The Lord of the Rings is known as an epic trilogy directed by Peter Jackson and it is one of the best movies ever to be released. However, the movies are actually inspired by J.R.R Tolkien who is the author of the Lord of The Rings novels. Many people might find it surprising to write an article about such novels, but these novels have inspired a lot of Metal bands and mostly Black Metal bands. The book’s title refers to Sauron, the Lord of the “One Ring” the ring that has power to control all other ring’s and therefore has the power to rule middle earth. Frodo the main protagonist of the novel is set out to destroy the “One Ring” that was passed on to him by his late uncle because it is revealed that the “One Ring” is what is keeping Sauron from obtaining his full power to rule middle earth.

Sauron has many servants and most of them are dark creatures such as the nine Nazgul’s, Sauron’s most powerful servants, they have an invisible form and they can’t be seen with the naked eye, they sometimes wear black robes and they are equipped with steel swords while their leader has a magical dagger otherwise known as the “Mordor-Knife” that can affect its victim with dark magic, and the orcs. There are many bands that have embraced The Lord of the Rings, mostly it’s dark side, and they refer to it as one of their influences, bands such as: Summoning, Gorgoroth, Burzum, Amon Amarth, Cirith Gorgor, Isengard and many others.

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Perhaps the most notable bands listed above are Burzum and Summoning. Varg ,Burzum’s only member, takes his band’s name from LOTR. “Burzum” is actually taken from the encryption on the back of the One Ring “Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.” This translates to “One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.”

the-lord-of-the-rings-the-one-ring-3d-screensaver

Burzum in this case means darkness. It is significant to also mention that Varg was in band named Uruk-hai which was named after the supreme orc race. Not only did Varg name his band after Lord of the Rings, he actually interpreted LOTR and he attributed it to the history of pagan Norway. He also gave a meaning to the famous speech on the One Ring and he attempted to figure out what the “One Ring” symbolically meant. Varg realized that the “One Ring “actually means “Time”. For time rules everyone, time find’s everyone, time brings everyone, takes everyone and binds everyone. Varg said that Sauron wanted the One Ring and he created it in order to take control of time! Therefore he would become immortal which in return would make him the most powerful being. LOTR as Varg says has a lot of pagan mythology embedded in it and it clearly depicts what happened in Norway and how the Christians invaded the Norse lands and took them by force. He actually says that the orcs and the villains in the story are actually the pagans and the heroes are the Christians.the_lord_of_the_rings_the_fellowship_of_the_ring_003

Varg may have been influenced by LOTR but Summoning have been hailing it since their earliest demo album. Summoning is an atmospheric/epic black metal band that has been talking about LOTR themes in every album they released. Not only is the lyrical theme revolving around LOTR but also their music is epic and it reflects the grandness of LOTR. This band isn’t a typical black metal band, they are not “necro” or “kvlt” their music is actually somehow “melodic” and it seems as if there is an orchestra playing. Approximately all their albums except “Stronghold”, talks extensively about LOTR they have also featured audio samples from LOTR on their songs. They also credit J.R.R Tolkien somehow on every album! This band is sometimes referred to as “geeks making beautiful black metal “since they are Tolkien geeks and they are proud of that. Their second full-length album “Minas Morgul” is regarded by most as the first true “Summoning” album since it is clearly how summoning would sound later on and how they would become. This band is perfect, listening to it will make you really feel as if you are reading or watching LOTR. Their music is mostly soothing yet it becomes dark at times, the calmness of the music reflects the serenity of middle earth and the darkness of the music reflects the evil that surrounds middle earth.

These are two out of several bands that are influenced by LOTR. I hope I was able to shed the light on the importance of this book.

Filed Under: Did you know?, What do you think?
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Feb 12, 2010
4:35 am
Nizar Hawat #1

wowww (y)

Feb 12, 2010
12:49 pm
Samer #2

Great article man, i totally find it interesting, i love epic stories , novels and movies especially this movie…

Feb 12, 2010
1:38 pm
hihihi #3

As usual you guys fail to mention the bands that started doing whatever the article is talking about, and incorporated it into rock music in the first place.

In this case for instance, Led Zeppelin.

Feb 12, 2010
2:03 pm
Rami Rouhana #4

Well hihi . I think Jad wanted to talk about its relation to black metal.

