Whos afraid of the Black Riders?

[SilvaRanger]

Even though I've read LoTR so many times, they still scare me. I'm just at the bit where Frodo, Sam and Pippin are on the road, and the Black Rider goes sniff, sniff, sniff and gets ever closer...Brrrrrr, Gives me shivers down my spine just thinking of it!
How on earth did Tolkien come up with something so ominous and creepy?
I think it's that sniffing and snuffling that gets me.

[Morkhon]

Heh, you should read a review called "Ooh, Those Awful Orcs" by Edmund Wilson. He claims that all the villians in Tolkien are insubstantial or cartoonish and not scary at all. I of course think that is one of the reasons the Nazgul are scary, they are ghostlike creatures that seem impervious to everything.

[Finduilas]

I find them to be more frightening at Weathertop. If I had a scanner that could do poster sized papers, I'd show you what I meant, but....

However, the original drafts had Gandalf on a white horse in the place of the first sighting of a Black Rider.

[dunedain lady]

They have always terrified me. Recently getting to hold a tarantula and discovering it was cute and fuzzy cured me of my lingering terror of Shelob hiding under the bed, but the Nazgul still are horrible. I fear anything that can drain the life-force out of me, and anything which hides in shadows and darkness.

[Ghost of Gilthalion]

Boo!


Say, Finduilas!

Can you take a snapshot of the poster? Or might there be some other representation on the net?

(I need to go look at your updated site. It was impressive before!)

[Grand Admiral Reese]

I'm more freaked out by them than really afraid.

[SilvaRanger]

Tarantulas cute and fuzzy! You have to be joking, all those horrible hairy legs, I'd rather stay afraid of spiders than hug a tarantula! Though I did get over a fear of snakes by touching one and discovering they weren't slimy.

[dunedain lady]

The ones with the long skinny legs are horrible, but tarantulas are actually incredibly soft, and once you get used to them, they're kinda cute, in a decidedly creepy sense. I'm still trying to find one at a pet store.

[Ghost of Gilthalion]

The Mrs. likes to watch old monster movies. There always seems to be some giant spiders or ants or something of the sort on the screen.

[Finduilas]

Taking photos might work (although I'd lose all the text). What the two are is an assignment I had for art 12. I had to do a cartoon for it. I picked the scene at Weathertop. It goes from the rising of the moon to just after Frodo is wounded.

[Gilthalion]

You might annotate the photos with the appropriate text as a caption. Or even create an image map that goes nowhere, but has the appropriate text in ALT. Others more webdesign proficient may come up with better ideas.

Of course, if the photo is big enough, the text may show, or you could go back and edit the text back in with a small font, once digitized.

[SilvaRanger]

Spiders, Ghosts, Black Riders...I'm a nnnnervous wwwreck;) I'm sure somethings going to jump out on me any minute!
I would like to see that poster though, I have same problem with scanning things that are too large for scanner, haave wondered about taking a photoe of them and then scan the photoe, not tried it yet though. Can't see why it wouldn't work, though you'd have to be careful not to get any unwanted reflections on the poster while photographing it.

[Finduilas]

I'll try it then sometime. (it's now in the same to do category that contains re-doing my Numenor essay. That category is "sometime in the nebulous future")

[SilvaRanger]

I have many items in that category myself:)

[Finduilas]

It has just become the Far nebulous future. (I am in a graphics class that now involves re-doing my entire JRRT page AGAIN(for the third time since October) but with layers and more pictures. When it's done there will be a LOT of my artwork on it)

[Lief Erikson]

The Black Riders never really scared me, although I did think they were cool. Funny though, the only part of the Lord of the Rings that did scare me was the when for the first time I read 'A Knife in the Dark.' I think it's probably because I was quite young and it was at night. But that chapter still did make me all tense.

[Finduilas]

That is one of the best parts of the Fellowship of the Ring.

[Tar Melian]

The scariest description of the dark riders , to me, is when Frodo puts on the ring and sees them for what they are.

But I think the Balrog at Khazad-dum is one of the scariest creatures, because it was such a threat to even Gandalf. That whole chapter is one of my favorites.

[Lief Erikson]

I thought the part on Weathertop was really cool. I think my three favorite parts in the Fellowship of the rings are the scenes in Weathertop, Moria, and the Barrow-downs. The Breaking of the Fellowship was really good too, but to me, I think the others are better.

