A hundredth re-read of the LotR

[Mister Underhill]

"Haste makes waste," we often say here, which amounts to the same.

Originally Posted by alatar

Okay, so I just want to show that I'm not crazy. Anyway, here are direct quotes from "Three is Company" that made me think that 'sniffing' was to be a big deal... [snip]

Almost as anticlimatic as this post.

I have a feeling this might be a criticism born of over-familiarity.

Try to think back to before you knew all there was to know about the Nazgûl (admittedly not much, relatively speaking, but still). The sniffing and snuffling, I think, is definitely an effective way to signal that these Riders are not human, that there's something weird (in all senses of that word) about them. Also it provides a nice bit of suspense when Frodo realizes that although he is out of sight, he is not effectively hidden from his pursuer -- it's only luck (Providence?... deus ex machina?... here we go...) that saves him.

We're a little jaded about supernatural creatures nowadays. You can't throw a stone into popular culture without hitting one. I think all that business about them not seeing the world of light as we do, but they can see through their horses' eyes and use men and other creatures as spies is pretty nifty. Put it in the context of the mid-50's and it's even less anticlimactic.