Following is a transcript of my unscripted talk about the second volume of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, once again making comparisons along the way to the Peter Jackson films.
I'm continuing on my adventure through China, actually not through the entire country, but I've been spending the last month exploring the architectural heritage of Jiangsu province. So I've been on the road a lot, and as I've been going on this little journey, I've been reading the Lord of the Rings. So in my last video podcast, I talked about the Fellowship of the Ring and how the first volume in the trilogy of the Lord of the Rings compares with the film.
So we're all, at least those of us who enjoyed the films, we're all very familiar with the story of the film. Some of us have watched it time and time again. If you're like me, maybe you watch it, you know, every now and then.
And it's a great film, a great film series, won a lot of awards, deservedly. And in making this comparison, I am not in any way trying to denigrate the value of those films and the wonderful job that Peter Jackson did, and that all the actors and producers and all the people who made the film did. But in reading the Lord of the Rings series again, which I hadn't read since I was a teenager, I've come to realize that there are a lot of key differences in the books.
And I spent a long time in the last podcast video talking about those differences and applying them to the first film and the first volume, the Fellowship of the Ring. And that's the story of Frodo's journey out of the Shire and then to eventually to Rivendell, where he is given this mission, or he takes upon himself this mission to destroy the Ring by taking it to Mount Doom. He goes along with eight other fellows, so there are nine of them all together, on another journey, even more dangerous and arduous than the first one.
And the end of the Fellowship of the Ring leaves us at Emyn Muil. I think that's how you pronounce it. But anyway, it's a mountainous area, kind of on the edge of civilization, you could say.
They've already passed through Lorien, and now the nine fellows are going to break up and go their own way. And then at the very end, Boromir, one of the fellows representing men, gets into a well, maybe not a battle, but he tries to take the Ring from Frodo, forcing Frodo to act by putting on the Ring and escaping. And then Frodo continues his journey.
Sam catches up with them, and the last we see them, they're getting onto an elven boat and going down the river without the other fellows. So Frodo has decided to go it alone, but then Sam joins him on the journey. So it's Frodo and Sam.
And that's where we go into the second volume of the adventure, which is the Two Towers. And again, these books are divided into two books. So we have, in the Fellowship of the Ring, we have Book One and Book Two, which are separated by their arrival at Rivendell.
In Book Three and Book Four, which comprises the Two Towers, we have two sections. And it gets a little bit different because now we have the fellows going off in different directions. So we have two parties to follow, and one is Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas.
They go after Pippin and Merry, the two hobbits, two other hobbits in the Fellowship, who have been taken away by orcs, and turns out are on their way to Isengard, where the wizard Saruman lives in the Tower of Orthanc. So that's one story. And then the second story in the Two Towers, or Book Four, is Frodo and Sam's journey.
And the first thing that happens on that journey is they pick up Gollum, who has been following them, and they end up kind of capturing him and taming him, and making him take them on this journey to Mordor. Because really it turns out that he's the only creature that really knows how to get into Mordor, and knows the right passageways to get into Mordor, which is very heavily guarded. Anyway, that's the story of the Two Towers in a nutshell.
You have two separate journeys. Gandalf has apparently perished in the mines of Moria. He was taken by a balrog deep into the depths of the underground, and we don't know what happened to him.
So while I was reading the Two Towers, I was taking notes with the intention of making some comparisons with the movie. And I'll try to be a little bit more succinct than I was in the first video podcast on the Fellowship of the Ring. So I'm going to try to keep this under 30 minutes, but we'll see what happens.
The first thing that happens in the beginning of the Two Towers is Boromir's death. So we find out that Boromir has perished, that he was attacked by a party of orcs, some of whom are very strong orcs known as the Uruk-hai, who were apparently, we find out later, made by Saruman in Isengard. So he basically turned his entire domain that's under his control into kind of a vast factory.
We'll get to that later. But what we find out is that Boromir has died. The heroes who stayed, who have not left at this point, they're still there.
