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CuriousG
Gondor
Oct 11 2012, 12:01am
Views: 238
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Yes, we are blessed that first drafts aren't final drafts, or I for one would love Tolkien much less.
Can you recall another Tolkien tale that had a character conversant with fowl friends?
You can't get the Eagles to shut up; they talk to everyone, even when they don't want to listen.
Then there were the Bree geese screaming at the Nazgul (according to Frodo). And for the record, those geese showed more gumption in protecting their turf than a Man like Butterbur did, so once more, we see Manwe's indomitable spirit in the feathered folk.
The winged creatures the Nazgul rode didn't seem talkative, but one screamed at Eowyn, apparently annoying her enough to make her cut off its head to put an end to what must have been insulting invective.
2. In a story riddled with deus ex machina, would you rate the thrush’s or the eagles’ contribution higher?
I like the thrush. It's like a hobbit--a small, unnoticed, unexpected hero. It probably steals stuff too.
But who was this King Bladorthin, precisely? Well, I thought "Gandalf" came from "wand-elf," and if Gandalf was a dwarf with a name saying he's an elf, then I'm a hob-goblin. I mark this up to successive drafts, where it would have been better if the originals were destroyed. Didn't Tolkien at one point call the Elves the Gnomes? I'm glad he didn't. Would we see those ceramic things in people's gardens and say, "Oh, look, it's Elrond, the garden gnome."
"like rain upon the Moon!” >> he was waxing poetic, i.e., poetic license, i.e., he may have been drunk. I think it's a cool line, nevertheless.
3. Tolkien conspiracy theory: the Arkenstone was a Silmaril, true or false. Like Eru in the corporeal disguise of Bombadil, this theory never seems to go away.
I confess to living in a cave all my life, because I've never heard either of these theories. Arkenstone: I don't think it's the one that Maedhros had, the one that found its way into the depths of the earth. The Silmarils seemed to have a much more powerful effect on people than the Arkenstone did. All the same, I think the Arkenstone had creepy, corrupting properties like the Silmarils, awakening lust for them that leads to no good for good people.
Eru = Bombadil? Bombadil seems more like Santa Claus in a summer residence. A stronger connection could be made between those two than Tom and Eru.
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