When Frodo is negotiating
with Boromir the fate of the Ring, he says he will not take the easy way, which
is what Boromir, he claims, is offering. But if he did anything other than
trudge the dreary long way to Mordor, incur a long travail of suffering, then
Gandalf would think less of him, Galadriel would think less of him, Glimi would
think less of him, Legolas would think less of him, and Aragorn would think
less of him. It would mean feeling immediately ashamed and cast out, by all the
people he most admired. This would have been the truly harder way, the way that
incurred what he most feared most -- shame -- as he admits earlier:
"We still have our
journey and our brand before us," answered Gandalf. "We have no
choice but to go on, or to return to Rivendell." Pippin's face brightened
visibly at the mere mention of return to Rivendell; Merry and Sam looked up
hopefully. But Aragorn and Boromir made no sign. Frodo looked troubled.
"I wish I was back
there," he said. "But how can I return without shame -- unless there
is indeed no other way, and we are already defeated?"
"You are right,
Frodo," said Gandalf: "to go back is to admit defeat..."
I would have challenged him
harder than Boromir did.
- - - - -
Description of Galadriel,
pg. 480: "She lifted up her hand and from the ring that she wore there
issued a great light that illuminated her alone and left all else dark. She
stood before Frodo seeming now tall beyond measurement, and beautiful beyond
enduring, terrible and worshipful. Then she let her hand fall, and the light
faded, and suddenly she laughed again, and lo! she was shrunken: a slender
elf-woman, clad in simple white, whose gentle voice was soft and sad."
Description of Gandalf, pg.
392: "In the wavering firelight Gandalf seemed suddenly to grow: he rose
up, a great menacing shape like the monument of some ancient king of stone set
upon a hill. They gave back before him. High in the air he tossed the blazing
brand. It flared with a sudden white radiance like lightning; and his voice
rolled like thunder"
Note, one of these is about
a great person's being tempted; the other is about a great person just properly
strutting his stuff. The one involving the personage being restored to true
greatness once shrunken, slender and gentle, is a woman; the one involving the
personage being revealed in best form when blazing and enlarged, is a man.
Tres interesant, n'est pas?
- - - - -
Chieftain's must be
plentiful in Middle Earth: it is the only thing the "Fellows" tend to
hit.
- - - - -
Peter Jackson: "Can
you promise that I will come back." " No... and if you do you will
not be the same."
Tolkien (at the finish of
Lord of the Rings): and if they [referring to Merry and Pippen] were large and
magnificent, they were unchanged otherwise, unless they were indeed more fair
spoken ad more jovial"
Jackson is clearly FOR
personal development, whereas Tolkien's the kind of guy who in response to your
request for more responsibilities, puts a gold star on your chest, gets the
crowd to cheer you, and lets you think you've accomplished something whilst
keeping things exactly as ordered before.
Saruman may not have actually died at the end of Lord
of the Rings. He turns into some kind of grey mist, which dismays the Hobbits,
who were expecting him to be more actually dead-dead. My hope is that by now
he's formed enough of his corporeal form back to inscribe his take on what
happened in the Rings... the more you read LOTR, the more you realize that he,
like Jackson, actually said things that could prompt you towards introspection,
if you could get past his sneering tone, not keep you chastened in place,
ostensibly happy because your charm cheers up others.
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