The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers [Part 3 of 5]

Em: 00:03:06

Hi, everyone. I'm Em. And welcome to verbal diorama, episode 299, the Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers.

This is the podcast that's all about the history and legacy of movies you know and movies you don't. That it's like in the great stories, listeners, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were.

And sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow.

Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it'll shine out the clearer.

Those were the stories that stayed with you that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, listeners, I do understand. I know now, folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't.

They kept going because they were holding onto something. That there's some good in the world, listeners. And it's worth fighting for. Welcome to Verbal Diorama.

Whether you are a regular returning listener, whether you are a brand new listener to this podcast and you're turning up 299 episodes later. Thank you for being here. Thank you for choosing to listen to this podcast.

As always, I am delighted to have you here for the history and legacy of the Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers. Huge, huge.

Thank you to everyone who listens to this podcast and has continued to listen to and support this podcast over the last six years and very, very almost 300 episodes. It means so much to have you here with me on this journey. Kind of a bit like the journey that Frodo and Sam are on in this movie.

It does feel a little bit like Verbal Diorama is taking a trip to Mordor because nothing ever gets easier on this podcast. It only seems to get more difficult. But I am so happy to have you here and I'm really, genuinely so grateful for your support.

It really means so much that people continue to love this podcast. I've had some lovely feedback about recent episodes of this podcast as well. And genuinely, it means the absolute world. I love doing this podcast.

I hope to do this podcast for a long time going forward, but for now, doing these episodes has genuinely been one of the biggest joys I think I've ever done for this podcast, but also one of the most difficult things I've ever had to accomplish on this podcast. Because the Lord of the Rings is huge, Tolkien is massive, and these movies are immense.

And it's the sort of thing that there is no way I could cover every single thing about these movies on this podcast. There is simply no way.

Because the world that Tolkien built is so immense and so detailed and so intricate and honestly, I am not a Tolkien scholar, I am just a fan of these movies. But I hope that I do them the tiniest amount of justice that they deserve.

And we are here literally the Run up to the 300th episode so this episode is basically the third of a five part episode on the complete history and legacy of the Lord of the Rings, focusing on Peter Jackson's trilogy, but sandwiched between two animated versions.

's the Lord of the Rings from: 1978

But I would recommend it because it goes into Tolkien's history, his estate, and his estate's control of the material is important when we get to Jackson's movies as well as Saul Zain's link with the rights.

Now, as I mentioned, last episode, the estate didn't have anything to do with Jackson's adaptations, but Saul Zain is a really important figure in the general story of the Lord of the Rings and specifically how the Lord of the Rings got cinematic adaptations in the first place.

ode on the Lord of the Rings,: 1978

So although it's a five part story, this episode is technically the second of three interconnected stories about Peter Jackson's the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The last episode focused on the beginning of his vision for the series, his dealings with Miramax, the move to New Line Cinema, the various changes that he made to the source material and specifics on the Fellowship of the Ring, including the casting choices for the series and the incredible costume design as well.

This episode will be focused on the Two Towers, the Battle of Helm's Deep, and the introduction of and technology surrounding Gollum, as well as the production and art design choices for the series. The next episode, which is also the 300th, will be primarily on the Return of the King.

I'm also going to go into the rest of the visual effects by Weta Workshop and obviously some of the practical effects as well, the makeup and prosthetics, the music across all of the movies by Howard Shaw, how that movie became one of the biggest Academy Award winning films of all time, and the everlasting legacy of these movies from the fan culture and then to setting a precedent that Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy then had to follow. And the final episode will be on the War of the Rohirrim.

And the effect the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit has had on New Zealand's tourism and film industries, the rights issues surrounding the Lord of the Rings and the future of the franchise going forward. So that's just a general summary of where we're at and I hope that all made sense.

But like Gandalf the White, I have been resurrected from last episode to help save Middle Earth from the forces of Sauron. I'm going round. I'm freeing kings from curses more powerful than I was the last time. Maybe we'll see how I get on. What we need is a few good taters.

What do I mean? Potatoes, of course. Here's the trailer for the Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers.

Not sure if you heard, but apparently they're taking the Hobbits to Isengard.

Em: 00:11:49

The Fellowship is broken. Sauron's power is growing stronger.

