Question: What is the name of the theme in the teaser trailer and the full trailer of Fellowship of the Ring?
Question: Why is it at the start of the film when Gollum is being tortured, that the Orcs do not kill him when he has given them the info they want? Orcs are not the nicest of creatures, and we would expect them to kill for the sake of it. Any ideas?
Chosen answer: Orcs aren't the nicest creatures, no, but they will follow orders - presumably Sauron, for reasons of his own, wanted Gollum alive. Remember that it's never really made clear whether Gollum was set loose or he escaped. If it's the former, then Sauron must have some use for Gollum - most probably he figured that it wouldn't hurt having another agent out there looking for the Ring. If it's the latter, then Gollum simply broke out before the Orcs had a chance to kill him.
Question: In this movie, Saruman says that orcs were elves once, and were mutilated by the dark forces, but when reading the book I saw no evidence of this. What exactly is the origin of the orcs?
Answer: Orcs are believed to be corrupted elves, but it happened so long ago that they wouldn't mention it in the Ring trilogy. It would most likely be discussed in The Silmarillion.
Answer: In the books, Treebeard says something about Trolls being corrupt Ents, just as Orcs are corrupt Elves.
Question: When Frodo first finds the ring on the floor of Bilbo's house, Gandalf makes Frodo put the ring in an envelope and then seals it. Why does Gandalf do this? Was it to protect Frodo from having to physically touch the ring? If so, why didn't Frodo just carry the ring in an envelope in all three movies?
Chosen answer: Gandalf tells Frodo to "Keep it secret. Keep is safe," when he puts the ring in the envelope. They want it packed away, out of sight and out of mind. When Frodo starts on his journey though, it's probably too risky to keep the ring anywhere but on his person. Otherwise it could get lost or stolen.
Question: I know this might seem kind of silly, but I'm just curious - if the Ring makes its wearer invisible, why didn't it make Sauron invisible?
Answer: Because Sauron has power over the ring, not vice versa. The ring has many more powers than invisibility. That is just the only one that most people can take advantage of. It is a way of showing how the ring is so powerful that it will obscure all those who can not control it. In the book, it didn't make Tom Bombadil invisible because his magic is older than the ring itself.
Question: Did Aragorn grow up with the elves? If so why? I seem to recall a deleted scene showing him talking about his mother and her being buried in Rivendale.
Answer: Aragorn was indeed brought up at Rivendell. His father, Arathorn, was slain by orcs when Aragorn was only two years old, so his mother, Gilraen, brought him to Rivendell and placed him under Elrond's protection in order to keep him safe until he came of age. Gilraen died in 3007, just over a decade before the War of the Ring, and was buried in Rivendell - her grave is seen in the Extended Edition of the film.
Question: On maps for middle earth, what is beyond the right edge of the paper? Is it land, and if so, why aren't the places mentioned? If it's water, then where does it go?
Answer: Middle-Earth extends into the east for a considerable distance. The Easterlings live there, often referred to as Men of Darkness, who fought for both Dark Lords in their times. As such, most people chose not to go there, so it's rarely discussed in the chronicles of the Western lands. Even the well-travelled Gandalf never entered those lands, although Saruman did, along with two of the other wizards (who ultimately remained there). Aragorn visited briefly, and Sauron used the lands as a refuge for some centuries. The elves originated in the East, and it's likely that some still live there, as do four of the seven dwarven tribes.
Question: When the fellowship enters the Mines of Moria, they see all of the dead Dwarfs on the ground, and Legolas says "Goblins", and draws an arrow. What are Goblins, and why are they never shown in the movie?
Chosen answer: Actually they are shown in the movie. Goblins is simply a term used for the smaller breeds of Orc that tend to inhabit the subterranean places like Moria. They tend to be somewhat more intelligent and cunning than their larger siblings, to compensate for their lesser strength - a trait that Saruman and Sauron took advantage of when creating their warrior Orc breeds, the ones referred to as Uruk-Hai. Despite their physical and intellectual differences, all three, Orcs, Uruk-Hai and Goblins, are the same species.
Question: So just how far is it from Hobbiton to Mt. Doom? And even though they didn't exist then, if possible to tell, how long would it take say, a modern day aircraft to fly from Hobbiton to Mt. Doom?
Chosen answer: As the crow flies, it's approximately one thousand miles. This would be roughly a five hour flight in a Cessna light aircraft - a Boeing 747 at standard cruising speed would cover it in about an hour and a half.
Question: When the fellowship meets Haldir in the woods of Lothlorien, the scenes are radically different between the standard and extended editions of the movie. In the standard version, Gimli says "These woods are perilous, we must go back", and Haldir says "you cannot go back, come, she is waiting". On the extended edition, Aragorn has to practically argue and plead with Haldir to let them go forward. Why such a difference? I understand that this is a "extended" scene on the extended version of the movie, but the fact that Haldir makes them go forward on the first DVD, and Haldir saying they can't go forward on the extended version seems to contradict one another.
