One Ring to Rule Them All (Decker)

Introduction
As with any business, the goal of the entertainment industry is to make money, any way they can. In the somewhat distant past, the methods for entertaining the masses were limited to formats such as books, paintings, and other hard texts. This is no longer the case in today’s “wired world.” As Robert Coover wrote, “…you will often hear it said that the print medium is a doomed and outdated technology, a mere curiosity of bygone days destined soon to be consigned forever to those dusty unattended museums we now call libraries.”

New forms of media have not only allowed for original works to be produced in a variety of formats, but have also allowed for other pieces of literature to be remediated. Books can be made into movies, comics can be made into television shows, video games can be made into movies, and so on and so forth. This creates the possibility for one original work to be remediated into a wide range of formats, increasing its popularity vastly in many cases. This popularity often creates fan bases with a colossal thirst for knowledge about every aspect of the literature in question. These fans need somewhere to turn for information and discussion, and the internet is the perfect place to look.

Technological advances have created a massive collection of information on a huge variety of subjects that can be accessed and edited by anyone with a computer. This advent, known as Web 2.0 has created a wide range of methods for people to discover and share information. The ability to partake in so much information sharing has also facilitated a large amount of individual creativity, which can now be seen by anyone with access to a computer. In the past, it was much more difficult to get your work out to the general public. Now it is as simple as starting a free blog, posting artwork on a popular website, or uploading a video to YouTube. This aspect of the internet has had a particularly large effect on popular works such as books, films, and video games. Fans of certain works now have the perfect forum to share their interpretations of literature, discuss the intricacies of various works, or even create their own texts to supplement the original piece.

The rapid acceleration of remediation that can be found on the internet is steadily blurring the lines between readers and texts. In the past, the author would produce a piece of literature, and the readers would consume it. However, this is no longer the case. Readers now have the opportunity to become authors by remediating the original piece into things such as fan art and fan fiction. In turn, authors can become readers by exposing themselves to the works produced by their fans.

For my project, I have chosen to analyze the fan communities that have been formed around Lord of the Rings The Lord of the Rings (LOTR). LOTR was originally a trilogy of books written between 1937 and 1949 by J.R.R. Tolkien. The popularity of the books has led to the creation of a vast amount of remediation. The most notable recreations are the film adaptations of the books, which were very successful and widely popular. This widespread success has created a large scope of fans, ranging from casual fans of the films to diehard lovers of every aspect of LOTR. The more serious and involved fans of the trilogy have created an online presence devoted to chronicling every detail of the series. Fans who are inspired by LOTR also create their own texts such as fan fiction and fan art that is based upon the books and movies. The vast amount of online material related to the trilogy is enough to satisfy even the most avid fans. The best resources available manage to combine aspects of knowledge communities, interpretative communities, and remediation into one condensed area.

Knowledge Communities
The Lord of the Rings is an extremely complicated story, full of extensive references to a variety of characters and events from the history of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. In addition, there is a multitude of information not only about the books, but also the widely popular films.The huge amount of information contained within the series has led to the creation of extensive knowledge communities devoted to explaining every aspect of the story.

Wikipedia
As one of the first places that most people go for introductory information about pretty much any subject, Wikipedia undoubtedly deserves recognition as one of the top knowledge communities on the internet. This is the best place to come for a briefer, better coalesced introduction to the series. When searching “Lord of the Rings” on Wikipedia, the site brings you to a page dedicated to the books. This page provides limited information about the publication, plot, themes, and adaptations such as radio performances, animated films, and fan films. In addition to this page, there are also pages dedicated to each of the individual books (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King) and their respective film adaptations. Although Wikipedia is a great place to come for introductory information, other sites provide much more detailed renditions.

One Wiki to Rule Them All
One of the best places to find information about the Lord of the Rings books and movies is on One Wiki to Rule Them All. This website can be edited by anyone with internet access, and contains a huge amount of information about the books and films. The Wiki is illustrative of the size and scope of the plot of LOTR. For example, over 600 different characters are listed and described on the Wiki, ranging from the protagonist, Frodo, to Manthor, a Man of Brethil, and the son of Agathor and Meleth. Although characters such as Manthor may seem ridiculously obscure to most, this attention to detail is favorable for diehard fans. The Wiki is also useful for quickly clarifying a portion of the book that may otherwise be confusing. This resource continues to grow through the contributions of readers who wish to add to the site.

TheOneRing.net
Another website that has in depth information about LOTR is TheOneRing.net. This site allows fans to post articles on subjects including the books, movies, and various characters. However, one of the most notable aspects of this particular site is the large amount of information it contains about the upcoming release of the film adaptation of The Hobbit, which is a sequel to LOTR. For example, one fan posted an article about The Hobbit being shot at 48 frames per second, which is a higher quality than most films. Another person posted news about a new Hobbit Movie App, which includes “headlines from TORn; Our exclusive Today in Middle-earth Calendar; Complete Hobbit cast bios, Cast news; Barliman’s Chatroom; and more.” This site also contains information about the characters of the movie, as well as rumors about which actors will portray them.

The combination and cooperation of large groups of fans on popular websites such as Wikipedia, One Wiki to Rule Them All, and TheOneRing.net has led to a massive amount of group knowledge being available online. This information has helped to fuel the interests of fans like myself, who can spend hours learning new details about the books and films.

Interpretative disputes
A title as popular and complex as LOTR naturally lends itself to interpretative differences between fans. The best places to find interesting discussions about interpretations, impressions and preferences within the series is on forums.

