Last week, as you know, Peter Jackson and Stephen Colbert surprised us all with the revelation that the next Middle-earth movie, to be made after The Hunt for Gollum, will be written by Colbert (together with his son Peter McGee, who is a screenwriter). It has been given the working title The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of the Past.
Two hobbits walk onto a Late Show set…
Though the exact reveal was a surprise, it was long-expected that Tolkien afficionado Colbert would take up some project associated with Middle-earth, once his Late Show comes to an end in May. Word has come to TORn, however, that Shadows of the Past is not the only Tolkien task the mega fan will have on his agenda come the Summer.
Colbert has often demonstrated his deep knowledge of the Professor’s lore and languages. Now we hear he’s going to put those skills to work, ‘re-translating’ the Red Book of Westmarch.
As readers will know, the Red Book is the ‘found manuscript’ which Tolkien created as an imaginary source for all his tales of Arda. Largely written by Bilbo and Frodo, there were also volumes of ‘Translations from the Elvish’ (by Bilbo), additions by writers such as Samwise, and even some records from Merry and Pippin. Further, the marginalia of the Red Book became The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.
The Red Book, as it appears in Peter Jackson’s movies
Just what would this task of ‘re-translation’ be?
The rumours our spies have brought us are unclear as to whether Colbert’s goal is to create a translation of all (or just some) of these works into Elvish – which would be a huge undertaking in and of itself – or whether he will seek to restore the ‘original’ manuscripts, which would require translating different volumes and passages into a variety of tongues of Middle-earth. The latter seems unlikely; Tolkien did not leave us with enough Westron for a translation of Bilbo and Frodo’s writings back to that language to be possible, without creating more vocabulary. Perhaps we should assume, then, that Colbert will be translating to Sindarin and Quenya – and possibly, therefore, only tackling the parts of the legendarium which are known to us as The Silmarillion.
Either way, this is a worthy project for an intellect and passion like Stephen Colbert’s. And – we’d like to suggest to Mr. Colbert that he make this a group project! We know that many fans have deep knowledge of the Professor’s languages; if the Late Show host would like to ‘share the load’, with individuals taking on a chapter each, many hands would make light work of such a gargantuan undertaking.
What do you think? Is such a re-translation even possible? Share your thoughts on our discord!
The Amazon description reads: As Christopher Tolkien notes in his Introduction, The Bovadium Fragments was a “satirical fantasy” written by his father, which grew out of a planning controversy that erupted in Oxford in the late 1940s, when J.R.R. Tolkien was the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature.
JRR Tolkien vs the Automobile
Written initially for his own amusement, Tolkien’s tale was a private academic jest that poked gentle fun at the pomposity of archaeologists and the hideousness of college crockery. However, it was at the same time expressing a barbed cri de coeur against the inexorable rise of motor transport that was overwhelming the tranquility of his beloved city. Interest in publishing it in the 1960s ultimately foundered, and the text remained hidden for 60 years.
Anyone who has read Tolkien’s letters will know that he is at his funniest when filled with rage, and The Bovadium Fragments is a work brimming with Tolkien’s fury — specifically, ire over mankind’s obsession with motor vehicles. Tolkien’s anger is expressed through a playful satire told from the perspective of a group of future archaeologists who are studying the titular fragments, which tell of a civilization that asphyxiated itself on its own exhaust fumes. Tolkien’s fictional fragments use the language of ancient myth, reframing modern issues like traffic congestion and parking with a grandeur that highlights their total absurdity. It is Tolkien at his angriest and funniest, making The Bovadium Fragments a minor treasure in his ever-growing catalog.
“the spirit of ‘Isengard,’ if not of Mordor, is of course always cropping up. The present design of destroying Oxford in order to accommodate motor-cars is a case.” Readers of The Lord of the Rings (1954-55) will recognize the allusion. In the author’s magnum opus, Isengard is a kind of industrial hell, endlessly feeding its furnaces with felled trees… The Bovadium Fragments brings Tolkien’s visceral hatred of such machines to the fore for the first time — on the same level as Isengard or the scoured Shire. In Tolkien’s story, the words “Motores” and “monsters” are interchangeable. And with his grand, mythic register, Tolkien defamiliarizes the car enough for modern readers to see it as he does — as truly monstrous. “[T]he Motores continued to bring forth an ever larger progeny,” Tolkien writes. “[M]any of the citizens harboured the monsters, feeding them with the costly oils and essences which they required, and building houses for them in their gardens….”
Imagine sitting and writing at the desk where J.R.R. Tolkien worked on The Lord of the Rings.
