcome Morgoth.

Got all that?

The foregoing gets you about one-thirdof the way through The Silmarillion, and the great war ofElves (and in time, Men) with Morgoth has yet to be told. But all ofthis is necessary for Tolkien's design to succeed. We must know theorigin of all the players, their motivations, and backgrounds, sothat their actions are explicable within the intricate secondaryreality invented by the learned professor. It can at times be slowgoing. There is a biblical quality to The Silmarillion, andindeed, a criticism leveled against it over the years is that it istoo much like the Bible, and not enough like The Lord of theRings. More specifically, The Silmarillion is notnovelistic in its form, but is instead a collection of interlinkedstories, generally arranged chronologically.

This criticism, as old as it is,misses the point of The Silmarillion. It is not a novel,although portions of it contain somewhat similar pacing and characterdevelopment. It is more akin to a compilation of ancient sagas,with which Tolkien was well-familiar.

And how does The Silmarillionwork as fiction? The finest tales, I think, combine the particularsof Middle-earth with age-old themes. Of Beren and Luthien is aRomeo and Juliet love story as rich as any from literature. It could easily be made into a motion picture as vivid and engagingas The Lord of the Rings. Are you listening Peter Jackson? It could be the first billion-dollar grossing romantic fantasy filmto win an Academy Award. Of Turin Turambar is a tragedy ofShakespearean dimension, darkly Nordic in its tale of a noble butdoomed hero, whose fate overwhelms all chance for happiness. Ofthe Voyage of Earendil and the War of Wrath has a strongsoteriological theme, in which the remaining Elves and Men ofBeleriand are saved by a mission of mercy of the mariner Earendil tothe now-ready-to get-over-their-anti-Noldor snit Valar in theUttermost West.

Also included in the book are theAkallabeth, the story of the drowning of the human realm ofNumenor, in an Atlantis-style cataclysm, and Of the Rings of Powerand the Third Age, which retells, in greatly abbreviated form,the story of the One Ring and the war that concluded with itsdestruction in Mount Doom. These are both set long after the primarystory of the First Age and the Silmarils (which is officially calledthe Quenta Silmarillion, if you must know) but both flesh outkey elements of the background of The Lord of the Rings. Theformer explains the origin of the Kingdom of Gondor, founded as itwas by refugees from the drowned island-civilization of Numenor, andthe latter describes the making of the Rings of Power and why theElves (those headstrong Noldor again) were a trifle unwise to makethem.

What makes this 2004 edition specialare Ted Nasmith's illustrations, which are uniformly excellent, andmatch closely what is described on the page. Nasmith generally workswith a limited palette of colors, but one still noticeably wider thanhis contemporary Tolkien artist, Alan Lee. The forty-five paintingsare evocative of the setting, and truly do add something to theexperience of reading the book. They are not necessary for itsenjoyment, but this hardcover is worthwhile, especially if you are adedicated fan of Tolkien. Also included is a frameable map ofBeleriand, that part of western Middle-earth where the great waragainst Morgoth takes place. 

By Marc

Blind Guardian, Nightfall in Middle Earth (Century Media 1998, 2007 reissue)

My servant you'll be for all time.

It isn't often that I get to hear the words that Morgoth, the Black Foe of the World, uttered to his lieutenant, Sauron, the future Lord of the Rings, in the dark depths of the fortress of Angband at the end of the cataclysmic War of Wrath. With his rich, menacing baritone, Morgoth convinces as the rebel archangel who could seduce lesser spirits into his service, and cause them to desert their allegiance to the noble Valar, their rightful overlords.

With the avenging host of the Valar having broken into Angband, the uncharacteristically obsequious Sauron counsels his dread master to seek safety in the bowels of the stronghold. Morgoth rejects this advice, and orders Sauron to instead save himself. “I left ruin behind me when I returned,” he ruminates after his servant with a famous career ahead of him has departed, “but I also carried ruin with me.”

If this does not send chills up your spine, then you are as cold and lifeless as a barrow-wight. But as a certified Tolkien geek since the age of ten, this is right up my alley. German metal band Blind Guardian has delivered a tour de force rock album based upon Professor Tolkien's famed legendarium, The Silmarillion. Remastered in 2007, Nightfall in Middle Earth (1998) is a dark and brooding contemplation of the fall of the Noldor Elves after Morgoth steals the priceless jewels, the Silmarils, kills their king, and absconds to his icy fortress in the far north of Middle Earth.

I won't even attempt to describe what flavor of metal this album represents. Blind Guardian is described as a power metal band, but I see Nightfall in Middle Earth as something else. Imagine the product of a collaboration between Queen and Def Leppard based upon Tolkien's great fantasy world, and this is the result. With operatic flourishes, and driving metal, Blind Guardian has captured the spirit - the pathos especially - of The Silmarillion. It is not a happy album, but, then again, The Silmarillion is not a happy book. Combining traditional metal songs with much shorter pieces, and perhaps most intriguingly, with spoken word compositions, such as "War of Wrath," which is quoted at the beginning of this review, Nightfall in Middle Earth is suffused with a sense of irreplaceable loss, the sad but defiant spirit of the ancient North. Blind Guardian has picked out some of Tolkien's most poignant, moving stories and set them to music.

We feel the rage and sorrow of the hot-tempered elf craftsman Feanor in the album's best track, "Nightfall," as he reproaches the impotent Valar after the murder of his beloved father. He asks them “The enemy of mine, isn't he of your kind?” In "Time Stands Still (At the Iron Hill)," we stand with the valiant Fingolfin, High King of the Noldor Elves in Middle Earth, as he duels the wicked Morgoth in vain. "Noldor (Dead Winter Reigns)" explores the catastrophe that the Noldor, glorious and mighty, but arrogant and proud too, have brought upon themselves in their rash pursuit of Morgoth without the aid, or even blessing, of the Valar.

Nightfall in Middle Earth is a concept album in the truest sense of that term. It is an older album, originally released in 1998, but its sound is very much Eighties metal. If you are a fan of Tolkien, then you must give this album a chance.

reviewed by Marc

A live performance of "Nightfall"

The Hunt for Gollum (Independent Online Cinema, 2009)

Cyberspace has unquestionably become a haven for amateur filmmakers of all degrees of skill. YouTube, for example, contains all sorts of homemade movies. Most of these are short and simple, and not the kind of things you would ever subject to a serious critical analysis. Sometimes, though, you come across people with the talent, and sufficient free time, to pull off something more ambitious. Such is the case with The Hunt for Gollum, an all-amateur production set in Tolkien's Middle Earth just before the main part of the action in The Lord of the Rings. Directed by Chris Bouchard, this forty-minute film is based on a portion of the back story that Gandalf and Aragorn relay at The Council of Elrond.

The Hunt for Gollum is clearly and unapologetically made by and for Tolkien fans. Either the books or movies will do. So if you don't already know the name of the tavern in which the opening scene is set, or the identity of the mysterious hooded figure waiting at a back table away from all the merriment, or why everybody would stop abruptly when a grey-cloaked, bearded old man enters the room, then you should brush up on a few things before watching this film. Needless to say, Gandalf (Patrick O'Connor) has found out some disturbing news and needs Aragorn's help with an urgent task. Gollum is roaming about, and he knows too much. Aragorn (Adrian Webster) needs to find him before he falls into the wrong hands.

From there, the story moves at a quick pace. Aragorn heads out into the wilderness to pick up Gollum's trail. He gets a key clue from a fellow ranger, who tells him of reports of a strange creature sneaking into houses and stealing food. But orcs have started crossing the river Anduin, and a pair of them cross Aragorn's path to their great regret. Aragorn does eventually find and trap Gollum, carrying him in a sack as he tries to head northward. But the orcs are crossing the river in increasing numbers, and worse things than orcs are on the prowl as well. Fortunately the dark forest contains friends as well as foes. But Gollum may have already fallen once into the grasp of the enemy, which would mean the time that Aragorn and Gandalf have to get the Ring safely out of the Shire is running perilously short...

In terms of the visuals and the soundtrack, the makers of The Hunt for Gollum very deliberately try to capture the feel of the Lord of the Rings movies. Considering the enormous difference in budgets to work with -- nobody made a cent off this project -- they succeed remarkably well. There are points where you really do feel like you're watching an extension of the movies. I felt myself getting sucked back into Middle Earth, just like I did when I saw The Fellowship of the Ring in the theater for the first time after not having read the books for years. A big reason why this works is that Bouchard cleverly minimalizes the need for special effects. For example, you never see Gollum up close until the last few seconds of the film. Plus, Webster and O'Connor are surprisingly convincing in their roles, too. They and Bouchard should not have any difficulty finding paid work in this field if they feel so inclined.

The Hunt for Gollum is testament to what can be accomplished with a good idea, a good story, and a bunch of people who believe in something enough to work on it for free. Any Lord of the Rings fan should go to the film's website and take a look. This isn't merely a good film for its budget; it's a good film, period.

