<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>It was not only drippy, but also totally at odds with Tolkien's own ideas. Firstly Gandalf says 'it is a journey we all have to make'. Well, no, Gandalf is a Maia and thus immortal.<BR>Secondly, all the stuff about sea and white shores. Maybe for the elves, yes, but not for Pippin. Tolkien frequently states that the fate of men after death is not known.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Well, the words are right from Tolkien's own mouth, though, granted, in a very different context. I found Gandalf's speech to Pippin to be very touching; I did not see it as Gandalf literally talking about the Undying Lands, since obviously he would know that that is not Pippin's fate. It was more of a figurative rendering of the theme that existence does not end with death, I think, to reassure Pippin and give him a shred of hope in the awful situation they faced.
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...where the instrument of intelligence is added to brute power and evil will, mankind is powerless in its own defence.
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