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How seriously should a spy report be taken? - Lord of the Rings news - J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

July 10, 2000 at 23:42:43

Not much seems to have been made of TheOneRing.Net's June 27 spy report from Super Ninja Spy Galadriel.

The report claims to reveal details behind the controversial Helm's Deep scenes involving Arwen (Liv Tyler). How accurate is the spy report? Only people actually working on the movie really know, and Galadriel's identity has been carefully protected by TheOneRing.Net (although they let slip the fact that she accompanied Peter Jackson on his historic Olympic Torch run, which event received only less news coverage than the O.J. Simpson criminal trial in a Los Angeles superior court a few years ago).

So, either Peter is completely clueless about these Super Ninja Spy reports that clatter about the Internet and raise the fans' hackles, or he has some idea of who is behind them and is not very concerned. By all accounts, Peter Jackson is regarded as an extremely intelligent individual (he has essentially arranged for the 20th century to end on a positive note -- perhaps no other human being in history has achieved as much).

Let's assume that Galadriel is peppering the reports with misinformation. Why should she do that? To protect her job? Maybe. To spread confusion and alarm among the fans? Not exactly. Our guess is that Galadriel is performing a little classical spin control. If other people associated with the movies leak information about the plots, fans will be uncertain of just exactly what is happening. Remember all the hoopla about Arwen possibly accompanying the Fellowship? Sir Ian McKellen shot that down when he declared Arwen would not be marching with the Fellowship.

Galadriel also reported that she stumbled onto the set of the Tomb of the Kings. Except for a brief mention in "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen", the Tomb of the Kings doesn't appear in the original story. On the other hand, Denethor tries to kill himself and Faramir in the House of the Stewards (in "The Pyre of Denethor", the chapter which forces Gandalf to leave the battlefield).

Has Peter rewritten the story to include a "Tomb of the Kings"? Has he included a set just for Aragorn's death scene 122 years after the One Ring is destroyed? Did Galadriel get it wrong? It's hard to say. No, make that impossible to say...for anyone who doesn't have direct information on the movies. And, conveniently, everyone who gets full access has to sign a non-disclosure agreement enforced with Biblical terror.

We can pretty much take it for granted that Liv Tyler was filmed at Helm's Deep. We know that a company of Elves has been filmed at Helm's Deep. So Galadriel's June 27 spy report has at least a kernel of truth to it. But either Peter Jackson called her up and said, "Okay, mate. Let's put an end to this Arwen stuff and tell them what is going on" or Galadriel has seeded the spy report with some facts while expanding a little bit in order to encourage wild fannish imaginations to go their own way.

Or else she just needs to take more Ninja Interrogation Technique classes.

"Meanwhile the two Elven Settlement, Rivendell and Lorien hear of this Uruk Hai invasion and decide to send a Small force of Elven Warriors led by Arwen and Haldir to fortify the Keep of Helms Deep while the Fellowship make there way to Rohan to Inform the king that his people are in danger and to send an Army to aid the Elve and refugees. At this time Saruman is mustering his Wildmen who are angry at the Rohirrim for stealing their land and driving them into the hills, driven by hate they slowly assemble and prepare to march towards the land of Rohan."

As accurate as this part of the report sounds, one must ask why Peter Jackson would write something like this into the story. Here the Nine Walkers are supposed to be on a super secret mission to destroy the One Ring, they have lost Gandalf, and presumably Frodo and Sam have crossed the Anduin and met up with Gollum. Where are they going to find out about this invasion from Isengard? Is Aragorn going to find Saruman's battle plan wrapped around a sheaf of cigars in the smoldering ashes of Eomer's Orc cremation? (American Civil War buffs should recognize the reference.)

But let's assume that Eomer chases Ugluk to the borders of Fangorn Forest, fights his battle with Ugluk, kills all the Orcs, misses the hobbits who go off to talk with the trees, and meets Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli on his way back to Edoras. That's the way the book tells the story. If the movie tells the story anything like this, one has to ask how Rivendell and Lorien manage to send out companies of Elves which beat everyone to the punch.

How do Elrond and Galadriel learn that Saruman plans to feed the newly hatched Uruk-hai on Rohirric refugees (and one must hope these people don't actually call themselves "Rohans" in the movies)? How do they manage to gather up a company of Elven warriors and get them to Helm's Deep in time to save the day? Something doesn't add up here. Is the geography of Middle-earth being altered for the sake of getting Arwen to the front sooner than Aragorn, or are we not being told what's really going to happen in the movies?

A kernel of truth is sufficient to give each spy report credibility. But if the plots are really being revealed in this kind of detail, then why all the secrecy? What is Peter Jackson hoping to protect if the fans are going to learn everything from this Super Ninja Spy. How does Galadriel manage to get away with telling us everything and still show up at the historic Olympic Torch Run and not get fired or thrown out of the house (we're speaking figuratively)?

Galadriel, thou art being naughty. And we love you for it!