Overall grade: A

reviewed by Scott

The Lord of the Rings -- Original London Cast Recording (Kevin Wallace Music, 2008)

Back in 2006, I got to see the theatrical production of The Lord of the Rings that premiered in Toronto that year. While I gave it a mostly favorable review, the show was not particularly well received by critics in general. Eventually the show opened in London as well, to a more favorable response. And unlike the Toronto cast, the London cast got to record the music of the play.

The lyrics for the songs in The Lord of the Rings were written by Shaun McKenna and Matthew Warchus. The music for the play came from the Indian composer A. R. Rahman and the Finnish folk group Värttinä, with some assistance from the musical supervisor Christopher Nightingale. Nightingale wanted from the outset to use a lot of world music in the play, not just to portray the rustic folksiness of the hobbits, but also to best capture the peculiarities of the other races in Tolkien's world and the dark forces at work in many of the scenes.

As anybody familiar with the story would expect, the music covers the full range of the emotional spectrum. "The Cat and the Moon," sung by the hobbits in The Prancing Pony, is a boisterous romp faithfully modeled on Tolkien's song from the book. By contrast, the loud, dissonant female voices heard from offstage in "Flight to the Ford" convey the intensity of the desperate run to Rivendell that Strider and the hobbits make with the Dark Riders in close pursuit. On the sentimental "Now and for Always," McKenna and Warchus do a fine job of capturing the spirit of the conversation between Frodo and Sam as they rest far above the city of Minas Morgul.

My biggest criticism of The Lord of the Rings is that it has a split personality. At its best, it represents a bold marriage of a classic story to music based on the same folklore and myths that inspired Tolkien in the first place, and in many ways it is truer to the spirit of the books than Peter Jackson's movies were. But there are also plenty of formulaic musical theater clichés thrown in for good measure, like an overwrought duet between Aragorn and Arwen, that I really couldn't be bothered with. Still, the producers deserve plenty of credit for taking some chances with the play, especially with the music. Like the play itself, the soundtrack to The Lord of the Rings is flawed but still worthy of the attention of people who like the story.

Overall grade: B

reviewed by Scott

The Soddit - Adam "ARRR" Roberts (2003)

Parodies are tricky. When they work, they can be incredibly funny - especially to those who know the source. When they fail, they can be truly miserable - especially to those who know the source. The Soddit hits neither of these extremes, landing in a middle ground which is, while not particularly inspired, at least fairly amusing.

The book is not a note-for-note or incident-for-incident parody of Tolkien's The Hobbit, rather it aims for a more general or thematic pastiche. Overlaid on the plot of The Hobbit is a completely separate plot, original to Roberts, which is actually quite good. At the conclusion of the book I was left dissatisfied. The parody was only adequate but the original plot was interesting enough that I would have preferred a book where it could be fully developed without being shoehorned into a Tolkien parody. Ironically, had it been an original book, though, I would have been much less likely to purchase it in the first place - a literary Catch-22 of sorts.

In any case, the book has it's moments, but ultimately is merely average. For those looking for a good Tolkien parody, I recommend seeking out The Harvard Lampoon's Bored of the Rings, but for those looking for straight-ahead fantasy, Mr. Roberts' other books might be worth checking out.

Overall Grade: C

The Silmarillion - J.R.R. (and Christopher) Tolkien (1977)

At this point, thanks to the movies, everyone has heard of The Lord of the Rings. Before that, the books were a cult favorite - to be fair, the books probably still are. There was enough interest, though, for JRR's son, Christopher to collect, compile and edit his father's copious notes and publish them as The Silmarillion.

What sets The Lord of the Rings apart from most fantasy books is the completeness of the world. Things exist in Middle Earth for a reason, and where they exist and what they do there have underlying causes rooted in the history of the place. To muddle terms from multiple media, there is a backstory to Middle Earth. That backstory starts in the Silmarillion.

The books are therefore a collection of myths and chronicles, resembling medieval works or written transmissions of oral history. This is not really too surprising when one recalls that Tolkien was a history Don at Oxford. What it does not resemble, therefore, is a novel and by extension it does not resemble The Lord of the Rings. This caused a problem for me when I first tried to read it back in my junior high school days; I wanted more The Lord of the Rings. Returning to it recently, after yet another rereading of the trilogy (and The Hobbit,) I found it to be much more congenial.

The book has all the problems of history, most obviously that different groups of people call things by different names ("John, known to the elves as Mithtake and named Fred by the men of the East"), and like the early chronicles, it tends to be short on character development. In many places it reads like a cross between the Bible and Bulfinch's Mythology, which is not a bad thing - unless one is expecting a novel. It does mean that each character does tend to "appear on stage" for a short period of time before vanishing again, making it a little difficult to keep track of some of them.

