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The topography of Mordor, from Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.

In 1999 a Russian paleontologist named Kirill Yeskov published The Last Ring-bearer, a retelling of The Lord of the Rings from the point of view of the hordes of Mordor. The Last Ring-bearer has been translated into English by Yisroel Markov, with the approval of Yeskov. The Tolkien estate zealously protects its property preciousss, but The Last Ring-bear is available as a free download. Yes, a free download. Get it here. Thank you, Messrs Yeskov and Markov.

Laura Miller reviews The Last Ring-bearer in Salon.

In Yeskov’s retelling, the wizard Gandalf is a war-monger intent on crushing the scientific and technological initiative of Mordor and its southern allies because science “destroys the harmony of the world and dries up the souls of men!” He’s in cahoots with the elves, who aim to become “masters of the world,” and turn Middle-earth into a “bad copy” of their magical homeland across the sea. Barad-dur, also known as the Dark Tower and Sauron’s citadel, is, by contrast, described as “that amazing city of alchemists and poets, mechanics and astronomers, philosophers and physicians, the heart of the only civilization in Middle-earth to bet on rational knowledge and bravely pitch its barely adolescent technology against ancient magic.”

Because Gandalf refers to Mordor as the “Evil Empire” and is accused of crafting a “Final Solution to the Mordorian problem” by rival wizard Saruman, he obviously serves as an avatar for Russia’s 20th-century foes. But the juxtaposition of the willfully feudal and backward “West,” happy with “picking lice in its log ‘castles'” while Mordor cultivates learning and embraces change, also recalls the clash between Europe in the early Middle Ages and the more sophisticated and learned Muslim empires to the east and south. Sauron passes a “universal literacy law,” while the shield maiden Eowyn has been raised illiterate, “like most of Rohan’s elite” — good guys Tolkien based on his beloved Anglo-Saxons…

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We’re extending the deadline for the Weekly LitWit Challenge 4.8: No More Food to Thursday, 24 February, at 11.59pm.