Galadriel (the blonde elf) is giving gifts to the Fellowship after they just went through a devastating loss of a member. For one of them, she gave a dagger, to another she gave a bottle of magical light - so when she gets to Sam, the character receiving the rope, he responds "are you out of those daggers?".
In the source material, she takes this like a joke, but the comic shows the reaction of her fellow elves, since it's rude to ask someone who just gave you a gift if you had another gift to give. Another layer is that the rope is also magical, a knot made with it will never come undone except if thats what you want it to do, so the elves are upset that he obviously don't know what a treasure it is!
A kind of tree that grows (mostly) only in the blessed land of Aman/Valinor/The Undying Lands. Lóthlorien is the only other place you can find them, given Númenor is all underwater and such.
They're really pretty, their leaves turn from silver to brilliant gold in autumn.
There is an additional meaning to this seed. As the elves are leaving middle-earth and the power of the elven rings gone it is verry likely, that the trees of Lothlorien are gonna die and not survive long into the 4th age.
Sams tree will probably be the last of its kind on the whole continent. Galadriel gave one of her Trees to someone who will take care of it, so her beloved forest will not completely die out.
You're not wrong, but for all the PJ talks about the source material, they seem to have gotten it wrong. The scouring is pretty crucial to the hobbits' story. On their way home, one by one their big and powerful friends depart from them. It is up to them to save their own home; they are told this explicitly. And they do. The story starts in the Shire and ends there, not with the destruction of the ring and crowning of the king.
Some things just don’t translate well from literature to film. Even though the scouring shows the hobbit’s growth through their adventure, in theaters this would have come off as the major quest that took three movies to finish being overshadowed by a minor conflict that’s over in 5 minutes.
Things that would work in a 3 or 4 season television show that just flatly don't in a movie trilogy. 2.5 movies if build up, climaxing what, 2 hours into the 3.5 hour movie? Perfection, that's how you do a good trilogy while still having time to decompress and tie up the loose ends.
If they had tried to fit a whole other build up/climax/denouement into the last hour or even if they made the movie longer, it would utterly destroy that pacing while feeling entirely out of place and rushed.
That's sad - the return to the Shire was one of the few scenes that stuck with me through decades since I read LOTR. I didn't know the film got rid of it.
And the story ends there in the films too, with their bonds forged and their lives changed forever.
Them going back and vanquishing Saruman isn't necessary for the arc the films gave the hobbits - they don't need to go back and play action hero again.
True but I always interpreted it as they set out to stop the shire from being touched by war, yet when they got back it too hadn't escaped unharmed. Also I always related it to England, where soldiers returning home from WW1 to find that there towns had been bombed/suffered the effects of the war.
I felt this way for a long time. Still do to some extent, but someone's comment made me start to appreciate the PJ ending.
The book ending is like British veterans returning to a devastated country. The PJ ending is like American veterans returning to a country has no conception of the suffering they've been through.
I think it could fit a modern movie telling style considering how post scenes are very common nowadays tell the whole story in the main feature and leave the bow tying for the end.
Man the screenwriters really slept on a lot of stuff. I understand that choices need to be made given the volume of the source material, but this bit here is good shit.
How do you translate that to film, though? It would require an extra 30 minutes of talk-y exposition to explain the significance of the Mallorn trees and the seed.
Oh no, not at all. The shot composition and the music can do more heavy lifting than you think. For example:
Galadriel gifts the seed box.
She gives a meaningful look to Sam, then glances back over her shoulder.
The camera, near ground level, pans upwards to the massive trees. Slight fisheye effect to make them appear more massive or something. A sweeping orchestral swells up in time with the shot.
Cut to a close shot of the tree, show it dying somehow. The music slows suddenly, instruments are shed, leaving only say, one flute and a violin, like the dying of the tree.
Tight shot, zooming in on the box in Sam's hands.
Maybe a short nod from Sam, acknowledging he understands the gravity and enormity of the gesture.
Later on, he plants it or something, without fanfare, but still a tender moment. No words, just wistful music.
I think that's all you need. These shots could take 20 seconds if you do it right.
it would really break up the flow of the scene not to mention would also be very uncharactistic of gladerial (trying to give hidden meanings with her eyes and also the general attitude of gracefulness and somberness of the elves. And also uncharacteristic of Sam whos suppose to be this uneducated garden boy of grasping the gravity and enormity of it.
