LOTR movie question - Frodo's mithril shirt.

[TWDuke]

The shirt does not entirely cover his chest.

http://w13502.maxim.net/~newline/image_assets/lotr3_67517.jpg

[Scissorjack]

@vison

Hm. I always thought Mithril was Platinum, and I seem to recall reading somewhere that Tolkien thought so, too.

I wear a platinum ring, and it’s damn heavy.　Mithril was supposed to be light but tough.

[si_blakely]

@Revenant Threshold

I still don’t know why Frodo was alive. The mithril stops it piercing him, I get that much, but it would still transfer momentum. A blunt pole from an ogre to the chest is still going to be damaging.

Frodo was hurt - bruised ribs, and some scoring where the rings drove through the padded undershirt. But he is a 3 foot hobbit - his inertia is quite low, so he is lifted and thrown by the pole end, where a 6 foot human would not be, and would have broken ribs. Plus the mithril (which I always considered to be platinum, as titanium is not silver) of course.

Si

[nd_n8]

Because both the shirt and the spear were made of pvc tubing and the stinger was… well… digital?

Note - Ok, the shirt was pvc tubing rings, I don’t know for sure what the spear was made of and I don’t know if there was a prop for the stinger or not.

Which reminds me, What Exit?, have you ever made mail out of pvc rings and, if so, is it easier or more difficult than working with metal? (somehow I think it would be more difficult to work with but would result in a much lighter fabric, but I could be wrong)

[well_he_s_back]

Do mithril shirts protect from Jehovah’s Witnesses?

[What_Exit]

@nd_n8

Which reminds me, What Exit?, have you ever made mail out of pvc rings and, if so, is it easier or more difficult than working with metal? (somehow I think it would be more difficult to work with but would result in a much lighter fabric, but I could be wrong)

No, I only used the three materials and I have done nothing since 1988. The steal was best and it could be spot welded for extra strength. The copper was heavy, but looked good and was easy to work with and teach others. We also had a huge supply of extra clear insulated winding copper from the rewind shop*. I still have a helm of this material somewhere the rest is gone. I wore a felt cap under the rings. The aluminum was easy enough to work with but it did not spot weld and was nowhere near as strong as the steal for this application.

We always used heavy gauge wire; I wonder what form they got the PVC in to make chain mail out of it. Sounds like an interesting but purely decorative method.

Jim

• I was on the USS Ranger CV61 at the time and we had a lot of spare time where we had to be awake but not really doing anything but looking at gauges and indicator lights.

[WhyNot]

@What Exit?

The steal was best and it could be spot welded for extra strength.

Steal Maille™: Preferred by rogues and thieves from Caradhras to Orodruin!

[RiverRunner]

@What Exit?

We also had a huge supply of extra clear insulated winding copper . . .[/SIZE]

Clear copper? Is this like the transparent aluminum from Star Trek?

RR

[What_Exit]

@RiverRunner

Clear copper? Is this like the transparent aluminum from Star Trek?

RR

The insulation was thin and clear, or at least translucent. It is much like a clear varnish.

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

@Qadgop the Mercotan

He got hit by the stinger in the neck, which was not covered by the mithril shirt. JRRT makes that clear in the books.

As much as I hate the third movie. it was pretty clear to me even on first viewing that Shelob’s stinger hit above the collar of the shirt, said collar being fairly low.

[Alessan]

Back to the OP… to paraphrase Pterry (from Lords and Ladies), from the point of view of an arrow, a mail shirt is just a series of holes. Mail is surprisingly vulnerable to narrow piercing weapons, which simply push through the links - which is why knights used to wear heavy padding under their armor.

Based on the size Frodo’s wound (and the fact that he didn’t die of blood loss) Shelob’s stinger must ave been pretty narrow at the tip. I have no problem imagining it slipping past his armor.

[nd_n8]

@What Exit?

We always used heavy gauge wire; I wonder what form they got the PVC in to make chain mail out of it. Sounds like an interesting but purely decorative method.

From the video shown at the traveling exhibit and the example that accompanied it, it was 3/8 pvc tubing cut in 1/8" slices, painted and antiqued (or plated in the case of the mithril) and slit on one side for assembly then glued back together. The stuff was as light as a feather compaired to something made out of 8 gague steel.

[What_Exit]

@nd_n8

From the video shown at the traveling exhibit and the example that accompanied it, it was 3/8 pvc tubing cut in 1/8" slices, painted and antiqued (or plated in the case of the mithril) and slit on one side for assembly then glued back together. The stuff was as light as a feather compaired to something made out of 8 gague steel.

Sounds interesting, but up close it would give the rings an odd look. They must have used a dip for the painting. The single biggest thing with making chain mail is that it takes a lot of time. I doubt I would ever do it again.

I keep thinking I knew someone that tried the pipe technique and that the flats looked odd and he had to do a lot of filing. The steel* wire worked better and the copper was great for teaching and it looked cool.

Jim

• When will they make the contextual spell checker for spellers like me.

[vison]

@Scissorjack

I wear a platinum ring, and it’s damn heavy.　Mithril was supposed to be light but tough.

Well, I guess if we’re going to argue about a mythical metal, we might as well get “technical”, eh? Sort of ungilding the lily, which is what I began to think we were doing (and still do) on the 2 or 3 LOTR sites I still haunt . . .

Yes, Platinum is heavy. But Mithril, which is “book Platinum” could be hammered and drawn into extremely light and fine form - so mail made from it could be made of very, very, very fine rings. Dwarven smiths might have gone blind working it, but I think it could have been made. Who knows, maybe there were only 2 pounds of Platinum/Mithril in the whole thing?

That mail shirt was one of the nice things in the movie, wasn’t it?

[What_Exit]

I finally got a chance to dig this up:

The Good Professor did a better job of explaining how the **mithril-coat ** protected Frodo than the movie.

@Tolkein

Look, my friends!' he called. Here’s a pretty hobbit-skin to wrap an elven-princeling in! If it were known that hobbits had such hides, all the hunters of Middle-earth would be riding to the Shire.’
And all the arrows of all the hunters in the world would be in vain,' said Gimli, gazing at the mail in wonder. It is a mithril-coat. Mithril! I have never seen or heard tell of one so fair…’
…
There was a dark and blackened bruise on Frodo’s right side and breast. Under the mail there was a shirt of soft leather, but at one point the rings had been driven through it into the flesh. Frodo’s left side also was scored and bruised where he had been hurled against the wall.

[Lissla_Lissar]

I saw the movie mithril shirt, and it was certainly not PVC, although a lot of the other mail was. It’s fine gauge industrial chainmail. I remember thinking it looked about 4 or 5 mm rings. Here’s some nice pics, and information. It was very pretty up close.

I also make (have made) chainmail. Only butted and in jewellery, not rivetted.