While venturing onto Mordor, Frodo and Sam come across the creature Gollum who is forever consumed by the Ring's power. Meanwhile, Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas and Gimli meet up with new allies in the plains of Rohan.

Together they must work to defend the people of Rohan against Sauron's puppet Saruman as he unleashes his armies from Isengard. All the while Sauron prepares to launch an attack on Gondor. The war for the Ring begins here. Let's run through the cast.

We obviously have lots of returning cast and some new cast as well.

We have Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins, Ian McKellen as Gandalf Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee Andy Serkis as Gollum, Billy Boyd as Peregrine Took, Dominic Monaghan as Meriadoc Brandybuck John Rhys Davis as Gimli and the voice of Treebeard.

Orlando Bloom as Legolas Bernard Hill as Theoden Miranda Otto as Eowyn David Wenham as Faramir Brad Dourif as Grima Wormtongue Karl Urban as Eoma Liv Tyler as Arwen Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Christopher Lee as Saruman the White and Hugo Weaving as Elrond.

The Lord of the the Two Towers has a screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair and Peter Jackson, was directed by Peter Jackson and was based on the Two Towers by J.R.R. tolkien.

$868 million, 13 Academy Award nominations and four wins later, the Fellowship of the Ring was always going to be a spectacle, but it was nothing compared to the welcome the production got on Return to Wellington.

After the Oscar ceremony, the Wellington airport staff laid out a red carpet and the staff of Weta lined the arrivals hall to greet Richard Taylor and his Best Visual Effects Oscar.

It was the recognition they needed that New Zealand's visual effects industry was the best in the industry and the Lord of the Rings had helped them achieve that. Taylor had purchased 100 miniature Oscars for his team and handed them all out.

It was A team effort and a fitting end to the story of the Fellowship of the Ring. But as far as this complete story is concerned, the story is just beginning and obviously the story starts with JRR Tolkien.

Tolkien famously changed his mind often on which of the two towers the title of his book was referencing.

pretation, but in a letter in: 1953

In a later illustration he drew himself and a note at the end of the Fellowship of the Ring, the towers were identified as Minas Morgul and Orthanc, and these are seen as Tolkien's chosen two towers.

But like many things in a movie adaptation, changes are necessary and the two towers of this two towers aren't Orthanc and Minas Morgul, but Orthanc and Barad Dur to symbolise the evil alliance out to destroy Middle Earth.

The film's narrative has Saruman openly outing himself as Sauron's servant, whereas this is never really mentioned in the books and there's a few notable differences in the film's restructured narrative.

While Tolkien's novel is split into two distinct parts, following Frodo and Sam and then the other characters, Peter Jackson chose to intercut between storylines to maintain momentum and engagement. Faramir's characterization is also changed in the book.

Faramir immediately understands the Ring's danger and helps Frodo, but in the film he initially plans to take the Ring to Gondor, creating additional conflict. The film also changes Treebeard's decision making process. In the book, the Ents decide to attack Isengard during the Entmoot.

In the film, they initially decide against it until Pippin tricks Treebeard into seeing Saruman's destruction of the trees. Frodo and Sam's encounter with Shelob was moved to the third film, which then left Faramir as an obstacle for Frodo and Sam.

The movie significantly expands the battle of Helm's Deep and places it at the climax.

The book treats it more briefly with less emphasis on Aragorn's role and without the arrival of the elves, which was added to the movie to facilitate the arrival of Arwen to fight alongside Aragorn, which was changed after Fans reacted poorly. Liv Tyler had to reshoot scenes of Arwen leaving for the west and also flashback scenes.

Obviously the elves fighting was retained, which segues perfectly into the creation of Helm's Deep, which was a massive undertaking that combined practical sets, miniatures, digital effects and innovative filmmaking techniques. When New Line Cinema bought the project off Miramax, they were sold by the promotional video Peter Jackson had made.

Part of that video included the miniatures already made by production designer Alan Lee. And Helm's Deep was one of the first miniatures made for the series.

The main physical Helm's Deep set was built at Dry Creek Quarry near Wellington in New Zealand. It included a full scale version of the main wall, about a quarter of the fortress standing approximately 40ft tall.

The main gate and causeway were built to full scale. The Hornberg, the central tower and keep, was constructed partially at full scale.

And there were also working defensive platforms, stairs and battlements where actors could perform. This physical set was large enough to accommodate hundreds of actors and stunt performers for the battle sequences.

