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====Computer and video games==== ====Computer and video games====
{{main|Middle-earth in video games}} {{main|Middle-earth in video games}}

* In the ] ], there is an inn called "The Dancing Donkey", which is a spoof of the Prancing Pony.
* In the Adventure game ], the character of Crow mentions that he was 'sidekick of the year', he then says he lost next year to 'some fat short guy, all he did was carry someone up a mountain', alluding to Sam carrying Frodo.
* In ], an item that can be caught in Underwater Fishing is the Two Ring, spoofing the One Ring.
* In ], the weapon known as "Elven Bow" has the description "A heroic elf used this to return a lost ring."
* In ], one can fish a ring called "The 1 Ring" from various locations. When read, the description says: "Not quite good as the 2 Ring."


====Other games==== ====Other games====

Revision as of 02:38, 6 July 2007


Template:After Tolkien navbox The Middle-earth fantasy writings of J. R. R. Tolkien have had a profound and wide-ranging impact on popular culture. This is especially true for The Lord of the Rings, ever since its publication in the 1950s, but especially throughout the 1960s and 1970s, where young people embraced it as a countercultural saga, and its influence has been vastly extended in the present day, thanks to the live-action film trilogy by Peter Jackson. Many of the following references are directly inspired by the latter films rather than the book.

References

Movies, television, and radio

  • The South Park episode "The Return of the Fellowship of the Rings to the Two Towers" is a parody of the movie version of The Lord of the Rings.
  • In another episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, called Beast and Barbarians, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are parodied: Mandy acquires a ring from a Gollum-like creature by solving a riddle ("What's black and blue and red all over?" "That would be you if I don't get that ring pronto!"), with that ring she gains power over an evil army.
  • An episode of Robot Chicken had a parody of The Surreal Life that had The Lord of the Rings done with celebrities including Ron Jeremy.
  • In a more recent episode of The Simpsons Bart on Lisa defend a box fort from a rampaging army of brown shirt delivery men. The whole sequence draws many parallels with the battle to defend Gondor in the return of the King. The writers even go as far as to include a flying fell beast, similar to that riden by the Nazgûl. Throughout this whole sequence, the chorus section of "The Fields of Pelennor" of The Return of the King soundtrack can be heard.
  • In the show Odd Job Jack, episode 2.02 (Lord of the Three Ring Binder) spoofs The Lord of the Rings, with Jack as Frodo (and Déagol, when Jack was in his College years).
  • In the Fairly Oddparents, nine Nazgûl are shown outside Timmy's door to be his 'new babysitters.'
  • An episode of MADtv did a parody of Lord of the Rings known as "Lords of the Bling" where Bill Cosby played Gandalf and said, "We have to take the ring to Mordor, by the MotoPhoto!" Frodo was now Froho.
  • In the anime Yakitate!! Japan the 68th episode parodies the films with the cast donning similar rolls as they travel around the world they were transported to.

Music

  • The Beatles' song "She Said, She Said" includes a passing reference to The Lord of the Rings, and writer John Lennon was known to have been a fan of them. During the song's fade-out, Lennon can be heard singing a series of seemingly nonsensical sounds; these phrases are either a Lennon pre-taped vocal played backwards, or Lennon imitating the sound of a reverse-tape voice. At the start of the fade-out Lennon can clearly be heard chanting the words "Ash Nazg", the first two words of the invocation engraved on the Ring of Power.
  • Leonard Nimoy's music: "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" (1968) is based on The Hobbit.
  • Tom Rapp set most of the verse of the One Ring ("Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky...") to music as "Ring Thing" in Pearls Before Swine's second album, Balaklava (1968).
  • Led Zeppelin's music: "Ramble On" (1969) refers to Gollum and Sauron in Mordor, "Misty Mountain Hop" (1971) is named after Tolkien's Misty Mountains, and "The Battle of Evermore" (1971) is an actual allegory from the "Battle of the Pelennor Fields" from The Return of the King; the line in "Stairway to Heaven" 'the feeling I get when I look to the west' signifies the longing for the Elven undying lands which are 'to the west' which many characters in Tolkien's work experience; while "Over the Hills and Far Away" (1973) refers to "The Hobbit".
  • Swedish keyboard player Bo Hansson recorded an entire concept album titled The Lord of the Rings in 1972, which was performed mostly on electronic keyboard instruments.
  • Australian jazz musician and composer John Sangster undertook an ambitious three-volume jazz interpretation of the trilogy in the late 1970s, using most of the best Australian jazz musicians of the time as session players
  • Genesis' song "Stagnation" (from Trespass, 1970) was about Gollum. The most direct references being "And I will wait for ever, beside the silent mirror. And fish for bitter minnows amongst the weeds and slimy water." and "To take all the dust and the dirt from my throat, To wash out the filth that is deep in my guts."
  • Rush has a song called "Rivendell" (1975) on their Fly by Night album.
  • Styx has a song called "Lords of the Ring" on their Pieces of Eight album (1978).
  • Sally Oldfield has a group of songs called "Songs of the Quendi" on her Water Bearer album (1978, Bronze Records Ltd.).
  • The Austrian musician Gandalf (Heinz Stobl) chose his name with reference to the hobbits' wizard friend. He has composed several pieces of music which deal with themes and characters originating from The Lord of the Rings, some of which can be found on his second album, Visions (1981).
  • Johan de Meij’s first symphony The Lord of the Rings is based on the trilogy. The symphony consists of five separate movements, each illustrating a personage or an important episode from the series. The symphony was written in the period between March 1984 and December 1987, and had its première in Brussels on 15th March 1988.

