Picturing Tolkien

This group of new critical essays offers multidisciplinary analysis of director Peter Jackson’s spectacularly successful adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003). Part One of the collection, “Techniques of Structure and Story,” compares and contrasts the organizational principles of the books and films. Part Two, “Techniques of Character and Culture,” focuses on the methods used to transform the characters and settings of Tolkien’s narrative into the personalities and places visualized on screen. Each of the sixteen essays includes extensive notes and a separate bibliography. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Janice M. Bogstad is a professor of women’s studies and English and head of technical services at the McIntyre Library, University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. Her written work has appeared in more than 60 reference books.

University of Wisconsin–Madison Emeritus Philip E. Kaveny is an independent scholar, author, playwright, poet and lecturer.

Edited by Janice M. Bogstad and Philip E. Kaveny

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 309
Bibliographic Info: 3 photos, notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2011
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4636-0
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8473-7
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vi

Preface by Janice M. Bogstad and Philip E. Kaveny      1

Introduction      5

I. Techniques of Story and Structure

Gollum Talks to Himself: Problems and Solutions in Peter Jackson’s Film Adaptation of The Lord of the Rings
KRISTIN THOMPSON      25

Sometimes One Word Is Worth a Thousand Pictures
VERLYN FLIEGER      46

Two Kinds of Absence: Elision and Exclusion in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings
JOHN D. RATELIFF      54

Tolkien’s Resistance to Linearity: Narrating The Lord of the Rings in Fiction and Film
E.L. RISDEN      70

Filming Folklore: Adapting Fantasy for the Big Screen through Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings
DIMITRA FIMI      84

Making the Connection on Page and Screen in Tolkien’s and Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings
YVETTE KISOR      102

“It’s Alive!”: Tolkien’s Monster on the Screen
SHARIN SCHROEDER      116

The Matériel of Middle-earth: Arms and Armor in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy
ROBERT C. WOOSNAM- SAVAGE      139

II. Techniques of Character and Culture

Into the West: Far Green Country or Shadow on the Waters?
JUDY ANN FORD and ROBIN ANNE REID      169

Frodo Lives but Gollum Redeems the Blood of Kings
PHILIP E. KAVENY      183

The Grey Pilgrim: Gandalf and the Challenges of Characterization in Middle- earth
BRIAN D. WALTER      194

Jackson’s Aragorn and the American Superhero Monomyth
JANET BRENNAN CROFT      216

Neither the Shadow nor the Twilight: The Love Story of Aragorn and Arwen in Literature and Film
RICHARD C. WEST      227

Concerning Horses: Establishing Cultural Settings from Tolkien to Jackson
JANICE M. BOGSTAD      238

The Rohirrim, the Anglo-Saxons, and the Problem of Appendix F : Ambiguity, Analogy and Reference in Tolkien’s Books and Jackson’s Films
MICHAEL D.C. DROUT      248

Filming the Numinous: The Fate of Lothlórien in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings
JOSEPH RICKE and CATHERINE BARNETT      264

About the Contributors      287

Index      291

• “Extraordinary…fascinating”—Midwest Book Review
• “Will be of interest to scholars and fans…a worthwhile study”—Mythlore
• “A valuable addition to the critical examination of the relationship between Tolkien’s novel and Jackson’s films…the editors are to be commended for providing a venue for nuanced, interdisciplinary approaches to Jackson’s adaptations”—Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts