Posted: June 11, 1999 at 23:51:17: by RSS
You and I will never agree on this, but Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is a book. A real world book (about an imaginary world to be sure), but a BOOK nonetheless. As such, it might well and good to say that accents can be whatever they may be (and there is no doubt that the producers have the right to do whatever they wish), but in the end that won't change the fact that it is an English tale. The language, not only of the narrator, but also of the characters themselves, is decidedly and unabashedly English. Tolkien may very well have been writing the book in response to the overseas, specifically American, popularity, but he was still creating a "mythology" for England; he was really just telling a tale.Tolkien may present himself as the translator, but he is not. He is the "creator". There is only so far you can carry the idea of the Red Book of the Westmarch. There is NO Red Book. It's a plot device only. When I hear the BBC productions, I think to myself that those are the accents which Tolkien's language and diction demands. Kevin Costner--or any of his counterparts--in Middle-earth is out of place.
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