And it was made using lightweight materials like polystyrene and plywood covered with plaster to create the stone appearance. To film the wider shots of Helm's Deep, Weta Workshop created what they call bigatures, which are extremely detailed large scale miniatures.

These included a 1/4 scale model of the entire fortress measuring about 50ft wide, with detailed stonework and weathering effects used for forced perspective shots, plus miniature figures to populate the model for certain shots.

When Miramax put the project in turnaround, they sent a producer to ensure everything was packed up, including the miniature they'd made for Helm's Deep. The team delayed breaking up the miniature to the very last minute.

And then new lines swooped in, saved the day and and most importantly saved the miniature from being dismantled and probably also destroyed in the process. These bigotures were filmed using special camera techniques to make them appear full sized.

In the final movie, they used a sweeping 120 foot crane that was mounted on 40 foot containers. This allowed them to use a 160 foot crane shot for the Deeping wall. In all, there were 72 miniatures built for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Do you want to know how many were built for the Hobbit trilogy? I'm going to tell you, even though I'm not really talking about the Hobbit. But there were 72 built for the Lord of the Rings.

There were zero built for the Hobbit. And maybe that just goes into why the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit feels so distinctly different.

Weta Digital Extended both the physical sets and miniatures with computer graphics and I'm going to go into the majority of the CG visual effects next episode, but specifically to Helm's Deep.

Digital extensions added the mountain backdrop behind the fortress and the huge armies of Uruk Hai were partially created with Weta's proprietary crowd simulation software Massive or Multiple Agent Simulation System in virtual environment.

Massive was created by Stephen Regelius and allows each agent, or in this case individual Orc, to each act with their own unique behaviors and actions, using AI to react realistically to their surroundings by utilizing pre recorded animation clips, Massive would go on to be used in many future productions including Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Avatar, World War Z, Black Panther and Endgame.

The entire Helm's Deep sequence took approximately 120 days to film, with battle scenes alone requiring about four months of night sheets in difficult weather conditions. One of the most ambitious battle sequences ever filmed at that time.

It was so grueling and intense that the crew received commemorative T shirts with the slogan I survived Helm's Deep. At the end of the schedule. Some people referred to it as Hell's Deep. Filming the nighttime battle presented significant challenges.

The set was rigged with extensive artificial rain systems, special lighting, simulated lightning and torchlight, and multiple camera units worked simultaneously to capture different aspects of the battle.

They needed so many extras that they literally hired everyone who was available, regardless of height or stature, including picking people with the right hair to save on wigs. They disguised a lot of the female extras as men for the Rohan soldiers, specifically because they needed people who could ride horses.

There were 300 to 400 elves and 300 to 400 uruk hai, plus the rest of the cast, meaning at least 1,000 physical people, with the rest created by Massive. By the time they finished Helm's Deep, the director of photography, John Cavill, had shot a million feet of film.

There was even a blink and you'll miss it. Animatronic puppet of an Uruk Hai in the scene where they're yelling and banging their shield and on verbal diorama.

We love a good animatronic puppet and I'm going to come to another one a bit later in this episode too. This movie is 23 years old this year and even 23 years later, the battle of Helm's Deep is still regarded as one of the greatest on screen battles.

Also regarded as one of the greatest things on screen Even after 23 years of computer generated imagery and motion capture, is Gollum. And Gollum is a revolutionary character when it comes to motion Capture and cg.

You'll remember that we do briefly meet Gollum in the Fellowship of the Ring, but he's hidden in shadow. Even with the shadow though, he looks different between then and this movie where he plays a significant role.

And there is a reason for this, because originally Andy Serkis was hired just to provide Gollum's voice and Gollum was going to be a solely CGI character. But Peter Jackson was so impressed by Serkis audition tape that they chose to use him on set as well.

s CGI model was redesigned in: 2001

the new Gollum over Christmas: 2001

Andy Serkis was originally meant to appear in the Two Towers as himself before becoming Gollum, but this was actually moved to the Return of the King.

Andy Serkis performed on set alongside the other actors, wearing a white suit rather than a full motion capture suit during principal photography, and this allowed for genuine interaction with Elijah Wood and Sean Astin.

