The Inept Guard

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Has it occured to any that the same drunken guard from The Hobbit in the Woodland Realm was probably the same guy who let Gollum climb that tree? I mean, the guards sitting around the tree were probably sleeping off a few vintage Dorwinion casks, when BAM! A couple of orcs killed them. Then of course you'd have Legolas show up and see them all dead and say: "Aye! Aye! I'm in for it now!" Seriously though, how inept were these guards that they let 13 dwarves, and invisible hobbit, and a gangrel little Smeagol escape... and those are just the ones we know of?

[Kuruharan]

Well, I suppose it is possible that it was the same guard. The Elves seemed to have rather lax internal security. They trusted in their "magic" gates.

As I recall, the Elves let Gollum climb the tree because they were trying to be nice to him. When he would not come down they did not go up to get him. The guards were then killed by an attack of orcs. If there is any blaming to be done it should be of the watchers and scouts who did not see this enemy force. Not the guards that did not know about the danger.

[HCIsland]

Then of course you'd have Legolas show up and see them all dead and say: "Aye! Aye! I'm in for it now!"

http://votedoff.tv/board/images/icons/custom/rofl.gif

Thanks for that visual.

H.C.

[Pukel-Man]

The elves may be less intellectually gifted than we thought if they put their trust in the same "guard" more than once.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

But I thought that Baggins chap was just very clever..... smilies/biggrin.gif

Seriously though, the above post is right. You can't blame the guards for the Gollum incident. Any idea how large a force of Orcs it was that attacked?

[Legolas]

Yeah! Letting an invisible hobbit escape - how silly is that?! Must've been some stupid elves in Mirkwood.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

If nobody has noticed, I was being rather sarcastic in reference to the invisible hobbit. My post was meant to bring up the question of how infallible the Mirkwood Elves thought that their security was. It seems a bit un-Elvish that they would leave prisoners unattended (in The Hobbit) or that the scouts would not notice an army of orcs rampaging their forest (LOTR). I was stunned to think that this awsome race could make such mistakes as to allow for the escape of so many prisoners. And if nobody minds my saying so, being drunk is not an excuse.

[Tar-Palantir]

Speaking to The Hobbit, they escaped by the skin of their teeth, had to wait quite a long time to do so (find a plan), and nearly drowned as a result. It's not like they just walked out the front gate. Small windows of opportunity (in this case being drunk/unattentive) can bring about great deeds.

While speaking of the infallibility of 'awesome' races, don't you remember a little guy named Melkor and a beast named Ungoliant? They snuck in and out. Both the escapes of Melkor and the Dwarves happened during a time of revelry.

tp

[ April 10, 2003: Message edited by: Tar-Palantir ]

[mark12_30]

Has it occured to any that the same drunken guard from The Hobbit in the Woodland Realm was probably the same guy who let Gollum climb that tree? I mean, the guards sitting around the tree were probably sleeping off a few vintage Dorwinion casks, when BAM! A couple of orcs killed them. Then of course you'd have Legolas show up and see them all dead and say: "Aye! Aye! I'm in for it now!"
I think he would have said: "Ai, Ai!" Them elves do spell funny.

[Morsul the Dark]

It may have been the same guard however gollum is very sneaky not to mention the fact the original guards was probably reprenmanded the guard the first time 'round (maybe legolas was adminstering the punishment thus explaining his absence for the the battle of five armies