Whos afraid of the Black Riders?

Even though I've read LoTR so many times, they still scare me. I'm just at the bit where Frodo, Sam and Pippin are on the road, and the Black Rider goes sniff, sniff, sniff and gets ever closer...Brrrrrr, Gives me shivers down my spine just thinking of it!
How on earth did Tolkien come up with something so ominous and creepy?
I think it's that sniffing and snuffling that gets me.

Heh, you should read a review called "Ooh, Those Awful Orcs" by Edmund Wilson. He claims that all the villians in Tolkien are insubstantial or cartoonish and not scary at all. I of course think that is one of the reasons the Nazgul are scary, they are ghostlike creatures that seem impervious to everything.

I find them to be more frightening at Weathertop. If I had a scanner that could do poster sized papers, I'd show you what I meant, but....

However, the original drafts had Gandalf on a white horse in the place of the first sighting of a Black Rider.

They have always terrified me. Recently getting to hold a tarantula and discovering it was cute and fuzzy cured me of my lingering terror of Shelob hiding under the bed, but the Nazgul still are horrible. I fear anything that can drain the life-force out of me, and anything which hides in shadows and darkness.

Boo!


Say, Finduilas!

Can you take a snapshot of the poster? Or might there be some other representation on the net?

(I need to go look at your updated site. It was impressive before!)

I'm more freaked out by them than really afraid.

Tarantulas cute and fuzzy! You have to be joking, all those horrible hairy legs, I'd rather stay afraid of spiders than hug a tarantula! Though I did get over a fear of snakes by touching one and discovering they weren't slimy.

The ones with the long skinny legs are horrible, but tarantulas are actually incredibly soft, and once you get used to them, they're kinda cute, in a decidedly creepy sense. I'm still trying to find one at a pet store.

The Mrs. likes to watch old monster movies. There always seems to be some giant spiders or ants or something of the sort on the screen.

Taking photos might work (although I'd lose all the text). What the two are is an assignment I had for art 12. I had to do a cartoon for it. I picked the scene at Weathertop. It goes from the rising of the moon to just after Frodo is wounded.

You might annotate the photos with the appropriate text as a caption. Or even create an image map that goes nowhere, but has the appropriate text in ALT. Others more webdesign proficient may come up with better ideas.

Of course, if the photo is big enough, the text may show, or you could go back and edit the text back in with a small font, once digitized.

Spiders, Ghosts, Black Riders...I'm a nnnnervous wwwreck I'm sure somethings going to jump out on me any minute!
I would like to see that poster though, I have same problem with scanning things that are too large for scanner, haave wondered about taking a photoe of them and then scan the photoe, not tried it yet though. Can't see why it wouldn't work, though you'd have to be careful not to get any unwanted reflections on the poster while photographing it.

I'll try it then sometime. (it's now in the same to do category that contains re-doing my Numenor essay. That category is "sometime in the nebulous future")

I have many items in that category myself

It has just become the Far nebulous future. (I am in a graphics class that now involves re-doing my entire JRRT page AGAIN(for the third time since October) but with layers and more pictures. When it's done there will be a LOT of my artwork on it)

The Black Riders never really scared me, although I did think they were cool. Funny though, the only part of the Lord of the Rings that did scare me was the when for the first time I read 'A Knife in the Dark.' I think it's probably because I was quite young and it was at night. But that chapter still did make me all tense.

That is one of the best parts of the Fellowship of the Ring.

The scariest description of the dark riders , to me, is when Frodo puts on the ring and sees them for what they are.

But I think the Balrog at Khazad-dum is one of the scariest creatures, because it was such a threat to even Gandalf. That whole chapter is one of my favorites.

I thought the part on Weathertop was really cool. I think my three favorite parts in the Fellowship of the rings are the scenes in Weathertop, Moria, and the Barrow-downs. The Breaking of the Fellowship was really good too, but to me, I think the others are better.

My favourite bit is when they first meet Strider in the inn and don't trust him, though it's not a scary bit.
Favourite scary bits are going through the mines of Moria and they start to hear the drums in the distance, Piipin drops stone down well. That bits so omnious and builds tension well.
Also when Frodo puts on the ring and is nearly drawn into Blackriders world.
Oh and I just thought of another one...I think the whole book is my favourite bit, oherwise this list would go on forever