March 10, 2002

Re: Bombadil, Nazgul, and Shelob
Brett C.

The countdown begins to the release of the Two Towers trailer to run with Fellowhip, sometime in March I beleive. I guess I'll be going to see the movie one more time in the cinemas after all.

In response the Ashley H.'s quandry aobut Bombadil, the heavily canvassed opinion of those in favour of PJ's decisions is that Bombadil's and the Barrow Downs aside in the main story is great for developing the rich nature of Middle Earth in literature, but would confuse and distract movie audiences not familiar with the book. On the other hand, you need to see Arwen to understand why Aragorn gives Eowyn the brush off later in the story. The first time I read the book I had no idea who she was reading ROTK.

The query about the Nazgul rings is made more puzzling by Gandalf's comment at the Council that "The nine the Nazgul keep." But at any rate, I doubt the Elven smiths would have created rings bearing the symbol of the Lidless Eye as depicted in the movie [not seen on screen but available for view in stills and movie books].

I was confused by pushing Shelob back to ROTK as well but it makes sense in terms of the timeline of the movies. Frodo and Sam's encounter with her actually takes place at the same time as Gandalf and Pippin are watching the beginning of the Siege of Gondor, which obviously will not take place until the third film. At this point my prediction is that since we know Faramir is in TTT it will end with Frodo, Sam and Gollum approaching the Morgul Vale and Gandalf and Pippin have just set out from Edoras.