May 12, 2002

The Nazgul and Arwen
Brett C.

Bob and Caity, you make some good points for discussion. The answers may lie in the fact that the movie is made with the benefit of 50 odd years of hindsight and supplementary info. Tolkien was not afraid to say that he found parts of the book less than satisfactory on careful re-reading, though he scrupulously avoided saying which parts. The appendices with the history of Aragorn and Arwen may have been an attempt to correct one such deficiency in his eyes, the limited role and background given Arwen in the actual story.

I know people have written in and said they knew exactly who Arwen was when they read Return of the King, but I'm not ashamed to say I hadn't a clue. [If there are any others who were confused on their first read could you please write in - I'm feeling pretty lonely]. Anyway, the expanding of Arwen's role seems to have been PJ's attempt to give audiences more exposure to Arwen so that when Aragorn rebuffs Eowyn in the story, people aren't left wondering if maybe he and Legolas aren't more than just good friends. Let's be honest; if Aragorn were choosing his bride based on how much history and character development they'd had in the original published work ala 1950's, he would have beem more likely to marry Shelob than Arwen. Granted they could have done all that without dropping Glorfindel - maybe they thought it was just one character too many.

As for the Nazgul on Weathertop, I think this may be one of those rare instances where the film actually improves on the novel i.e. why would the Nazgul let frodo wander around for 2 odd weeks with a knife wound when they could have grabbed him right then and there. The description in the book of 5 armed Ringwraiths, supposedly the most dreadful and powerful of Saurons servants, retreating before a lone man armed with a burning stick never quite seemed to sit right in my mind, and the movie makes some attempt to redress this by having Aragorn take the wraiths by surprise and really go to town on them. It still seemed to make the Nazgul a bit soft, but was more credible than them just wandering of to see what would happen next, and was certainly more exciting to watch. Really I think the Nazgul are one of the best parts of the movie; every scene where they appear perfectly captured for me the feel of the black riders - shame about ol' Harry the gate keeper, but what an entrance!