Lord of the Rings Fanatic Plaza
One of the most popular LOTR forums can be found at the Lord of the Rings Fanatic Plaza. This forum contains subsets such as Basic Lore, Advance Lore, Middle-earth Languages, and even a section for “Legolas Love Letters." Each of these sub-forums is geared towards different topics of discussion. For example, the Middle-earth Locations sub-forum contains discussions about how Tolkien envisioned the kingdom of Rohan, a post about how places in Middle-earth would relate to real world locations, and debates about where the best place to live would be in Middle-earth. While these discussions seem rather trivial and whimsical, the Fanatic Plaza also has a forum designed for postings by Tolkien scholars. This forum consists of essays written by people with extensive knowledge about LOTR. Readers of the forum are then able to reply and spark discussion on the subject. Fan forum sites such as this are some of the best places to find serious discussions and interpretative debates about LOTR.

Fan Edits
One of the most constant disputes about LOTR comes when discussing inaccuracies between the books and films. In 2001, the director of the film trilogy, Peter Jackson, said "Tolkien wrote the book he wanted to read. We got to make the movies we wanted to see." However, Jackson’s adaptations of the film series are not good enough for some fans. While it is generally accepted that in order to make the films more popular and accessible, certain aspects of the book could not be directly followed, there are many fans who were upset about differences between the books and movies. Some of the major plot disputes included the Ents refusing to attack Isengard, the elves coming to Helms Deep, and the character of Gimli being used as comic relief. The full versions of the movies have all of these aspects, which were not included in the book.

This interpretative dispute has led to fan edited versions of the movies being spread online. One of the most notable of these fan edits is titled The Two Towers: The Purist Edit. This edit changes about 30 parts of the movie to make it more like the book, and ends up cutting about 40 minutes off of the final running time. Other fan edits of the Lord of the Rings films can be found on fanedit.org. Some of these edited versions make many more changes to the films. Not all of these changes are related to failures in the plots of the movies. Many of them are geared towards making the movies better cinematically. One such edit is The Fellowship of the Ring: Remade, which cuts a line by one of Saruman’s orcs because “We understand anyway, don’t need this overly clear line. And I don’t like the orc voice.” This edit is attempting to increase the tension in the film and make it more realistic. Fan edits posted to this site can also be commented on, which often leads to in depth reviews and analyses of the edit’s audio and video quality.

Each and every one of these fan edits of the movies represents an interpretative dispute between the fans of the series and the people charged with making the Hollywood version of the LOTR movies. The minute details and inaccuracies revealed through these disputes are illustrative of the extent of the fandom directed at LOTR.

Remediation
The popularity of this series has led to a huge amount of remediation. People with strong connections to the books or films are often inspired to make paintings, fan videos, comics, and even internet memes.

The Hunt for Gollum
One of the most popular fan made LOTR related products is a fan film titled The Hunt for Gollum. This film was directed by Chris Bouchard and was produced in Britain on a budget of only $5,000. This film chronicles Aragorn’s quest to find Gollum so that the creature can be interrogated by Gandalf. The film was released for free on the internet, and was viewed by five million people in just over five months. It has since been filmed over 10 million times.

The Hunt for Gollum is widely considered one of the best fan made films available on the internet. It has gained praise for achieving good visual quality and a likeness to Peter Jackson’s films, even on a low budget. Laura Sydell of NPR’s All Things Considered said “"The Hunt for Gollum looks just like the Hollywood version. I was fooled the first time I saw it.” This short film is an example an extremely successful piece of fan art. There is a much larger body of works that do not get nearly as much attention. ===Fan Fiction

===

Another popular method to expand on LOTR is fan fiction. Fan fiction consists of writing stories that are related to the original work, but stem away from them in order to become their own pieces. Lev Grossman of TIME said “The writers write it and put it up online just for the satisfaction. They're fans, but they're not silent, couchbound consumers of media. The culture talks to them, and they talk back to the culture in its own language.” A large amount of LOTR fanfiction can be found on lotrfanfiction.com. This site allows people to post their own writing online, where it can be reviewed by other readers. For example, one story was posted titled Journey of a Butterfly. The description of this piece read as follows:

“With her parents dead and her brother missing, a young Rohirrim girl sets out on a journey of a lifetime. She is on her own in the world, left to face tragedy and wrongful accusations. She must find her way or become just another statistic. It is her desire to find love and peace that pushes her on. When she meets an elf, she sees where she can find such solitude, but the path that leads her there is full of challenges.”

Pieces such as this are perfect for fans of LOTR who may have exhausted every avenue that the books and films have to offer. Fan fiction is a great way to continue the story and bring it in new directions that may not have been explored before.

Fan Art
Another place where I have been exposed to a large amount of LOTR remediation is the website Reddit. Reddit is an online community where popular postings are upvoted and downvoted by users. The most popular posts make it to the front page and will be seen by the most people. LOTR is very popular on this site, and there is even a subreddit designed specifically for LOTR material. Some of the most popular aspects of this subreddit are fan art and memes about the books and films. Some of the art on this site is very impressive. For example, a paint and airbrush image of Aragorn gained a lot of popularity on this subreddit, as did an image of Eowyn fighting the Witch King.

On a somewhat more light hearted note, many jokes around LOTR have been formed on Reddit. Various memes based on the movies have gained popularity online. Certain lines, such as Gandalf’s exclamation “You cannot pass” are often alluded to on Reddit. These esoteric references are recognized by many people due to the popularity of LOTR.

Links
Lord of the Rings Wikipedia

One Wiki to Rule Them All

Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza

Lord of the Rings Fan Edits