The New Hobbit Hole

[2Jedismom]

AOTC came out at the 50 cent theater yesterday. Matthew went bursurk when he found out. We're going Sunday.

http://www.buy.com/retail/books/product.asp?sku=40173313&loc=15820

[Corin Stormhands]

Well folkses. I'm calling it a night.

It looks like the quadruple precious will not be mine this time around. And, there are some things that I must tend to.

Keep it secret. Keep it safe.

See you next week.

[2Jedismom]

Night Corin. Stay safe. Don't forget...unplug the coffee pot before you leave!

[2Jedismom]

I just realized (not that even makes any difference to me) but AOTC and FOTR Ext.Ed. are being released the same day. November 12th.

[Overtaxed]

How is how the hobbits got the knives (swords) of the Westernesse important to the story later? or where does it matter that they are knives of the Westernesse? - I never saw these as outwardly magical weapons... Fine weapons certainly, but not magical like Sting and the Elven blades...

Merry needs his Westernesse blade to stab the Witch King.

So passed the sword of the Barrow-downs, work of Westernesse. But glad would he have been to know its fate who wrought it slowly long ago in the North-kingdom when the Dunedain were young, and chief among their foes was the dread realm of Angamar and its sorcerer king. No other blade, not though mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound so bitter, cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will.

[HairOfTheDog]

You think that is a real effect, or an emotional one? I always took that as somewhat figurative, like the emotional slap of a new foe bearing the weapon of someone you long despised...

Is there really magic to the knives? Were the weapons of the Westernesse blessed by something other than skill? I just never thought of them that way.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

AOTC and FOTR Ext.Ed. are being released the same day. November 12th.

Maybe if you buy both you can get a discount. I would be afraid to get my wife something like a lawnmower as a present!

[Sam Cree]

"It is possible that I am reading more into it than I should, but as I have now watched it enough times to border on frame-by-frame memory, I see more "reflection, travelogue, lore and character development" than I did at first.

I feel pretty strongly that the movie exudes the same sense of ancient but very real history as does the book. And the same terrible sense of desparate struggle against almost overwhelming evil.

The book pulls this off partly because of JRRT's skill as a writer, but partly because of all the background material that went into it: over 1000 pages of background history in the Silmarillion, the invented languages, the Norse sagas that were inspiration.

Jackson pulls it off because he has taken the trouble to truly understand Tolkien and what he achieved and because he was completely dedicated to bringing to life Tolkien's story and Tolkien's Middle Earth. And because he and the entire production seem to have given an all out, 110% effort to make it happen. When you read that every object in the film was made from scratch in an effort to create a world that no one in the audience would recognize, that "Hobbiton" was built a year before filming to give the plant life time to lose its new look, you begin to realize the lengths they went to.

[Sam Cree]

I would be afraid to get my wife something like a lawnmower as a present!"

The very thought kind of stuns me.

Though once I gave my wife a toolbox (on which I had inscribed "Mom's Tools") full of tools for either her bithday or Channukah, I forget which. But she loved it and still has them handy. She's kind of mechanically inclined though, for a woman, and enjoys being able to fix things around the house.

[HairOfTheDog]

My mother once got a boat anchor and 50 feet of anchor chain. The box weighed like 200 pounds, which was really funny Christmas morning. She was actually quite amused. We needed it.

[ksen]

Merry needs his Westernesse blade to stab the Witch King.

I have faith that PJ will fill the gap somehow. With the care he has taken so far I can't see him botching a critical element of the story like that.

[2Jedismom]

I went to Sam's and picked out my mower. It's a real whopper! We assembled it in the livingroom and Steve actually took pictures of me and the boys standing with it!

I just like to mow!

I have a drawer of tools too...mostly medium-sized screwdrivers of different types and a hammer and a tape measure. Some nails.

[HairOfTheDog]

Well, as a bachelorette farmer, I have a pretty nice set of tools myself... I dug every post hole on this place and put in all the fencing entirely by myself! I have power tools and saws and things! I wish I'd a had a man to appreciate for doing it, but at least it was done right! I didn't have to point and frown at anything.

[HairOfTheDog]

In fact, I got my new manure cart for Christmas last year... they are a bit expensive and I was thrilled! And my gas powered weed wacker with the blade attachment.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Question: How is how the hobbits got the knives (swords) of the Westernesse important to the story later? or where does it matter that they are knives of the Westernesse? - I never saw these as outwardly magical weapons... Fine weapons certainly, but not magical like Sting and the Elven blades... Correct my memory?

These were enchanted blades, blades that were specifically made to fight the witch-king of the north (they were obtained in the barrow downs, which were graves of Westernesse warriors). The Witch-King becomes, in this later age, the Captain of the Nazgul. Only a blade such as this can destroy the bodiless Nazgul. And it is that blade with which Merry strikes the decisive blow in destroying the Captain of the Nazgul in the fields of Pelennor. That those swords came from the barrow downs and were enchanted swords of the Westernesse, made specifically to slay the witch-king and his armies, is critical to this later battle.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

I should read further before posting...you had it covered...oh, well, one closer to 20,000.

[Sam Cree]

You guys are OK.

My daughter's alway's been pretty much of a tomboy, she fixes stuff also. Never carried a purse. I saw her with one the other day (she's 19) and I nearly fell over I was so surprised. I'm not sure she even knows what to do with it.

[Sam Cree]

Were those daggers actually "enchanted" or were they just unbelievably well crafted (like, say, a Stradivarius), perhaps by some lost ancient art or skill?

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

I got my new manure cart for Christmas last year

Now I am stunned! By the way, do you use it only for cleaning up after the ponies, or are you a big deal gardener (or farmer) too!

[Sam Cree]

Good night All