Isildurs Bane and other musical references to The Lord Of The Rings

[Hyfi]

I was watching disk 1 of the extended box set again the other night and came to realize that Strider is the heir of his fathers throne refered to as "Isildurs Bane". The lightbulb went off. I knew I heard that before but where.....several comps.

From the bands bio:
Where does the name "Isildurs Bane" stem from?
Isildurs Bane is, both in the original English version and in the translated Swedish one, one of the several names of "The Ring" in J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy "The Lord of the Rings". When the band was formed in 1976, there was a huge interest in the fantasy style in books, art and music, making it quite natural to choose a name associated with the kind of music we made.

So, what other groups, songs and references to TLOTR can you list besides the obvious ones by Led Zep like Misty Mtn. Hop, Stairway, Ramble on, and a few others.

[BarryL]

I was watching disk 1 of the extended box set again the other night and came to realize that Strider is the heir of his fathers throne refered to as "Isildurs Bane". The lightbulb went off. I knew I heard that before but where.....several comps.

.

Yep. Isildur was the King of Men I think,who killed the Dark Lord and took his ring, the one ring to rule them all. But the Orcs killed him and the ring was lost in a river until Smeagol's friend Deagol found it. The rest is Middle-Earth history. The Ring is what brought down Isildur, hence Isildur's bane.

I watched The Two Towers and Return of the King over the holidays with my kids.

Bo Hansson did an album called THe Lord of the Rings back in the mid 1970s.
There is also a keyboard player who goes by the name Gandalf.
Rick Wakeman reissues a bunch of piano tunes by changing the names of the songs and the name of the album to something inspiring like "Music inspired by Lord of the Rings" even though it wasn't.
There was a recent album that Jon Anderson appeared on called In Elven Lands that was inspired by Tolkien.
There are a few songs on the last Enya album written in Elvish. Of course, one of her songs was used in one of the movies.
I think Par Lindh did an album or song called Bilbo, and I think Glass Hammer also did a Lord of the Rings themed album.

There are likely a lot of fringe metal bands with names of obscure servants of Sauron or names of Mordor landmarks.

[Hyfi]

Yep. Isildur was the King of Men I think,who killed the Dark Lord and took his ring, the one ring to rule them all. But the Orcs killed him and the ring was lost in a river until Smeagol's friend Deagol found it. The rest is Middle-Earth history. The Ring is what brought down Isildur, hence Isildur's bane.

I watched The Two Towers and Return of the King over the holidays with my kids.

Bo Hansson did an album called THe Lord of the Rings back in the mid 1970s.
There is also a keyboard player who goes by the name Gandalf.
Rick Wakeman reissues a bunch of piano tunes by changing the names of the songs and the name of the album to something inspiring like "Music inspired by Lord of the Rings" even though it wasn't.
There was a recent album that Jon Anderson appeared on called In Elven Lands that was inspired by Tolkien.
There are a few songs on the last Enya album written in Elvish. Of course, one of her songs was used in one of the movies.
I think Par Lindh did an album or song called Bilbo, and I think Glass Hammer also did a Lord of the Rings themed album.

There are likely a lot of fringe metal bands with names of obscure servants of Sauron or names of Mordor landmarks.

Howdy Barry, long time. I got the box set last year but have watched them a few times. There is so much to miss each time through.

Happy New Years!

[BarryL]

Howdy Barry, long time. I got the box set last year but have watched them a few times. There is so much to miss each time through.

Happy New Years!


Happy New Year back at you. For some reason I was unable to access this site from work for the longest time. I'm not sure why, given that I have a direct DSL line out, so I got frustrated and stopped contributing out of habit.

Now I check in occasionally, but there's not usually much happening and many of my old friends are gone.

Demetrio would would have dozens of LOTR references.

B.

[johnny p]

I didn't even know the "obvious" references that you mentioned.... of course I think I've only seen 20 minutes of one of the movies........ my nephew fell asleep, and I turned it off.

[BarryL]

Then you missed the giant eagles!!!

[Troy]

"Shadowfax" was a cheesy 80s newage jazz band and a cheesy flying horse in LOTR.

[Hyfi]

"Shadowfax" was a cheesy 80s newage jazz band and a cheesy flying horse in LOTR.