Someone will soon have the opportunity to do just that because the storied desk will soon be up for auction at Christie’s. Perhaps the new owner will consider the mid-Victorian roll-top too precious to use and will keep it as a shrine to the author.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s desk as Featured in Christie’s Auction
The desk was used by Tolkien from 1945-1959 when he was a professor of English language and literature at Merton College, University of Oxford, and later at his residence on Sandfield Road in Headington, Oxford. It is thought to be the desk he used while working on the final revisions for his epic fantasy. Photos of Tolkien sitting at the desk were taken by photographer Haywood Magee in 1955, shortly after the publication of The Lord of the Rings.
Unless you’re very new to Tolkien fandom, you know that the rights to The Professor’s creations are shared by various groups, making for sometimes complicated copyright ownership. Tolkien himself sold movie and merchandising rights to United Artists back in 1969; those rights are now owned by Middle-earth Enterprises, which is part of the Embracer Group – now known as Fellowship Entertainment. Rights to television adaptations of eight episodes or more remain with the Tolkien Estate – so Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is licensed directly by the Estate. Furthermore, the rights Tolkien sold were only for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings; so all other literary works by The Professor (including The Silmarillion) remain with the Estate.
Today Curtis Brown Heritage announced that The Tolkien Estate has joined the roster of writers and estates they represent. Curtis Brown are literary agents with a long history, and their ‘Heritage’ department represents literary estates including those of A.A. Milne, Iain Banks, and Douglas Adams. Their press release shared their delight in ‘working with the Tolkien Estate to preserve and celebrate J.R.R. Tolkien’s extraordinary literary legacy’. Here below is the full press release:
Curtis Brown Heritage to represent the J.R.R. Tolkien Estate
Curtis Brown Heritage is delighted to welcome the Tolkien Estate to their list of the literary estates of many of the twentieth century’s most renowned writers.
A writer, artist, scholar and philologist, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973) is best known for his tales set in the world of Middle-earth, widely considered foundational to the modern fantasy genre. Beloved by readers, writers and creators across the world, in almost every language, through literature and artworks, J.R.R. Tolkien set the standard for all that has come after.
Norah Perkins, Head of Curtis Brown Heritage, said, ‘It is a great honour and a joy to be working with the Tolkien Estate to preserve and celebrate J.R.R. Tolkien’s extraordinary literary legacy, and to help to bring new readers (and viewers and listeners) to his writing. I am thrilled to be joining the Estate on the next part of the journey.’
The Tolkien Estate said, ‘As a family, we remain deeply conscious of the responsibility of looking after J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary works and legacy. We are committed to keeping his stories alive for generations to come. In Curtis Brown Heritage we have found partners who share that passion, and we are delighted to be working with them.’
Jonny Geller, CEO of The Curtis Brown Group, said: ‘I’m delighted on behalf of Curtis Brown to welcome one of the great literary estates of the world to the agency. All of us who grew up passionate about reading have been influenced and dazzled by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, and we are committed to help to bring a new generation of readers to the enduring pleasure of these great books.’
About J.R.R. Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien was born in the Orange Free State (now in South Africa) in 1892. He came to England aged three, and was brought up in and around Birmingham. He graduated from the University of Oxford in 1915, and saw active service in France during the First World War. After the war he worked on the Oxford English Dictionary as a lexicographer, and pursued an academic career teaching Old and Middle English. Alongside his professional life as an academic at the University of Oxford, he invented his own languages and began to create what he called a ‘Legendarium’, from which emerged The Hobbit (1937), The Lord of the Rings (1954/55) and The Silmarillion (published posthumously in 1977 by Christopher Tolkien). He was a member of the Inklings along with C.S. Lewis, and he wrote and illustrated children’s stories for his family such as Letters from Father Christmas, Mr Bliss and Roverandom, as well as fairy tales for adults, including Farmer Giles of Ham, Leaf by Niggle and Smith of Wootton Major.
About The Tolkien Estate
The Tolkien Estate (comprising The Tolkien Estate Limited and The Tolkien Trust) is the custodian of the works and legacy of J.R.R. Tolkien published in his lifetime, and the joint custodian with the Christopher Tolkien Estate of the works published after J.R.R. Tolkien’s death in 1973. Christopher Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien’s third son, was his father’s literary executor from 1973 until 2017, and produced twenty-four books of his father’s unpublished manuscripts, which significantly extend the accessible Tolkien canon. The Tolkien Estate remains managed directly by the descendants and family of J.R.R. Tolkien.
The Tolkien Trust is a UK registered charity established in 1977 by J.R.R. Tolkien’s children to enable the Tolkien family to give to charitable causes on a regular basis. Through the Trust, the Tolkien family continues to support a wide spectrum of causes and concerns in the UK and around the world.
About Curtis Brown Heritage
Curtis Brown Heritage was launched in 2016 and is the first bespoke literary estates division of a literary agency in the world. Built on Curtis Brown’s 125-year history, Heritage has a track record of success in creatively and sensitively managing the literary estates of beloved British writers (including those of Douglas Adams, Iain Banks, Gerald Durrell, Laurie Lee, Fay Weldon, A.A. Milne and Barbara Taylor Bradford) and some of the finest historians, poets and philosophers of the 20th century (including Isaiah Berlin, E. H. Carr, Nevill Coghill, C.L.R. James, Iris Murdoch and Stephen Spender). We recognise the immense cultural, literary and historical value of our writers, and it is our mission to combine our strong heritage with commercial savvy and passionate advocacy to celebrate, nurture and preserve their work for generations to come.
About The Curtis Brown Group
Founded in 1899 by Albert Curtis Brown, the company has a long and distinguished history as a world-renowned literary agency representing many famous writers, including Daphne du Maurier, John le Carré and A. A. Milne. Today, Curtis Brown also houses many other industry-leading divisions including a global Talent agency, representing leading actors and performers, as well as Unscripted and Entertainment and Musical Theatre & Production Arts. CBG is also home to a prestigious Theatre, Film and Television department (representing leading screenwriters, directors, producers, playwrights, and writer-performers) as well as a Media Rights department. The Curtis Brown Group is now home to over 250 members of staff and a vibrant ecosystem of companies that span the arts and culture sector. The Curtis Brown Group includes boutique literary agencies C&W (formerly Conville & Walsh) and Ed Victor Ltd, our in-house writing school Curtis Brown Creative, talent agencies Tavistock Wood and Markham Froggatt & Irwin and production company Cuba Pictures. In June 2022, United Talent Agency acquired The Curtis Brown Group.
Join the LA area staff from TheOneRing.net on Sunday, September 21 at the Mineral Wells section of Griffith Park from 11:30am until about 6pm (gotta beat the sunset out of the park). There will be fun and games, maybe a few prizes and some very agreeable fellow Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves and all manner of MIddle-earth denizens enjoying the end of Summer and the start of Autumn.
If you know what you plan to bring, and how many folks are joining you, please mention it all on that FB Event page. Or, you can email me at Garfeimao@TheOneRing.net to RSVP and I’ll include your items on the Description section of the ABOUT page, itemizing all the things needed for the party and those that are coming. And remember, we do host a Middle-earth themed Cake/Cupcake/Cookie decorated desserts contest, and if enough come, that will be a prize.
Some of the games and contests may be Trivia, Costume Contest, Middle-earth themed desserts, Golfimbul, Dwarf Tossing, and Pin the Black Arrow on the Dragon. Not all are guaranteed to be played, as time, game supplies, and participants play a part in that. Also, if we have time, we like to give people a chance to either recite a poem or snippet from Tolkien’s works or act out a scene from the movies, so be prepared to take the stage. We have a microphone and speaker this year due to your generous donations last year. We do usually give people about 90 minutes to 2 hours to arrive before the games begin, mostly so people can eat and be social.
And finally, do remember that it is almost always sunny and warm, so hats, pop ups or a parasol, sunscreen and sunglasses will help you immensely. Also, bring some beach chairs or a picnic blanket and get ready for a delightful afternoon with fellow Tolkien fans.
Please do read the full Description found in the About tab for what is needed and what is coming, and also directions to the picnic area for people coming from any and all directions once you enter Griffith Park. We can’t wait to see you all in two weeks time.
“The first-ever publication of a previously unknown short satirical fantasy by J.R.R. Tolkien.” – Harper Collins Publishers
Edited by Christopher Tolkien, this book will feature Tolkien’s The End of Bovadium, a story that has never been published before, and Tolkien’s illustrations for it. Tolkien worked on the tale from the late 1950s through the early 1960s. Also included will be the essay “The Origin of Bovadium” by Richard Ovenden OBE.
The story reflects Tolkien’s disdain of industrialism. This is represented in The Lord of the Rings by the scenes in Isengard and the “Scouring of the Shire” where the destruction of trees is a central focus. Tolkien, a lover of nature, and trees in particular, wanted the earth’s natural resources to be preserved, and he saw the lack of regard the burgeoning industrial complex held for them.
