From Mike Ploog's FB page, he posted one of his storyboards from the Bakshi animated film...



I guess I knew he had worked in animation but I wasn't aware he was part of the Bakshi studios. He apparently worked on Wizards as well.


-M

I saw that...and I'm not really sure how I feel about it, but I guess with Christopher gone we're likely to see more of this kind of stuff in the future so we should all probably just brace ourselves. 

I think for me, when I read it as a just-turned 14-year-old, it was the whole sub-plot of Eowyn's unrequited love for Aragon. I wouldn't have articulated this to myself in these terms at the time, but it made what could have been an impressive Viking shield-maiden sort of character into a weak, emotionally needy girl.

THis has consequences: instead of Eowyn being defined by her supposedly unfeminine warrior nature, she was defined by her endless pining after the unattainable Aragorn - and her defeat of the Witch-King ends upcoming across as a cheap trick of prophecy: it's only because she's a woman, not because she's a woman-warrior, that she's able to kill the Witch-King.

One might argue that this is no different from what Shakespeare did with Macbeth and Macduff, but there is a difference, to my mind - a difference in emphasis: Macduff is a warrior and the prophecy only means that he,s able to fight Macbeth on equal terms because he is exempt from the terms of Macbeth's destiny not to be killed by man of woman born. Eowyn, OTOH, similarly exempt from the spell or whatever it is that makes the Nazgul leader invicble to man, is only able to kill him by a lucky stroke as she trembles in fear, not because she is a skilled fighter.

The Council of Elrond, OTOH, was one of my favourite bits! I welcomed the temporary relaxation of tension after all the suspense and terror of what had gone before - because when I read it as a young teenager I totally bought into the story and felt nearly as afraid and hopeless as if I had actually been there with Frodo, Sam, and the others. The Council felt like a great relief - the information about what was happening - all a great mystery up to then, IIRC - the forming of a plan, however forlorn - all this gave hope to the reader as it did to the characters. And looking back as a much older and more experienced person, I think it shows tremendous skill and storytelling instincts on the part of Tolkien.

I also found the Council of Elrond to be pretty hard to get through in the book. So many characters who just appear to say a line or two who were never mentioned before and never will be again, and so much painful exposition, at least as far as I can remember.

Tom Bombadil was interesting in the first read because it was so unexpected, but since I now know it goes nowhere and adds nothing I kind of wish he wasn't even in the book.

Dull? Nothing. Well, maybe some of the appendices.

Oh, sure, when I first read the book, I could have done without most of the chapters set in the Shire (selling and buying houses, disposing of cuttlery) and without the Bombadil episode. I don't think I much cared for the rabbit stew chapter either. But upon re-reading, I find them as essential and (in the end) as enjoyable as Achilles bitching in his tent in the Illiad. They had much verisimilitude to a story that's just not another fantasy adventure.



I would however add that the Witch-King was not downed by Eowyn alone; it is Merry, stabbing him in the leg, who gave Eowyn an opening. Being a Hobbit and not a man, Merry does not contradict the prophecy, and in accord with the general theme of the book, the high and mighty are eventually toppled by the humble (acting in concert and out of caring for each other).

See, sometimes I just read up to the end of the Bombadil part and no further not because I get bored there but because I have an intense love for that part! The mystery and adventure of the forest and the mythic nature of Bombadil and Goldberry is just so fascinating that I always find myself wanting more.

Well thanks to this trip down memory lane I can see that my thoughts are pretty much unchanged!