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In The Two Towers, when Gandalf goes to see Theoden the king has a massive beard that rivals that of Gandalf.

When he is free from Saruman's enchantment, he nearly falls down and is caught and supported by Eowyn. He still has his beard at this point. The camera then shifts its focus to Eowyn's face before focusing on Theoden's face. When it focuses on the Theoden's face, his beard is gone!

Where did his beard go - and how!?

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  • The true story is that it was misplaced by a make-up artist, only to later be discovered in the face of Peter Jackson, where it remains to this day.
    – Amarth
    Jun 18, 2020 at 15:26

2 Answers 2

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At about 2:57 you can see that Theoden loses the "crazy white" beard, after Saruman had left him

It doesn't appear that this was part of the original books. Grima had originally only been an advisor

In Tolkien's writings, Saruman had Grima give Theoden bad advice and sketchy drugs. There's no indication of any actual magic going on.

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    drugs? I don't find any reference to that save Gandalf saying that Grima was "weaking [Theoden's] limbs"
    – NKCampbell
    Jun 12, 2020 at 19:01
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    @NKCampbell I quoted it as-is. I'm not familiar enough with all the apocrypha to know either way. The key is that Saruman hadn't possessed Theoden via Grima
    – Machavity
    Jun 12, 2020 at 19:13
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    @NKCampbell - There is a line in The Two Towers (book) where the recovered Theoden remarks to Grima, "Your leechcraft ere long would have had me walking on all fours like a beast!" This implies that Wormtongue was performing some sort of medieval medicine on Theoden, but it was designed to make him worse and not better.
    – tbrookside
    Jun 12, 2020 at 19:32
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    @tbrookside That line (in the slightly modified version "Your leechcraft would have had me crawling on all fours like a beast!" according to this transcript) is in the movie too, though probably only in the extended edition.
    – lfurini
    Jun 13, 2020 at 10:47
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It could be that is no more than an illusion if it does effect his physical form ,it's a detrimental curse. Remember in the Tolkien-verse, magic is more a set of rules than the kind of energy manipulation and exotic esoteric spells you see in other media. All in all shapeshifting is a common practice in the LOTR universe, as is detrimental curses that affect the body. Look at Bilbo when he explained to Gandalf “I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.” Suggesting dark powers have detrimental effects on physiology.

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  • I wouldn't call it "common". There's Beorn, a character that belongs more to The Hobbit than the rest of the legendarium; there are a few characters in The Silmarillion (the stories in which have to be taken with a grain of salt even as in-universe stores), and ... that's about it.
    – chepner
    Jun 14, 2020 at 15:36

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