The movements are:

  1. GANDALF (The Wizard)
  2. LOTHLORIEN (The Elvenwood)
  3. GOLLUM (Sméagol)
  4. JOURNEY IN THE DARK
    1. The Mines of Moria
    2. The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm
  5. HOBBITS
  • The French singer Jacques Higelin is inspired by Tom Bombadil in his song Tom Bombadilom, released on the album Tombé du ciel in 1988.
  • The German power metal band Blind Guardian has a song called "Lord of the Rings" on the album Tales from the Twilight World (1991). On their Somewhere far beyond (1992) there is a song called In the Forest - The Hobbit. They also released an album based on The Silmarillon called Nightfall in Middle-Earth (1998), including songs like The Curse of Fëanor, and Into The Storm, retelling the struggle Middle-earth endured when the Two Trees were destroyed. Some of their other works also contain references to Tolkien's creations.
  • Enya recorded the song "Lothlórien" in 1991 and also performed the songs "May It Be" and "Aníron" for the soundtrack of Peter Jackson's film of The Fellowship of the Ring.
  • Some songs by the celtic metal band Cruachan, such as "The Fall of Gondolin" (1992), have been inspired by The Lord of the Rings.
  • The progressive rock group Glass Hammer has numerous Tolkien-influenced songs, including "Nimrodel", and a CD entitled Journey of the Dúnadan (1993) which is a loose interpretation of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and a CD entitled The Middle-earth Album (2001) which contains several songs recorded "live at the Prancing Pony in Bree".
  • The Finnish musicians Nightwish have a song called "Elvenpath" on their album Angels Fall First (1997) which features a Lord of the Rings sample. They also have references to Tolkien's works in their song Wishmaster, released on the album of the same name, in 2001, including Elbereth and Lorien. They also recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for their album Once released in 2004.
  • The Tolkien Ensemble composed original music to all songs and poems in The Lord of the Rings, publishing 4 CDs in total over a period of 8 years, as well as a compilation album in 2006, ordering their songs as they appear in the books. Their work is approved by the Tolkien Estate.
  • The group Nickel Creek has a song called "The House of Tom Bombadil" (Nickel Creek, 2000).
  • The Brobdingnagian Bards have named one of their tracks "Tolkien" (2001), and the remix "The Lord of the Rings".
  • The Spanish metal band Lórien, named after the forest Lothlórien in the novel, released an album in 2002 entitled Secrets of the Eldar with such songs as "The Voice of Saruman".
  • Alan Horvath started writing the songs for The 'Rings Project (2004) in 1972.
  • The music CD "Journey of the Ring" (2005) features an hour of music inspired by Tolkien's novel. The music follows the story chapter by chapter. Called "the unofficial sound track to the books" by fans. http://www.cdbaby.com/all/peters
  • Australian band Soundestiny released the album 'Shadow Rising' in 2004; this was inspired by The Lord of The Rings, but made no actual mentions of Tolkien character-names or place-names. The CD is Part One of a projected Two-album 'RingLord' concept, the second album being 'Winds of Change' intended for release in 2006.
  • Many metal bands, especially black metal bands have taken their band name from The Lord of the Rings. Typically the names of evil places and characters are taken. Examples are Burzum (formerly known as Uruk-Hai), Morgoth (formerly known as Minas Morgul), Darkthrone, Gorgoroth, Mordor, Sauron. There are also various metal bands owing their names to Tolkien's fictional languages, such as Aglarond (Mexico), Akallabêth (Sweden), Amon Amarth (Sweden), Almáriel (Russia), Amon Din (Serbia), Anarion (Australia), Arda (Austria), Avatar (Belgium), Azaghal (Finland), Azrael (Spain), Cirith Gorgor (Netherlands), Cirith Ungol (US), Dol Amroth (Greece), Izengard (India), Fangorn (Germany), Mithril (Dominican Republic) and many more.
  • The Swedish New Frontier band Machinae Supremacy uses a blend of two samples, one from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring that features Australian actor Hugo Weaving, the other from The Matrix (which has the same actor in it), as the introduction to their song 'Hybrid' (the same song also features sounds from a SidStation, a synthesizer that re-creates original C64 sounds).
  • The symphonic rock band Marillion was named after The Silmarillion
  • British stoner rock band Orange Goblin has tracks on their album Frequencies From Planet Ten named "Lothlorien" and "Saruman's Wish", after the Elven forest and the evil wizard in The Lord of the Rings.
  • All songs by the Finnish metal band Battlelore are based on Middle Earth.
  • Almost all songs by Austrian black metal bands Summoning and Rivendell are based on Middle Earth.
  • Post-hardcore band The Fall of Troy have a song on their eponymous debut album titled "March of the Ents"
  • Speed Metal band Running Wild has a song entitled "Mordor".
  • There was an early heavy metal band in Lousiana named Shadowfax after Gandalf's steed in The Lord of the Rings.
  • Prog-rock keyboard player Rick Wakeman has an album entitled "Songs of Middle Earth: Inspired by The Lord of the Rings - which is a re-issue of previously recorded material."
  • The progressive rock band Pink Floyd has a song called "The Gnome," which is about the race of hobbits.
  • The new age artist David Arkenstone has an album entitled Music Inspired by Middle Earth. Also, the name "Arkenstone" was taken from The Hobbit.
  • Steve Peregrin Took (born Stephen Ross Porter) of British rock band T. Rex took his name from the hobbit Peregrin Took (better known as Pippin) in The Lord of the Rings.
  • Progressive rock band Camel recorded the track "Nimrodel / The Procession / The White Rider" with obvious references to The Lord of the Rings, for their album "Mirage".
  • Funk Metal weirdos Nuclear Rabbit's track 'The Pimp the Bitch and the Magic Beans' is based around the encounter between Bilbo and Gollum in The Hobbit and contains numerous lines from the book.
  • The song Mein Schatz (My Treasure or more likely My Precious) by German metal band OOMPH! is an obvious Lord of the Rings reference. It is sung from the point of view of Gollum and features the chorus: "Mein Schatz, es ist mein Schatz / nimm den Ring von Finger / denn ich will den zurück / Mein Schatz, es ist main Schatz". This translates to "My precious, it is my precious / take the ring from the finger / because I want the ring back / My precious, it is my precious".

