50 Fun Facts About The Two Towers

Which two 'books' of the six-book novel does the volume cover?

The split into three volumes was the publisher's, to reduce the cost of publication; Tolkien had wanted one big book.

What title does Book Four, the Frodo and Sam half of the volume, carry?

Book Three is The Treason of Isengard. The two halves never overlap in time on the page, so the reader only later realises what was simultaneous.

Who leads the Orcs sent by Sauron, as opposed to Saruman's Uruk-hai, in the opening attack?

He later tries to steal the hobbits away from the Uruk-hai for himself, suspecting they carry the Ring.

Which Rider of Rohan leads the force that wipes out the Orcs carrying Merry and Pippin?

He was disobeying royal orders to do it. Scholar Richard C. West uses that disobedience as an example of how loosely connected events drive the plot.

Which actor voices Treebeard in the film, as well as playing Gimli?

The Ent took 28 to 48 hours per frame to render, and a 14-foot puppet on a wheel stood in for close interaction.

Gandalf frees the King of Rohan from the influence of which of Saruman's spies?

Brad Dourif plays him in the film and spent a long time building a British accent for the part.

What is the capital of Rohan, to which Gandalf leads his three companions?

Its Golden Hall is Meduseld. For the film the exterior was built on a mountain over six months and the interiors doubled as offices.

What is the hard round object Gríma hurls down from Orthanc at the end of the parley?

Saruman had used it to speak with Sauron and Sauron had used it to ensnare him. Pippin steals it that night and looks in.

After Pippin looks into the seeing-stone, Gandalf rides with him to which city?

Because a hobbit appeared in the stone, Sauron now believes Pippin carries the Ring, which is useful misdirection.

Frodo and Sam begin Book Four lost among which barren hills and cliffs?

It is there that they finally catch the creature that has been tracking them since Moria.

Gollum guides the hobbits across which haunted bogland on the way to the Black Gate?

Faces of long-dead warriors seem to float beneath the water, a passage often read as echoing Tolkien's time on the Somme.

Sam overhears Gollum arguing with which alter ego about breaking his promise?

The film turned the hint of a divided mind into a full split personality, with contrasting camera angles for each voice.

Which younger brother of Boromir captures Frodo and Sam in Ithilien?

Unlike his brother he resists the Ring and, disobeying standing orders, lets them go. The film makes him far more tempted.

What is the name of the Ithilien rangers' secret refuge behind a waterfall?

The name means Window of the Sunset. The film keeps the location but sends the hobbits on to Osgiliath afterwards.

Gollum leads the hobbits to which pass, and into the lair of a great spider?

The film moves the spider Shelob entirely into The Return of the King, which is why the 2002 film ends where it does.

What gift from Lothlórien does Frodo hold up to drive Shelob away?

Sam later uses it too. Its light comes from the star of Eärendil, the brightest in Middle-earth's sky.

Believing Frodo dead after the spider's attack, Sam picks up which sword?

Bilbo's old blade from The Hobbit. Sam also takes the Ring to carry on alone, then overhears Orcs saying Frodo is alive.

Tolkien proposed the volume's title in an August 1953 letter to which publisher?

By January 1954 he was writing that he was 'not at all happy about the title' and admitted it could mislead.

Tolkien's own cover illustration identifies the pair of towers as which two?

He drew one white with a waning moon above it and one black and three-horned with the White Hand beside it, a Nazgûl flying between.

Jackson's film instead names the two towers as which pair?

The film makes Saruman openly Sauron's servant; the book has Gandalf and Aragorn reading the two as uneasy rivals.

How many towers are actually named in the narrative, making the title ambiguous?

Orthanc, Barad-dûr, Minas Tirith, Minas Morgul and the Tower of Cirith Ungol; Tolkien floated three different pairings.

Which Irish Press reviewer compared Gandalf's return to Christ's resurrection?

He thought it could be done 'without irreverence' because of Tolkien's seriousness about good and evil.

Anthony Boucher wrote that no writer save whom had so compellingly created his own mythology?

The same review complained that the volume 'makes inordinate demands upon the patience of its readers'.

Which dropped object works as a 'narrative landmark', found by Aragorn after Pippin lets it fall?

Scholars call the technique interlacing: the reader only knows what one character sees, and such clues synchronise the threads.

