J.R.R. Tolkien’s estate is suing an author who it claims ripped off the author’s Lord of the Ringsbooks, Bloomberg Law reports.
The Tolkien Trust filed suit against an author named Demetrious Polychron, who wrote a sequel to the author’s famous series called The Fellowship of the King. The title references The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King, respectively the first and third installments of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The Fellowship of the King was published by Fractal Books. A LinkedIn page with Polychron’s name says that he is the publisher of the press. Fractal’s website appears to have been suspended by its hosting provider, and an Amazon webpage for Polychron’s novel has been taken down.
The Tolkien Trust’s lawsuit against Polychron seems to be a response to the author’s own lawsuit against the Tolkien estate, in which he claimed that the trust and Amazon ripped off his novel, using elements from it for the 2022 television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Polychron’s lawsuit seeks $250 million in damages.
Radar reports that the Tolkien Trust’s suit seeks to enjoin Polychron from selling his book. “Neither Professor Tolkien nor the Tolkien Estate has ever authorized any written sequels to the Tolkien Trilogy,” the suit reads in part. “Not only was the Infringing Work unauthorized, but the Tolkien Estate had already expressly refused the [Polychron’s] request to publish any work of this nature, in keeping with its longstanding policy.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
