Microphones in Middle-earth...the BBC Lord of the Rings - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

davem · 02-11-2008, 07:27 AM

Looking through the booklet that accompanies the LotR stageshow cast recording I noticed that, while not endorsing the production, the Estate had given the official translator complete access to all Tolkien's linguistic writings to use in his work. Taken along with the great efforts CT went to in helping the adaptors of this production, its clear that they are not the over-possessive 'ogres' they are sometimes made out to be as far as the use of Tolkien's material is concerned. JRRT may only have sold the movie rights to LotR & TH, but in this series Sibley & Bakewell used a section of Unfinished Tales & Christopher approved this (well, to the extent that he approved the scripts before they started production). OK, the radio rights are different to the film rights, but CT clearly had no problem with his father's other works being used

The recording CT made (I've heard the first few minutes of it) is interesting, & shows that he had an appreciation of the difficulties of dramatisation & wanted to help out as much as he could in making this a faithful adaptation of his father's work.

BTW, this recording is the only acknowledgment I've come across that the 'infamous' mistake on the original LotR map - which has the name Hithaeglir for the Misty Mountains spelled 'Hithaeglin' - was down to Christopher: one of the words Sibley had asked him to pronounce. Christopher acknowledges it was his fault. An interesting bit of trivia about the production then - Sibley must have been using the first edition map, as the mistake was corrected for the Second Edition, where it appears correctly as Hithaeglir.

02-11-2008, 07:27 AM	#11
davem Illustrious Ulair Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties Posts: 4,240	Looking through the booklet that accompanies the LotR stageshow cast recording I noticed that, while not endorsing the production, the Estate had given the official translator complete access to all Tolkien's linguistic writings to use in his work. Taken along with the great efforts CT went to in helping the adaptors of this production, its clear that they are not the over-possessive 'ogres' they are sometimes made out to be as far as the use of Tolkien's material is concerned. JRRT may only have sold the movie rights to LotR & TH, but in this series Sibley & Bakewell used a section of Unfinished Tales & Christopher approved this (well, to the extent that he approved the scripts before they started production). OK, the radio rights are different to the film rights, but CT clearly had no problem with his father's other works being used The recording CT made (I've heard the first few minutes of it) is interesting, & shows that he had an appreciation of the difficulties of dramatisation & wanted to help out as much as he could in making this a faithful adaptation of his father's work. BTW, this recording is the only acknowledgment I've come across that the 'infamous' mistake on the original LotR map - which has the name Hithaeglir for the Misty Mountains spelled 'Hithaeglin' - was down to Christopher: one of the words Sibley had asked him to pronounce. Christopher acknowledges it was his fault. An interesting bit of trivia about the production then - Sibley must have been using the first edition map, as the mistake was corrected for the Second Edition, where it appears correctly as Hithaeglir. __________________ “Everything was an object. If you killed a dwarf you could use it as a weapon – it was no different to other large heavy objects."