By-The-Bywater: A Podcast about All Things J.R.R. Tolkien

By Jared Pechaček, Oriana Scwindt, and Ned RaggettTV & Film Arts Books

By-The-Bywater: A Podcast about All Things J.R.R. Tolkien episodes

August 01, 2022 41. The Jock Who Joins the Glee Club.
Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Oriana’s choice of topic: Legolas
Greenleaf. Not originally planned as a member of the Fellowship – the honor
was going to go to Glorfindel, who helps Aragorn and the hobbits evade the
Nazgûl en route to Rivendell – Legolas ended up as a classic retcon character,
introduced as the son of Thranduil, the Elvenking featured in The Hobbit, even
though no such character was ever mentioned or described in that book. A
brilliant archer who makes light of burdens, literally can walk on snow and
isn’t above teasing his suffering companions – but someone who can react badly
if his own privilege is ever questioned – he’s at once fascinating and more
than a little infuriating, though his unique relationship with Gimli is one of
The Lord of the Rings’s more intriguing subplots. What kind of universality
can be read into the character as maybe representing what Elves are like – or
is he simply his own individual self? How does he come across to the hobbits,
who are the ones ‘telling’ the story in Tolkien’s own construction of it, and
is he truly relatable to them at all? What does his profound change of mood
when he nears the sea say about Tolkien’s deeper conception of not only Elves
but how they considered time? And just what do we think of Orlando Bloom’s
performance of the character in the Peter Jackson films? (And separately: did
we have thoughts on various The Rings of Power trailers? Oh did we ever.)
Show Notes.
Jared’s
doodle.
Legolas would do that as often as he could, truly.
Jared and Ned did indeed
meet for the first
time in Seattle for lunch at a Vinason location.
COVID’s still a thing – don’t sleep on it. And yes, if you get it, get yer
Paxlovid.
So, The Rings of Power trailers? Which do you want? This
one, this
one, or this
one?
The EW story introducing the Númenoreans.
Want to see the SDCC panel on The Rings of Power? Go
nuts.
Bear McCreary conducting at
SDCC. (We still think
this might be his masterwork.)
Support the Harper Collins Union.
A typical interview with the showrunners. Mm.
The 1951 letter to Milton
Waldman with the ‘other minds and hands’ passage.
Our episode on Dwarves and the
attendant stereotypes.
We’re not saying this kind of
thing is what WILL happen with
Ar-Pharazôn but you know…
Irish fairies and their kid-stealing ways.
Adûnaic! If you’d like to
learn more.
Legolas…we’ve heard of him.
Ms. Marvel was
indeed a pretty good show.
Our episode on friendship.
Legolas shoots down the Winged Messenger.
The Ask Middle-earth Tumblr on sea-longing.
Orlando Bloom’s Legolas in The Return of the
King. Just that.
That ‘stars are veiled’
moment. The
sidelong look happens a bit later.
Yes, yes indeed, they are taking the hobbits to
Isengard.
Shout out to DayQuil!
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56 min
July 05, 2022 40. Dude, Just Make a Language!
Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Ned’s choice of topic: Tolkien’s essay “A
Secret Vice.” Originally prepared as a lecture called “A Hobby for the Home”
for an Oxford literary society in 1931, “A Secret Vice” is now regarded as one
of the two most key essays, along with “On Fairy-Stories” of Tolkien
essentially reflecting on his own work and what drove his creative interests.
His training and work as a philologist grew out not only an interest in
languages in general but in creating them for his own interest, and it’s long
been clear that his early development of the Elvish languages in particular
are what led him to start creating poetry and prose set in his legendarium to
begin with. At the same time, the time and place of the essay’s creation
demonstrates that a lot of his stance involves assumptions that wider
linguistic scholarship has since moved on from. What was the popular impact of
constructed languages such as Esperanto on Tolkien’s own belief in how such
languages could thrive? Why is it important to distinguish between Tolkien’s
favored belief in sound symbolism and the separate school of structural
linguistics? What were some of the evident biases that Tolkien’s own favored
languages – not to mention his native language, English – created in terms of
what he wanted to create himself with his own original tongues? And just what
was it with his way of dancing around actually talking about what interested
him in the subject instead of simply flat out stating it?
