The Series That Reinvented Fantasy! (Lord of the Rings Breakdown)🧝‍♂️ 💍 

This was a beast to do and I hope y’all enjoy it! I did my best with the research but please let me know if I accidentally included any misinformation.

When it comes to Tolkien and his effect on the fantasy genre I think Terry Pratchett said it best; "J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Sometimes it’s big and up close. Sometimes it’s a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it’s not there at all, which means that the artist either has made a deliberate decision against the mountain, which is interesting in itself, or is in fact standing on Mt. Fuji."

So fun to see this pop in my feed today! Thanks for the shoutout, mellon! 😊

If Tolkien and C.S. Lewis had a podcast, your skit about allegory is exactly how it would go down every single episode 😂

So great of you to do a break down on an indies series! Hope LOTR will one day get the recognition it deserves

It's worth stressing just how horrific the battle of Somme was and how Tolkien lost all of his friends through his military service while he was battling illness the entire time (trench fever). He talked in his letters about how writing was an escape for him, and it's easy to see how he became the father of fantasy out of necessity to create some light in his own bleak world.

Fun fact the Danish Queen was a big LOTR fan as a teenager and wrote letters to Tolkien with some art she made. So now some of the Danish editions of LOTR includes her art

2001-2003 were arguably the best years of my life due to the new line trilogy. It ignited a blossoming love of reading and single handedly stopped me from following my friends down a bad path. LOTR will forever hold a special place in my heart, and I hope I die listening to the coronation sequence at the end of return of the king.

WWI Info: So many students joined up for the war, there were only 24 in Tolkien's graduating class, so the pressure to enlist was real. Later, two of Tolkien's three closest friends died during the war. Inspiration for LOTR: The relationship between Sam Gamgee and Frodo is largely based on the relationship between British officers and their "batmen" assistants in the war. The Dead Marshes also bear a strong resemblance to the battlefield of the Somme, and early drafts of the Fall of Gondolin include metal siege engines and street fighting akin to tanks and urban warfare. I can't find the source, but I've heard it said that Tolkien's four hobbits are partly inspired by Tolkien and his three friends, in a way giving them the adventure that war never was. I'd also like to add that while the Great War certainly impacted Tolkien's writing, The Lord of the Rings should not be thought of as an allegory for the world wars; the author himself said as much on more than one occasion. It's operating on a larger allegorical scale than any single historical event.

I might be in the minority, but I actually Wanted to hear more about Tolkien's life, as I can only see it reflecting more in what he wrote as well. Mind you, I was also a big fan of the Tolkein movie, even if the majority of its focus was on his time at university

It should be noted when talking about Tolkien and World War I is that he enlisted with a group of home town friends (I cant remember how many 3-5 I think) and he was the only one to return. His experiences and losses in the war greatly influenced his writing the Lord of the Rings.

What I love most about Jackson's films were how they made Tolkien universal. Usually, "going mainstream" is a bummer for a fandom, but in a way, Tolkien was ALWAYS mainstream... just mainstream among the 10% of people who'd read it. But with the films now everyone understands Middle-Earth enough that it's part of the common lexicon and can be used as cultural shorthand. It's amazing that we now live in a world where everyone knows what I mean when I say "Gandalf" or "hobbits" or "the Shire" or "Gollum" or "my precious" or "throwing the ring into Mt. Doom," whether they're a huge Led Zeppelin fan or not.