Legolas, Gimli, Aragorn. They find Boromir's body. They don't know what happened to Pippin and Merry, but it seems from, you know, because Aragorn is a ranger, he can see all the traces of what happened.
And they quickly learn that Pippin and Merry were basically dragged away by a party of orcs. And now the orcs are on the move, heading back, which they eventually find out they're heading back to Isengard. So I think one of the most beautiful things about this section is the the way that the three heroes of the story memorialize Boromir.
Only Aragorn seems to understand that Boromir turned on Frodo. And that's because Boromir kind of confessed to him. Aragorn found him.
Boromir was dying, and Boromir confesses to Aragorn that he had tried to take the ring from Frodo. So he kind of got what he deserved when the orcs attacked, and he ended up getting killed, which of course is not true. In a way, what's made clear is that Boromir still, even though he was tempted by the ring, which all men are, he dies a hero, right? He dies trying to defend Merry and Pippin from the orc party.
All of that is faithful to the film, except it happens in the first film in the series, not in the second film. So Aragorn and Gimli and Legolas get together and they have to decide what to do. And Aragorn finally, after a lot of very, you know, difficult, difficult decisions, he decides to follow Merry and Pippin and follow the party of orcs.
He, even though it's kind of a wild goose chase, they need to at least try to save their lives, because they know what sort of tortures await if the orcs reach their destination with their prisoners. So they're going to let Frodo and Sam go off in their direction, which obviously was Frodo's own idea, that he wanted to separate from the party. He thinks it's best to continue his way.
So for the next, I think it's 10 chapters of 11 chapters of book three, the three heroes are off to the races, pursuing the orcs through various terrains. But before they do that, they decide to hold a kind of funeral for Boromir. And they really don't have much choice, but they decide to put him in one of the boats and kind of set him off and let his body drift down the river.
We'll find out that actually has consequences later on in the story. So they give him a kind of a hero's farewell. And I think one of the beautiful things about that section, which is definitely not in the film, as I said, there's really not much, if any, singing in the film.
But in this section of the story, Aragorn and Legolas both sing a song in honor of Boromir. It's a beautiful song about the east wind and the west wind. Sorry, not the east wind, the west wind, the south wind, the north wind.
When it's Gimli's turn, they get to the east wind. He says, I'm sorry, I'm not, you know, it would be my turn to sing about the east wind, but I'm not really a singer, is kind of what it amounts to. So Gimli, we realize partway through, he's also there for, you know, for kind of a humor [comic relief].
He brings a little bit of humor to the role. So Gimli's character in the film is very faithful, I think, to his character in the book. So the three heroes go on their journey.
They follow the path of the orcs. It gets more and more distant because the party of orcs is traveling day and night. No rest.
They seem to have infinite stores of energy, and they're in a rush to bring their prisoners. We find out later that the orcs, there are basically two groups of orcs. One belongs to Mordor and to Sauron, and the other belongs to Saruman.
And so you get a better sense in the books, I think, of the rivalry that's emerging between Saruman and Sauron, right? The two great villains in the story. And that Saruman is trying to kind of take matters into his own hands in Isengard and bring the ring to him. So otherwise, I think the scenes in the film are fairly faithful to the chase and the pursuit that the heroes undertake to try to reach the orcs in time.
There are some small differences. There is... I think the orcs have a lot more personality in the books than they do in the film. So there's a more dialogue with the orcs.
You kind of really get into their minds. There's a lot of conversation back and forth that they have. So when Pippin and Merry are being carried away by the orcs, they can kind of make out, because the orcs have to talk in a common tongue because they have different languages.
So Pippin and Merry can kind of hear what they're saying to each other. So actually, the orcs turn out to be a lot more interesting in the books than they do in the films. That's my position.
But the orcs seem to be somewhat more crafty, more... The orcs have their own plans and schemes, and they're trying to decide what to do with Pippin and Merry. And obviously, the Uruk-hai who represent Saruman are trying to fulfill their orders and take Pippin and Merry to Saruman's stronghold. But the other orcs are not as committed to that pathway.
