Lord of the Rings - Character & Society

Grade Level - 6-12, college
Subject - English, Mythology, Tolkien
Keywords – Lord of the Rings, Tolkien, dwarves, elves, wizards, lesson plan, Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, Aragorn, New Line Cinema, character worksheet, society worksheet, Lesson plans, teachers, students, Movies in the Classroom, ClassBrain
Author - Liam Irwin
Affiliation - ClassBrain, Inc.
Date - 06 July, 2002
Duration – 2-5 class periods

Background

J.R.R. Tolkien, in his "Lord of the Rings", has done more than anyone else in history to bring the worlds of elves, dwarves, and hobbits to our modern awareness. Every child is familiar with Santa's elves and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, but it is Tolkien who has given them breadth and scope with a long history and an entire world in which to amaze and delight us.

Tolkein’s descriptions of the world of Middle Earth is complete with detailed societies, languages, geography, and more. Through this lesson plan your students will explore how to create a Middle Earth character and how to describe where that character comes from.

Questions and Projects

Project One: Having seen the movie and perhaps having read the book, take what you know of Hobbits, Dwarves, and Elves, and create your own character. What does he or she look like? What type of clothing is worn, and so on. What would make this character unique?
Middle Earth Character Worksheet
Project Two: In The Fellowship of the Rings:
Elves are wise, graceful, merry, ethereal, and wistful all at once.

Dwarves are portrayed as dour, industrious, stolid and grim.

Hobbits are carefree, food and fun loving, with more to them that one might at first suppose.

Choose a character from the movie “Lord of the Rings” and/or the book, then using the Middle Earth Society Worksheet describe the your character’s life and surroundings.

Project Three: Draw the character that you’ve designed in Project One using our Middle Earth Character Worksheet – Art

Resources & Materials

Movies
The Fellowship of the Ring

Available worksheets (Adobe Acrobat Required)

Middle Earth Character Worksheet
Middle Earth Character Worksheet – Art
Middle Earth Society Worksheet

Film 1: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Synopsis-

� New Line Cinema 2001

In ancient times, the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-Earth still it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell, by chance, into the hands of the Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. On his eleventy-first birthday, Bilbo disappeared, bequeathing to his young nephew, Frodo, the Ruling Ring, and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-Earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom.
Summary written by The Tolkien Society

Genre(s) – Fantasy, Adventure
Rating - Rated PG-13 for epic battle sequences and some scary images.
Family Rating – kids-in-mind
Running Time – 2 hrs. 58 min

Primary Actors - Elijah Wood, Ian McKellan, Viggo Mortensen
Sean Astin, Liv Tyler, Sean Bean, Cate Blanchett
Director - Peter Jackson
Music – Enya, Howard Shore
Screenplay - Frances Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson
From the book by JRR Tolkien
Producers – Peter Jackson, Michael Lynne, Mike Ordesky, Robert Shaye, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein
Studio – New Line Cinema, Warner Bros.

Reading Connections

Related Intenet Resources

The Lord of the Rings – the Official Website
The official website for this incredible film rendition of Tolkien’s trilogy has many wonderful interviews, trailers, and tidbits for you to explore.
Source: The Lord of the Rings Official Website

The Differences Between Hobbits and Humans
This interview with Billy Boyd (Pippin) leads you through some of the basic differences between the two races.
Source: The Lord of the Rings Official Website

Map of Middle Earth
This exceptional interactive map let’s you explore the countryside in Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Choose a town for your character project here and watch a short documentary on how and why they chose the location they did for the film. You will also find information on the various characters and races of Middle earth here. Not to be missed!
Source: The Lord of the Rings Official Website

The Encyclopedia of Arda
The Encyclopedia of Arda is a personal project - a tribute to and a celebration of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. The site is intended to evolve into an illustrated hypertext encyclopedia of Tolkien's realms and peoples. This site is a pleasure to navigate and is wonderfully full of information, not only on the individual characters of the books, but also of the languages and races. This site is a must if you are working on any of the character worksheets!
Source: Mark Fisher

The Hobbit Name Generator
Change your name or those of your friends into Hobbit names. This is good to use when you’re creating a character with the character Worksheet, if your character is a hobbit of course.
Source: Chris Wetherell

Fellowship of the Wordsmiths
This site covers the elvish language and calligraphy. There are many beautiful calligraphic examples that you can download. Additionally there are essays and discussions on the structure of the language.
Source: Ryszard I. Derdzinski (Galadhorn Elvellon)

Tolkien Online
This fan site has a little bit of everything. Of special note are their interviews and links to photos of the sets and actors during the filming of the trilogy. There is a lot of depth here.
Source: Tolkien Online - The One Ring

Drawing Tolkien
Eugenia Weinstein’s put together this website to showcase a few of her illustrations for the epic trilogy The Lord of the Rings.
Source: Eugenia Weinstein

Fellowship of the Ring Personality Test
Take this fun test to find your Lord of the Rings alter ego.
Source: Matt’s Movie Sounds