Remaking Lord of the Rings out of Only Public Domain Sources: Part 3

Ilya RepinPart 1, Part 2Home stretch, let’s go.The BalrogHow did I skip the Balrog? Absolutely shameful.Anyway: dig too deep and you’ll find a guardian of the underworld, so I’ll roll with Ox-Head and or Horse-Face from Chinese folk religion because honestly if there’s a giant horse-headed monster wrecking your day who looks like this, yeah I’m going freak the fuck out a bit.Q: Who was fucking around with the underworld enough to bring these guys to earth?Q: Is anything going screwy in the underworld now that they’re busy here?ShelobA jorōgumo, which both gives me a giant monster spider and allows me to take a shot at Shadow of Mordor’s drearily uncreative sexy lady Shelob (since jorōgumos have the shapeshifting into a lady feature built in.)Pseudo-Shelob will in turn be the rebellious bad-apple daughter of Spider Grandmother, who will be replacing Ungoliant; this marks a total inversion from the source text, since Spider Grandmother is a positive figure in the lore of indigenous…