I can not in good conscience recommend this book to everyone. The style and the material are not wildly accessible. For Tolkien completists, of course, it is a necessity.

Overall Grade: C (A for Tolkien completisits)

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Children of Húrin (Houghton Mifflin, 2007)

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote many volumes of stories about the early history of Middle Earth, of which only a fraction had been published at the time of his death in 1973. His son Christopher, now in his eighties, took control of his writings, and over the years has made much of Tolkien's left-over work available to the public. Most of the short stories concerning elves, men, and higher entities that created the world Tolkien used as the setting for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were compiled by Christopher Tolkien and published as The Silmarillion in 1977, but a handful of stories were long enough to stand alone as novels. One of these stories, The Children of Húrin, has been edited and organized into a presentable format, and was published for the first time in 2007.

The story is set at a time when the power of the evil entity Morgoth, of whom Sauron was a servant, was in ascendancy in Middle Earth. Húrin is a powerful warrior, called into action to lead his men into a great battle against the forces of Morgoth. To say that the battle goes poorly would be a considerable understatement. Húrin survives the battle, but is taken prisoner. He defies Morgoth's torments, but Morgoth curses him by making him see the world through his eyes, including the various misfortunes that beset Húrin's family as he is kept a powerless captive.

From this point, the story focuses on Húrin's son, Túrin. Húrin's first daughter Urwen died young, and his other daughter Niënor does not play a major role until the final few chapters. Like his father, Túrin grows into a formidable warrior of no small repute, but ill fortune follows him everywhere he tries to go. His friends include both elves and humans, but invariably his relationships are twisted into something negative. His bitterest rival and nemesis is the wingless dragon Glaurung, a powerful ally of Morgoth. Glaurung causes much death and destruction to those who would be Túrin's allies, leading to a climactic encounter and the final dramatic revelations.

While Tolkien tried to emulate the heroic Nordic and Anglo-Saxon narratives with The Lord of the Rings, The Children of Húrin owes just as much to classical and Shakespearean tragedy. Pride, envy, and anger regularly affect the actions of Túrin or those around him, with the results invariably proving fatal to somebody. Even Túrin's triumphant moments prove horribly pyrrhic. The characters in this story are all more like Boromir, the good soldier whose desire for power undoes him, than the other members of the Fellowship in The Lord of the Rings whose nobility of spirit makes the defeat of Sauron possible. That Tolkien makes their endeavors less successful is a reflection of the same philosophy which underlies his famous trilogy, namely that you can't overcome great evil in a lasting and meaningful way while still allowing yourself to be influenced by its enticements.

My technical complaint with The Children of Húrin stems from the chapters being titled too explicitly. For example, the chapter called "The Death of Beleg" tells you that Túrin's dearest friend meets his end before you get to read about it. Far too much information is given away in this fashion, and given the nature of the story, any hope by the reader that an upturn in Túrin's fortunes can be sustained is squashed in advance. Otherwise, the writing is pure J. R. R. Tolkien, although you have to be the kind of fan that finds his digressions into elf-lore and the deep history of Middle Earth fascinating to appreciate this book. If you're not familiar with his writings, definitely read The Hobbit and especially The Lord of the Rings first. Tolkien fans who liked The Silmarillion will like this just as much, unless they're overly partial to the "happily ever after" kind of ending.

Overall grade: B+

reviewed by Scott

The Lord of the Rings, Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto

People throughout the world have adored The Lord of the Rings ever since J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy epic trilogy was first published over half a century ago. The popularity of the story about a hobbit named Frodo Baggins and his quest to rid Middle Earth of the One Ring expanded even further when Peter Jackson's enormously successful film adaptation came out in three installments earlier in this decade. Now The Lord of the Rings has been produced for the stage, premiering at Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre in March. The creators of the theatrical production faced multiple obstacles, the most obvious being how to present all the essential elements of the plot in a reasonable amount of time and how to visualize the story's more fantastic aspects in a live stage setting. Neither of these challenges would be simple to conquer, and the potential for the play to turn into an expensive disaster certainly existed. Thankfully, while the stage adaptation isn't perfect, it does succeed more often than it fails, and as a whole it is an entertaining and enjoyable experience.

