LOTR IV. A Matter of Judgment

[ToshoftheWuffingas]

Thank you.
The new episode starts......


The hobbits run raggedly towards the camera through dark halls and archways as the camera tracks back. A brief cut to Frodo and Sam who are behind a little way, both are gasping for breath. Frodo is clutching his side and Sam’s head is covered with dried blood. Their packs sway as they run. Another brief close-up of their faces in turn and they are weeping as they run. A short cut to the fellowship running across a daylit hall with a large arched doorway that has bright sunlight streaming in. A half dozen orcs emerge from the shadows either side of the door. Cut to Aragorn meeting the first orc and sweeping it away with his sword followed by the rest of the fellowship’s figures rushing past the camera. Another brief cut of the company running down broad flat steps in bright low sunshine, their shadows stretching up the steps. Cut to a shot of the hobbits crouched among rocks weeping and holding each other for comfort while the other four stand beyond them silently looking at one another grimly. Cut to Aragorn’s back as he faces the mountains with his sword held high.

Aragorn, calling out so his voices echoes: ‘ Farewell Gandalf! What hope have we now without you?’ (he turns to the others) ‘Then we must do without hope. Come, there is much to do and when night falls the orcs will come in search of us.’
A succession of brief shots of the fellowship running and scrambling through magnificent alpine highlands.
The opening credits come up: JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings: Episode Ten The Lady of the Golden Wood.
As the credits run we see Frodo and Sam falling further back and stumbling. Cut to Legolas tapping Aragorn as they run and gesturing back. He stops and turns. Cut to Aragorn kneeling by Frodo and Sam who are panting deeply. The others stand near scanning the horizon. Gimli holds his helmet filled with water ready. Aragorn examines Sam’s head.

Aragorn: ‘In all our grief and haste I had forgotten your wounds. You are in luck Sam. You paid a light price for killing your first orc. Their blades are often poisoned but this looks clean. (Aragorn crumbles some leaves into the helmet of water) I still have some athelas from Weathertop to bathe these injuries. Now Frodo, (he turns) I still marvel that you are alive at all. I will try to be gentle’
He gently removes Frodo’s jacket and tunic as Frodo winces and we see the mithril-coat. It glistens in the sun and opalescent lustres run across the surface as he moves. Cut to Aragorn shaking it in the air and we hear a soft tinkling. Gimli lets a fold run through his fingers.

Aragorn: ‘Look! Here is a pretty hobbit skin! All the hunters of Middle-Earth would seek the Shire to capture such a hide.’

Gimli, grunting in humour: ‘And all their arrows would be in vain. I have never seen such a mithril coat.’ A brief cut to Aragorn bathing the great bruise, blackened and grazed on Frodo’s side. Cut to Frodo standing clothed again with Aragorn.

Aragorn: ‘I am glad to know you have such a protection. Wear it even when you sleep.’ Gimli joins them and points behind him.

Gimli: ‘Will anyone see with me Kheled-zâram, the Mirrormere that lies close by? The ancient crown of Durin rests below its surface till he wakes again.’

Frodo: ‘Sam and I will come with you, Gimli’

Aragorn: ‘Do not tarry there. We will be pursued before long.’
Cut to Gimli, Frodo and Sam standing on the bank of a lake. The perfectly still water reflects the white capped mountains. Gimli bows and they move away.
Cut to a view of the distant mountains seen through a screen of long golden-brown leaves. A hand moves the leaves to one side and the camera zooms and zooms until we see in the distance the tiny figures of the fellowship moving along a stream.
Cut to a medium view of the company travelling by the water.

We hear Aragorn’s voice: ‘This leads through the woods of Lothlórien and then to Anduin, the Great River.’

Legolas: ‘There among the mallorn trees lie the fairest dwellings of my folk. I have long hoped to see the mallorns of Lórien. Nowhere else do they grow. In Autumn their leaves turn golden until they fall in Spring. Then the ground is carpetted with gold and the sky is too as the silver boughs bear the new golden blossom.’ As Legolas speaks we see a view of the tops of the golden wood stretching into a hazy distance.

Cut to Aragorn: ‘My heart will be glad even in winter. But there are still many miles to go and we are not yet safe.’ Cut to Frodo and Gimli walking together. Cut to a closer view of their faces.

Frodo: ‘Since my wound on Weathertop I see and feel things differently. I keep thinking I am being followed. Dwarf ears are keen. Can you hear feet?’
Cut back to the wider view and they stop for a moment and look back.

Gimli: ‘I hear nothing but the night-speech of plant and stone. What does your sword, Sting, tell you? ‘(Frodo pulls it out a little but it is dull.) ‘ No orcs are near then. Come Frodo, we are falling behind.’ Cut to the company walking between slender grey trunks.

Aragorn: ‘I am glad to hear wind in the mallorn leaves again.’

Boromir looks around: ‘Is there no other way? I am a plain soldier. Give me a road hedged by swords rather than this Golden Wood. We say in Gondor that few who venture in here escape unscathed.’

Aragorn: ‘Then Gondor has forgotten much. Only those who bring evil here need fear it. But there is no other way.’
Cut to another distant view of the fellowship seen through the branches of a tree as they cross a rocky stream under a waterfall. Cut to them walking towards a clump of larger trees. Cut to a view from above seen again through foliage and again we see a hand holding a branch. We see Legolas approach first in the dusk.

Legolas, sounding a little bit superior: ‘ I am at home among trees. We will be safer from orcs up here. I will climb up quickly first for I wish to find out the manner of a mallorn’s growth.’

Pippin, looking up to camera: ‘Hobbits aren’t birds. I can’t sleep on a perch.’

Legolas, still sounding lofty: ‘ Then dig a hole in the ground like a hobbit but dig fast and deep to hide from orcs.’ He jumps up to grasp a branch then swings like a gymnast up to a higher one.

‘Daro!’ in a different commanding voice.
Cut to Legolas half-jumping, half falling to the ground. He flattens himself to the trunk visibly surprised as the fellowship watch him.

Legolas, hissing: ‘Stand still! Do not move or speak!’ We hear laughter and voices and Legolas looks up and replies in whispers. He looks back down.
‘They said you breath so loud they could put an arrow into you in the dark.’ A rope ladder is thrown down. Cut to Frodo and Sam climbing on to a small swaying wicker platform among the branches, looking a little queasy. Legolas is with three Elves. One walks up with a silver lantern and holds it near the hobbits’ faces.

Haldir: ‘Welcome. My name is Haldir and these are my brothers. We have been expecting you since we had word from Elrond. How many are you?’

Legolas: ‘Eight: Myself, four hobbits and two men.’


Haldir: ‘And the eighth?’
Legolas, reluctantly: ‘...is a Dwarf’

Haldir: ‘Dwarves are not permitted here. I cannot allow him to pass.’

Frodo steps up: ‘But Elrond himself chose him to be our companion. He has been brave and faithful.’ More whispering between the Elves.

Haldir: ‘Very good. Tonight he can sleep in the other tree if he is guarded by Aragorn and Legolas. Tomorrow he must be blindfolded for the journey. Now we must leave you for an orc-band has tracked you and we must lure them deep into the wood.’
Cut to the four hobbits finishing a meal and looking around uneasily. A screen woven from rushes is hanging by their packs and blankets.

Sam: ‘I never thought I’d roost like a bird or climb like a spider.’

Pippin: ‘No walls, no rails. If I even dare get to sleep I hope I don’t roll over the edge.’

Sam: ‘I am so tired anyway I shall carry on sleeping even if I do. The less said the sooner I’ll drop off, if you take my meaning’
Fade to night and Frodo in his blanket, his eyes open. We hear light snoring. Then we hear a faint snuffling noise reminiscent of the Black Rider in the Shire and Frodo’s head turns abruptly. He draws Sting but it is still dull. He crawls to the hole in the platform and looks down. The rope ladder is piled up by the side of the hole. Cut to a view down the trunk into the gloom. We hear the snuffling louder and clearer. Then two pale reflected eyes are seen in the darkness. Cut to Haldir’s head appearing in the opening. Frodo sits hunched nearby.

Haldir, whispering: ‘Sleep without fear. The orcs are deep in the wood now. They will never leave it again.’ Haldir’s head disappears but Frodo doesn’t move and his eyes still look afraid.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Great stuff. But I miss fair Nimrodel.

[ToshoftheWuffingas]

She's there if you look for her.

Cut to another distant view of the fellowship seen through the branches of a tree as they cross a rocky stream under a waterfall.

Actually this was quite a difficult episode to condense and dramatise. Such features as Nimrodel I try to include by a subtle nod that will be recognised by the enthusiast. Tolkien gives over a sizeable chunk of the book from the flight from Moria to the breaking of the Fellowship and doesn't advance the plot very much. Plot isn't everything and the same section of the book enriches the story wonderfully but I try to keep in mind the dynamics of a half hour serial. Getting all the small incidents that occur in these chapters would slow down the forward pace too much I fear. I had to think hard about whether to include the Mirrormere for instance. It could have been cut without affecting the narrative and including it took away the sense of imminent pursuit. Still, see if I have been successful or not when I post the next two instalments.

[Trazúviel]

Doing great!

[Rowanberry]

I've already said elsewhere that, Aragorn's line "and when it is night the orcs will come in search of us" bothers me a bit. "And as soon as it gets dark" or "and when the night falls" would sound more natural to me.

[ToshoftheWuffingas]

Thanks Traz. Hi Rowanberry. I was going to follow up your comment when I posted the next episode. '..when night falls...' works well so when I get chance I can change it. One less word too.

Time to continue.........



Cut to the base of the grove of trees in gold-dappled morning light. Haldir stands in front of the fellowship and takes a scarf in his hands. Legolas looks uncomfortable.

Haldir: 'Before our journey I will blindfold the dwarf as we agreed.' Gimli plants his feet apart and folds his arms.

Gimli: 'I did not consent to this. I will not walk blindfold like a prisoner or spy. My people have never dealt with the Enemy nor harmed the Elves.'

Haldir: 'Yet this is our law. I cannot set it aside.'

Gimli: 'I will walk free or go back home.'

Haldir: 'You all must be brought before the Lord and Lady. You cannot go back now, you would be slain by guards on our borders.' Gimli slides his axe from his belt in one smooth motion and the Lórien Elves fit arrows to their bows. Legolas walks in a tight circle rolling his eyes.

Legolas, through gritted teeth: 'A plague on the stiff necks of dwarves!'
Aragorn steps between Gimli and the Elves raising his hands.

Aragorn to Gimli: 'If I am to lead you then you must do as I say. (turning to Haldir) It is unfair on the dwarf to be singled out. We shall all be blindfold, tedious though that will be.' Gimli stays on guard for a moment then relaxes and laughs and replaces his axe.