And there's some fighting back and forth, and because the Uruk-hai, the orcs of Saruman, are stronger, they end up killing the other orcs. And meanwhile, and this is, I think, quite different in the book than in the film. Meanwhile, Pippin kind of slowly makes plans to try to escape.
So he manages to cut the bonds, you know, the hobbits are tied up, so he manages to cut the bonds on his hands, free his hands up, but to hide that for a while. And then when the time is ripe, in kind of a scene that bears some similarities to the film, the two hobbits are taken away by one of the evil orcs, and he's going to try to search them because he knows they're carrying something precious. But they end up escaping in a melee when the riders of Rohan start to attack the orcs.
So Pippin and Merry actually have kind of a different escape than the one that we see in the film. And I think it's a more, as usual, it's kind of a more sensible story of how they escape. It makes more sense within the context of the story.
But it also, in my opinion, gives Pippin and Merry a lot more cleverness and a lot more agency in the book than they have in the film. And that's where they escape into Fangorn Forest. And of course, they're found by Treebeard, the kind of like a tree-like, man-like, tree-like creature, who takes them into his arms and walks them through the forest.
Now in the film, I think there's a scene where the orc, the evil orc, follows them into Fangorn Forest, and Treebeard steps on the orc. And that's definitely a plausible scene, because certainly the Ents are enemies of the orcs and vice versa, and the Ents like nothing better than to crush the orcs when they come into their forest. But in the book, that doesn't happen.
Instead, Treebeard questions them. They have a long conversation in the book. There's so many more conversations in the book.
Obviously, the film just couldn't get away with that much dialogue without action. But lots of conversation where he tells them his background, stories of the Elves and the Ents, and even the Entwives. We learn that there are Entwives, like kind of female versions of Ents, that have left the forest long ago and can't be found.
So there's a bit of a kind of a tragic backstory to Treebeard and the Ents. He gives them special water to drink. Wherever they go, there seem to be special concoctions of water that they can drink that give them special reserves of energy and help to nourish them.
The other thing that happens is when they go to the Entmoot, which is where Treebeard and the other Ents get together and have a long, drawn-out conversation that results in their decision to attack Saruman and march on Isengard. He actually has a young friend named Bregalan to take them away. And we find Pippin and Merry go to both Treebeard's home and to Bregalan's home.
So these Ents actually have homes in the forest. And that's something very interesting that you just don't get in the films. There's lots of singing.
There are lots of legends, etc., etc. So then there's the march to... marching to war against Isengard. The Ents finally decide they've had enough of Saruman's evil and his destruction and the orcs and so on.
So then we get to chapter five, and finally we have Gandalf's return. So I think in the film, the three heroes, when Gandalf finally returns, they confuse him for Saruman because he's in white and he seems very powerful and very odd. And at first he doesn't kind of give himself away.
He surprises them. But then it turns out to be Gandalf. He majestically yet slowly reveals himself and he discusses Saruman's treachery with them and all the circumstances that brought them together.
And he confirms that Aragorn made the right choice to follow Merry and Pippin because it led them to Gandalf at this moment when the heroes are actually needed because they're going to go into battle. So he tells the story of the Balrog, and that's a much richer story in the book than in the film. You learn a lot about the Balrog, about the domain that he lives in underground, and what it looks like when the Balrog falls in the water and is quenched of his fire, and how he runs up the steep, winding staircase up to the top of the mountain.
And Gandalf is following him, and finally Gandalf vanquishes him on the top of the mountain. And I think there's the scene after that where Gandalf is kind of suspended in time and space, which is similar to the description in the book. And then he ends up going, I believe, back to Lórien, Lothlórien, where the elves take care of him and nourish him and help to recover his strength.
And then he emerges in white robes from Lórien as Gandalf the White. He's upped a level, maybe a couple of levels, as we would say in Dungeons and Dragons. You can see how, you know, Dungeons and Dragons, there's so many influences of the Lord of the Rings on the D&D world, but that's another story.
