September 23, 2006

Who is Le Chiffre?
Everett

Nobody knows. Not even Le Chiffre.

Who or what is Tom Bombadil? Nobody knows. Not even Tom Bombadil. There isn't enough information in LotR to tell us much of anything definitive about Bombadil's nature. All we can really say is that he's an old, powerful, jolly being in human form who likes to sing nonsensical songs. This has actually been an off-and-on topic of debate over the past few years around here, never reaching any satisfactory conclusion, at least as long as I've been around. However, I did a bit of looking and found this piece from about six months before I discovered tolkien-movies.com

http://www.tolkien-movies.com/forum/2000/10-30-00.shtml

I'm not sure that I agree with the argument presented in the piece, but it is the best explanation of who/what Tom is that I've seen.

As for Glorfindel, he is one of the oldest Elves in Middle Earth, many times older than Elrond. In fact, he is one of the Elves who accompanied Feanor on his quest to recapture the Silmarils from Morgoth. He is also one of the most powerful Elves in Middle Earth, having lived for many years in the Blessed Lands of Aman. Because of this, he is one of the few beings in Middle Earth capable of standing against the combined might of all nine Ringwraiths. This is why he was out looking for Frodo, Aragorn, Sam, Merry, and Pippin. PJ replaced him with Arwen to be politically correct, and I think it detracts severely from the movies.

And yes, the Elves are much more jolly in the books than in the movies. On the whole, the movies hit you with a sense of forboding from the start and continuously beat you over the head with it.