98

Rivendell is an Elven city. Frodo is a Hobbit, and much shorter than the Elves. The railing should appear much higher than it is. Was this simply a production gaffe, or is there an in-universe reason for the railing being so low?

enter image description here

BrettFromLA
  • 23,644
  • 20
  • 84
  • 149
  • 1
    Leveraging your enlightened observation sense, you can extend the argument to the whole scene: the gazebo, the stairs, etc. Could it be that it simply would be too expensive to build two separate sets, the other being for the "normal sized" characters? – John Nov 29 '16 at 20:25
  • 56
    Maybe this is the hobbit wing of the city, for vertically challenged guests. – Steve-O Nov 29 '16 at 20:30
  • 2
    Judging from the agility shown by Legolas it seems unlikely that the railings are functional for elvenkind....and are purely decorative. :) – Paulie_D Nov 29 '16 at 21:19
  • 68
    Elves are immortal in Tolkein, so it's possible this is a form of population control. – DukeZhou Nov 29 '16 at 23:30
  • 59
    Perhaps the lowest bidder was a dwarven construction firm. – T.E.D. Nov 30 '16 at 00:02
  • 4
    Obviously the building inspectors are lax in Rivendell about enforcing ordinances. Not only the low height but how about the gap that a child or small person could dive through. I would put STOP WORK order sticker on the whole city. – blankip Nov 30 '16 at 06:16
  • 8
    I've seen low railings used as a type of optical trick to make a building look taller. I can't say whether or not that was what the elves were going for in their design though. – martin Nov 30 '16 at 09:21
  • @martin: Fair point. Ah so that' why part of the historic governor's mansion is closed. The railings are too low for modern safety building codes. – Joshua Dec 01 '16 at 00:10
  • Image analysis says the railings are normal height and the hobbit is 5 feet tall. – Joshua Dec 01 '16 at 00:10
  • 2
    The wizards were charged with a great many things, but the least enjoyable was the periodic assessment of building codes for the various peoples of Middle Earth. As Radagast was ill-qualified for the duty - as evidenced by his humble yet ramshackle abode - and Saruman was, shall we say, preoccupied, the job fell to the well-traveled Gandalf. However, the populace chafed mightily at his strict interpretation of the standards, and it was decided that they would police themselves (with obvious risk). And so into the mists of memory passed Gandalf's angry cries of, "none shall pass inspection!" – MartyMacGyver Dec 01 '16 at 10:49
  • 1
    @MartyMacGyver OMG. That's pretty amazing! – BrettFromLA Dec 01 '16 at 18:22
  • Maybe because of elven children? – Guest Dec 01 '16 at 14:34

2 Answers2

85

There are a few possible reasons for this:

  1. The room was specially made for Bilbo, and therefore everything was proportioned for a Hobbit

  2. The room was a recovery room for Elves, and so the railings were lower so that they could see over them while laying in bed

  3. Elves are much more agile, and might prefer lower railings aesthetically. They wouldn't really need them to protect against a fall since they're not clumsy

  4. Peter Jackson simply overlooked it

Johnny Bones
  • 59,837
  • 23
  • 176
  • 288
  • 1
    Those all sound very likely! – BrettFromLA Nov 29 '16 at 21:32
  • 10
    I'd say 4 is unlikely, rather the opposite: Anything else would have looked pathetic... – Tobias Kienzler Nov 30 '16 at 09:36
  • 31
    Going by the general sense of the Elves, it would not surprise me if they built an entire wing specially for Bilbo and co, to make them feel at home. That would fit in with the characteristics of the Elves, in that perfection is easy and grand accomplishments are something that is done on a rainy day as a distraction. – Moo Nov 30 '16 at 09:55
  • 36
    A fifth possibility: Jackson didn’t overlook it, but didn’t have an in-universe explanation in mind either — he may have deliberately decided that the visual effect was more important than a small piece of in-universe consistency? – Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine Nov 30 '16 at 15:17
  • 2
    @PeterLeFanuLumsdaine That's precisely what I meant, though in too little words I guess ;) – Tobias Kienzler Dec 01 '16 at 07:16
  • 1
    Elijah Wood is 5' 6" tall. At least one and a half foot taller than in lore hobbits. Orlando Bloom on the other hand is 5' 10" though in lore elves are taller than the average humans. It's a simple problem of perspective when two actors that are not that much different in size portray characters that should be much more different. The problem is, for whom do you design the props then? – Adwaenyth Dec 02 '16 at 08:27
3

A production error most likely. This was Fixed in the "Hobbit" movies. enter image description here

LazyReader
  • 426
  • 2
  • 3