SPIRITUAL VALUES IN PETER JACKSON'S THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

Readers of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings know that the Shire is a place where gardeners are held in honor. To the extent that, as some critics maintain, Sam Gamgee is the hero of the tale, the novel is a gardener's tale, extolling the virtues of cultivation and service. Adapting a novel to the screen involves more than transferring the plot and characters to a different medium, but likewise engaging in a dialogue with the values inherent in the literary work. Spiritual Values in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rin& explores the nature of the filmmaker's engagement with the profounder values of Tolkien's work and asks why they might resonate for a society that, superficially at least, has little respect for gardeners.