Literature

  • S.M. Stirling's characters in Dies the Fire and its sequels include a young woman who is obsessed with the works of Tolkien, and ends up founding a military group known as the "Dunedain Rangers." The villain of the trilogy also refers to the trilogy, using Sauron's emblem of the Lidless Eye as the flag of the new nation he founds.
  • Terry Pratchett's novel Witches Abroad features an encounter with a Gollum-like creature, which jumps on to the main character's boat and proclaims "It'ssss my birthday." Granny Weatherwax then hits the creature with an oar, before quipping "'Orrible little bugger."
  • There are various references to The Lord of the Rings, e.g. to the Ents, in The Talisman (1984), a novel by Stephen King and Peter Straub. There are also references to The Lord of the Rings in several of Stephen King's other novels (e.g. Insomnia, The Stand, etc.). This is most notable in his fantasy series The Dark Tower, which is based on the Robert Browning poem Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, but severely influenced by Lord of the Rings.
  • The modern-era hero in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon (1999) views himself as a dwarf, his grandfather the cryptanalyst as an elf, an ex-Navy Seal as one of the race of Men, and refers to his nemesis (a psychotic lawyer) as "Gollum". He recognizes Enoch the Red as a wizard and, true to form, Enoch appears in the Baroque Cycle as well.
  • In Matthew Reilly's novel Seven Ancient Wonders a character uses imagery from The Lord of the Rings to warn her comrades that their base has been taken over, telling them that their return is like Gimli's return to Moria.
  • Robert Jordan has an inn called "The Nine Rings" in The Great Hunt, and when Rand reads the sign in front of the inn, the book states, 'Rand swung down with a smile and tied Red to one of the hitching posts out front. "The Nine Rings" had been one of his favorite adventure stories when he was a boy; he supposed it still was.'
  • In the Harry Potter series, several people are named after places or people in The Lord of the Rings, examples are a portrait in the Headmaster's Office, called Everard Proudfoot, a boy by the name of Neville Longbottom and an author named Bathilda Bagshot, in which Bagshot Row is the place where Bag End is located.