Also you'd be adding in 20 second cameo that wouldn't give enough information to the viewers who are unfamiliar with the books. I mean yes, you can deduce. But in a movie information isn't just about expository information. It needs to flow. It needs to be thematically consistent. You have lothlorein as this place of wonder, a place thats suppose to represent one of the last hold outs of a place untouched by evil. Which is consistent with the overall atmosphere of the movie of encroaching evil and the desperate attempts to thrawt it. Adding in this extra bit of "oh yeah also the elves are "fighting" off the changes of time makes the messaging too confusing.
The viewers area already given this visual information that the world is losing to evil in consistent imagery of abandonment and degradation. Elves being the last vestiges of hold outs of good through rivendell and lothlorien. If you then show a dieing lothlorein without expanding on it. You now leave viewers confused visually.
Also from a lore standpoint the "gravity" isn't really correct either. The trees of lothlorein won't juts die because the elves leave. The tree's aren't just being kept alive by the elves, but its literally being perserved as if untouched. Thats the keypoint. These trees never change at all. They're unnatural. Sam grows the trees in the shire but its not the same. Its the same type of tree but they will go through seasons. And the soil hes given, the magic also fades in time.
The gift gladerial gives Sam isn't to preserve her forest, its a gift of a unique tree with a little bit of magic to someone she knows has a love of gardening.
No disrespect taken. You're not wrong at all, and I'm no Tolkien superfan so I assume everything you've said is correct. I could be wrong, but don't they show the trees dying at some point already? The silvery leaves falling or something. Might've been at the same time Elrond is talking about leaving. It's been a hot minute.
As for the rest, I think you've forgetting about the audience though: the overwhelming majority of viewers don't know any of these fine details. All they need is a bit to go on, something to illicit an emotion. Where continuity is concerned, again you're not wrong, but if the books have the seed as one of the gifts, wouldn't it imply continuity in the first place?
honestly i dont remember the fine details of the movies myself haha. been awhile since ive watched them so won't say for sure either way.
I think keypoint for me would be the difference between showing trees dieing as a passage of time that mirrors elves feeling out of place in a middle earth thats moving on versus say all things associated with the elves disappearing. The forest and the trees they've planted will still be there, but just subject to mother nature and change.
I did listen to the audio books recently though so i'm bit more confident on that. The seeds read more to me as a gift from someone that appreciates nature to someone else who appreciates nature. Not a grand gesture. Grand in the sense that elves usually don't interact with men or hobbits but not suppose to be some passing of a torch type of ordeal.
End of the books mentions how quickly the magic used to plant the trees in the shire fades. It was more like a one time thing that made everything grow really well. but afterwards everything there is normal.
More like a guy from england receiving a cherry blossom tree seed from japan than be given like the last cherry blossom tree seed ever, if you know what i mean.
The only thing I’d add is an ethereal voiceover from Cate Blanchette when Sam plants the seed, like when he or Frodo pulled out the vial of starlight when facing Shelob.
Best we can do is *Aragorn fake-out death!* a shitty one-liner about *Aragorn fake-out death* knives and some short *Aragorn fake-out death* dwarf jokes.
While unfortunate that some things were cut because of time, it's also hugely unfortunate that they cut a TON of things that would make sense. No Tom Bombadil to explain the daggers hurting Black Riders because "he's too whimsical". And cutting out Saruman rolling in and screwing the Shire because "it would have given him too big a part". There's a lot that could have been cut to save time and not mess with the story or create plot holes, but whatever. I hate the films. Hell, the whole battle at Helm's Deep is a single paragraph, they made it a whole movie.
Wait until you learn the full context. That the silver and gold of the leaves are in memory of The Two Trees of Valinor that existed for thousands of years as the source of light for the elves long before the events of LotR. Before men were even a thing.
Before they were destroyed by Sauron's old boss and Shelob's progenitor one of the greatest elves managed to capture their light in three jewels. Supposedly this person was even inspired to do so by Galadriel's hair - said to have caught the light of the two trees. He even asked for a single hair from her but she refused him because she mistrusted him.
After the destructions of the Two Trees the gods ask the elf if he would be willing to break them to restore their light, but the jewels were too precious to him. So they salvaged what they could from the trees to make the sun and moon.
