If we are getting three Hobbit movies, I want to see this

I'm sure you guys already know that Peter Jackson has announced that "The Hobbit" is going to become a trilogy. In the articles I've read, people have pointed out that Jackson apparently has found source material that he wants to inject into the story to justify the third movie.

Sitting here and thinking about it, I'm wondering if he is going to pull from the Silmarillion. As a disclaimer, I didn't look any of this stuff up to verify it. I'm pulling from memory here, and it's been a few years. Here's what I want to see:

1) The origin of the Balrog that we saw in The Fellowship of the Ring explained. This little story is in the Silmarillion. Morgoth (who was Sauron's master) made a deal with this huge demon that took the shape of a spider named Ungoliante (quite a character). Together, and hidden by Ungoliante's webs which spun darkness and essentially made them "invisible" these two smote two magical trees that basically brought warmth to the world (they grew in a sacred vale in Valinor). Morgoth decided to betray Ungoliante who was busy drinking up the sap. But the thing is, Ungoliante had grown huge from sucking up all the magical tree stuff that flowed from the trunks. Morgoth summoned nine Balrogs and there was this huge battle. Ungoliante killed them all and chased the last Balrog to Middle Earth where it hid from the spider under the Misty Mountains. Ungoliante never found "Durin's Bane" and continued south, pooping out all the spiders that call Mirkwood home and finally gave birth to Shelob before disappearing.  This would make a great story.

Ungoliante lapping up the sap from the dying trees.

2) The origin of Smaug by showing Glaurung, the most magical and powerful dragon. He was bred by Morgoth (the baddie in point number 1) and was the first dragon to appear outside of the fortress of Angband. It would also explain why dragons like treasure and show us a really cool battle scene.

3) The origin of Grond (the huge battering ram that the forces of Sauron used on Minas Tirith in The Return of the King). Remember in the third movie the people just kept chanting "Grond Grond Grond"?  Well Grond was Morgoth's hammer that he used when he fought the High King of the Noldor. Morgoth was a giant guy and he strode up from this underground "icky" place called Utumno hefting this huge thing and faced off against his challenger. The poor High King of the Noldor was slain in that battle. But it too would make a great story.

Morgoth and the High King of the Noldor. Brave king dies.
Art by Ted Nasmith.

Anyway, these three highlights from the Silmarillion would absolutely add to the telling of the Hobbit and add to the "Lord of the Rings" in incalculable ways. It would feel complete as a series to me, giving a robust flavor to the film adaptation of Tolkien.

Are there scenes that you envision which could add to "The Hobbit"? How do you feel about a third movie?

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Cthulhu

Today is my Monster Fest post for fabulous blogger/writer Sommer Leigh who runs one of the most professional websites that I frequently visit.  If you've never been to "Tell Great Stories" I truly urge you to do so. Sommer's posts are always cerebral and examine the world of writing and publishing from unusual and fresh perspectives.

[T]he nightmare corpse-city of R'lyeh was built in measureless aeons behind history by the vast, loathsome shapes that seeped down from the dark stars. There lay great Cthulhu and his hordes, hidden in green slimy vaults...In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.

—H. P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

Artist rendering of the City of R'Lyeh where Cthulhu is said to dream.

Here is how Lovecraft describes Cthulhu...

