End of the Second Age: vale Christopher Tolkien
Jan 21, 2020 12:09:42 GMT
via mobile
cato likes this
Post by Séamus on Jan 21, 2020 12:09:42 GMT
I suppose the death of Christopher Tolkien last week could be seen as the end of an era-after-an-era. We can thank him for the more poignant of his father's works,having published Silmarillion and edited several other publications,some of which are mostly of archival interest,like early folios that suggest that the original Sauron was a giant cat that ruled over a petty feline kingdom.
Children of Húrin would probably be a major,or the major,legacy due to the extensive editing required to produce a faultless novel.
And rarely is serious fantasy literature so bleak- by the end I'd probably have gladly followed Níniel into the raging ocean,hoping that Turin's sword would follow(and perhaps perhaps Glaurung's all-consuming fire for good measure).
But two parts have an incomparable poignant beauty about them- the sad reunion of Húrin and Morwen at the end of their devastating lives (not sure how it was allowed by Morgoth,who was a more powerful being than Sauron) and also the sad,pathetic figure of Mîm of Amon Rúdh,a figure all too aware of his clan's demise.
Christopher was reportedly a critic of film versions,despite Peter Jackson's films undoubtedly lifting the profile of JRR's principal works. While they admittedly fall short,a definitive or perfect production would be a virtual impossibility.
The expanded female roles were inevitable but,while her dream sequences fit in,why make Arwen a warrior to the detriment of male elves? Was Frodo and Gollum's last MarvelComics-like wrestle at the end really necessary? Perhaps dramatizing the post-Ring flight from the lava would have made a more realistic climax? Why disregard The Scouring of the Shire,which could have easily made a standalone movie and,later,use appendices from the trilogy to expand The Hobbit to three films? And Éowyn's quick demolition of the Nazgul's monster was plain shoddy,the changes to Denethor's death, disturbing.
I wonder what he thought of Enya's Aníron,written in one of his father's languages?
Children of Húrin would probably be a major,or the major,legacy due to the extensive editing required to produce a faultless novel.
And rarely is serious fantasy literature so bleak- by the end I'd probably have gladly followed Níniel into the raging ocean,hoping that Turin's sword would follow(and perhaps perhaps Glaurung's all-consuming fire for good measure).
But two parts have an incomparable poignant beauty about them- the sad reunion of Húrin and Morwen at the end of their devastating lives (not sure how it was allowed by Morgoth,who was a more powerful being than Sauron) and also the sad,pathetic figure of Mîm of Amon Rúdh,a figure all too aware of his clan's demise.
Christopher was reportedly a critic of film versions,despite Peter Jackson's films undoubtedly lifting the profile of JRR's principal works. While they admittedly fall short,a definitive or perfect production would be a virtual impossibility.
The expanded female roles were inevitable but,while her dream sequences fit in,why make Arwen a warrior to the detriment of male elves? Was Frodo and Gollum's last MarvelComics-like wrestle at the end really necessary? Perhaps dramatizing the post-Ring flight from the lava would have made a more realistic climax? Why disregard The Scouring of the Shire,which could have easily made a standalone movie and,later,use appendices from the trilogy to expand The Hobbit to three films? And Éowyn's quick demolition of the Nazgul's monster was plain shoddy,the changes to Denethor's death, disturbing.
I wonder what he thought of Enya's Aníron,written in one of his father's languages?