A new shade of controversy has been brought to the Amazon Prime original series,The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. According toPCGamer, a fantasy author named Demetrious Polychron is suing both Amazon and the Tolkien Estate for copyright infringement. Here is the full rundown.
The chronicles for this lawsuit start in 2017. Polychron penned an original Lord of the Rings fanfiction titled “The Fellowship of the King” and registered it with the US Copyright Office. He then sent a letter to J.R.R. Tolkien’s grandson, Simon Tolkien, who is also the director of the Tolkien Estate. Polychron’s reason for this was to have his manuscript reviewed, but he got no response.
In 2019, Polychron hired an attorney to contact the Tolkien State a second time. His hopes were to establish a collaboration with the estate. But according to Polychron’s attorney, the Tolkien Estate’s attorney “rebuffed any attempt at collaboration the very next day.” Polychron responded to this by personally delivering a copy of the manuscript to Simon Tolkien’s home, including “the © symbol” on the manuscript. Polychron received no response from the dropped-off manuscript.
Two rejections down, Polychron wrote another letter to Simon Tolkien informing him that he would be publishing the manuscript independently, followed by an additional six-book series. Polychron published “The Fellowship of the King” on September 2022 onAmazon, the same month that Rings of Power premiered on Prime Video. The book’s synopsis can be read below.
Long before Sauron, the original Rings Of Power were forged by the Elven Lord Celebrimbor and Dwarven smith Narvi in Eregion, near the Misty Mountains. These first magic Rings were far more powerful than those that came after and were corrupted by Sauron to be fought for in the War of the Ring.
Elanor, daughter of Samwise, is nervous before her debutante party in the Shire. In the 22nd year of the reign of the High King Elessar, the Blue Wizards return from out of the East bearing grave and perilous news: the rest of the Rings of Power have been found and they are in deadly danger. Thus begins the War of the Rings to End All Wars of the Rings. Before it is over Elves, Hobbits, Dwarves, Men and magical races long forgotten or never seen before will join the Quest to find Celebrimbor’s originals and the last of Sauron’s corrupted Rings of Power.
Elanor, two Hobbit friends, the Crown Prince Eldarion, his Elvish uncles Elladan and Elrohir join the Wizards Alatar and Pallando in a war across Middle-earth fighting for their lives. If they fail, they will witness the return of the Vala Morgoth, the source of Evil and former Master of the long-defeated Sauron. With all the Rings of Power at his command, Morgoth will enslave the whole of Middle-earth - forever.
Rings Versus Kings
According to PCGamer, Polychron fully admits in his complaint that his book is “inspired byLord of the Ringsand J.R.R. Tolkien” but also claims that it is still a “wholly original book and concept” thatRings of Powerstill takes from. Indeed, by the synopsis alone there are a few notable parallels. Lead female hobbits on a journeywith a wizard, and a great conflict centered around the actual Rings of Power.
Polychron is demanding $250 million for the trouble. But the odds are against him. Fanfiction has always had a rocky relationship with studios and creators. One notable situation is theMists of Avalonauthor, Marion Zimmer Bradley. Bradley encouraged fan fiction of her books, but stopped when one such fan fiction author demanded co-authorship of an at-the-time unpublished manuscript that bore similarities to one of their stories. Bradley shelved the manuscript indefinitely and ceased all encouragement of fan fiction of her stories. Her incident is what many fantasy authors,like George R.R. Martin, cite when fans come forward with fan fiction ideas or requests. There are also authors that take legal action against fan fiction writers,Anne Rice was notorious for taking legal actionagainst anyone who would publish original stories with her characters on websites like fanfiction.net. This would lead to such sites not allowing fiction of her characters at all.
Because of this, it’s unlikely that this particular lawsuit will go anywhere. While Polychron did indeed register his work with the US Copyright Office, that doesn’t give him the legal ground to the story. After all, Polychron’s Elanor Gamgee is Samwise Gamgee’s daughter, a Tolkien original character who made an appearance in the original books. He also doesn’t own the concept of the Rings of Power, or any War of the Rings. Hopefully the case can be settled quietly, and without a legal war in our universe. Otherwise, Polychron is facing a dragon of his very own…
