Legolas frightens Gimli
I'm not sure where this came from, but it claims to be one of
the original LOTR audition scripts.
The Grey Company stands within the passage of the Paths of the
Dead.
All around them fell voices can be heard whispering, before them lies
gloom.
The mortalsARAGORN, GIMLI and the rest of the Companystruggle
against the dread
which grows in their hearts.
LEGOLAS, the ELF and therefore immortal, steps forward, a radiance
and lightness
about him which distinguishes him from the others.
ARAGORN addresses his company.
ARAGORN
(troubled)
I should have come alone. I have led you all into danger.
LEGOLAS
We followed you of our own free will. You did not compel us to come.
ARAGORN
Noit was your courage that compelled you and I release you from
it.
Turn back now and do not hold yourselves dishonored.
LEGOLAS
I do not fear this place. Nor should any other who walks in your company,
Aragorn, son of Arathorn.
LEGOLAS turns to the darkness as if calling on the Dead to dare challenge the prophecy.
LEGOLAS
Let every soul present, livingor deadremember the words
of the seer:
".... Who shall call them
from the grey twilight, the forgotten people?
The heir of him to whom the oath they swore.
From the North shall he come, need shall drive him:
he shall pass the Door to the Paths of the Dead."
As they stand ready to move forward the whispering voices seem
to close in behind them,
only LEGOLAS dares to look back.
LEGOLAS
I see shapes of Men and of horses, and pale banners like shreds of
cloud.
Spears rise like winter thickets through a shroud of mist.
(pause)
The Dead are following. They have been summoned.
GIMLI moves alongside LEGOLAS, and speaks out of the corner of his
mouth.
GIMLI
Exactly how close are they?
LEGOLAS
You feel how stifling the air is down here?
GIMLI
Yes
?
LEGOLAS
And yet there is a draft on the back of your neck?
GIMLI shudders as if a spider has been dropped down his shirt. LEGOLAS
smiles.