It has been a few years, but I seem to recall the postscript saying the Arkenstone would glow whenever enemies threatened the Lonely Mountain, which implies to me that actually was in something like a monument. I visualize something like Lenin’s Tomb.
Regarding Celeborn, he had of course been p-whipped for millennia. Can you imagine “Are you planning to wear *that *cloak with *those *boots” for **thousands **of years? Remember that his wife clearly had a will harder than forged steel–she led an army across the polar ice cap, a deed to make Lord Brandoch Daha look for the easier way around. For some reason, Galadriel liked it to appear in public as if Celeborn worn the pants around the house, but by the point of the story, Celeborn probably couldn’t say boo to a goose without asking his wife first.
Galadriel was pretty much the classic idea of the Elven Queen and was quite Queenly. Celeborn came off much more like the Lord married to the ruling Queen. She was powerful and hardy and through her own magics and her ring’s magic had great control over Lothlórien. Then for good measure, while her husband led the army to defeat Dol Guldor, Galadriel threw down the walls of the fortress. By the War of the Ring she was the most powerful Elf left in Middle-Earth, I would guess only Glorfindel could rival her.
Celeborn in most accounts was not an Elf of the Light. He was of Beleriand in most accounts. What I do not understand are the claims he was the wisest Elf in Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age. He did not show it and both Elrond and Cirdan (probably the eldest Elf left in Middle-Earth) both appeared wiser.
Yes, Celeborn was Sindarin, IIRC. As were Thranduil and Legolas. Most of the sylvan elf rulers were Sindarin. His closeness to Thingol, Melian and Galadriel would have enhanced his reputation and his capacity (Thingol and Melian’s rule was one reason the Sindarin were later considered Calaquendi). But yeah, he doesn’t come off in the narrative quite up to his stated reputation.
How about Cirdan. He’s the Jeff Spicoli of Middle Earth. When world shattering events are ravaging the land, he’s content to grow a beard, lounge on the beach, waxing and refinishing his boats, giving reef cruises for elf retirees. He possessed one of the great rings of power, declaring “Woah, Gandalf man, this is too heavy, can you hang on to this?”
I don’t think Cirdan qualifies. He styles himself “Cirdan the shipwright”, and that and beard-growing are what he sticks to. Seems a bit unfair to criticise him for not being a great hero, that’s not his gig.
On the other hand, “Celeborn the wise” deserves his bad press. His great contribution is provide boats for the fellowship to travel in. I can see him racking his brains for days over that one, with Galadriel dropping hints at every opportunity (pointing out pictures of boats, taking him on boating trips, and trooping past him with a giant model boat).
I think you’re being unfair to Radagast, at least on the second part. He could have been playing quite an important part in the quest that the Red Book’s authors (Bilbo, Frodo, Samwise, & the scribes of Gondor) either never heard of or were uninterested in (just as Galadriel, for instance, did quite a bit to fight against Sauron that we know very little about). It’s like the difference between Frodo & Aragorn’s roles. The former is much more important to the Quest than the latter, but if not for the latter’s actions, the victory over Sauron would have been Pyrrhic indeed.
I’ll defend Gandalf here. Remember, this is not just before email and voicemail and telephones; it’s before post offices. I can easily imagine that, short-sighted & distractable though he was, Barliam was simply the only choice Gandalf had for delivering the message.
ETA: As for Sauron: He, too, is in a sense the victim of bad press. I haven’t done the numbers (though perhaps Qadgop can help us) but I have the feeling that he was in power for much longer aggregate period in the Second & Third Ages than he was out of it, and that the total amount of territory and number of persons under his sway was larger than the territory and population of the Free Peoples.
I’m going to defend Thorin & Co. for not setting out with proper weapons. They were poor and couldn’t afford any. It was not a time of war, and weapons are rare and expensive. It’s not like there was a Swords R Us on every street corner. Even Frodo & Co. set out unarmed. Throughout the entire first part of the story, every weapon used was a found weapon. Mass manufacture didn’t happen until much later.
Therefore, my answer to this thread is “Everyone except Strider.”
Actually Thorin was not poor. They carried instruments from apparently the Blue Mts. to Hobbiton at least of value and had earned a fair many over the years. They should have had axes, helms and chain mail at least.
What Exit? has already commented on the idea that Thorin & Company were poor, but I will add that comparing the four young hobbits to Thorin’s group seems, well, silly. For one thing they were HOBBITS: not merely peaceful by inclination, but quite insular and consequently naive. (Few persons in the Shire appreciated that their peaceful little country seemed that way only because of the vigilance of the Rangers.) Add to that the fact that they didn’t intend to go far in the first place – only to Bree, which, while outside the Shire proper, shared in its prosperity, illusory sense of safety, and divorcement from the concerns of the larger world).
And, of course, they all had weapons after the incident with the Barrow Wights.
I think poor is relative here. The Lonely Mountain was fabulously rich, and Thorin had been something like the heir to nobility only to become a refugee. Didn’t Gandalf taunt him at one point about maybe having to go back to mining coal? It would be a little as if the firstborn son of a duke had to flee the country and ended up being a moderately prosperous merchant. Maybe he and his weren’t going to starve but they had taken a huge, huge step down. That’s the sort of thing that even a human much less a dwarf is going to nurse a grudge over.
ETA: and now that I think of it, Thorin’s character makes a lot more sense if you think of him as a resentful ruined noble. Prideful to the point of stupidity, obsessed with getting “the family estate” back and maybe not having all that much personal talent.
Admittedly we’re not told about Bree, but the Shire had post offices. They mostly just idled around and gossiped except when there was a big event like Bilbo’s party, but they were there.
Quoth BrotherCadfael:
Elves do not “do the nasty”. Nothing elves ever do is nasty. Like everything else they do, Elvish lovemaking is sublime. Besides, it’s only due to twisted Puritan repression that we 21st-century Western humans think of sex as “nasty” to begin with.
He was not wealthy by the old standards but he was more then well off enough to equip his party with weapons. Indeed the weapons should have been forged by them already. Thorin had done well in the battle outside of Moria (Battle of Azanulbizar) where he earned his nickname Oakenshield. He was no stranger to fighting but a proven vet.
Gandalf convinced him to try stealth and the trump card of the map and key helped to sway Thorin to the idea. But then Gandalf insisted that if Thorin did not bring Bilbo, his quest would fail. It was like Gandalf had some inside information perhaps. But all that said, Thorin should have had weapons and armor and maybe several bows.