Where did the film premiere on 5 December 2002?

Each film of the trilogy premiered in a different city: London, New York, then Wellington for The Return of the King.

On release it was the third-highest-grossing film ever, behind Titanic and which other?

It was the top-grossing film of 2002 worldwide and, reissues included, has taken $944 million.

Which two Oscars did the film win at the 75th Academy Awards?

It had six nominations including Best Picture. Howard Shore's score was not even nominated, despite winning for the films either side.

Which instrument, played by Dermot Crehan, is used alongside the Rohan themes in the score?

It is a Norwegian folk fiddle with sympathetic strings under the bowed ones, giving Rohan its reedy, plaintive sound.

Who wrote the text of the Rohirric funeral song heard in the extended edition?

David Salo translated it into Rohirric, represented by Old English, and the tune varies a theme from Icelandic rímur.

Uma Thurman turned down, and later regretted turning down, which role?

Miranda Otto took the part. Lucy Lawless similarly passed on Galadriel in the first film because she was pregnant.

Bernard Hill plays which King of Rohan?

Kevin Conway was offered the role first and declined. Hill had his ear slashed during the Helm's Deep shoot.

Which visual-effects newcomer joined to supervise Serkis's motion capture for Gollum?

All four shared the Visual Effects Oscar. Gollum's face was still animated by hand, with recordings of Serkis as a guide.

Weta Digital doubled its staff during production from what starting size?

They delivered 73 minutes of digital effects across 799 shots, their first full battle and their first digital characters who had to act.

How long did Treebeard take to render per frame?

Gollum's skin tones alone took four hours a frame. The bark was cast from real trees in polyurethane.

What were Monaghan and Boyd sitting on, hidden in the Treebeard puppet's hands?

They were sometimes left alone up there during breaks. The 14-foot puppet was shot against bluescreen.

Gollum's two-persona argument scene was written and directed by whom?

Jackson calls it one of his favourite scenes in the trilogy; it won Gollum the MTV award for best virtual performance.

Viggo Mortensen broke two toes kicking what while filming the Uruk-hai pyre scene?

The take is in the film: his cry of anguish is real. He also chipped a tooth at Helm's Deep.

What did Jackson jokingly call the injured Mortensen, Bloom and stunt double Brett Beattie?

Bloom had cracked three ribs falling off his horse and Beattie dislocated a knee; they ran the first act in pain for two days.

Roughly how long did filming the Battle of Helm's Deep take?

Most of the night shoots were handled by John Mahaffie. The 500 extras improvised the spear-stamping before the charge.

The 500 battle extras insulted each other in which language between takes?

There was also grumbling about the gates, which the crew felt had been built too strong for the battering-ram scene.

Jackson planned the battle on Alan Lee's 1:35 miniature using how many toy soldiers?

That fortress model was part of the 45-minute video that sold the whole project to New Line Cinema.

The exterior of Rohan's capital was built over six months on which mountain?

The thatched buildings were real enough to double as offices and lunch halls for the crew.

The ruined Osgiliath was designed to evoke London in the Blitz and which city in 1945?

The backlot set was built around a bridge and recycled pieces of the Moria set.

Because of a script typo, the Black Gate miniature was built as how many gates?

Tolkien's Morannon is a single gate. The film's doubled version has stuck in most viewers' heads anyway.

The DVD's $22.8 million in rentals broke which film's record?

It sold 3.5 million units in its first five days; only Finding Nemo outsold it on home video in 2003.

How long is the extended edition of the film?

That adds 44 minutes of new material plus 12 minutes of fan-club credits, and restores John Noble's Denethor to the story.

Which line from the film made the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes list at number 85?

Entertainment Weekly ranked Gollum the third favourite computer-generated film character in 2007.

The full-size Helm's Deep set, with gate, ramp and wall, was built at which quarry?

A 1:4-scale miniature 50 feet wide handled the forced-perspective shots and the big wall explosion.

In the film, which horse finds Aragorn after his fall from the cliff?

The cliff fall is not in the book; Jackson added it for tension, along with the Warg attack on the refugees.

The trilogy was first written as a two-part series for which studio?

Parts of this volume were then the ending of the first film; New Line's three-film deal forced a rewrite.