Comments on: Russian Lord of the Rings

Russian Lord of the Rings

gman — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:06:03 -0800

English Russia presents Lord of the Rings character illustrations from the USSR.

At the bottom of the post are clips from a Soviet low-budget "Hobbit" movie.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:09:54 -0800

I love Bilbo's hairy black stockings.

By: Threeway Handshake

Threeway Handshake — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:10:06 -0800

Those woodcuts are fucking great. But Bilbo with totally hairy legs is creepy.

By: philip-random

philip-random — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:15:02 -0800

The weird thing is how instead of the baleful eye of Sauron they just have a picture of Stalin.

By: eugenen

eugenen — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:15:45 -0800

I had that book! The Russian translation was a bit kiddie, which may explain why it hooked me at, like, age 7.

By: Think_Long

Think_Long — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:16:27 -0800

They look like characters from Samurai Jack

By: Michael Roberts

Michael Roberts — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:20:27 -0800

The Hobbit, not the Lord of the Rings. Gollum sure looks weird. These drawings remind me of the little mole, actually, more than anything (example - it's Czech, I think). Xobbit, ili tuda i obratno!

By: Think_Long

Think_Long — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:21:19 -0800

Also, if anyone has a copy of that full Russian Hobbit with subtitles, I will pay money. Not lots, but some.

By: sotonohito

sotonohito — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:21:37 -0800

What was up with that creepy/stoned grinning Gandalf?

By: BobbyDigital

BobbyDigital — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:29:27 -0800

This is great.

By: heyho

heyho — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:31:53 -0800

RussianGollum in that last clip is fantastically strange and unthin.

By: JHarris

JHarris — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:40:02 -0800

Wonderful! This so beats the pants off of Hollywood Action Movie Tolkien.

By: clearly

clearly — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:44:11 -0800

Look again, the tickets to that ring you love are now diamonds.

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:45:43 -0800

Aw, Smaug is adorable.

By: vertigo25

vertigo25 — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:56:53 -0800

I had seen several of these, before, in The Annotated Hobbit edited by Douglas Anderson. It also contains illustrations from several other translations (as well as an abundance of genuinely interesting background material).

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:57:16 -0800

Also, if anyone has a copy of that full Russian Hobbit with subtitles, I will pay money. Not lots, but some. From the Wiki page on Adaptations of The Hobbit, I think you're looking for a Soviet 1985 television play "The Adventure of the Hobbit" (Приключение Хоббита / Google auto-translation). And here it is, all 64 minutes on YouKu.com, but without translation. I'll leave subs up to someone else. Go MetaFilter Detective Team!

By: Babblesort

Babblesort — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:07:25 -0800

Adeen, dva, tree, cheteeree, pyat. Yes, pyat armies. Prob wrong somehow. Knows no Russian.

By: klue

klue — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:09:18 -0800

English Russia is fantastic.

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:11:36 -0800

Look again, the tickets to that ring you love are now diamonds. Well played.

By: Anything

Anything — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:30:28 -0800

The illustrations are wonderful and English Russia is a wonderful blog.

By: ricochet biscuit

ricochet biscuit — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:49:05 -0800

Can you guess all of the characters depicted here? The hint, the one on the cover is Bilbo. And there is the question again - can you tell who is who in those? I am unfamiliar with the English Russia blog... does it usually assume its readers are quite dull children?

By: Trochanter

Trochanter — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:52:25 -0800

Those are great. Sort of remind one of Mary Blair's work. Plus, I think it might be time to read the book again. How many times through will that make? Re: Mary Blair. She's really good.

By: felix betachat

felix betachat — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:56:34 -0800

These make perfect sense, given that the Hobbit is a story of the political awakening of a self-satisfied member of the bourgeoisie. The revolutionary activist Gandalf clarifies for Bilbo the depth of his own political alienation. Bilbo's political awakening leads him to reject the values of his class-position and to identify with the plight of the proletarian dwarves. His initial attitude toward the ring is one of rank commodity fetishism, but his political awakening is complete when he recognizes its use-value, faces down Smaug, the arch-oligarch, and sets off a proletarian revolution in the Lonely Mountain.

By: Alt F4

Alt F4 — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:57:38 -0800

What was up with that creepy/stoned grinning Gandalf? Longbottom leaf.

By: potsmokinghippieoverlord

potsmokinghippieoverlord — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:02:12 -0800

We should submit these to the New Yorker for their caption contest.

By: New England Cultist

New England Cultist — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:18:13 -0800

Freakin' awesome!

