I never read the books and am not a big fan of fantasy, but I liked the films.
Also, in the book, Grima had a few weaselly mannerisms, but I don’t think Tolkien intended for him to be as physically repulsive as Bakshi and Jackson made him. Once upon a time, he had been one of Rohan’s best and brightest.
Oh sure, you would say that… 
Thanks, this was very useful info. So if there’s a whole White Council, where are the other White Wizards? Or is it just Gandalf and Saruman now?
Hee! Thanks for your consideration, it is much appreciated. So being a Tolkien virgin makes me also a token virgin, at least around the SDMB. I am pretty psyched that a bunch of new cultural references will now begin to make sense. For example, Dwight on The Office mentions his desire to go to New Zealand on a trek to Mordor. While I always knew that was a LOTR reference, I never knew exactly what Mordor was. And I’ve already mentioned the NewsRadio gags that I now get, plus Order of the Stick and probably more that I don’t even remember. Kinda cool to finally have some more cultural literacy. Though it’ll be much better when I read the books themselves, of course.
I’m not directly quoting Airk because if I do, it’ll show me the stuff in his/her spoiler boxes But thank you (and also mbh) for the info re: Grima having been a helpful advisor once. Makes his character much more interesting, and also makes Theoden seem less of a sucker. Lies are easier to believe when they come from someone you’ve trusted for many years.
I do have to say that Rohan seems like an awfully piddly little kingdom, assuming we’re seeing most of it in those establishing shots. They’re all on a fairly craggy mountainous region, and the folks there don’t seem especially prosperous. In fairness, by the time we’re introduced to them, I guess they’ve seen some incursions and attacks, plus their king is in a prison of his own mind. But still, I don’t see what the particular attraction is for this section of land. Is it just because they won’t bow to Saruman’s will? (And by the way, what does that entail? What would the difference be to the Rohan people if they all said, “okay, fine, you’re our uberleader”? Would he enslave them? And for what purpose?)
In fact, the nicest place I’ve seen so far is the Shire – at least there we see beautiful farmland and a fairly prosperous-looking society (“prosperous” in a relative term – the people aren’t living in mansions or anything, but they all seem to be well-fed, culturally rich, and content). Seems like if any society would be attractive to Saruman et al., it’d be the Shire.
Hey! Here’s a new question I just remembered. While Saruman mostly uses orcs and the Uruk-hai (sp?) for his badassery, there were two sets of what looked like humans who we also see as members of his army:
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First, early on, Saruman addresses a group of bearded, angry men and tells them to raise hell on the Rohan people, basically playing off some apparent grudge that they have against Rohan. Then these guys run off and are seen laying waste to the outlying community (at which point the mother of the two kids sends them off to tell the king).
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The second group seem somewhat vaguely based on some Middle Eastern or North African culture … they’re seen twice: first guarding the big gate of Mordor, and subsequently observed by Frodo & Sam marching with massive elephants just prior to Faramir’s army bringing them down.
So who are these groups? Will they be better delineated as characters (unlike the mass of faceless orcs) later on?
(BTW, I’ve got the theatrical release of ROTK at the top of my queue, so thanks for the advice on that score! Frustrating, though, because the only LOTR movie that’s available to “watch instantly” on Netflix happens to be the extended version of ROTK. Ah well, the quality is much better on the DVDs anyway.)
It’s not just the mountains, it’s also all those plains. It’s actually a pretty big place, even if a lot of it is empty (but, heck, an awful lot of Middle-Earth is empty). Pretty much the entire area that Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli ran through while chasing the orcs was Rohan.
I can’t remember the exact name (Woldsmen comes to mind, but that may be wrong). IIRC, they were the original inhabitants of the land now known as Rohan, and were given the boot when the Rohirrim came in from the east many hundreds of years earlier. So, they have a bone to pick.
Those are the Haradrim, who come from south of Mordor. (Oh, and they weren’t guarding the Black Gate; they were travelling into Mordor to form up with the rest of Sauron’s forces). The second group of them you see were following the same route that the first group had; they just hadn’t gotten as far yet.
