I was not particularly interested in The Further Exploitation of Tolkien's Creation, to be honest, but this has the potential to be quite good indeed... if the original material is treated with respect. Fingers crossed.

Longish first look article with lots of preview pics of Rings of Power at Vanity Fair

Note VF is a pay site, but you can read x number of articles for free, so if you haven't reached the limit, you can read without paying.

Some of the preview images...








-M

There was a Guardian article on the tv show a few days ago, and apparently it's based on the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings, not on the Silmarillion or any of the posthumous releases. And it seems the show will be telling new stories derived from that material, not necessarily adapting Tolkien's outlines or anything like that. That as the impression I was left with, at least.

I re-read the chapter "The Ring Goes South" from The Lord of the Rings Book II last night and I wanted to get your thoughts on the vicious snow storm that prevents the fellowship from reaching Dimrill Dale across the Redhill Pass on the mountain Caradhras. Tolkien is never explicit on the precise cause of this snowstorm, but the fellowship discuss it being a) just a natural storm, b) the work of Sauron, c) the mountain itself trying to kill them.

The first potential cause obviously needs little discussion – it's just bad luck. As for it being the work of Sauron, Boromir tells his companions that Sauron can affect the weather, and Gandalf seems to recognise the possibility that it might be the Dark Lord at work by saying, "his arm has grown long." If the storm was indeed caused by Sauron, I wonder if it was a deliberate attempt to drive the fellowship into Mines of Moria and the dangers lurking there – including the Balrog, or was it an attempt to kill them all right there on the mountain?

The third possibility is, to my mind, the most intriguing. The mountain was known as "Caradhras the cruel" and clearly Gandalf entertains the idea of the Mountain itself being sentient. After all, much nature in the Third Age was still "alive"...trees, foxes, and maybe even the mountain itself? The fact that there is a huge snow drift blocking the heroes passage down the mountain as well as the storm blocking their way up certainly seems to suggest that the storm is the mountain's doing (although it could just as easily be attributed to Sauron, I suppose). But if it is Caradhras's doing, to what end? Is the mountain evil or is it just an ancient angry force like Old Man Willow?

Myself, I like not knowing the real answer. Clearly, Tolkien deliberately left the storm's cause ambiguous because it heightens the level of menace and threat if the reader is as clueless as the players. But I just wondered what you all put the storm down to in your own minds?

To me it is Tolkien completely encapsulating the nature of myth (in an especially Campbellian way though)-this event happens and men struggle to ascribe meaning to it and its origins and purpose by telling stories (or conjecturing) about it, but none of the answers needs to be the right one. It happened. They whys and wherefores are only import to mankind as it is relevant to their place in the universe, but the event occurs regardless of man, not because of it. It is their ego that ascribes meaning to their presence in the sphere of an event.

A storm happens.

Is it just a storm?

No cries man, it happened because WE are here.

Why?

It's the evil overlord trying to stop US, so the storm happened because of us.

or

WE have angered the mountains by our presence, so the storm happened because of us.


Of course humorously, I just watched a youtube video on the craft of DMing that used this passage as an example of DM railroading-The DM had an adventure planned someplace (i.e. in the Mines of Moria). The party chose to avoid it (to go over the mountains), so the DM threw something (i.e. the storm) at them to prevent them from taking that path and going the way he wanted them to where he had the adventure planned.

I can sort of see Tolkien doing something similar. It makes more sense for them to avoid the Mines and take the mountain passes, who in their right mind would take the more dangerous path? But Tolkien wanted them to go through Moria and introduce that part of the lore he had constructed, so the attempt through the mountains was there to show why they would take, what seemed the more dangerous way initially, after all. The storm happened because it needed to happen for the narrative's sake. The justification doesn't really matter to the story or to anyone but the characters who struggle to find the meaning to them and their narrative in the storm.

-M

I haven't read the Tales of Years but I remember having similar feelings wherever I came across this info - must have been either the Silmarillion or the appendices to the original trilogy. I took it as an indication of how powerful the kings of Numenor were at their height as compared with the time of the action in LotR but it still seemed strange that Sauron would allow himself to be taken prisoner.