By Taylor Pollock
Original teaser trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), directed by Peter Jackson and released by New Line Cinema.
There is no greater example of medievalism in fiction than Lord of the Rings. J.R.R. Tolkien was a respected medievalist and linguist who steeped his work in the subjects he loved. Peter Jackson brought the books to life in 2001 with the release of Fellowship of the Ring, the first of the trilogy, setting a high bar for the medieval fantasy genre. In the movie series, Jackson created the imagery and settings so many imagine when the phrase ‘medieval’ is mentioned. Every setting reflects a period of the medieval era, influenced heavily by Tolkien’s novels. The various towns, cities, and countries of Middle Earth reflect in them a particular medievalism of Tolkien’s image of different medieval eras and their attendant characteristics. Tolkien and Jackson exemplify the best of medievalism: choosing aspects of the medieval era that worked within a fantasy context, while trying to stay true to the spirit of the period.
Setting is key to any movie. Cinema must have the scenery and props to draw a viewer into the story. Tolkien is well known for his excessively detailed novels, which provided plenty of source material for Jackson’s cinematic interpretation. Hobbiton, the first and last location of the film, is a bustling and lively village in the Tudor style: wood frames and wattle. This is what fairy tales invoke, bright little houses and cheerful villagers with bustling markets and thriving farms, creating what Robert Rosenstone has called the “reality effect,” as it “heightens emotional states and creates an intense and intimate relationship with characters; of spectacle, bodies, faces, costumes, and landscapes” (Rosenstone, 75). The viewer is immersed in the idyllic Shire fully because of the way Jackson visualized its setting. The fictional capital of Hobbiton represents innocence and joy and utopia— a Romantic vision of the past. As the story progresses, each setting also comprises certain elements of the medieval past to invoke certain imagery. Bree, for example, possesses many of the same architectural styles as Hobbiton, but it is dingier and darker. Far more aged, more like the adult medieval films described as gothic and dark and cruel (Coote, 104).
The setting of Bree increases the anxieties and fears of both the characters and the audience, bringing darkness along with the supernatural fiends chasing the hero, Frodo, and his three friends. Bree is where the viewer starts to see the evil in the rest of Middle Earth compared to the Shire and its residents, who have been left untouched by it. A comparison of the two demonstrates two contrasting views of the medieval era: the Romantic, bucolic ideal (the Shire) versus a more “Gothic” cruelty (Bree and other places). These are two of the most basic views the average person has of the Middle Ages, which is the time between the Roman Empire and the Renaissance, during which, in less favorable estimations, all learning and improvement ceased for a long period of dark superstition and cruelty.
This concept is never clearer in Lord of the Rings than in the human realm of Gondor. Jackson designed the city with the columns and marbles typical of the Roman Empire, white and gleaming, to contrast the darkness of the people within. All of the Gondorian characters are dressed in dark clothing, blacks and purples and blues, a people in mourning, an early medieval vision of the period after the ‘fall’ of the Roman Empire, the beginning of the end so to speak, and the transition of one period to the next. Jackson creates, through his visualization of Gondor, the sense of loss and hopeless struggle so tied to the early medieval era.
Certain aspects of the Middle Ages that are employed in The Lord of the Rings films draw on familiar concepts in medievalism—particularly how the setting creates nostalgia, fear, and anxieties that exemplify the era. Both Tolkien and Jackson created a familiar setting for a fantasy world, drawing the audience into a fictional story by creating what the viewer perceived as “real” to the Middle Ages. This is the role of “medieval” film: using what the public perceives as to be “true” medieval history to create an entertaining story.
Bibliography
Bildhauer, Bettina. “Medievalism and Cinema.” In The Cambridge Companion to Medievalism, edited by Louise D’Arcens, 45-59. Cambridge, 2016.
Coote, Lesley. “Survey of Twenty-First Century ‘Medieval’ Film.” In Medieval Afterlives in Contemporary Culture. London, 2015.
Rosenstone, Robert A. “The Reel Joan of Arc: Reflections on the Theory and Practice of the Historical Film.” The Public Historian 25, no. 3 (2003): 61–77.