Editorial framing of The Lord of the Rings

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J. R. R. Tolkien called his 1954–55 book The Lord of the Rings a heroic romance, giving it a medieval feeling, and describing its time-frame as the remote past. He took care to make its setting, Middle-earth, believable by developing its geography, history, peoples, genealogies, and unseen background (later published as The Silmarillion) in great detail. He created a powerful impression of depth by hinting in many places at the unseen background. Further, he decided to increase the reader's feeling that the story was real by creating an elaborate, many-faceted editorial framing of The Lord of the Rings, surrounding the main text with metatextual appendices that extend and comment upon it. This effectively includes an editorial figure much like himself who is interested in philology, and who edits and translates the manuscript which has somehow come into his hands, having somehow survived the thousands of years since the Third Age.

The book was given a genuine editorial frame after Tolkien's death by his son Christopher Tolkien, who successively published The Silmarillion. Unfinished Tales, and eventually the 12 volumes of The History of Middle-earth. That set includes 4 volumes of The History of The Lord of the Rings. Christopher Tolkien provided detailed editorial commentary on the development of the stories of the whole legendarium and of The Lord of the Rings as a mass of contradictory drafts in manuscript.

Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy reframed the work as the tale of a dangerous adventure, omitting characters like Tom Bombadil and chapters like "The Scouring of the Shire" which deviated from Jackson's primary narrative, the quest to destroy the One Ring. The films attracted an enormous new audience, familiar with other media such as video games. Together, fans, game authors, and fantasy artists created a large body of work in many media, including a mass of fan fiction, novels, fan films, and artwork. Tolkien's impact on fantasy, principally through this one book, has been enormous; fantasy novelists have had the choice of either imitating Tolkien or of reacting against him. Scholars too turned their attention to book and films. These diverse contributions in many media provide a new, much wider context framing and commenting upon The Lord of the Rings.

Context[edit]

J. R. R. Tolkien was an English author and philologist of ancient Germanic languages, specialising in Old English; he spent much of his career as a professor at the University of Oxford.[1] He is best known for his novels about his invented Middle-earth, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and for the posthumously published The Silmarillion which provides a more mythical narrative about earlier ages. A devout Roman Catholic, he described The Lord of the Rings as "a fundamentally religious and Catholic work", rich in Christian symbolism.[2]

Frame embedded in the book[edit]

Frame story[edit]

Further information: Tolkien's frame stories and Red Book of Westmarch

A frame story is a tale that encloses or frames the main story or set of stories. For example, in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, the main story is framed by a fictional correspondence between an explorer and his sister, so as to present the story as if it were real.[3]

Tolkien used frame stories in his Middle-earth writings to make the works resemble a genuine mythology, accumulated over a long period of time. He described in detail how his fictional characters Bilbo and Frodo Baggins wrote their memoirs and transmitted them to others, and showed how later in-universe editors annotated the material. In The Lord of the Rings, the characters directly discuss the story, i.e. Tolkien has embedded the narrative's frame story in the narrative.[4]

Tolkien accompanied the embedded frame story with a found manuscript conceit, pretending that he had had the luck to come across an ancient manuscript of the Red Book of Westmarch which had somehow survived over the thousands of years since the end of the Third Age. With this device, Tolkien could put a figure of himself inside the book, appearing as the voice of a philological editor and translator making comments in the appendices. In Appendix F II "On Translation", this figure explains how and why he has approached the task of making the ancient text intelligible to the modern reader.[5]

Multiple levels[edit]

Further information: Pseudotranslation in The Lord of the Rings

Turner comments that elements of the frame story function at multiple levels; in particular, metatextual elements like the appendices "[treat] the world of the story as historical fact, at the same time [creating] for the reader the illusion of a direct link through time and space with his/her own world through the persona of the 'editor'".[5] For example:

Tolkien impersonates an editor writing factual explanatory notes on a historical text[6]
Note on three names: Hobbit, Gamgee, and Brandywine
Hobbit is an invention. In the Westron the word used, when this people was referred to at all, was banakil 'halfling'. But at this date the folk of the Shire and of Bree used the word kuduk, which was not found elsewhere. Meriadoc, however, actually records that the King of Rohan used the word kûd-dúkan 'hole-dweller'. Since, as has been noted, the Hobbits had once spoken a language closely related to that of the Rohirrim, it seems likely that kuduk was a worn-down form of kûd-dúkan. The latter I have translated, for reasons explained, by holbytla; and hobbit provides a word that might well be a worn-down form of holbytla, if that name had occurred in our own ancient language. ...

