Tolkien said that Gimli and Legolas' friendship developed so much that Gimli accompanied Legolas to Valinor. What do you think they did together after the Ring was destroyed and the Fellowship disbanded? Do you think that they might have had adventures worth a story that Tolkien had no time to write? I think we are almost finished with the Legolas being unimportant topic, so how about we discuss Gimli and Legolas' friendship?
It did seem that they traveled quite abit together. Legoals when with Gimli to explore the wonderful caves under Helm's Deep and Gimli went with Legolas to visit Fangorn Forest. It is said that Legolas was able to write some volumes of books on Dwarven lore that no one on Middle Earth had any knowledge of before because the Dwarves had never shared it before.
-- Edited by Anorlas on Wednesday 23rd of September 2009 08:41:16 PM
It did seem that they traveled quite abit together. Legoals when with Gimli to explore the wonderful caves under Helm's Deep and Gimli went with Legolas to visit Fangorn Forest. It is said that Legolas was able to write some volumes of books on Dwarven lore that no one on Middle Earth had no knowledge of before because the Dwarves had never shared it before.
I knew the first two bits, but the last part of your post I did not know.
Anorlas wrote:It is said that Legolas was able to write some volumes of books on Dwarven lore that no one on Middle Earth had any knowledge of before because the Dwarves had never shared it before.
I can't say I knew this part, Anorlas! May I ask the source?
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Anorlas wrote:It is said that Legolas was able to write some volumes of books on Dwarven lore that no one on Middle Earth had any knowledge of before because the Dwarves had never shared it before.
I can't say I knew this part, Anorlas! May I ask the source?
That's what I was thinking.
And Filli, I agree they did push the boundaries and got a way with it, their friendship was an awesome one.
It is said that Legolas was able to write some volumes of books on Dwarven lore that no one on Middle Earth had any knowledge of before because the Dwarves had never shared it before.
I was wondering myself and I'm looking for the reference. I thought it was in the Appendix. If I can't find it there I'll be going through Tolkien's Letters next. I promise I did not simply pull this out of the air. I remember reading it.
I never really understood the fascination that Bloom stirred up as Legolas. I always was fond of the character but it seems his popularity has sky rocketed. My favorite Legolas moment was when he told Gandalf that he was off to catch the sun.
I never really understood the fascination that Bloom stirred up as Legolas. I always was fond of the character but it seems his popularity has sky rocketed. My favorite Legolas moment was when he told Gandalf that he was off to catch the sun.
It's because he's played by Orlando Bloom. Many people (especially women) adore him and he's a huge actor right now.
I don't really "get" him though. I usually find Bloom to be dreadfully boring in most of his roles, and this one is not exempt. He does okay I guess, and I suppose he looks the part, but Legolas is probably the one role in the LOTR movies that I feel could have been cast better.
It's not really his role in the movie that bothers me...I even enjoyed the more ridiculous stuff like Legolas riding a shield down a flight of stairs and shooting arrows all the way, but it wasn't enough for me to make Legolas "pop" in the movies. He was overshadowed by his betters (Gandalf, Aragorn, many others) because Bloom is rather uninspiring as an actor. I think the writers/director felt they HAD to give him action sequences because otherwise there would just be nothing there. Unfortunately someone who hasn't read the books and doesn't know much about Legolas might latch onto him as a favorite character based on what he does in the movie.
My take on it anyway.
-- Edited by The Secret Fire on Monday 28th of September 2009 11:28:27 PM
I think anyone who had won the role as "Legolas" wouldn't have faired any better. An actor follows a script, not the other way around. Bloom was fairly new to the movie screen. Most of the actors I thought were rather in the catagory of "eye candy". Not a real clunker among em.
I'm mostly happy with the casting, but I understand that peoples mileage may vary depending on their expectations. I had only read the books a couple of years before the movie came out, so I didn't have a lot of time to cement a certain image of the characters in my mind.
I'm a huge, huge fan of Ian McKellan's portrayal of Gandalf. I really feel no one ever could have played him better. Sean Astin did an amazing job with Sam, imho, and I don't think anyone could classify him as "eye candy" (unless you have very unusual tastes). I also thought Viggo Mortenson was very good as Aragorn.
Other characters I really liked: Theoden, Eowyn, Wormtongue, Bilbo, Denethor.
There were a lot of characters that were only so-so in my eyes, but mostly minor ones. I hated Cate Blanchett as Galadriel. She's just not "right" to me. She's not how I perceive Galadriel. Somewhat lukewarm on Frodo, although he has his moments. Tried my best to like Arwen and I just couldn't do it. Haldir and his expanded role annoyed me immensely.
I meant it in a "good" way, for the most part. I am always miffed when script writers take away Glorfindel's glory and have someone else riding Hasalof. Arwen was not my favorite part either. But as for all the females getting vapory over the blond Elves prancing around....I just put that down as "Elf envy".
