Do You Think There Will Ever Be Books and Stories By Other Writers Set in the World of Lord of The Rings?

[Altherion]

On 11/17/2017 at 10:09 AM, Roose Boltons Pet Leech said:

The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit become public domain in the UK on 1st January, 2044.

That's what you think now, but keep in mind that until 1996, this date would have been 2024. I think it is more likely than not that by the time we get to 2040, the date would have moved further into the future again. It's not clear that we'll ever actually reach it.

 

[MattJC]

So long as there is money to be made, we have not seen the last of Middle-Earth. 

 

Fortunately, JRR has been dead long enough that the average Joe will be able to distinguish between licensed fan fiction and the real thing. 

[Darth Richard II]

Well? Looks like the Amazon show is going to be completely made up bullshit, so, yes, we will.

[C.T. Phipps]

Well there's plenty of people who do books based around the ideas. I'VE done work with EXPYs of the Lord of the Rings.

There's also been licensed work.

The Mordor Video Games

MERP

Lord of the RIngs Online

And so on and so on.

As for books themselves? Probably after Christopher Tolkien dies or it goes public domain.

[GAROVORKIN]

Didn't someone writer a LOTR novel Ring Bearer.

[Ghjhero]

On 11/18/2017 at 1:25 PM, Derfel Cadarn said:

LOTR is post-apocalyptic.  It's set in the ruins of the previous ages, with little remaining of the High elves or the Numenorans.  In the 2nd Age Sauron took one look at the Numenorans and surrendered. In the 3rd age he's the big bad.

I don’t think post-apocalyptic is quite accurate here. Sure Europe was a backwater for a few hundred years once the Roman Empire collapsed, but to call that apocalypse is hyperbole. 

[C.T. Phipps]

Just now, Ghjhero said:

I don’t think post-apocalyptic is quite accurate here. Sure Europe was a backwater for a few hundred years once the Roman Empire collapsed, but to call that apocalypse is hyperbole. 

I'd argue there's a yes and a no there because while it's "Middle Ages", the Numenoreans broke the universe.

It's a Fallen World because of their sins.

[Ghjhero]

5 minutes ago, C.T. Phipps said:

I'd argue there's a yes and a no there because while it's "Middle Ages", the Numenoreans broke the universe.

It's a Fallen World because of their sins.

Good point, I didn’t think of it in that sense. For the rest of the people of Middle Earth not involved with the Numenoreans, is there any evidence they noticed the consequences of the breakage? It might have been catastrophic for the Numenoreans, but I think it was a bit too localized for it to be a true apocalypse. 

[Darth Richard II]

Yeah that's not what post apocalyptic means.

[Werthead]

Marion Zimmer Bradley wrote two short stories set in Middle-earth, The Jewel of Arwen and The Parting of Arwen, which attempted to redress the extremely lack of information on Arwen in LotR. Both were published in early Tolkien fanzines in the 1960s and were not authorised. There's one theory that she tried to get the rights to officially turn them into novels, but was turned down, so had to find another pre-existing character to write a feminist novel about them, hence The Mists of Avalon. That seems to be a bit of a stretch though.

Jacqueline Carey's Sundering duology is an utterly superb reconfiguring of the LotR narrative with the Witch-King of Angmar as the POV character and the suggestion that LotR was the Hobbit-written, Gandalf-approved propaganda BS version of what really happened. The way she changes the names and setting for legal reasons but it's pretty bloody clear what it's supposed to be is quite clever.

[Nabarg]

Retellings by other authors, where facts where not changed (like historical novels treat history), but where their individual style is reflected in the retelling. Like:

Steven Erikson: We are not told the backstory of the ring. We first meet Frodo and Sam in the wilderness, before they meet Gollum. Their bromance is vividly shown. We understand that Frodo has a heavy bruden, but are not told what it is. We are then shown the Aragorn, Legolas and Gimlis hunt of the Isengard Orcs. We are not told what connection there are to Frodo and Sam. We then get the viewpoint of the Captain of the Uruk Hai. He is actually something of a philosopher king, who holds a many pages long nihilistic interior monologue about the relationship between violence and power. We then meet Elrond in Rivendell, or Galadriel in Lorien. No explanation is given of the connection between them and the others. The story then proceeds, but unlike in Tolkien, the timeline does not ad up, but it is not important.

 

Robin Hobb: We are told the whole story as a first person narrative by Aragorn. We learn a lot of the pain of Aragorn as a young man.

 

George RR Martin: A retelling of the Hobbit rather than Lothr. Beside the main characters of the story, we also get viewponts of every political faction in Laketown and Mirkwood. There is also a long description of Dain and his dwarves Journey from the Iron Hills to Erebor. It is shown through the view of a minor member of the party.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

On 11/22/2017 at 4:48 PM, GAROVORKIN said:

Didn't someone writer a LOTR novel Ring Bearer.

Oh, dear god.  That must have sucked.

[Yukle]

Christopher Tolkien is (fortunately) extremely protective of the estate's works. It does seem, though, that in his old age he has been... outvoted? From what I gather he was hostile to the films being made, although they were conditional on very specific intellectual properties being used with permission.

Unlike Rowling, whose Harry Potter properties are now owned by Warner Bros., Tolkien's estate still owns the universe while the copyright lasts.

I think that the real push will come from a more nefarious way: when Christopher Tolkien dies, then it's up for debate as to whether, as a co-author of much of the works, copyright would be from the time of his death or his father's. Or his father's for the works written only by him and the material edited by Christopher as a separate property. It's a matter that hasn't really been tested in court - and one that Disney have been excellent at continuously lobbying to extend each time Walt Disney's copyrighted material is about to expire.

The more time that goes on, the more people in Tolkien's estate collectively own and control the works. It's hard to see all of them being noble, and it's also hard to prove who is the single authoritative executive. More than likely, I think that in 2043 (70 years after Tolkien's death) there will be a flood of LOTR merchandise, fan-fiction and material suddenly spilling onto the market, on the assumption that the estate won't be able to sue everyone at once and will just resign themselves to licensing / letting the matter pass.

[Darth Richard II]

CT retired from the board. He's no longer in charge.

[Yukle]

That would explain it.

[GAROVORKIN]

The Last Ringbearer   by Kirill Yeskov     It was written and published in  Russia in 1999. It's unlikely ever to see publican in the Uk or the US.   

[Theda Baratheon]

4 hours ago, GAROVORKIN said:

The Last Ringbearer   by Kirill Yeskov     It was written and published in  Russia in 1999. It's unlikely ever to see publican in the Uk or the US.   

Essentially answers your own question then lol. 

Just playin'

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Like others I think the copyright s gonna keep being pushed forward and forward but I do think it's inevitable at some point that it truly does become public domain. 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

6 hours ago, GAROVORKIN said:

The Last Ringbearer   by Kirill Yeskov     It was written and published in  Russia in 1999. It's unlikely ever to see publican in the Uk or the US.   

Read the wiki about the book.  Sounds like the author really doesn’t like Tolkien or  Agrianiam.

[GAROVORKIN]

On 11/26/2017 at 1:14 PM, Theda Baratheon said:

Essentially answers your own question then lol. 

Just playin'

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Like others I think the copyright s gonna keep being pushed forward and forward but I do think it's inevitable at some point that it truly does become public domain. 

By the sound of things not in any of our lifetimes.

[Darth Richard II]

Pretty sure the Amazon LotR show is going to come out in our lifetime?