Show Notes.
Jared’s
doodle. To
see the stars is to name them.
We do not recommend getting into an accident with a forklift, but if you do,
watch MST3K,
listen to It’s Just a Show, and sing along
with a song.
The Tolkien Society’s report on the new forthcoming
Tolkien book The Fall of Númenor. (And as we say later, check out our
Aldarion and Erendis episode.)
Amazon
promos ahoy.
There were a variety of Empire magazine stories; this was the main one
online, plus Lenny Henry on the
Harfoots. (And
Celebrimbor…the
newscaster?)
Leith McPherson on being the dialect coach
for The Rings of Power.
Jamie Wilson and Lindsey Weber on the Orcs in The Rings of Power.
(Relatedly, our episode on orcs.)
Deadline’s announcement of the major voice
casting for The War of the Rohirrim.
Philippa Boyens interviewed by
TheOneRing.net on The War
of the Rohirrim, including discussion of the new character Héra.
The critical edition of A Secret
Vice, as listed on Dimitra
Fini’s site. (Plus the informal launch, as she
describes it, of the book at Oxford.)
Oriana’s 2019 Vox piece on
conlangs.
You might have heard of GoldenEye.
But are you invincible?
Constructed languages
have been a thing then and now.
Esperanto!
Volapük!
Novial!
Gertrude Stein and James
Joyce:
Modernists par excellence.
Sound symbolism and
structural
linguistics.
Finnish is
very much its own thing.
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1 hr 4 min
June 06, 2022 39. These Aren’t My Questions, I Translated Them.
Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Jared’s choice of topic: the Red Book of
Westmarch. It’s hinted at at the end of The Lord of the Rings when Sam
reviews some title pages – a device carried over into the Jackson movie
adaptations – but the appendices and part of the introduction both make it
clear that the published story is meant to be a translation from Bilbo and
Frodo’s own handwritten memoirs, covering The Hobbit as well, and thus Tolkien
in this conceit is not the author of the text but its translator and editor
instead. It fits within Tolkien’s own life as an academic and an interpreter
and presenter of texts, as well as being part of a lengthy tradition in
numerous societies over millennia where writers employ the creative tool of
claiming their work as that of others, be they found documents, unearthed
manuscripts, discovered letters and so forth. It’s something that many readers
may simply find an intriguing amusement when it comes to The Lord of the
Rings, but it does introduce further questions about perspective and authorial
intent worth the consideration. How does framing the story through the lens of
certain participants only shape what we might consider a ‘true’ history of the
events of the book, and what would it mean if other perspectives were shared
instead? What other times had Tolkien used this framing in his own creative
work as a way to present a tale in a different context, and with what intent?
Is Tolkien’s work in fact the first postmodern fantasy as such, a self-conscious creation that plays with tropes even as it also establishes new ones
in turn? And just what are all those memes about how the main protagonist of
the story is really a Maura Labingi about?
Show Notes.
Jared’s
doodle. Who
wouldn’t want the real Red Book of Westmarch?
Aw, crypto turned out to be a hype scam
market, who knew. (Everyone with sense,
of course.) As for Lonely Ape, puh-leez.
Do check out Oriana’s other podcasts! American
Grift and Mission:
Recall, both great.
The bit from John Howe in Empire – we’ll talk about the issue
covers that were released next episode.
Reports from the Amazon promo event for the
hyperfans are…to be expected.
(Again, the ones with the cautious optimism are the ones we appreciate more
over the raves.)
The LOTR on Prime
tweet confirming
Tyroe Muhafidin as ‘Theo’ aka the one with the broken blade.
IGN speaks with the scientist who named the most
distant star yet found in the universe Earendel.
Alan Lee in LitHub on illustrating The Lord of the Rings.
Den of Geek tries once and for all to untangle the
whole rights question. It’s still unclear.
Tolkien Gateway’s
entry on the Red Book
of Westmarch.
We don’t quite use the term in the episode but the concept of the frame
story, as discussed on Wikipedia,
is a broader category that can include the kind of stories where authors are
presenting works they’ve supposedly found and presented rather than simply
written. A key example as Jared discusses would be the epistolary
novel, and don’t forget the
unreliable narrator.
Maura Labingi! It is Frodo’s real
name.
