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Farewell to Lórien

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Peter: In the movie, we didn’t pause for the Galadriel gift-giving – which is so memorable from the book – we just got the Fellowship on the River and away from Lothlórien; but we originally shot the gift-giving, and it actually appeared again in photographs, and I think some images from it even appeared is some early trailers, so it’s good to be able to see these moments as they were originally shot. The cloaks that the Fellowship wear were given to them in Lothlórien, and in the movie version, they suddenly just are wearing these cloaks and there’s no explanation for how they got them. The lembas bread is significant because lembas bread returns to the story in the second and third film, and we’ve filmed sequences in those movies with the lembas bread, and yet we never introduced it in the theatrical version of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ so this is another reason why I’m glad that this DVD has the opportunity of being seen by people prior to the release of ‘The Two Towers’; because, actually, one of the very first scenes in the ‘The Two Towers’ between Frodo and Sam involves them eating lembas bread, [laughs] so at least people will have some concept of what it actually is now. (beat) [Celeborn gives Aragorn the Elven dagger] This is where Aragorn gets his dagger, which he uses throughout the rest of this movie and the next two films, so it’s nice to be able to see it being a gift from Celeborn. (beat) [The Fellowship sail down the Silverlode] This was actually not a river at all, but it was a small pond that was in a country house called Fernside, north of Wellington; but it was a lovely pond surrounded by trees, so we though it was a suitable location. (beat) Legolas gets his bow. (beat) Now, Merry and Pippin get these daggers, which, again, form a significant moment in ‘The Two Towers’, so I’m glad that people are able to see these daggers being given. All of the gifts that Galadriel gives the Fellowship are actually used in the next two movies in different ways, and so I was pretty adamant that I wanted to include all of these scenes in the DVD; because this rope, for instance, that Sam is being given does play a part in ‘The Two Towers’ and, you know, the hope is that most people will get to look at this DVD and understand where these things came from as they look at the next films. (beat) [Galadriel talks to Gimli] This moment is a continuation of what we started in the flet with the moment between Gimli and Galadriel. It’s lovely to see Cate smiling there, too, because I know some of the criticism that people had of the Galadriel character in the theatrical version is the fact that she had this, sort of, slightly frightening, heavy persona – which… it was appropriate for the scene that she was playing; but we did originally film these moments which are more like the Galadriel from the book. She has a little bit more of a fun-loving spirit. (beat) [Galadriel talks to Aragorn] And what a lot of people don’t realise – certainly people that haven’t read the book – is that Galadriel is in fact Arwen’s grandmother, so, if you get your head round that, that Cate Blanchett is Liv Tyler’s grandmother; and so the relationship between Aragorn and Arwen has some significance for Galadriel. (beat) This is a scene that… We filmed most of this scene in Elvish. It’s a lovely language when it’s spoken by actors who really get their tongues around it. [Galadriel gives Frodo the Light of Eärendil] Of the gift-giving, this was the only bit of the gift-giving that made it into the theatrical cut; but the Phial of light that she is giving Frodo… We don’t actually see that in ‘The Two Towers’ but it’s, sort of, kept safely in his pocket all the time; but in ‘The Return of the King’ it will reappear. [Galadriel waves the Fellowship farewell] There’s a, sort of, special bond between Galadriel and Frodo, too, that Galadriel knows things that Frodo knows, and there’s some, you know, secrets shared between the two of them. She knows about the power of the Ring, she knows how it’s beginning to effect him. (beat) [Gimli reflects on Galadriel’s farewell] And here’s the final beat of the little story between Gimli and Galadriel. It’s… We could never really figure out a way of actually filming three of Galadriel’s hairs that she gives to Gimli, so we decided [laughs] just to talk about them instead! You know, in a sense, that was one of the things that we lost in trimming down the footage for the theatrical release is we lost little character moments: …

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The Lord of the Rings and its content does not belong to me, it is property of the Tolkien Estate;  the commentaries transcribed here, as well as the images used, are the property of New Line Cinema.