So what's also interesting is that Gandalf has to kind of guess what's in Sauron's mind. And the way he reasons it out is that Sauron doesn't know where the ring is. And the last thing on his mind is the idea that they're going to destroy the ring.
Sauron thinks that they're going to try to use the ring against him to win this war, which is what he would do, of course. But he has no idea that the other two hobbits are on their way to Mordor to destroy the ring. So Sauron is amassing an army and marching on Minas Tirith, which is kind of the kingdom of men.
You learn more about Shadowfax, Gandalf's horse, who appears first in this scene in the film. And you find out a lot about the people of Rohan and their stories. There's a lot more dialogue with the riders of Rohan (Rohirrim) and their leader Eomer.
There's just a lot more information in the books and backstories, again, very similar to Fellowship of the Ring. So in chapter six, Gandalf takes... they basically find out that Pippin and Merry are okay. They've been shepherded by the Ents and they're okay.
The orcs weren't able to kill them or take them to Saruman. So Gandalf says, we have a more pressing order now. We have to go to Theoden, who is the king in this land, and Rohan.
And he must parley with Theoden and convince him to lead his men in battle against the evil armies that are marching out of Mordor and Isengard. And in this scene, it's actually quite different to the film. And I can see in the film, they really kind of squeezed a lot of information together to give it more impact. So in the scene in the film, Gandalf reveals himself in the court of Theoden as Gandalf the White. Theoden is obviously being possessed by Saruman and he's all old and gray and aged.
And Grima Wormtongue, his advisor sitting next to him, is advising him not to parley with these people and not to listen to Gandalf. But Gandalf uses his staff to remove the evil curse from Theoden. And we see that in the form of Saruman kind of popping out of his body, which definitely doesn't happen in the book.
It's kind of, in a way, a silly scene in the film. But I can see why they wanted to give a visually impactful kind of symbolic representation of the expulsion of Saruman's evil. So what it turns out in the book is that Grima Wormtongue was indeed kind of bought by Saruman and that he's been helping Saruman and giving Theoden bad advice.
And Theoden has kind of been drying up and just not doing much, not being his kingly self. And Gandalf basically comes into the hall and wakes him up and turns him back into his kingly self. So that all is faithful to the book.
And then he expels Grima Wormtongue. And Grima Wormtongue then rides to Isengard to report to Saruman. So there's a, you know, it's a different scene, but I can see why the film, why the filmmakers decided to tell it their way.
And I think that's totally valid. You know, there's so many different ways to tell a story. And the language of film is so different to what you can do in a book.
So then we have the scene at Helm's Deep. And I think the interesting thing about that, this is chapter seven, is that it's Ents, not elves, who come to help along with Gandalf and a man named Erkenbrand of Westfold. So it's a very different sort of rescue mission to what you see in the film when the elves come and have a last stand against the evil orcs and trolls and other creatures that are trying to attack Helm's Deep.
It's a wonderful scene in the film. I think one of the best scenes in the whole series of the siege of Helm's Deep. And I think there are some elements that are faithful.
I think Legolas and Gimli definitely show their heroic sides by putting notches on their belts when they kill all the orcs that they kill and so on. But, you know, it's quite a different ending to the one in the film. And I wonder, you know, why they wanted to bring the elves back in the film and give them a kind of heroic role when in the book they're still kind of in their own domains.
So the Helm's Deep scene is faithful in some ways, but different in others. And then once they defeat the enemy at Helm's Deep, one interesting thing that happens is that Gimli starts to give a loving description of Helm's Deep and all the caverns, the miraculous caverns filled with jewels and gems and other treasures inside Helm's Deep and offers to take Legolas on a tour. And Legolas at first is like, I don't really, I'm an elf.
I'm not really into these, you know, mountain innards. Come to the Fangorn Forest with me. And Gimli says, oh, Fangorn Forest.
But if you insist. So they're kind of showing how they develop their friendship and are willing to sacrifice for each other. And I think Legolas and Gimli's friendship is one of the beautiful things that happens in this series.
