Full-length LotR Parody Movies

[Huinesoron]

I've now watched Version 1, and added my commentary to the end of my notes doc. My overall impression is that the singers were great, but I really wish they'd spent less time on their early-oughts special effects. I would much rather have watched them actually sing than watch, say, Luthien look moodily across a candle. When we could see it, I think the staging had more flavour in this version.

The presence of an extra Son of Feanor amused me no end. Overall, I thought the other version had a better Melian, but this version did much better on Beren. The likes of Finrod, Sauron, and Luthien were pretty much equally good - though different - across the two versions. I think this version of Comedy Thingol takes the edge.

It's good stuff! Thank you again for sharing it.

EDIT: The Version 1 lyrics, with English translations that I think match the subtitles, are available online. The full Russian text of Version 2 - including the chords! - is also up.

EDIT2: And a partial translation of the final version, down to Finrod's lament.

hS

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

EDIT: The Version 1 lyrics, with English translations that I think match the subtitles, are available online.

I can confirm that these are Version 1 subtitles. I keep complaining that they are inaccurate, but considering they were done by a person who speaks no Russian who just sat for hours in front of Google Translate trying to decipher something... it's impressive.

Still, I recommend Version 2 subtitles if you wanna understand the lyrics, because so much is lost in 1, or changed into something completely different. For instance, there is one line that bugs me in particular, in the Duel: the subtitles credit Sauron to saying "the world is cursed by that warmonger whose name is - Fëanor!", as if Feanor doesn't already get enough shade in that musical. What he really says is "A curse has entered this world, and its name is Feanor". So close, but so not close.

It's also interesting that you comment on a lot of lyrics stuff differently here, but the lyrics are exactly the same, minus a couple songs and switching "two" for "three" for the Feanorians.

Originally Posted by HS

The full Russian text of Version 2 - including the chords! - is also up.

This is actually beyond Version 2 and has even more recent updates and added songs, for which I was not able to find a recording on Youtube. Apparently the group that first did it is still going strong and performing the evolving version of the musical on stage, with some cast modifications (Sauron and Finrod are the same as Version 1, just 20 years older, but I think others are different).

Hilariously, in this version his plan doesn't even solve anything: he wants one Son of Feanor to get Luthien and the crown of Nargothrond.

So, probably a translation issue; he wants to marry off one of them and crown the other, but you're right, it still leaves Caranthir with naught.

I am sitting here with my mouth open at Emo Sauron. I love him!

Thingol: What brought this about? Um, I think it was you…

Again, probably translation issue. He never actually says that. He echoes Melian saying "What have I done!", but it's not a question.

Did I just not listen to this song before, or has it changed? Because now it's the Passing of the Elves. Interesting end! And I love the Ossiriand shots.

Same lyrics in Russian, probably vastly different in translation, but you're right: this is a LOTR-Galadriel, leaving the world to mortals. I like this version of the song better in execution than Version 2 though.

And Sauron draws the curtain with a cackle. Delightful.

Heehee! I love that moment. Also, they have various behind-the-scenes and bloopers afterwards.

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

This is actually beyond Version 2 and has even more recent updates and added songs, for which I was not able to find a recording on Youtube. Apparently the group that first did it is still going strong and performing the evolving version of the musical on stage, with some cast modifications (Sauron and Finrod are the same as Version 1, just 20 years older, but I think others are different).

I noticed this after posting! They have a whole song by Daeron, which makes the whole Love Polygon even more complicated.

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

So, probably a translation issue; he wants to marry off one of them and crown the other, but you're right, it still leaves Caranthir with naught.

Definitely a subtitle issue then.

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Same lyrics in Russian, probably vastly different in translation, but you're right: this is a LOTR-Galadriel, leaving the world to mortals. I like this version of the song better in execution than Version 2 though.

I think I'd just lost focus by this point in V2. I know I was focussing on different things in the two versions; that's why there's comments on things that were actually in both still showing up in my second commentary.

Also! With lots of English text available (both subtitles + Google Translate), I tried my hand at rendering part of the musical into singable English form. It's the first verse of Finrod's lament to Amarie (just after his initial duet with Beren), because a) I like that song, and b) it has a pretty simple structure to work from.

In the hour when slumber calls
And the cloak of Night dulls the air*
I don’t see these fine-carven walls
For I know that you are still there.