Postmodernism in fantasy is a
thing and has been discussed in various ways – back in 2010 Brandon
Sanderson and Jeff
VanderMeer had an exchange on the matter.
Thomas Pynchon’s written some good work. Or
found it, if you will.
The Red Book of Hergest,
Tolkien’s real-world model.
Our Farmer Giles of Ham episode.
And our Nature of Middle-earth
one.
How well known was David Foster Wallace for footnotes? This should give you
an idea.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell definitely has a LOT of footnotes.
The Message Bible, as not recommended by Jared.
The Book of Mazarbul in
Tolkien Gateway, including Tolkien’s own created pages from it, planned as a
possible inclusion for the initial printing of The Lord of the Rings.
Laurence Sterne, literary
badass.
John Darnielle interviewed by the New
Yorker. (We highly recommend Devil House.)
The Manuscript Found in
Saragossa,
and its 1965 Polish adaptation for film, The Saragossa
Manuscript.
We forgot to give Nate Thatcher a mention in the episode but he was the
listener who pointed us to the
lecture Jared
mentions watching, Michael Drout’s “Lord of the Rings: How To Read J. R. R.
Tolkien.”
The Cats of Queen
Berúthiel! And
that’s about all we know.
Malazan Book of the
Fallen by Steven
Erikson – worth a read!
The 1987 US one-volume edition of The Lord of the
Rings
designed to look like a Red Book of Westmarch, part of a series of such
editions.
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(Thanks!)
56 min
May 02, 2022 38. The Rings of Power Broker.
Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Oriana’s choice of topic: initial thoughts
on what evil is in Tolkien’s work. The sweeping arc of The Lord of the Rings
in particular is understandably thought of – though very often simplistically
reduced to – a basic good versus evil clash, a black and white split. But as
more and more of Tolkien’s work over the decades has been published over time,
up to and including last year’s The Nature of Middle-earth volume, it’s clear
that he himself thought that what evil exactly was in his created universe
took on many forms and had numerous ways of being perceived. It’s also well
worth reflecting on how many of his seemingly stereotypical ‘good’ characters
carry out actions, consciously or not, that result in manifold acts of evil
playing out in many different forms, from mass slaughter to small acts of
domination. What are the differences between Morgoth and his prime servant
Sauron in terms of how they view their actions and desires, and how they carry
them out? What are the worst horrors carried out in Arda Marred – itself
conceived and portrayed as containing an intrinsic, foundational evil that
could not be removed without its own destruction – and who is ultimately
responsible for them in the moment? How is the pettiness of Ted Sandyman’s
laughter and spit in the Scouring of the Shire as much a reflection of evil as
Sauron’s ravaging of the Pelennor Fields? And is there evil as such portrayed
at all in any of Tolkien’s non-Middle-earth works, or is it more something
akin to it?
Show Notes.
Jared’s
doodle. Truly
tragic and horrific, and that’s all that can be said.
The Folio Society announcement of the newly
revised and updated Alan Lee-illustrated Lord of the Rings edition. It really
does look great.
The Folio Society’s earlier edition with illustrations by Queen
Margrethe is indeed really sharp
too.
A report on the Ukok Princess and her
tattoos. Truly striking work.
Plenty of stuff to read about Robert Eggers’s film The Northman – enjoy this
Smithsonian dive into some of the historical
roots. (Bjork’s character is a priestess for this
fellow.)
The Tolkien Gateway entry on Arda
Marred.
Robert Moses had quite the
impact, to put it mildly – as did Robert Caro’s
famed biographical study, The Power Broker.
The
Kinslaying
really is a horrific event to consider.
Our episode on The Nature of Middle-earth.
Generational and inter-generational trauma are heavy burdens.
Our Aldarion and Erendis episode:
destructive sorrow without evil as such.
Our Scouring of the Shire
episode.
Bulletproof vs. stab-proof
vests, should you be so inclined.
The Book of Job is quite a
meditation on evil’s existence.
There’s a lot out there regarding modern Disney, Marvel, villainy and so
forth. For now, Adam Serwer on Killmonger in Black
Panther and a wider meditation and links to other
pieces on colonialism and imperialism in Thor:
Ragnarok.
