September 5, 2003

Re: Foxy, Flying Balrog, and Other Notes
Bob Praz

Hey, Foxy, welcome to the forum! You'll do fine, by the way (everyone has that concern when they first join, apparently). Anyhow, to answer your question, I agree that Wormtongue was likely crying because he had just realised the scope of the slaughter he was going to bring about. It seems he had no concept of how big an army Saruman was creating, and when he first decided to serve Isengard he probably thought he was signing on to help the conquest of Rohan, not the genocide of its people (obviously, as he was counting on getting Eowyn afterwards; she's no good to him dead). This will probably play a role in RotK, when Grima is likely going to slay Saruman.

Anyhow, to clear up something Galadriel said, the quote about the Balrog "flying from Thangorodrim" was meant rather as "fleeing from Thangorodrim". Although it still could have a literal meaning, that would be doubtful, as obviously the Balrog in Moria couldn't fly or he wouldn't have "fallen" into the abyss. Tolkien used the word as a synonym of fleeing, as he often does. Unless...the Balrog could fly before and then somehow lost this ability after sleeping in the depths of the earth for five thousand years and then crawling through caves for another thousand (don't take that too seriously; it's just a wild theory. hehe)?

As for the claim that a movie of the Hobbit is being released on December 19 in Isreal, I simply won't comment on that, except that it's defintely not Peter Jackson who made it. I'll leave it at that.

P.S.: I just realised (too late, however) that my recent articles were rather long (by forum standards). I guess sometimes I get carried away while writing; I didn't really realise just how much I was writing. On the subject, however, do you all prefer that members of the forum condense their articles in one post, or should they make several different ones for each subject they talk about?

P.P.S: Does anyone yet agree with me on the heavy clues that easterlings are from Harad in the movie? You need to look closely at the Ithilien scene to notice the resemblances in some of the armor. As for the Easterling banner, you can get a look at it if you have some of the earlier pictures of the Easterling host that were released.