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I have a theory, albeit a flimsy one, that Star Wars is basically Lord of the Rings in space.
The journey of Luke, under the tutelage of Obi Wan, battling with the forces of evil and ultimately finding triumph as a Jedi against The Empower is essentially the journey of Frodo, under Gandalf's wing, facing the powers of darkness until his ultimate victory against Sauron at the fires of Mount Doom.
OK, it leaks but here's my list of comparable characters. See what you think!
Luke - Frodo
Obi Wan - Gandalf
The Emperor - Sauron
Darth Vader - Sauron
Leia - Galadriel
Han Solo - Strider/ Aragorn
Chewie - Gimli
Can you think of any more?
Have you got a theory? Shall I just pack my lightsabre and leave for the Rebellion?
A few snaps of my home-made Ringwraith and his dark charger ( borrowed from Sindy!).
It was fun being with them but mordor getting away!
Enjoy!
My latest toy bash is a go at a Knickerbocker Ringwraith.
This wraith has wide hips, so I opted for an old Xena as the base figure.
Mid-way, I've added bandaging, Fimo and beads, a pen top helmet, wrist guards, a new hand, a sword and an axe. There's a Fimo cloak too.
I'm researching Knickerbocker's Lord of the Rings figures at the moment with a future project in mind.
Looking at their Gollum figure I was struck how much it looked like a toy figure I had as a kid, the restless skeleton, a sort of King Tut from Ellisdons of Liverpool.
Here they are side by side, Gollum on the right. Knickerbocker's line was based on Ralph Bakshi's animated film version of Lord of the Rings - have you seen it?
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Being in the beautiful Peak district National Park is putting me in mind for all things Tolkien.
The woods, the valleys, the rocky edifices, I can well imagine the Rohirrim chasing Wargs right through them!
With Middle Earth in mind, this week I'm hoping to acquire a cassette box set of the 1981 BBC radio production of Lord of the Rings, which I heard at the time and have hankered after ever since. My Precious!
Do you recall the radio serial readers? What were you doing in 1981?
On a frosty day trip to the Peak town of Buxton nestled betwixt snowy hills the Missus and me mooched among the many charity shops.
Prices of vintage toys and games have shot up in Charities of late, especially old board games, of which I saw a few like Airport, Hotel, Escape from Colditz and Totopoly.
I did pick up some some old tech, namely a 1989 VHS pre-cert Kung Fu Horror film called The Men from the Monastery, a 1974 Shaw Brothers production. I collect old horror and thriller videos, preferably big box but small and pre-cert are fine too. This is the first 1980's horror video I've seen in a charity shop for years, so I was chuffed.
I also got a set of BBC Radio cassette tapes of their 1981 production of Lord of the Rings. This is the 2001 re-issue and just part 1, The Fellowship of the Ring, which I first heard, along with the rest, in the Spring and summer of 1981, whilst volunteering for the RSPB at the Ouse Washes. It was all very Middle Earth!
I like Tolkien tapes and books and have a few. The older the better and preferably with classic art on the covers. I have sold some old computer games like the Hobbit and regret it, as the box art was fabulous.
Have you any old VHS or Videos or Lord of the Rings books and cassettes?
Visiting my girlfriend back in 1979, (now my Wife) in her home country of West Germany, I was fascinated, among other things, by her admirable bookcase.
An avid reader of hippyish paperbacks myself, I I was amazed to see these foreign versions of novels I knew and the many I didn't too.
There was Mister God This is Anna, the Dharma Bums, Siddhartha, Solaris and Fata Morgana among the tomes.
But most alluring of all were the three books of Der Herr Der Ringe, Tolkien's incredible Lord of the Rings trilogy.
This 1977 German version comprised of three paperbacks published by the unusually - named Klett Cotta publishing house. The three books were green and nestling in a green card slipcase. Not only was the green colour striking, the cover art was to my eye, wunderbar.
Simple and dark with an inexplicable slug-like mass writhing on two of them, all three brandishing Sauron's eye, I loved them.
Now long since gone, I've often thought about these memorable books many times since.
Have you got any Lord of the Rings books?
I was in two minds about The Rings of Power on Amazon. Episode 1 was an ice-breaker I guess. We had come to expect so much after Peter Jackson's two terrific trilogies.
As I've watched the next few episodes shown so far I have begun to enjoy RoP very much and now look forward to Fridays when it airs!
Wanting more Middle Earth, I've re-watched the Hobbit trilogy with the Missus. With the Hobbit set far in the future from Rings of Power you can still see the various pieces forming and moving round the table of Tolkien's earlier world.
I wonder if there'll be any toys?
I've also seen terrible reviews of Rings of Power too. Panning it. What do you think so far readers?
The Power of the Rings is Amazon's new big bash at serializing Tolkien.
It comes as another platform launches House of the Dragon so the battle for our fantasy subs is on.
As I have Prime I have seen the first two episodes of Power.
Like anything new about something you've grown up with it's always going to be odd to start with.
In screen terms for me The Power of the Rings is a prequel to Peter Jackson's definitive Lord of the Rings film trilogy from years ago. In that sense it's like A Phantom Menace et al after the glory of the first three Star Wars films. It was never going to be easy.
In literary terms I assume Power is Tolkein's Silmarillion and other older tales prior to The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings but I'm only guessing. Despite the Silmarillion being on my bookshelf for 45 years I've never read it. I did try as a teenager but found the style a bit stiff. I regret not going back to it when I was young.
I will wait until I've seen The Power of the Rings in full before I decide what I think. It comes out an episode or two at a time at the moment.
At a cost of purportedly a billion dollars the stakes are high for fantasy like this. I wonder if Peter Jackson is watching?
Are you readers?
Ah, those wonderful Athena Tolkien posters!
Lord, how I adored them back in the Seventies.
My flat walls were plastered with them.
I had a beloved woodblock version of Gandalf too, which sadly went to Mordor.
The artist was one Jimmy Cauty from the Wirral and like me, just 17 at the time! What a talent he had! And like me he's still going!
I'm pretty sure I still have some of them rolled up in the attic from forty years ago! Its like Rivendell up there! Nothing ages!