Our episodes on Farmer Giles of
Ham, Smith of Wootton
Major and Leaf By
Niggle.
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Patreon.
55 min
April 04, 2022 37. They’re Just Some Solarized Dudes.
Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Ned’s choice of topic: Ralph Bakshi’s
animated film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. A heavily promoted effort
at the time due it being both the first ever version of Tolkien’s work done
for film as well as due to Bakshi’s notable reputation as the most well known
American animator since Walt Disney and Chuck Jones, the 1978 movie was a
reasonable success but not a smash, and the fact that it was only the first
half of a planned two-film sequence – but not marketed as such – led to
confused audiences and an upset Tolkien reader fanbase. At once a surprisingly
faithful if still heavily redacted version of the book and a very unusual mix
of animation styles that grew out of Bakshi’s earlier movies, the film has
retained a cult following since, and the resulting contrast with the later
Peter Jackson movies has proven illuminating to both. What makes the sequences
like the Flight to the Ford both compelling viewing and something of a slog?
Which voice actors bring a notable depth to their characters along with the
script and animation efforts – and which ones end up undercutting their
characters completely? How does the shifting between particular animation
styles, even within scenes, both act as intriguing experiment aiming to solve
particular problems and yet also a confusing mess? And what is up with that
incredibly generic musical score?
Show Notes.
Jared’s
doodle.
Jackson riffed on this scene for a reason.
And Jared did bake a cake for Megaphonic’s Kitchen Party! Check it
out.
The new Tolkien Estate page, worth a poke
around.
The Tolkien Society’s announcement of Priscilla Tolkien’s
passing.
Ralph Bakshi’s site. The specific Lord of the
Rings page has a variety of
stills, behind the scenes shots and preparatory work from the production.
The IMDB entry for Bakshi’s
production. (The film is available for streaming from a variety of services.)
The AFI catalog entry
for the production.
Ralph Bakshi: Forging Through the Darkness, a
short documentary.
The Tolkien Experience, Episode 32: Ralph
Bakshi, an extended
interview by Luke Shelton.
An Exhaustive History of Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the
Rings by Dan Olson of Folding
Ideas. (And as we spoke about in the episode, Olson’s two hour plus video on
NFTs and crypto is an absolute
must-watch.)
Three Rings For
Hollywood, Janet Brennan
Croft’s short comparative study of various film script adaptations of The Lord
of the Rings up through Bakshi’s adaptation.
‘Will the Video Version of Tolkien Be Hobbit
Forming?,’ John Culhane’s late 1977 New York Times story on the Rankin-Bass Hobbit which also includes separate quotes from Bakshi on his then-forthcoming adaptation.
Vincent Canby’s review of the
film for the New York Times.
Roger Ebert’s review of the film for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Mythlore 19, Winter 1979,
which contains two reviews of the film from Steven Walker and Dale Ziegler.
Information on Amon Hen 39,
published in June 1979, which contains four separate reviews of the film,
including the Mythlore review from Steven Walker.
‘Hobbits On Film,’ Glenn Gaslin’s 2001 retrospective
consideration of the Bakshi production for Slate, written in the run-up to the
release of Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring.
Bakshi’s 2015
interview with TheOneRing.net.
Austen Gilkenson’s extended 2018 study of the film for Tor, part
one and part
two.
Ned’s own 2018 piece about the film and other
Tolkien adaptations of the time, published in the Quietus.
A TV ad for the film.
The Electric Company
Magazine! And
like Ned said, there was a tie-in
issue.
As for the board game, it had Shelob at least.
You know the Spider-man
meme.
As for Bakshi on his Spider-man experience, he’s not
thrilled…
That Legolas
reaction.
It’s a choice.
The Flight to the Ford scene –
well worth watching even if you don’t know the full film, it sums up both the
strengths and oddities of the adaptation.
An example of the intriguing angular design of the Shire
woods
in the Shadow of the Past Goes Outdoors sequence. (Compare to Eyvind Earle’s
work on
Disney’s Sleeping Beauty.)
The full Lothlorien sequence,
with Galadriel’s fashion sense, the strange elf choir, the training montage as
such and the Mirror of Galadriel highs and lows.