Chosen answer: The Elves of Lothlorien are not happy that the Ring has been brought to their land - their initial reaction is not to allow them to pass, just to send them packing. Ultimately, they relent and decide to help, allowing them into the depths of the realm, and the order is given to bring the Fellowship before Galadriel and Celeborn. This was cut from the theatrical release for time reasons, so we get Haldir insisting that they follow him immediately. In the extended cut, we see much more of the elven reluctance to let them pass and the effect that it has on the Fellowship - the scene where Aragorn has to argue their case to Haldir, while Frodo sees the other members of the group looking at him in what he feels is an almost accusatory fashion, as they know that it's the Ring that he carries that is causing the problems - enhancing Frodo's increasing feeling of isolation. Eventually, the order is given, and Haldir does indeed do an about-face, as he switches from telling them that they cannot pass to ordering the Fellowship to go with him.
Question: I read that the character of Arwen is different in the film adaptation than from the books (including "Fellowship of the Ring"). In what ways? Second, did director/screenwriter Peter Jackson gave a reason why he expanded Arwen's presence in the film adaptation? Was it done for marketing purposes as some fans had claimed?
Chosen answer: Well, Arwen in the books really doesn't do a great deal - she's an extremely minor character. The first reason for increasing her role was simply to remove some of the myriad other characters from the book - for example, the elf Glorfindel, who, in the book, is the one who brings Frodo to Rivendell, then never appears again. Considering the sheer number of characters in the tale, it makes a certain sense to combine them occasionally. The second reason, and why they chose to use Arwen at this point, is that it fleshes out her character a bit, giving us a glimpse of her strength and power and allowing us to get a better glimpse at her relationship with Aragorn, making it clearer why he would love her. It has also given the tale another strong female character, which, yes, isn't bad for marketing purposes, but that consideration wasn't the primary reason for doing so.
Question: In the first battle (The Last Alliance) just before Sauron is destroyed, you see a close up of some solders, Men and Elves. One of them looks like Legolas, is that him in the battle?
Answer: Nope. Had Legolas been present, they would undoubtedly have given his character greater prominence than just one closeup. Tolkien never gave Legolas a specific date of birth, but the implication is that he was not born at the time. Peter Jackson has also mentioned an assumed age for Legolas that backs this up.
Question: During the film's opening, when we see Rings of Power being given to the Nine, they all have characteristics that suggest that they were all leaders in the race of Men. This is continued later in Bree when Aragorn states that they were 'great kings of men'. Can someone explain what makes the Easterling, Khamul, a 'great king of men'?
Answer: Easterlings are men, and Khamul was presumably one of their kings. Simple.
Question: How does Gollum get into Moria after the gates were destroyed? If there is another way in, why didn't the Fellowship use that after Gandalf couldn't open the doors?
Answer: Gollum was already in Moria, hiding out after escaping from elven captivity. Note that Gandalf tells the Fellowship that Moria will take four days to pass through, then, later, tells Frodo that Gollum's been following them for three days. At that point, they're very close to the exit, so Gollum must have picked up their trail after they entered Moria - ergo, he was already there.
Question: I read an interview with Peter Jackson that basically showed him this site and he commented on it. One of the mistakes was the notorious car question and Jackson said "We saw it but we didn't think anyone else could, so we left it in". However, a trivia just posted has stated that in the commentary, he denies knowledge. Did anyone else see that article and/or hear any other reports. I'd hate to think I was losing my mind....
Chosen answer: The article is at http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3540652/. You're not losing your mind.
Question: Does anyone know the name of the ruins that the Fellowship pass on their journey? (a friend told me it was Weathertop revisited - I know that's not it.)
Answer: You're right, it's not Weathertop - looks totally different and completely the wrong direction. The Fellowship are heading south at this point, parallel to the Misty Mountains, so they're most probably in the land of Eregion, which, as a trivia point, is where all the Rings (other than the One Ring) were forged. Eregion and its largely Elven population were destroyed by Sauron during the Second Age, thousands of years prior to the War of the Ring - no placenames from that era are known, and the region is still largely uninhabited. The ruins that they pass are most likely the remains of some sort of outpost - it looks too small to be an actual settlement.
Question: Can anybody tell me where I can download the trailer found on this page: http://www.theonering.net/movie/preview/teaser01.html (This page is the frame by frame analysis of the trailer). I usually end up in a bad link.
Answer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/newline/lord_of_the_rings/.
Question: When Strider meets up with the Hobbits at Bree, how does he know that they are looking for Gandalf? Or that Gandalf's not coming? Or about the ring and the Nazgul?
Answer: Because Gandalf told him about them. He doesn't know for certain that Gandalf is not coming - his words are "You can no longer wait for the Wizard, Frodo. They are coming." In other words, he knows that Frodo is in danger because he carries the Ring, and so they cannot wait for Gandalf to show. As for his knowledge of the Ring, his eyesight is keen and quick enough to see what it was that Frodo inadvertently threw up in the air when he fell to the floor in the common room, and the results when it slipped onto Frodo's finger. He would have guessed the rest.
Question: Some people have said that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote the "Rings" novels to make a point regarding 20th century society. What is it?
Chosen answer: The people who have said such a thing are incorrect. Tolkien stated that the work's inspiration was primarily linguistic in nature, and strongly disagreed with the meanings that other people saw in the books - the Ring as allegory for the nuclear bomb, et cetera. Tolkien's exact words, from a foreword to one of the editions of the books: "As for any inner meaning of 'message', it has in the intention of the author none. It is neither allegorical nor topical....I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author."
Answer: If it's the one I think you mean, it's called "Gothic Power" by Christopher Field. I found it quite easily online.
Tailkinker ★