Shadowfax is not CHEESY. They have some pretty cool stuff but more than most is boring. I did get a chance to see them free at Penns Landing in Philly years ago and also have an old tape of a concert they did with Michael Hedges. Hedges does a little background percussion for shadowfax and the drummer backed up Hedges.

I will keep a lookout for the horse as I watch.

[Hyfi]

Television

* In an episode of the sitcom Friends, Ross and Chandler speak about a university friend, called 'Gandalf (-the Party Wizard)'. When Joey asks why they call him Gandalf they reply 'Didn't you read the Lord of the Rings in high-school?' to which they get 'No, I had sex in high-school'.
* In addition to spoofing elements of LOTR "South Park" has a nurse with a conjoined twin fetus on her head called Nurse Gollum
* The TV show Babylon 5 (1993-1998) includes occasional homages to The Lord of the Rings, as well as epic themes drawn from similar mythological roots. See Babylon 5 influences for a more detailed exploration.
* The TV show Gilmore Girls often has references to The Lord of the Rings in various episodes.

Music

* The music CD "Journey of the Ring" features an hour of music inspired by Tolkien's novel. The music follows the story chapter by chapter. Called "the unofficial sound track to the books" by fans! http://www.musicforthesoul.net/JourneyOfTheRing.html also http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jpeters3
* Leonard Nimoy's music: "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" (1968) is based around this series (in particular The Hobbit).
* Led Zeppelin's music: "Ramble On" (1969) refers to Gollum and Mordor, "Misty Mountain Hop" (1971) is named after Tolkien's Misty Mountains, and "The Battle of Evermore" (1971) is an actual allegory from the "Battle of the Pelennor Fields" from The Return of the King.
* Swedish musician Bo Hansson has made an entire concept album titled The Lord of the Rings (1972).
* Genesis' song "Stagnation" (from Trespass, 1970) was about Gollum. The most direct references being "And I will wait for ever, beside the silent mirror. And fish for bitter minnows amongst the weeds and slimy water." and "To take all the dust and the dirt from my throat,To wash out the filth that is deep in my guts."
* Rush has a song called "Rivendell" (1975) on their Fly by Night album.
* Styx has a song called "Lords of the Ring" on their Pieces of Eight album (1978).
* The Austrian musician Gandalf (Heinz Stobl) chose his name with reference to the hobbits' wizard friend. He has composed several pieces of music which deal with themes and characters originating from The Lord of the Rings, some of which can be found on his second album, Visions (1981).
* The German power metal band Blind Guardian has a song called "Lord of the Rings" on the album Tales from the Twilight World (1991). On their Somewhere far beyond (1992) there is a song called In the Forest - Hobbit. They also released an album based on The Silmarillon called Nightfall in Middle-Earth (1998), including songs like The Curse of Féanor, and Into The Storm, retelling the struggle Middle-earth endured when the Two Trees were destroyed. Some of their other works also contain references to Tolkien's creations.
* Enya recorded the song "Lothlórien" in 1991 and also performed the songs "May It Be" and "Aníron" for the soundtrack of Peter Jackson's movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
* Some songs by the celtic metal band Cruachan, such as "The Fall of Gondolin" (1992), have been inspired by The Lord of the Rings.
* The progressive rock group Glass Hammer has numerous Tolkien-influenced songs, including "Nimrodel", and a CD entitled Journey of the Dúnadan (1993) which is a loose interpretation of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and a CD entitled The Middle-earth Album (2001) which contains several songs recorded "live at the Prancing Pony in Bree".
* The Finnish musicians Nightwish have a song called "Elvenpath" on their album Angels Fall First (1997) which features a Lord of the Rings sample.
* The Tolkien Ensemble has created An Evening in Rivendell (1997), A Night in Rivendell (2000) and At Dawn in Rivendell (2003), composing original music to practically all the songs and poems in The Lord of the Rings. A fourth CD is planned.
* The group Nickel Creek has a song called "The House of Tom Bombadil" (Nickel Creek, 2000).
* The Brobdingnagian Bards have named one of their tracks "Tolkien" (2001), and the remix "The Lord of the Rings".
* The band Lorien is named after the forest Lothlórien in the novel.
* The Spanish metal band Lorien released an album in 2002 entitled Secrets of the Eldar with such songs as "The Voice of Saruman".
* Alan Horvath started writing the songs for The 'Rings Project (2004) in 1972.
* Australian band Soundestiny released the album 'Shadow Rising' in 2004; this was inspired by The Lord of The Rings, but made no actual mentions of Tolkien character-names or place-names. The CD is Part One of a projected Two-album 'RingLord' concept, the second album being 'Winds of Change' intended for release in 2006.
* There are various metal bands owing their names to Tolkien's fictional languages, such as Aglarond (Mexico), Akallabêth (Sweden), Amon Amarth (Sweden), Almáriel (Russia), Amon Din (Serbia), Anarion (Australia), Arda (Austria), Avatar (Belgium), Azaghal (Finland), Azrael (Spain), Burzum (Norway), Cirith Gorgor (Netherlands), Cirith Ungol (US), Dol Amroth (Greece), Izengard (India), Fangorn (Germany) and many more.
* The Swedish New Frontier band Machinae Supremacy uses a blend of two samples, one from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring that features Australian actor Hugo Weaving, the other from The Matrix (which has the same actor in it), as the introduction to their song 'Hybrid' (the same song also features sounds from a SidStation, a synthesizer that re-creates original C64 sounds).
* The symphonic rock band Marillion was named after the Silmarillion
* Camel's song "Nimrodel / The procession / The White Rider" (Mirage, 1974) is generally about Gandalf.

