Tea at Trianon: A Soviet Adaptation of The Lord of the Rings

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

A Soviet Adaptation of The Lord of the Rings

From Fansided:

J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings has inspired many people over the years, from Ralph Bakshi to Peter Jackson to George R.R. Martin. And his influence isn’t felt only in the English world. Behind the iron curtain, Russian fans were also enjoying Tolkien’s work. Working off a Russian translation by Vladimir Muravyov and Andrey Kistyakovsky, some even created a movie adaptation that aired exactly once on Russian TV.
The adaptation, titled Khraniteli (which means “keepers” or “guardians”) aired in 1991, the same year that the Soviet Union officially dissolved. It was a busy time, and many figured Khraniteli was lost forever. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for 30 years, the movie passed out of all knowledge. (Read more.)

From Nerdist:

The Lord of the Rings is a big topic of discussion these days. That’s mostly thanks to quarantine cast reunions and Amazon’s upcoming Middle-earth series. Of all the fantastical lands out there, J.R.R. Tolkien’s universe remains one of the most beloved and revered almost a century after The Hobbit‘s publication. It’s a world we’ll never tire of, as there are always new stories to discover and revisit.

That’s also true of adaptations. Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies are very well known. There’s also the Rankin/Bass cartoons. But did you know about the 1991 Russian television adaptation of Tolkien’s epic? We can’t blame you if not. The production, titled Khraniteli, was thought to be lost. But in an exciting turn of events, which we learned about via Newsweek, Russia’s Channel 5 just uploaded the series to YouTube. You can watch them below. (Read more.)