All of this paints a picture of the author as editor and (pseudo-)translator, the text as a survival through long ages, and the events depicted as historical:[4][7] In his introduction to Unfinished Tales, Christopher Tolkien described his father's imagined role as the "persona ... of the translator and redactor".[8] He made a similar point about the legendarium in his foreword to The Silmarillion: "my father came to conceive the Silmarillion as a compilation ... made long afterwards ..."[9] In a letter sent while he was writing The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien wrote "I always had the sense of recording what was already 'there' somewhere: not of inventing."[10]

Catherine Butler comments that this was "congenial work" which "suited the philological Tolkien with his many medieval documents".[11] One aspect of that congeniality is that it allowed documents to be inconsistent with each other: different editors had different opinions, and tales could be told from many points of view. A major instance that troubled Tolkien was in The Hobbit, where Bilbo claimed in the first edition (1937) that Gollum had freely given him the ring. Seen from The Lord of the Rings, where the ring had become the One Ring, so powerful as to corrupt anyone who wore it for any substantial length of time, Bilbo's claim was clearly a lie: Gollum was totally addicted to the One Ring, and quite unable to give it up. But once Tolkien realized there could be inconsistent versions of Bilbo's claim, he could say simply that Bilbo lied so as to reinforce his claim on the item, making himself more comfortable psychologically. All the same, Tolkien altered the second edition (1951) of The Hobbit so as to be more consistent with the forthcoming The Lord of the Rings.[11]


Pseudotranslation supporting Tolkien's frame story[4][7]
Time Events Notes
Third Age The quest of Erebor
Bilbo Baggins writes his memoirs in Westron.
War of the Ring 		Pseudo-history conceit
The Hobbit
Further pseudo-history
Fourth Age Frodo Baggins writes his memoirs in Westron.
Others annotate the memoirs: the Red Book of Westmarch. 		The Lord of the Rings
Found manuscript conceit
Fifth Age ... more editing by more hands ... Pseudo-editor conceit
Sixth/Seventh Age The Tolkien 'editor' "translates" the works into English
(and a little Old Norse and Old English) 		Pseudo-translator conceit

Multiple elements[edit]

The Lord of the Rings has a complex structure, with many elements besides the main text. These form a frame which expands upon the text, comments upon it, and helps to make it convincingly realistic.[5][12] Among these elements, Thomas Kullmann writes that the prologue "obviously imitates the non-fictional prose of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century ethnography" with its discussion of how "Hobbits are an unobtrusive but very ancient people..." and details of their habitual activities.[13] Further, the "Notes on Shire Records" imitate "works of historiography", while the appendices offer tables of what look like "historic data and linguistic notes."[13]

Tolkien commented on this metatextual process in one of his letters, writing that "It is, I suppose, fundamentally concerned with the problem of the relation of Art (and sub-creation) and Primary Reality".[14]

Vladimir Brljak notes Tolkien's praise of Beowulf in his lecture "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics", and cites Shippey's comment that Tolkien "felt a virtual identity of motive and of technique" with the Beowulf poet. That affinity, he writes, extended to creating an impression of depth, giving the feeling of "unattainable vistas" stretching back into the past. It also meant intentionally creating the feeling of receiving "an echo of an echo" (as Tolkien said in his lecture) by creating "an intricate metafictional structure". Brljak argues that this framework "is both the cornerstone and crowning achievement of Tolkien's mature literary work", and that the pseudo-editorial, pseudo-philological, and pseudo-translational apparatus contributes greatly to the effect.[12]

An external editorial frame[edit]

When The Lord of the Rings was first published in the 1950s, Tolkien as the book's author was the only person who had actually edited the many drafts of the text or commented upon them, let alone of the large legendarium which lay behind the text and supplied the material for its impression of depth, its pseudo-historical frame. This changed after his death in 1973, when his son Christopher Tolkien redacted the legendarium to create a much shorter version of it, The Silmarillion. That led to the publication of further stories, starting with the 1980 Unfinished Tales, and eventually to the 12 volumes of The History of Middle-earth. That set includes 4 volumes of The History of The Lord of the Rings. Christopher Tolkien provided detailed editorial commentary on the development of the stories of the whole legendarium, the Silmarillion writ large, and of The Lord of the Rings as a mass of contradictory drafts in manuscript.[15][16] The work had become, in reality and no longer only in fiction, a complex work by different hands edited over a long period.