Two notable sequences showing how Bakshi’s Aragorn is as Jared puts it ‘his’
Aragorn (costume aside): his meeting with the Hobbits in the Prancing Pony
parlor and Boromir’s
death, especially with the
wordless reaction from Aragorn near the end of the clip.
The Council of Elrond sequence
definitely is a moment. Not a GOOD moment…
The Shadow of the Past
sequence, with the quick cuts of
the seasons, Gandalf being crabby and stagy, Frodo’s agape reaction to the
Ring being tossed into the fire and so forth.
Gandalf meets Saruman – or
Aruman, depending on the line. Orthanc’s design and Saruman’s MANY COLORS!
included.
The hobbits first encounter the
Nazgul, and it’s a truly creepy
moment.
Ah yes the Balrog. We agree with the title of this
clip.
Aside from the opening credits, the prologue sequence is really impressive as
we note. But yeah that one
Elves bit.
Our episode on Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of the
Ring. And our orc
episode.
Gollum being Gollum. And almost
being redeemed towards the end of this
clip. (Per Jared’s comparison,
here’s Quentin Crisp on
Letterman.)
Grima petting Theoden. Can’t
put it any plainer.
Sam, Sam, Sam. Where to begin?
So many examples. And then
there’s that ‘moment.’
Aragorn takes a tumble.
Helm’s Deep here is not exactly
Jackson’s.
That’s one big skull in Moria. Meantime, is Rivendell a
lamasery?
If you REALLY want to hear the
soundtrack…
But yes, just listen to Rosenman’s Star Trek IV soundtrack
instead as Jared
suggests.
The heroic ending! Sorta.
Maybe. If you squint.
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1 hr 36 min
March 01, 2022 36. Divine Background Radiation.
Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Jared’s choice of topic: the Valar. For a
legendarium that is clearly monotheistic at base, down to the opening lines of
The Silmarillion essentially being a variant of the Book of Genesis, Tolkien’s
creation – and account of creation – has a class of similarly immortal beings
present from the beginning as well, and while you can call them a version of
angels, in many ways they are absolutely not like such beings as theologically
understood. Indeed, for all that they are termed as ‘the Powers’ in Arda, much
of what we know about them seems to derive from the limits of their power or
their inability to comprehend deeper truths – a question that Tolkien himself
felt needed explaining at a certain point. What does it say that Varda aka
Elbereth is regarded by the Elves with more reverence and love than her
partner Manwë? Why is it that beings with an essentially plastic form of
existence, not bound by physical form, take on certain specific forms and
identities even before the Children of Ilúvatar first awoke in Middle-earth?
Is there something to be said for the fact that so much of what the Valar do
over time turns more and more into outsourcing of a kind? What’s with the
moment of bemusing domestic snark between Aüle and Yavanna like it’s a sitcom?
And – separate from all this, but it took up half the episode – what do the
three of us think about all the news and trailer and more about a certain
Amazon series that finally dropped? Oh, we have thoughts…
Show Notes.
Jared’s
doodle.
Nienna really does have a lot to feel sad about the more time goes on…
Thanks, Princess
Quill!
The teaser trailer for The
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, if for some odd reason you haven’t seen
it yet. (The initial Jackson Fellowship of the Ring teaser
trailer if you’d like to
compare, plus the overall three movie
teaser.)
The various character posters are kinda scattered over the LOTR on
Prime Twitter account.
Not one, not
two, but
three Vanity Fair stories! They say…a lot. And
yet.
The Origo Gentis
Langobardorum, with
the women-with-beards story.
The new news about the anime The Lord of the
Rings: The War of the Rohirrim film.
TheOneRing.net’s
case for the mûmakil hanging around in Rohan.
The initial Variety report and follow-up regarding the rumored plan of Saul Zaentz’s company
selling their adaptation rights.
Our episode on the Rankin-Bass
Hobbit, if you missed it last
year!
The Valar, in sum.
Our The Nature of Middle-earth
episode. The book really does give
us a lot more to think about the Valar. (Separately, regarding Manwë’s
emissaries, our eagles episode.)
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1 hr 20 min
February 07, 2022 35. Do the Hobbits Have H.O.A.s?
Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Oriana’s choice of topic: the Shire. The
homeland of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins and many of Middle-earth’s hobbits in
general, and the entry point for nearly every reader to Tolkien’s imaginative
geographical and creative landscape, the Shire often seems like an idyllic and
nostalgic English utopia, an untroubled land where the beer is good, the
family trees are all spelled out carefully and there’s not much to worry about
aside from the occasional wolf or Orc raid over the centuries. Yet Tolkien
himself said he didn’t view it as a utopia, and both as sociopolitical
organization and as physical location, the Shire has more going on with it
than might be seen at first glance, even by some of its most well-known
inhabitants. What is the sense of history among the hobbits of the Shire, and
how do they regard their land and their sense of who they are? What does the
Shire being a seemingly safe place truly reveal when the Scouring is necessary
at the end of the grand story? Who are the authorities, if there are any, that
keep this seeming anarchist fantasy going as a functioning concern, and does
that cover monetary issues as well? And is that the only linguistically
blessed fox in the Shire, much less Middle-earth as a whole?
Show Notes.
Jared’s
doodle. A
party of special magnificence indeed.
Amazon’s title announcement
video – FINALLY. (And yes we
know there’s more but that happened after recording this episode – next time!)
TheOneRing.net
got some behind the scenes shots from the creation of said video, pretty cool.
The formal Haggerty Museum of Art
announcement about the
“J. R. R. Tolkien: The Art of the Manuscript” exhibition in Milwaukee, running
from August 19 to December 12.
Douglas Trumbull is rather
well known in the field.
The Shire: a basic overview.
Some of our relevant past episodes on the Scouring of the
Shire and Sam
Gamgee.
Karen Wynn Fonstad’s Shire
map,
as with all her work, is very great. (Pick up The Atlas of Middle-earth if you haven’t.)
What is utopia? Everywhere and
nowhere…well, nowhere, really.
Golf is canon!
English gardens are indeed a
thing.
Asterix rules, the end. The specific
volume in question – and
here’s the lawn
joke.
Merry England, or rather an
overview of the stereotype.
A recent article on Tolkien and
satire in the context of the
Shire.
Air traffic controller
memes!
The Worlds of J. R. R.
Tolkien by John Garth – well worth picking up. Here’s the
Birmingham map mentioned – Sarehole is location 1.
Britton Hill – Florida’s highest
point. (In contrast Ned climbed Mount
Marcy once.)
Who doesn’t love a Shire fox?
Watership Down and The Plague
Dogs, both very good reads and
often harrowing movies.
The feast with Gildor at
Woodhall as depicted
by Alan Lee.
Lovely Crickhollow.
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1 hr 2 min
January 18, 202234. I Ain’t No Big City Philologist!
Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Ned’s choice of topic: Tree and Leaf.
Published in 1964 in the UK and the following year in the US, Tree and Leaf
was Tolkien’s first major post-Lord of the Rings publication but was itself a
republishing of two earlier non-Middle-earth pieces: “On Fairy-Stories,” an
essay on the subject revised from a 1939 lecture and 1947 anthology, and “Leaf
by Niggle,” a short, explicitly religious story for a Catholic publication in
Anthologized and separately published since, they’re at once totally
separate but sometimes strangely complementary pieces that serve to illuminate
Tolkien’s interests beyond Middle-earth itself, while at the same time often
casting reflections back on it or suggesting how dominant his legendarium was
to his creative life and beyond. What makes “On Fairy-Stories” key as a way to
consider Tolkien’s overall creative aesthetic, even as it contains some of his
most dense, allusive prose? How does his framing of fairy-stories as not
simply being for children itself lead to other interesting conclusions about
not only children but other cultures? What makes “Leaf By Niggle” the closest
Tolkien ever got to C.S. Lewis’s fictional approach, but where also does it
differ? And how telling is it that once again Tolkien features an idealized
friendship – perhaps more – between men in his fiction?
Show Notes.
Jared’s
doodle.
(Kinda makes Ned think of the cover of Led Zeppelin
IV but not
really.)
Andy Serkis’s readings of The Hobbit and The Lord of the
Rings are quite
good indeed.
The Daily Mail photo
story – those are some lovely shots and the story’s cool too.
The Tolkien Society photo
announcement…and the
fallout.
Rosamund Pike has her way with a
pineapple.
