Posted on 12/17/2003 10:06:13 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
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So yeah it was by foot most of the way and took several days.
Hm. Well, I hope you're right and that the EE clears it up. I don't want to hate any part of it, and that part still makes no sense. Even the love and wonder... what, he didn't know she was coming (hel-lo?) TO HIS CORONATION?!
I am wondering a few things... minor things.... like, when Frodo's shirtless in the tower, he's got two wounds. One is the Morgul-blade wound, the other looked to me like Shelob's sting at first - but it's too high up, the mithril shirt should have stopped it.
I thought the same, except not as smart as you about the mithril shirt. But beyond that, they're both healed scars, and Shelob's couldn't have healed. There's a little niggle, BTW, that I don't want to labor... but her sting, as they show it, is more of a rhinoceros horn. It'd have gutted him. It needed to be slimmer and sharper. So anyway, my only other thought about that wound is that it was a mark left by the cave troll in the mines of Moria.
...oh, darn, I have more to say but I have to go do family stuff
Me too. It's Burger Night, and Dad cooks. Write more when you can, young lady.
Dan
You are right. The spider stung hi in the back of the neck, and the second wound is a round scar
that's where the troll "skewered" him in FOTR
The Mitril shirt protected him, but if you read the book, he has a shirt under the mithril, and the troll's hitting him caused the skin to break from links hitting his skin. In the book, Aragorn washes the wound so it won't get infected. The wound would be more like an "abraision" superficial but would scar, but the mitril stopped it from penetrating deeper.
Watch the hobbits during the 'bowing' scene at the coronation (that is, if yer eyes aren't all teary). Merry and Pippin are on the ends, the stand tall and puff their chests a bit- clearly enjoying the moment and their new status as heroes of Middle Earth. You expect to hear Pippin excitedly say to Merry, "Merry! Look at that! They're bowing... to us!"
Sam stands tall, like a veteran, and simply nods accepting the honor. Frodo looks overwhelmed, as though it still hasn't registered with him that it's all over with. And of course, we know for Frodo it will never be all over with.
It's an interesting summary of the hobbits' journeys.
I saw RotK yesterday and Mark Levin has it exactly right. I would have loved to see a longer movie, and told my friend who saw all three movies with me that RotK actually could have been two movies.
And here's my big news flash review after watching all three. PJ should have cast the man who played Eomer 
as Aragorn. YES! I never liked Viggo as the king; only as Strider, and I do not find him an attractive lead excepting in how very well he acted out Elrond's castigation that "men are weak." Eomer, despite his youth (in real life) carried his role extremely well and would have been a very believable, very honcho, Aragorn, 
and a great love interest for Arwen. All they'd have had to do is make him up to look a bit older.
[New comment: I know PJ got into a major bind when the first Aragorn didn't work out; Viggo was flown in without time to ramp up to the physical prep for the part, from which he recovered well, they say ... but I will always regret that the real life Eomer (can't remember his name) didn't get the part. Other than that, I loved this movie and will see it again and again, and give it 9.8 out of 10.]
These critiques are not because of being a starry-eyed teen as I am neither.
Here's to hopin'--
Don't understand this rumor--aren't the effects already filmed?
If your books are around... read the chapter on the Grey Havens at the end. Frodo was actually quite ill off and on, often on the anniversary of the attack at weatertop. He never regained the peace of mind he had prior to the adventure.
On the thirteenth of that month Farmer Cotton found Frodo lying on his bed; he was clutching a white gem that hung on a chain about his neck and he seemed half in a dream.‘It is gone for ever,’ he said, ‘and now all is dark and empty.’
But the fit passed, and when Sam got back on the twenty-fifth, Frodo had recovered, and he said nothing about himself. In the meanwhile Bag End had been set in order, and Merry and Pippin came over from Crickhollow bringing back all the old furniture and gear, so that the old hole soon looked very much as it always had done.
~~~~~~~~~~~snip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
‘Well, Sam,’ said Frodo. ‘I want you to see Rose and find out if she can spare you, so that you and I can go off together. You can’t go far or for a long time now, of course,’ he said a little wistfully.
‘Well, not very well, Mr. Frodo.’
‘Of course not. But never mind. You can see me on my way. Tell Rose that you won’t be away very long, not more than a fortnight; and you’ll come back quite safe.’
‘I wish I could go all the way with you to Rivendell, Mr. Frodo, and see Mr. Bilbo,’ said Sam. ‘And yet the only place I really want to be in is here. I am that torn in two.’
‘Poor Sam! It will feel like that, I am afraid,’ said Frodo. ‘But you will be healed. You were meant to be solid and whole, and you will be.’
~~~~~~~~~~~snip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elrond greeted them gravely and graciously, and Galadriel smiled upon them. ‘Well, Master Samwise,’ she said. ‘I hear and see that you have used my gift well. The Shire shall now be more than ever blessed and beloved.’ Sam bowed, but found nothing to say. He had forgotten how beautiful the Lady was.
