50 Reasons Lord of the Rings Sucks

Pointless Waste of Time ^

[Jhoffa_]

Finally, a LOTR post I enjoyed..

thank you.

[valkyrieanne]

LOTR has always seemed to me very similar to the old German epic, Nibelungenlied ("Song of the Nibelungs") which was also the basis for the series of operas by Wagner.

Me too. I hadn't heard the English-mythology angle (sounds plausible too.) But I remember from a class on CS Lewis learning that both Lewis and Tolkien were both fascinated by & saturated in Norse mythology. Before anyone claims that Tolkien immersed himself in this area because he was an "occultist," let me point out that it was his *job* - he was a specialist in ancient European languages and of course was deeply familiar with their literature, folklore, and mythology.

In fact, that's what makes the story so good, and what I liked about the second Jackson film in particular. The Norse gods die individually; thus the five-handkerchief story of the murdered god Baldur. Love relationships don't really work out well in Norse mythology, and Jackson gave us a little hint of the end of Aragorn & Arwen (again, a 3-handkerchief tear jerker.)

Finally, the Norse gods know that they will die at the end of their history, in the final battle of Ragnarok. They know their tragic end is coming, yet they fight on in a battle against the giants, werewolves, other assorted evil guys *anyway.* The Two Towers are definitely suffused with that dark Norse sadness, even though the story (like Christianity itself) ultimately does have a happy ending.

[unspun]

Is this supposed to be humorous? i.e., complaining that that "novelization" is already out?

(I'd much rather sit through nine eventual hours of LOTR, than read through this.)

[aruanan]

Actually, the Orcs were produced (not by yanking them out full-grown wrapped in goo from the ground, as in the movie) by the evil Valar Melkor (Sauron's Boss) in the time after the creation of the Elves in Middle-Earth, but before Men were created.

Yes, the ground goo seemed to not ring a bell.

[snippy_about_it]

The beauty of books. I fell in love with the story when I read the trilogy. I'd rather leave the drama to my imagination and don't plan to see the movies. The trailers already don't look like the imagination conjured up in my head when I read the books.

[Cleburne]

And why are "fairy tales" wrong? Are you to say that anything that doesn't seem plausble must be thrown out? If so, then I suppose we should pack up our very illogical faith and settle in for the gloom of rationalism, where everything is nicely ordered and there are no mysteries (though that it is, of course, hardly true). It might be dangerous to view the natural world as anything more than the logical, if artless in formation, product of chance. Or if there is some God surely He can no longer be involved in the whole thing, as that would cause our solid steady reason to hit roadbumps in figuring things out logically. After all, the supernatural protruding on our logic certainly makes for hard going.

Certainly "realistic" fiction has its place, and is perhaps the most important of fiction, for a good realistic work such as, say, Crime and Punishment, shows us our sin vividly and inexescapably. But if all we had was the grim, logical reality of sin, we would be miserable, joyless people, and very much doomed to black death. But we know that "realism" is not all that is real; that what is not seen is "realer" than what is seen.

And so we see the need for what we call myth and religion: we see it all through man's history, from the Epic of Gilgamesh to the Odessy to Beowulf to Star Wars. Man realizes, most of the time, that there is something unseen, and he tries to explain it. But most myths and religions are not true, and only partially fulfill man's longings: for they lack a true knowledge of God, and most mportantly, they lack His Son, the Savior of man, the great King, the Captain of the Starry Hosts. And we find that, like all myths and religions, the true God does not fit within the confines of man's reason: indeed, He exceeds them, and all myth and religion, surpassing man's fallen nature. He exceeds both our reason and our fancies- His design and guidance are greater than any scheme concocted in man's mind, and His mercies and love exceed any idea any man could have had about God.

The wisdom of God is foolishness to the scholar of the age. One cannot boil it down into "realism", but then one cannot fully express it in "fairy tales"- rather, He exceeds both, but we can express His nature and truth in both. So it is unwise to throw the faerie world and its wonder out the window, for in doing so we come close to deciding that our logic decides all: and let it be known, the wisdom of the cross is foolishness to the "wise".

[JenB]

What is it that Tolkien said? The man who most fears and hates "escape" is - a jailer.

There are, sadly, no Elves in this world. But if they are they too would be created by God.

[maxwell]

ROTFLMAO!!!

That is outstanding, dude... That warrants a PING and a TOAST... \_/ \_/ \_/

[MeekOneGOP]

That is outstanding, dude... That warrants a PING and a TOAST... \_/ \_/ \_/

LOL ! Need some hep, my FRiend? heh heh !

[Capriole]

Is this serious?

No, of course not. It wouldn't have been funny if the author meant it because it was so stupid.

[Jael]

Hi, I am glad you wrote back. :-)

Let's continue this sometimes. I also homeschool, so we are kind of busy right now, trying to get some things finished before the end of the year.

I hope to discuss more with you later.

[Jael]

Thanks for a thoughtful post. :-)

[js1138]

I "got it" on the 3rd one & laughed all the way through.

170+ posts so far and some still aren't getting it.

[Deb]

Very clever.

[The Coopster]

20 sided dice! LOL!!!!

Only the true nerds will get that one.....

[The Coopster]

bump for later reading, and head-shaking at how some people can find evil in anything.....

[motzman]

A very used copy of The Monster Manual had already been won on a previous thread, so sandflea had to get the consolation prize...

[The Coopster]

Oh, man......THAT drags me back.......

[AppyPappy]

And a very Merry Chistmas to you!