Text

* Terry Pratchett's novel Witches Abroad features an encounter with a Gollum-like creature, which jumps on to the main character's boat and proclaims "It'ssss my birthday." Granny Weatherwax then hits the creature with an oar.
* There are various references to The Lord of the Rings, e.g. to the Ents, in The Talisman (1984), a novel by Stephen King and Peter Straub. There are also references to The Lord of the Rings in several of Stephen King's other novels.
* The Wargames Research Group set of fantasy miniatures rules, Hordes of the Things (HotT), was first published in 1991.
* The modern-era hero in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon (1999) views himself as a dwarf, his grandfather the cryptanalyst as an elf, an ex-Navy Seal as one of the race of Men, and refers to his nemesis (a psychotic lawyer) as Gollum. He recognizes Enoch the Red as a wizard and, true to form, Enoch appears in the Baroque Cycle as well.
* Robert Jordan has an inn called "The Nine Rings" in The Great Hunt, and when Rand reads the sign in front of the inn, the book states, 'Rand swung down with a smile and tied Red to one of the hitching posts out front. "The Nine Rings" had been one of his favorite adventure stories when he was a boy; he supposed it still was.'

[edit]
Dungeons & Dragons

The Lord of the Rings books were one of the main original inspirations for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, and hence continue to be a major influence on the entire field of role-playing and computer games having fantasy epic themes. Several games have been based directly on The Lord of the Rings and related works, including, amongst many, SPI's War of the Ring (1977), Iron Crown Enterprises' (ICE's) Middle-earth Role Playing game (MERP, 1982-1999) and Middle-earth Collectible Card Game (MECCG, 1995-1999), the Lord of the Rings series of board games by Reiner Knizia (2000 onward), a variant of Risk (2002) as well as The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game (2001) made by Decipher.
Retrieved from "http://www.tolkiengateway.net/wiki/References_to_The_Lord_of_the_Rings"

[BarryL]

Well, that just about covers it then.

I forgot about those Camel titles.

[Troy]

Cheese is as cheese does!

Interesting to see that Shadofax didn't make the wiki-list. Just goes to show its wiki-failings.

I knew if I hung on to this video of Nimoy doing "Bilbo Baggins" long enough it would come in handy:

http://www.designshed.com/samplestuff/bbaggins.mov

[bobsticks]

I swear to God I'm gonna find a way to work the word brobdingnagian into a conversation tomorrow.

[BarryL]

I knew if I hung on to this video of Nimoy doing "Bilbo Baggins" long enough it would come in handy:

http://www.designshed.com/samplestuff/bbaggins.mov


You never know what you'll find buried in the Design Shed!

I took the $50 bucks that Leonard offered me to cough up my copy. I'm suprised he didn't get to you. He was trying to get them all back.