Diagram of the documents comprising Tolkien's Legendarium, as interpreted very strictly, strictly, or more broadlyThe HobbitThe Lord of the RingsThe SilmarillionUnfinished TalesThe Annotated HobbitThe History of The HobbitThe History of The Lord of the RingsThe Lost Road and Other WritingsThe Notion Club PapersJ. R. R. Tolkien's explorations of time travelThe Book of Lost TalesThe Lays of BeleriandThe Shaping of Middle-earthThe Shaping of Middle-earthMorgoth's RingThe War of the JewelsThe History of Middle-earthNon-narrative elements in The Lord of the RingsLanguages constructed by J. R. R. TolkienTolkien's artworkTolkien's scriptsPoetry in The Lord of the Ringscommons:File:Tolkien's Legendarium.svg
Navigable diagram of Tolkien's legendarium. The 12 volumes of The History of Middle-earth, edited over many years by Christopher Tolkien, include 4 volumes of The History of The Lord of the Rings. The editorial frame had entered the real world.

Reframing by many hands[edit]

Peter Jackson[edit]

In 2001-03, Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy appeared on cinema screens.[17] Jackson took great care to create a visually-convincing Middle-earth setting, with admired cinematography, sets, miniatures, costumes, prosthetics, weapons and armour made by Wētā Workshop, and the CGI creation of the monster Gollum. All this attracted much critical admiration.[18] The film's production design was based on the artwork of the leading Tolkien artists John Howe and Alan Lee, who were employed for long periods in New Zealand to support the production of the films. Howard Shore's music for the series, too, was widely praised.[19] The result was to make the films look familiar, and indeed in Kristin Thompson's words "readers ... often claimed that the film had captured their own mental images of Middle-earth".[20][21]

Jackson, with a background in horror films, and the need to attracting a large audience, necessarily cut the story down to fit the viewing time of three films. He chose to focus on the story as a dangerous adventure, omitting characters such as Tom Bombadil who did not forward the narrative, and chapters such as "The Scouring of the Shire" which deviate from Jackson's primary narrative, the quest to destroy the One Ring.[19][22]

The films were extremely successful commercially, attracting both existing Tolkien readers and creating a new, younger audience familiar with other media such as video games. Tolkien scholars were divided in their opinions of the films. A few felt that the spirit of the book had been lost, the text eviscerated.[23] Some noted that characters had been flattened out into basic types or caricatures.[24] Others felt that the book's qualities had been preserved by appropriate substitution of cinematic techniques for Tolkien's prose.[25] And some, along with many fans, saw the films as representing the book well.[26]

Fans, novelists, game authors, artists[edit]

Further information: Works inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien, Tolkien's impact on fantasy, and Illustrating Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings, both as a book and as a film series, has inspired the creation of a large number of works in many media. Tolkien's impact on fantasy, principally through this one book, has been enormous. It unquestionably created "fantasy" as a marketing category.[27] Tolkien has been called the "father" of modern fantasy,[28][29][30] or more specifically of high fantasy.[31] The result was an outpouring of novels, games, fan fiction, and fantasy artwork all based on, imitative of, or reacting against Tolkien: a wider frame created by many hands using a diverse range of media.[32] The author and editor of Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Brian Attebery, writes that fantasy is defined "not by boundaries but by a centre", which is The Lord of the Rings.[33]

  • Editorial framing of The Lord of the Rings has proceeded from Tolkien's fictional editor who supposedly translated the Red Book of Westmarch, to his son Christopher who genuinely edited the many draft manuscripts for the book, to Peter Jackson's films which radically revised the story and its focus, and on to a mass of materials by many hands in a wide variety of media.]]
    Editorial framing of The Lord of the Rings has proceeded from Tolkien's fictional editor who supposedly translated the Red Book of Westmarch, to his son Christopher who genuinely edited the many draft manuscripts for the book, to Peter Jackson's films which radically revised the story and its focus, and on to a mass of materials by many hands in a wide variety of media.]]