The script writer Shaun McKenna did as well as could reasonably be expected in maintaining a coherent plot despite many abbreviations. Yes the play runs over three hours in three acts, and all the essential elements and almost all of the relevant characters of Tolkien's original story make it into the play. Faramir and Éomer are missing, and Wormtongue is merged with the Bree scoundrel Bill Ferny. Tom Bombadil, just as in the movies, was seen as too much of a diversion from the main story to include in the play, although he at least gets a mention from Gandalf. The Shire does get scoured this time around, happily, even if in a somewhat abbreviated form. Only when the scenes at Bree and Weathertop get blended together does the story line get confusing. Also, a few of the lesser characters that are included are not well enough defined. For example, neither Éowyn nor Théoden received enough dialog to clarify their roles in the story to anybody who might not already know them. It's also never made clear who the Black Riders really are. These are minor points, however, as Frodo's journey is laid out for the audience in ample detail, and his struggles in the aftermath of his quest's successful completion are actually presented better here than in the film version of The Return of the King.

Given the play's large budget, the producers of The Lord of the Rings banked on the play being made or broken largely by the impact of the visual effects. As was true with the script, the play mostly but not completely succeeds in this regard. Rob Howell's breathtaking sets effectively transport the audience into Middle Earth, and the many revolving and moveable layers and platforms on the stage convey a clear sense of distance and elevation. The performers playing the ents had to walk on very high stilts, but pulled it off in a convincing fashion. The orcs used springy stilts below their legs and walking aids as appendages on their arms; these enabled the actors to engage in all sorts of acrobatics across the stage during the fight sequences. A few critics dismissed the fight and pursuit sequences as too much wandering around in the dark, but I honestly felt that that they concisely and clearly portrayed the action of several of the books' more important chapters. The visual highlight of the show, though, was the phenomenal puppetry that animated the Black Riders' horses and the giant spider Shelob, making them every bit as terrifying as Tolkien had originally intended. Unfortunately, the visuals tended to fail in the play's climactic moments. The rushing waters of the ford at Rivendell just weren't all that convincing. After watching the Moria scene close out the first act, I couldn't help thinking that it would have been more dramatic to leave the balrog unvisualized. Gandalf at Moria and Gollum at Mount Doom are essentially swallowed up by the moving layers of the stage; allowing gravity to do a little bit of work instead in those two scenes would have been much simpler and infinitely clearer.

The cast of actors included James Loye as Frodo, Peter Howe as Sam, Brent Carver as Gandalf, and Evan Buliung as Aragorn. Everybody handled their roles reasonably well; none of them distinguished themselves, but nobody brought the show down with them either. The biggest ovation was reserved for Michael Therriault as Gollum. While he gave a solid performance, he didn't really add anything to the character beyond what Andy Serkis did in the movie series.

The theatrical version of The Lord of the Rings distinguishes itself the most from previous adaptations of the story in its use of music. Tolkien included many songs in the text of his books, and the play incorporates several of Tolkien's pieces. Bilbo and Frodo sing about the road going ever, ever on, Gimli sings about Moria, and Frodo and the other hobbits do a rousing version of Tolkien's take on "Hey Diddle Diddle" in The Prancing Pony. In this sense, the play captures an important part of the spirit of Tolkien's work better than the movies did. Most of the music in the play, created by Indian composer A. R. Rahman and the Finnish band Värttinä, serves as background for the different scenes. While many of the pieces were given more showy arrangements, for better or worse, the music incorporated a lot of world music elements as well. The Black Riders theme included an eerie hint of Tuvan throat singing; this worked so well that it ought to have been incorporated into more scenes beyond the first act. Predictably, given the connection between the elvish language and Finnish, the music at Lothlórien and Rivendell bears a strong Nordic stamp. Lothlórien is introduced with a bit of kulning, or very high-pitched female vocalizations developed by Swedish cattle herders, and Galadriel sings in a form of traditional Finnish lilting. The musical highlight of the show comes when the Fellowship is established at the Council of Elrond, with a song featuring soaring vocal harmonies in Värttinä's trademark style.

The creators of The Lord of the Rings took on a very difficult task and produced a worthwhile adaptation of Tolkien's great work. They could have easily settled for a sanitized, commercialized version of the story, or even simply parroted what was done in the movies, but they deserve much credit for taking their share of chances with the production. A couple of things could have been done better, but I found the experience very pleasing to both the eyes and the ears. Fans of the books will find the play to be worth the trip, and at least some Tolkien novices (the group of people sitting to my immediate left had never read the books or seen the films) will be lured in by the story, the fantasy, the visuals, and the songs.

Overall Grade: B+

Reprinted with permission from The Green Man Review
Copyright 2006 The Green Man Review