So you get more backstory or more kind of, you learn more about their friendship in the book. Then the heroes, along with Theoden and his men, they march to Isengard, where they find the aftermath of the Ent attack. So in the film, it's totally understandable.
We see the Ent attack itself. But in the book, we only learn about the attack from its aftermath and from what the heroes see following the event. So the Ents have flooded Isengard.
All the holes and the mines and the pits that were dug around the Tower of Orthanc have been flooded with water. And of course, Pippin and Merry are waiting for them, having just consumed a big breakfast. And they have a big pipe of tobacco that they're smoking, that they happen to find a barrel of fine shire tobacco in Isengard.
So that's a fun scene. You also have, in addition to the Ents, you have another type of tree called the huorns that seem to be a bit darker, blacker, and even more destructive than the Ents. But they're working with the Ents to destroy Isengard and also to attack orcs that go near them and so forth.
So this is all, you know, it's still weaving together. The story of the book and the film are still weaving together just in different ways. The film goes off in different ways, but comes back to the main story of the book.
But this is where Gandalf has his encounter with Saruman, not in the halls of Theoden, the king, but here in Isengard in the Tower of Orthanc. Gandalf raps on the door of the tower and calls Saruman out and finally reveals to Saruman that he is now the most powerful wizard of all, the White Wizard. And so, of course, Saruman is completely surprised and taken aback by that.
But Saruman has holed himself up in the tower with Grima Wormtongue and won't come out. But they have a really important and interesting dialogue together, and you can see that Saruman still has a lot of persuasion, a lot of influence and power over other beings, his ability to persuade them over to his side, but of course he doesn't in the end, and Gandalf kind of overpowers him, and then Grima Wormtongue drops out of a tower window an orb, heavy orb, that comes crashing down, almost kills somebody, but they take that as kind of booty, turns out to be a palantir, which is a kind of magical orb that kind of like a crystal ball where you can see the future, or you can communicate with others across the world who also hold a palantir. So this turns out to be kind of a special magical object that was made in ancient times, that Sauron has taken one and Saruman had another, so that solves the mystery of how Saruman and Sauron were able to communicate, and I think that's something that that's a point that wasn't made so clearly in the movie, but I'd have to look back at the movie to find out if that's the case.
But then there's the scene where Pippin steals a look in the palantir and almost kind of gets sucked in by the power of Sauron, because Sauron is obviously controlling that palantir, but fortunately he's not able to give Sauron any information, and he survives this encounter through the palantir. And in a way, Gandalf is grateful in the book because he says, by stealing a look in the palantir, Pippin saved me from a similar fate, and I may not have been able to resist Sauron. So it's obvious that, you know, as powerful as Gandalf is, Sauron is still much more powerful at this time.
And so at the end of at the end of that book, book three, Gandalf takes Pippin on Shadowfax, the horse, and they're riding, racing against time towards Rohan and Minas Tirith, because armies of orcs are coming out of Mordor to attack Minas Tirith, and the Nazgul are also flying out to attack. So all the heroes are now racing against time to get to Minas Tirith, which is the setup for book three, The Return of the King. And then book four is completely focused on the story of Sam and Frodo and their journey to Mordor.
So whereas in The Two Towers film, those stories are kind of commingled. So you have one scene with Frodo and Sam, one scene with the heroes, Helm's Deep, and so forth. They're kind of mixed in together in the film, but in the book they're very separate.
And again, I can see, obviously, why they did that. They didn't want to turn this into two films. Okay, so now we're getting into book four, and that's the story of Sam and Frodo's journey to Mordor.
And in the first chapter of that book, that's where they meet Gollum. He's been following them, tailing them, trying to kind of stay hidden, but they finally manage to capture him and threaten him. And then Frodo convinces him to be his servant, and that's when he starts calling Frodo Master.
And you can tell in this scene and in other scenes that Gollum really has two personalities. One is kind of his human, or whatever he was before he found the ring. That personality, which is also kind of meek and meager and willing to serve.
And then there's the other personality that is evil and slinking and scheming and wanting to kill them and take the ring. And of course, you know, Frodo and Sam both know that he has these two sides. He's a two-faced creature.