Games

Computer and video games

Main article: Middle-earth in video games

Other games

  • The Wargames Research Group set of fantasy miniatures rules, Hordes of the Things (HotT), was first published in 1991.
  • In the MMORPG World of Warcraft, one of the human male's jokes is a joking description of The Lord of The Rings, except the One Ring is replaced by a bracelet and instead of Hobbits the main character is a gnome.
  • Early iterations of the Japanese RPG series Final Fantasy are inspired by Dungeons and Dragons and thus, indirectly, by The Lord of the Rings. More directly, the games usually contain mithril armor and items (as early upgrades) that the player's party can buy or win.

Satire and parody based on The Lord of the Rings

  • An internet-based Flash animation community produced Lord of the Clocks, a short animated parody.
  • An independent film company in South Carolina released this treatment as a college humor project.
  • A soft core porn comedy entitled "Lord of the G-Strings".
  • The Harvard Lampoon satire Bored of the Rings, and its prequel The Soddit.
  • A little-known BBC Radio series, Hordes of the Things (1980) attempted to parody heroic fantasy in the style of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
  • A German resynchronization of the Fellowship's first twenty minutes, called Lord of the Weed - Sinnlos in Mittelerde ("Senseless in Middle-earth"), portrays the characters as highly drug addicted.
  • Quickbeam and Bombadil, the Lords of the Rhymes, mix Tolkien's fantasy world with hip-hop.
  • Two New York City based authors, Jessica and Chris, parody Tolkien's work in combination with Buffy the Vampire Slayer in Once More With Hobbits.
  • Several former members of Mystery Science Theater 3000 created Edward the Less which parodies the trilogy.
  • MST3K's Michael J. Nelson and Kevin Murphy also recorded an audio commentary track mocking Peter Jackson's film adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring for Nelson's RiffTrax service. Unlike the other films featured on the service, it is a film that Nelson actually considered to be good.
  • The first chapter of The Woad To Wuin by Peter David is entitled "Lord of the Thing".
  • The Lord Of The... whatever, a "transcribed electronic text version", written by the Tolkien fans of the rec.arts.books.tolkien newsgroup as a reply to those who ask where can they download an electronic copy of the book. It has lots of fan in-jokes, like whether Balrogs have wings or not, a long-standing debate in the Tolkien fandom; as well as many references to Communism and the overthrow of the rich.
  • Flight of the Conchords claim that their parody Frodo was rejected as a theme song for Peter Jackson's movies. Incidentally, Bret McKenzie (one half of the band) played an elf in the Fellowship, and his character (now known as Figwit) has become an unusual web celebrity, attracting fan sites and even a hate site.
  • The Ring Thing, a Swiss parody of Peter Jackson's films. However it has received mixed reviews.
  • MAD Magazine's Lord of the Rings parodies The Feeble Shtick of Ka-Ching!, The Two+ Hours, and Rehash of the Thing.
  • MADtv spoofed the series with The Lords of the Bling, with various actors/actresses portraying characters as Gandalf, Frodo, Legolas, etc.
  • Kingdom O' Magic, by Fergus McNeill. He became famous during the eighties for games such as Bored of the Rings (influenced by, but not adapted from, the Harvard Lampoon book) and The Boggit.
  • Why can't they just lose the ring in the sink?, humour columnist Dave Barry's satire.
  • Dead Ringers, BBC Radio/TV satirical comedy show regularly features Lord of the Rings-themed sketches, usually with the characters of Gandalf, Saruman and Frodo.
  • Bobo, a very popular Serbian voice-over video on scene from the first film, which features Boromir and Frodo as gay lovers. It spawned many other voice-overs.
  • British Comedy duo French & Saunders have also satired and spoofed in detail Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring in a BBC 2002 Easter Special entitled "The Egg".
  • A parody entitled teh l0rd of teh Ringz0r has done the rounds of bulletin boards systems. Based on the Counter-Strike indebted "1337 speak" it retells scenes, primarily from the Peter Jackson films, in the style of a '1337 hax0r' or online gamer.
  • A Spanish voice-over video of Gollum debating about which is the best football (soccer) video game.
  • One Man Lord of the Rings A one man show by Charles Ross, reciting and parodying the three films in an hour.
