[Chi-townChief]

"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.

[Old Professer]

At heart

All art

Is allegory

[JenB]

Ring Ping! Somewhat acceptable article.

[StatesEnemy]

Ya... teach ya not to leave out Tom Bombadil!

Huurrrmmph! </Tolkienite>

[Young Rhino]

If Agent Smith is an elf, perhaps the lesson is that we're in the Matrix. :-)

[kcar]

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.

[Batrachian]

"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?

[Paul Atreides]

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.

[Paul Atreides]

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.

[Caesar Soze]

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.

[Samwise]

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

[lepton]

Our present administration might do well to heed Gandalf's caution that there is no way to defeat evil militarily.

Maybe not eradicated, but certainly hemmed in, and made less potent - not to mention not bursting through your door and stomping on your head.

[Mercat]

"Our present administration might do well to heed Gandalf's caution that there is no way to defeat evil militarily."

Boy did he miss the whole point of the series/books/movies!!!!

The point is - you cannot defeat evil. In the Lord's Prayer we ask God to deliver us from evil, not to defeat evil.

All we can do is keep evil at bay and in the fighting of it, strengthen ourselves and distract the evil one from doing greater harm but ultimately, we go into the light and the bright dawn, like Gandolf explains to Pippin during the battle of Gondor.

[ecurbh]

Ring Ping!!

There and Back Again: The Journeys of Flat Frodo

Anyone wishing to be added to or removed from the Ring-Ping list, please don't hesitate to let me know.

[Sir Gawain]

I thought #2 was a little better than #3. ROTK just seemed to push all the characters aside except Aragorn and Frodo.

[Uncle Miltie]

"Our present administration might do well to heed Gandalf's caution that there is no way to defeat evil militarily.

True, but one can limit its effectiveness militarily. Soldier on!

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[B Knotts]

The Ring is pure power. It is the love of it that must be destroyed. Mankind has a weakness for power, however.

[keri]

Tolkien, never an admirer of allegory,...

He didn't like allegory, but was a big admirer of applicability...

The guy who wrote this was going okay though, until the end. I don't think he understands Tolkien very well.

[xzins]

"a fairy tale"


Sheesh

Corin, there any "fairies" in LOTR? I don't remember any.

[chicagolady]

Theres only 2 things I got from the movie that I took personally.

1) the comment: of becoming all God created you to be.

2) the comment: the only thing that is important is what you do with the time that's been given you.