Gimli: 'We will look like a troop of fools led on a string. ( he points his thumb at Legolas) I shall be content if only Legolas shares my blindness.'

Legolas draws himself up indignantly: 'No! I am an Elf and a kinsman here.' Gimli laughs again.

Aragorn, getting irate by now: 'A plague then on the stiff necks of Elves! All shall be treated the same. Bind my eyes first.' Cut to the fellowship walking in a line among woodland clutching a rope, an Elf at the front and rear.

Cut to Haldir walking by Merry, the dappled light falling on them: 'You live near the Elf-Havens that look out West over the Sea. Tell me of them.'

Merry: 'I have never been there or even left my land before this. I wonder now why I ever dared leave it at all.'
Cut to a view of an intensely green meadow with thick drifts of white and yellow flowers. Then we see the backs of the fellowship as they walk in line away from the camera from a low angle. The grass and flowers reach to the hobbits' knees. Cut to Haldir standing before Gimli as the others stand nearby.

Haldir:' The Lord and Lady have commanded me to let you all walk freely. (he unfastens Gimli's blindfold) You first Gimli; forgive me. You are the first dwarf since Durin to see this ancient heart of our realm.' Cut to Frodo's blindfold being removed. He blinks and looks up and steps forward.
Cut to the hill of Cerin Amroth . It is in intense, enhanced colours that glow. We see it from a low angle, the white trunks stand out against the golden mallorn foliage behind and above that golden foliage a towering tree rising in the centre like a ships mast. It is like a vision from a Samuel Palmer painting. If there is a soundtrack at this moment the full orchestra at the most intense part of the Tallis Fantasia would fit the moment well.
Cut back to Frodo looking up as Sam joins him looking up too.

Sam: 'I thought Elves were all moon and stars but this is more Elvish than anything. It is like being inside a song.'
Cut to Frodo and Sam walking through the long sward towards Aragorn who stands on the slope near a white trunk. He looks relaxed and calm and younger and wistful. He has picked a few yellow flowers and brings them up to his lips.

Aragorn: 'Arwen vanimelda, namárië!' (he looks down at the hobbits) 'Here is the heart of Elvendom on earth and here my heart dwells forever.' (he pauses) ' It is a pretty flower, Sam, isn't it? They name it elanor.' (He gives one to Sam who looks closely at it) 'Come, let us go.'
Fade to dusk as they walk along a white paved road. A shadowed green wall stretches up behind them. Cut to the fellowship approaching tall silver gates between two high grass covered banks. Lamps hanging from the gates are reflected in the silver. Cut to the gates closing silently behind them. Cut to them climbing up a steep hill between huge smooth grey shadowed trunks. Above them in the canopy hundreds of tiny coloured lights sparkle. Cut to a lawn and a small fountain and a vast silver grey trunk about 12 foot across. A broad architecturally ornate white ladder is against the tree and three Elf-guards in silver chain mail stand at its foot. One guard pipes a signal on a thin silver instrument and a replying whistle comes from above. Cut to Frodo climbing on to a wooden platform and seeing another ladder before him. He sinks down wearily on its bottom step. Legolas and Haldir spring up behind him, hover for a moment and Frodo reluctantly resumes his climb.
Cut to Frodo emerging on to the largest platform yet. Haldir takes his hand to help him up. Beyond them is a long curved wall of a structure that encloses the still substantial trunk.
Cut to Legolas, Haldir and Frodo approaching paper screens that slide apart for them. A golden light spills out from within. Cut to the three, Frodo foremost, approaching two high narrow seats in front of the trunk. Two tall slender figures clothed in white stand to greet them; a young man with silver hair and a beautiful woman with long deep golden hair. They both look grave and dignified. Silent Elves sit around the sides of the tree-room.

Celeborn: 'I am Celeborn and this is the Lady Galadriel. Sit with us Frodo of the Shire.' As Frodo moves to a low folding stool Galadriel looks intently at him. Cut to the fellowship sitting in a circle. They sag a little from fatigue.

Celeborn, looking from one to another: 'Aragorn, it is eight and thirty years in the numbering of the outside world since we last saw you here. Those years lie heavy on you but the end draws near for good or ill. Lay your burdens aside here for a while. Welcome Legolas., kinsman from the Northern woods. We seldom see your folk here. And we have set aside our long-standing laws to welcome Gimli, son of Gloin. May friendships be renewed again between Dwarf and Elf' (Gimli bows) 'But Elrond sent word that you would be nine.'

Galadriel speaks for the first time. Her voice is low and musical: 'Gandalf the Grey has not entered Lórien or I would know. Beyond our borders he is but a grey mist to me.'

Cut to Aragorn, his voice sombre: 'Gandalf the Grey fell into shadow. He remained in Moria and did not escape.' A gasp of surprise is heard and we briefly see the reactions of the Elves seated around the hall.

Cut to Celeborn: 'These are the most evil tidings spoken here in long years full of grievous deeds!' He turns to Haldir standing nearby and raises an eyebrow.

Cut to Aragorn catching the look: 'We have spoken no word of this yet. We were too weary and close to danger.' Cut to the group. The camera pans to follow the speakers.

Frodo: 'Gandalf was our guide. He led us through Moria and when escape was beyond any hope he saved us.' (he tries to keep his voice) 'and he fell!' He looks upwards and bites his lip.

Aragorn: 'It was something I had never seen before, like an evil from the Ancient Days. It was both a shadow and a fire.'

Gimli: 'I saw Durin's Bane on that bridge. It haunts our darkest dreams.'

Legolas: 'It was a Balrog of Morgoth. (we hear a mutter of fear in the room) Save for Sauron, the deadliest of all Elf-banes.'

Celeborn: 'A Balrog? Had I known the Dwarves had awoken such an evil I would have forbidden you all to enter. And I would say that Gandalf fell at last into folly needlessly.'

Galadriel touches Celeborn's arm lightly: 'None of the deeds of Gandalf's life were needless nor can we blame his followers. Do not repent your welcome to Gimli.' Cut to a view of Gimli bowed over with Galadriel beyond. He is out of focus and she is in focus. As she continues the focus switches.
Galadriel: 'If we had been exiled for long years from this beloved Lothlórien, could we pass nearby and not look upon our ancient home again, even though it had become an abode of dragons?' (Cut to a view of Gimli from over Galadriel's shoulder as she continues) 'Dark is the water of Kheled-zâram and cold are the springs of Kibil-nara and fair were the halls of Khazad-dûm in the Elder days.' As she speaks the dwarf-names, Gimli raises his head and his eyes glisten with tears.
Cut to Galadriel as she smiles in compassion. Cut back to Gimli as he smiles half-shyly. He stands and bows.

Gimli: 'Yet fairer is the living land of Lórien and fairer than the jewels beneath the earth is the Lady Galadriel.'

Cut to Celeborn just faintly raising his eyebrows: 'Forget my harsh words Gimli spoken in the troubles of my mind. I will do what I can to aid you all.'

Cut to Galadriel: 'Lothlórien stands across the Great River from Sauron's old stronghold in Mirkwood. Here Celeborn and I have fought the long defeat for many long ages. Your quest is known to us Frodo and now it lies on a knife edge. Yet even though Gandalf has fallen there is still hope left while the company remains true.' She stands and takes Frodo's hands in hers and looks down at him. Frodo looks worried and afraid. Cut to Sam as he looks away embarrassed . A brief cut to Legolas looking calmly back and then Aragorn seeming to look far into the distance.
Cut back to the two high seats as Galadriel sits again.

Celeborn: 'You are worn with sorrow and toil. Rest here until you are healed and refreshed.'
A brief cut to an ornate pavilion near the fountain with light escaping from chinks. Cut to a view inside with the fellowship sitting on the edge of couches. We hear the soft sound of the fountain.

Pippin: 'At least we are back on the ground again. Why did you blush Sam? Did she catch you thinking of stealing my blanket?'

Cut to Sam getting huffy: 'I never thought no such thing! I felt as if I hadn't got nothing on and I didn't like it. I felt she was asking me if I'd like to fly back to a nice hole and garden in the Shire.' Cut to the whole of the fellowship.

Merry: 'That's funny. That is just what I felt except….(he starts to look in his pack and mumbles) well, I don't want to say any more.'

Gimli, nodding: 'Thus it seemed to me too.'

Boromir: 'I am not too sure about this Elvish lady. Maybe it was a test to read our minds for her own purpose. I refused to listen of course. The men of Gondor are true to their word. She held you a long time Ring-bearer. Have a care.'

Aragorn shakes his head: ' You know not what you say. There is no evil in this land unless a man brings it here himself. Then let him beware. Tonight I will sleep without fear for the first time since we left Rivendell. (he rolls on to the couch) May I forget my grief for a while for I am weary in body and heart.'
Fade out.

[Trazúviel]

I loved the tension between Gimli and Legolas, I choked up when Frodo told of Gandalf's fall and smiled when Aragorn gave the elanor to Sam. I enjoyed also how you portraid Celeborn and Galadriel. Very true to the book.

[ToshoftheWuffingas]

Mr. V, I will try and squeeze something of Nimrodel in but you may have to wait a while. I am struggling with the multi-narrative at the moment and I will not follow the book. I don't think you can leave characters for many episodes and expect viewers to understand the time sequence or the overall story. So far I have identified 23 separate narrative sequences between the breaking of the fellowship and the Pelennor fields! Some of them are quite substantial too. I need each sequence to relate dramatically to each other.
Anyway here is the ending of Chapter Ten; The Lady of the Golden Wood.


Fade in to Frodo and Sam in daylight. Frodo is on his back, his head on a tree root, looking up. Sam is sitting nearby on a root buttress, examining some mallorn leaves that lie on the ground.

Frodo: ‘ Who could have imagined Gimli and Legolas exploring together? It must be this place. What do you think of Elves and their magic now you have seen more of them?’

Sam: ‘These ones seem more like us. They belong here like we do in the Shire. And the magic here is down deep. You wouldn’t see fireworks here like Gandalf’s. Ah, I’ll miss his fireworks.’

Frodo: ‘I’ll miss his voice and his temper (Sam nods and grins) and his bushy eyebrows. (Frodo sits up) I tried to put it in a poem but I haven’t got it right yet.
When evening in the Shire was grey
His footsteps on the Hill were heard;
Before the dawn he went away
On journey long without a word.
(Cut to Frodo’s face)
A deadly sword, a healing hand,
A back that bent beneath his load;
A trumpet-voice, a burning brand,
A weary pilgrim on the road.

