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'Lord of the Rings' a fairy tale but can teach lessons of life
SLC Tribune ^
| December 28, 2003
| Ed Firmage Jr.
Posted on 12/28/2003 5:44:24 PM PST by Chi-townChief
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"Our present administration might do well to heed Gandalf's caution that there is no way to defeat evil militarily."
Not a real brilliant conclusion but The Ring as allegory always fascinated me.
I always saw Gondor as Germany and Mordor as the USSR with Minas Tirith/Morgul being East and West Berlin; the War of the Ring is the great east/west confrontation resulting from the long-awaited Warsaw Pact blitz into Western Europe that never happened.
But the Ring itself is still the wildcard and what always struck me as odd is that Richard Wagner's Ring, 100 years earlier, always seemed more representative of the atomic holocaust than does Tolkien's.
To: Chi-townChief
At heart
All art
Is allegory
To: HairOfTheDog; ecurbh
Ring Ping! Somewhat acceptable article.
3
posted on
12/28/2003 5:54:23 PM PST
by
JenB
(12 Days til EntMoot)
To: Chi-townChief
Ya... teach ya not to leave out Tom Bombadil!
Huurrrmmph! </Tolkienite>
To: Chi-townChief
If Agent Smith is an elf, perhaps the lesson is that we're in the Matrix. :-)
5
posted on
12/28/2003 5:56:42 PM PST
by
Young Rhino
(http://www.artofdivorce.com)
To: Young Rhino
My wife had to drag me to this flick and I have never spent a more boring 3 hours in my life. The ending alone seemed to take almost an hour. Popcorn was good, only redeeming part of the evening.
6
posted on
12/28/2003 6:01:08 PM PST
by
phil1750
(Love like you've never been hurt;Dance like nobody's watching;PRAY like it's your last prayer)
To: Chi-townChief
Tolkien's heroic characters believed in fighting the good fight, not delaying the inevitable to a later generation. They didn't cotton to cowardice. Also, they gather power to themselves, but were sensibly quiet about it (Gandalf held a ring of power himself). The US has yet to show the world a finger of its power.
I have often thought of Wormtongue when listening to Democrats. The French come to mind when thinking about Denethor.
7
posted on
12/28/2003 6:01:35 PM PST
by
kcar
(A gov't big enough to give you everything, doesn't really care about YOU anymore.)
To: Chi-townChief
"
Our present administration might do well to heed Gandalf's caution that there is no way to defeat evil militarily"
Except that the West of Middle Earth would have been overrun long before the Ring was destroyed if not for military power. What a shallow, self-serving lesson to take from The Lord of the Rings. Gandalf was no pacifist and councelled anyone who would listen to resist with all their capabilities. It was only because Sauron was so much stronger that they couldn't defeat him militarily, not because "violence is wrong".
Does the author of this piece think that we can defeat Osama Bin Laden by destroying his ring?
To: Chi-townChief
There has been talk that RoTK will be nominated for Best Picture. If so, I doubt that it will win: it is too relevant to what is going on in real life. And, it doesn't favor the peacenik position.
9
posted on
12/28/2003 6:06:46 PM PST
by
Paul Atreides
(Is it really so difficult to post the entire article?)
To: Chi-townChief
First of all, the author of this article would do well to realize that Tolkien did not write LOTR as a "fairy tale," but as a mythology for England.
10
posted on
12/28/2003 6:08:47 PM PST
by
Paul Atreides
(Is it really so difficult to post the entire article?)
To: Chi-townChief
As I recall, evil was only defeated non-militarily once. Morgoth was defeated by the Vanyarin/Maiarin military. Sauron was defeated by the Last Alliance's military, and again by the militaries of free peoples of the west (while a special operation went on in Mordor). Sharkey was defeated by a militia raised by a cadre of four. The Orcs were fought to stalemate by the dwarven military, and defeated by military prowess in the Battle of the Five Armies. Only Ar-Pharazon was defeated by non-military powers. Er, Power.
To: Batrachian
Gandalf was no pacifist Indeed. Gandalf was the keeper of the elven ring Narya the Great, the ring of fire. It has always seemed obvious to me that the power of this ring was to keep hope burning in the hearts of the Free Peoples. Gandalf has been moving against Sauron for (if I rememeber correctly) 2000 years and he is no pacifist. He worked to destroy the dragon Smaug -- because Sauron might have used Smaug in the coming War. Gandalf urged the White Council to drive Sauron from the fortress of Dol Guldur, and he awakens Theoden to fight against Saruman, and urges Denethor to prepare for war against Sauron.
Pacifist! Hmmmphhh! The wizard burns with the desire for Freedom.
12
posted on
12/28/2003 6:16:53 PM PST
by
ClearCase_guy
(France delenda est)
To: phil1750
My wife had to drag me to this flick and I have never spent a more boring 3 hours in my life. The ending alone seemed to take almost an hour. Popcorn was good, only redeeming part of the evening. Did you like the first two movies of the series?
To: Batrachian
Our present administration might do well to heed Gandalf's caution that there is no way to defeat evil militarily"The author is an idiot. What Gandalf meant was, in their world there exists a magic ring with a mind of its own; military might wasn't the only thing that was going to defeat Mordor. They could slaughter all the orcs they wanted, and Mordor and its evil would still be around as long as the ring existed.
Gandalf, who had no problem fighting in battles himself, obviously didn't mean that we shouldn't use military might when necessary. How the heck else are you to save yourself from evil at your doorstep?
Note to author - The Lord of the Rings is not a fairy tale. Tolkien was creating a myth for England, a pre-history. That is not the same thing as a fairy tale. You might want to actually read the books.
To: phil1750
Have you seen parts one and two?
15
posted on
12/28/2003 6:20:10 PM PST
by
4Freedom
(America is no longer the 'Land of Opportunity', it's the 'Land of Illegal Alien Opportunists'!!!)
To: radiohead
Ed Firmage Jr. is a fine-art photographer based in Salt Lake City.This probably explains a lot.
16
posted on
12/28/2003 6:23:15 PM PST
by
Paul Atreides
(Is it really so difficult to post the entire article?)
To: Chi-townChief
Our present administration might do well to heed Gandalf's caution that there is no way to defeat evil militarily. "I see in your eyes, the same fear that would take the heart of me! The day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day." "This day we fight." --Aragorn
17
posted on
12/28/2003 6:24:34 PM PST
by
Samwise
(There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil.)
To: radiohead
If there is a recurring theme that I have noticed, it is that evil must be faced, and fought. The realms of Middle Earth could appease or hide all they wanted but, eventually, Sauron was going to come knocking on their doors.
18
posted on
12/28/2003 6:27:28 PM PST
by
Paul Atreides
(Is it really so difficult to post the entire article?)
To: phil1750
I agree. We took the grandchildren last night. Mr. Ditter & I kept looking at each other & looking at our watches. Long movie, 3hrs & 20 min, no intermission. My butt was dead asleep. I found it to be draggie & boring & it didn't need to be so long. The 4 hobbits were like little girlymen, if you know what I mean. One of thems name is Mary. Only Sam comes across as a real man. Yes we also took the grandkids to see the first 2. The first one was ok & then downhill to 2 & 3.
19
posted on
12/28/2003 6:30:52 PM PST
by
Ditter
To: kcar
The portrayal of Denethor is one of my gripes about the movies: in the book, he is a wise but ultimately misguided and tragic hero; in the movie, he's merely a buffoon to be shoved aside.
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