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Old 05-28-2008, 02:55 PM   #226
Mithalwen
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: watching the wonga-wonga birds circle...
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Mithalwen is lost in the dark paths of Moria.Mithalwen is lost in the dark paths of Moria.Mithalwen is lost in the dark paths of Moria.Mithalwen is lost in the dark paths of Moria.
Sorry to have neglected this. I will try to do the next one on Friday if none objects?

In the meantime, I must comment more on this one. While I have listened to the series many times it is usually as a background to either a long drive or housework but listening seriously has provided new insights into the text and a greated appreciation of the adaptation on the whole. It is something I have loved since I first heard it, oh so many years ago and it is a great joy to find that it stands up to scrutiny ( trying to reread the Chronicles of Narnia which I loved as a child was a heartbreaking mistake).

I love the way that the script doesn't feel the need to explain everything and that in the circumstances there are very few "clunks" ie characters saying things for the benefit of the listeners (proof again that using a narrator was a wise choice), the only ones that really struck me were Gimli asking about Isengard (surely he would know?) and Legolas telling Eomer that he could string a bow quicker than sight.. and this is a very minor quibble from repeated listenings. Given that this was originally scheduled to run over half a year it is amazing that there isn't a lot more recapping and captain obvious statements. Perhaps Radio 4 is one place that assumes an intelligent audience.

So we get Frodo and Sam speaking Elvish - no explanations - beyond the seeming influence of the star glass - with Sam in particular this is incredibly moving. The most ordinary of Tolkien's main characters, an ordinary working man who has picked up a little education by chance invokes Varda to watch over him in as he walks under the shadow of the horror of death. It is one of those moments that align the story to the greater mythology, which it could have been so easy to cut out, dismiss as incomprehensible but it gives that richness and complexity which makes it so much more satisfying than Hollywood's pandering to the lowest common denominator (intellectual snob? Moi?).

I too love "In Western Lands"... it has aquired a personal significance that means it usually moves me to tears. Oz Clarke's version is a fine rendition but what a performance from Bill Nighy!!!! It can't have been easy with so much of this episode being nearly a soliloquy and the range of emotion is huge. It is very different from the type of role he has more recently become famous for on film, and the singing.... well he really is Sam.

The juxtaposition of threads means that we have Denethor's failure of hope to contrast with Sam's determination to carry on.

As for the textual insights, examining this episode and cross referencing made me link, to my own satisfaction, the "seek for the sword that was broken" dream to Gandalf. Faramir the wizard's pupil had the dream first and more frequently than the less apt Boromir. Something I intend to examine more closely when I have time.
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“But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.”

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