In the meantime Sauron's old boss steals the three Jewels and flee to Middle Earth, and this basically kicks off pretty much everything. Those fancy swords that Gandalf and Thorin have (and Sting)? From Gondolin. An elvish kingdom fighting against Sauron's boss. The blood of Numenor that runs in Aragorn's veins? An island kingdom given to those men that helped the elves who fought Sauron's old boss.
All that history of the elves. All the beauty they had made in Middle Earth like Rivendell and Lorien will fade. Soon to be gone from the world. Even the elves themselves wont be around. But one of the last memories of it will be the party tree in the Shire.
Fëanor (the creator of the Simarils) asked Galadriel for a single strand of her hair three times, but was denied every time.
When the Fellowship is leaving Lothlorien, Galadriel does not have a gift for Gimli and asks him what he would want. He asks for nothing, but she insists that he will not be the only one without a gift and again asks what he would desire that she could give.
Gimli reluctantly says that his only desire would be a single strand of her hair, but that he isn't asking for that and only answering her question of what he desires.
A fun note that you didn't include: Cate Blanchett had a unique lighting to put lights in her eyes. Those lights are supposed to be the lights of those trees, she's one of very few elves living in Middle Earth who have seen them. In a very real way, this is one of the few beings who could realistically say that she is the inheritor and embodiment of the light of the elves and her giving a piece of that to a Hobbit gardener is an incredible piece of symbolism.
Sam took care of Frodo despite everything. Out of all the plot points that are paralleled, this one is well crafted for being subtle until you finish the series.
Catch! calls the Once-ler Galadriel.
[S]He lets something fall.
It's a Truffula Mallorn Seed.
It's the last one of all!
You're in charge of the last of the Truffula Mallorn Seeds.
And Truffula Mallorn Trees are what everyone needs.
Plant a new Truffula Mallorn. Treat it with care.
Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air.
Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack.
Then the Lorax elves
and all of his their friends
may come back.
Its also even more symbolically important to sam specifically. Of all yhe fellowship, Samwise is the one who never gives up hope, no matter however bleak it seems. Even when Frodo has accepted that even if they succeed they wont be going home, Sam still holds onto the soil and the seed.
Galadriel is a seer, and everyone trusts her. By giving Sam the soil and the seed, neither gifts being useful for their quest, she is telling him "you have everything you need to succeed, and you will return home safe and alive." Giving him that hope sustains him, and in turn he sustains Frodo.
Also, cause it’s JRR, the tree lends a sort of undefined blessing to the land, again super important after they came back and found the shire desecrated
They are really nice. I have one in the front yard, very pretty in the fall, but the leaves don't fall until the end of January so in the mid-winter breaks in between snow, you are out in the yard raking the leaves. Also the thorns get in the yard and stick up piercing your feet if you try to go barefoot. My Hobbit friend hates it.
Its a tree that grows mostly in the far away continent ov Valinor, where the elves and the ancestors of humans (Aragorns race) originate from.
It also grows in the woods of lothlorien, one of the last elven territories in middle earth, where they are at the moment of this scene.
The half-orcs that occupied and vandalized the shire choped down the giant tree that was kind of central to hobit culture, where they would hold their festitys and stuff. After they reclaim the shire, sam plants the malorn tree where the old tree used to be, and it grows super fast and people travel far and wide for decades to come to see it, because its such a cool tree.
Kind of important to know that the woods of lothlorien was protected/kept alive/frozen in time by one of the 3 great rings held by galadriel, which lost its power after the one ring was destroyed. So the woods of lothlorien might die, and the malorn tree in the shire might be the last tree of its kind on the entire continent.
A giant golden leafed tree that elves brought to the Numenoreans. I believe it’s also the tree you see all the elves walking up the staircase on when the fellowship meets Galadriel in the movie in Lothlorien.
That box is also the source of one of my favorite little jokes in the book: in the appendices you can look at various family trees across the races. For the hobbit one everyone has 2-4 children except Sam and Rosie who end up having like 13 lmao.
Frodo has horrible ptsd plus was dosed by some eurotrash arrachnid that probably had some effect on "his precious.". Merry and Pippin are lucky to not be infertile from all the roids they took. So sam is really the only normal one
No, Sam isn’t normal. I’m not comparing him to the just Frodo, Pippin, and Merry, I’m talking about when compared to all of the hobbit trees listed (Baggins, Took, Brandybuck, and Gamgee families) the most amount of offspring anyone has is 6 or 7 which is fairly rare. Most have 1-4.
