Lord of the Rings

For the purposes of this post, let's pretend it is 1:00, instead of 11:00. Okay? Put yourself in that mindset.

For the past 24 hours, I have been immersed in 3 things: a Lord of the Rings movie marathon, pizza, and sleeping. We made it through Fellowship and Towers yesterday, and are now watching the Battle of Pelennor Fields. They're about to bring out Grond, the battering ram.

There is only one book I believe has a better movie, and this is it. I watch these movies around once every six months, often in July on my way up to NY to visit my grandparents. Watching them this time around is making me want to reread the books, since I haven't done that since 7th grade, and now that I'm older I might appreciate them more. I also want to give the Simarillion another go, as I've started it twice and failed to complete it both times.

Since we're so familiar with the movies, we tend to also make fun of them while we watch (yes, we love them dearly, but they're fun to laugh at as well). This time through the jokes have mainly been about Pointy Hats (of Gondor) and Beer.

In Creative Writing, our teacher was talking about Frodo, and what makes him so memorable (the fact that he is a hobbit being the most prominent).

**watches more of the movie** Oh, Shelob is quite scary, isn't she?

I'm quite looking forward to the movie of The Hobbit. I love the cartoon version (I usually watch it when I'm sick), but this will hopefully be better. Peter Jackson is directing, Ian McKellan is coming back as Gandalf, and I'm not sure if much other casting has been done. There's a rumor that David Tennant might be Bilbo...that's a strange thought, isn't it? After all the emphasis on Doctor Who about how skinny he is...a fat hobbit? That would be so weird. It'd be cool, but so odd.

It is our (my sisters and mine) general consensus that Aragorn gets progressively less awesome as the movie progresses. He was best at the beginning in Bree when he was just this random cool Ranger guy, but then at the end he becomes King of Gondor and is just sort of boring.

Fun facts: The guy who plays Bilbo in Lord of the Rings also did the voice of Frodo in the 1980s radio show that my dad listened to when he was in high school.

There was a minister in the New Zealand government appointed specifically for making as much money as possible off of the filming of the movies.

A loom fell on top of Sean Astin (Sam) while they were eating lunch on the Rivendell set. The other hobbit actors spent the next several days pointing behind him and shouting "LOOM!"

Contrary to the belief that the nine Fellowship actors all have identical tattoos, John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) did not get one.

Viggo Morgenstern (Aragorn) read the book while on the airplane flying to New Zealand. It was his son that convinced him to take the job.

The cast played cops and robbers in the woods near where they were staying sometimes.

A lot of video games were played in certain hotel rooms of certain hobbit actors.

At the part where Aragorn kicks the orc helmet and then screams, he had really broken two of his toes.

The Rohan flag that comes undone was an accident.

Orlando Bloom (Legolas) was still in acting school when he was hired.

Elijah Wood (Frodo) applyed by means of going into a forest near his home, dressing up as a hobbit, and shooting some footage of himself.

Orlando Bloom originally auditioned for Faramir. (my sister says "I think he's better as Will Turner")

The orcs in the Battle of Helms Deep, in the shots when there was loads of them, were played by the entire New Zealand army.

The plants in Hobbiton were planted two years before filming actually started so as to make them look authentic.

It is rumored (but never actually admitted by Tolkein while he was alive) that Eowyn is based on the Anglo-Saxon princess Aethelflaed.


There's really no point in this post, other than sharing my random bits of trivia with you. I did write about 2,000 words of Clockwork on Monday, but not much more writing has been going on other than finishing the 50 characters.

**watches more of the movie** OH NO DENETHOR'S BURNING FARAMIR ALIVE!!!

And now I must go to watch the Rohirrim kick some orc butt. Goodbye for now, my friends.

Oh, and the image in this blog's header is from The Fellowship of the Ring, somewhere near the scene on Carhadras.