Posted on 12/19/2002 8:14:17 AM PST by Anitius Severinus Boethius
'Not alone,' said Legolas. 'We think that Sam went with him.''Did he!' said Gandalf, and there was a gleam in his eye and a smile on his face. 'Did he indeed? It is news to me, yet it does not surprise me. Good! Very good! You lighten my heart. You must tell me more. Now sit by me and tell me the tale of your journey.'
As for which close call Gandalf was talking about, I am not sure... A quick search hasn't found the quote, but there is a sequence in the book where a winged Nazgul is near Frodo and suddenly veers away... There is another time when Frodo senses the eye searching for him, getting closer and then it rather suddenly turns away. I will look for it on our next run through the Two Towers when we start up the Green Dragon again.
Ahh! See, there I go being hasty again! HROOOM HOM!
It's in the book!! From The Return of the King, chapter 6, "Many Partings":
Here now for seven days they tarried, for the time was at hand for another parting which they were loth to make. Soon Celeborn and Galadriel and their folk would turn eastward, and so pass by the Redhorn Gate and down the Dimrill Stair to the Silverlode and to their own country. They had journeyed thus far by the west-ways, for they had much to speak of with Elrond and with Gandalf, and here they lingered still in converse with their friends. Often long after the hobbits were wrapped in sleep they would sit together under the stars, recalling the ages that were gone and all their joys and labours in the world, or holding council, concerning the days to come. If any wanderer had chanced to pass, little would he have seen or heard, and it would have seemed to him only that he saw grey figures, carved in stone, memorials of forgotten things now lost in unpeopled lands. For they did not move or speak with mouth, looking from mind to mind; and only their shining eyes stirred and kindled as their thoughts went to and fro.
'Then tell us what you will, and time allows!' said Gimli. 'Come, Gandalf, tell us how you fared with the Balrog!''Name him not!' said Gandalf, and for a moment it seemed that a cloud of pain passed over his face, and he sat silent, looking old as death. 'Long time I fell,' he said at last, slowly, as if thinking back with difficulty. 'Long I fell, and he fell with me. His fire was about me. I was burned. Then we plunged into the deep water and all was dark. Cold it was as the tide of death: almost it froze my heart.'
'Deep is the abyss that is spanned by Durin's Bridge, and none has measured it,' said Gimli.
'Yet it has a bottom, beyond light and knowledge,' said Gandalf. 'Thither I came at last, to the uttermost foundations of stone. He was with me still. His fire was quenched, but now he was a thing of slime, stronger than a strangling snake.
'We fought far under the living earth, where time is not counted. Ever he clutched me, and ever I hewed him, till at last he fled into dark tunnels. They were not made by Durin's folk, Gimli son of Glóin. Far, far below the deepest delving of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he. Now I have walked there, but I will bring no report to darken the light of day. In that despair my enemy was my only hope, and I pursued him, clutching at his heel. Thus he brought me back at last to the secret ways of Khazad-dûm: too well he knew them all. Ever up now we went, until we came to the Endless Stair.'
'Long has that been lost,' said Gimli. 'Many have said that it was never made save in legend, but others say that it was destroyed.'
'It was made, and it had not been destroyed,' said Gandalf. 'From the lowest dungeon to the highest peak it climbed. ascending in unbroken spiral in many thousand steps, until it issued at last in Durin's Tower carved in the living rock of Zirak-zigil, the pinnacle of the Silvertine.
'There upon Celebdil was a lonely window in the snow, and before it lay a narrow space, a dizzy eyrie above the mists of the world. The sun shone fiercely there, but all below was wrapped in cloud. Out he sprang, and even as I came behind, he burst into new flame. There was none to see, or perhaps in after ages songs would still be sung of the Battle of the Peak.' Suddenly Gandalf laughed. 'But what would they say in song? Those that looked up from afar thought that the mountain was crowned with storm. Thunder they heard, and lightning, they said, smote upon Celebdil, and leaped back broken into tongues of fire. Is not that enough? A great smoke rose about us, vapour and steam. Ice fell like rain. I threw down my enemy, and he fell from the high place and broke the mountain-side where he smote it in his ruin. Then darkness took me; and I strayed out of thought and time, and I wandered far on roads that I will not tell.
'Naked I was sent back for a brief time, until my task is done. And naked I lay upon the mountain-top. The tower behind was crumbled into dust, the window gone; the ruined stair was choked with burned and broken stone. I was alone, forgotten, without escape upon the hard horn of the world. There I lay staring upward, while the stars wheeled over, and each day was as long as a life-age of the earth. Faint to my ears came the gathered rumour of all lands: the springing and the dying, the song and the weeping, and the slow everlasting groan of overburdened stone. And so at the last Gwaihir the Windlord found me again, and he took me up and bore me away.
My good friend Matthew went to the NYC premiere and had a personal chat with screenwriter Philippa Boyens afterward. He had the chance to talk with her about the intense changes to Faramir. According to his report, Philippa "had some interesting things to say on the above -- basically saying that Faramir's character is completely static in the books, and thus wouldn't translate well filmically. She wanted to extend his character to give him more of a journey, and also seemed to imply that it would seem incongruous were Faramir immediately sea-green incorruptible; whereas all other Men in the film (even Aragorn) definitely have to wrestle with their conscience to a greater or lesser extent."Now this makes some sense to me. Perhaps this harsher Faramir will have the opportunity to grow and change during the third film. Perhaps he will show some of the charity and wisdom that makes Éowyn fall in love with him. So again I am reminded that this is a very different medium. It is not a novel, so it cannot succeed where a novel would have. It is ill-advised to judge a movie adaptation such as this as one would judge a book. They are just horses of different colors.
Article here: GreenBooks.TheOneRing.net | Out on a Limb | Movie Review - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Priceless. And the smiles Aragorn and Legolas gave each other looked so genuine and pure, it was a pleasure to watch. Hollywood's signs of affection between men are usually so full of innuendoes that it was like a breath of fresh air to witness what looked like genuine male friendship.
And I'm glad you liked Faramir. I did too and actually understood why Jackson had to do it: if you cut Shelob, Frodo and Sam's adventures in the second part wouldn't be very exciting except for the presence of Gollum, and would turn Frodo into a minor character in Jackson's TTT.
Agreed. PJ made the right choice. It would've been too dark and unbearable otherwise. Comic relief was certainly needed.
BTW, I thought Aragorn's smiles were VERY cute too. (I know, I know, he's a liberal airhead. But he's gorgeous nonetheless....;o)
I told my son that it was odd: after 3 hours, I wanted 3 more hours, NOW, to finish the story! I do think that a little careful editing could have made this story more concise without losing one whit of its impact, but, hey, it's great as is, too.
ROTFL!
Actually, I felt sorry for them: Arwen made a cameo appearance and I thought we'd see more of Eowyn. I guess they'll have to wait for ROTK... And I find Legolas more and more endearing every time. His mounting of the horse!!!! Same with Frodo. I think Wood was Frodo in another life, LOL.
Hair, We're the lucky ones...
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