Facts You May Not Have Known About "The Lord of the Rings"

1. Gandalf's original Maiar name was Olorin, but has also gone by Tharkun and Mithrandir.
2. There are three more wizards in LotR besides Gandalf and Saruman that weren't mentioned in the movies. They are: Radagast, Alatar, and Pallando.
3. Every single character in LotR wears a wig, except for Peter Jackson's son Billy, who was a hobbit extra in Fellowship of the Ring.
4. There were 144 guests at Bilbo's birthday party in the book, but there were only 100 at the party in the movie.
5. The portraits of Bilbo's parents in Bag End over the mantelpiece are modeled after Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh.
6. In Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring cameo, he's actually "smoking" a carrot because the pipe made him sick.
7. The goblin forges of Orthanc are real... they were built in a foundry and the goblins working it are actually foundry employees in costume.
8. The ringwraith's screams are based on Fran Walsh's scream with a throat infection.
9. The ring that is shown after Frodo drops it in the mountains is actually 6 inches across.
10. Bill the Pony is actually played by a pantomime horse in some scenes.
11. Glamdring (Gandalf's sword) is also supposed to glow in the presence of orcs like Sting, but because of budget cuts, never happened.
12. Orcs were originally elves that Morgoth (Sauron's master) corrupted.
13. The shot of the fellowship mourning Gandalf's death in Lothlorien was shot before Sir Ian McKellen had even arrived in New Zealand to work.
14. The Numenorean ruins at the breaking of the fellowship scene were actually re-purposed from Weathertop.
15. Aragorn wears Boromir's bracers throughout the second and third films as a tribute to him.
16. The warg attack in The Two Towers was originally supposed to be a night attack on Edoras, but since they couldn't light it properly they had to change it.
17. The young Rohirrim that Aragorn talks to at Helm's Deep in The Two Towers is Philippa Boyen's son.
18. When Gandalf returns to help at Helm's Deep, the Riders were supposed to be led by Erkenbrand, not Eomer.
19. The Fangorn Forest attacking Orthanc was Tolkien's response to his disappointment that the forest in MacBeth was fake.
20. The Black Gate is shown as two gates in the movie due to a typo in the script given to the art department.
21. 6 million feet of film was shot for the film... that's about 1,100 miles of film.
22. Howard Shore had to write 7 minutes of music a day to keep up the pace.
23. Christopher Lee is the only cast member to have actually met J.R.R. Tolkien.
24. Galadriel's gift to Frodo- the light of Earendil- is actually Elrond's father.
25. Elijah Wood had Alka-Seltzer tablets in his mouth so that it would foam when Shelob stabbed him.
26. Elrond's brother was the first king of Numenor, so that makes him very distant relatives of Aragorn's.
27. Arwen is Galadriel's granddaughter.