Many scenes were filmed twice, one with Serkis physically in the scene, acting with the other actors, and one without him so that the digital character could be inserted later. After principal photography, Serkis performed in a motion capture studio where his movements were digitally recorded for the Two Towers.

During motion capture sessions, a separate camera recorded close ups of his face to reference his expressions. Weta Digital developed new systems to capture the nuances of Serkis facial expressions.

Though much of the facial animation was still done by hand and this included Serkis actual eye twitches. Gollum's eyes were built with 5,000 polygons. A quarter of the geometry for all of Gollum was just in his eyes for context.

to make Elita battle Angel in: 2019

polygons in: 2002

Gollum was created as a fully digital 3D character with unprecedented anatomical detail, including muscles, skin textures and realistic eyes. Unlike previous CG characters which were based on the Geometry of the skeleton underneath.

For Gollum, the movement was based on the muscles under the skin. So instead of the skin being pulled by the skeleton, it was being pulled by the muscles.

Detailed subsurface scattering techniques were developed to make Gollum's skin look translucent and realistic rather than plastic, like his skin tones took four hours per frame to render. Subsurface scattering was what clinched the Oscar win. This technology was created for Gollum and is still used for CG creatures to this day.

ng on all of these systems in: 1999

More refinements would come for Gollum for the Return of the King too. The team didn't sit on their laurels for the Two Towers.

They shot Andy Serkis on a motion capture stage where he watched playback footage and acted like he was there. But for the Return of the King, Serkis was actually on set interacting with others while performing the motion capture.

So the advancement in technology was playing out behind the scenes too. They would go through 12 sets of motion capture rigs purely because of Serkis hyperactivity on set.

And I just quickly want to shout out one of our favorite Ents, Treebeard, who despite his name is not a beardy tree, but an Ent and who also doesn't look like a Parsnip. This time round, shout out to the original Parsnip beard.

While CGI was used for some of Treebeard's scenes, a remarkable full sized animatronic puppet was built for the close interaction with the Hobbit characters. The Treebeard puppet stood approximately 14ft tall, making it one of the largest animatronic figures created for the film.

The animatronic Treebeard had a steel internal framework and hydraulic systems, foam latex bark exterior with detailed texturing that was molded from polyurethane molds of actual tree bark. He was decorated with real twigs, moss and plant materials for added authenticity and had flexible joints allowing for movement.

His face had animatronic eyes capable of blinking and looking in different directions. A mechanical mouth system for lip synchronization and branch like eyebrows and beard that could move expressively.

He had puppeteers moving his face and body as well as computer controlled hydraulics.

For the scenes where Merry and Pippin are riding on him, they are actually on the Animatronic on special seated platforms with safety systems in place.

And it would have been so easy to make Tree Beard completely cgi, but as I think we're all discovering in these episodes, myself included, Peter Jackson never took the easy option on anything for any of these movies. The practical puppet matched the digital version they used for wide shots and walking scenes.

The digital version took between 28 and 48 hours per frame to render.

Treebeard was brought to life vocally by John Rhys Davis, who also played Gimli, and his reference footage was also used for subtle facial expressions. When it came to the look of Middle Earth, the visual identity of the films was largely shaped by two renowned Tolkien illustrators.

Alan Lee, who illustrated the: 1992

read Morris and A.J. wyatt's: 1895

Lee was known for his illustrated editions of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings and his atmospheric painterly landscapes and architectural designs. John Howe was also hired, primarily known for the COVID artwork to several Tolkien publications and for his dramatic character designs.

Creatures and weapons Howe designed most of the weapons of Middle Earth, which were then forged by swordsmith Peter Leon, with each sword taking three to six days to handforge.

making weapons and armour in: 1984

his own fantasy weapons since: 1994

His experience as a sword maker and in period combat techniques as well as riding and jousting led to weapons that were both visually and functionally correct. Alan Lee and John Howe were brought on as conceptual designers, ensuring visual continuity with the imagery many readers associate with the books.

a real historical world with: 7000

Each artifact and structure was designed with consideration for how it would have been made, what materials were available, the cultural significance within its society, and how it had aged and weathered over time. Nothing on this movie was recycled from any other movie or rented from any other company.

Everything you see on screen was made from scratch for these movies and for these movies only.