What I'd love to see? Adaptation of Beren+Luthien in an untraditional short season format, say six 40-60 minute episodes. Couple that with a short film that can serve as a trailer for the entire adaptation of the Silmarillion which can be done in a similar way that Peter J did for the Fellowship "Intro" to the Middle Earth history. The short film could be VERY short and give a broad show of what we could be seeing in the future and what "could" be possible, but vague enough that as time goes by it can be built upon as part of the first episode to each season to give the viewer a handy-dandy RECAP of where we currently are at chronologically.. I think the Tolkien "universe" has such potential as an ongoing series where each season focuses on a different branch with feature length films scattered around the place and short films here and there. Story plots that explore more of the world should be given a season even if it is a short season so they can spend more time world and character building as those will directly impact each branch going forwards. The Silmarillion can be the Trunk of a tree and the seasons/films/shortfilms are like branches and they can just spread out as it all comes into focus. How would this ever fly? How to get rights? Take the story that has it all.. world building, mystery, romance, action... EPIC ACTION and badassery, political stress, drama.. damn you name it and the Beren&Luthien has the potential to excel at it! (Minus erotic stuff.. sure it'll get views but then you are doing the adaptation purely for fanservice and money and the Tolkien estate won't even breathe your air) So? Make an adaptation that honors the core. Pilot short that gives a show that you want to build out the world and dedicate real effort into the elegance of the unique languages.. a dive into how Tolkien really developed those cultures. Then an artistic adaptation that suits the masterpiece. Call me crazy but I'd love to see how Guillermo del Toro would do the Beren&Luthien adaptation.. he is so great at "strange" and different while adding such depth and emotion to scenes with no dialogue. Maybe if it goes well Peter J would be interested in tune in? If passionate producers/directors were given free reign they could do such an amazing adaptation even on a low budget, as Peter J proved to us. But greed and quantity profits get in the way of quality.... Or maybe Mr.Beast can fund it, knowing he'd make history.. That would be funny, Jimmy goes from youtuber to funding quality projects. :P

This is amazing! Would love to see a part two with all the miscellaneous Tolkien texts out there. Whenever you go to a good bookstore the Tolkien stuff is a couple shelves long - would love to see a breakdown of all that stuff as well. Cheers!

Hell yeah been waiting on this one for a while! So happy you finally finished making this vid

Thank you so much for shouting out "On Fairy Stories!" It's such an underrated essay. I think it lends the best perspective on what it meant for Tolkien to "invent fantasy." He distilled it, and separated it from myth and children's story in a way that had not been done before. He set it aside from previous types of storytelling and wrote a rule book for it that in some ways, many authors still follow (whether or not they know it). Also, previous to the soviet live action adaptation, there was a very short Swedish one made. It may be my favorite out of the weird live action adaptations, especially due to the LIBERAL use of greenscreen. It can be found on youtube, called "Sagan om Ringen." (Also, in the Finnish Adaptation, Gollum briefly completely flashes the camera, so I guess that's worth a watch if you're into that) Great video overall! It's incredibly hard to actually do an overview on this series without taking for 16 hours, but you got most of the really important stuff!

Great Job. These are probably my favorite videos on the channel. Keep up the great work.

Memories of watching the extended version of all 3 films back to back then watching all the extended footage right after really makes me feel warm. So lucky to have those films be a part of my childhood.

Lets go! Can’t wait to learn, the Breakdowns are some of my favorite videos!

Fantastic video. The Lord of the Rings franchise is so epic to cover that just one video barely scratches the surface of the impact Tolkien's World had on the Fantasy Genre and modern pop culture in general. This video is a good entry level introduction for people who want to dive a little deeper into the history of this stellar work, and for newcomers taking their first steps on a long journey of wonderment. Cheers.

I love this form of video! I know it’s a lot of work to get this through, but I would LOVE to watch all the “it’s time for another video” videos from you 😊

You are the man. Some of the absolute best content on RU-vid right here! Loved it!

This was great, Daniel. Thanks for the hard work, it's much appreciated.

Daniel, you've done an amazing work! Congrats!!

Wow this is extensive! Really appreciate your work on this.

Clever editing, and fitting at that. Congratulations on the new Editor. Daniel’s energy comes off as enthusiastic in this video.

On the topic of LOTR adaptations, I just wanted to give a shout out to the countless heavy metal "adaptations" and references: Black Sabbath's "The Wizard", Led Zeppelin's "Ramble On", Rush's "Rivendell", Blind Guardian's album "Nightfall on Middle Earth", Amon Amarth's band name, Cirith Ungol's band name, Falls of Rauros band name, and a million others. Tolkien's influence on the genre is extremely difficult to overstate.