A lord of wisdom throned he sat,
Swift to anger, quick to laugh;
An old man in a battered hat
Who leaned upon a thorny staff.’
(Cut to Sam’s face)
Sam: ‘ The finest rockets ever seen,
They burst in stars of blue and green
Or after thunder golden showers
Come falling like a rain of flowers.’

Cut to Frodo and Sam smiling in memory then:
Frodo: ‘He stood upon the bridge alone
And fire and shadow both defied;
His staff was broken on the stone,
in Khazad-dûm his wisdom died.’
They look at each other.

Frodo: ‘I can’t bear to think of bringing the news to Bilbo!’

Cut to an evening scene. Frodo and Sam stand with Galadriel beside a broad shallow silver basin that rests on a low pedestal. They are on a lawn bordered by shadowed hedges. A brief cut to the snow-capped mountain horizon with a single bright star above. Cut to Galadriel filling the basin from a slender silver ewer. She bends forward and blows gently on the surface then straightens.

Galadriel: This is the Mirror of Galadriel to look into if you wish. You may ask me to command it or wait to see what it shows you.’ A brief cut to Frodo silent and disturbed. Cut back and Galadriel turns to Sam.

Galadriel: ‘Do you wish to see Elf-magic?’

Sam: ‘I’ll take a peep if you’re willing. I’ve been away from home a terrible long time but like as not I’ll see stars.’ Galadriel takes his hand and gives a gentle laugh as he steps up on the base of the pedestal.

Galadriel: ‘Like as not. Do not touch the water.’
Cut to a close-up of Sam’s face across the bowl, his face reflected in the water. He looks expectant as he talks softly to himself.

Sam: ‘Just as I thought; stars. Oh, no.’
In the water we see obliquely a reflected scene of tree-tops moving in bright sunlight. Cut to a view from over Sam’s shoulder. The water appears to ripple quickly then we see Frodo’s face asleep in the dark by a rocky wall. It ripples again and we see Sam running up steps to a landing where he looks around urgently.

Sam, still softly:’I can’t make head nor tail of it yet.’
The surface ripples again and we see a tree falling. Cut to a view in real-life of Ted Sandyman standing next to a man as a team of hobbits pull a tree-trunk on rollers past a row of stumps towards a brick industial mill belching black smoke from a tall chimney. Cut back to Sam’s indignant face seen over the oblique view.

Sam: ‘That’s Ted Sandyman cutting the trees down that shade the road past the mill! There’s some devilry at work in the Shire.’ (the surface ripples again but we can’t clearly see the upside-down scene) ‘Oh, no! They’re digging up Bagshot Row! ‘ (again a ripple) There’s my poor old Gaffer with all his things in a barrow!’ (Sam’s face looks up at Galadriel in distress) ‘ I must go home.’ Cut back to all three. Frodo puts his hand on Sam’s shoulder.

Galadriel: ‘You didn’t wish to go home before you looked in the Mirror though you knew evil things might have happened. Be aware that not all things seen in it come to pass.’ Sam steps down and sits huddled on the grass rubbing his face. He looks up.

Sam: ‘I wish I had never come here and I don’t want to see any more magic.’ (he pauses and looks into the distance) ‘No, I’ll go by the long way home with Mr Frodo…. but if I do get back one day, someone will catch it hot!’

Galadriel turns to Frodo: ‘And you Frodo? You have wisdom enough.’

Frodo looks at Sam then back to Galadriel: ‘I will look.’
Cut to Frodo’s face reflected in the water. It ripples and we see indistinctly a white robed figure moving. We cut again to a view over Frodo’s shoulder as the white figure walks out of sight round a bend in a rocky road.

Frodo mutters softly: ‘Why should it show me Saruman the wizard?’ Ripples again and we see Bilbo at a paper strewn desk.. then a rough sea, then a white towered city surrounded by smokes then the water turns black. Frodo starts to straighten then a small red and yellow dot appears in the middle. It grows to fill the pool and we see a malicious intelligent slit eye that looks one way then another, searching. Frodo bends closer.
We hear Galadriel’s command: ‘Do not touch it!’
Cut to the three again as Frodo recovers and straightens.

Galadriel: ‘I know what you saw but do not fear the Eye here. This land is not defended by songs or arrows. Sauron gropes to see my mind but he cannot.’ (she raises her hand in denial and a dazzling gleam comes from her fingers) ‘Yet I see his when he bends his thoughts here.’ (she sees Frodo staring at her hand) ‘I cannot hide it from you Ring-bearer. It is Nenya, the Ring of Adamant. And here is our fate. If you fail and Sauron takes back his One Ring, he will see every secret defence we have erected and he will conquer. Yet if you succeed, the power of the three Elf Rings will fade and all we have preserved will fade too and then my people will either go into the West or dwindle to a forgotten lesser folk hidden in hill and wood.’

Frodo: ‘What do you wish?’
Galadriel: ‘I wish the Ring were never made or had stayed lost forever but you are not answerable for our fate; only for your own task. We would rather cast away this land we love than submit to Sauron.’

Frodo: ‘If you ask for it I will give it to you.’
Galadriel gives a small gasp and walks around in agitation. She returns and gives a brittle laugh.

Galadriel: ‘I have met my match in courtesy. You see with a keen eye. I have pondered what to do if the Great Ring came into my hands. To take it by force or fear from my guest would be a fine start to my ownership. But you offer it freely! ‘ (she takes a step towards Frodo) ’Instead of a Dark Lord you would have a Queen.’ (she raises her arms in incantation and light pours from her hand) ‘I shall not be dark but beautiful and terrible like morning and night; fair as the Sea and Sun and the mountain snow; stronger than the foundations of the earth and dreadful as the storm and lightning!’ (she steps again towards Frodo who steps back) All shall love me and despair!’ At this last word her voice dries. She sees Frodo’s reaction and she drops her hand and her shoulders droop and the twilight returns.

Galadriel, softly and sadly: ‘I pass the test. (she looks around at her realm) I will diminish and go into the West and remain Galadriel.’ They pause for a moment.

Frodo: ‘One question Lady, why cannot I see into the minds of others with this Ring?’

Galadriel, woken from a reverie replies matter of factly: ‘You haven’t learnt how. Do not try: it would destroy you.’

Sam: ‘I wish you had taken that Ring. You could put things to rights again. You’d make some folk pay for their dirty work.’

Galadriel, looking inside herself and nodding: ‘Yes, that is how it would begin. (she sighs) But it would not stop at that alas.’ (more briskly as she takes their hands and walks away) ‘We will not speak of it again. We have made our choices and now the tides of fate are flowing. Tomorrow you must depart.’
As they walk away from camera into the darkness the scene fades to black.
Closing credits.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Thanks, Tosh. She has always been a favorite of mine. But I understand your time constraints.

I'm really interested by what you say about the multi-narrative. What a challenge that is going to be!

[Trazúviel]

So far I have identified 23 separate narrative sequences between the breaking of the fellowship and the Pelennor fields!

I don't envy you this task! But I also can't wait to see your version. I'm confident you will do it right.

Galadriel's scene was very nicely done!

[ToshoftheWuffingas]

Still struggling! But it is time to start a new episode.


Blurred pools of abstract light jiggle and dance. We hear a lapping sound. The screen comes into focus on flowing, rippled water, glittering in bright sunlight. Cut to the prow of a small boat that shakes and quivers and bobs in the flow of the water. The opening credits come up; JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Episode Eleven: The Great River etc.
Cut to Elves stowing packs into three light craft moored to a wooden piled quay. Coils of thin rope are put in last. The camera moves past them to show a group sitting on the grass in the distance. Cut to the group; Celeborn and Galadriel are on seats with attendants standing behind them. The fellowship sit before them on the grass around a cloth strewn with food and piles of leaf-wrapped parcels. Cut to Gimli unwrapping one of the bundles and taking out a wafer. He leans over to Pippin at his side.

Gimli: ‘It is cram. The men of the North take it to eat on long journeys. Dull but useful.’
He nibbles a corner and his expression changes and he eats it all making appreciative sounds. Brief cut to Legolas smirking.
Gimli: ‘You spoil us. These are far better than the honey cakes of the Beornings.’ Cut to Celeborn and Galadriel smiling.

Galadriel, laughing: ‘ You have eaten a whole wafer of lembas? It is a day’s ration. I prepared them myself for you. Eat it sparingly when all other food is gone. There is a virtue in it that will sustain you through the hardest travel.’ (She gestures to an attendant who carries garments to them) ‘Here are Elf-cloaks for you. They cannot stop a blade but they can take on the colours of the land you walk in.’

Celeborn: ‘Have you decided your path yet?’

Cut to Aragorn shaking his head: ‘When first I set out from Rivendell I intended to go to the aid of Minas Tirith but now Gandalf has fallen my way is no longer clear.’ Cut back to Celeborn and Galadriel.

Celeborn: ‘You will have many days on the River Anduin until you reach the great falls of Rauros. Then you must then choose between the journey east to Mordor or the road to Minas Tirith on the western side.’

Galadriel, pausing a moment: ’Shadows now fall before us. Before you go I have other gifts as memories of Lothlórien. (She beckons Aragorn and turns to an attendant) ‘ You bear the sword that once threw down Sauron. When the time comes, he will know it. Here is a fitting scabbard for a blade first made in the deeps of time.’ (She holds it out and Aragorn takes it and bows. She bends forward and speaks more softly) ‘Is there anything else you would ask of me for we may not meet again?’

Aragorn, speaking softly too: ‘Lady, you know the only treasure I seek and only through darkness shall I come to it.’

Galadriel nods gently: ‘This may lighten your heart. Another left if as a gift for you if you passed this way.’ (She holds up a great green gem mounted within a silver eagle.) ‘This I gave to my daughter and she to hers and now it comes to you as a token of hope.’ (now she proclaims loudly) ‘I name thee Elessar, the Elf-Stone!’ Aragorn bows again and as he takes the talisman it catches the sun and the bright green gleam fills the screen.
Cut to Legolas receiving a great recurved bow and a thick quiver of arrows.
Cut to Sam standing before Galadriel and Celeborn, looking up with his hands behind his back.

Galadriel: ‘For you little gardener and tree-lover I have but a small gift.’ (She holds in her palm a small plain wooden box.) ‘In this is earth from my orchard with my blessing on it. It cannot guard you against danger but if you do find your way home it may remind you of Lórien that you have only seen in our winter.’ Sam bows clumsily and mumbles and walks backwards.

Galadriel turns to Gimli: ‘What gift would a Dwarf ask of the Elves?’

Gimli: ‘None Lady. It is enough to have looked upon the Lady of Lothlórien and heard her speak.’