Do you really want to know?
Nope, they’re bit players, at best. There’s not a single “named” character from either group in the movies; I don’t believe there is in the books, either.
P.S., darn you well he’s back for creating a thread I can’t take part in until next week! 
Dayum, I’m gonna have a metric fuckton of fun threads to read once I’m through with this trilogy – including the famous “If Lord of the Rings were written by ____” megathread! The world will be my virtual oyster.
Edited to add – wow, that was fast work, kenobi 65. But I don’t even know if I should click on that spoiler or not, so I dassn’t. I was just expecting a yes or no, not any major details. But even that might be a spoiler, do you think?
I’ll say that even the plains looked rather sparse and not very attractive. Just land as land, not really arrable.
There are exactly five wizards (originally, one white, one grey, one brown, and two blue), and they comprise the White Council. Elrond, Galadriel, and Cirdan (whom you don’t meet in LotR, but he’s another old elf) could sort of be considered honorary members; everyone knows they’re among the wisest folks in Middle-Earth, and their advice is very valuable.
Citizens of other nations that Sauron has already enslaved, deceived, or enticed into serving him. For purposes of this story, they’re just another mass of faceless soldiers.
As to Cirdan:
Actually, Cirdan the Shipwright appears in the next-to-last scene of the ROTK movie (although he’s not named in dialogue, IIRC), and also in the book, standing on the dock in the Grey Havens as Bilbo, Frodo, Gandalf et al. board ship to go into the West. There’s also quite a bit more about him in the appendices; he, Elrond and Gil-Galad were tight. Gandalf wields his ring, Narya. Fun fact: Cirdan is the only Elf who is described by Tolkien as having a beard. For more: Elves in Middle-earth - Wikipedia
Doesn’t he also appear in the prologue of the first movie, when the rings are being depicted?
In my mind, at least, there are analogies to be drawn between the Men of Middle Earth, and Europe circa 300 AD. Rohan = Anglo-Saxon England: civilized, but low technology, no lasting architecture, no arts and letters. Gondor (mentioned, but not yet seen by you) = Rome.
And in the distant past, but closer to Gondor than to Rohan, is an Atlantis.
It’s a simple answer, and I don’t consider it to be hugely spoileriffic, but I suppose it is a spoiler.
Thjose planes are grasslands for the horses of Rohan, including the mearas, the special horses of which Shadowfax is the finest example.
Well, OK, but those are more just cameos than actually meeting him. There were also a ton of similar cameos, of objects as well as people, in the opening monologue/prologue of Fellowship.
That’s not correct. Although this is going way beyond anything that’s necessary to enjoy the films (or the novel for that matter), Galadriel, Elrond, and Cirdan were full members of the White Council, and there’s no reference in canon to Radagast or the blue wizards ever being part of it. (Saruman was chosen as chief of the council - the post was not his automatically, nor was the choice unanimous. Galadriel wanted Gandalf to be the leader and considered Saruman’s election the beginning of “the long defeat.”)
I think you do the Anglo-Saxons a disservice. Anglo-Saxon metalwork was well-regarded in Europe and many fine pieces have survived. Illuminated manuscripts also show that these were hardly artless people. Hundreds of surviving manuscripts attest to the fact that they were not unlettered either, including historical chronicles as well as imaginative works such as “The Dream of the Rood.”
The bearded men Saruman is talking to are the Wild Men, and, yes, they were the original inhabitants of what is now Rohan. You occasionally see large stylized stone statues of men, not like those of Gondor, which are very realistic and classical looking, but almost like (at least in my mind’s eye) the statues of Easter Island. These statues are the Pukel Men and they were made by the Wild Men before they were displaced. We see a little bit more of the Wild Men in the books than we do in the movies, but not much.
