[Kalimac]

It was too bad to see the box of earth disappear, but I think PJ was saying a year ago that the Scouring was out, so it's not really that much of a surprise. And besides, it's not like the rope is a more humble present than the earth would have been (granted, they're both EXTREMELY important and magical and so forth, but to the outward viewer they look rather humble). It's a good gift in the sense that we're going to see it reappear later on, not to mention that when Sam whips out the Elvish rope for scaling Emyn Muil/tying up Gollum, we'll know where he got it from and why Gollum would react so badly to it. <P>Sam's reaction didn't seem too out of character; he's fairly plain-spoken and I have a sense that being in Galadriel's presence makes them all feel very small and young. Sam's reaction was a childlike reaction - Merry and Pippin get these gorgeous glittering daggers (anyone want to bet that Merry's Galadriel-dagger will be the one that stabs the Witch-King?) and here he's got...well, rope. It's hard not to feel a momentary pang for the brighter bauble which the others are getting, even though the rope will prove far more useful to him in the end.<P>And I agree, it did seem a little unfair not to at least give poor old Boromir his belt. Galadriel being what she was, she probably had an idea that Boromir wasn't long for this world, but surely she could have spared the belt anyway. (Besides, wouldn't Boromir kind of start wondering afterwards? "Hey, I'm the only one who didn't get anything! Does that mean that I won't need...oh, wait.")