Galadriel smiles good-naturedly and turns to her attendants: ‘Did you hear? Let no Elf say again that Dwarves are grasping and ungracious.’ (She turns back with a kind voice) ‘You shall not be our only guest without a gift. If there is something you desire, I bid you name it.’

Cut to Gimli looking unsure: ‘Nothing….unless…(he looks about) Is it permitted to ask? But you bid me name my desire.’ (He breathes deeply) ‘A single strand of your hair that outshines gold as the stars outshine the gems of the earth.’
Cut to Celeborn raising his eyebrows again as we hear a light tittering laughter.
Cut to Galadriel turning and silencing the laughter with a light frown. She looks up as if in memory and shakes her head gently. She looks down on Gimli again and smiles.

Galadriel:’ How can I refuse you since I commanded you to speak? What will you do with it?’

Cut to Gimli blushing red: ‘I will treasure it in memory of the words of comfort you gave me at our meeting. I will set it in imperishable crystal for my heirs as a pledge of friendship between the Mountain and the Wood.’
Cut to Galadriel tilting her head to one side to allow a lock to fall down. She cuts a long thin curl of hair with tiny shears, and coils it in her hand.
Cut to Gimli’s rough broad hand as Galadriel’s long delicate hand places the coiled lock in it.

Galadriel: ‘If hope does not fail then your hands will flow with gold yet it shall have no dominion over you.’
Cut to Frodo standing before her.

Galadriel, again softly: ‘Ring-bearer, you are not last in my thoughts.’ (She holds up a slim crystal tube capped by silver and held on a fine chain. It sparkles and motes of light play on her face and arms) ‘ In this phial is caught the light from Eärendil’s star within the waters of my fountain.’ (She looks intently at him to make him understand and speaks slowly and deliberately.) ’May it be a light to you in dark places when all other lights go out.’ She places the chain over Frodo’s head and tucks the phial inside his shirt.
Frodo looks at her silently for a moment then bows.
Fade to Sam clutching an Elf’s hand and reaching out to Aragorn as he tries unhappily to follow Frodo on to a boat. He rocks and suddenly sits down in the prow and grips the sides of the boat. Then his eyes light up as he spots the coil of rope and he reaches out for it.
Cut to the three boats; Aragorn, Frodo and Sam in one, Legolas and Gimli in another, Boromir, Merry and Pippin in the third.. Beyond them on the bank is Galadriel and three Elves with long poles held upright. She holds up her arms in farewell and the poles are lowered and push the craft out into the current.
Cut to the three boats getting smaller on the river as Galadriel in the foreground watches them. She says quietly to herself:
‘But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
(She turns her face for a moment towards the mountains and looks immeasurably sad.)
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a sea?’
She turns and watches the boats.
Cut to a distant view from the river of a solitary Galadriel on the bank.
Cut to Legolas paddling in front of Gimli. Gimli’s cheeks are wet.

Gimli: ‘Why did I come on this quest, Legolas? I was ready to face torment in the dark but I did not know the danger of light and joy. I have taken my worst wound at this parting.’

Legolas: ‘Such is the way of it; to find and to lose. We are like a boat on a running stream. May your memory of Lórien never grow stale.’ He quickly looks round to check his friend.

Gimli: ‘Thank you for your words. I hear for Elves memory is more like our waking world but for the Dwarves it is but a mirror.’ ( he wipes his cheeks) ‘But look to the boat. I do not wish to drown my grief in cold water.’
Several fades to helicopter shots of the boats on different lengths of the river. In one we see a flock of wildfowl beneath us following the course of the river.
Cut to the horns of Orthanc, dirty smoke plumes drifting up.. Cut to Saruman in white upon the black steps facing a group of six tall armoured orcs. The orcs have attendants who hold fearsome totems on poles. An armoured man stands by Saruman holding a black banner with a white hand.

Saruman: ’The day comes at last when I strike the first blow against Rohan. First I need King Théoden’s son to take my bait. I must be rid of him. Trap him at the Fords of Isen where their horses cannot manoeuvre. Go!’ He points to one orc and beckons to him as the others leave. The orc climbs the steps. Cut to a close-up of Saruman talking quietly to the orc.
Saruman: ‘ You know your mission. Take your war band to the Rauros Falls. Kill all you find but bring any halflings here to me. They must be neither harmed nor searched. Your lives depend on this, do you understand? Do this and you will command my army against the horse warriors. Now go!’
Cut to a close-up of Boromir paddling. He looks on edge and mutters to himself. He glances several times over to his side. The camera pans to Aragorn’s craft and we see Frodo watching him warily.
Cut to a view of the three craft from behind and close to the surface of the water. A bushy log drifts along behind them. We see Sam resting his chin on the stern looking back. Cut to a close-up of Sam drowsily looking around. His eyes suddenly return to a spot and they narrow and he stares. Cut to the floating log and two pale eyes open at the front of the log. Cut back to Sam straightening up and scratching his head.

[ToshoftheWuffingas]

The journey down the Anduin continues......

Cut to a night-time camp, Sam and Frodo are rolling out their blankets.

Sam: 'I had a funny dream today Mr Frodo. I thought I saw a log in the river with eyes.'

Frodo: 'I've seen plenty of logs in the river Sam but leave out the eyes. (a brief pause) But in truth, I have seen those eyes before. In Moria and again on our first night in Lórien.'

Sam: 'I reckon we could put a nasty name to them - Gollum.'

Frodo: 'I think he must have been in Moria and picked up our trail there.'

Sam: 'From now on we'll have to be watchful or we'll find his fingers round our necks one night.'
Cut to another long shot of the boats on the river. Cut to the boats abreast, the fellowship looking cheerful, the hobbits looking around. Some ducks fly up in alarm in front of them.

Merry, calling across: 'I saw some swans flying yesterday except I was sure they were black.'

Aragorn:' You were right. Black swans fly here from the far south.'

Legolas: 'I saw a bird far from its home the other day; one of the great Mountain Eagles from the north flying in the distance.'

Cut to a night scene as they paddle between sandbanks. Cut to a line of scaly bandy bare legs running along a shadowy sand bank silently.

Cut to a close-up of Aragorn: 'Take care among these shallows.'
Cut to orc legs again as they group together and push arrows in the ground.

Cut to Boromir: ' We are getting close to the rapids. We should stop and camp on the western side until daylight.' As he finishes speaking arrows pass him and plop into the water. One hits the side of the boat.
Cut to the three craft trying to cross against the current. One grounds on a sandbank. Cut to Boromir jumping out and pushing the boat free as arrows fly past him. He shakes one out of his Elf-cloak and jumps back in.
Cut to the boats pulled up on a bank. At the crest of the bank Legolas has an arrow on his great bow as he looks around. Cut to a view from behind him of the river in moonlight. Stars and a silver-lined cloud are above his head. We hear a dull rhythmic whooshing beat and an accompanying croaking caw getting louder. Cut to Frodo in the boat, eyes wide in horror and his hands covering his ears. Cut back to the view from behind Legolas. An indistinct black shape is seen against the cloud and grows to hide it. The alternate beat and croak get louder. Legolas draws back the bowstring fully. Cut back to Frodo shaking his head desperately in the boat and the croak and the beat. Suddenly the bowstring whistles and we hear the rush of the arrow.
Cut to a great indistinct flapping mass on the ground seen from above as shadows of orcs swarm around it. Roars and shrieks are heard.
Cut to Legolas looking out. Gimli and Frodo climb up beside him.

Legolas: 'I know not what I hit.'

Gimli: 'That was a mighty shot friend. I thought of the Balrog in Moria.'

Frodo: 'It was no Balrog.' He looks down and shakes his head and walks away.
Cut to a long view of the boats approaching the camera in a swift moving river between high cliffs. Cut to Sam crouched between the sides muttering to himself as spray hits his face.

Sam: 'What a horrible place! Once I'm out of here I'll never wet my toes in a puddle again.'
Cut to Aragorn seen from a low angle looking upwards. His hair flying, the green stone on his breast, he has a look of nobility.

Aragorn: ' Fear not. Here is the Argonath where Isildur and Anárion guard the northern entrance to Gondor.' Cut to Sam turning around to look over the prow and his eyes go up and up.
Cut to an eroded crowned head from behind, beyond it the narrow ribbon of the river. Cut to two figures carved from the rock from waterline to crest either side of the river. Each rests his hand on an axehead and holds up the other in warning. Their faces resemble Aragorn's.

Cut to Aragorn speaking softly to himself: 'Would that Gandalf were here. Which way shall I turn? I wish to return and help my city but Frodo needs me.'
Cut to the three craft entering the ravine that the two collossi guard.
Cut to a long shot of the boats emerging from the ravine on to a broad stretch of calm water. Cut to a great lake with three peaks at its end; the central one tall and steep. Cut to a golden sunset scene as the boats approach a grassy shore that rises towards woods. A brief cut of them pulling the boats up on to the grass.

[Trazúviel]

Tosh, your struggling is paying off! I like how the relationship with Gimli and Legolas is continuing to grow. I can't wait for the orc killing contest.

[ToshoftheWuffingas]

Thanks Traz. I hope I have given a little bit of dignity back to Gimli.

This coming piece finishes off Episode Eleven and more or less rounds off The Fellowship of the Ring though I don't end exactly where the Professor did. Once I found a workable voice in The Shadow of the Past it has taken me a little over six months. I think if I went back I would try to smooth the dialogue a bit. The severe abridgement I had to carry out has made some of it a bit choppy and it needs to flow a bit better. I hope I have shown that though long, it is not interminable and that each episode has plenty of tension, character and incident and enough happening at the end to make a viewer wish to find out more. Moreover, I hope that very little of importance has been left out, songs and poems excepted and even these have had some form of inclusion. I regret I have not provided much guidance to a musical soundtrack but I consider sound effects very important and have tried to describe those.


Cut to morning light and Aragorn faces the fellowship as they sit on the grass.

Aragorn: ‘Here on Amon Hen, Gondor’s ancient Hill of Seeing, comes the day when we must finally choose. Do we go with Boromir to aid Minas Tirith in the war that approaches or do we turn East to the Fear and Shadow? We cannot tarry – orcs are at hand.’
The camera pans around the fellowship who look unsure. Boromir bites his fingernails and his eyes dart this way and that.
Cut to Aragorn: ‘Frodo, as Ring-Bearer you must choose your way. I cannot advise you for I did not know Gandalf’s intentions.’

Cut to Frodo: ‘Can you give me an hour alone? I know haste is needed but I cannot choose yet.’

Cut to Aragorn: ’We will stay here then but do not go far.’

