Home
bound, suspended, sick, absent students need to rent this movie and download
the handouts in the archetypes section of this
page (there are three handouts total - two are worksheets and one is an
article).
Characters:
- Frodo Baggins
- "The Ring Bearer" Frodo is one of the two main heroes. His quest is
to destroy the ring. He is aided by Sam and Gollum. The longer he keeps
the ring, the worse he is and the more difficult it is for him to know
who to trust, Sam or Gollum.
- Meriadoc Brandybuck
- "Merry" He and Pippin hang out together. Pledges himself
to the King of Rohan.
- Peregrin Took
- "Pippin" Best friend of Merry and good friend of Frodo.
Since his family long ago had mixed in with fairies, the Tooks have
a habit of being curious, somewhat adventurous, and downright odd. Bilbo
and Frodo have some Took themselves. Pledges himself to the Stewartof
Gondor.
- Samwise Gamgee
- Frodo's best friend, most loyal friend, and gardener. He plays a key
role in this adventure. Some say that this is really Sam's story, not
Frodo's. He is the one who keeps Frodo from despair.
- Gollum
- Smeagol, a hobbit from long ago who killed his friend Deagol when
Deagol found the ring. For about 500 years, Gollum, who gets his name
from a sound he makes in his throat, hid in a cave in the bottom of
a mountain until Bilbo found his ring. Gollum pledges loyalty to Frodo.
He is conflicted to his oath of loyalty and his desire to have the ring.
He also suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder. His good side is
Smeagol and his bad side is Gollum.
- Arwen
- Aragorn's elf hottie. Her role was greatly enhanced in the movie.
She gives her pledge of love by wanting to stay behind with him while
the elves leave. He will die eventually and she will have to stay alone
for hundreds of years. She has no role in the book, but plays a role
in the movie. She is responsible for the reforging of Narsil, the sword
that cut the ring from Sauron's hand 3,000 years ago. She is Elrond's
daughter and Galadriel's granddaughter.
- Legolas
- Sissy elf of Mirkwood. Yeah, his good with a bow and all the girls
drool over him, but he is still a sissy. His friendship with Gimli is
a big subplot in this story.
- Elrond
- Head elf of Rivendell and Arwen's father. He does not trust men, does
not agree with Arwen's choice to love a man, and has plans to leave
Middle-earth as soon as possible. He married Galadriel and Celeborn's
daughter.
- Galadriel
- Elf queen/witch in Lorien. She continues to keep tabs on the heroes.
- Celeborn
- Elf, husband of Galadriel.
- Gimli
- Dwarf, son of Gloin (a dwarf in The Hobbit). His story revolves
around his relationship with Legolas and how that relationship is the
possible future dwarf/elf relationship.
- Aragorn/Strider
- The man who should be king. Long ago his mother hid him away in Rivendell
with the elves. Now that he is grown, he hides from his duties out of
fear that he will fail. He must become king, or mankind's may come to
an end.
- King Theoden
- King of Rohan - he has been made powerless by the whisperings of Wormtongue.
- Grimma Wormtongue
- The king's advisor. He is working for Saruman in hopes of getting
Eowyn.
- Eomer
- King Theoden's "sister-son" - nephew, in other words. He
is next in line for the throne now that the King's son has died.
- Eowyn
- King Theoden's "sister-daughter" - neice, in other words.
She is Eomer's sister and she is a warrior in her own right, even though
women are not allowed to fight. She has a love interest in Aragorn and
is definately the more realistic match for him.
- Ugluk
- The main Uruk-hai.
- Gandalf
- Istari (wizard), was known as "Gandalf the Grey," now know
as "Gandalf the White." He completes his Christ-figure aspect
in this story by returning from the dead with new powers. He has some
memory issues.
- Saruman
- Head istari (wizard), known as "Saruman the White" and as
"Saruman the Wise." He lives in Isengard. His symbol is a
white hand (which is why the Uruk-hai, his creations, have a painted
white hand on their faces). His speaking is uber persuasive.
- Sauron
- Bad guy. He is a godly creature. The exact history is long, but he
served an evil being named Melkor. Sauron stayed on Middle-earth after
Melkor's defeat and decided to ruin men and elves. He is known as the
Great Deceiver since he tricked all the races (except hobbits) into
taking rings. He had The One Ring kept secret, a ring to rule the rest
of them. His physical self may be gone, but his spirit is rebuilding,
much like Voldemort from the Harry Potter books. Need more, try ARDA
- Balrog
- Demon of Shadow and Flame - He and Gandalf kill each other.
Need more? Try this very detailed site: ARDA
or Wikipedia.
