In the opinion of long time The Lord of the Rings‘ silver screen scribe Philippa Boyens, the decision to expand on J.R.R. Tolkien’s original writings for the new anime-inspired film The War Of The Rohirrim was inspired by the legendary author’s own opinions.
Set about 200 years before the events of the core The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The War of the Rohirrim focuses on the story of Hera (Gaia Wise), the stubborn daughter of King Helm the Hammerhand of Rohan (Brian Cox), as she and her father work together to lead their peoples in standing up against the King Wulf of Dunlendings (Luke Pasqualino).
Directed by Blade Runner: Black Lotus co-director Kenji Kamiyaama, the film’s production is notable for two specific reasons, as not only is it the first animated entry in the franchise’s cinematic continuity (with an anime-inspired aesthetic at that), but it also takes heavy, heavy liberties with Tolkien’s original writings.
As originally detailed across roughly two total pages in the series’ Appendix A, as found at the back of The Return of the King, the first flames of the titular war are sparked when King Hammerhand is met with a request from the Rohan Lord Freca for “the hand of Helm’s daughter [in marriage] for his son Wulf”, to which the ruler responds with a quip about the nobleman’s weight.
“You have grown big since you were last here,” the King declares to Freca, “but it is mostly fat, I guess”.
Enraged at this insult, Freca proceeds to attack the King, only to be killed by a single blow from his royal fist.
In the aftermath of this scuffle, King Hammerhand declares that Lord Freca’s entire bloodline are now enemies of the kingdom, to which the fallen Lord’s entourage respond by turning tail and fleeing to the West.
However, rather than disappearing into the annals of Middle-earth history, Wulf and his fellow Dunlendings would return four years later, taking advantage of Rohan’s invasion by the Corsairs of Umbar to launch a revenge campaign of their own.
“At the same time, Rohan was invaded from the East, and the Dunlendings seeing their chance came over the Isen and down from Isengard,” wrote Tolkien. “It was soon known that Wulf was their leader. They were in great force, for they were joined by enemies of Gondor that landed in the mouths of Lefnui and Isen.”
Unfortunately, the combined forces of the Corsairs and Wulf’s Dunlendings would eventually prove to move for the forces of Rohan, and “the Rohirrim were defeated and their land was overrun; and those who were not slain or enslaved fled to the dales of the mountains.”
“Helm was driven back with great loss from the Crossings of Isen and took refuge in the Hornburg and the ravine behind (which was after known as Helm’s Deep),” Tolkien concluded his brief exploration of this event. “There he was besieged. Wulf took Edoras and sat in Meduseld and called himself king. There Haleth Helm’s son fell, last of all, defending the doors.”
As readers may have already surmised, perhaps the biggest difference between Tolkien and Warner Bros.’ take on this conflict is the fact that King Hammerhand’s daughter is both given an official name and plays a major part in the actual war itself.
And according to the aforementioned Boyens, who most notably helped pen the screenplays for all three original Lord of the Rings films and The Hobbit trilogy, these changes to Tolkien’s original writings were ultimately made in apparent deference to the spirit of the author himself.
Speaking to the film’s development and production histories during a promotional interview with IGN, Boyens explained that the decision to take what amounts to little more than a brief interlude and expand it into a full-blown cinematic tale stemmed from Tolkien’s own writings.
“Professor Tolkien said in his letters that ‘Sometimes the most compelling story is the untold story,” said Boyens, referencing the author’s Jan 30th, 1945 letter to his son Chris (the actual quote reads: “A story must be told or there’ll be no story, yet it is the untold stories that are most moving”).
Jumping off of his colleague’s points, Adult Swim exec and The War of the Rohirrim producer Jason DeMarco added, “We could tell a story within that that didn’t change anything that Tolkien put down, but still fleshed it out to be what it needed to be.”
“So I think it was that and a callback in a cool way to say there are legends of many strong people, strong women who have done these things who may not be written in the histories,” he argued, “but that doesn’t mean they weren’t exciting stories.”
To this end, Boyens then touched upon the film’s opening narration, which hears the shieldmaiden Éowyn (as voiced by her original film actor Miranda Otto) explicitly tell the audience not to seek out any stories about Héra “in the old songs” because they literally do not exist.
“That was deliberately saying to the audience, ‘We know what we’re doing here. We know. We understand that. Stay with us,” she detailed. “Where we work from is ‘don’t just change something arbitrarily.’ If we’re going to change something, do it for good storytelling reasons, and then anything you bring to it, make it feel real, make it feel authentic.”
To this end, Boyens was then asked if the film’s production team had taken “into consideration” the vocal pushback from Tolkien fans regarding these changes, to which she confirmed, “I don’t think you can.”
“You know, it’s like, Tolkien didn’t just write books, he wrote an entire mythology, a vast incredible work which is so detailed and so complex and works on so many different layers, and you can leave that alone and not touch it, but he himself did not want that, and he himself said that he wanted other minds to come to it.”
“We can’t do anything to those books. Those books are going to stand as these masterpieces, hopefully ’till the end of time. We can’t ruin thjem, so people who come at you saying ‘Oh you ruined this’ or ‘Oh you ruined that’ – No. All we did was we presented you with an adaptation of this work.
“And some people will come to it, and relate to it, and some people won’t,” she concluded. “And sometimes the criticism is justified and sometime it [isn’t].
For those interested in a ride-along with Rohan’s finest warriors, The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim is now playing in theaters.