Friday, July 06, 2007

Positively "hasty"

"But now his slow wrath is brimming over and the forest is filled with it. The coming of the hobbits and the tidings they have brought have spilled it.: it will soon be running like a flood; but its tide is turned against Saruman and the axes of Isengard. A thing is about to happen which has not happened since the Elder Days: the Ents are going to wake up and find that they are strong. -- "The White Rider", The Two Towers
Well, this topic has certainly gotten this entfamily in an uproar. Don't know how "strong" we are but enraged, absolutely.

"When Treebeard had got a few arrows in him, he began to warm up, to get positively "hasty", as he would say." -- "Flotsam and Jetsam", The Two Towers

I tend to think of Entling no. 2 as our resident Lord of the Rings expert but she felt compelled to weigh in on the DiR movie, in particular:

First:
And what of Will's family? His being the seventh son of a seventh son (a fact not readily apparent since the first born died young) is also a very important point. Just how will they make that work if Will has a twin, as one picture suggested?

Plus:
And they've changed Will's father from a jeweler to a physics professor! His being a jeweler was actually very important to the plot!

Plus: (Mother's note: this is from the kid who chided me for skipping the songs and poems in LOTR the first time I read it)
Will they have the poems?

When the Dark comes rising, six shall turn it back;
Three from the circle, three from the track;
Wood, bronze, iron; water, fire, stone;
Five will return, and one go alone.
When the Dark comes rising, six shall turn it back;
Three from the circle, three from the track;
Wood, bronze, iron; water, fire, stone;
Five will return, and one go alone.

Iron for the birthday, bronze carried long;
Wood from the burning, stone out of song;
Fire in the candle-ring, water from the thaw;
Six Signs the circle, and the grail gone before.

Fire on the mountain shall find the harp of gold
Played to wake the Sleepers, oldest of the old;
Power from the green witch, lost beneath the sea;
All shall find the light at last, silver on the tree.


Finally:
It's as if they finally did The Hobbit and Bilbo was no longer a hobbit, but was a plucky young mortal human starting out on a quest with his faithful dog Spot and the wise, cantankerous grounds keeper from his father's estate.

Oh, and the quest is to just get from point A to point B. There's no dragon treasure, really.

And while Gandalf does make an appearance, Radagast is far more important and slightly evil.

--- --- --- --- ---

Camille is now trying to remember who the heck is Radagast?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Radagast the Brown was another wizard. I remember him from LOTR, but according to handy dandy Wikipedia, he was "mentioned" in The Hobbit.

Bonus points to Entling 2 for knowledge of such minutiae.

Michele said...

Radagast the Brown was the nature-loving wizard who sent Gandalf to Saruman who then trapped him on the top of Orthanc. But Radagast was just a messenger, he had no involvement with Saruman's fiendish plot, so he complied with Gandalf's request to have news sent to him of what Sauron was up to, which enabled Gandalf to escape from Orthanc when the eagle arrived...

I'm not going anywhere near the DiR movie - I've heard more than enough about it to know it'll make me howl with outrage to watch it...