Cut to Sam, to himself quietly as he shakes his head: ‘Plain as a pikestaff it is.’
Cut to a view from further up the slope as Frodo rises from the fellowship and walks thoughfully up towards the camera. The focus changes and we see Boromir watching him. Cut to an extreme close-up of Boromir’s eyes.
Cut to Frodo picking his way up an overgrown slope among trees thick with lichens and moss. Cut to him sitting on the edge of a stone platform cupping his head in his hands with thought. His eyes suddenly focus and he looks around in alarm. Cut to Boromir walking up casually and smiling. The camera follows him as he walks up to Frodo.

Boromir: ‘If Aragorn is right about orcs you should not walk alone and undefended. May I sit and talk a while? Will you take my counsel?’ He sits next to Frodo.

Frodo: ‘Thank you. I know what I should do but I am too afraid to do it. I know what you would counsel but I must accept my burden and not choose an easier path. The strength of men is not enough. There is no hope for your city while this Ring still lasts.’ Boromir moves a little closer, still friendly.

Boromir: ‘Ah, the Ring! Such a small thing. I only saw it for an instant in Rivendell. Could I see it again? ‘

Cut to Frodo’s face as he realises: ‘It is best kept hidden.’ Cut back to the two.
Boromir shrugging and looking elsewhere: ‘As you wish, I care not.’ (he looks back) You all talk of its power in the hands of the Enemy but what if it were in our hands?’

Frodo: ‘You were at the Council in Rivendell. What is done with it turns to evil.’

Boromir, rising and striding around and frowning: ‘So those timid Elves and wizards have taught you to say. And maybe it would for them, loving magic as they do. True men would not be corrupted; all we need is the strength to defend ourselves. And chance brings this gift. (he stabs a finger at Frodo’s chest) ‘It is madness not to use it against him. A ruthless warrior like Aragorn could use it at this hour or if he refuses it then why not me? With the power of command I could throw down Mordor.’ (he is walking about now gesticulating and he comes back) ‘Yet the only plan is for a halfling (he says this with disgust) to give the Enemy every chance of recapturing it on his own doorstep! You say you are afraid but is it not just your good sense speaking?’

Frodo, slowly: ‘No I am simply afraid but thank you for my mind is clearer now.’

Boromir: ‘Then you will come with me to Minas Tirith for a while at least?’

Frodo: ‘No, you misunderstand me.’ Boromir puts his hand on Frodo’s shoulder and Frodo flinches and moves away.

Boromir: ‘Why are you so unfriendly? I am a true man and not a thief. You know I need your Ring but I do not desire to keep it. Will you lend it to me?’

Frodo, earnestly: ‘No! The Council laid it on me alone to bear it.’

Boromir: ‘ Obstinate fool! Running to your death and ruining our cause. If any have claim to the Ring it is us, not halflings.’ (as he continues his voice is tracked with Gollum’s in The Shadow of the Past) ‘It might have been mine; it should be mine. Give – it – to – me!’
Frodo moves around the large stone slab away from Boromir.

Boromir: ‘ You can be rid of it. You can blame me; say that I was too strong for you – for I am, halfling!’ He springs over the slab towards Frodo who runs around it and looks around him desperately for help. He pulls out the Ring on its chain around his neck and puts it on and vanishes.
Cut to Boromir, his arms groping at thin air.

Boromir: ‘Miserable trickster! You will take it straight to Sauron and sell us all. Curse all halflings to death and darkness!’ He runs and trips and falls headlong.
Cut to Frodo, glowing white, a pulsing gold light on his hand as he runs uphill through tangled trees and plants that flicker with luminous lines of green energy.

Cut to Boromir raising his head from the ground: ‘What have I done? Frodo come back! The madness has passed.’
Cut to Frodo approaching the back of a great stone chair on a tall dais that is encircled by a low wall. Moving mists and hazes surround him and we hear the rumble of the waterfall and the sound of birdsong unnaturally loud. A brief cut to Frodo climbing up the steps to the seat. Cut to him seated and he looks around him.
Cut to the rest of the fellowship still sitting around on the grassy slope.

Aragorn is standing : ‘Frodo must be debating which way to go. Eastwards to Mordor is even more dangerous since the orc-attack. Yet to go to Minas Tirith is only to delay.’ (he walks up and down and the uncertainty is clear) ‘It is now we miss Gandalf most.’

Cut to Sam: ‘You don’t understand my master, begging your pardons. He knows the way to go. What’s the use of that city of Boromir’s ?’ (he looks around for Boromir and not seeing him he frowns) ‘But he’s afraid. Terribly afraid. And when he screws himself up for it he’ll want to go alone.’ A brief reaction shot of Pippin and Merry looking at each other in indignation.
Cut to a medium shot of Boromir walking down dejectedly through the trees. Cut to him joining the fellowship and looking around for someone.

Aragorn: ‘Have you seen Frodo?’

Boromir: ‘Yes and no. I met him and asked him to come to Minas Tirith with me. I grew angry and he vanished before my eyes.’ (A brief cut to a startled Sam looking up) ‘I have only heard about such things in old tales. I thought he would return here.’

Aragorn walks up and puts his face close to Boromir’s: ‘Is that all you have to say?’

Cut to Sam getting up: ‘I don’t know what this man has been up to.’

Cut to Aragorn, still face to face with Boromir: ‘How long ago did this happen?’

Boromir: ‘An hour perhaps. I don’t know. I don’t know.’ He sinks down to the ground and holds his head in his hands

Sam: ‘An hour? We have to find him!’ He runs off up into the trees. Merry and Pippin follow.

Aragorn calling out: ’Not like that! No, hold on! Wait!’ Gimli and Legolas run off too.
The camera circles Aragorn to show his isolation. He looks from side to side helplessly. The camera stops and he looks down at Boromir.

Aragorn: ‘I do not know what part you have just played but help us now. Follow those hobbits and guard them. I shall return.' He runs off.
Cut to a medium distance view of Frodo looking small and distant on the high seat. Beneath the steps and the wall a flat carpet of mist stretches around him. Frodo still glows white and his hand still pulses with gold light. Cut to a close-up of Frodo looking downwards this way and that as if upon a giant chessboard. He looks behind his left shoulder. Cut to a view of the flat mist that dissipates to reveal the line of the Misty Mountains in miniature in their natural colours. Lórien is a golden haze almost hidden behind a dark forest and behind Lórien smokes rise from the mountains. The camera pans a little to another part of the Mountains and zooms to caves and long lines of armed orcs marching out.
Cut back to the longer view of Frodo on his seat and the mists evaporate to show a Middle-earth appearing like a scale model around him. We see the line of the river and the lake and the waterfalls below him. A brief close-up of Frodo looking over his right shoulder. Cut to tiny force of horsemen galloping over grasslands between snowcapped mountains bordered by forests. Cut to a miniature Orthanc wreathed in plumes of black smoke. Cut to the arched gateway that we saw Gandalf once enter. The gates fly open and from a black tunnel wolves rush out.
Cut back to Frodo turning back and looking troubled and thoughtful. He looks down and to his right. Cut to a view of a snaking River Anduin , past a long island, past a ruined city along its banks then past sharp bends out towards the Sea. Cut to Frodo screwing his eyes up and looking into the distance. Cut to the camera traversing the sea until a long crescent of black-sailed galleys appears.

Cut back to Frodo whispering to himself: ‘Everywhere war is coming .’ He changes the direction of his gaze. Cut to a tiny Minas Tirith, flags flying. The camera pans across to the ruined city on the river and then on to the entrance to a dark valley. Cut to the camera entering the valley and tracking along it till it comes to a pale fortress, the top of its single tower fashioned like a grinning skull. The fortress glows with the same greenish-white light that we saw in the Barrow. The camera rises above the jagged mountains behind it. The desert plain of Gorgoroth appears split by fissures and covered by thousands of black and red tents. The camera pans left to show the distant shape of Mount Doom, its summit red and black with turmoils of fire and smoke. Behind it is a vast black bank of haze, smoke and murk, shifting about. The camera zooms to those clouds and we see glimpses of black battlements . Cut to a close-up of Frodo, his eyes wide and staring. Cut again to the mass of black cloud and part of it breaks to reveal a single black tower.
Cut to a glowing crystal globe held within the open jaws of a carved stylised wolf. Beyond it is a bare black stone platform and beyond that a swirling brown murk. Cut to a close-up of the globe. Suddenly two dark grey mottled and clawed hands grasp it and raise it up. The hands are plump and somewhat dwarf the globe and one hand has a finger missing. Cut to a clear view of the globe held within the taloned hands and we see an image of the river form and resolve. The image moves up and down the river as if searching.
Cut to Frodo sitting hypnotised and frozen with fear. Cut back to the view of the black tower revealed in the break in the murk. A tiny red dot appears at the top and swells until it conceals the shadows. As it swells it becomes a malicious red slit eye looking this way and that. Cut back to the globe between the clawed hands as within it images of the waterside pass by. It suddenly stops and goes back to three boats pulled up on a grassy slope.

Cut back to Frodo’s face. Distantly we hear a voice: Take it off! Take it off!’ Frodo still does not move.

Then a slow, silky, sleek, confident, well-fed voice: ‘Verily, verily I come to you.’
Cut to black.
Closing credits.

[ToshoftheWuffingas]

Now the story moves on to The Two Towers. I will follow a different narrative path now so expect a few surprises.


The camera travels up and across wide dark steps stained with blotchy brown until it reaches a bare platform with a solitary black stone slab with brown stains running down it. Murky clouds surround the scene. The opening credits come up. JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: Episode Twelve The Black Gates of Mordor etc. The camera rests there a moment then cuts to tracking up tall black walls past cages hanging from corbels that contain blackened corpses. Cut to a glowing globe held between clawed fat dark hands. Within the globe is an image of three boats drawn up on fresh green grass. Cut from the globe to a luminous Frodo screwed up in one corner of a great stone chair. He is wide-eyed and terrified. Brief cut to the pulsing band of gold on his hand. Cut to the great slit Eye in the mists looking this way and that.

A sleek amused cruel voice: ‘Verily, verily I come to you!’

Cut back to Frodo. Another, more distant echoing voice: ‘Take it off Fool! Take off the Ring!’
Frodo looks down and takes it off and the scene immediately changes to normal colours. He throws himself forward, rolling down the steps. Cut to him rolling and landing behind some low battlements. Cut to the globe again. The image within it moves across until it comes to the empty seat. It rests there for a second or so then moves on into trees. We suddenly see a host of armed orcs in the trees. The globe zooms in to a shield bearing a white hand on a black background.

Cut to a close-up of Frodo’s face as he lies panting: ‘ Now I know I must go alone. Already it has brought evil into our fellowship.'
A medium distance cut to a small Frodo running down the hill and into the distance with the high seat in the background.
Cut to Sam running up a hill. Aragorn passes him on his long legs and stoops to look at signs on the ground.

