May 16, 2002

Crebain and Stuff
Brett C.

Still out there defending PJ's blackriders. People say they should have been more powerful and dangerous, but in the movie they're already more terrifying than the book. In print the Nazgul in FOTR don't even expressly kill anyone [its only in Unfinished Tales we find out they wasted a whole troop on Rangers invading the Shire] and are constantly missing the Hobbits by a hair's breadth [they even miss catching Fatty Bolger because he runs out the back door of the house while they're waiting around out front]. I think the only way PJ could have made them more imposing on film would have been to have them slit Butterbur's throat on the way through the inn and carve Merry, Pippin and Sam into peices before gettng to Frodo on Weathertop. Personally I think they were already beefed up terror-wise; the scenes where they ride down the hobbit night-watchmen [mentioned in the book as happening in Buckland but without the explicit description shown on film]and burst through the Breeland gate really grabbed my attention and gave them the aura that was not just omminous, but deadly.

Lem, the creatures in the movie scouting out the Fellowhip are crebain [correctly pronounced cre-bine - well done, chaps] a kind of large crow native to the area near Orthanc called Dunland, which will be providing some barbarian hillmen for the battle at Helm's Deep. The journey to Gondor and back by horse would actually take weeks, not days - it takes six days for the Rohirrim just to get from Edoras to Minas Tirith in ROTK, a journey of less than half the distance from Gondor to the Shire.

Finally I think the reaction by Frodo to Gimli's attempt to break the ring is explained not by any mystical connection, but by the powerful psychological effect the ring has onits bearers. In Shadow of the Past Frodo cannot even bring himself to toss it in the fireplace at Bag End, so he would be justifiably put out by someone suddenly trying to chop it up with an axe. that said, he does seem more attuned to the personality of the ring shown in the movie [as when it whispers in Bag End and tries to corrupt the council by playing on their fears] but I thought that was a nice touch in keeping with Tolkien's idea of a ring of power having a will of its own and taking care of itself.