Sam more so than Frodo, I think. Sam is constantly on guard against Gollum, whereas Frodo kind of sees... Frodo is kind of drawn to his, if you could call it, good side, his helpful side, and thinks that there's hope for Gollum. So after the taming of Gollum, which takes up the first chapter, they go through the marshes.
And that's a pretty powerful scene in the film, but the scene in the book doesn't happen quite the same as the film. In the book, Gollum does lead them through the marshes, and they do see these dead creatures, dead beings underneath the water who were killed in battle many ages ago, and whose bodies have reappeared after the plane was flooded and turned into a marsh. But Frodo doesn't get sucked under the water in the way that he does in the film.
So I think they are trying to kind of enhance the creepiness of that scene in the film in a way that doesn't happen in the book. Certainly he comes close, and Sam continually has to kind of drag him through the swamp and the marshes. But Gollum successfully leads them through on a path that gets them through the marshes.
And then they reach the Black Gate of Mordor, and obviously there's no way in. So there I think the book and the film are pretty faithful to each other. Maybe the description of Mordor is, if anything, even more gruesome and desolate in the books than in the film representation of the Gates of Mordor.
But they're guarded by orcs, and there's a big gate, and so forth. They just can't get through that way. And that's when, you know, Gollum tells them there's another way. He'll lead them another way, another path. And that's when he starts scheming to bring them to She. And we don't know who She is at this point.
We just know that it's something very wicked and evil that Gollum is planning for the two hobbits. But they continue to travel together. They get into a more hospitable land with lots of beautiful descriptions of plants and flowers.
And eventually, Sam decides that he wants something better to eat than the lembas, the elf bread that they keep eating, which is all that they had for this journey. And he convinces Gollum to go and catch a couple of rabbits. He makes them into a stew.
And unfortunately, the smoke and the fire of the rabbit stew eventually attracts the men of Gondor, who are in the forest hunting Southern men, evil men, who have joined forces with Sauron. So there's a very, I think, similar scene in the film, in the book, where they see an oliphaunt, kind of a giant elephant, come crashing through the forest. And then they're taken by the men, and they meet Faramir.
So Gollum disappears into the forest, and Frodo and Sam are kind of captured by these men, taken to Faramir, who is the captain of this guard, of this team of men. I think what's interesting about this episode is that Faramir seems to be a much, much more wise and even-handed and noble person than he appears in the film. So I don't know why they decided to make him such a different character in the film.
But in the book, he obviously takes them under his guard. But as he tells them, he's actually taking them under his care, because this is a very perilous place now, with this battle going on. And he needs to guard them as soon as he finds out who they are, and that they're connected to Boromir, who turns out to be his brother, that they were connected to Gandalf on this fellowship.
And he gets very curious and asks them all sorts of questions. And Frodo's trying his best not to reveal the existence of the ring, but Faramir knows that there's something very precious and special that maybe they're carrying, that they were meant to carry as part of their mission. And that Boromir, it seems, had coveted that, whatever it was, which he knows of as Isildur's Bane.
So the existence of the ring isn't revealed later, until later in the conversation, when Sam kind of blurts it out. But instead of taking them hostage and taking them away, which I think is what happens in the film, he actually takes them to Gondor. It doesn't happen that way in the book.
He says, I am true to my word. I would not touch that ring, even if I found it on the highway. I will support you and let you continue on your journey.
He's in fact, you know, even though he has kind of taken them captive, and then eventually takes Gollum captive, who has been kind of following them, he ends up letting them go. So I think that's a very different character and a very different story to the one in the film. And it leaves you wondering why they wanted to turn him into this other kind of character in the film.
Maybe it just made more sense in the language of film. Maybe it was more dramatic that way. Maybe it's a little bit boring to have this kind of dialogue in a film. There needed more action and adventure and suspense. So Sam and Frodo continue on their journey with Gollum. They're allowed to continue through the land.
