NEW LINE PRODUCTIONS Do women ever get to fight in this story? "The Two Towers" introduces Eowyn (played by Miranda Otto), niece of King Theoden of Rohan, a land of great horseman-warriors. She has been raised to fight, although times being what they are, her brother gets to go for more of the glory. But Eowyn will cut a pretty heroic slice out of Part 3, "The Return of the King," due next December.

Part 2 of "The Lord of the Rings" --
"The Two Towers" --opens at midnight
tomorrow. Are you mentally prepared
to cope with the continuing story?

By Betty Shimabukuro
betty@starbulletin.com

It's easy to imagine John Ronald Reuel Tolkien as a man who spent too much time alone. Think of his wife calling up the stairs, "Hey, John! (or what did she call him, anyway, J.R.R.?) Get your head out of Middle-earth! The trash is ripe!"

And him saying, "Wait, Edith -- I'm on the verge of finishing a song-poem in the original Sindarin that explains why the elves are so mad at the dwarves!"

His characters don't just have books to live in, they have entire worlds, with histories that go back to the Creation, and gods and languages and alphabets and family trees ... worlds so complete and textured that they make those "Star Wars" prequels look like Mother Goose.

For those of us who truly love Tolkien, it is not enough to read "The Lord of the Rings" over and over. That might be good enough for "Harry Potter," but Tolkien is religion.

We know the prehistory of Middle-earth through Tolkien's other major works, "The Silmarillion" and "The Hobbit," as well as other writings that Tolkien left behind. We know why Aragorn is the man who will be king and why that ticks off Boromir.

Perhaps you don't care. (Boromir? Who the heck was that?) But listen, people, even if you don't want to belong to our church, "The Two Towers" is on the way and to appreciate it, you must learn! You must feel! You must understand!

Need help? Let us lend a hand. Assuming that everyone has seen "The Fellowship of the Ring," we won't begin with "What ring?" but instead will start in the middle.

What is Middle-earth in the middle of, exactly?

It is "between the seas," Tolkien has written, and refers to the lands inhabited by mortal men, although others share the space. The hobbits live in the western part, and Sauron, the dark lord, rules over Mordor in the east.

How come Aragorn gets to be king? He's so scruffy.

NEW LINE PRODUCTIONS Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen)

Aragorn -- also called Strider, Elessar, Estel, lord of the Dunedain, rightful king of Gondor ... (Tolkien was big on multiple names) -- is the last in a noble line that reaches back millennia to a lost land called Numenor.

Elf blood runs in the Numenoreans, and they have absorbed some elven skills of healing and craftsmanship. They also live a very long time. Aragorn, in the books, is nearly 90 when he takes off with the fellowship; he lives beyond 200.

When Numenor was destroyed, one of its lords, Elendil, escaped with his sons and was accepted as king of all the tribes of men in Middle-earth. You saw Elendil killed in the opening battle of "The Fellowship of the Ring." Aragorn is his last descendant and carries his sword. This explains another of Aragorn's aliases, "the heir of Elendil."

By the way, Viggo Mortensen, who plays Aragorn, cleans up really well. You'll see.

NEW LINE PRODUCTIONS Elrond (Hugo Weaving)

So where has he been all this time?

At the time of Aragorn's birth, the line of kings had faded. Rather than rule in the great city of Gondor, Numenorean lords roved about in Robin Hood-like fashion, protecting innocents such as hobbits in an anonymous fashion.

Aragorn's father was killed when Aragorn was a baby. His mother, fearing that he'd be hunted by the forces of evil, took him to Rivendell to live with the elves. He was raised as a son of the elf lord Elrond, who tried to prepare Aragorn for his legacy.

A few words about the elves, please.

They have three principal strongholds in Middle-earth: Rivendell, ruled by Elrond; Lothlorien, ruled by Galadriel; and Mirkwood, ruled by Thranduil, the father of Legolas, the fabulous archer of the fellowship.

NEW LINE PRODUCTIONS Legolas (Orlando Bloom)

Elves are immortal. They can be killed in battle but never grow old. Still, their time in Middle-earth is fading. As a people they are protected by their magic rings -- Elrond and Galadriel each wear one; the third is held by the wizard Gandalf, although he is not an elf, but that's a long other story.

Their rings are linked to Sauron's One Ring, however, and the elves know that once that evil ring is destroyed, theirs will lose their power. The elves will then all have to leave Middle-earth for the Immortal Lands across the western sea.