Aragorn: ‘ Keep up with me Sam. Frodo went this way.’ Sam watches him disappear into the trees and he comes to a halt puffing.

Sam: ‘My legs are too short. I must use my head. I reckon he’ll go East on his own because of that Boromir. Even without me. Oh that’s hard, cruel hard! Now he’ll need – a boat. Yes!’ Sam turns round and runs downhill.
Cut to a close-up of a boat sliding into the water by itself as Sam runs down the grassy bank in the background. Cut to Sam floundering in the water. Cut to his head coming up and Sam gasping for breath before his head goes under again. Cut to the boat appearing beside him and his elf cloak being pulled up.

Sam: Help me! I’m drownded!’ Cut to Sam staggering ashore coughing as the boat rocks and Frodo appears from nowhere on the other side.

Frodo: ‘ Sam, you are a confounded nuisance.’

Sam, bedraggled and coughing: ‘That was hard, trying to go without me.’

Frodo: ‘ Sam, it might be the death of you if you follow me. I could not bear that. Please do not hinder me. If I have to explain to the others I will lose heart again.’

Sam, quietly: ‘I’m coming with you or neither of us goes.’

Frodo looks into Sam for a moment: ‘Very well Sam. Get your pack and some spare food.' (a pause as he looks around then back at Sam) ' I cannot tell you how glad I am. I only hope the others find a safe road with Strider. I don’t suppose we shall ever see them again.’

Sam: ‘ Yet we may Mr Frodo, we may.’ Frodo gazes at him and nods faintly.
Fade to a distant craft approaching a barren rocky shore. The camera rests on them for a moment then pans along the banks and blurs into abstract pools of colour and light and the sound of the falls grows louder and the camera comes into focus again as it sweeps down the face of the great falls into rainbowed spray and the screen fades slowly to black and the sound fades away.
The screen stays black for a moment.
A sudden crack of thunder that rolls and echoes. The screen stays black. A long lightning flash and another crack of thunder and we see Frodo splayed out on a cliff-ledge looking downwards over his shoulder. Cut to Sam in dim light kneeling by a rock edge above him looking down.

We hear the weak voice of Frodo: ' I can’t find any hold. I can’t move.’

Sam: ‘What can I do? ‘ (Another short lightning flash and a burst of heavy rain hits him.) ‘I’m coming down.’

Cut to Frodo’s face, his cheek against the rock: ‘No, you can’t do anything without a rope.’

Sam’s voice from above: ‘Rope! I deserve to be hung from one as a numbskull.! Sam Gamgee, you’re nowt but a ninnyhammer!’

Frodo, half grinning: ‘Stop chattering. Have you got rope in your pockets then?’

Sam’s voice from above again: ‘Yes, I forgot all about it. I stowed some of the Elves’ rope in my pack when we left Lórien. Wait while I find it and tie it fast up here and I’ll be down.’

Cut to a view of Frodo from the side as he is pressed against the cliff. Sam descends a few yards beyond him. The rope is luminous in the dark.

Sam: ‘There’s enough of it to get off these hills at last. I’ll go first.
Cut to Frodo climbing down as Sam reaches up from the ground to help him. Thunder rumbles in the distance. As Frodo stands by Sam they both look in the same direction.

Sam: ‘That storm is bound somewhere else.’ A brief cut to lightning flickering under heavy clouds on the horizon.

Frodo: ‘Boromir said that Sauron could raise storms on his borders. I wonder where he is sending it and for what purpose.’
Sam is looking up at his rope as Frodo continues: ‘Anyway, down at last. Three days stuck in these hills. When I looked out from the high seat I saw war coming in every direction. We cannot waste any more time.’

Sam looks up: ‘ Stuck up there, this is just a staircase for that miserable Gollum.’

Frodo: ‘Maybe he lost our trail in those bare hills.’

Sam: It goes hard losing something from the Lady Galadriel.’ He tugs the rope again and it snakes down around his shoulders and pack.

Frodo, pointing: You mean I trusted myself to your knots?’

Cut to Sam pouting: ‘I may be no use at climbing but my Uncle Andy used to make rope and I put a strong hitch up there.’ (he starts to coil it) ‘I reckon that came when I called. It was Elf-magic.’

Cut to Frodo looking outwards: ‘ Tomorrow somehow we have to find a way through that stinking marsh.’
Cut to the hobbits rolled in their blankets at the foot of a cliff. Cut to a view of the camouflaged hobbits from above down the cliff-face. We hear a faint snuffling sound and slowly the camera moves down the cliff. We hear a sibilant whisper.

Gollum: ‘Sssss. We mustn’t risk our neck must we precious? It’s ours and we wants it. The filthy little thieves! We hates them.’
Cut back to a medium shot of the hobbits sleeping as a splayed out upside down figure slowly proceeds down the cliff towards them. The shot continues long enough to be suspenseful. As it nearly reaches them it puts out a long skinny arm towards one hobbit. Suddenly the other sits up and grabs the arm and pulls it off the cliff. The two become an indistinct scuffle in the shadows. Cut to a close-up of a wild-eyed scrawny creature behind Sam, it’s arm across Sam’s throat. Sam butts his head backwards and the creature bites Sam’s shoulder. Sam bellows with pain. They roll again. Cut to a full view of the two and the creature’s legs are wrapped round Sam’s as it squeezes Sam’s throat in its hands. Then the pair are hidden by a figure in a grey cloak. Cut to a close-up of the creature’s face as a sword edge rests across its throat.

We hear Frodo’s commanding voice: ‘Let go Gollum! You have seen Sting once before. Let go or it will cut your throat!’
Cut to Gollum kneeling down and whining as Frodo stands over him with the sharp point of Sting at his throat. Sam massages his shoulder and prepares to kick Gollum but thinks better of it.

Gollum: ‘Don’t hurt us nice little hobbitses. They jumped on us like cats on poor mice they did. We are so lonely, gollum. We’ll be very nice to them if they’ll be nice to us, won’t we?’

Sam: ‘What’s to be done with it? I’ll tie it up to stop it sneaking after us.’

Gollum starts crying pitifully: ‘But that would kill us. Gollum would starve in this cold hard land. Cruel little hobbits, gollum.’

Frodo looks at Gollum and then his sword: ‘No. If we kill him we must do it now.’ (Gollum wails and prostrates himself on the ground.) ‘ But we can’t do it. He has done us no harm.’

Sam, still rubbing his shoulder: ‘Oh no? But he means to. He’ll throttle us in our sleep; that’s his plan.’

Cut to Frodo alone, still looking at his sword: ‘I daresay.’ He pauses in thought and looks in the distance.
Fade to a bright but faded pastel coloured scene inside Bag End from back in The Shadow of the Past in Episode Two. Gandalf is talking to Frodo.

Gandalf: ‘It was Pity and Mercy that stayed Bilbo’s hand, not to strike without need.
Frodo: ‘ I do not feel any pity for Gollum.’
Gandalf: ‘You have not seen him.’
Frodo: ‘But Gollum deserves death.’
Gandalf: ‘I daresay. Many that live deserve death. Some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice. Even the Wise cannot see all ends.’ The scene fades out to Frodo in the wilderness above the prostrate Gollum and he lowers his sword.

Frodo: ‘Now that I see him I do pity him Gandalf.’ (he looks down at Gollum) ‘But you are still full of wickedness Gollum and you will have to come with us and help us.’ Gollum sits up and looks at each hobbit and then the sword. Frodo sheathes it.

Gollum: ‘Yesss. Nice hobbits. We will find them safe paths. And where are we going in these cold hard lands we wonders.’

Frodo: ‘You know well enough Sméagol. We are going to Mordor of course. And you know the way.’ Gollum covers his ears.

Cut to Gollum: ‘Ach, yes we guessed. Ashes and dust and thirst and pits and orcs; thousands of orcs. Nice hobbits mustn’t go there. We went there once but we won’t go back. No, no, no!’ (he holds himself and rocks) ‘ Leave me alone! My poor hands! I can’t find it. No! Don’t look at us!’ He buries his head under his arms. Cut to the three.

Frodo: ‘He won’t go away Sméagol. To be free of Him you must help me find a way to Him but you do not need to pass his borders again.’

Gollum cackles: ‘Find orcs. They will take you to Him.’

Frodo: ‘No. Will you show me the paths after we have slept Sméagol?’ Frodo raises his eyes to Sam and they both nod.
Cut to Frodo and Sam sitting up against the cliff wall, their heads over their shoulders as they sleep. Gollum sits hunched up near them. Cut to Gollum. He opens one eye and looks around. Slowly he leans forward into a silent crawl and moves away. Suddenly Frodo jumps in front of him with Sting drawn and Gollum turns and leaps in a different direction. Cut to Sam landing squarely on top of Gollum as Frodo runs up with Sting. Cut to the two standing and looking down at Gollum as he looks up at them sullenly.

Sam: ‘And where were you off to we wonders?’ Gollum gives Sam an evil look.

Frodo: ‘Tie him by his ankle.’
Cut to Sam tying the rope around his ankle purposefully with a hard look on his face while Frodo stands above with Sting. As Sam stands up Gollum starts to screech and cry, writhing and twisting around to bite at his ankle. Frodo squats down and looks at the knot.

Frodo: ‘Your knot isn’t too tight Sam. What’s the matter Sméagol? We don’t wish to hurt you.’

Gollum, still writhing: ‘ It hurts us. It bites. It freezes. Nasty elves twisted it. Take it off us.’ He looks up pleadingly.

Frodo, standing up: ‘We dare not set you free. (he pauses) ‘Is there a promise we can trust?’ Gollum stops and looks intensely at Frodo.

Gollum, quietly: ‘Sméagol will swear on the Precious.’

Frodo points down at Gollum sternly: ‘How dare you? Think! It will hold you and twist your words and betray you.’

Gollum: ‘On the Precious. On the Precious. I will be very good.’ (He crawls over to Frodo’s feet and looks up. Cut to his face)) ‘ Sméagol will swear on the Precious that he will never, never let Him have it. Never! Sméagol will save it’ (Cut back to Frodo and Gollum) ‘But he must swear on the Precious.’

Frodo, coldly: ‘Not on it. All you wish is to see it and touch it again. Swear by it instead. (Gollum reaches up) ‘Down Sméagol! Speak your promise!’ Gollum shrinks down and kneels before Frodo.

Gollum: ‘Yes, we promises. I will serve the Master of the Precious. Good Master. Good Sméagol.’
He weeps again and turns to bite at his ankle. Sam walks up, bends and cuts the rope free. Gollum leaps up and dances around and kisses Frodo’s feet.

