Interesting Question about the Lord of the Rings

IndyFanChuck

Sr Member

• Dec 25, 2012

• #1

I am a Lord of the Rings Fanatic. Love the books. Love the movies. But something has always struck me as odd about the movie adaptation and I thought I would present it to you and see if anyone has an answer to this.

Gandalf is a ring bearer, and he carries the ring called Narya until the end of the Third Age. Cirdan gave the ring to Gandalf and they hid three rings from Sauron. So, Galadriel, Elrond, and Gandalf had three rings of power.

Galadriel is shown for a brief moment in the very beginning of the Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring to have the ring on. But otherwise I don't ever remember seeing these three characters have on their rings of power.

Unless I am mistaken Gandalf is never shown in any of the movies to have a ring of power on. Am I right? If so, where is it shown in the movies that he has a ring?

If I am correct and Gandalf is never shown to be wearing Narya the ring in the movies, does anyone know WHY Peter Jackson and company chose to leave out this ring? I would love to know. I have never understood why we never saw Saurmon's Coat of Many Colors, and the three rings worn by Elrond, Galadriel, and Gandalf.

Just an interesting topic I thought some of you might have information or thoughts on.

 

Nwerke

Master Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Dec 25, 2012

• #2

Grey Havens, IIRC.

Who had the three rings was kept on a very need-to-know basis; Gandalf never wore it openly until after the threat passed. So the films had no opportunity or reason to show it prior to the end.

 

Nibenon

Well-Known Member

• Dec 25, 2012

• #3

Yeah, actually the movies stick well to the book, because the hobbits see Gandalf wearing Narya at the Grey Havens in the book, and thus the audience follows suite for the movie. Pretty darn faithful, if you ask me.

 

Nibenon

Well-Known Member

• Dec 25, 2012

• #4

'Ere we are... (sorry to double post)

 

DuneMuadDib

Sr Member

• Dec 25, 2012

• #5

You also see Elrond bearing Vilya in the same scene.

As for Saruman of many colors (not Saruman and his amazing techno-color dream coat), I assume that was omitted for the purpose of simplification and concerns of how the concept might play on screen.

 

0neiros

Master Member

• Dec 25, 2012

• #6

Better question...why is Sting the only sword that glows when Orcs are near? In the book, when facing the Balrog, Glamdring was as bright as a light saber, and I was looking forward to that. Thanks for being lazy PJ.

 

Kerr Avon

Master Member

• Dec 25, 2012

• #7

0neiros said:

Better question...why is Sting the only sword that glows when Orcs are near? In the book, when facing the Balrog, Glamdring was as bright as a light saber, and I was looking forward to that. Thanks for being lazy PJ.

Click to expand...

Probably because they thought it'd take away from the coolness of "Sting."

 

SmilingOtter

Master Member

• Dec 25, 2012

• #8

With Glamdring and Orcrist, the batteries had run out.

Said in jest, but perhaps it was an enchantment that had diminished with use. It would seem logical that battlefield weapons such as the two swords would have seen more use than the "letter opener" Bilbo and Frodo carried.

 

DuneMuadDib

Sr Member

• Dec 25, 2012

• #9

PJ didn't want to confuse audiences by having Glamdring glow as well. Must have carried over to Orcrist.

Frankly, any audience with the attention span to sit through a 3-hour film could handle two swords glowing, but whatever.

 

Solo4114

Master Member

• Dec 26, 2012

• #10

Didn't they fix that in one of the DVD editions, though?

 

Jedi2016

Sr Member

• Dec 26, 2012

• #11

The rings are invisible to anyone not wearing another ring of power. That's why Frodo could see Nenya on Galadriel's finger, but no one else could (residual effects of having the One). That's why all three rings are visible at the end of ROTK, because their power is broken with the destruction of the One. Did you never wonder why Gandalf was so good with fire magic? He was always wearing it.

As for the other two swords... that's either laziness, or what Kerr said, they wanted to make Sting more "special". Which makes absolutely no sense, especially in this newest film, when Gandalf describes the glowing as the result of the sword being Elvish, and yet he clearly states in the previous scene that both the swords he and Thorin found are Elvish as well (all three, in fact, were made in Gondolin).

The odd part is that Sting was actually unique among the three.. the other two glowed white, if my memory serves. Sting was the only one that glowed blue.

 

IndyFanChuck

Sr Member

• Dec 31, 2012

• #12

OH! I just noticed in Fellowship of the Ring (Extended Cut) that when she is showing Bilbo the water mirror, she shows Bilbo her ring! WOW! I don't know how I missed that.

 

MooCriket

Master Member

• Dec 31, 2012

• #13

^ Maybe you missed it because you were busy riding Yoshi while being chased by Goombas.

 

joeranger

Sr Member

• Feb 16, 2018

• #14

Didn't want to start a new thread. I had two questions.
Why didn't the eagles carry Frodo over mt doom and have him just drop it. Someone said this was explained in the book.

Why after Frodo gets stabbed in the watchtower do the 12 get scared away by Aragorn with a torch?

OK, now I thought of a third. Why were the other three hobbits eating a late night snack without Frodo

 

B

Bryancd

Master Member

• Feb 16, 2018

• #15

joeranger said:

Didn't want to start a new thread. I had two questions.
Why didn't the eagles carry Frodo over mt doom and have him just drop it. Someone said this was explained in the book.

Why after Frodo gets stabbed in the watchtower do the 12 get scared away by Aragorn with a torch?

OK, now I thought of a third. Why were the other three hobbits eating a late night snack without Frodo

Click to expand...

Aragorn lights their robes on fire.
Pippen, Merry, and Sam say to Frodo they saved him some just before he stomps out the fire, I watched it last night.

 

AJTaliesen

Sr Member

RPF PREMIUM MEMBER

• Feb 16, 2018

• #16

Had Gandalf been wearing it he would've recognized the One for what it was years sooner.

 

kristen jones

Master Member

• Feb 20, 2018

• #17

Jedi2016 said:

The rings are invisible to anyone not wearing another ring of power.

Click to expand...

If this is true, then how did Sam manage to see Frodo cradling it? He commented that Frodo was always looking at it. And for that matter, how would sam have been able to find it to take it from Frodo after Shelob?

 

Axlotl

Master Member

• Feb 20, 2018

• #18

Why didn't Gandalf just give The One Ring to the eagles and let them fly over Mount Doom and drop it in the lava?
Would have saved a lot of trouble.

 

jcgardea

Active Member

• Feb 20, 2018

• #19

Axlotl said:

Why didn't Gandalf just give The One Ring to the eagles and let them fly over Mount Doom and drop it in the lava?
Would have saved a lot of trouble.

Click to expand...

No expert here but couple of possible arguments: -Eagles are not ring bearers, or not capable to withstand the One ring corrupting power, -In order for the eagles to go into Mordor without getting shot at or hunted down, there would have to be a major distraction , like all the armies of elves and men knocking the door and we know how hard it was for that to assemble.
-Not good story telling if the eagles just did that?...

 

allosaur176

Sr Member

• Feb 20, 2018

• #20

Axlotl said:

Why didn't Gandalf just give The One Ring to the eagles and let them fly over Mount Doom and drop it in the lava?
Would have saved a lot of trouble.

Click to expand...

Because the eagle carrying it would have kept it as the eagles were sentient beings. But the Eagles pretty much stayed out of the affairs of others, and most likey would have been killed flying into Mordor.