Wagner and Tolkien

[Vile Consort]

You were obviously not at university in the 1960s and 1970s. I had a "Tolkien is hobbit-forming" badge.

On a more serious note, your final paragraph is a bit condescending, and it's most certainly not true (although I cannot vouch for your mum's tastes, of course).

There was certainly a Tolkien boom around 1970. I resisted it, not being a follower of fashion, but succumbed as it was on the wane in 1973 when I went to university.

It's ludicrous to say LOTR didn't really exist until the film came out. How many copies had it sold by then? It certainly wasn't thought of by anyone as the film of some obscure book.

[Pabmusic]

T... How many copies had it sold by then? It certainly wasn't thought of by anyone as the film of some obscure book.

I can't answer that, but Wikipedia gives LOTR second only to A Tale of Two Cities on 150 million. The Hobbit is fourth (after The Little Prince) with 100 million. It says there are no reliable sales figures for Don Quixote or any of the Harry Potter books except the last (which has 44 million)!

Here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...-selling_books

[Arcades Project]

There are girls in Wagner

Tolkein was an Oxford man & smoked a pipe. Girls indeed .

I have observed before that Wagner is much the same as Tolkien, but with sex. Both go on and on and on.

Not in a good performance Wagner doesn't. He had a very exact sense of dramatic pacing. As for Tolkein, I read The Hobbit when I was 13 & that was enough for me I'm afraid.

[Arcades Project]

/

[jean]

We were made to read The Lord of the Rings long before it was popularised - in fact not long after it was published.

I also read it not long after it was published - but nobody made me, and at that stage there was certainly no cult. It completely enveloped me in a way that nothing else ever has.

But I never returned to it afterwards.

[KipperKid]

I also read it not long after it was published - but nobody made me, and at that stage there was certainly no cult. It completely enveloped me in a way that nothing else ever has.

But I never returned to it afterwards.

Our English teacher read The Hobbit to the class in 1967 and The Lord Of The Rings in 1968. For some reason, in the schools that I attended, the teachers often read books aloud to the class rather than requiring us to read them for ourselves.

I re-read The Lord Of The Rings a few times, and only vague memories of returning to the Hobbit.

I don't remember any cult attached to the book.

Edit: The film was nothing like what I had in my minds eye. And I did revisit the Hobbit!

[Mary Chambers]

You may have noticed Wagner's music. Makes just a tiny little difference.

Yes. I was not entirely serious. I'm not a fan of either Wagner or Tolkien, though.

[BBMmk2]

I have been a fan of Tolkien since the 1970s, not releasing there had been a fad about him. I picked up the book and enjoyed every page. Then those Jackson films came out and I was quite awed to say the least about how he portrayed the characters. I was really quite wondering as to how these could be made into films, but with the technology having progressed to such an extant, it was possible to produce such a fantastic film now. And with The Hobbit first film being made, I think it would be a benchmark in film making.

As to Wagner's Ring Cycle, I am quite surprised that there hasn't been any film(as far as I am aware), of this, as made as a drama, with all the effects etc.

[jean]

I don't remember any cult attached to the book.

Maybe it was a particularly American phenomenon?

But I was very aware of it in the 1960s. Perhaps that's why I never went back.

5. The "Cult"

...The really amazing moment was when The Lord of the Rings went into a pirated paperback version in 1965. Firstly, this put the book into the impulse-buying category; and secondly, the publicity generated by the copyright dispute alerted millions of American readers to the existence of something outside their previous experience, but which appeared to speak to their condition. By 1968 The Lord of the Rings had almost become the Bible of the "Alternative Society"...

[KipperKid]

As to Wagner's Ring Cycle, I am quite surprised that there hasn't been any film(as far as I am aware), of this, as made as a drama, with all the effects etc.

A film has been made, here's an excerpt. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wGhQ2BDt4VE

[Pabmusic]

...As to Wagner's Ring Cycle, I am quite surprised that there hasn't been any film(as far as I am aware), of this, as made as a drama, with all the effects etc.

Die Walküre and Siegfried have both been filmed for the cinema. The first is a Polish film released in 1903. The second is Italian (Sigfrido) released in 1912. They were both silent!

[BBMmk2]

A film has been made, here's an excerpt. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wGhQ2BDt4VE

Yes, Kipperkid(and welcome to the boards, belated even!).Not what I was meaning though.More in keeping with the Peter Jackson films.

[Oliver]

Pabmusic has reminded me that one of the libretto/notes inserts in the LP Solti Ring (Siegfried, I think) had stills from a silent film, including one of a long, slithery Fafner.

[Mr Pee]

Yes, Kipperkid(and welcome to the boards, belated even!).Not what I was meaning though.More in keeping with the Peter Jackson films.

I am sure that if Wagner were alive today he would relish the opportunity to create a film of The Ring, with all the CGI and technological wizardry available, not to mention surround sound. He would probably see it as the perfect medium. I would love to see such a thing, but I doubt it will ever happen.

[BBMmk2]

We need someone like Peter Jackson, perhaps?