Posted on 03/14/2002 5:07:26 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
Not exactly right. The Eldar, or the highest "race," of the Elves traveled, following the summons of the Valar, from the East of Middle Earth to its West, where most of them took ship (or floating island) to Aman, where the Valar dwelt.
Many millenia later, most of the Noldor, one of the Eldarin tribes, rebel against the Valar and return to Middle Eart to get revenge on Melkor/Morgoth. (Not a particularly good idea, as it turns out.)
Some of the Noldor also wanted to be rulers and not under the tutelage of the Valar anymore. One of these was Galadriel. Such desire was not necessarily evil in and of itself, althought the means used to achieve it certainly was.
Tolkien's conception of Galadriel changed throughout his life, so depending on which period of his writings you access, she is either denied permission to return to the West at the end of the First Age, or she refuses to return. In either case, her long rebellion against authority ends when she refuses to take The Ring.
BTW, not all the Elves went to Aman. Most of the Elves Legolas' family (and Galadriel) rules over are of this category. They are not nearly as high in moral and mental stature as the Eldar. Seemingly they don't differ tremdnsouly from Men, except in their longevity.
Similarly, the Numenoreans at their height were almost equal to the Eldar in power and status, except again for their lifespan. To me this indicates that Tolkien saw little difference in the raw potential of Men and Elves. The Elves mostly developed greater power because they had more time to do so in.
Even the Elves that had never been to Aman are fated to "fade" as the Third Age progresses. Tolkien implies that this is due mostly to the wearing effect the fire of their immortal spirit has on their bodies, which are made of the perishable stuff of Middle Earth. Only in The West can the Elves continue to live without this fading.
Although Elrond and Galadriel both imply that this "fading" is already underway, with a strong implication that it has been stopped or slowed during the Third Age by the power of the Three Rings (which the Elves can use as long as Sauron doesn't hold the One). With the destruction of the One Ring, the Three also lose their powers, so the fading will accelerate greatly.
Why doesn't Saruman steal his Ring from Gandalf when he is holding him prisoner? Isn't he aware that Gandalf holds one of the Three? Wouldn't Gandalf have told his superior sometime over the previous thousand years? Or is he unable to take it away against Gandalf's will?
BTW, how about that auto-homing staff of Gandalf? Saruman takes it away, and he doesn't have it when he escapes on eagle back. But then he has it again in Rivendell.
He presumably loses it again on the Bridge, but then he has it again (also presumably his sword Orcrist) in TTT.
As for why Saruman didn't take the ring, I wondered if there might be some secrecy surrounding Gandalf's possession of the ring. At the end of RotK, there's some mention that only then was Gandalf actually wearing the ring openly. So perhaps Saruman didn't know Gandalf possessed it.
Are you here? I am hanging out in the chatroom...
Does anybody remember seeing a ring on Gandalf's hand? There is a closeup of them at the point he's hanging on at the Bridge.
I saw the movie again last night to see the trailer and I actually saw the famous car (or whatever it was) in the cornfield scene. It was definitely something moving.
I guess I'll have to see the movie for the tenth time and watch Gandalf's handses. Darn!
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Now... how do I move this forum to appear above Breaking News...
To everyone who was debating before, there is no Denethor in the trailer because, well, Denethor isn't in Two Towers. At all. Or at least, not in the book!
Wow. Thanks!
Besides, I'm a hobbity kind person, so this makes me happy. And no one has to worry about mispelling 'Tolkien'. Anyone seen the trailer again? New impressions or anything?
At FreeRepublic, JohnRob=Illuvatar. Or is that JimRob. By the way, it looks like our pics that aren't displaying aren't going to, at least according to Texaggie79 on another thread:
When will we be able to link fromthe FR image site server again?
770 posted on 3/30/02 8:02 AM Eastern by RedBloodedAmerican
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To: RedBloodedAmerican
John turned it off because that image server is only for captioning on that forum. He said in the future he will put up a photo album section.
799 posted on 3/30/02 2:31 PM Eastern by Texaggie79
So it looks like are pictures are going to have to be moved. One of you picture poster types are going to have to do it.
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