Lord of the Rings: Book vs. Movie Quiz

Answer: Near Farmer Maggot's

Merry meets Frodo soon after he leaves Farmer Maggot's house to take the Buckland ferry. Pippin has been with Frodo for some time. The movie seriously downgrades Merry and Pippin; in the book he's clever and thoughtful, and for a short time seems to be the leader of the band.

Answer: The Old Forest and the Barrow-Wights

The movie skips much of the hobbits' initial journey because it would have been even longer otherwise. A malicious willow tree sings the hobbits to sleep and traps two of them. Fortunately, Tom Bombadil turns up to save them. Later on, undead beings called barrow-wights nearly kill them, but Tom has given Frodo a song to summon him in case of need, and once again he rescues them. It's never fully clear what Tom is. He's very powerful but carries his power lightly.

These scenes may seem like digressions, but the encounter with the wights is the first time Frodo's latent courage clearly comes to the fore. It's a turning point for him as a character.

Answer: They are on foot and blindfolded.

Initially, the elves demanded that Gimli be blindfolded because dwarves were unwelcome there. He refused to accept this until Aragorn proposed that all of the company be blindfolded. After they had traveled for a day, Galadriel sent a message allowing the removal of all the blindfolds.

Answer: Old but alert

In the chapter where the members of the Fellowship meet Théoden, Tolkien describes him as old and bent, but "his eyes still burned with a bright light," and he rises to his feet (with some difficulty) to answer Gandalf. He isn't under any kind of spell or possession by Saruman.

Answer: They aren't there.

In the movie version, the elves come to Helm's Deep from Lorien. This has two problems. First, Lorien is rather far away; they would have had to start before Théoden gave orders to go there. Second, it would have left Lorien with badly reduced defenses against Sauron's army. The only elf at Helm's Deep in the book is Legolas.

Answer: He lets Frodo keep it unmolested

The movie "The Two Towers" changes Faramir's character for the worse. Much worse. In Tolkien, he regrets what Boromir did, trying to take the Ring, and makes it clear he won't make the same mistake. Before finding out what Isildur's Bane is and that Frodo has it, he says, "I would not take this thing, if it lay by the highway," and he stands by what he said.

In the movie, he takes Frodo and Sam captive and plans to bring them to Gondor. Only later does he change his mind and release them.

Answer: He captures the ships of Umbar.

Gimli and Legolas explain after the victory at Pelennor Fields how Aragorn unleashed the ghostly forces against the Corsairs of Umbar. The did what ghosts do best: scare people. The Haradrim jumped off the ships in terror, and Aragorn's mortal forces mopped them up easily. He then brought the ships up the Anduin to Minas Tirith, turning the tide of the battle.

Answer: Gollum dances with it near the edge of a precipice and falls into Mount Doom.

Peter Jackson made a small but significant change to the Ring's end. Tolkien had Gollum take the Ring from Frodo, along with the finger it was on, then dance joyfully till he fell in with one last "Preciooooouuus" (you can just hear the Doppler effect as he falls).

In the movie, Frodo gets up and tries to grab the Ring back from Gollum, resulting in both of them falling off. Frodo catches himself on a ledge; Gollum and the Ring come down into the lava, where it's the end of both.

Answer: Wormtongue kills him with a knife

The Peter Jackson movie "The Return of the King" omits the events in the chapter "The Scouring of the Shire", where Saruman tries to establish a new power base in the Shire after fleeing Isengard. The movie keeps the manner and the perpetrator of Saruman's death but moves it to an earlier time at Isengard (and I think that's only in the extended edition).

In both cases, Wormtongue is immediately killed by one or more arrows.

Answer: "Well, I'm back."

Peter Jackson wisely left the understated closing moments of the "Lord of the Rings" movies the same as the books. Sam has gone through a lot, but he still has his family, and life goes on, hopefully less eventfully than before.