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To: Dr. Franklin

Aruh? Liv Tyler is plenty feminine (although Eowyn is more my speed)


24 posted on 06/16/2021 7:32:45 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: Still Thinking

Agreed. I’ll take a Shieldmaiden of Rohan any day ;-)


25 posted on 06/16/2021 7:38:40 PM PDT by broken_clock (Go Trump! Still praying.)
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To: Still Thinking
Aruh? Liv Tyler is plenty feminine (although Eowyn is more my speed)

The issue isn't Liv Tyler, it's how her character Arwen is portrayed. Tolkien's women are much more traditional women than the modern age expects, and wants to project for the younger generation. Tolkien wrote about a much more courtly love and adoration of Galadriel, and her grand-daughter Arwen, and not Xena type warrior women. The contrast between the two is between Galadriel, the morning star born in Valinor who had witnessed the Two Trees and reflected their radiance on those who beheld her, and Arwen, the evening star of human descent who gives birth to kings of the last age. (And even though this is a comparison and contrast of a woman and her grand-daughter, Elven women are not mere mortals and age quite well!) Neither is portrayed by the author as a warrior type.

Éowyn is the exceptional strong woman in Tolkien's universe, not the rule. I've always thought that she was inspired by Shakespeare's tricky prophecy that "no man of woman born" would kill Macbeth. (The Tree Ents were inspired by the "moving forest" in Macbeth.) So, when the Nazgul witch king proclaims that no man can kill him, Éowyn laughs that she is not a man and cancels his spell of protection, killing the wraith. Tolkien intended her as some kind of romantic human temptation for Aragorn in his pursuit of Arwen. There is the contrast between the Saxon type woman of Rohan with the regal half-Elven Arwen. Both are very beautiful in the Jackson films. Call me sexist, but I had anticipated a younger looking Galadriel than Kate Blanchett, (because Elven women don't age like humans...)
32 posted on 06/17/2021 3:26:16 AM PDT by Dr. Franklin ("A republic, if you can keep it.")
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