Cut to Gollum pointing in the distance: ‘There is a way across the marshes. I found it I did. The orcs don’t know it. Very lucky you found Sméagol.’ (He turns and bounds off and stops and looks over his shoulder ) ‘Follow Sméagol.’
Cut to Sam giving a sceptical look to Frodo. Fade out.

[ToshoftheWuffingas]

The story continues........




Fade in to the three standing by a stream that falls over low rocks into marshes which stretch away into patchy mists. Sam is filling the water bottles.

Frodo to Gollum: 'We must eat first. We have little but you can share with us.'

Gollum, nodding: 'We are famisshed, yes precious. Have they nice fisshes?'

Frodo takes from his jacket a half-opened parcel of lembas: 'No fish but we have these.'

Gollum looks doubtful and sniffs a wafer: 'It stinks of Elves it does.' (he takes a large bite out of the wafer then coughs and noisily spits it out and wipes his mouth) 'Dust and ashes! Sméagol must starve but he doesn't mind. Sméagol promised to be good. Poor thin Sméagol.'

Frodo: ' I'm sorry. This would do you good but perhaps you can't try it yet.' Gollum moves away and sits at a distance hunched up with his back to them as Sam walks up.

Cut to close-up of Sam speaking low: 'How long will this take us? Lembas keeps you on your feet wonderfully but it doesn't grow. There's enough for three weeks with a tight belt and a light tooth. But what then?'

Cut to Frodo looking out over the marshes: 'I don't know how long it will take to…..finish. We spent too long lost in these hills.' (The camera pulls back to show the two as Frodo rests his hand on Sam's arm.) 'But Samwise Gamgee, my dearest hobbit, friend of friends, do we need to give thought to what comes after? Even if we do the job. If the Ring goes into the Fire and we are close by? I ask you Sam, are we likely to ever want bread again?'
Sam looks at Frodo for a moment then nods in understanding. He grips Frodo's hand on his arm then wipes his nose and turns abruptly.

Sam: 'Now where's that dratted Gollum?' Cut to Gollum lolloping up with a muddy face and clutching a fistful of wriggling worms. He proceeds to pop them in his mouth one by one. Very brief cut to Sam's look of disgust.

Gollum: 'Hobbits ready now? Trust Sméagol.' He bounds off.
Two or three brief cuts of the hobbits following Gollum in a boggy landscape. Mists drift past. Cut to them slipping and clambering up short slopes on their hands and knees covered in black mud. The only vegetation is pond scum and tall bent dead clumps of grasses.

A close-up of Sam on his hands and knees muttering : 'Three little Gollums in a row we are. And the stink! Pfaugh!' Fade out.
Brief fade to the three travelling, Frodo well to the back. Cut to a large black shallow pool. Blue flickers of light hover over bubbles in the black water. Cut to Gollum looking back as he leaves the water.

Gollum: 'Don't look at the tricksy lights. Candles of corpses they are. Where is Master?'
Cut to Frodo looking lost and absent, standing still in the shallow pool. Cut to Sam wading back towards camera away from Gollum. He trips and falls forward and catches himself and holds himself just clear of the water's surface. Cut to a view from above over his shoulder. The ripples clear and we see a face under the water with staring eyes look up at him. Sam springs up in fright and looks back at Gollum.

Sam: 'There are dead things, dead faces in the water!' Frodo walks into the scene as if sleep-walking.

Frodo: 'They lie in their pools deep under the water.' (Cut as he speaks to fades of dead faces under water) ' Many faces proud and fair and weeds in their silver hair.' (cut back to Frodo's face) 'All rotting, all dead. Men and Elves and Orcs.'

Cut to Gollum: ' You cannot reach them. I tried once.' Another brief cut to Sam's disgust.
Fade to the three walking over dried cracked mud flats. Frodo is walking bowed over, hand over his chest as if hiding the Ring.
Cut to a low dried up bank, bare of vegetation. The camera tracks along it passing a crumpled skeleton protruding from the side and small evidences of armour. The camera stops at the three travellers peering over the top. Cut to a view of endless grey ash heaps. Dust blows in thin streams from the tops. There is a constant bitter whining sound of wind. Cut to the three, now caked in grey dust skulking behind one heap and scurrying on to the shelter of another. Cut to Frodo and Sam.

Sam, over the sound of the wind: 'I feel sick.'

Frodo: 'There was life of sorts in the Dead Marshes. Here all is dead and poisoned. No Spring or Summer will ever come here.' Fade out.
Fade in to a dawn with long black shadows. Oily pools and mud surround two small hills of broken rock and ash not far apart. The camera rises up above the hills and hovers over a dip in the far side of one. A murky coloured pool is in one side of the dip. The camera zooms a little downwards and we can make out the grey humps of the hobbits. Cut to Frodo's face, calm and asleep. Cut to Sam and he is asleep too. Cut to a close-up of his eyes and the lids are slightly open and observant. Cut to a hunched up Gollum. He is talking to himself with two different voices; one fearful, one angry. Cut to a close-up of his face as his thoughts conflict.

Gollum #1: 'Sméagol promised to help the Master.'
Gollum #2: 'If we were the Master we could help ourselves'
Gollum #1: ' But the Precious holds the promise.'
Gollum #2: ' Then take it and make the nassty hobbit crawl, yes gollum.'
Gollum #1: 'Not the one who speaks nicely to me?'
Gollum #2: 'No. But he's a Baggins and we hate Bagginses. See, my precious, if we has it we can escape and grow strong. Stronger than Wraiths. Lord Sméagol; Gollum the Great. (he puffs up like a frog) The Gollum! Have fissh three times a day. We wants it. We-wants-the-Precious!'
Cut back to Sam watching under his eyelids.
Cut back to Gollum #1: ' But there's two of them. They will wake up and kill us. Not now. Not yet.'
Gollum #2: 'Not yet.' (his eyes go blank and then smile coldly and he whispers) 'But there is a way. She might help us.'
Gollum #1, in horror and softly: 'No! Not that way!'
Gollum #2: 'Yes. Yes. We wants it. We must have it!'

Cut to Sam, theatrically waking up and rubbing his eyes: 'What's the time?'
Cut to Gollum looking evilly at Sam then he crawls forward and smiles helpfully.

Gollum: 'Nice hobbits, sleepy heads. It's time to go again.'

Cut to Sam gently rousing Frodo: 'Are you alright Mr Frodo?'
Frodo wakes looking calm and peaceful: 'Yes Sam. I dreamt again about the tower.'

Sam: 'Not the Dark Tower?'

Frodo, at peace with himself: 'No. A high white tower on a green hill. I dreamt about it once long ago at Tom Bombadil's. When I climbed to the top I saw the broad Sea stretch out before me.' The camera pans away from them over the grey ash wastelands behind them.

[Trazúviel]

Then a slow, silky, sleek, confident, well-fed voice: ‘Verily, verily I come to you.’
Cut to black.

*shudders*
*continutes reading*


Very good, very good...I think it's moving along nicely, and you aren't cutting anything important.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Great stuff!

[ToshoftheWuffingas]

Thank you. I'm glad it is still being appreciated. I decided Sauron's call was a better cliff-hanger than Frodo and Sam's departure over the Anduin.
Here is the end of episode twelve......

Cut to dark rusted rivetted panels. The camera travels up slowly and a vertical crack appears and grows and we see the immense thickness of a gate appear. The camera continues up over the keystone of an arch that bears a richly worked heraldic Eye then up towards battlements. Just before the top is a row of spikes with the remains of heads and skulls impaled. The camera stops at the battlements and above them we see patrolling spears and through the slits we see braziers and moving shapes. Blaring trumpets are heard.
Cut to a low ground-level shot of the partially opened gates and marching armoured men enter in column and disappear into the blackness within. Cut to a distant long view of the gates set between black towers built around spurs of the mountains. The line of marching men looks miniscule beside the fortifications. The road is a bare open space and the line of men and wagons stretches to the left and vanishes in a dust haze. The camera pans around 180 degrees to two small hills with dirty pools and sludge in front of them. The camera zooms gradually to the crest of one hill then cuts to the three travellers looking out from cover near the skyline. Cut to a close-up of them.

Sam, sounding a little high pitched and speaking quickly: ‘My word if the Gaffer could see me now! He often said I’d come to a bad end if I didn’t watch my step. Now he’ll never get the chance to say “I told ‘ee so!” I wish I could see his old face again. I’d have to wash all this filth off me first or he’d never know me.’ (while Sam gabbles nervously Frodo looks stricken) ‘Where do we go now? We can’t get any further here.!’

Gollum: ‘Sméagol knew. Master said, so good Sméagol takes him here. Wise master.’

Frodo: ‘I did because I mean to enter Mordor and know no other way. I do not ask anyone to go with me.’ He starts to rise and Gollum reaches up and drags him back down.

Gollum: ‘No Master, no! Don’t take the Precious to Him! If he gets it he will eat us; eat all the world. Don’t let him have it. Give it back to little Sméagol. He will do lots of good to nice hobbits.’

Frodo:’ I am commanded to go to Mordor. What comes after must come.’
Cut to Sam’s face as he looks into himself and he tightens his mouth in resignation. Cut back to an agitated Gollum and Frodo.

Gollum: ‘Not this way. There is another way. Sméagol knows it. Sméagol found it. More secret. Let Sméagol show you.’
Cut back to the three. Frodo looks up at Sam who lightly shakes his head. He looks back down at Gollum intently.

Frodo: ‘You have not spoken of this before.’ ( he pauses) ‘So far you have kept your promise and done no harm to us but you are in danger Sméagol.’

Gollum: ‘Yes, yes, dreadful danger.’

Frodo: ‘No I mean a danger for you alone. You swore an oath by the Precious. It will hold you to it but it will twist you. Already you said, “Give it to Sméagol.” ‘ (Frodo adopts a commanding tone) ‘ You will never get it back. In the last need I would put it on and command you to jump off a precipice or into the Fire. And you would obey.’ (he pauses as Gollum writhes on the ground in abject fear) ‘So have a care Sméagol.’ Cut to Sam nodding with approval.

Cut to Frodo who speaks more kindly: ‘Come Sméagol. Tell me of this other way. I am in haste and war is coming.’
Cut to the three as Gollum incoherently points to the right and grovels again.

Gollum: ‘Road runs a long way south between the Mountains of Mordor and the River…. There is a turning….It goes up a valley….round a black rock then you’ll see it. The terrible fortress.’
Frodo looks up and we see a brief fade to the vision of Minas Morgul that Frodo saw at Amon Hen.

