Well - that scene did come from the book, as written by Tolkien. If you ask me, it was one of the few scenes that was actually faithful to the books. Those movies while well done, were a disappointment for me - too much emphasis on action and fighting while leaving out a number of rich story elements, mangled some others. Like the Ents for instance - in the movie they were a bunch of clueless idiots who had to be led by the hand by a couple of hobbit youngsters - in the books, they knew exactly what was going on - they didn't live to be that old by being fools - and had ways of keeping tabs on events out in the world. The question they had to grapple with was whether they wanted to get involved in those events or not. An important facet of the story that got written way different from the books. One of many disappointments. Was also expecting to see the moment when Aragorn leaped up on the wall to parley - more like talk trash - with the attacking orcs during the battle of Helm's Deep. The orcs quickly tire of him, the arrows start flying again and shortly after the assault resumes worse than ever is when the Riders of Rohan finally appear. The very sort of dramatic scenery you would expect to find in such a movie, but inexplicably didn't make it in. They could have cut time out of showing all the redundant hacking, slashing & killing to have fit it in, but didn't. To me decisions like those made the quality of that production fall short of what it could have been.
Yes, that scene was more faithful than most. I have read the trilogy over 24 times.
Glorfindel, Noldorin Elf Lord, prophesied in 1974 TA to Earnur, the last king of Gondor, that “not by the hand of man” would the Witch-King of Angmar, the Lord of the Nazgul, die.
This made the Witch-King, who knew that Glorfindel was one of the First-Born, and therefore very powerful, and to be believed, think that he was thus invincible with respect to all humans. Eowyn was a woman, not a man.
The movies were quite disappointing, in that they secularized the tale, and removed most of Tolkien’s implicit monotheism and explicit philosophy. They also changed the personalities of key characters too much. Elrond Halfelven, the ultimate great uncle to Aragorn (via Elrond’s beloved twin brother, Elros), and his adopted father who LOVED him like a SON, was turned into a bigot against humans. Aragorn, who never rejected his heritage after he learned of it at age 20, was turned into the reluctant hero stereotype.
It is not surprising that Christopher Tolkien disowned the Peter Jackson movies.
The Howard Shore score is my favorite aspect of it all. I sang it live in The Lord of the Rings in Concert on the west coast.