Tauriel

Tauriel is a fictional character from Peter Jackson's two-part feature movie adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. The character does not appear in the original book by writer J.R.R. Tolkien, but was created by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh for the two movies, which will be released in 2012 and 2013. Tauriel is a Woodland Elf, and is the leader of the Elven guard. Her name means "Daughter of Mirkwood" in the Elvish language. She is played by actress Evangeline Lilly, who appeared as Kate Austen on the TV show Lost.

Conception and casting

In 1937 J. R. R. Tolkien published the fantasy novel The Hobbit, which is about a group of 15 people: a Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, a wizard named Gandalf and thirteen dwarves. This group goes searching for a treasure guarded by the dragon, Smaug. During the story, the group are captured by the Silvan Elves. During the Battle of Five Armies at the end of the story, the group of 15 travelers join with the Elves to fight an army of goblins and wargs.

Although Tauriel did not appear in the book, she was created by writer/director/producer Peter Jackson and his wife and producing partner Fran Walsh for the two movies that will tell the story of the book: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which will be released in 2012, and The Hobbit: There and Back Again, which will be released in 2013. In the movie's story, she is Woodland Elf, and the leader of the Elven guard. Her name means "Daughter of Mirkwood" in the Elvish language. Actress Evangeline Lilly, who became famous for playing the federal fugitive Kate Austen on the ABC TV drama Lost, was hired to play Tauriel. Lilly, who was a fan of Tolkien's books since she was 13, was nervous about playing a character that did not appear in the books, because she thought some fans of the books would not like new characters being created for the movies. However, she insisted that the character was faithful to the books and Tolkien's story.

As head of the Elven guard, Tauriel is an expert with many weapons, but mainly uses a bow and two daggers, which are the same weapons mainly used by another Elf character, Legolas, who appeared in The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. Also, Legolas will appear in The Hobbit movie too, even though he and Tauriel are not related in any way during the story.

In order to play the character, Lilly was taught by a language expert so that she could speak the Elvish language. In September 2011 Lilly began filming the movie in New Zealand, a job that will last between five months and a year. Lilly said that she enjoyed she and her co-workers got along well, and said that working with co-workers who were mostly men, reminded her of working on Lost and the 2008 movie The Hurt Locker. On the other hand, filming the fighting scenes turned out to be harder than she thought it would, because of the changes her body experienced after she gave birth to her child in May 2011. She explained this by saying, "Recovering from labor is like recovering from a full-body injury, and I didn't realize to what extent that was true until I started training for elf fighting. My hips don't move like they used to move, my back doesn't move like it used to move, my shoulders are sore every day. But it's fun."

Appearances

The character will appear only briefly in the first movie, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which will be released in 2012, but she will appear more in the second movie, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, which will be released in 2013.

Other websites

• Tauriel at the Internet Movie Database
• Tauriel at the Tolkien Gateway
• "Dish Of Salt: Evangeline Lilly Dishes On Filming ‘The Hobbit’". (Video of Evangeline Lilly speaking Elvish) Access Hollywood. October 2011