[SilvaRanger]

My favourite bit is when they first meet Strider in the inn and don't trust him, though it's not a scary bit.
Favourite scary bits are going through the mines of Moria and they start to hear the drums in the distance, Piipin drops stone down well. That bits so omnious and builds tension well.
Also when Frodo puts on the ring and is nearly drawn into Blackriders world.
Oh and I just thought of another one...I think the whole book is my favourite bit, oherwise this list would go on forever:)

[Inoldonil]

My top 5-favorite parts of the books are:

1. The time spent by Merry, Pippin, Sam and Frodo in the house of Tom Bombadill

2. The despair of the Fellowship when leaving Lothlorien

3. "The drums in the deep" in Moria

4. The march and assault of the Ents upon Isengard

5. The internal struggles of Smeagol, Sam and Frodo.

So I suppose my favorite scary part is in Moria, but the part that I find most terrifying by far is in Shelob's Lair.

[Lief Erikson]

Yeah, I can understand that perfectly. That part was rather spooky. But I'm afraid I read the books for the first time so long ago that I can't call back my first impressions.

[dunedain lady]

I agree, Inoldonil. While, as I said, I no longer fear Shelob herself more than any other monster in the book, the journey in her lair gives me the creeps! All that walk, in the dark, with spider webs everywhere, and no light... *shudders*

[Tobold Hornblower]

If holding a tarantula is crash therapy for Shelob under the bed, what would be the crash therapy for Nazguls?

One of the more terifying scenes in LOTR is when the chief Ringwraith descends on Theoden. Of course he is quickly bumped of by a woman (Eowyn) and a child (Merry - well halfling then) which goes to show how egalitarian Mr T. was!

[dunedain lady]

Nazugl...*brrr*
They scare me more than when they're just "black riders." Ominous riders are scary, but it's worse when you read the chapter again and know exactly what they are and what awful peril the hobbits truly are in.
Yeah, I like how Tolkien let Eowyn have her day after the male characters had previously taken most of the active roles. Arwen and Galadriel are both very strong characters, but they are more passive, wise-councilor roles.

[Darth ATAT]

The Black Riders scare me somewhat.

Shelob hiding under the bed :eek: whatever will ppl come up with next? :lol:

[Tobold Hornblower]

A Balrog as you go change the light bulb in the cellar?

[SilvaRanger]

I am absolutely not going down in the cellar, send for Gandalf or something, I wont go:D
Wait a minute, I don't have a cellar. Phew safe, apart from Shelob under the bed, so I'm also not going to bed either.;)

[emilsson]

I never really was that scared by them. The most fearful part for me is the battle between Eowyn and the Nazgul in ROTK.

[Miralys]

Black Riders were never terrifying for me...a little creepy but I didn't see them at night when I turned out the lights or anything. Always had a fear of things under the bed though! If you had proposed the Shelob under the bed theory ten years ago I would have taken to sleeping on the couch! :lol:

[SilvaRanger]

I read fog on the barrow down and the bit with the creeping disembodied hand just before going to sleep one night. Woke up in the middle of the night, an icy chill in the air, convinced a barrow wight was coming to get me.;)
I'm not that easily scared really I'm not, Tolkien just writes scary stuff:D

[Miralys]

Oh gee that's a lovely picture. Not to mention it's always cold in this room. I knew I should have gone to sleep before I checked the board! :wink

[SilvaRanger]

You can read the boards in your sleep???:lol:
Wish I could do that, then I wouldn't have to wake up so often;)

[Fuor]

I gotta agree with Dunedain Lady when she says Black Riders seems for scary. When you start hearing them called Nazgul with magical powers its just another Fantasy evil guy. When they are just an ominous presence it hits nearer to home maybe. Like imagining yourself in Frodos shoes while he crosses the shire is more believable (that sounds crazy) than fighting in the gates of Minas Tirith.

[dunedain lady]

That's a good point Fuor. When I hear about the Battle of the Pellenor Fields, etc., I feel afraid on Eowyn's behalf, that is, I'm concerned for the characters' safety, but they do not scare me, the reader. Minas Tirith is just different enough from my daily life that it is difficult for me to imagine myself in their place, but the Shire is meant to be like anyone's safe little home, and there are plenty of ominous black shadows in my life that can be turned into Black Riders.

[easterlinge]

I get the impression Tolkien was a bit more gory in the other books, and LOTR and Silmarillion was watered down a little. Or so I have heard. I've only got Sil and LOTR so I can't verify. I hear that what Sauron did to poor Celebrimbor was particularly horrible. And if you read the Lay of Leithian (I found someone putting it on a webpage but can't find it anymore), well.... that bit about Beren having a nightmare, and the appearance of Gorlim the Unhappy's ghost, and Beren arriving at his father's camp to find everyone hacked up with crows all around.... eeek!!

