My personal Middle Earth heresy is that there is no magic in the World. Everything that seems magical is simply sufficiently advanced technology that the other Children of Eru (or that hack translator Tolkien ) cannot understand. Elves are both intelligent and long-lived; they can advance a field of research far beyond what Man can do in a limited lifetime.
Nor is there anything supernatural. Eru, the Valar and other Ainur, are simply beings with exceptional technology. Eru designed his servants and the World, then built the servants and programmed then with the World plan, and finally built then world, with the servants executing their instructions. The “rebelliousness” of Melkor is simply a rationalization by the other Valar due to their lack of complete knowledge of the design.
The entire Lord of the Rings saga is a thinly veiled retelling of the overcoming of the Neanderthals by modern man. The Orcs were our now-lost, cold weather cousins.
Oooh! I’ve been on such a Silmarillion kick lately!
Perhaps Manwë didn’t have much experience with hearing lies? His was a forgiving soul, and his thoughts toward Melkor were of redemption. The Ainur repeated this theme later when they offer to Sauron…if he’s really, really sorry, he could come back and face the judgment of Manwë. That’s pretty nice of them, all things considered. Perhaps it’s in the nature of the Valar to be kind of naïve.
Why is that? Eru knows what he’s doing, doesn’t he?
I think that to the elves, if it didn’t produce a child, it didn’t count. So I’m thinking Arwen’s probably no virgin when they met either.
I always figured that Sauron had an enchantment around Mordor to prevent the Eagles from simply flying in. Not unlike how Gondolin was safe from any flying nastys that Morgoth could come up with. That being said, the other reason to have the fellowship walk is to stay under Sauron’s radar. Sure it’s a journey wrought with peril, but it’s still better than getting blasted out of the sky by the power of the unblinking eye, or chewed up by fell beasts.
I always thought this was the obvious answer. Perhaps even ethereal wings made more from fire and darkness than real matter with the intent on instilling fear in others (like in the movie!) I don’t see why this is so hotly contested. Couldn’t the Maiar take any shape they wanted? Why not take the shape of a big scary thing?
Do I have one? How about Mandos restored Beren to life, but didn’t restore his hand.
By Elvish standards, premarital sex is by definition impossible. Once they had sex, they were married. What is possible, though, is that Aragorn and Arwen had a pre-ceremonial marriage.
There was near-unanimous approval for Aragorn’s kingship, and he had just proven his merit. Nor would he have assumed the crown if he didn’t have that near-unanimous approval.
This I’ll agree on. My personal take is that their wings are literally composed of shadow (you can do that when you’re an embodied primordial spirit), which, as you say, look badass, but won’t serve to support a corporeal form in flight (though an unclad 'rog might still be able to fly).
I’m kind of confused with where you’re going here. :DQUOTE]
I was just drawing some of what I thought were interesting parallels. Forget I said anything I suppose.
There’s a reason I tend to lurk instead of speak.
Except Tulkas–TULKAS–saw through Morgoth. “He clenched his hands whenever he saw Melkor his foe go by.”
It is also specifically said that Ulmo was not deceived, and implied that Mandos was not either.
So it’s not the Valar in general who are naive; it is Manwë (and, I suppose, implicitly Varda and obviously Nienna, who aided Melkor’s prayer). One would think Manwë might say to himself, “Hmm. Several of my wise counselors, and the single most bad-ass of us, are worried. Maybe I should consult with Eru about this, since he’s all omniscient & stuff. Good thing I got him on speed-dial.”
In the sense that the Orcs would have had lots and lots of Eorlingas and Gondorian women to rape and torture, and that they would devised many clever ways of doing so, that is undeniably true.
Hobbits are, when properly prepared, the tastiest creatures in Middle Earth, a delicacy prized by the wise above all others.
The quest for mount doom was really convoluted plot to satisfy Gandalf’s hunger for the ultimate hobbit feast, his earlier scheme to procure dragon-roasted hobbit having ended in failure. Frodo was a hobbit of prime eating age, carefully exercised, tendarised by orc-spear, marinated with spider venom, and finally fattened-up before being slaughtered and eaten on a merry sea-crossing to Aman.
Both Saruman and Sauron were in on the secret, as Sauron’s message to Saruman after Pippin looked into the palantir of Orthanc makes clear.
Upon tasting hobbit for the first time, Gollum was so over-whelmed he lost control of himself, and toppled into a pit of lava. They really are that good.
Upon his release from Orthanc, Saruman hurried north to dine on Lotho Sackville-Baggins, a crime he blamed on Grima Wormtongue. At his appearance on the steps of Bag End, he is described as “looking well-fed and well-pleased”, while Wormtongue was a bag of bones.
Gandalf also let his good friend Aragorn in on the secret. It was a gift of hobbit sweetbreads that finally won him Arwen’s love. Much as the Norman’s created the New Forest as a deer hunting preserve, Aragorn and his rangers ensured that the Shire was protected. The king’s table would never want for hobbit.
The people of Middle Earth should not have revered Manwe and Varda as much as they did. Neither one seemed to care much for Middle Earth, being only concerned with Valinor and the heavens.
The people should have devoted themselves mostly to Ulmo (who clearly cared more than any other Vala), along with Yavanna and Orome. Aule got respect from the Dwarves, but not enough from Elves and Men. In fact, almost all of the Valar earned more worship from Middle Earth than Manwe and Varda.
There’s no way dwarves were anywhere near as badass warriors as they were portrayed. I don’t care how strong or tough you are, if your head is the same height as my bellybutton I can outrun you, I can outreach you, I can kick your ass in a hundred different ways. And the axes? Is there any way they could have picked a less appropriate weapon? No wonder they got wiped out.
I’m sorry, but I fear you are confusing Dwarves with Hobbits, or perhaps Middle-earth Dwarves with Narnia Dwarfs. The creations of Aule were about 5 feet tall, which I expect is a bit higher than your belly button unless you are…um…
okay, I don’t actually know the name of anybody in the NBA. Somebody help me out.
Ok, maybe not belly button, but they’re tiny compared to the people (humanoids) they’re fighting. Gimli had to be lifted just to see over the Helm’s Deep battlements for Pete’s sake, that guy was kicking no one’s ass. He was probably lying through his teeth throughout the contest as well, and Legolas didn’t have to heart to call him on it.
False. Elvish males generally have a significantly lower sex drive than their human counterparts (and why wouldn’t they? if you’re not getting any right now there’s always next century, right?), but Elvish females don’t necessarily.
The passionate intensity of human males compared to male Elves is a large part of the reason that Elf-women are sometimes tempted to mate with them, even at the cost of sacrificing millennia of togetherness for those brief few decades of hot mayfly sex. For Arwen to have borne not only Eldarion but also more than one daughter in a mere hundred years or so amounts to breeding like rabbits by Elvish standards.
) cannot understand. Elves are both intelligent and long-lived; they can advance a field of research far beyond what Man can do in a limited lifetime.