The information on the background is rather poor, which I find to be inexcusable, since one need only pick up the books to check the facts. It's not like they offered a lot of esoteric stuff. I sent them an email offering to help correct the errors but I suspect I'll be ignored. I didn't list my (limited) qualifications in the arena of Tolkien arcana.

One of the interesting revelations, as someone else pointed out, is that Legolas will be blond-haired. I personally don't have a problem with that, although it does seem unlikely he would have inherited that trait from his father (Elvish hair genes seem to be similar to our own).

Another interesting item is the fact that Anduril is a jeweled blade. I originally suggested that Narsil be a plain sword, and of course quoted the description of Anduril from "The Council of Elrond" (of which I believe they were already aware). But later it occurred to me that two First Age swords -- made by Noldor -- were described as being jeweled. These were Orcrist and Glamdring. So I forwarded that information and now I wonder if the movie's Anduril is jeweled because of my information or simply because someone chose that it should be so.

Anduril was reforged by Elrond's elven smiths, who were probably Noldor. I'll share here part of my thoughts from that email:

  Finally, note the jewelled hilts ascribed to both Orcrist and
  Glamdring.  We cannot compare them to other First Age swords
  because, as I mentioned previously, those swords are not given
  any adornment in their descriptions.  Also, those other swords
  were mostly made by Dwarves or Sindar (Eol in particular).  The
  Noldor made their own weapons and Turgon's people were a
  mixture of Noldor and Sindar, but the Sindar were coastal clans
  from Nevrast -- they probably had no smithing skills
  themselves, except whatever they learned from Turgon's Noldor.
  Hence, their weapon styles would be those of the Noldor.  The
  hilt-gems might be appropriate for First Age Noldorin weapons.

  The only other NAMED Noldorin sword I can think of is
  Fingolfin's weapon, Ringil.  Of it Tolkien says only that
  "it glittered like ice".  However, Fingolfin's shield was set
  with crystals (essentially, this would be jewels of great
  value -- diamonds, and perhaps some of the artificial jewels
  devised by the Noldor in Aman prior to their exile).  The
  glittering effect might be assumed to derive from gems, but it
  more likely is just the "magical" aura of the Noldorin swords,
  which glowed when near evil creatures.  The passage I am
  referring to in THE SILMARILLION for this information comes
  from "The Ruin of Beleriand" and concerns Fingolfin's challenge
  to Morgoth before the gates of Angband.  There can be no
  question about whether evil creatures (Orcs, Trolls,
  Werewolves, Balrogs, dragons, etc.) were close by.

  It would, I think, be appropriate to suggest that the Noldor
  indeed adorned their weapons with jewels.  This would be in
  striking contrast to the more utilitarian weapons of the   Sindar.

  The Noldor suffered a fall of Pride, however (the first of
  their great sins), and in Aman they had openly forged and worn
  swords and armor as a symbol of this Pride.  The Sindar learned
  how to make weapons from the Dwarves only when Morgoth's
  creatures began to trouble their domain.  They therefore did
  not seek to adorn their weapons -- or else Tolkien wished to
  emphasize the adornments of the Noldor as a means of
  underscoring their self-destructive pride.  How can one be
  sure?

Of course, these comments really don't tell us what decisions had already been made, or who else Jackson's people might have consulted (they have at least four paid consultants who are all well-known among Tolkien fans and researchers, including Tom Shippey), or whether the information I passed on arrived too late to have any impact on the decision-making process, etc.

But at least I can say that WETA was not working in a complete vacuum. I believe people have been too harsh on them. They did make an effort to learn as much about Tolkien's world as they could. Some things they cannot do, because they weren't pubished in THE HOBBIT or THE LORD OF THE RINGS, but there is certainly a great deal of detail provided in those two books to work with.

So, when people start howling about the gems on Anduril, I won't be one of them. In fact, I'll be wondering for the rest of my life, I'm sure, whether my information played some part in the design of the sword.
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