The Last Ringbearer

Wow, this is cool, sorta.

Turns out in my lackadaisical researching of Bored of the Rings I discovered another peripheral / parasidical / parodiacal entry in the Tolkien mythos. A book entitled The Last Ringbearer.

It was published, in Russia and in Russian, by spider-ologist Kirill Eskov. That’s right; he’s a scientist who studies those icky-crawlie-thingies. Specializes in Siberian Shelobs, and also studies spiders from the Paleozoic and Cenozoic eras. How nasty must those things have been?

Anyhoo, he published The Last Ringbearer in 1999 to critical acclaim in his homeland. It tells the story of The Lord of the Rings … from the point of view of Mordor! How awesomely original is that? Apparently, he began with the famous statement “history is written by the victors,” and wanted to right his tale from the, er, losing side.

Problem is, due to an aggressive Tolkien estate, he can’t get the thing published in English, though since 2010 he’s made some breakthroughs (the details of which I can’t quite figure out yet). But when it’s mass published in the USA, I’ll pick me up a copy.

Interesting, no?