"The figure, which was finally passed slowly from man to man for close and careful study, was between seven and eight inches in height, and of exquisitely artistic workmanship. It represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind. This thing, which seemed instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence, and squatted evilly on a rectangular block or pedestal covered with undecipherable characters. The tips of the wings touched the back edge of the block, the seat occupied the centre, whilst the long, curved claws of the doubled-up, crouching hind legs gripped the front edge and extended a quarter of the way clown toward the bottom of the pedestal. The cephalopod head was bent forward, so that the ends of the facial feelers brushed the backs of huge fore paws which clasped the croucher's elevated knees. The aspect of the whole was abnormally life-like, and the more subtly fearful because its source was so totally unknown. Its vast, awesome, and incalculable age was unmistakable; yet not one link did it shew with any known type of art belonging to civilisation's youth - or indeed to any other time. Totally separate and apart, its very material was a mystery; for the soapy, greenish-black stone with its golden or iridescent flecks and striations resembled nothing familiar to geology or mineralogy. The characters along the base were equally baffling; and no member present, despite a representation of half the world's expert learning in this field, could form the least notion of even their remotest linguistic kinship. They, like the subject and material, belonged to something horribly remote and distinct from mankind as we know it. something frightfully suggestive of old and unhallowed cycles of life in which our world and our conceptions have no part."

R'LYEH

R'lyeh is characterized by bizarre architecture likened to non-Euclidean geometry. Norwegian sailor Gustaf Johansen, the narrator of one of the tales in the short story, describes the accidental discovery of the city: "a coast-line of mingled mud, ooze, and weedy Cyclopean masonry which can be nothing less the tangible substance of earth's supreme terror — the nightmare corpse-city of R'lyeh...loathsomely redolent of spheres and dimensions apart from ours". The short story also asserts the premise that while currently trapped in R'lyeh, Cthulhu will eventually return, with worshipers often repeating the phrase Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn: "In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming".

Lovecraft claims R'lyeh is located at 47°9′S 126°43′W in the southern Pacific Ocean. Writer August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft and co-creator of the Cthulhu Mythos, placed R'lyeh at 49°51′S 128°34′W.[2] The latter coordinates place the city approximately 5,100 nautical miles (9,400 km) from the actual island of Pohnpei (Ponape), the location of the fictional "Ponape Scripture". Both locations are close to the Pacific pole of inaccessibility (48°52.6′S 123°23.6′W), a point in the ocean farthest from any land mass.  The city is said to rise from the deep on its own for one day every 1000 years.

THE AGE OF CTHULHU

Cthulhu is set in that same time period that we find King Kong. It's the 1920's...there's much of the world that is still unknown.  Pervading all of this are Lovecraft's short stories that hint of ancient civilizations hidden by the waves kinda like that huge wall in Peter Jackson's film and the ruins all over that island.  You have steam-powered schooners, flappers, old-style cars, detectives that look like Humphrey Bogart's character in Casablanca... and people smoking cigarettes everywhere because it's "glamorous".

The Setting for King Kong 2005 is very Cthulhu-esque. I think Peter Jackson could
make an outstanding Call of Cthulhu movie because it would have many of the
same elements as seen in this film with the giant monsters, the mysterious island
and the ruins of an ancient city emerged from the bowels of the ocean and surrounded
by a blanket of thick fog.

I'm not the biggest fan of Lovecraft's actual writing. I'm thankful that the stories are short. He's heavy-handed with his vocabulary and the stories tend to read much like a diary would so they are very dry. I think I would prefer being immersed into the story than have it be told to me in passive first person, past tense. And I don't like the way his stories end. It's like he takes you up to the point where there could clearly be more and then just cops out and says that the narrator went insane and thus, there's no more that's written.  However, his world-building is impressive. Boys in particular seem to be drawn to tales of dark and evil things as long as very little is known about them.  Something about this "unknown and mysterious element" appeals to their imaginations, and I think, is the reason why this kind of mythos continues to endure. Every boy at some point discovers Cthulhu...becomes intrigued by the weird sounding name, wants to know more and discovers that there is in fact, very little known about it outside of roleplaying games.

Buy the book that critics say
is “a mind-blowing sci-fi read from
start to end.” $4.99 from Amazon
now. Begin your journey today.

My own writing has "Cthulhu mythos" inspired creatures and has been described by some reviewers as a "dark fantasy populated by terrifying monsters." Please give it a try if you like glass spiders, hockey sticks, and monsters from the id (subconscious). In "Slipstream", a dark god lays dreaming...

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