March 18, 2002

Arwen and Other Things
Chris B.

I raised my beef with the whole Arwen depiction in the movie here before but I in response to Brett C's note, it was always clear to me that Arwen in Aragorn are an item and they and there are specific references in Fellowship that make that point, and I read the book first when I was 11 or so.

As for Bombadil and the Barrow Downs, I agree with PJ that there was just no way to do a movie in under three hours if some stuff wasn't excised. The rest of the story is not dependent upon it except to explain where the lads get their long knives of the fallen kings of Arnor.

As for the Nazgul, the copious information in ROTK's appendix and other writings of the Prof. make clear that the wraiths are kings of old (not necessarily Black Numanorians either -the Witch King of Angbar is not Numanorian I believe- any one know?)whom Sauron has subsumed into his power through the corruptive force of the rings. The elves never touched those rings, indeed, only the Three were made by them and kept hidden from S. When Gandalf says that Sauron has gathered the rings to him, it is implicit that he's got the guys wearing them as well. Brett's comment that he doubts that the elves would make rings with the Lidless Eye on them is correct, since they didn't make them.