Thanks in part to the smash success of Peter Jackson’s movie trilogy, The Lord of the
Rings can now be easily counted among the most prolific and impactful cultural phenomenons
of all time.
Despite this, however, many fans of J.R.R.
Tolkien’s legendary tale continue to believe a number of misconceptions about the story’s
world and characters.
Here are a few lies you might still believe about The Lord of the Rings, and Middle Earth
in general.
What it means to be a wizard
Okay, so Gandalf is actually technically a wizard, but he's not the kind you might be
used to.
He’s not a wizard in the sense that, say, the kids at Hogwarts are wizards.
He didn’t show aptitude for magic as a child and go to wizarding school and learn spells
from a dusty old book.
No, Gandalf is less of what you’d consider a wizard and more of what you’d consider
a demigod.
The Valar are essentially the pantheon of gods in Tolkien’s universe.
It was they who sent Gandalf to Middle-Earth from Valinor, along with Saruman, Radagast
and two other wizards who never really showed up in any of the books.
“And the aptly named: Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film.”
These wizards originally existed as beings called Maiar, who acted as servants to the
Valar.
Before being sent to Middle-Earth, they were made to look human and given magical and physical
abilities beyond those held by normal men or even elves.
They had existed on Middle-Earth for thousands of years prior to the events of The Lord of
the Rings, too as well, hence why they’re so knowledgeable about the world.
Gandalf’s status as a Maia is also why he’s resurrected after his fight with the Balrog:
it’s not some wizard’s spell which brings him back, but the will of the Valar themselves.
Denethor’s villainy
In Peter Jackson’s Return of the King, Denethor is portrayed as a vengeful and cowardly madman
who acts largely as an antagonist to Gandalf and Faramir during the MinasTirith storyline.
“Authority is not given to you to deny the return of the king, Steward.”
“The rule of Gondor is mine!”
In the novel, however, Tolkien makes it clear that Denethor wasn't driven mad by a lust
for power or fear of war.
Instead, Denethor was tormented by an outside influence: a Palantir.
The Palantir are the magical orbs once used by the elves as a means of communication and
wielded, in The Lord of the Rings, by Sauron, Saruman, and Denethor.
Prior to the events of the trilogy, Denethor had begun using his Palantir in an attempt
to ferret out information which he could use in the war against Sauron.
Instead, Sauron’s own influence on the Palantir slowly drove him mad.
The notion that Denethor lost his mind trying to save his people brings a whole new level
of tragedy to his character, something which is never really made clear in Peter Jackson’s
trilogy.
The isolation of men
Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lord of the Rings might give you the impression that
Gondor and Rohan were the only flashpoints in the end stages of the War of the Ring,
but this is far from true.
The reality is briefly alluded to in the extended edition of Return of the King, but the movie
leaves out most of the details.
“Your kinsmen may have no need to ride to war.
I fear way already marches on their own lands.”
The appendices to The Lord of the Rings make it clear that, while Sauron’s army was laying
siege to Minas Tirith, the elves, dwarves and other men of Middle-Earth were attempting
to defend their own lands against invasion.
Sauron's armies at Dol Guldur [gul-DOOR] attempted to invade Galadriel’s realm of Lorien three
times, but failed.
Meanwhile, Thranduil, king of the wood elves, was waging a largely successful war against
the orcs in Mirkwood.
The men of Dale weren't quite as lucky.
Sauron’s armies attacked the city during the Third War and thoroughly overwhelmed its
defenders.
The survivors took shelter in the Lonely Mountain with their dwarven allies and just barely
held out under siege before the Ring was finally destroyed.
King Brand of Dale, the grandson of The Hobbit’s Bard, was killed during the battle, as was
the dwarven king, Dain Ironfoot.
Hobbit feet
At some point in time it became an unquestionable fact that hobbit feet aren’t just hairy
and tough, but are also disproportionately large.
The truth is, however, that Tolkien never wrote anything about hobbit feet being particularly
big.
In The Fellowship of the Ring, hobbits are described as having “tough leathery soles”
and being “clad in a thick curling hair”, but no mention is made of their size.
Sean Astin, who played Samwise Gamgee in Peter Jackson's movie adaptations, appears to have
been in favour of a more faithful interpretation of hobbit feet.
On the special features for the extended edition of The Fellowship of the Ring, Jackson revealed
that Astin, frustrated at the time it took to apply the hobbits’ foot prosthetics,
kept him up to date on his personal tally of how many days the prosthetics were applied,
versus how many days the feet appeared in shot.