Tolkienists.org

The ability of a story to so command one’s attention as to suspend disbelief is the mark of a great storyteller. On December 19^th, 2001, the film adaptation of the first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring, of J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, premiered worldwide. The queues of people waiting were excessively long. The box office draw for the film was incredible. Tickets had to be purchased hours in advance. Nearly every show sold out that first weekend. People of all ages were eager to experience this event. The desire for an epic story definitely played a part.

Peter Jackson revived the sleeping world of Middle-earth for a new millennium. However, as a trailblazer servicing society’s desire for a modern myth, as the late Joseph Campbell believed was needed for our modern society to evolve, Jackson still relied heavily on the original work to guide his phantasia. Jackson reached into the discovered past of elves, men, dwarves, ents, orcs, and the like, drawing forth the jewels of Tolkien’s mythology and rendering the rural past relatable to the modern film-goer. This paper will examine what Jackson’s visual storytelling of Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring had done to engage a modern audience.