Cut back to Frodo turning to Sam: ‘He means Minas Morgul; the fortress that Mordor captured. Once it was the Tower of the Moon and Isildur built it; he who cut the Ring from Sauron’s hand.’ (he turns back) ‘What of this place Sméagol?’

Cut to Sméagol who is covering his eyes: ‘Yess. The Black Hand has only four fingers. (he cries in pain) I saw it! I saw it! No, no!’ (again he is incoherent for a while then recovers a little and looks up) ‘The tower is terrible now but Master will have to go that way.’

Cut to a sceptical Sam: ‘So do we knock on the door?’

Cut to Gollum: ‘Not funny it isn’t. It is guarded but His Eye doesn’t watch there. He thinks the fortress keeps it safe and the path there is too small for big armies. He watches here where the armies have to come. But Master mustn’t go to the terrible tower. Sméagol helps again. He found it.’ (he whispers) A little path, a narrow stair:’ ( cut to a view of the steep way up the mountain) ‘very long and high and forgotten. Then a tunnel.’ (Cut to Gollum smiling then a cut to a small black entrance in a cliff face) ‘Then a path down into Mordor. That is the way Sméagol escaped.’

Cut back to the three. Sam, getting impatient: ‘It sounds too easy. Wasn’t it guarded Gollum?’ Gollum twists away to avoid their eyes.

Frodo: ‘Tell us Sméagol. Is this secret way guarded?’

Gollum looks up sulkily then looks away again: ‘Yes, perhaps. No safe places in this land. But no other way.’
Frodo sits down and clasps his knees. The camera rises up to show the gates of Mordor with the army and the wagons still marching in. Fade to Frodo again still sitting.

Frodo: ‘Gandalf never told me how to get into Mordor. But I took on this task back in my sitting room in the Shire almost a year ago though it now feels like a different Age of the world.’ (he rises) ‘Well, Sméagol, I will come with you.’
Cut to Sam looking suspiciously at Gollum as Frodo lets him drink from his water bottle.
Fade to black.
Closing credits

[ToshoftheWuffingas]

You all fell in love with Bookamir; some of you fell in love with Filmamir. See what you think of Toshamir. The new episode starts.




A dark screen. Sam’s voice is heard accompanied by the sounds of sporadic splashing of water. As his voice continues we start to see scenes of hillsides.
Grey as a mouse,
Big as a house,
Nose like a snake,
I make the earth shake.
With horns in my mouth
I walk in the South,
Flapping big ears.
Beyond count of years
Oliphaunt am I,
Biggest of all,
Huge old and tall.
If ever you met me
You wouldn’t forget me.
If you never do,
You won’t think I’m true;
But old Oliphaunt am I,
And I never lie.
The scenes fade into each other of clumps of pine trees on hill-tops, rosemary sprawling over rocks, blue periwinkles entwined in laurel bushes, bumble bees alighting on small spring bulbs starting to emerge and great checquer-board barked holm-oaks. The opening credits come up; JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings: Episode Thirteen Judgement in Ithilien etc. The scenes continue into narrow waterfalls falling down high cliffs and bubbling streams. As Sam finishes his little ode we cut to the two hobbits waist deep in a pool washing themselves. Gollum is seen in the background squatting on the bank and chewing on a fish.

Sam: ‘That was a tale we were told as children about the Big Folk in the South. Oliphaunts with houses on their backs and they throw trees at each other. But maybe there ain’t no such beast.’ Frodo laughs.

Cut to Gollum looking up, behind him are the hobbit clothes drying in the sun on bushes: ‘Sméagol doesn’t want them to be.’
A brief cut to the three walking through a high wood, butterflies playing in the sunbeams. Cut to Frodo in a clearing among trees sprawled out asleep in front of a stand of last year’s bracken. Sam is scrunching up dead bracken and Gollum is creeping off but pauses when Sam talks to him.

Sam: ‘Leastways Gollum, this path you chose for us is a sight more pleasant than the one we picked. Now if I ask nicely, could you catch for us a couple of rabbits while you are hunting? We could do with a change.’ Gollum looks at him and mutters to himself and creeps away. Sam stands and walks over to Frodo and looks down at him. A close-up of Frodo’s face then cut to Sam. He shakes his head.

Sam: ‘There’s a light coming from him like in Rivendell. But I love him, whether or no.’
Fade to Sam wandering into the trees, picking up a few dead branches. Cut to him inside a glade, sunlight again playing through the branches on to the forest floor. Cut to a trunk in the foreground, its bark ripped off and dirty smears of brown on the white wood and above the smears a rough slit eye daubed in red. Sam passes the other side without seeing it. Cut to a line of entwined climbing plants filling the lower part of the screen in a partly focussed foreground and above it a dozen or so yards in the background is Sam’s appalled face. Cut to a blackened burnt circle on the ground; in the middle is a dark pile covered by rambling plants. Cut to a closer view and the pile is made of blackened skulls.
Cut to Sam returning warily to the sleeping Frodo. Gollum appears dragging two rabbits. He hands them over and sits expectantly. A few quick shots of Sam skinning the rabbits, cutting out a turf, sparking tinder and cooking the rabbits in a pan.

Cut to Gollum: ‘What for, silly hobbit? Spoiling beautiful meat. And fire will bring enemies.’

Cut to Sam, busy: ‘Each to his own. Our lembas chokes you and raw coney chokes me. I’ve put no wet stuff on the fire to smother it. I’ll see it don’t smoke. I need herbs and taters now. Can you get me some herbs Gollum?’ Cut to the two.

Gollum: ‘Sméagol doesn’t like smelly leaves unless he is sick. And what is taters?’

Sam: ‘Potatoes. Rare ballast for an empty belly but you won’t find any here worse luck.’ Gollum pulls a face.
Fade to Sam handing a pan of meat and broth to a half-wakened Frodo. Cut to the two sitting close together sharing the meal from the one pan and licking their fingers.

Cut to Sam turning and whistling softly: ‘Gollum, there’s a little left if you want some.’ (he turns back) ‘He must have gone off again.’
Cut to Sam washing the pan in a stream. We hear a birdcall and Sam looks up and frowns. Then another birdcall from a different direction and Sam stands up looking alarmed. Cut to a view up a slope and we see a thin ribbon of blue smoke. Cut to Sam running up the hill with the pan. Quick cuts of him stamping the fire out and replacing the turf.

Frodo comes up and urgently whispers: ‘I think I heard voices.’ Brief cuts of the hobbits filling their packs and running into the bracken. Cut to their two faces close together in the shade of the fronds.

Voice #1: ‘The fire was here. It must be in these ferns. We have it trapped then.’
Cut to four armed men facing each other across an area of bracken pushing spears into the brown fronds. They wear clothing of greens and browns. Suddenly the two hobbits jump up in their midst and stand back to back with their hands on their sword hilts.

Soldier #1: ‘They aren’t orcs then.’
Soldier #2: ‘Nor Elves for Elves are fair to look upon. What are they?’

Sam takes his hand from his sword: ’Thank you kindly. When you finish discussing our looks will you let two tired travellers rest?’

Soldier #3: ‘I am Faramir, a captain of Gondor. There are no travellers in Ithilien any longer; only servants of the Dark Tower or the White.’

Frodo: We are neither and are travellers whatever Captain Faramir may say.’
Faramir, briskly: ‘Tell me your errand quickly for we have work to do. Where is your companion?’

Frodo looks at Faramir for a moment judging him then draws himself up slightly and adopts a high tone: ‘He is a chance companion but if you see him, spare him. He is a wretched gangrel creature but he is under my care for a while. We are hobbits of the Shire from far away. Frodo, son of Drogo am I and this is Samwise, son of Hamfast, a worthy hobbit in my service.’
Frodo stops but Faramir says nothing so Frodo continues: ‘Nine of us left Rivendell or Imladris as you call it.’ (Brief cut to Faramir’s face and his eyes narrow.) ‘One of us was lost in Moria but the others we left behind at the Falls of Rauros. (another pause and Faramir stays silent) ‘Two were hobbits, kinfolk of mine, one was a dwarf, one an Elf from Mirkwood and two men; Aragorn, a Ranger from the North and Boromir from Minas Tirith.’

Three men look at Faramir and say together ‘Boromir?’ Faramir stays impassive and raises his hand to silence them.

Cut to Faramir looking down: ‘He was our Captain-General and is sorely missed. What had you to do with him?’

Cut to Frodo looking up: ‘Do you know of the riddle Boromir took to Imladris? “Seek for the Sword that was broken”?’ Cut to Faramir faintly nodding and not relaxing his stare.

Cut to Frodo: ‘Aragorn bears the Sword that was broken and we are the halflings .’

Cut to Faramir, inscrutable: ‘What is Isildur’s Bane?’

Cut to Frodo: ‘That is still hidden.’

Cut to Faramir searching Frodo’s face: ‘We have hard handstrokes ahead of us today but I must speak to you later.’(he turns) ‘Guard them!’

Cut to Frodo, he bows and straightens again: ‘Think what you will. We too oppose the One Enemy and if my errand permitted it I would go with you. May light shine upon your swords.’

Cut to Faramir inclining his head and turning. Cut to the hobbits sitting with two amiable soldiers.

Damrod: ‘Ithilien was a fair land until it was over-run by Mordor. My family had to leave then. Now armies from the South march to Mordor along the very roads that Gondor built. They think they are safe marching below His mountains but Faramir will teach them otherwise.’ (A horn blows) ‘Now it starts.'
A chorus of shouts is heard in the distance. Cut to a few brief scenes of troops marching in column within a cleft falling to arrow fire, wagons burning, men in small circles and others running.
Cut to Sam and Frodo looking glumly at each other as they hear the massed hammering of metal on metal, shouts and shrieks. Cut to a dark skinned man in exotic clothes over bloodied armour staggering through the bracken. He shouts in pain and falls and twists around trying to take an arrow from his back. His writhing lessens and he stills and the two guards relax and sheathe their swords. Cut to Sam rising and the camera pans as he walks to the casualty and bobs down to look at him.

Cut to Sam sitting down next to Frodo again: ‘He must have had a name and a family Mr Frodo. What lies or threats made him come here so far from his home?’ Frodo looks towards the body but doesn’t answer. Then a deep rhythmic thumping is heard. The hobbits look around puzzled.
Cut to the whole group. The guards look towards the trees and one turns towards the hobbits.

Mablung: ‘Mumak! Look out! A Mumak is coming!’ The hobbits still look confused.
Cut to the trees beyond the bracken. Alongside the thumping a shrill shrieking is heard. Then the trees part asunder and a vast (but not impossibly vast!) elephant with a broken platform on its back races out, trunk up and ears out and approaches then turns and blunders away still shrieking. Cut to Sam following its flight open-mouthed. He turns to Frodo in excitement.