There are other bands in other genres that take ideas from the story , Like Rhapsody …

Feb 12, 2010
4:59 pm
Manar #5

Epic! =]

Feb 12, 2010
5:16 pm
Bahaa Zein #6

wow amazing article ,there are some people dnt knw how much LOTR is related to black metal

gr8 article jad
Keep it up

Feb 13, 2010
3:55 am
eggy rizkallah #7

why does it always have to be related to black metal with u ?:P

Feb 13, 2010
2:16 pm
Charbs #8

love it man.

Feb 13, 2010
3:25 pm
Jad Jawhari #9

Becuase that is how i wanted it to be :) simply.

Feb 13, 2010
3:50 pm
Throne #10

epic movie…and its difficult to be influenced with…so stop complaining

Feb 13, 2010
4:53 pm
Bassem Deaibess #11

Ok… The article is okish, but has a lot of negative points, first, when you want to talk about a certain aspect of a certain topic, make sure you state that you are doing this:

First thing, Lord of the Ring is not a Movie based on the Novel, it’s a Novel made Movie, BIG difference, as the Myth is not just Lord Of The Rings, you have The Hobbit, the Silmarilion, The Children of Hurin, the Book of Lost Tales… etc. And THEN Jackson made a movie of a part of it.
Second, even if you want to focus on Black Metal, you should, at least in one line, say:”the topic was taken by bands from the early days, notably Led Zeppelin whom many song revolve around LOTR (Plant was a big fan) songs like No Quarter… and then you have Blind Guardian whom most themes are based on LOTR, example their album “Nightfall in Middle-Earth”, then you go on to say that your main interest is how LOTR affected the Black Metal scene” You did include very interesting information though, note as well that the second album Minas Morgul is the Dark City (when frodo and Samwise were taken by Gollum up the stairs in the movie) As for Varg’s interpretation, just a comment, it is totally bullshit lol. Tolkien has always hated the fact that people thought he was symbolizing things, Tolkien wrote :”But an equally basic passion of mine ab initio was for myth NOT ALLEGORY!…” Which means that the ring doesn’t symbolize anything in real life and it is not an allegory, he use to get mad when someone says that the ring Symbolize the Nazi regime (which was a common thing at the time since the WWII had been over only for few years) and all other allegories. The only thing he said was that he wanted to show that the Machine is something horrible and nature is the essence of beauty, and in that it was not an allegory he did show it clearly in his books.

Anyway just wanted to point out that you need to keep you article credible by stating the generalities then say you want to tackle one issue, as to not be seen as not credible.

On a side note, Blaakyum’s Album is entitled Lord Of The Night, (who is initially Morgoth the master of the Dark Lord), and the song itself is totally about Lord Of The Ring.

Cheers, and keep up the good work

Feb 13, 2010
6:02 pm
Jad Jawhari #12

Thanks for the tips Bassem, I will keep that in mind for the second article.

Feb 13, 2010
6:11 pm
SerJ Panossian #13

Epic Movie, DIE HARD FAN OF LORD OF THE RINGS + The White Council, anw, nice article my friend, you couldv added some details about *the creation of LORD OF THE RINGS SYMPHONYS* (Howard Shore), it is a very gratifyin to see the music of LOTR trillogy find a new life on the concert stage. + The 6 movements (orchestra),Chorus and soloist etc etc, ou ou , how about John Howe & Alan Lee.

Ps: The concert Footage was recorded Live At “Salle wilfrid-Peiletler,Place des Arts / Montreal,Canada back in 2004 !

Again, Nice Article, but you should have talked about it in general.

Feb 19, 2010
8:45 am
hihihi #14

so when i suggest something you disregard it and think i’m an idiot, but when bassem says the same thing again you consider it constructive and thank him?;p

Feb 19, 2010
9:46 pm
Bassem Deaibess #15

He3 hihi… You did mention what I said it is true, I just elaborated, because it is simply more constructive to give the whole argument, and in doing so you would give a more friendly impression ;)

That said, I did notice your post, and was happy someone at least realises Led Zeppelin’s genius-y :D

Feb 20, 2010
2:32 am
Jad Jawhari #16

Thank you Bassem for delivering my message :) and hihihi who said you are an idiot, I don’t even know you.

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