Lord of the Rings reinvented Tolkien’s story by adding Aragorn’s horse

J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings constructed the inspiration of the fashionable fantasy style. Dwarves, elves, orcs, wizards, kings, warriors, quests, dungeons, and sure, even dragons. However you understand what it doesn’t have?

2021 marks The Lord of the Rings films’ twentieth anniversary, and we could not think about exploring the trilogy in only one story. So every Wednesday all year long, we’ll go there and again once more, analyzing how and why the movies have endured as trendy classics. That is Polygon’s Year of the Ring.

Even one single goddamn unicorn.

Although the three books within the Lord of the Rings trilogy have some fancy horses, and even a very prominent horse-loving girl, it by no means fairly places the items of a Horse Girl Story collectively — as a result of Horse Woman tales aren’t just about horses and a girls.

They’re a romantic fantasy style of their very own, about unbreakable, tantamount-to-psychic bonds between a wild or unruly or just misunderstood animal and the one particular one that takes the time to earn its belief.

Sadly, J.R.R. Tolkien was no Horse Woman. Thankfully, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Viggo Mortensen, Jane Abbot, and a small legion of native New Zealand equestrians modified all of that ceaselessly.

The Lord Of The Rings is neither horse-y nor girl-y

Picture: New Line Cinema

It might appear unusual to say that The Lord of the Rings lacks ample horse content material, contemplating the precise textual content. Sure, it’s indeniable that Shadowfax is a cool-ass horse. He’s descended in a direct line from Felaróf, the steed of Eorl the Younger — the primary king of Rohan — who, legend tells us, was capable of perceive the speech of males. That makes Shadowfax one of many Mearas, an ancestral line of Rohanian equines who’re stated to be prefer to horses as elves are prefer to males, and will solely be ridden by a king of Rohan.

On prime of all that, even the best of Rohan’s riders thought of Shadowfax to be untamable, till Theoden (below Grima’s manipulations) ordered Gandalf to take any horse if he would solely go away Rohan as quickly as potential — nobody anticipated the previous wizard to trot away on one of the best horse within the nation.

However right here’s how Tolkien has Gandalf describe essentially the most sacred tenet of the Horse Woman story, the golden and delightful second when a wild horse bestows a priceless present — its belief — on a particular individual:

By no means earlier than had any man mounted him, however I took him and I tamed him…

That’s it. That’s the entire description.

Shadowfax is extraordinarily cool — however he’s actually only a very fancy, wizard-only fast travel system, a solution to the issue Tolkien confronted when he realized that Gandalf wanted to get from one finish of his fastidiously deliberate map to the opposite in a totally unrealistic timeframe.

So, Gandalf is unquestionably no Horse Woman, however what about Éowyn? Éowyn is a lady, and because the princess (effectively, the niece of a king) of a whole Horse Woman nation, she is intently related to horses. Nevertheless, the books don’t present her in a robust bond with any specific equine, making Éowyn’s Horse Woman standing a purely semantic one. Windfola, the steed she rides to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, went mad with concern the second the Witch-King of Angmar arrived, threw each his riders, and bolted not simply away however out of the story solely.

Picture: New Line Cinema

The most important Horse Woman Power in The Lord of the Rings is Sam’s relationship with Invoice the Pony, who he nurses again to well being after Frodo purchases Invoice from merciless masters for way more than his precise price. The underestimated and undervalued horse who simply wants a particular individual (i.e., the primary character) to disclose their true expertise is probably the second-most widespread trope of the Horse Woman Story. (Why sure, you can view most Horse Woman Tropes as Gothic Romance on coaching wheels.) However whereas Invoice and Sam do reunite ultimately, the Fellowship units him free earlier than they enter Moria and he isn’t seen once more for lots of of pages.

There merely aren’t sufficient horses or sufficient individuals who kind robust bonds with them in The Lord of the Rings for it to really be Horse Woman tradition. However that’s to not say that folk who have been each Horse Women and Lord of the Rings followers weren’t enthusiastic about The Two Towers hitting theaters 2002. If reminiscence serves, I sewed a white horse to a inexperienced tank prime to put on to the theater, a sartorial interpretation of the banner of Rohan.

And the folks within the heart of the Horse Woman and Lord of the Rings Venn diagram have been rewarded. The transformative energy of cinema to made Tolkien’s masterpiece into Horse Woman catnip.

Aragorn ❤️ Brego 5eva

Picture: Warner Bros. Photos

The Two Towers served up a terrific horse/human romance: Aragorn and Brego.

You gained’t discover a horse known as Brego anyplace in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Within the books Eomer nonetheless loans Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli two horses, however the steeds are named Hasufel and Arod. Aragorn offers Hasufel again to the Rohirrim a ebook later, when Elrond’s sons present up shortly after the Battle of Helm’s deep with (amongst different issues) Aragorn’s precise horse, Roheryn.

Aragorn and Brego have been an invention for the display screen, a little bit of plot logic essential to one of many trilogy’s weirder detours from the precise story of the Lord of the Rings books. The Two Towers has a tangent by which Aragorn is presumed useless after a combat with some warg riders and drifts down a river on his again whereas both vividly hallucinating, or psychically conducting, a dialog with Arwen. When he reaches shore, he’s discovered by loyal Brego, the one creature on the earth who had religion that he was nonetheless alive. Brego gently, tenderly lies down subsequent to him, encourages him to mount up, after which ferries him again to the plot.

