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Old 05-24-2002, 08:20 PM   #3
Nar
Wight
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 228
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Sting

Child, I think your examples # 3, 4 and 5-- the hints of providence-- are particularly good. I don't have those volumes of HoME, so I can't tell if they were changed, but I do remember that the original version of the final action at Mt. Doom, the King of the Nazgul reaches them, and is advancing-- and Gollum breaks Frodo's finger to get the ring rather than biting it off. Off the top of my head: The broken finger becomes the lost finger, bitten off, this intensifies the theme of absolute loss and sacrifice (I could talk about the communion host here, 'take, eat, this is my body... but I really, really don't think that's applicable-- just my unruly imagination). The lost finger also picks up Beren's story, and others in the Sil.

Cutting that last-second action scene where the Nazgul King was supposed to menace them all at the cracks of Doom leaves Gollum's lucky misstep in elegant isolation: with all its irony of fate and charity of providence. Whether or not losing the Nazgul was intended to heighten the spiritual themes, it was certainly an insightful artistic decision.
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