April 19, 2002

Re: Eagles
Brett C.

The question about why Frodo couldn't make use of eagles to get to Mt Doom is that Sauron, the absolute ruler of the Sahdow Land, would quickly have spotted such a brazen attempt and moved to stop it. Boromir mentions that Sauron is known to control storms on the border of Mordor, [check out the effect of Mt Doom's eruption at the start of Fellowhip, while Gandalf is approaching Minas Tirith]. Also, the winged Nazgul are around as early as the second half of FOTR, the novel. One flies over the group in Hollin [or such is the implication] the line for which "It's just a wisp of cloud...Then it's moving fast, and against the wind." was lifted by PJ and used to refer to the crebain instead. So Sauron would have been fully capable of stopping an airborn assault. It is only when he is completely preoccupied by the assault on Gondor, goaded by the knowledge the heir of Isildur is challenging him, that Sauron's gaurd is relaxed enough to let Frodo and Sam slip through unnoticed.

Also, David R., I agree Elrond was played a little against type, but some of the responsibility for that has to go to PJ. Clearly he got the Elrond he wanted, even if he did seem to be without his sunnies and suit. Actually, I was a little disturbed by the "Men are weak." line. It made for good cinema, but grated a little against the idea that Elrond's own brother was a man, and the first king of Numenor. Maybe "Men have grown weak," would have been more suitable.