I know I can never return
That my heart lies cold by the way
There is no escaping my fate
But in my waking memory I yearn**

I cannot bring myself to curse your choice
I cannot curse my own unchanging nature
Your love sings to my heart, a whispered voice***
The time for turning from the truth is over

The Grinding Ice burns crimson in the sun
A boundary of blood to keep us parted
My sorrow’s not that I go on alone****
My sorrow’s that our song was left unfinished…

In the interests of meter and rhyme, some of the lines have been shuffled around, and a few have been changed. I regret losing the specific ice reference in stanza 2, but I need the semi-rhyme way/fate. My abuse of the rhyme scheme is validated by Finrod himself, who at one point rhymes '-om' with '-a' (and does it very well). ^_^

*Since the musical left Luthien's nightcloak out, I felt the need to put in a reference to it.

**I have no idea what the original of this line means. The subtitles seem to think Finrod says he's in a land of waking memory, which... I don't really understand? Is he talking about Valinor or Beleriand? Or what? Anyway, since I needed a rhyme with either 'return' or 'turn back', I went with yearn. Probably my weakest line.

***I know this is a bad translation (Version 2 runs "One soul can only serve one love"), but I consider the 'choice' line more important, so needed to get the rhyme.

****These could also be 'My grief is' etc; I'd have to sing both versions to see what works better.

hS

[Galadriel55]

Hui, that is flipping amazing!!!

**I have*no idea*what the original of this line means. The subtitles seem to think Finrod says he's in a land of waking memory, which... I don't really understand? Is he talking about Valinor or Beleriand? Or what?

To be honest, I have no idea what that line is supposed to say either. The stanza goes: I know that there is no returning, that the heart is frozen in ice; I know I will meet trouble in the place where memory awakens.

[Galadriel55]

So I tried to continue the translation to the next verses, and this is why I don't willingly attempt translations. Holy Eru this is difficult. I can do individual phrases, but none of them rhyme and most don't make sense together. I like the "no / yes" pairing in the next verse, but I couldn't come up with any way to rhyme the first half with it. But if we borrow from the stanza that follows, I can piece together this:

You are now a sign of success,
You are my rebuke where I go.
You have merely answered me "No!",
Leaving me forever with "Yes!"


And that will probably be the extent of both poetry and translation for the day. But if inspiration strikes...

Hui, what you did is absolutely amazing.

[Huinesoron]

Yeah, it's really not easy. I've hacked together the next verse, but have had to take a few more liberties with the source.

(I've also revised a couple of lines in verse 1)

In the hour when slumber calls
And the cloak of Night dulls the air
I don’t see these stone-carven walls
For I know that you are still there.
I know I can never return
That my heart lies cold by the way
There is no escaping my fate
In this land where memories burn

I cannot bring myself to curse your choice
I cannot curse my own unchanging nature
Your love sings to my heart, a whispered voice
The time for turning from the truth is over.
The Grinding Ice burns crimson in the sun
A boundary of blood to keep us parted
My sorrow’s not that I go on alone
My sorrow’s that our song was left unfinished…

Between us now, time and Sea fled
Between us now, shadowy road
In the dark you cried to me: "No"
Leaving me alone with my "Yes".
Now you are my hope in the night
Now you are eternal remorse
Had I not marched headlong to war
We would stand together, united.

Your wings blaze like an Eagle in the West
Oh, would that love had never heard of rules!
It wasn't you who left me in the dust
Forever I regret the Night I left you!
Perhaps there is no boundary between
Perhaps our summer Sun is undiminished
My sorrow's not that I cannot return
My sorrow’s that our song was left unfinished…

I've shifted the implication of the wings line from '??angel' to 'Eagle', because Tolkien. ^_^

I think you might be onto something with swapping those two stanzas around. Let me see:

You are now my ev'ry success
You are my rebuke where I go
In that Night you cried to me "No!"
Leaving me alone with my "Yes".

Between us flows an Ocean of Time
Between us flows a shadowy road
Had I not pursued that old foe
Perhaps another fate would be mine

That's certainly more faithful to the original, despite the shuffle. I shall have to ponder. (Who would have thought "Yes" would be the difficult one to rhyme?)

Any comments on the translation are always welcome.

hS

[Galadriel55]

I actually like your version better! It comes ouut more accurate in terms of the meaning ("a symbol of good fortune" - I would have put omen of luck if that rhymed with anything useful). If you do use success, I think that actually chanhing it to "hope of success" might add a little extra touch.

And the translation is not a perfect transcript but it gets you to the place where you need to get, which is exactly as it should be. Only thing I would say is it's not "my Yes" so much as "your Yes", or at least "a Yes". Amarie leaves Finrod a yes, if that makes sense. Indeed, who knew that Yes is so hard to rhyme! But it's also the second part, which is vague and hard to make sense of: if not for the old quarrel, everything might have been different. How do you rhyme that? Unless you somehow end it in "curse", but that also strays awah from the text. Honestly, you're doing such a fantastic job with this, it's ridiculously impressive.