Now, within the scope of Horse Woman Media, Aragorn and Brego are on the identical degree as Sam and Invoice the horse — it’s positively there, however it’s not the driving power of the expertise. Nevertheless, Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings isn’t nearly what’s within the films. It’s about what’s within the Prolonged Editions. It’s about who made the flicks.

This isn’t nearly Aragorn and Brego. It’s about Jane and Florian. It’s about Viggo and Uraeus. It’s about ladies sporting beards and deleted scenes of horse romance.

That is an important factor that the Lord of the Rings movies taught Horse Women:

Viggo Mortensen is a big Horse Woman

Followers who have been drawn in by Horse Woman Aragorn and the chance to ogle many, many fairly horses working quick — whether or not it was Arwen’s steed, Asfaloth, horses manufactured from water, or the steeds of the Rohirrim — did what any followers of the Lord of the Rings films did.

They dove into the in depth and entertaining suite of particular options on the DVD editions of the flicks, and found a hidden treasure trove of knowledge that retroactively imbues the Lord of the Rings films with Horse Woman Content material.

Right here’s the factor to learn about this bit: Actor Viggo Mortensen is completely gaga for horses, and it’s apparent in each single scene he shares with the animals. Reader, I’m begging you to look at the best way Viggo Mortensen performs Aragorn like he’s one exhausting minimize away from making out together with his horse at any given time.

Grid View

The Extended Editions of The Two Towers solely double down on Aragorn’s relationship together with his steed, by revealing Brego’s tragic backstory. Within the Prolonged Editions, we meet Brego within the stables of Edoras, completely wilding out on the 2 hardened Rohirrim riders attempting to carry him below management. But it solely takes Aragorn a couple of gently whispered sentences of Elvish to calm the savage beast.

That’s when Eowyn drops the Brego exposition: He’s the steed of her cousin Theodred, the prince of Rohan who was killed simply days in the past in a conflict with Saruman’s forces. That’s why Brego is flipping out! This horse has trauma! He’s GRIEVING!!!!!!

However fairly than declare Brego for his personal, Aragorn is aware of that for those who love one thing you’ll set it free. He tells the soldiers to show Brego out on the attractive plains of Rohan, saying “He” — that means the horse whose younger grasp was cruelly slain — “has seen sufficient.”

The very subsequent time we see Brego, he’s nudging Aragorn again to consciousness because the king-in-waiting washes up on a pebbly shore. How did Brego know the place Aragorn was? How did he even know he was in peril? Psychic Horse Woman connection, child!

Similar to his character, Mortensen apparently had one thing of a method with horses on set. Asking a half-ton animal to lie down inches from the precise face of your movie franchise’s face isn’t any crew’s concept of a superb time. However as the oldsters behind the digital camera sweated their method via the scene the place Brego coaxes a wounded Aragorn onto his again, Mortensen’s belief was rewarded with the pictures we see in The Two Towers.

Picture: New Line Cinema

The actor so adored the horses he labored with on set that he purchased three of them, and have become pals with Jane Abbott, stunt rider and horse coach on the manufacturing. As part of the “Horse Division,” Abbot was tasked with serving to to show a handful of inexperienced animals bought for discount costs into actors that travelled effectively, wore odd costumes, and will execute instructions within the face of yelling crowds, closely costumed riders, smoke, rain, flaming torches, and each different unusual factor which may crop up on a movie set.

She was additionally one in every of two using stunt doubles for Arwen, and within the course of fell head over heels in love with Florian, the Andalusian/Lipizzaner-mix stallion who performed Asfaloth in The Fellowship of the Ring. “He’s the dream horse,” she advised New Zealand’s Scoop Independent News in 2001 “each little lady’s dream horse to play with and have enjoyable.”

Sadly, she knew she must half with him on the finish of manufacturing, since, as a completely educated animal actor, he was now price more cash than she might afford to provide. That’s, till Viggo Mortensen bought Florian and gave him to her. The one who varieties a robust bond with a horse they can’t afford after which via deus ex machina will get to personal that horse anyway? This is also a core Horse Girl Story trope.

Viggo Mortensen isn’t simply an honorary Horse Woman. He’s a Horse Woman ally.

Horse Women constructed The Lord Of The Rings films

Do you know that while you put out a casting name for New Zealand extras who personal their very own horses and are keen to camp out over night time for the prospect to be in a Lord of the Rings film, you wind up with numerous ladies?

Growth. Hey, Lord of the Rings-loving Horse Women? Principally any horse-riding Rohirrim additional extra more likely to be a Horse Woman than not. Given the period of time that waves of Rohirrim pour over the display screen throughout The Two Towers and The Return of the King, that’s a major enhance in girlyness in comparison with Tolkien’s unique work.

Similar to the Lord of the Rings, a Horse Woman story makes use of a hefty dollop of fantasy to get going. But it surely took actual horses and actual horse-loving folks on the manufacturing of the flicks to remodel Tolkien’s textual content into a pillar of Horse Girl culture.