Beren's dream and Gorlim's ghost from the Lay of Leithian:

" He slipped then into darkness down,
until, as man that waters drown
strives upwards gasping, it seemed to him
he rose through slime beside the brim
of sullen pool beneath dead trees.
Their livid boughs in cold a breeze
trembled, and all their black leaves stirred:
each leaf a black and croaking bird,
whose neb a gout of blood let fall,
He shuddered, struggling thence to crawl
through winding weeds, when far away
he saw a shadow faint and grey
gliding across the dreary lake.
Slowly it came, and softly spake:
`Gorlim I was, but now a wraith
of will defeated, broken faith,
traitor betrayed. Go! Stay not here!
Awaken, son of Barahir,
and haste! For Morgoth's fingers close
upon thy father's throat; he knows
your trysts, your paths, your secret lair'
Then he revealed the devil's snare"


and Barahir's camp:
"but Aeluin was red with blood,
red were the stones and trampled mud.
Black in the birches sat a-row
the raven and the carrion-crow;
wet were their nebs, and dark the meat
that dripped beneath their griping feet.
One croaked: `Ha, ha, he comes too late!'
`Ha, ha!' they answered, `ha! too late!'"

Can someone help me out with a quote or two of some of the more gory Tolkien?

Oh, and I found Aragorn's summoning the Dead and Isildur's Curse on them at Erech the creepiest part of LOTR.

[Inoldonil]

J.R.R. Tolkien only published three Middle-earth related stories, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Adventures of Tom Bombadill, none of which are gory, and the other writings aren't very much so either, not compared to other writings of his time, and certainly not compared to modern stuff. The Silmarillion was put together by his son from a monster of notes and writings worse than Frodo's wildest dreams of Uncle Bilbo's Befuddled Diary.

The gore really comes from the imagination, Tolkien has a realistic world, you get some disgusting things in the Lord of the Rings, but he doesn't dwell on them.

His other work can be found (besides the Silmarillion) in Unfinished Tales and the History of Middle-earth series.

As for Celebrimbor, he became Sauron's banner, they hung him (naked, I think) on a flag poll after his death and marched to war.

[easterlinge]

"
As for Celebrimbor, he became Sauron's banner, they hung him (naked, I think) on a flag poll after his death and marched to war. "


Eeewwww....

It is also said that Morgoth's forces hacked up Gwindor's brother in front of everyone just before the Ninaeth Arnoediad. What about Finrod being eaten alive by werewolves on Tol Sirion? And Carcharoth bit off Beren's hand...

Luthien must have been a gutsy girl to disguise herself as the vampire Thuringwethil, "dripping blood over Taur-nu-Fuin" as she flapped her batty way to Angband. ;)

[Niffiwan]

The ones with the long skinny legs are horrible

Those actually aren't spiders but more closely related to flies.

Anyway, anyone who's scared of snakes should watch "The Crocodile Hunter" on Discovery channel. ;)

[Mandos]

I don't think the Lotr is that scary. The Silmarillion is more scary

[Darth Tater]

I'm terrified of black riders, but it's become an enjoyable fear, because it reminds me of the first time I read LOTR, when I smuggled it into my room at night and read with a flashlight. My room's in the atic, and there's a chimney going through the middle, which casts some interesting shadows. They all turned into dark riders crawling towards me, their hands gripping at the air, looking for that chain with the ring that I had. Now the fear is so much fun, because it reminds me of that.

[webwizard333]

I'm a new user!!! (Can't wait for ExBoard to realize that my address was the cat walking on the keyboard....)
In response 2 the topic, i always felt that the scariest moment with the Black Riders was when they were racing toward the volcano place errrr ummm Mount Something or Other... anyways i always felt that was the creepiest because its a race against time until your killers get there. Though i think im the only 1 who shares that feeling...oh well

[The Black Lieutenant]

Actually, they're all right guys once you get to know them. :D

[Inoldonil]

Welcome webwizard! Mount Doom was the name you were looking for. It is called Orodruin in Elvish, but that actually means 'Mountain of Fire'.

[ladyisme]

I think that the most creepy thing about the Black Riders is that they can change anyone into a wraith if they want to.

[easterlinge]

ONly if they manage to stab you, ladyisme. Not a great comfort though.

[Feanturi]

The mystery of the black riders, reading it for the first time, makes me more fearful than the second time, after i found out what, who they are, and Who they were. Although the thought of running form one makes me shiver.

[elfgirl]

i think the scariest parts are when its night and they hear cries and stuff and its like 'eekkk! where did that come from'!!