Then Bilbo woke up and opened his eyes. ‘Hullo, Frodo!’ he said. ‘Well, I have passed the Old Took today! So that’s settled. And now I think I am quite ready to go on another journey. Are you coming?’
‘Yes, I am coming,’ said Frodo. ‘The Ring-bearers should go together.’
‘Where are you going, Master?’ cried Sam, though at last he understood what was happening.
‘To the Havens, Sam,’ said Frodo.
‘And I can’t come.’
‘No, Sam. Not yet anyway, not further than the Havens. Though you too were a Ring-bearer, if only for a little while. Your time may come. Do not be too sad, Sam. You cannot be always torn in two. You will have to be one and whole, for many years. You have so much to enjoy and to be, and to do.’
‘But,’ said Sam, and tears started in his eyes, ‘I thought you were going to enjoy the Shire, too. for years and years, after all you have done.’
‘So I thought too, once. But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them. But you are my heir: all that I had and might have had I leave to you. And also you have Rose, and Elanor; and Frodo-lad will come, and Rosie-lass, and Merry, and Goldilocks, and Pippin; and perhaps more that I cannot see. Your hands and your wits will be needed everywhere. You will be the Mayor, of course, as long as you want to be, and the most famous gardener in history; and you will read things out of the Red Book, and keep alive the memory of the age that is gone. so that people will remember the Great Danger and so love their beloved land all the more. And that will keep you as busy and as happy as anyone can be, as long as your part of the Story goes on.
1482 Death of Mistress Rose, wife of Master Samwise, on Mid-year's Day. On September 22 Master Sam-wise rides out from Bag End. He comes to the Tower Hills, and is last seen by Elanor, to whom he gives the Red Book afterwards kept by the Fairbairns. Among them the tradition is handed down from Elanor that Samwise passed the Towers, and went to the Grey Havens. and passed over Sea, last of the Ring-bearers.
But the Queen Arwen said: ‘A gift I will give you. For I am the daughter of Elrond. I shall not go with him now when he departs to the Havens; for mine is the choice of Lúthien, and as she so have I chosen, both the sweet and the bitter. But in my stead you shall go, Ring-bearer, when the time comes, and if you then desire it. If your hurts grieve you still and the memory of your burden is heavy, then you may pass into the West, until all your wounds and weariness are healed. But wear this now in memory of Elfstone and Evenstar with whom your life has been woven!’
And she took a white gem like a star that lay upon her breast hanging upon a silver chain, and she set the chain about Frodo’s neck. ‘When the memory of the fear and the darkness troubles you,’ she said, ‘this will bring you aid.’
At the end of the First Age the Valar gave to the Half-elven an irrevocable choice to which kindred they would belong. Elrond chose to be of Elven-kind, and became a master of wisdom. To him therefore was granted the same grace as to those of the High Elves that still lingered in Middle-earth: that when weary at last of the mortal lands they could take ship from the Grey Havens and pass into the Uttermost West; and this grace continued after the change of the world. But to the children of Elrond a choice was also appointed: to pass with him from the circles of the world; or if they remained, to become mortal and die in Middle-earth. For Elrond, therefore, all chances of the War of the Ring were fraught with sorrow.
We have heard tell that Legolas took Gimli Glóin's son with him because of their great friendship, greater than any that has been between Elf and Dwarf. If this is true, then it is strange indeed: that a Dwarf should be willing to leave Middle-earth for any love, or that the Eldar should receive him, or that the Lords of the West should permit it. But it is said that Gimli went also out of desire to see again the beauty of Galadriel; and it may be that she, being mighty among the Eldar, obtained this grace for him. More cannot be said of this matter.
That's all for now.... I love the meaning of all that, and it is easy for me to copy and paste it for you here.
ARghArGH!!!
Last night I attempted a second viewing of ROTR, began to watch the opening credits, when a teenaged girl sat down next to me with a newborn infant, who proceed to start crying!
Taking an infant to a 3.5 hour movie!
I got up, left, and demanded our ticket money back. Will try again sometime later.
Are there any ways, short of renting a whole movie theatre, to see this movie undisturbed by orcs and trolls?
Thank you. sniff. snivel.
I wish the theatres would do what they did when I was a child, and have attendants with flashlights to shush the orcs.
Or, they could have had a special "Tolkeins Fans Showing" for thirty-dollar tickets, grownups and good children only, with shushing service provided. I'd have paid extra, gladly. It's not that I can't take popcorn munching or the occasional cough. But incessant noise is maddening.
Did you know where I saw FOTR, first viewing? It was in Charleston, SC, on a trip. It was the most interesting little old theatre, tables set in front of the screen, limited seating with discreet and whispering waiters bringing snacks. Done so well, you hardly minded the traffic. I didn't know it was a "dinner" theatre until after I entered.
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