John Rhys-Davies on Tolkien and Islam (Q&A)

theonering.net ^ | July 31, 2003 | HannColl

[GOP Jedi]

Always liked Sallah, and glad to see he's one of the good guys!

(This is my first post, so be kind if it's a wreck... ;)

[Captainpaintball]

(This is my first post, so be kind if it's a wreck... ;)

So far, so good! I'm happy to say I can add John Rhys-Davies to my "good-guy" list.

[risk]

The British army in the first DAY of the first battle of the Somme I think probably had 20,000 dead and maybe 60 or 80,000 wounded. And that was the first day. You don't go through that sort of furnace without having to ask yourself questions: Why are we fighting? Is the cause we're fighting for a just one? How can I justify the deaths of those men that I'm leading? And I think that Tolkien found a justification for it. His justification is that there are certain times when your civilization is challenged and if you do not meet that challenge and overcome it, you will lose your civilization.

NEVER FORGET ping. Tolkien was thinking about defending western civilization when he wrote the Ring Trilogy. And it reminds me that Islam and the Turks were on the wrong side of WW1, as well. You know the stories about ANZAC regiment that tell about how their comrades just vanished into the mists. I've always wondered if it were because they were too shocked to tell their loved ones what really happened.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for the ping risk. Good read.

The West had better wake up and see what's going on before it's too late and the price to stop it gets even higher.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Say, how did we miss this?

[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.

[Pahuanui]

And it reminds me that Islam and the Turks were on the wrong side of WW1, as well.

There was a 'right' side in WWI?

[Lil'freeper]

Somehow, I can't quite imagine Viggo "No blood for oil" Mortensen ever saying anything like this.

[Sloth]

Great read. Glad to see that Gimli's portrayer has more character than Aragorn's.

[Tribune7]

bump

[dead]

Which one's Gimli? The midget?

[js1138]

There was a 'right' side in WWI?

The outside, perhaps. Certainly it had a bad beginning, a horrific middle, and an ending that demanded a sequel.

[Sam Cree]

I think Viggo is ticked that Saddam is not still in power. Jerk.

[BibChr]

Classy guy!

Dan
(c8

[habs4ever]

JRD for California Governor! ;-)

[Alkhin]

Mr. Davies, you are a True Warrior and Gentleman.

Can you imagine having to put up with the silliness that McKellen and Mortensson must have spouted while they worked together?

[mhking]

The resonance between Lord of the Rings and present time is that we need people of courage to take the real challenge to our civilization and meet it head-on and win.

John gets it. And that's good.

[BibChr]

My wife's wise policy is to know as little about these folks' personal lives and views as she can. She has found that, when they're not saying and doing what others write for them, they're pretty disappointing. There are exceptions, of course -- but a lot of NOT!

Dan

[mhking]

Which one's Gimli? The midget?

Ya. The funny thing, is that thanks to Peter Jackson's wizardry, the 6'1" Davies appeared to be a true midget next to the other actors in the saga.

If you can't picture him, you might also know Davies better as Professor Arturo in the Fox/SciFi series "Sliders".

[dead]

I know who Rhys-Davies is, and I had no idea that that was him in The Lord of the Rings.

I just assumed the actor was really a midget.

Those sorts of special effects are going to spell the end of many a midget-actor's career.