June 25, 2003

Barrow-downs
Jarrickon Falconn

Late last night, I was watching Fellowship of the Ring for the 725th time and something caught my eye that I never noticed before: the Barrow-downs have been included! Of course we never see Frodo and Co. traversing them, but when we see the Black Rider on the hill immidiately before Gandalf arrives at Isengard, pay attention to the background. Shown is a group of sloping hills, that are by definition called downs, that are crowned by crumbling ruins, exactly as they are described in the book. Also, all the maps shown in the actual movie are accurate (including a map Bilbo looks at in the Extended Edition of Rohan, Gondor, and Mordor labeled in Tengwar that I presume he picked up in Rivendell). I can't for the life of me figure out why the interactive map would be wrong.


Namárië!