All Things Middle Earth

[GoktimusPrime]

All Hobbit/LotR (etc.) related discussions can be posted here.

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Best in flight safety video -- ever!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzft3...eature=g-all-u

[Kazza]

I have aquired a replica narsil sword thanks to Towers_Spy and also sat down and did a marathon with 2 friends of the directors cut version of LOTR trilogy... ~12 hrs on a sofa, felt so sore afterwards.

[5FDP]

Can't wait until the Hobbit is released! My wife and I are huge fans of the LOTR trilogy and went to see them every Boxing Day when they were released. For three years it became a tradition. We'll continue that tradition with the Hobbit.

[Decepticon]

I only like that Gollum thing. The rest of it sends me to sleep.

[Sam]

We are also looking forward to the Hobbit, should be good!

[GoktimusPrime]

I saw some Hobbit toys today (well, I first saw them last week - I think they look a lot worse than Toy Biz's LOTR toys) and I noticed that Legolas is in it. It's been nearly 5 years since I last read The Hobbit, but I don't recall Legolas being in it. (o_O) Have I missed something, or is Peter Jackson just sticking him into his version of The Hobbit? I'm not necessarily objecting per se (depends on what Legolas does and how he affects the story I suppose), but I just want to clear this up... did Legolas appear in the original book of The Hobbit?

I know it should come as no surprise that Jackson would do something like this... after all he omitted and included a few characters in Lord of the Rings that deviated from the books, such as replacing Glorfindel with Arwen and having that cadre of Elves march to reinforce the Rohirrim at Helm's Deep in Two Towers (which strategically makes no sense -- if the Elves, unlike in the book, decided to honour the old Alliance, then wouldn't it be more logical to reinforce Gondor instead of Rohan?), the omission of Tom Bombadil (which I'm glad for... I never liked him), the omission of the entire Scouring of the Shire (which was a shame, I was really looking forward to that) etc etc.

So yeah, it'll be interesting to see what Jackson changes. I would assume that he'll be omitting a lot less with the Hobbit, since he's taking a single book and expanding into three movies. That should give him a lot more "breathing space" than when he made LOTR and tried to compact complex books into three films. The Hobbit isn't quite as complicated as the Lord of the Rings (it's written at a younger age group than LOTR - I first read The Hobbit in primary school, whereas LOTR is better suited for teenagers).