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Jackson adds swamps to Mordor landscape - Lord of the Rings news - J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

August 01, 2000 at 03:03:26

'I've been everywhere, man!' Sean Astin tells E! Online's John Forde in the August 1 interview for Force of Hobbit.

"We were in the Shire in January, we've been inside the crack of Mount Doom, to the path of Kathhardrath, Lothlórien, the swamps of Mordor...I can't imagine we have anything left to shoot! [Laughs.] We've got the Shelob stuff coming up--and the internal scenes at Hobbiton, though."

The swamps of Mordor. Tolkien fandom will reel once again. Mordor is widely regarded by many Tolkien experts to be based on the empty battlefields of J.R.R. Tolkien's World War I experience in northern France. One must wonder where the swamps fit in.

Kathhardrath is another curious item Astin mentions in passing. The name is not canonical (it doesn't appear in any published Tolkien work). It could be a mis-spelling by Forde, or something entirely made up (but it bears no resemblance to Tolkien's Elven tongues).

Encouraging news for Tolkien monster fans is Astin's remark about Shelob coming up, reiterating a previous report that the giant spider will indeed be included in one of the movies.

No real bombshells have appeared in this month's report, but as always it's well worth reading.

Sean Astin plays Sam Gamgee in Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings".