I was watching "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" the other day, and it smote me how much those three movies have become a sort of visual summaries of the real story for me - I guess partly because I can fill in the gaps and partly how much more apparent those gaps have become to me over time. I have known this story since I was 14 and I really don't know how many times I've read it - and I have to say, the Danish translation is so good that sometimes I don't know if I remember a line in Danish or English. I don't even remember when I acquired the English version, and the English version with our Queen's illustrations is still on my wish list.
Oh, and please do not get me started on "The Hobbit" trilogy (but here I go): The first one was amazing, the second one quite full of gaps (even given the return of Legolas, the allover awesomeness that was Lee Pace as Thranduil, and Benedict Cumberbatch's fantastic Smaug), and the third one was abominable (even given Billy Connolly's memorable turn as Dain, however inappropriately comical). I had been soooo much looking forward to Peter Jackson's take on the whole White Council thing, but why why why was Gandalf's facial expressions in Rivendell (in "An Unexpected Journey") so irreverent to Saruman, because he sure wasn't,when he went to Orthanc in "The Fellowship Of The Ring", so why would he look like that nearly a century before we all discovered Saruman was a traitor?
Also, there are a couple of glaring misconceptions that I just could not ignore (but this was before I knew of how Mr. Jackson had not had enough time as could have been wished for during the whole filming process, as opposed to that of "Lord of the Rings").
Firstly - athelas means 'kingsfoil' and came with the Kings from Westernesse (ie. Númenor, the forebears of the Kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor, and hence Aragorn), and is therefore a Man thing and emphatically NOT an Elvish thing.
Secondly - The Earth Diggers....those awkward worm thingies. Oh, but this is not Frank Herbert, and this is not Dune....
Thirdly - the glass holding the light of the star Ëarendil (an ancestor of both Arwen and Aragorn) given to Frodo by Galadriel in "Fellowship of the Ring" was made especially for him and so did not exist during the time of "The Hobbit".
Fourthly - Never ever ever in a million years would Galadriel have brought her Ring of Power (visibly!) within striking distance of Dol Guldur, and nowhere is it said that the White Council went themselves against Dol Guldur, it is only said that they sent forces against it, and also that Sauron gave way fairly easily, because the Nazgûl had by then already made Barad Dûr ready for him. It is however specifically said time and again that Sauron never had any and always sought knowledge of the Three Elven Rings (of which Galadriel had one, Elrond had another, and Gandalf eventually had the third, given to him by Círdan the Shipwright in the Grey Havens who was an Elf of great age).