- Shadowfax
- The lord of all horses. He is pure white. Gandalf rides him only because
Shadowfax allows Gandalf to ride, not because Gandalf commands him.
- Treebeard
- An ent, who is pretty hasty, as far ents go, who encounters Merry
and Pippin. They rouse him into action, and he rouses the ents into
action.
-
Places:
- Rohan
- A place of humans between Isengard and Gondor. These people are horse
riders.
- Gondor
- The land of men, just north of Gondor.
- Fangorn Forest
- The forest of the ents. It is old, cranky, and a downright scary place
to be.
- The Dead Marshes
- This marsh is right outside of Mordor. It is where the last battle
was fought against Sauron, about 3,000 years ago (if wasn't swampy then.
Many of the warriors that died in that battle were left there. Now their
ghosts remain, holding candles to entice others into the swamp.
- Lorien
- The forest where Galadriel lives.
- Rivendell
- Elrond's home
- Mordor
- Where Sauron lives
- Baradur
- Sauron's tower
- Isengard
- Where Saruman lives
- Orthanc
- Saruman's tower at Isengard
Things:
Nazgul
Ring wraiths, These were the nine kings of men that received the rings
of power given by Sauron. Their leader is called The Witch King (he is
the one that stabs Frodo). This is what The Silmarillion says
in the chapter, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age":
Those who used the Nine Rings became mighty
in their day, kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old. They obtained glory
and great wealth, yet it turned to their undoing. They had, as it seemed,
unending life, yet life became unendurable to them. They could walk, if
they would, unseen by all eyes in this world beneath the sun, and they
could see things in worlds invisible to mortal men; but too often they
beheld only the phantoms and delusions of Sauron. And one by one, sooner
or later, according to their native strength and to the good or evil of
their wills in the beginning, they fell under the thralldom of the ring
that they bore and of the domination of the One which was Sauron's. And
they became forever invisible save to him that wore the Ruling Ring, and
they entered into the realm of shadows. The Nazgul were they, the Ring
wraiths, the Enemy's most terrible servants; darkness went with them,
and they cried with the voices of death.
Narsil
The sword that cut the ring from Sauron's hand. In Old English literature,
all great weapons have names (remember Hrunting and Nagling from Beowulf).
The shattered remains of this sword is in Rivendell. It is kept in condition
by Aragorn and is a symbol of his fear of being weak like Isildur. As
long as the weapon is shattered, Aragorn has a shattered self-confidence.
Istari
Wizards. They are angelic type beings that appeared in Middle-earth
after Sauron came back. There are just five in number - Saruman the White
(head of the Istari), Gandalf the Grey, Radagast the Brown, and the blue
wizards of the South and East. Saruman, Gandalf, and Radagast stayed in
the North West to fight Sauron while the other two went off the east for
unknown reasons. They are supposed to not directly control events, but
to "help" the mortals (elves, humans, dwarves, hobbits, etc.)
realize their potential.
Uruk-hai
The fighting Uruk-hai! This is how they are referred to in the books.
They are the breed of orcs/goblins that have been crossed with men. They
can operate in sunlight with no ill effects (orcs hate sunlight) and they
are loyal to Saruman. |
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Watch the movie trailer
Click the map below for an interactive map of The Two Towers
Fangorn Forest
Stranger in the Forest
The Tree Shepards
The Wrath of the Ents
The Terrace at Henneth Annun
Through the Marshes
The Oliphant
Gollum's Debate
Links
The Official
Web Site of The Lord of the Rings
The Two
Towers Text-based Game
The
Two Towers Book Synopsis
The Entmoot
Discussion Forum
The
Ten Minute Two Towers
The
Two Towers Protest
Movie Trivia
* Wormtongue actor Brad Dourif had
to shave his eyebrows for his role. He was called back to film additional
scenes and had to shave his eyebrows each time.
* Orc actors had to swish a black mouth wash in
their mouths so that no pick would be seen.
*Orlando Bloom originally auditioned for Faramir.
* All the actors cast for teh Uruk-hai roles that
were under 6 feet tall were called Uruk-lows by the taller actors.
* Helms Deep Spears are made of cardboard so that the horses would not
be hurt.
* When Frodo and Sam go to Osgiliath, Sam says,
"We shouldn't even be here." This is a nod to the fact that
this scene does not appear in the book.
* When Gollum catches his fish, the area where it was to be filmed had
snowed the night before. The filming schedule was tight, so they had
to melt all the snow in order to film it. The actor playing Gollum had
to jump several times into the icy water to film the scene.
* Aragorn actor broke two toes when he kicked
the steel helmet at the burning orc heap.
* Many of the Rohan male horse riders are really women with beards glued
on.
