Posted on 03/15/2002 6:54:33 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
Repost – Highlights from chapters 1-5 copied from the original forum to the new one. To reference the full version, click here: Original Green Dragon Inn Within the first five chapters... disregard the reply numbers... they wont work.
Thank you ecurbh, for copying and editing our old thread so that the highlights could be moved here! Highlights of the first five chapters from the old thread are pasted into the first 5 replies here. For those of you who are just joining you… as of this post we are beginning Chapter 6.
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Welcome to The Green Dragon Inn
Approaching The Green Dragon Inn
Hobbiton, in The Shire
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And wither then? I cannot say.
- JRR Tolkien
Politics also goes ever on and on.
This is a place for FReeper Tolkien fans to come and take a break from the impure reality of conservative activism and relax a little with a great story. We (the other co-conspirators and I) would like to study together the writings of Tolkien, beginning together, and discussing as we go through The Lord of the Rings together.
This is a chapter discussion, roughly one chapter per week, with the discussion mostly centered on the books, though of course the movie will be contrasted and compared, and perhaps used to illustrate another interpretation of the story.
Every week, someone from the group (maybe me) will ping The Green Dragon List to the new Chapter, but we will continue this one thread until it becomes too cumbersome…. Let me know if you would like to be on - or off - this list. I will for now serve as the Thain of the list.
If you are joining late, jump right in, but please stick to the chapter currently being discussed.
Some have loved this story a long time, and some are newly discovering it. If you fit either category, we invite you to join in, but we would like this thread to stay mostly focused on the chapter at hand and keep moving, but at a pace everyone can keep up with… No jumping ahead, and no lagging behind! If you have other news to report or wish to discuss something Tolkien in more general terms… May we recommend the equally homey Hobbit Hole where my co-conspirators and I frequently have plenty of good talk.
One other request…. This thread will get long. In recognition that images slow down the thread for many, let’s keep the posting of images to a minimum on this thread. If there is a great illustration you wish to share, let’s try to use links instead of images wherever possible.
So lets read, listen and become inspired by the many aspects of The Lord of the Rings that touch us deeply and reconnect us to the values we aspire to. Many great discussions have already been had, and I hope that this thread will produce even more. Many FReepers have wonderful things to say about LoTR, whether the fantasy reconnects them with their faith, with their relationships with friends and family, or simply illustrates the splendor of great acts of heroism and sacrifice in the constant battle of virtue versus corruption.
Though it is a work of fiction, we believe the inspiration to be gained can only help us in our larger political goals: to appreciate and defend our freedom, our culture and our political ideals. May the fellowship and insight gained from this discussion help us to work through the issues that are the basis for our many shared ideals.
Besides, we Tolkien fans* need something to keep us busy during the next two years of waiting for the next two films. If you do not enjoy this story, then please simply leave us be.
*Also known as Geeky Hobbity Weirdos, obsessive fanatics, you name it, we have heard it and we see these names as compliments. In other words: don’t act like a troll, or we will distract you with our endless babble until the morning sun turns you to stone.
You mean this look?
Hehehe...
I love all of that non-verbal stuff in the council in the movie too--everyone did a fabulous job of carrying on an unspoken conversation throughout the scene....
I think Tolkien mentions in his letters or somewhere that LOTR was at its heart a "catholic" work, at first unconsciously and later on consciously (I have mangled that terribly, my memory just isn't what it used to be). So I think it's fair to see some of these parallels. They are wonderfully subtle, which I think was important to Tolkien--he didn't want anyone to have the parallels forced on them as allegory does.
I found the quote in Letters, #142
The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like 'religion', to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. Fro the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism.
Well order another bucket of wings and I'll get the pints!
But when I went back to the book I saw that indeed it did take place on the porch. I guess they don't need no stinking security in Rivendell!
Hair is going to put us in the corner for a week, I just know it, posting all these pics and weird comments in the Dragon....
Nothing like having something to throw in the faces of those who endlessly protest the religious symbolism and themes of the book. :) I was reading just the other day some diatribe about those annoying Christians who keep claiming LOTR as "theirs." Hehehe, sorry, folks, the author did that, not us. ;)
Thanks for joining me, everyone, I was off reading my chapters and I come back and here you'all are! :)
Aragorn: Still I for one am glad that he is safely kept by the watchful Elves of Mirkwood....
Poor Legolas! LOL....
I can just imagine him getting selected to be the lucky elf that gets to deliver their news.
He's the only "strange Elf clad in green and brown" from Mirkwood mentioned.
Yeah...they watched him escape!
I would say, in reference to other letters which state that LOTR is not any sort of retelling of the Christian story, that LOTR is a Catholic work in the same sense that Tolkien was a Catholic man. That is, as a Catholic, his life and his work were inevitably framed by his religion. Therefore, while I see LOTR as a Catholic work since it was written within the framework and morality of Catholicism (as the man led his life), I do not see it as specifically "pushing" Christianity.
I also suspect (without any real knowledge) that Tolkien's Catholicism may have been quite different from the more modern "reborn" and evangelical variety of Christianity.
In spite of these thoughts, I found Jackson's interpretation to be, at times, religious in feeling, particularly with usage of a boys' choir, etc. Frodo's first sight of Arwen, for instance, might have well been a vision of the Virgin Mary.
I'm not particularly religious, though I do find inspiration on the ocean and in the woods. I did, however, enjoy what I considered to be the almost overt religious overtones in the movie (which I had not noticed in the book).
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