By: Hairy Lobster

Hairy Lobster — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:20:57 -0800

I know it's stupid but everytime I see cyrillic writing I just can't help reading it as if it were latin... Xobbns!

By: Ritchie

Ritchie — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:25:32 -0800

I love, love, love it when an artist makes a map. The third image was great.

By: Countess Elena

Countess Elena — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:26:02 -0800

Love it. I'll never get enough of re-envisioned or obscure illustration sets.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:57:41 -0800

Tove Jansson's illustrations: The Hobbit

By: Mizu

Mizu — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:59:31 -0800

These are beautiful! I especially love the map, Gollum, Smaug attacking the city in flames, and the battle scene about 4/5ths of the way down, with all the arrows. The different tones, lights and environments conveyed with just black and white shows how masterful this illustrator is. Does anybody know who it is, and can we find their other work? I'd pay money for prints by this person.

By: the littlest brussels sprout

the littlest brussels sprout — Thu, 27 May 2010 17:04:25 -0800

Love. Although I feel like the Gollum illustration accurately depicts my default spinal posture. (Except that I am totally prettier, kind of.)

By: Atreides

Atreides — Thu, 27 May 2010 17:38:11 -0800

Neat.

By: Free word order!

Free word order! — Thu, 27 May 2010 18:05:48 -0800

Aw (from homunculus links), The Dwarves making music, Dwarves in armour.

By: uncanny hengeman

uncanny hengeman — Thu, 27 May 2010 18:28:05 -0800

By: marxchivist

marxchivist — Thu, 27 May 2010 19:11:43 -0800

I don't know if we're having a contest for greatest post of the day or the week or whatever, but if we were, this would be a contender!

By: Halloween Jack

Halloween Jack — Thu, 27 May 2010 20:06:03 -0800

In Soviet Russia, ring wears you!

By: Amanojaku

Amanojaku — Thu, 27 May 2010 21:25:44 -0800

I had that book! The Russian translation was a bit kiddie, which may explain why it hooked me at, like, age 7. I was just thinking the same thing! My Russian is super crummy, but I could read a good half of those pages, and I was wondering if the translation was a bit more geared toward young'uns than the original. Also, I heart that Gollum.

By: protorp

protorp — Thu, 27 May 2010 23:00:25 -0800

Fantastic post! What was up with that creepy/stoned grinning Gandalf? Indeed - his character design struck me straight away as looking like a cross between a stoned pimp and Guy Fawkes . . .

By: The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew

The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew — Fri, 28 May 2010 00:06:57 -0800

This is just super cool and I totally second the note on how awesome fictional cartography and now i'm not going to bed for another 20 minutes while I ogle these. So thanks, I guess.

By: cthuljew

cthuljew — Fri, 28 May 2010 02:22:07 -0800

For anyone wondering about the hairy legs, the Russian words for "foot" and "leg" are usually translated as the same word, so seeing that, the illustrator probably thought it meant his whole leg was hairy. Funny how that works.

By: Jonesisdying

Jonesisdying — Fri, 28 May 2010 05:36:14 -0800

bootiful

By: sidereal

sidereal — Fri, 28 May 2010 06:20:15 -0800

This really great, nice find. Oh, and I was hoping to avoid this...the thread made it so far... > In Soviet Russia, ring wears you! How is this funny? There's no play on words at all. Can we please kill this meme? It wasn't funny 20 years ago, and it isn't funny now.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Fri, 28 May 2010 07:55:48 -0800

So charming and funny. I like the bird on his foot. The stuff of childhood nightmares. English Russia rocks, it's consistently one of my favorite places on the web.

By: tigrrrlily

tigrrrlily — Fri, 28 May 2010 08:03:20 -0800

Хоббит! Ну, погоди! (don't speak Russian, but it's the first thing I thought of)

By: homunculus

homunculus — Fri, 28 May 2010 16:26:36 -0800

Director Guillermo Del Toro has confirmed upcoming Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit has been put on hold indefinitely because the movie has been caught in a "tangled negotiation" over the future of the MGM movie studio.

By: newdaddy

newdaddy — Fri, 28 May 2010 17:19:08 -0800

Boy, I don't know, there's some kind of recent Russian version of the Hobbit in our library here (Baltimore County Public Library, Pikesville branch) and the illustrations are really hallucinatory, and mnoga awesome. I don't know the illustrator though. I'll try to look it up the next time I get there and bring the name back to this thread (probably be after Memorial Day though.)

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sun, 30 May 2010 19:40:34 -0800

Guillermo Del Toro departs "The Hobbit"