* White Christmas lights are used behind the cameras
to make Galadriel's eyes sparkle.
* Gollums actions are based on those of a herion addict.
* In the Helms Deep battle, you can here the sound
of a AT AT (from Empire Strikes Back) falling.
Get more trivia from: www.imdb.com/title/tt0167261/trivia
The Gollum Fish Song
The cold hard lands
They bites our hands,
They gnaws our feet,
The rocks and stones
Are like old bones
All bare of meat.
But stream and pool
Is wet and cool
So nice for feet!
And now we wish........
Alive without breath
As cold as death
Never thirsting, ever drinking
Clad in mail, never clinking.
Drowns on dry land
Thinks an island
Is a mountain,
Thinks a fountain
Is a puff of air
So sleek, so fair!
What a joy to meet!
We only wish
To catch a fish,
So juicy-sweet!
TTT, Book 4, Chapter 3, The Passage of the Marshes
This is considerably longer than the song he sang
int he movie and The Hobbit fans will recognize some of it
as a riddle he told to Bilbo. Want to hear it? Click
Here
The Wilhelm Scream
In 1951, a series of screams were recorded for a Warner
Bros fim titled Distant Drums. The recording was made for a
man who was bitten and dragged underwater by an aligator. since then,
it has appeared in many films and was used in The Two Towers
when some falls off a ladder in the battle of Helms Deep. Click
to hear the scream. See if you can hear it in other movies.
To learn more about the Wilhelm Scream, click
here.
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Archetypes
Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell
both noticed that the same stories occur in all cultures. Carl Jung called
universal knowledge the collective unconscious. Joseph Campbell concentrated
on how this affects myth and literature. George Lucas, creator of Star
Wars, was a big fan of Campbell and tried to make sure that his Star Wars
stories followed the mythic archetypes. He claims that this is the reason
for the success of his movies.
Here is a list of some archetypes (symbols that mean the same in all
time periods and cultures). See how many you can find in the movie:
The Hero: Heroes
in all cultures pretty much have the same characteristics. Here are some
that Joseph Campbell identified. You will notice that almost all heroes
have at least 8 of these 9 characterisitcs:
1. Unusual circumstances of birth; sometimes born into danger or royalty
2. Leaves family or land and lives with others
3. An event, sometimes traumatic, leads to adventure or quest
4. Hero has a special weapon only he can use
5. Hero always has supernatural help
6. The hero must prove himself many times while on adventure
7. The Journey and the Unhealable Wound
8. Hero experiences atonement with the father (or a father figure)
9. When the hero dies, he is rewarded spiritually
Here is the handout we had in class: Hero
Assignment
Here is a powerpoint that explains these hero characteristics in more
detail. It is not of my making, but of another teacher who posted it on
the internet. Hero Powerpoint
The Quest: Every
hero must undergo some sort of quest. The hero may or may not realize
he is on the quest until it is too late. It may be a quest taken voluntarily
or unvoluntarily. It may be a physical journey or an innerward journey.
Author Carol Pearson expanded Joseph Campbell's idea of the hero and his
quest. You need to know how Sam, Aragorn, or Gandalf
fit the heroic archetypes that Pearson lays out. You can find these and
the assignment handed out in class here: Heroic/Quest
Archetypes
The Trickster: These
characters are neither good nor bad. They sometimes do good things and
sometimes bad things. They are on their own side and have no real loyalty
to any other side. Loki, Maui, Anazi, Brer Rabbit are all examples of
tricksters in myth and folklore. A modern example is Bugs Bunny. Here
is the article that was handed out in class: Trickster
Article (Please note that the article given
out in class is edited. The article linked here includes one story that
is a little dirty)
Below are the same ones we've talked about from
the first movie. They are present here as well. Look for them. I will
pick some and ask you to tell me an example of it in the film.
I. Water
sea - eternity, life, mystery
rivers - flowing of time, change in life,
barrier to undead
stagnant water - death, wrong, a life with
no meaning, unfulfilled life
rain
- a new beginning, death, purity
II. Sun rising
sun - beginning, birth
sun moving across the sky - time passing
setting sun
- the end, death III. Circles, spheres, eggs
completion, God, infinity, female
IV. Spears, guns, swords, etc.
male power
V. Wind, breath
inspiration, God or the gods speak, warning, inspiration
VI. Colors
White (light) - purity, good
Black (darkness) - chaos, unknown, death,
evil
Red - blood, violent passion, violence,
female
Green - life, envy, growth
VII. Ship/boat
voyage, life quest
VIII. Desert
death, hopelessness, alone
IX. Gardens, Forests
paradise, life, beauty
X. Nature
goodness, God
XI. Christ Figure
one who sacrifices him/herself to save others
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