Posted on 02/16/2014 6:26:21 PM PST by Perdogg
WH Auden attempted to persuade JRR Tolkien to drop the romance between Aragorn and Arwen from the storyline of The Lord of the Rings, describing it as "unnecessary and perfunctory", an unpublished letter by the author has revealed.
The 1955 letter sees Tolkien writing to his publisher about the difficulties of completing The Return of the King, the third and final part of his magnum opus, in which Aragorn and his men face a final battle with Sauron's troops, as the hobbits Frodo and Sam continue on their journey to destroy the One Ring. At the end, Aragorn is crowned king of Gondor, and marries Arwen, the daughter of Elrond, "Evenstar of her people".
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
You got the Tolkien Reader, right?
Aragorn is on a seemingly hopeless quest -- to defeat Sauron, and restore the kingship of both the southern kingdom of Gondor, and the northern kingdom of Arnor. If he achieves these amazing feats, he will be allowed to wed Arwen. He takes on the hopeless task because of his great love for her.
This is an echo of the story of Beren and Luthien (who are ancestors of both Aragorn and Arwen). Beren is a man, Luthien is an elf. They can marry only if Beren can take a great jewel (a silmaril) from the crown of Morgoth and brings it to Luthien's father (Thingol). This is a hopeless task. But Beren never hesitates -- because of his great love for Luthien.
Tolkien was very big on the idea that men can do impossible things because of the love they feel for a woman.
Racist movie :/
Elven women ARE hot.
Yes I have. Very Little on Middle Earth in that though..
“Oh yeah, well I have completed the LOTR, Hobbit, Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and 11/12 History of Middle Earth volumes as well as few other obscure JRRT Middle Earth literature.
BEAT THAT (Of course I only mean this in a friendly, and not antagonistic way, my friends ;))!”
The question is: how many times have you read each one? :^)
When I was a kid I found the Hobbit & Lord of the Rings in one big volume. I read it all, of course.
Damn... spoilers...
;)
All of these races descended from human I think
Dumbwit publishers.
but did you read it in the original Klingon??
//kidding
So, did you like reading them all? Which was your favorite?
Ya, we could of turned 9 hours or so of movie into about 5 mins heh.
Not to mention how Baren gets the Silmaril. He and sneak into Morgoth’s fortress, and Lúthien puts at sleeping spell on Morgoth. Beren prys the jewel from Morgoth’s crown and they flee. A giant wolf, Carcharoth, was guarding the gate. He attacked and bit the off Beren’s hand, with the silmaril inside. The wolf went crazy and ran off. Beren went back to Doriath and reported that the silmaril was in his hand inside the wolf. It was tracked down and killed by an Elven warrior, who gave Beren the honor of cutting it out.
My wife and I have been together 21 1/2 years. We hardly talk. Maybe that’s why......
Air power was vastly under-appreciated in Middle Earth.
The course of TRUE LOVE is never easy!
Auden wasn’t into chicks of any persuasion IIRC
My daughter read the books in the first grade. She also read the appendices. She thought Arwen & Aragorn made no sense:
“What would someone who was over 2500 years old see in a 50 year old human?”
Hmmmm...just how serious would someone born in 700 BC feel about a human being born in 1960? What would they talk about? Auden, and my daughter, were right!
It was the very fact Frodo & Sam were such small, humble, harmless, incapable figures that allowed them be overlooked while Sauron was distracted by the frontal assault by a formidable army.
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