Maria translated this article from the Danish newspaper ‘Fyns Stiftstidende’ about Viggo Mortensen’s recent trip to Denmark. [More]
Day: July 2, 2003
When Viggo read out loud
ART: The actor Viggo Mortensen was nearly appreciated
for his poems
By: Karsten ,. Nielsen
Photo: Kim Rune
Translation by: Maria Hagbjärn Ringer Spy: Saga
ODENSE: They’re at the door. Dressed in yellow. “Control” is says on their shirts, like it was a logo from an expensive clothing line. Five harsh looking men are to keep the women away. Nothing is left unnoticed when a star comes to town. Not even when it’s the third day he’s there- nor when the occasion is something as harmless as poetry.
Autographs
Slowly the big crowd of press people and women of all ages are let in to Magasinet – in to Viggo, who everybody calls the world-famous star from the Lord of the Rings films, Viggo Mortensen. But one is kept standing and waiting. It’s Connie Albrechtsen. Next to two tables by the stairs she’s standing handing out notes.
– It’s in case people want autographs. Then they get a piece of paper to write their names on. It’s easier for Viggo if the name is already written, so he can spell it correctly, she says. And only two autographs each. There’s no time for any more.
Cameras, no thank you Inside the room they are waiting. On 400 chairs are women chatting like only women do. Excited, with their fingers on their cameras. In just a moment he’ll be there, the prince on the white horse. Aragorn, as he’s called in the films. Or Viggo, as everyone here calls him. The doors are closing and the excitement rises. Viggo is coming. But first a message.
– I’m asking you not to take ant photos whilst Viggo reading his poems, says Lis from Magasinet and gets startled by all the flashing cameras, when the curtains are pulled. Viggo, the prince, knows exactly what to do. He picks a flower from the flowerpot with pink roses and timidly hands in to Lis.
In three languages – and singing And so there he is. Viggo. Reading his poems. He’s barefoot, cause as a nature child he could never dream of trapping his feet inside evil shoes. His hair is messy and he hardly ever looks up. Just like the misunderstood artist he is. In Danish he tries to read the poems, that he once wrote. But then they were in English. And now they’re translated into Danish and much more difficult. He often stops, and tries again. But the message gets through. Clear as sunshine.
– I wrote this poem the first time USA attacked Iraq, he says about the poem Letters from Nebraska, before he nervously stutters the words. Later on the language changes. First to English. Then Spanish. All alone he sings something about the silence, the flowers and the evenings. In Spanish. But the women understand him. They applaud him afterwards. In audience And suddenly it’s over. There won’t be any more poems that evening. But there will be many autographs.
– If you all will get in line and get up here one by one, I’ll write on a paper, a book or wherever now you want it, Viggo lures. And the women are lured. Waving their papers they line up in the heat and watch Viggo, the prince from the Lord of the Rings. And everybody gets what they came for. Two autographs for everyone. At least.
– We won’t stop until everyone has got an autograph, says a security guard. No, nothing is spared when a world-famous star comes to town.
Translation by: Maria Hagbjärn Ringer Spy: Saga
Our good friends Jeff Sherrill, Kris Nelson, and Paul Dunne (the Elvish 101 Guys) will be back in #TheHallofFire tonight at 8PM EDT for a lesson in Tolkien’s languages. Kris says, “We are going to go over the basic phonology, spelling, and stress of Quenya, interpret some Quenya phrases, and try to correlate everything to Sindarin as much as possible since this seems to be what people are interested in.” So stop by this evening and learn a bit of Elvish to impress/frighten your friends! The first transcript can be found [here]
Our good friends Jeff Sherrill, Kris Nelson, and Paul Dunne (the Elvish 101 Guys) will be back in #TheHallofFire tonight at 8PM EDT for a lesson in Tolkien’s languages. Kris says, “We are going to go over the basic phonology, spelling, and stress of Quenya, interpret some Quenya phrases, and try to correlate everything to Sindarin as much as possible since this seems to be what people are interested in.” So stop by this evening and learn a bit of Elvish to impress/frighten your friends! The first transcript can be found [here]
andrea writes: Marco Giovanni is the journalist who stayed in NZ during the re-shooting. No new photos, maybe in August issue, but some minor SPOILERS:
–Peter Jackson moved from a set to another, as usual, with his Red Bicycle ‘Challenge’ model, recognizable by the skull on the handle. It’s a Shelob-lair souvenir, where there are also some dangling, mummyfied corpses, which are imprisoned in synthetic webs made by an elasticized fiber of boiled-vegetable-oil (220°C!!!).
-Shelob will be a 5 meter-high monster, really fast, who stops in a second to fix her eyes on her prey.
-The plot will have weddings, coronations, ambushes, suicides, betrayal, but also the biggest battle of the history of cinema: 200,000 orcs in Pelennor field!”
Demosthenes here. You might recall that some time ago, Peter Jackson spoke to the LoTR Fan Magazine about the inspiration for Shelob. In part, he said:
I’ve got a real fear of spiders; I guess I have arachnophobia. Ever since I was a kid, spiders have freaked me out. There is a spider in New Zealand called a Tunnel Web spider, which is a common New Zealand spider but a very nasty, fat, pudgy one that lives in gardens.
Ever since I was a kid, I have been terrified of coming across these things. You find them under old bricks and old logs and leaves and such. It is a very evil-looking spider; it’s small—about an inch and a half long. About three weeks ago, we had a Shelob design meeting, and I looked at the designs and said, “You know, we have to make this look more like the Tunnel Web. She has to be more like this horrible spider.” Most of the CG guys that I was talking to were from the U.S., so they didn’t have a clue what a Tunnel Web was. So I turned to one of the Kiwi designers, Christian Rivers, and said, “Can we find pictures of one?”
The next morning, Christian poked around in his garden and managed to catch one in a glass jar! So right now, we have a live Tunnel Web at Weta being the model for Shelob. As far as I’m concerned, a photograph would’ve been just fine!
Xoanon promptly went and dug up the image below from the Te Papa museum website to terrify us all.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to disover any video of a Tunnelweb lurking on the internet. But here’s a couple more pictures of this vicious-looking beastie for you to enjoy.
John son of Joe writes: I have always liked the detail that they put into all the swords in the movies, but when I saw the new teaser poster of Aragorn holding Narsil, I said “Hey, wait a minute. Narsil and Anduril are full two handed swords. And Aragorn isn’t holding a two handed sword.” [More]