  • In another episode of The Simpsons, Principal Skinner announced to Springfield Elementary School that they are going to have a school medieval festival. Class bully Nelson excitedly asks, "You mean like The Lord of the Rings?!", and Skinner replies, "No! Nothing like The Lord of the Rings!" Note that readers dispute whether or not Middle-earth is medieval; the medieval look of the film trilogy is due to concept designer and book illustrator John Howe.
  • REC Studios' Fellowship of the Ring A parody starring four people portraying multiple characters each and condensing the first third of the story to under a quarter of an hour.
  • MTV produced the Lord of the Piercing, a parody with Sarah Michelle Gellar about the Council of Elrond, in which Frodo uses the One Ring in a piercing. The 4 minute episode comes as a hidden extra in the first DVD of the 4-disc set of The Fellowship of the Ring.
  • Fellowship! - The Musical Parody of "The Fellowship of the Ring", a musical stage production featuring nine performers each playing multiple characters.
  • A Russified version of the film trilogy exists, featuring a voice-over translation of all 3 films. The author of the opus is a lieutenant of police by the name of Dmitri Puchkov; unsurprisingly, his "translation" re-imagines the story as one of cops and robbers, oligarchs and the FSB (ex-KGB) chasing each other through the land of Honduras (the name of that particular country has in Russian peculiar connotations of being "a very silly place off the edge of the world"). The Ring's significance is now not its inherent evil but its status as stolen property sought by its rightful (and horribly demented and criminal) owner, who raises in his native Mordovia vast Nazi-like armies (complete with German accents, courtesy of the "translator") to reclaim it. The translation infuses the films with countless Russian pop culture jokes and allusions to Soviet anecdotes, movies, books and historical personages: for example, Legolas and Gimli speak in Estonian and Georgian accents respectively; Théoden becomes Boris Yeltsin and his affliction the consequence of alcoholism; and Gandalf is а Major in the Honduras police force. "Goblin" also put together a brand new parody soundtrack for the movies, featuring dozens of songs ranging from modern pop like Tatu, Leningad and Rammstein to old Soviet Communist anthems, with some songs by revered artists like Vladimir Vysotsky and Viktor Tsoj sprinkled in. There are also some video jokes, such as the practically seamless addition of sunglasses to Lord Elrond (who, in this version, was Agent Smith in disguise) and the brief pan to gigantic statues of the South Park children done in white marble in Denethor's halls. Commonly known as "Goblin's Translation", the parody established its author as a household name in Russia.
  • Rove McManus and Peter Helliar had a short sketch on Rove Live of them dressed up as Frodo and Sam, calling each other's names out.
  • A critique of the World Trade Organization parodying The Lord of the Rings entitled The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring of Free Trade is downloadable from San Francisco Bay Area Indymedia
  • In the MMORPG Kingdom of Loathing, there is an adventure in the Itznotyerzitz Mine that has many references to the Mine from The Fellowship of the Ring, such as "Speak "Friend," and enter" changed to "Speak,Frat Boy, and enter."
  • The Sprite Comic Neglected Mario Characters contains an adventure entitled "The Lord of the Wings," which is loosely based on the plot of The Lord of the Rings. Here, the rings are replaced with buffalo wings.
  • The All Saved Freak Band has an album called "For Christians, Elves, and Lovers," memorializing Tolkien's death. They have one song called "Mordor."
  • On albinoblacksheep.com there is a Lord of the Rings rap title "The Towers are da Playas" including Orcs and Gollum. It is made using Flash.
  • Big Idea's VeggieTales released a video entitled "Lord of the Beans" with plot, music and character similarities to The Lord of the Rings.
  • Poorly translated (Engrish) captions on Asian bootlegs led to articles on Fellowship of the Ring, and The Two Towers.
  • A two-week spoof in the Monty cartoon strip, where Monty seeks the "Lord of the Thing."
  • Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders created a parody of The Lord of the Rings on their sketch show French & Saunders. They named the sketch The French and The Saunders.
  • A site online has recreated a good bit of the Fellowship of the Ring, with promises of more to come, using Peeps and various other props. Lord of the Peeps
  • A Chilean parody named El Señor de los Ladrillos (Lord of the Bricks in English) uses Chilean pop culture and news references to parody the first half of the Fellowship of the Ring book.
  • In Roger Van Der Weide's Sonic Movie Madness series, Team Sonic's story is based on Lord of the Rings
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