Talk about good timing! I literally just finished my reread of LOTR last night! I honestly don’t remember the books being this good! Can’t wait to hear your breakdown!

Thanks for the great breakdown! I loved learning more about Tolkien himself! I remember going to the theaters every year to watch the movies as they came out and it was one of my favorite experiences ever.

Really enjoy these breakdowns even if I’ve read the books countless times 😂 merry Christmas and a happy new year to you Daniel!

I love long-ish form videos and I was excited when I saw you released one! Greatly enjoyed the video and the effort I’m sure it required to make!

What a great video Daniel!

Huge fan of this video, I'm loving this shift towards less but higher quality content. Keep up the great work!

Its nice to see that you made all those edits to correct yourself where you misspoke or got the wrong facts. Shows that you are really committed to being accurate, a thing which I am sure all goblins appreciate.

Perfectly timely holiday episode for Daniel Greene's channel for major epic granddaddy of fantasy!! Always in good form!! You've gone on an epic journey here just a few minutes in! Top tier breakdown, content and editing! My first to watch! Kudos! And kudos on the clip mike and for putting away the precarious shiny broken blade.

HOW AMAZING that Ian Holm was part of that 1981 radio series!?? I can't believe I've never heard of it & am so excited to listen to it - but seeing that Ian Holm was just a long-time LOTR fan is extra special, I think. 🥰🥰 AWESOME VIDEO !!!!!!

This is really well put together and researched. Thank you for sharing!

Been waiting for a Tolkien breakdown from you for a long time. Well done and thank you.

I thought you’d forgotten about the breakdown, this series definitely helps me organise what titles I wanna read 😁😁

Great video! The only thing that I felt was missing was a discussion of the excellent BBC radio adaptation. They did an amazing job adapting the story into 13 hour-long episodes and their use of sound effects and music give it a tremendous cinematic feel. It also has an amazing cast including Ian Holm as Frodo. If you've never heard it, I can't recommend strongly enough that you check it out.

Love these breakdown videos daniel. I appreciate you as a content creator

Those copies of LoTR you showed at 6:03 warmed my heart. I bought those for a friend as a Christmas gift not too long ago :) Gorgeous pieces!

Love the video!! love seeing your passion for fantasy

Loved this!!! Great work :)

Great video thanks for making this!

My 3rd grade teacher read the illustrated hobbit to us when growing up (30 years gone now). I can still look back at that as the defining moment in my life. I immediately read it myself. Then read LoTR that same year. and from there my mother came home with the Dragon Reborn (bless her soul she didn't realize it was the 3rd book, I didn't care I literally read the book to pieces) and my fate was sealed. When your first 2 exposures to fantasy are Tolkien and Jordan, long form fantasy is where you are going to live foreverafter.

This is actually an incredible breakdown so far! I was always under the impression that all three books were published as one book together, and separated into 3 later on. I didn't know that it was originally published separately!

I remember the animated Hobbit and return of the king movies growing up. My mom would take me to the library and every single time, i would rush to check the VHS collection in hopes of being able to get one of these because they were ALWAYS checked out. To my 8 year old self, they were the greatest animated movies of my childhood

I love this format of educational video, I could watch one of these every day while I make my breakfast

Amazing video Daniel!

You should do a breakdown of the Witcher series. It has a lot of books a lot of games that are great and now (the worst thing to happen to the Witcher) a lot of live action adaptation…

I loooove a nice long video and I love LOTR, so I'm gonna kick my feet up and grab some snacks 👏 (already loving the editing)

This was great, thanks dude!

This was great to watch. I understand its not great for the algorithm but please keep projects like this going.

A Lord of The e Rings history video in this channel? Mister Goblin, you always Surprise me! Thank you and still Merry Christmas;)

Got my copy of Breach of Peace for Christmas. Super excited to read it!

Thanks for this. Very education and enjoyable!

