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Old 02-24-2008, 10:22 AM   #38
davem
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davem is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.davem is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
Episode 3 The Knife in the Dark

Transcript: http://www.tolkienradio.com/knifeinthedark.html

This episode ranges over a wide territory - we begin at Bree, with Merry's reappearance after being rescued by Nob, & end with Frodo's offer to take the Ring at the end of the Council of Elrond. I wondered about the 'two men' he saw stooping over Merry - I'd always assumed them to be Black Riders, but I wonder now if they might not have been Bill Ferny & companion...

Frodo's dream in the Inn I think was handled very effectively & made brilliant use of the medium by having the Black Rider's screech turn into the crowing of a cock. Once again we can see plainly the advantages & disadvantages of the medium in this episode - by this point in the story a listener to the series knows far more about the history & background or the world & characters than a viewer of the movie. We don't simply have Aragorn pointing at a hill & saying 'This is the watchtower of Amon Sul. We rest here tonight.'. We get:

Quote:
No, this path was made to serve the Watchtower of Amon Sûl, that once stood upon its top. It was burned and broken by a terrible enemy, who is now but a servant of the Enemy we face. It is told that Elendil stood there watching for the coming of Gil-galad out of the West.

Pippin: When was that?

Aragorn: Long ago, in the days of the Last Alliance between Men and Elves.
Which leads nicely into Sam singing the Lay of Gil-Galad.

Of course, there are disadvantages - we don't really know what is happening at the Ford (unless we've read the book, of course) - we know something has happened, 'cos there's a lot of background noise & Frodo shouting about falling, but we have to wait till the next scene (originally the next episode) in Rivendell for an explanation of what did happen. It was nice to have Glorfindel there, & to 'see' Frodo's active defiance of the Nazgul, rather than as in the movie where he is (as usual) depicted as helpless victim.

Again, this episode contains a new scene - between Bilbo & Frodo in the Hall of Fire. I've never been sure how well this works. Clearly its there for exposition purposes, & there's not really any other way to do it. Even when you have a Narrator you can't simply hand over great chunks of exposition to him/her, & putting in the form of a conversation often makes it easier for the listener to take in.

As to the Council, I think it was handled far better than the movie, where it seemed to consist of a bunch of people bickering for ten minutes, only to be told in no uncertain terms at the end by Elrond that they only have one option & that is to throw the Ring into the Fire - he could just have sent them a postcard. The main difference here is that, as with the book, the participants have come for counsel regarding their individual concerns & it is shown by the end of the Council that all those individual concerns are part of one much greater concern - the Ring & what to do with it. Once again we see the advantage of the medium in the amount of sheer information that is communicated to the listener.

As I've stated previously, I don't claim this series is perfect - either in itself or as an adaptation of the book. What I do think is that it captures the spirit of the book, & of Middle-earth itself.

Last edited by davem; 02-24-2008 at 02:14 PM.
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