Absolutely check out Costa Botes’s behind the scenes documentaries about Peter
Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. Here’s Botes’s own memories about
it. As for the
films, as noted they’re on the original Blu-ray set and elsewhere but then
again it’s weird where they
might all turn
up.
Tree and Leaf, the most current version of
same. As noted, the two original pieces are also now available separately with
more material: On Fairy-Stories and Leaf By
Niggle.
Andrew Lang’s impact on the general field of fairy
tales and more remains pretty big. (The Andrew Lang Memorial
Lectures continue to the present day.)
Max Müller’s had his own
general scholarly impact too.
Our Smith of Wootton Major
episode.
The ancient Egyptian Tale of Two
Brothers.
We didn’t mention it in our discussion but Tolkien’s referencing of the
sophistication of supposedly ‘primitive’ people has a resonance with the
character of Ghân-buri-Ghân – check out our episode on
him.
If you want more on Carl Jung and how Joseph Campbell built off him, read
on.
The Juniper
Tree, as told
by the Grimms.
M. R. James – so great. A Thin
Ghost presents all the stories plus info on the
many adaptations over time, including Mark Gatiss’s recent adaptations for
the BBC.
R. L. Stine – also so great. The
Snowman is there for the reading.
Hayao Miyazaki – great great
GREAT again. A recent NYT
profile, and yes watch Ponyo. And
everything else.
The Dublin
Review,
the publication where “Leaf By Niggle” first appeared.
So you’re wondering about Purgatory
in a Catholic context…
CCD aka Confraternity of Christian
Doctrine.
Phantom Thread! Great film.
Very not-Tolkien.
The Great Divorce, That
Hideous Strength, Till
We Have Faces, there’s
plenty of C. S. Lewis out there.
Niggle and Parish, a fraught friendship but with more to it there. Here’s our
episode on friendship.
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Patreon.
1 hr 5 min
December 17, 2021 33. Perry and Mippin.
Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about our collective choice of topic: Peter
Jackson’s version of The Fellowship of the Ring. Released twenty years ago
this month, there’s simply no question regarding the sheer force of the impact
that the first part of the massive effort to create a three-film adaptation of
The Lord of the Rings had. It squarely placed the story directly into more
mainstream popular culture, transformed the nature of the longtime fandom and
appreciation around the books, and became the anchor point of any number of
adaptations and interpretations since. But besides fond memories of a suddenly
wild and exuberant time, looking back with a more critical but still
appreciative eye is useful in acknowledging flaws and curious decisions as
well as reflecting once more on just how striking a film it is. What does a
wider consideration of that time in history tell us, not least of which was
the shattering impact of 9/11 three months prior, as well as being caught in a
continuing new wave of sf, comic book and fantasy adaptations? Are all the
various casting choices that the team made for the film successful, as well as
the adaptational choices themselves? How does the film succeed as a film
straight up, and what are its best moments? And is Legolas really a mink
stole? (Admit it, you’d love to see it.)
[Thanks to Michael Collins from This Is Your
Mixtape for editing this episode!]
Show Notes.
Jared’s
doodle.
This was exactly what he looked like, no question.
Will Poulter, via a larger GQ feature, on why he couldn’t make the Amazon series. No biggie, it
happens.
The Daily Mail (yeah, we know) story on Christopher Tolkien’s
will. We hope everyone was happy and
there were no Succession-style shenanigans.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the
Ring.
You KNOW. Stream it if you don’t. (But NOT the remastered
version, as we say later in the episode.)
Yes, true, a certain first Harry Potter
film
a month beforehand did cast a shadow…
That first web-only featurette from
2000. LOTS of questions resulted
among the fans. Then there was the first overall
trailer…
LordOfTheRings.net isn’t around any more but the Internet Archive turns up
things.
(TheOneRing.net is eternal.) As for Ain’t It Cool
News…never mind.
Elijah Wood really was inspired
casting, and darn if he didn’t deliver, eyes and all.
Ian McKellen, goddamn. Enjoy some
diaries.
And indeed, Bob Shaye. Thanks
for that call.
Ah, AOL Time
Warner.
The ‘pity and mercy’ scene as
filmed. So, so necessary.
Andrew Lesnie was truly a
craftsman and artist, and is much missed.