New Zealand artisans from across the country were tasked with making realistic props for the Lord of the Rings, including glassblowers, ceramists, furniture makers, leather artists and metal workers. Like the sets, the props were created in two scales to serve the variety of characters on the project, from Hobbit to Gandalf sized.

Everything from furniture, weapons and food was produced in both small and large sizes.

And just like the clothing, the visual language of the Elven design used organic flowing lines inspired by Art Nouveau nature based motifs featuring leaves, vines and stars. Muted color palettes of blues, silvers, pale greens and whites and elves predominantly integrated their buildings with natural surroundings.

Dwarven design used geometric angular patterns and strong symmetry. Was built with heavy stonework for durability and scale, with elaborate engravings in rich warm colors with golds and deep reds.

Everything was illuminated from below to show the Dwarves as a mining community.

I mentioned the building of Hobbiton last episode, but the Hobbit holes were based on rounded architecture that was deliberately imperfect and handcrafted. Everything was made to feel warm and comfortable using natural materials with earth tones, greens and yellows.

Mount Sunday in New Zealand's Canterbury region was used for the location for the exterior of Edoras, Rohan's capital.

Rohan used Anglo Saxon and Norse aesthetics with wooden construction and again, like the clothing, horse motifs integrated into architecture and decorations. And just like for Gondor with its classical Byzantine and Egyptian influences and symbolic tree motifs throughout.

Decorative elements, unsurprisingly for a place with the literal eye of Sauron ever watching. Mordor's recurring motifs for its conceptual design were flames, wheels and eyes, as well as black volcanic rock and crude metalwork.

Everything was used to signify that these were long standing cultures with their own design languages, alphabets, writing systems, jewelry styles, textile patterns and architectural principles. The languages specifically were important.

Tolkien, as I mentioned in the very first episode, was a huge fan of linguistics since his childhood and his created languages were integral to Middle Earth. No one wanted to get the language wrong.

Specialist dialect and creative language coaches taught the actors Tolkien's elvish language using phonetics and also created various accents for all the characters and began training and rehearsing with the actors a month before Filming began.

Both coaches were on set, standing by, listening for dialogue and dialect and also supervised any looping or dialogue recorded that takes place after the scenes were already shot.

Production designer Grant Major would say that the work of Lee and Howe was fundamental to the project, bringing their intimate knowledge of Tolkien's Law to the work.

Major oversaw the creation of the life sized exterior sets, including the intricate and delicate Elvish kingdom of Rivendell, the grassy knolls of Hobbiton and the underground interior realms of the Mines of Moria. He made realism and exquisite detail a priority, but with a fantastical twist.

The sets for Rivendell were created to reflect the Elvish culture which is highly artistic and intimately connected to the forest and nature. It appears a place of deep serenity with arching walkways, babbling brooks and quiet wooden gazebos, lending Rivendell a sense of mystery.

So he designed and built a series of 40 foot tall towers that shimmer in the background of Rivendell, suggesting there's more to Rivendell than meets the eye. Many of major sets were built at Peter Jackson's Wellington Studios. This is where he created the Mines of Moria.

Gray granite walls were sprayed constantly by technicians to appear as glistening, dripping jewel encrusted caves. These sets not only had to be visually correct, but also hard wearing with thousands of people walking through them, including cast and crew.

The sets had to withstand 60 pounds per square foot of weight. The Two Towers was always acknowledged by the crew as the most difficult film to make.

As the middle part of a trilogy, it had no beginning or end, with the additional problem of intercutting storylines appropriately. Peter Jackson had initially intended to edit all three films himself at once, assisted by Jamie Selkirk.

This soon proved too ambitious, so John Gilbert was hired to edit the Fellowship of the Ring, Michael J. Horton for the Two Towers and Jamie Selkirk on the Return of the King.

The process of editing three films back to back resulted in some scenes, including the reforging of Anguril, Gollum's backstory and Saruman's demise being moved to the Return of the King. Saruman's death would end up being cut from the theatrical edition but included in the extended edition.

When Jackson felt it was not starting the third film effectively enough. Much of what was filmed remained unused, even in the extended editions.

There is much information online as to the content of what was filmed and never used. So I'm not going to go into it here, but maybe we will get an extended extended version in the future.

There is no easy way to segue into the obligatory Keanu reference of this episode.