I saw the theatrical version of ROTK only after the extended version, and found the theatrical version deeply lame. You will absolutely want to see the extended version eventually, choie, as there is an important Brad Dourif scene in it. Also, there is a brief but very cool bad guy scene that is entirely absent from the theatrical version. But then, I tend to be of the “anything worth doing is worth overdoing” school.
BTW, Peter Jackson claims that he wanted the audience to be bored by the Ents - they were innately boring to humans, because they simply operate on a different time scale.
Not only is Galadriel a full member of the White Council, but she summoned it in the first place (The Fellowship of the Ring, “The Mirror of Galadriel”). And considering that the Wizards were operating under limitations, there probably wasn’t that much difference in power between them and her. She was a very ancient Elf who had been personally acquainted with the mightiest Valar and Melian in her time and had presumably learned much.
Yeah, she got schooled at the feet of Manwë and Varda for a few millenia, hung with Melian, survived the crossing of Helcaraxë, and only let Celeborn boink her once (maybe twice).
Wisest of the elves in Middle-earth at that time was Cirdan, though (so said JRRT). He had a few uninterrupted millenia with a palantir, chatting with his kin in Tirion.
Not the wild men but Dunlendings. The wild men or wose lived further south and hid in the forest.
Historically, the Rohirrim aided Gondor about 500 years ago effectively saving their army from a large army from the east. The steward at the time granted them the land as it was part of the realm of Gondor on condition that they remain faithful allies. The Dunlendings were effectively pushed out by the wave of immigrants from the North and they resented the Rohirrim ever after. Saruman stokes that hatred through lies and clever words into open rebellion/war.
Druedain is the proper word for the wood-men (“wose” was regarded as something of a slur, meaning roughly “uncivilized”). They were reckoned among the “elf-friends” of old, though they never really fit in, and those who went to Numenor (the ancient island kingdom of men, of which Gondor and Arnor were originally just colonies) were very uncomfortable there. They came to the aid of the good guys in the War of the Ring, and were eventually rewarded with dominion over the lands they were inhabiting.
Of course, at the rate I’m going lately, there’s probably some glaring errors in this, too.
In one of the late HOMES volumes, “People of Middle Earth”, JRRT reveals that the ancestors of the Dunlendings were descended from those people of Haleth (one of the 3 peoples of the Edain) that refused the invitation to go to Numenor! They became estranged from their Numenorean kin when the latter returned to Middle-Earth and began stripping the coasts of the forests, in order to build ships and forts.
First, kenobi 65 – thank you for using the spoiler tags on that info. I just remembered belatedly that I’m the one who asked that this section be ROTK-spoiler-free, so it was careless of me to ask for anything from the future film. Just because I was curious doesn’t mean another ROTK-newbie should be spoiled! I appreciate your forethought. 
Second, I’m glad you mentioned the mearas, because that was another question I’d wanted to ask but totally forgot about! Gandalf uses the term and I felt like we were expected to genuflect, but there wasn’t any explanation as to what’s so special about them. So, nu? What’s so great about 'em, other than being pretty and responding to a whistle? (Also, wow, his name is Shadowfax?? I thought it was Shadowflanks, which sounds more horsey a name but doesn’t really make sense since the horse was all white.)
OoooOOOooh. Thanks for that! I’m sold.
Then 'twas a job well done, Mr. Jackson!
As in … Druids?
Thanks, Chronos. I must say I’m really looking forward to learning more about Gondor already. It’s been namedropped for two movies now and I’m ready to visit!
By the way, I don’t mean to belittle the story at all, but I can’t help but giggle sometimes when reading everyone’s posts, because I keep hearing them said in Eric Idle’s voiceover from the Monty Python Icelandic Saga. Y’know:
Gondor really reminds me of “Gildor,” and thus I constantly hear that final line in Idle’s mischievous voice… “where Gildor was king!” Hee.
Gil-Galad, an elf, was seen in the big battle in the prologue, stabbing a fallen orc with an enchanted spear, tho Cirdan was at that battle as well (not sure if he was visible in any shots).