on Peter Jackson and adaptations

[martasfic]

Originally published at Faith Seeking Understanding. You can comment here or there.

Rachel Nuwer of the Smithsonian Magazine has a piece up about the new Hobbit movie. Particularly, Ms. Nuwer looks at some of the elements in the Jackson movie and traces them back to stories in Tolkien’s canon. If you know someone who saw the movies and asked who this Radagast is, who this Azog is, and wants to read a bit more of the context, this might be a decent starting place for them.

And of course I’m all for anything that gets Tolkien’s less well-known stories out there into the mainstream. Some of them are quite compelling, and I’ve always wanted to write more about the battle between Thror and Azog even before I saw the movie. It’s a really compelling moment in dwarvish history and to my knowledge no one’s really written about that. (Thundera, on the off-chance you’re reading this: *nudge* *nudge*)

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Comments

[hhimring]

I think there actually is a comment by Tolkien himself somewhere (one of those retrospective tweaks) that the phenomenally bad luck of the House of Durin during this period was no accident. I forget whether it's in the Appendices or in the Quest for Erebor or perhaps even both. One can still disagree with Jackson's apparent decision to try to embody that in Azog's vow and pursuit of Thorin, of course.

It's probably not quite the story about Azanulbizar you were asking for, but have you seen Nath's "He who laughs last"?
http://www.lotrgfic.com/viewstory.php?sid=2083

I'm sorry to hear the concussion is still giving you so much trouble. Get well soon!

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

What I had forgotten about, and am very handily reminded of from Ms Nuwer, is the issue of the film rights. I'm so used, as a canon-geek, to trying to integrate all JRRT's tales - and was so delighted when I first discovered, for example, The Quest of Erebor - that I'd completely forgotten PJ wasn't allowed overtly to mention anything that specifically comes from UT or the Sil. That does rather increase my respect for the bits of backstory from outside The Hobbit that he has managed to work in nonetheless...