There are so many ideas here. I need to come back later when I have more time. Now, just a few thoughts.
Gilthalion--
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....there were some aspects of Elvish nature that are more greatly manifested in the elves, but that are shared by Men (and Hobbits).....It seems to be interaction with Evles (or other "higher" being of divine purposes) that quickens this aspect of Men (and Hobbits).....From Finrod Felagund singing to the first Men he encountered, to Frodo seeing Aragorn as he was in Lothlorien, there is a communication ging on that is beyond the natural.
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Yes, I instinctively sensed this when I read the book which was why I initially framed the question on this thread. Sometime, my mind seems to be grasping a tiny piece of this and a tiny piece of that from a distant shore, but I have a hard time drawing it together and conceptualizing the whole. Tolkien often does that to me! Just like Niggle, I find it much easier to visualize and draw a single leaf rather than the tree.
I do agree. This is an Age where the figures of the Valar and Eru often seem far away. Few people, if any, have a conscious sense of who Gandalf really is. And, of course, there is nothing which today we might term "revelation". So it would seem that there must be a way for the spirit to break through. And although Elves do not always live up to the best in their character, they do seem to be the ones who were closest to things that go beyond the natural (at least our own limited view of what is natural). And "religious harmonies" is a word I would use to describe these realities, even though such language has no meaning in the context of the Third Age.
All this makes the departure of the Elves at the end of the Third Age even more poignant and, to tell the truth, a little frightening. Man is out there in the Fourth Age seemingly on his own. No revelation yet and no Elves. It must have been harder to find the light. He does have memories of the ancient traditions of Numenor which did encompass some "religious harmonies", but it is still a pretty distant and lonely position to be in. Tolkien once said he couldn't write more about the Fourth Age, because, when compared with the earlier story, it might look trite and debased. But this peculiar interim position of man is a pretty challenging thing! Don't know though if anyone else senses this, or there may be different ways of understanding this?
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Since it was a matter of Hobbit legend (or ancient rumor) that one of the Tooks had taken a fairy for a wife, it is possible that Frodo, best hobbit in the shire,had some recessive Elvishness pop up in his makeup.
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To tell the truth, and this is REALLY off the top of my head, I've long had a sneakng suspicion about the origin of the Fallohides. There is no way to prove this, but aren't there things that suggest this possibility, at least some small touch of Elvish blood and genes. Of course, the description of the Fallohides sounds very much like it is influenced by the Elves (just as the other two groups of Hobbits sound closer to men and dwarves): tall, slender, blond hair, loving forests and trees, skilled in langage and song. We know Hobbit origin is in the Elder Days in the upper Vales of Anduin. Mightn't some of the Avari who later became the Silvan Elves have come far enough west to come into the Vales of Anduin? (I don't believe there were men in this area in the Elder Days.)
The legend of the Took family marriage with a fairy could be simply an expression of this earlier reality. And we do know Frodo and the Tooks had a strong Fallohide strain. So, yes, Frodo could have connected with this earlier strain and, it might have influenced his attitudes towards Elves (as well as how he physically looked.) And the refining of the spirit and the manifestation of the light could also tie in here in a secondary way. This is certainly wild conjecture but this Fallohide strain could even have had some bearing on why Frodo was selected for his task.( I think there was somewhere that Gandalf cryptically says more is known about the origin of Hobbits, but then sadly doesn't say it.) Of course, all of this is guessing, since there is next to nothing on Hobbit origins in the books.
littlemanpoet--LOL. Yes, I understand. Hope you got my note. My private message function has been acting strange lately so I'm never sure when messages get through.
sharon, the 7th age hobbit