This is way OT, and Glorantha is one of the few fantasy worlds that *doesn't* have Tolkein as a direct inspiration, but he is, in some ways, ancestral to the whole roleplaying enterprise (and he would hate the thought I'm sure :)).
So some wayward thoughts on LOTR:FOTR
>
> > The film leaves out nearly all these incidental characters. You
> can see
> > why it has to, but it means the story loses a lot of its power.
To be honest, I'm very ambivalent about the book, especially the first 150 or so pages. (The Silmarillion I worship, but that's personal taste for you). JRR can't seem to decide if he's writing a children's book or not until the party reach The Prancing Pony. Tom Bombadil, a wilderness spirit with mown grass and trimmed hedges? (of course once you've read *Bawd of the Rings*, you can't hear his' hey dillydilly wham' without cracking up). The barrowrights - most unscary and passive fantasy scene since Zath.
I've seen the movie three times now with my wife, and each time we noticed more. By the 3rd viewing she was noticing things like how the hobbit's regional accents (she's English) differed according to where they came from in the Shire. (Merry doesn't have the Gloucstershire), and even I noticed how Strider's accent and bearig became more regal as he slid into his wyrd. So much richness - and a deep respect for Jackson's skill as a storyteller.
I'm rereading LOTR right now (along with most of the Western world) and still am occassionally perplexed. One of the key, stirring, history shaking elements in the story - the Arwen/Aragorn romance, gets delegated to an appendix! And evil is seldom explained: there's an assumed manicheism that occasionally disturbs me, especially when it comes down to accents and speech. But the power and vision *are* drawing me in, more and more as I read.
Don't mean to deride the master or question the book's greatness, but it still puzzles and provokes me.
Wo, gotta go! Off to the piccies *again*. But tonight we're going 'Into Hell'
(and yes, now I understand why Strider is 10th level, and why they needed levels, but surely Urok Hai rate more than 4 Ep each? :)) John
Thunderbreath Gobbleguts - you know, you're soaking in it!
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