When we talk about adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s seminal work The Lord of the Rings, the first thing that comes to mind is the early 2000s films by Peter Jackson. Or perhaps it’s the earlier 1978 cartoon adaptation, depending on your age. But before those, there was another.
Per The Guardian, Oxford academic Stuart Lee has recently unearthed the scripts for an original radio dramatization of The Lord of the Rings from the mid-1950s, which were long thought lost. These scripts are notable for a few reasons: they were the very first dramatization of The Lord of the Rings and the only one to actually be done during Tolkien’s lifetime. The discovery also includes handwritten sheets of notes from Tolkien, who took an active hand in helping fine tune the adaptation.
Here’s Lee’s statement about finding the scripts:
"They said the scripts had been lost, but they have survived – the only professional dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings made during his [Tolkien’s] lifetime. It was not seen as important by the BBC then. It shows how reception of the book has changed – minor interest in 1955-56, now a global phenomenon, with Amazon reportedly investing more than $1bn in the latest series. Seventy years on, we would treat it like a sacred text. These scripts reveal that, in the 1950s, they didn’t have any inclination of how important a text it would be. Had the books been out longer and become more established, then perhaps the BBC senior managers would have agreed to each episode lasting 45 minutes and even running to three series."
It’s fascinating that the BBC didn’t particularly think these stories would be that important at the time that the radio teleplay was planned. It only becomes more interesting once you look into the details of how the broadcast was actually done.
Lost Lord of the Rings scripts remind us how far the series has come
As Lee said in his statement, at the time that this radio adaptation was planned the BBC didn’t give it anywhere near the amount of thought that Tolkien’s works get today. This radio teleplay was done in two series of 12 radio broadcasts each, which ran in 1955 and 1956. The first series covered The Fellowship of the Ring, with each episode lasting 45 minutes. Things get a bit messier in the second series, which combined The Two Towers and The Return of the King into a mere 12 episodes, and cut the time of each back from 45 minutes to 30.
Tolkien was understandably dismayed by this, but at the time, no one was predicting that The Lord of the Rings would go on to conquer popular culture. Keep in mind that The Return of the King was only just published in 1955, the same year that the first radio series aired.
It’s a stark contrast to how The Lord of the Rings is treated nowadays, as Amazon lobs spaceships full of money at its new Rings of Power prequel series, which is based on the appendices to Tolkien’s books. The Rings of Power has already cost Amazon nearly half a billion dollars, and it’s estimated to run up a much higher bill by the time it’s through. It premieres on September 2, 2022.
The scripts that Lee discovered will be featured in The Great Tales Never End: Essays in Memory of Christopher Tolkien, which collects essays from academics reflecting on the work that Christopher Tolkien did to carry on his father’s legacy. The Great Tales Never End is expected to release on June 24.
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h/t ScreenRant