Polygon’s yearlong series on
Jackson’s original trilogy is well worth a read, and the horror movie
essay is one of the best.
The ‘Boromir trains the
hobbits’ scene is a delight.
(And yes, Ned did a little spoonerism with the names there…)
If you want Arwen’s hero moment, come and click
here.
Cate Blanchett fully arrives in the
film and we’re all in awe.
The mirror of Galadriel
scene, what a moment. “I know what it was you saw…”
Saruman summoning the storm is
a great film moment, no lie.
For more thoughts on Gimli, our dwarves
episode.
Howard Shore, indeed. And not just him: the piece of music Jared
refers to with his memories of cranking the movie up so he could hear it
better is “The Passing of the
Elves,” a quite lovely number
recorded for the film by the Plan 9 sound/music
team in NZ.
The Aragorn temptation scene.
(And the Uruk-hai, which, again, consider our orc
episode.)
Frodo leaves the Fellowship –
it all builds up to this, and it lands.
Mission: Recall! Give it an
ear!
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1 hr 35 min
November 01, 2021 32. He's Being Ganged Up On By These Mean Little Jerks!
Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Oriana’s choice of topic: Sam Gamgee. For
all that Frodo Baggins is the Ringbearer and makes something close to the
ultimate sacrifice for the fate of the world—at least right until the very
last moment—it’s Sam, son of Bag-End’s gardener who seems to only join Frodo
at first to help take care of a new house in Buckland, who ends up being the
key figure in The Lord of the Rings that helps Frodo on the quest and who
remains most grounded in the whirlwind of fates surrounding his steps, down to
having the book’s last words. Thanks to a variety of notable performance
interpretations over the years, especially and most indelibly Sean Astin’s
marvelous turn in the Peter Jackson films, he might just be the most warmly
regarded character as well even beyond the book readers. What is the full
meaning and understanding behind Tolkien’s well-known comment about Sam being
a tribute to his batmen during World War I, and who were the batmen and
private soldiers in general in that conflict? Does the understandable
characterization of Sam as ‘just’ a simple hobbit belie a notable depth
evident even from the start of the book, and how did Tolkien conceive of Sam
as distinct from hobbits in general? What fully went into Astin’s portrayal of
Sam in particular for the films, and how much of it was also something
provided by other key creative forces? And what was the American radio
production team from 1979 exactly thinking when they cast Lucille Bliss as
Sam?
Show Notes.
Jared’s
doodle. What
can you see on the horizon, indeed.
Wanna be like Oriana? Here’s how to apply to the Warner Bros.’ Writers
Workshop.
A summary of the Lenny Henry radio
interview with some key quotes.
Willow does have its fanbase,
and this planned new
series could be good.
The Wheel of Time is coming and we await with
interest...
Dune, yes. We quite like it. (Tolkien himself
did not.)
Letter 246 to Eileen Elgar, which
has a lot of background information on Sam and other characters and their
motivations and personalities.
You can find plenty of Sean Astin clips of him portraying Sam out there. As
for the others? Some samples: Roddy
McDowall for Rankin-Bass, Bill
Nighy for the
BBC, Michael
Scholes for Ralph
Bakshi and Lucille
Bliss for NPR/The Mind’s
Eye
(skip ahead to 7:15 in that one).
The famed Tolkien/Sam Gamgee
correspondence. Who knew, indeed?
Shakespeare’s rustic characters were something stock, and indeed were often
termed ‘clowns’ rather than fools or jesters. Here’s a little more about
that.
The Marx quote was from the Communist Manifesto, and indeed, ‘the idiocy of
rural life.’
Our episode on friendship.
More on that hand-holding
moment.
John Garth’s Tolkien and the Great
War is well
worth a read.
Batmen are a thing, and
nothing to do with DC.
Sean Astin’s autobiography There And Back
Again
is a very key read for anyone interested in the Jackson films.
There’s RP, there’s
Cockney and there’s a
whole LOT
else.
You know the potatoes
meme.
And you know the Sean Bean meme too.
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1 hr 16 min

About By-The-Bywater: A Podcast about All Things J.R.R. Tolkien

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All things J.R.R. Tolkien: his work, his inspirations and impact, creative interpretations in other media, languages, lore, ripoffs, parodies, anything we think is interesting!