Non-elven personnel
Foo, I thought I’d be a hobbit. Well, I’d tell you what happens to me in the last movie, but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone…
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Theoden If I were a character in The Lord of the Rings, I would be Theoden, Man of Rohan, King of the Mark, and uncle of Eomer and Eowyn. In the movie, I am played by Bernard Hill. Who would you be? |
LotR Themes
One of the things that I always found saddest about “Lord of the Rings” is the sub-theme of loss. When the elves made the Rings of Power, they bound much of the magic of Middle-Earth into them; and when the dark lord Sauron made the One Ring, he was able to bind the other elven rings to his. Therefore, the elves know that if Sauron wins the War of the Ring, Middle-Earth will descend into darkness; but if the One Ring is destroyed, it will rob the elven rings of their power and take much of the magic from Middle-Earth. For them, it is a no-win scenario.
The elven lord Elrond feels this most directly in the love of his daughter Arwen for the human Aragorn. If Aragorn is defeated by Sauron, Elrond and Arwen will remain together for centuries, even if they must leave Middle-Earth for the “Undying Lands”. (The elven paradise, unreachable by mortals; distinct from the afterlife, reachable by everyone once on a one-way trip.)
However, if Aragorn is victorious, Elrond will leave for the Undying Lands alone, knowing that his daughter will die a mortal’s death.
Don’t get me wrong – the trilogy’s not a downer at all. But it is complicated; and the child in me that wished for perfect happy endings wanted to change that part of the story, somehow.
Various things I’ve been meaning to post about…
On reading Lord of the Rings: it’s a long, wordy story. It will take you a long time, and you could easily be pretty confused about lots of stuff the first time you read it. It’s also one of the best pieces of fiction I’ve ever read. See, it was written by a man who loved words – words were both his job and his hobby, so he wrote a lot of them. But the world he created, he spent decades building before LotR was published, and that’s one of the most amazing things in it. By the time period of the books, Middle-Earth has an oral history reaching back tens of thousands of years, and parts of that history are directly responsible for current events. It’s not light reading, but it’s a world one can get fully immersed in.
On my favorite Disney rides: Star Tours, Alien Encounter (way cool), Rockin’ Roller Coaster, Test Track, and The Haunted Mansion (we will make out on that ride someday, Rain!) and those are just the first five. Disgustingly, that place is just as much fun as all their propaganda says it is. 🙂
I still don’t know what “oekaki” is.
Everyone still freaks out when they see my beardless face for the first time, but I ought to have enough chin shadow by Rising Star to be respectable. Rain insists she was unaware she’d married a 17-year-old. I have to admit something, I got a little nervous about that costume being a bit “over the top” on the drive over to the party, but I got pretty good reactions from everyone. I should stop worrying so much.
As I am a card-carrying lemming, (“Let’s go!!”), here’s my job test:
# 1 Chef
# 2 Teacher
# 3 Artist
# 4 Author
# 5 Graphic Designer
# 6 Mathemetician
# 7 Park Ranger
# 8 Salesperson
# 9 Web Designer
# 10 Computer Game Programmer
# 11 Movie Star
# 12 Rock Star
# 13 Astronaut
# 14 Chemist
# 15 Doctor
# 16 Engineer
# 17 FBI Agent
# 18 Geneticist
# 19 Inventor
# 20 Lawyer
# 21 Politician
# 22 Professional Sports Player
# 23 Researcher
# 24 Police Officer
# 25 Reporter
… I think “Iron Filk” is as close as I want to get to chef, and I’d never be a salesperson, but the list is interesting nonetheless.
Biography trivia answers to be posted soon!
