5 Lord Of The Rings Movie Changes Tolkien Hated

At one point, J.R.R. Tolkien tackles the adaptive decision to represent lembas. In the screenplay, the magical source of sustenance is treated as a sort of superfood, and the author doesn’t allow it. He says, «Lembas, ‘waybread’, is called a ‘food concentrate,’» adding that along with avoiding the silly fairy-tale concept, «I dislike equally any pull towards ‘scientification’, of which this expression is an example. Both modes are alien to my story. We are not exploring the Moon or any other more improbable region. No analysis in any laboratory would discover chemical properties of lembas that made it superior to other cakes of wheat-meal.» 

Far from a practical meal prep program, Tolkien hints at the power of lembas in «The Return of the King» book when he explains that it has a virtue that doesn’t satisfy desire. The author says it has a potency of its own, elaborating, «It fed the will, and it gave strength to endure, and to master sinew and limb beyond the measure of mortal kind.»

When Jackson first introduces lembas in a deleted scene for «The Lord of the Rings» extended editions, Legolas (Orlando Bloom) says of the stuff, «one small bite is enough to fill the stomach of a grown man,» after which Pippin reveals that he ate four full cakes of the stuff. If that isn’t ‘scientification’ at its finest, we don’t know what is. It ignores the magical properties of the unique food item, opting instead to categorize it as a super-concentrated form of nutrients — precisely what Tolkien rejected.