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The One Ring Forums:
Tolkien Topics: Movie Discussion: The Hobbit:
Answering your post about Elvish:
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Eruvandi
Dor-Lomin
Apr 12 2014, 4:47pm
Views: 49754
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Answering your post about Elvish
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"He reigned in and sent off Tauriel in Elvish during the orc interrogation."
Yes, he did. And yet otherwise, during the interrogation scene, no Elvish. So, do Orcs not understand Elvish and Thranduil didn't want it to know what he was saying to her (exactly)? Or, was Thranduil just getting a bit emotional, causing a switch to Elvish? Or do the filmmakers just have the characters switch to Elvish occationally to remind us it's what they're actually speaking all the time? (As odd as that possibility sounds.)
I want to say it's the 'emotional' choice. Because Thranduil does not use Elvish at all when he speaks to Tauriel about Legolas's attraction, and I get the feeling that it was a very calculated confrontation - for him. Then it would make sense for him to spew lot of Elvish in the missing scene of his confrontation with Legolas, who probably tells dad he's off after Tauriel (obviously the last thing Thranduil would want to hear).
And then we get the difference of opinion scene between Legolas and Tauriel, in which they switch from Whatever English Is A Stand In For to Elvish and back again. Some feeling is being exchanged, I think.
Of course, there's still that short scene between Legolas and the door guard, all in Elvish. So, unless that Elf is a very good friend or a relative, my 'emotional' theory falls flat. :/ That's an interesting question about whether or not orcs understand Elvish. Somehow I don't think they would since they seem to detest elves just as much as elves detest them and I doubt they'd have any more interest in learning/speaking elvish than the elves would in learning/speaking the black speech. Then again, Legolas knew the orc was antagonizing Tauriel when it yelled at her in black speech, but that may have had more to do with intonation than anything else. I don't think the filmmakers are suggesting that the elves are speaking elvish even when they're speaking the common speech though. I think the elves are just fluent in both languages and can switch back and forth at will.
I think you make a good point about the "emotional" choice. Elvish is their native language (another term I like for someone's native language is calling it their "heart language" because it's the language in which they would naturally think and feel in head and heart ), so I'd say they would probably revert to that if/when they get emotional such as when Tauriel was about to slice the orc open and Thranduil had to react quickly enough to stop her. Also a good point about the elvish in the missing scene. That would be an emotional moment and they would probably revert to their heart language at that point too.
I also agree that they switch back and forth in the "It IS our fight" scene at least in part because in is an emotional moment. I think they also switch simply because, from my personal observations anyway, people who are extremely fluent in two languages can easily switch back and forth like that without even thinking about it.
On the more technical side of things, I think the filmmakers realize that people may get tired of reading subtitles all the way through every other scene of the movie, especially the longer ones. The scenes with the orc interrogation and It IS our fight are fairly long scenes so they used both English and elvish so people wouldn't feel like they were missing the action because they were reading all the time. The scene between Legolas and the door guard was short so they may have felt like it wasn't a problem using all-elvish there. That's my theory anyways.
"So I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine"
--Hillsong United
(This post was edited by Eruvandi on Apr 12 2014, 4:50pm)
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Edit Log:
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Post edited by Eruvandi
(Dor-Lomin) on Apr 12 2014, 4:50pm
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