References[edit]

Primary[edit]

Secondary[edit]

  1. ^ Carpenter 1977, pp. 111, 200, 266.
  2. ^ Carpenter 2023, letter 142 to Robert Murray, 2 December 1953
  3. ^ "Frame narrative". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d Flieger 2005, pp. 67–73 "A great big book with red and black letters"
  5. ^ a b c Turner 2011a, p. 18.
  6. ^ Tolkien 1955, Appendix F II, "On Translation"
  7. ^ a b c Turner 2011a, pp. 18–21.
  8. ^ Tolkien 1980, "Introduction", p. 3.
  9. ^ Tolkien 1977, "Foreword".
  10. ^ Carpenter 2023, #131 to Milton Waldman, late 1951
  11. ^ a b Butler 2013, pp. 108–111.
  12. ^ a b c Brljak 2010, pp. 1–34.
  13. ^ a b c Kullmann 2009, pp. 46–47.
  14. ^ Carpenter 2023, #131 to Milton Waldman, late 1951, footnote
  15. ^ Bratman, David (2000). "The Literary Value of 'The History of Middle-earth'". Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy (86): 69–94.
  16. ^ Noad, Charles (1994). "[Untitled Review of The War of the Jewels]". Mallorn (31): 50–54. JSTOR 45320384.
  17. ^ Shepherd, Jack (15 November 2017). "Lord of the Rings set to become the most expensive TV show of all time". The Independent. Archived from the original on 10 May 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  18. ^ Rosebury, Brian (2003) [1992]. Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon. Palgrave. pp. 204–220. ISBN 978-1403-91263-3.
  19. ^ a b Thompson, Kristin (2011). "Gollum Talks to Himself: Problems and Solutions in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings". In Bogstad, Janice M.; Kaveny, Philip E. (eds.). Picturing Tolkien: Essays on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy. McFarland & Company. pp. 25–45. ISBN 978-0-7864-8473-7. Archived from the original on 13 July 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
  20. ^ Harvey 2013, p. 165.
  21. ^ Thompson, Kristin (2007). The Frodo Franchise: 'The Lord of the Rings' and Modern Hollywood. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 86–87.
  22. ^ Mathijs, Ernest; Pomerance, Murray, eds. (2006). "Dramatis personae". From Hobbits to Hollywood: Essays on Peter Jackson's 'Lord of the Rings'. Editions Rodopi. pp. ix–xii. ISBN 90-420-1682-5.
  23. ^ Bratman, David (2005). "Summa Jacksonica: A Reply to Defenses of Peter Jackson's 'The Lord of the Rings' films, after St. Thomas Aquinas". In Croft, Janet Brennan (ed.). Tolkien on Film: Essays on Peter Jackson's 'The Lord of the Rings'. Mythopoeic Press. pp. 27–62. ISBN 978-1887726092.
  24. ^ Burdge & Burke 2011b, p. 155.
  25. ^ Reid, Robin Anne (2007). "Fantasy Fiction into Film". In Stratyner, Leslie; Keller, James R. (eds.). Fantasy Fiction into Film: Essays. McFarland & Company. pp. 35–54. ISBN 978-0-7864-3057-4. Archived from the original on 19 April 2021. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  26. ^ Greydanus, Steven D. "Faith and fantasy: Tolkien the Catholic, The Lord of the Rings, and Peter Jackson's film trilogy". Decent Films. Archived from the original on 16 April 2021. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
  27. ^ Yolen, Jane (1992). "Introduction". In Martin H. Greenberg (ed.). After the King: Stories in Honor of J.R.R. Tolkien. Tor Books. pp. vii–ix. ISBN 978-0-765-30207-6.
  28. ^ Schlagwein, Felix (1 March 2022). "How Tolkien became the father of fantasy". Deutsche Welle.
  29. ^ Mitchell, Christopher. "J. R. R. Tolkien: Father of Modern Fantasy Literature". Veritas Forum. Archived from the original on 20 June 2009.
  30. ^ Drabble, Margaret, ed. (2000). The Oxford Companion to English Literature (6 ed.). p. 352.
  31. ^ Clute, John; Grant, John (1997). "Genre Fantasy". Encyclopedia of Fantasy. p. 951 "Tolkien, J(ohn) R(onald) R(euel)". Retrieved 13 July 2023.
  32. ^ Sur, Debadrita (2 September 2021). "How J.R.R. Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' changed the high fantasy genre". Far Out Magazine. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  33. ^ Hunt, Peter (2013). J.R.R. Tolkien. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 33. ISBN 978-1-137-26399-5.

Sources[edit]

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