I remember that in the 70s cartoon version of LOTR, he was replaced by Legolas, and now Arwen. Why do people find Glorfindel to be so forgettable? It's true, he is a minor character, but he is also a very powerful elf lord. That's enough for me. It's not like they sent out some no-name elf that isn't mentioned anywhere else.
Whoops sorry, Asfaloth is Glorfindel's horse, oh well. Any way. He may have not been mentioned much in the Lord of the Ring's but Tolkien made much of him. Being the one Elf we know of to have ever come back "from the dead" as it were. Tolkien goes to great lengths to describe him in Rivendell. He is somewhat of Elrond's personal bodyquard. Short shifted in my opinion.
'I remember that in the 70s cartoon version of LOTR, he was replaced by Legolas, and now Arwen. Why do people find Glorfindel to be so forgettable? It's true, he is a minor character, but he is also a very powerful elf lord. That's enough for me. It's not like they sent out some no-name elf that isn't mentioned anywhere else.'
As far as I know, the Jackson Team's reasoning was basically that there were lots of characters in the book, and so it was decided to not introduce another character that is really not important to the rest of the story (Glorfindel is important in other ways, yes).
I can see this as an arguable film concern at least (as compared to a book), but yet Legolas is important to the rest of the story, and I could not agree with the idea that film, because it is film, demanded Arwen specifically fill the role here.
Also, elsewhere Jackson took a minor character Haldir, and expanded his role.
Add in the specific way Jackson chose to introduce Arwen -- the sneaky sword under Aragorn's neck for example, instead of the (to my mind) perfectly filmable and better introduction of the approaching rider from the books -- and add Jackson's handling of Frodo 'Baggage' here, and I must once again disagree with the film choices.
By the way, since we are on the films again, I recently ran across a statement from the Jackson Team from a TV special aired on Bravo (to promote the films):
'We've gone from thinking that the books were not going to work successfully as a film without some significant changes, to believing that they work better the more and more of Tolkien's material actually you get in there. A lot of the dialog in the films is lifted directly from the books'
Hmmm. It seems not all agree with their idea of 'more and more'
In comparison to many adaptations of the books, such as games and the earlier LOTR 'cartoon's and what have you, the films are particularly well done, in my opinion. It would be a hard task to get the flavour of the book just right, while making it a film that appeals to modern tastes. When you think of what could have been, the films could have been oh so much worse than they could have been better.
The best actors of their roles I would say are Gandalf, Boromir, Sam and Theoden. Very good, all of them.
It is said that Legolas was able to write some volumes of books on Dwarven lore that no one on Middle Earth had any knowledge of before because the Dwarves had never shared it before.
I was wondering myself and I'm looking for the reference. I thought it was in the Appendix. If I can't find it there I'll be going through Tolkien's Letters next. I promise I did not simply pull this out of the air. I remember reading it.
Maybe this? from The Peoples of Middle-earth, the last volume of The History of Middle-Earth series, section called 'Last Writings' (which includes some text on Dwarvish myths of reincarnation), note 21:
'That the Elves came to know so much (though only at a time when the vigour of both their races was declining) is thought to be due to the strange and unique friendship which arose between Gimli and Legolas. Indeed most of the references to Dwarvish history in Elvish records are marked with 'so said Legolas'.
Anorlas wrote:Whoops sorry, Asfaloth is Glorfindel's horse, oh well. Any way. He may have not been mentioned much in the Lord of the Ring's but Tolkien made much of him. Being the one Elf we know of to have ever come back "from the dead" as it were. Tolkien goes to great lengths to describe him in Rivendell. He is somewhat of Elrond's personal bodyquard. Short shifted in my opinion.
You forgot Finrod, who 'walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar'. And Luthien who was sent back from the Halls of Mandos as a mortal.
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In the movie "Fellowship of the Ring" i found it utterly ridiculous that Arwen rode out to meet Aragorn and the Hobbits.
Elrond would NEVER,NEVER, NEVER let his DAUGHTER ride out against the Nazgul after what happened to his wife Celebrian! Im sure it was all he could handle letting his sons go out and fight.
Although i guess, IF something happened to them, they would merely pass on and "re-incarnate" into the Blessed Realm and finally be safe from the evils of Middle-Earth. I would love to get Elronds thoughts on that... LOL
I think that was just another reason to bring up the Aragorn-Arwen romance, azaghal. It doesn't make alot of sense, it would have been much better to use that opportunity to show us a real mighty High Elven warrior (which we don't see in the rest of the films). It seems when making films they have a checklist of things that need to be in there, and it seems romance is high on the list, even at the expense of the source material. I'll hold judgement on the ridiculous sounding dwarf-elf fling supposedly coming in The Hobbit...
I read that PJ put that part in (and a couple others) because he wanted to include Arwen in the movie more. Maybe it was the only way that he could get Liv Tyler to play the role. Or justify her salary.
