43. Bored of the Rings

January 2, 1999

Q: Do you remember a paperback parody of Lord of the Rings entitled Bored of the Rings? I seem to remember a vicious little parody, beautifully written, perfect cover art. At the time (late 70’s) I thought that the book came from National Lampoon but I’m not sure.

A: Bored of the Rings was was written for the Harvard Lampoon by Doug Kenney and Henry Beard, two of the three founders of National Lampoon, and published the summer of 1969, just before the magazine was launched.

Comments

Hey there, Do i ever remember Bored of the Rings! I loved it as much as i loved the tolkian books which is mucho, mucho. It was wonderful and witty and i am looking high and low for a copy of it as mine was lost in a moving shuffle somewhere along the way. can anybody help me find one? thanks.

—Linda Rose

March 17, 2005 6:31 pm

Bought this one at the Harvard store and still own the yellowed, crumbling thing. Cover art was drawn as if by Breughel. The sad part is that many of the gags are dependent on transforming the characters' names into 1950s/60s corporate brand names no one would recognize today, dating it horribly. The satirization of the actual characters is pretty dead-on, though, and many lines from the book sprung to mind while watching Peter Jackson's trilogy. This book was responsible for one more parody, Ellis Weiner's "Doon," which pretty much assured there would be no further paperback parodies. On a recent trip to Moscow, I was struck by the incredible number of Harry Potter parodies available for sale which appear to be the true children of "Bored."

—Andrew

September 6, 2005 4:34 pm

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