windandwater: But either in his dreams or out of them, he could…
But either in his dreams or out of them, he could not tell which, Frodo heard a sweet singing running in his mind: a song that seemed to come like a pale light behind a grey rain-curtain, and growing stronger to turn the veil all to glass and silver, until at last it was rolled back, and a far green country opened before him under a swift sunrise.
—J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, Book 1, Chapter 8
(in which Tolkien directly foreshadows the end of the trilogy, and one of my favorite passages)
I always loved Frodo’s dream. I was happy when Philippa Boyens found a way to use Tolkien’s language in the movie, but I’ve always been a little wistful about the particular way she used it. It’s fine, and in fact makes for one of my favorite moments in the film. But in the way it takes the multiple possibilities of Tolkien’s passage and shoehorns them into one particular interpretation it also bothers me just a teency bit.
But that’s the movie. Maybe movies (movies by people like Peter Jackson, at least) are pulled in the direction of specific, unambiguous meaning by their reliance on visual images. The actual passage from the book isn’t lessened by the movie’s repurposing of it. I still have it.
Thanks for posting it.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/69177559429.
Tags: tolkien.
