Abstract
In 1991 Leningrad TV published a dramatization miniseries based on the first volume of The Lord of the Rings, entitled Khraniteli (Хранители). Unfortunately, due to the turbulent political situation in the Soviet Union at that time, the series was only televised once, the idea of making sequels based off the other two volumes abandoned, and the whole project fell into oblivion until 2021, when the sucessor of Lenigrad TV uploaded Khraniteli to its youtube channel. Naturally, this aroused a lot of commotion among Tolkien fans who, comparing it to the better known Jackson’s adaptation, found it funny and ridiculous. This paper aims to explore how what the Western viewers may find riduculous about the depiction of the characters actually stems from the film-makers being inspired by traditional Slavic imagery and folklore. Particularly, it looks into the use of a narrator figure so typical for Soviet fairy-tale films, the depiction of Boromir as a Russian bogatyr, Gollum as a vodjanoj, and Gandalf as the wise old man, comparing their visualisation to similar figures from other Slavic films.
Recommended Citation
Juričková, Martina
(2025)
"Slavic influences in the Soviet adaptation of The Fellowship of the Rings,"
Journal of Tolkien Research: Vol. 21:
Iss.
1, Article 7.
Available at:
https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol21/iss1/7
Comments
The paper was presented at WillowMoot conference on 26 April 2025.