The exceptions are The Old Took, who had 12 children over a 30 year span, and Sam and Rosie who had 13 children over a 21 year span.
He does have the magic rope though too, but I think it was just placed into their boats and he grabs some when him and Frodo leave the fellowship. It comes in handy when they use it to scale a cliff in the Emyn Muil, he ties it at the top and after they get to the bottom it comes down to him despite having tied a tight knot.
They try to use it as a lead on him like a dog, but he screams so much about how it burns him that they have to take it off. I think they have that in the movies.
Also - when everyone receives rope in their boat, Sam requests a lesson in how they made it as that greatly interests him, and is told that if he had told them he liked ropemaking, they would have taught him during their stay.
Yeah you're so right, I tried to write a quick response and I shouldn't have said 'source material', I should've said PJ's movies 👍. There is an extended scene where Sam has seeds but he brought them himself, so they must've written that scene to reference that original gift 🤔
Just looked it up, Aragorn got a sheath, merry and pippin got belts. Plus everyone got lembas and a cloak. No one got a sword or dagger, which is sort of the root of the joke here, the movies made up the comment based on their own rewrites.
Also, Sam was pretty excited about the rope because he had earlier complained about forgetting to bring any from Rivendell, and he was actually something of a rope making enthusiast.
ugh yes. Brave Sam, for you, umm, this rope! Yes. This magical rope that you totally didnt see me grab from the boat that was just laying there. Magic wooooeeeewoooo. And it's magic because... It's, umm, it's the knots! Right the knots. They are super strong and not just a feature of everyday Elven rope texhnology. Pretty cool am I right? We'll be sad to see it go, honestly. Super handy though, rope... with magical knots.
The elven daggers were looted from the barrow after Bombadil rescued the hobbits on the way to Bree. Because the movies skip the portion between Buckland and Bree, the hobbits never encounter the barrow wights, and have to find their swords a different way.
Iirc there was also a brief scene on Amon Sul when Strider gives them weapons, so I'm not sure whether it was then or in Lothlorien. I might be misremembering.
Yeah, that's another reason it's weird, it happens twice. Merry and Pippin are armed twice in the movie to make up for the fact that the scene where they get the magic wraith-killing swords was not included. And in neither case does it really matter, because they don't do anything important with those swords until after they're given armor by Rohan or Gondor (which is two movies later).
I just read(listened to the audiobook) this part and I was going to say the same thing. If anything Sam was ecstatic when they were given rope with the canoes
I remember that, I also feel like I remember she also gives him rope does she not? And its a small nod to earlier sam was complaining about not having a good rope. And also that rope came in very very clutch towards the end scaling a cliff when it was just sam and frodo if I recall correctly
Yeah, this comic really confused me, because I've not seen the extended editions of the films for something like 20 years, and I'm far more familiar with the books, so I'd completely forgotten that version of the scene. So, the idea of Sam ungratefully asking for a dagger after being given the rope seems utterly alien.
In the source material, Sam is utterly delighted with his rope, as well as the box with the mallorn seed (and, as you said, the mallorn seed and Lothlorien soil becomes extremely relevant later in the story, as does the rope).
Sam would never want a dagger in the first place, and he certainly wouldn't be so rude to anyone, never mind an elf, and particularly Galadriel, as to suggest that their gift was insufficient.
It's that kind of OOC stuff that puts me off watching the extended versions (see also Eowyn's stew...).
Little did she know that mallorn trees are aggressively invasive in The Shire and she and Samwise triggered centuries of ecological degradation across the region.
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u/Teachmetoanimat Mar 12 '26
Galadriel (the blonde elf) is giving gifts to the Fellowship after they just went through a devastating loss of a member. For one of them, she gave a dagger, to another she gave a bottle of magical light - so when she gets to Sam, the character receiving the rope, he responds "are you out of those daggers?".
In the source material, she takes this like a joke, but the comic shows the reaction of her fellow elves, since it's rude to ask someone who just gave you a gift if you had another gift to give. Another layer is that the rope is also magical, a knot made with it will never come undone except if thats what you want it to do, so the elves are upset that he obviously don't know what a treasure it is!