But like yes episode, I am trying to find ways to link Keanu Reeves to the Lord of the Rings, which is something that I do for pretty much every episode and only because he literally is the best of men and the one that I did last episode I think easily could have covered all of them, but I wanted to do something different and literally the only way I could link him is again via the Matrix and that is because obviously Keanu Reeves starred in the Matrix. Don't know if you realize, but he did.

Which was directed by the Wachowskis and the Wachowskis visual effects team on the Matrix also included many people who worked with Weta Digital who would obviously then go on to work on the visual effects for all of the Lord of the Rings but are specifically using it for the Two Towers.

I don't know if there is any other way to link Keanu Reeves to the Lord of the Rings for next episode, but because it's the 300th episode I'm gonna have to think of something.

As I mentioned, I'm gonna talk about the music specifically next episode and I'm a little bit worried about next episode because it is going to be so full of everything else that I haven't managed to fit into these two episodes that I'm worried it's going to be quite massive.

Hopefully not so I'll be speaking about Howard Shaw's score next episode, but I mentioned last episode the website for the Fellowship of the Ring and the website for the movie was updated when it came to the release of the Two Towers with interactive Middle Earth maps, character profiles and exclusive behind the scenes content.

attached to Spider man in May: 2002

The second major trailer focused heavily on the reveal of Gollum, showcasing the character as a major selling point, and later trailers highlighted the Battle of Helm's Deep, which positioned the movie as more action packed than its predecessor.

December: 2002

But unlike the Fellowship of the Ring, there was no debuting at number three in its short first week, the Two Towers made $40 million in its first two days, automatically going to number one at the US box office, beating Made in Manhattan. It would stay at number one for four weeks, only dropping to third in its fifth week behind Just Married and Catch Me if youf Can.

It remained in the US top 10 for 10 weeks on a production budget of $94 million.

the highest grossing film of: 2002

The Lord of the the Two Towers has an approval rating of 95% on rotten tomatoes, a 3% increase on the Fellowship.

With the website's consensus reading the Two Towers balance this spectacular action with emotional storytelling, leaving audiences both wholly satisfied and eager for the final chapter. The Two Towers received slightly fewer Academy Award nominations than the Fellowship of the Ring.

It received several six for Best Picture, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Sound Editing, and Best Visual Effects, winning in two categories, Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects.

It also earned nine nominations at the BAFTAs for Best Film, Best Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Makeup and Hair, Best Production Design, Best Sound and Best Special Visual Effects, leading to wins in the categories for Best Costume Design and Best Special Visual Effects. Of a total of 222 award nominations, the Two Towers won a total of 136 awards.

Like all of these movies, there is an extended version with 45 minutes of new material, added special effects and music, and 11 minutes of fan club credits. The theatrical version of the Two Towers is 179 minutes long. The extended version is 235 minutes.

Just imagine how long that extended extended version might be should it ever be released. And this is where we leave this chapter of Verbal Diorama.

This is where we leave episode 299 of Verbal Diorama, with Gollum leading Frodo and Sam on a dangerous route.

The Rohirrim and the Elves have arrived to save Helm's Deep, and the surviving Uruk Hai have fled into the forest, only to be attacked by Treebeard and the Ents. Sauron will retaliate, but there's still good in Middle Earth, and it's on its way to Mordor. But first, Shelob, thank you for listening.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on the Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers and thank you for your continued support of this podcast.

If you have enjoyed this episode and you would like to get involved and help this podcast grow and reach more people, you can find me and follow me across social media. I'm at Verbal Diorama. You can like post, share posts, comment on posts. You can even contact me as well directly if you wish.

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I would love to hear from you, but otherwise, please join me next week for the 300th episode of this podcast. How crazy is that? And finally, is there no other way.

Speaker A: 00:45:34

For the women children to get out of the caves? Is there no other way? There is one passage. It leads into the mountains. But they will not get far. The Uruk Hai are too many.

Send word for the women and children to make for the mountain pass and barricade the entrance. So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate? Ride out with me. Ride out and meet them. For death and glory. For Rohan. For your people.

The sun is rising. Look to my coming at first night on the fifth day at dawn. Look to the east. Yes. Yes.

The horn of Helm hammer hand shall sound in the deep one last time. Yes. Yes. Let this be the hour when we draw swords together. Fell deeds awake. Now for wrath, now for ruin and the red d.

Em: 00:47:43

Bye.