What wonderful timing for this video, I just received The Hobbit and LOTR books for Christmas. Enjoying them tenfold more than o thought I would.

12:44 I now really want to see a video about the relationship between Sci-Fi and Fantasy through the years, I beg you Mr. Greene

I thank you for making this🙏🏼

That radio drama is dope. I love listening to it while walking around in the winter.

I really enjoyed your presentation! I learned so much. I found the Hobbit in early teens. Never knew any of this background. I’m old too. Thank you so much. ❤️

That podcast bit with the allegory was great.

This is great. Thanks for dedicating your time to this. I enjoy this stuff the most but I know it must be time consuming as hell. Keep it up Danny-boy!

Good GOD! Daniel, I'm not sure which I admire more, this video, or the sheer amount of dedication it took for you to make it! Geez lol

Great video, I liked that you focused on the man and publication, rather than the numbers in other breakdowns

This was fantastic. Thank you

I prefer the regular breakdown format. Would like to see that again with all the Tolkien books there word count and you saying a few things about them. Still a fun watch

It must be so much work making these breakdowns, that is a ton of research and then double checking for accuracy. I thoroughly enjoyed this, and now I need to go read the books and watch the movies!

Dude this is so well done. LOTR is the grandfather of everything all love in fantasy.

I like this breakdown 😊 it was very informative and well put together. I’m looking forward to the rest of what you have to say

Great breakdown, really appreciated the 35 minutes on Tommy B. 10/10 💚

Thank-you. I enjoyed this video and learnt some new stuff too.

Fantastic work.

Awesome video! fun fact: the BBC radio drama stars Ian Holm, who played Bilbo in Peter Jackson's trilogy, as Frodo

I just finished my yearly rewatch of the LotR trilogy before the new year and what a great time to watch this video to really appreciate how much of a perfect storm those three movies were.

Would love a video on the split of Sci-fi and Fantasy, never heard of that before but it makes sense!

Loved this video.

awesome content as always , Ser Greene Daniel

Never heard of this series before; thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Really great video! I've been enraptured by LOTR since high school when PJ's films were released. Really interesting research on the adaptations, some of which I didn't know until now. Thanks Daniel!

OH a chunky video! love these for rewatches.

I'm usually not commenting on videos but this was great, thx Daniel 👍

I loved this Video, I can tell you put alot inot this deep dive and im excited to see more, or even see more deep dives on LOTR. checking out Nerd of the Rings now!

Great work Greene. Just finished up the fall of numenor it was a great read. What an impressive universe he created pretty unmatched by anything today.

I remember watching the animated hobbit in school. I was 10 years old about. I flew to the library looking for the book! Fan ever since. Thanks for gathering all this info. Loved it!

I know that the first Hobbit animated adaptation wasn't approved by Tolkien, but it introduced me to the world of Middle Earth and my love of the character of Gollum. Thanks for the breakdown, Goblin!

This is more interesting than I had expected.

Love these breakdowns!

Brilliant vid,Daniel,I love both versions of Ralph Bakshi's and the 1981 BBC radio adaptation,plus an Silmarillion spoken book(1998) by Martin Shaw.👌👍

For more info on the Rankin and Bass adaptations, I definitely recommend the video “Bakshi and the Ring” from Folding Ideas.

Some of the background music you used is the main theme around 15 minutes in for another RU-vidr's channel that I watch and I thought for a few seconds I had accidentally swapped videos xD

I am really hoping that Jackson or another Massive Tolkien fan,will direct a prequel series/trilogy of the simarillion in the era of Morgoth.

Didn’t know how much I wanted to see this until I saw the title

Great video, glad that you did a break down of this. I never realized all the failed attempts to make Hobbit and LOTR happen.

Normally I love everything you put out. But this is another level!!! Daniel Greene is the Fantasy (best books) king

Great content

Fascinating!

I like these deep dives.

You really are becoming true master of wordplay, arent you. I'm only halwfay but I cought inkling and obviously Amazon Forest (that one was pretty obvious) but i bet there are more of these that I missed.