It is kind of strange to think of Lord of the Rings as a media franchise. Though there have been many adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, they have really only come from two sources — the Lord of the Rings books and The Hobbit. Whether straight adaptations like the Peter Jackson trilogies, the Ralph Bakshi and Rankin/Bass adaptations, or Prime Video’s The Rings of Power, they all follow the same source material in one way or another. What’s been interesting to see since Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy is how many of the recent adaptations of Tolkien’s work have drawn from the appendices found at the end of the Return of the King book.

Much as Tolkien used language to craft stories and worlds, he used the appendices to detail the background of the big adventure of The Lord of the Rings and provide a glimpse at the larger history of Middle-earth. Though relatively lacking in narrative, the work Tolkien put into detailing his world in these appendices is a big part of why the published work felt fleshed-out, lived-in, and full of history. Apart from the cataclysmic events Rings of Power is covering, most of the appendices’ contents don’t scream “big-budget blockbuster adaptation.” They’re smaller tales without world-ending stakes, which nevertheless feel distinctly Tolkien-esque.

This brings us to The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, now streaming on Max. It’s the first animated Tolkien adaptation since the Rankin/Bass adaptation of The Return of the King 45 years ago, and the first anime based on Tolkien’s work. It tells a relatively small story about how Helm’s Deep got its name, during one of countless wars between the realms of Men. Even if it failed to make an impact at the box office, War of the Rohirrim leaves behind some important lessons about the best possible future for The Lord........

© Polygon