Why are the elves and the dwarves so mad at each other?

Many times these ancient people have united in battle and shared their love of craftsmanship and shiny objects. But many times greed and misunderstanding have led to great disaster between them.

The old wound alluded to in this story has to do with Moria, once a great dwarf city. The mines of Moria yielded uncounted treasures, but the dwarves got greedy and dug too deep in search of the precious silver called mithril. They awakened the Balrog and unleashed its evil. The elves never forgave that.

Despite all this, the dwarf Gimli and the elf Legolas form the greatest of friendships in "The Lord of the Rings," remaining together long after the war ends and everyone else goes home. (Side note: Gimli's father, Gloin, and Legolas' father, Thranduil, both had roles in "The Hobbit," the children's story that preceded "The Lord of the Rings.")

NEW LINE PRODUCTIONS Boromir (Sean Bean), left, was nearly corrupted by the One Ring; his brother Faramir (David Wenham), faces his own temptation in "The Two Towers."

Who the heck is Boromir?

Boromir -- the second man in the fellowship, the one who is shot full of arrows at the end of Part 1 -- is the eldest son of the steward of Gondor. Stewards have ruled that great city in the place of a true king for centuries.

Boromir is initially prickly around Aragorn because he believes his people have been struggling against Sauron for years with no help from the supposed king.

"Gondor has no king," he says in the first movie when he learns of Aragorn's lineage. "Gondor needs no king." Boromir also imagines that the One Ring could help his father protect Gondor, which is why he tries to take it from Frodo, the ringbearer.

Boromir's younger brother, Faramir, is introduced in "The Two Towers"; his slightly loony father, Denethor, appears in Part 3.

NEW LINE PRODUCTIONS Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) and Arwen (Liv Tyler)

If Aragorn is a man, how comes he gets to consort with the elf Arwen? Aren't there laws against that?

NEW LINE PRODUCTIONS Galadriel (Cate Blanchett)

Actually, there have been two other unions of elves and men. In both cases an elf maiden had to give up eternal life to marry a man.

Elrond, the elf lord of Rivendell, descends from such a union and is sometimes called the Half-elven. He is Arwen's father. Galadriel, the elven lady of the Lothlorien wood, is Arwen's grandmother (Elrond's mother-in-law). They're all thousands of years old but ever youthful.

Another point: Elrond had a brother, Elros, but he chose to live as a mortal man. He was the first king of Numenor, which makes him an ancient ancestor of Aragorn's and the source of Aragorn's elvish blood. This also means that Aragorn and Arwen are related, in an ancient, much-removed way.

How come so many hobbits were in the fellowship, rather than some real fighters? They didn't seem very useful.

Elrond wanted nine in the fellowship to match the nine black riders of Sauron. He knew he must send Frodo and Sam, the ring-bearer and his servant. Eventually he allowed hobbits 2 and 3, Merry and Pippin, along, possibly foreseeing that they would play vital roles. They mainly provide comic relief in "The Fellowship of the Ring," but will prove their worth in the next two movies.

NEW LINE PRODUCTIONS Gandalf (Ian McKellen)

Where did Gandalf come from?

Gandalf was of the Maiar, assistants to the godlike Valar who created Middle-earth. He was among five Maiar sent out of the Immortal Lands to battle Sauron. All five became wizards, taking the form of old men, but only two play a role in this story, Gandalf and Saruman. The Maiar came in good and bad forms: Sauron was one, and so was the Balrog who dragged Gandalf into the fiery pit. Saruman was among the mightiest and a force of good, but was corrupted.

How come Sauron only has an eye and no body?

Sauron studied evil at the side of the original dark lord Morgoth, a powerful Valar who fell from grace. He was once able to take humanoid form and in that guise was able to corrupt men and deceive elves. But he invested much of his power in the One Ring, so when he lost it, he disintegrated and could not regain skin and bones. Sauron exists as a force field of incredibly bad karma, viewing the world through a flaming eye.

Get your ticket to Middle-earth

Advance tickets to "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" are on sale at Consolidated Kahala, Kapolei, Koko Marina, Koolau, Mililani, Pearlridge and Ward; and Signature Dole Cannery, Pearl Highlands and Windward Mall.

ASSOCIATED PRESS / STAR-BULLETIN The world of the Ring. Click on the image above to see a larger version.

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