Ted Nasmith – Riders at the Ford

In the books:
Frodo, riding Glorfindel‘s white horse Asfaloth, is pursued by the Nine Black Riders at the very bank of the Ford of Bruinen. Frodo, too terrified to guide the horse, can neither bring himself to watch what is happening around him, but Asfaloth plunges into the river and swiftly and safely carries the frightened Hobbit across the ford. At the top of the bank at the far side of the river, Frodo looks back to see nine black riders clustered on the far bank, and can think of nothing that would keep them from crossing as he did. Indeed, the chief Ringwraith soon rides his horse into the water, but “a roar and a crashing: a noise of loud waters and rolling stones ” comes to Frodo, and a torrent of water floods down the riverbed, sweeping the Ringwraiths away. Frodo thinks he sees white horses and riders, and white flames in the foaming waters. Soon after, Frodo collapses.

Later, as Frodo is convalescing in Rivendell, Gandalf explains what caused the flood: The Bruinen is under Elrond‘s command and “will rise in anger when he has great need to block the ford.” Though Gandalf also states that Elrond commanded the flood, with the further explanation it seems that the River is under a standing order, as it were, to rise in defense of the Ford.

In the movie: Arwen, with Frodo in front of her on Asfaloth, rides out into the middle of the Bruinen. At Arwen’s challenge, the perusing Ringwraiths follow her into the water. Arwen begins to chant, apparently an incantation or spell; it is not translated onscreen. At her words, the water first begins to rise slightly, but then a huge wall of water crashes around a bend in the River. True to the Books’ description, there are the forms of gleaming white horses in the waves. Arwen, on the shingle of the far side of the River, is safe from the wrath of the water, but the nine Black Riders are swept away downstream. There is no further explanation or even mention of the flood.

Why the change? The reason for the change as to how the Flood came to be is less clear-cut than for the other changes in this sequence, and harder to pin down. It may be that what happens in the movie is closer to what happens in the book than anyone has thought.
In the Director’s commentary, someone states that ” What Arwen is saying is an invitation for those waters, but it is not a spell to raise them. Indeed, this explanation does seem to fit in with what Gandalf stated in the books about the waters rising in anger when the Ford needed to be impassible. The commentary goes on to state “what Howard Shore did with the choir piece underneath [this scene] is the spirit, as it were, of the River, telling her that it’s heard her call.”

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Related Information
For why Arwen replaced Glorfindel, see "Flight to the Ford".