Although Faramir tells them, warns them, don't go to Cirith Ungol, which is the place that Gollum is taking them, which is next to the old city of Minos. I forget the original name, but it's now known as Minos Morgul, which is the city of the Nazgul. So he says, no matter what you do, don't go there.
But that's the alternate pathway, the alternate pass up a very narrow and forbidding flight of steps carved into the mountainside that they can go up to the pass and then get into Mordor that way. So Frodo says, basically, he has no choice. He must follow Gollum, who's the only creature that knows the way back into Mordor.
So Gollum's plan seems to be coming together quite well. They eventually get to Minas Morgul. They see an army of orcs and the Nazgul chief coming out.
They start climbing up the mountainside up the steep stairs. And eventually, after many, many hours of climbing and a lot of difficulty, they get up towards the top and Gollum tells them, there's this tunnel. You have to go through the tunnel.
And once you go through that, you can go over the pass. So the tunnel is the last stage. And of course, those of you who have watched the film all know that the tunnel is where Shelob, this massive spider, has her lair.
And as scary as that scene in the film is, it's far scarier, I would say, in the book. The way that Tolkien unravels that episode is just so brilliant. And a few things happen differently in the book, again.
In the film, I think, again, for suspense and drama, Sam and Frodo part near the top of the pass before they get to the tunnel. Gollum has continually been sowing doubts and strife in Frodo's mind, convincing Frodo that Sam is going to take the ring. None of that happens in the book.
Sam stays faithful the whole time. Frodo never questions his loyalty. So it's very interesting, again, a slightly different way of telling the story in the film as in the book.
But in the book, you really get a sense of not only how loyal and faithful Sam is, how much he loves Frodo, but also how heroic he is. And you get a sense of that in the film too, when Sam finally confronts Shelob after Shelob stabs Frodo with some poison and seems to have killed him and wrapped him up in her web and is going to drag him into her lair. Sam attacks her.
He has the light, the special light, the phial of light that Galadriel gifted to Frodo. He has Frodo's sword Sting, and he attacks Shelob. And in the book, it makes clear that Shelob has never been attacked this way in all.
She's a very, very ancient creature, more ancient than even Sauron. She has never been attacked by another creature in this way. She has consumed countless elves and dwarves and other creatures, orcs, but she's never been mortally attacked.
So Sam really comes out as a bold hero at the end of this book. And then, again, something slightly different happens. The orcs come out.
There's a tower at the top of the pass. The orcs come out of the tower. They find Frodo, take him through a tunnel, back to the tower.
Sam puts on the ring, follows them, and then overhears their conversation. And again, you learn a lot about the orcs. The orcs are much more interesting in the books than they are in the films.
In the films, they say very little, but in the books, there's a lot of dialogue a lot of a lot of fun dialogue. I think Tolkien really had fun with the orcs. And it seems like as evil as they are, they have their own lives.
They have their own minds. They're not just these zombies that are, you know, kind of created by Saruman and Sauron to be part of their army. They're real living creatures with their own ideas and their own wills.
But of course, they have to follow orders because they're part of this army. So I think Tolkien was saying something about human nature there. And that doesn't really come out in the films, which is why I think in the films, you have this sense that everything is so black and white, good and evil.
And that's certainly true in the books. But I feel like there's more subtlety to the way that the books describe the evil creatures and get into their minds and into their conversation. So anyway, that's the really the final scene in the book.
So again, quite a few, I would say, minor differences between the book and the film, The Two Towers, different ways of telling the story, different ways of organizing the story, slightly different characters in the case of Faramir and even Sam, maybe even Gollum, although I think Gollum is quite faithful in the film to his portrayal in the book. If there's any character that's very similar, but I would say that Frodo himself seems a lot wiser and more worldly in the book than he does in the film, especially in the scene where he's speaking with Faramir. He just comes across as a much wiser and cleverer hobbit than he seems to appear in the film.
That's just my opinion. Anyway, I think that's it for The Two Towers, and hopefully I've kept within a better time frame for this. And then the next book, as you all know, is The Return of the King.
So see you then.