Sympathy for Gríma Wormtongue
In the J.R.R. Tolkien novels and Peter Jackson films of The Lord of the Rings, Gríma Wormtongue is portrayed as a devious, sniveling bad guy, with greasy dark hair and an all-around bad attitude.
By far, he’s my favorite character.
I find it easy to sympathize with him. Let’s start with his last name. It couldn’t have been easy growing up a Wormtongue. On the mailbox at the foot of the driveway, there’s a big “Wormtongue” written on the side. People ride their horses by it every day. I’m not sure it sets up a notion in visitors’ minds that this is a family to be trusted. “Let’s get Wormtongue’s thoughts on it,” is probably a question that never got asked. No wonder he went into the spy and betrayal business.
I can imagine the poor guy trying to mumble his name to folks he just met. “Wait, what did you say your last name was again?
You know he never went James Bond with it. “Wormtongue. Gríma Wormtongue.”
Also, the poor guy was in love with the beautiful Éowyn, the king’s niece. Unlike him, she had really nice hair, like she just stepped out of a L’Oréal shampoo commercial. In the unlikely case they did end up getting hitched, I’m guessing she would not have taken his last name. Éowyn Wormtongue. Nah.
In the movies, actor Brad Dourif plays poor Gríma. While he does an excellent job, you should know he’s the same actor who voices the serial-murderer doll Chucky in the “Child’s Play” movies. I mean, c’mon. Give the character a break.
I would have cast Tom Hanks in the role.
Gríma comes to a bad end in the books and movies. In the books, it’s hinted that he not only killed Lotho Sackville-Baggins, but may have eaten him for good measure. Well, we all make mistakes. Lotho’s nickname, by the way, was “Lotho Pimple.” So he had challenges of his own. In the luxury of hindsight, Gríma should have bonded with Lotho, rather than eaten him.
Gríma comes to a grisly end himself, getting killed by hobbit arrows after finally killing the evil wizard Saruman. In the movie version, he stabs Saruman with a knife in the tower Orthanc, only be be shot by the somewhat dim-witted elf Legolas. They’re all a little trigger-happy where Gríma is concerned.
I can only hope that he was eventually recognized as the hero he was for finally offing his tormentor and doing the denizens of Middle Earth a big favor. I hope they buried him in some leafy Shire spot with a handsome tombstone.
It would be nice if they left his last name off it.
