[Lachwen]

Yes, Lord of the Rings has given me many things to cry about. I've always been a kind of emotional person: I like to go hiking and backpacking, and one day my Geology class went on a field trip to Mt. St. Helens, and the sky was clear and the sun was out, and the visitor's center has this beautiful view up into the crater. It was late spring, so there was still lots of snow on the mountain, and it was so beautiful and so peaceful that I burst into tears on the spot. The beauty in Middle-earth really gets to me, not just because it's so gorgeous, but because it's EVERYWHERE. They don't have strip malls and clearcuts and fancy, expensive houses cluttering up the scenery. It's so unfair.<P>I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and there are many points in the movies that make me cry.<P>That first shot of the Shire (you know, through the road cuttting).<BR>Frodo saying "I will take it!"<BR>Boromir's death scene.<BR>Sam: "I made a promise, Mr. Frodo. A promise. 'Don't you leave him, Samwise Gamgee.' And I don't mean to, I don't mean to..."<BR>Aragorn kicking the helm and screaming where the Uruks were burned, thinking Merry and Pippin had died.<BR>Théoden: "Where is Théodred? Where is my son?"<BR>Théodred's funeral.<BR>Théoden: "No parent should have to bury their child." (A good friend of mine died October of that year, so it really hits close to home.)<BR>Boromir and Faramir's parting. "Remember this day, little brother."<BR>"Forth Eorlingas!" and the charge down the ramp of the Hornburg.<BR>Sam: "It's me! It's your Sam! Don't you know your Sam?"<BR>"The Scene at the Stone Window," aka Sam's monologue at the end of TTT.<BR>Merry and Pippin's parting.<BR>Pippin's song for Denethor/the Gondorian charge on Osgiliath.<BR>The lighting of the war-beacons.<BR>The host of the Rohirrim galloping out of Dunharrow.<BR>Sam going berserker on Shelob.<BR>Sam, as he's killing orcs in Cirith Ungol: "That's for Frodo! That's for the Shire! And that's for my old gaffer!"<BR>The charge of the Rohirrim.<BR>Théoden's death scene.<BR>Aragorn charging the host of Mordor at the Morannon.<BR>"I'm glad I'm with you, Samwise Gamgee. Here, at the end of all things."<BR>The look Sam and Frodo share when Frodo wakes up in Minas Tirith.<BR>Frodo saying goodbye to Merry, Pippin and Sam at the Grey Havens (I bawled through that whole scene).<BR>Sam: "Well, I'm back."<P>There are even more moments in the books. Tolkien was a beutiful writer, and PJ managed to convey it on film very, very well.