This is not the end....
Posted on 03/14/2002 5:07:26 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
Do you happen to know where in the letters this appears?
Post #1103
SB:
Bean as Boromir
"Boromir shows him there are good things to be found in man."
VM: "I envy his certainty to some degree."
SB: "...because you are man, and a certain aspect of knowledge is ignorance."
VM: "I think that is something that Tolkien spoke about. He said too much knowledge can be dangerous. Characters like Elrond, or Gandalf, or Galadriel or Aragorn, who have the benefit of this overall view of the history of Middle-Earth, are very wary about telling anyone what to do. People have to come to the right decision of their own free will. The most precious thing in Middle-Earth is not the Ring, but the free choice of the individual. The evil of the Ring is that it takes away anybody's individuality. You lose yourself. It tempts you by saying that you will become greater, but in fact, you become nothing."
I hope it doesn't die out, this thread has been a real treat.
Ditto!, the chat room has had a major toll on this thread. Lots of time nothing is happening. The major participants and they know who they are, seem to be missing a lot. HEY you all .... you are missed. Come back.
One of the great things about this thread is the flow of topics and side stuff along with Tolkien. It is like any great combination that works. Make big changes and it often falls apart. i.e. as happens with hit bands, people like Joel (Northern Exposure), Shelly Long (Cheers),David Carruso (NYPF Blue), Jimmy Smidt (NYPD Blue), etc.; ... and with clubs a few leave and ... soon it sorta dissolves. You get the idea. MO
I've changed my strategy to skimming letters written after publication of ROTK. I found this in Letter 165(p. 221) to Houghton Mifflin Co.:
Nothing has astonished me more (and I think my publishers) than the welcome given to The Lord of the Rings. But it is, of course, a constant source of consolation and pleasure to me. And, I may say, a piece of singular good fortune, much envied by some of my contemporaries....envied by some of my contemporaries
Nyah,nyah!! (shameless goating!)
Hmmmm.....Hair,what's happening in the chat room during the day when I'm not there?
That's "shameless gloating" Baaaaa! LOL
I thank you for bringing in some new good content to this thread, and there will hopefully be a flurry of reviews and discussions HERE about the trailer on Friday, where all can share and look back on it.
If we don't keep the good content flowing, then OT just starts bashing elves again. I think we are approaching what may be a long doldrum period between real events, so keep the snippets of news coming! We have to keep OT busy!
Okay, Gandalf. You knew that all Rings of Power are dangerous to mortals and you let Bilbo keep one for all these years. Why did it take you so long to look into it? Wasn't the grant money coming in fast enough?
This is not the end....
Also, didn't Saruman kept telling everyone that the one ring was lost, that it was probably at the bottom of the sea?
Here's a question...did Gandalf and the others know that the ring of power was so corruptive to the one who carried it from the start? Or did they only discover that aspect of the ring when they realized what it had done to Gollum and to Bilbo?
Yeah, that ought to do the trick. ;) Throw in a few more of Aragorn, and this thread should be hopping! Of course, you'll have to include some Eowyn, Arwen and Galdriel photos too, if you don't want to lose all the guys. ;)
At first, Gandalf didn't know that it was the One Ring, but he did know that it was a ring of power and he told Frodo in "Shadow of the Past" that all rings of power were perilous. IMHO he should have started tracking the ring's history as soon as he knew that Bilbo had it. Instead, he waited for Bilbo to show signs of "evilringitis." Perhaps I should cut Gandalf some slack for listening to Saruman "The White" aka cheese-eating traitor monkey! :)
Does anyone have a timeline handy? Could Gandalf and "Thorongil" have been fighting the Corsairs of Umbar during Bilbo's ownership
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.