The Lord of the Rings is world-famous because of Peter Jackson, but the first ever live-action movie in the franchise was actually made long before the 2000s trilogy. Peter Jackson’s Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movies put New Zealand on the map and made Lord of the Rings a household name. Based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s two best-known books, these works made a cult classic a global sensation. Lord of the Rings bolstered the hippy movement in the 1960s, embodying environmental themes that harked back to simpler times, and Sweden captured this 30 years before Peter Jackson.

A Czech production company called Rembrandt Films made the first on-screen adaptation set in Lord of the Rings’ world of Middle-earth. This 12-minute Hobbit adaptation from 1967 consisted of rudimentary animation. However, it was Bo Hansson who ended up making the world’s first live-action Lord of the Rings. Bo Hansson was a musical pioneer and Sweden’s first music export, famous globally before ABBA. He arguably forged the historical link between Lord of the Rings and the music industry, recording Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings in 1969 and 1970, on which his 1971 LotR movie was based.

Sweden’s Sagan Om Ringen Is The First Ever Live-Action Lord Of The Rings Movie

Bo Hansson’s 1971 Movie Was Groundbreaking

The world’s first live-action Lord of the Rings picture was Bo Hansson’s Sagan om Ringen, released in 1971. Produced by Sveriges Television, the short aired on Swedish national TV in two parts and consisted of live-action footage set against hand-painted backgrounds. Sagan om Ringen includes the only on-screen adaptation of one of the most powerful Elves in Lord of the Rings, Glorfindel, and it is an uncannily apt adaptation at that. The second and final LotR adaptation to be released in J.R.R. Tolkien’s lifetime and the only live-action one, Sagan om Ringen is a key piece of LotR history.

Sweden’s Contribution To Lord Of The Rings Has Huge Global Importance

Lord Of The Rings Always Had Ties To Scandinavia

Lord of the Rings was hugely inspired by Germanic myth, expert in this area as Tolkien was. Northern European countries like Sweden returned this love from the very beginning, with Scandinavia offering multiple world-first Tolkien adaptations. Sagan om Ringen put Glorfindel on screens long before The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King movie retconned him into one scene via a trading card game. It also proves how many ways there are to adapt Tolkien, bringing in characters and scenes like Tom Bombadil and the Scouring of the Shire, which Peter Jackson famously cut from his movies.

J.R.R. Tolkien was a scholar of Old Norse and based the Elvish language of Quenya on Nordic languages and Welsh, inventing myriad Elvish languages around it. Northern European fairytales from the Brothers Grimm and Norse folklore informed the concepts of the One Ring, the Elves, and the Valar, and Sagan om Ringen is the perfect response to this cultural importance. Sagan om Ringen is undeniably wild – the ring appears to be more of a bowl, and one narrator describes every event. A psychedelic product of its time, this contribution to The Lord of the Rings is unmissable for die-hard fans.