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Originally Posted by littlemanpoet
Bęthberry: Galadriel's Art/Technology is not the only instance of this nostalgia in LotR. Other examples of it are Treebeard and the Ents, and indeed the entirety of the Rohirrim story-line, which is (in part) a 'might-have-been' but for the Norman conquest.
In our reading? Are you suggesting that we tend to read LotR according to late 20th century lenses and need to let it speak to us in a new 21st century way? And that Tolkien suggests this very thing in the course of the story? The end of the War of the Ring ushers in a completely new Age of Man (read Humanity). But the social norms don't change, only the demise (or diminishing) of Art (magic). Somehow I don't find in Tolkien an acceptance of this without much regret and mourning.
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Now
lmp, you know better than to suggest I would say there is one way to read a text.
I was simply trying a bit of applicability, extrapolating the logic suggested here about Galadriel to two items, LotR itself and the general ethos of readers who post here at the Downs. Is Galadriel a model for the average Downs reader? I merely ask. Do we have multiple images of the reader in LotR? Are the hobbits one kind of reader and the elves another and do readers find themselves reading the text the way their favoured character reads the events? Do some readers identify closely with the translator conceit that they have distance from these other modes? But this is to digress....
The logic developed here concerning Galadriel sought in the text itself to find a way to consider her character and behaviour, rather than impose an 'outside' criterion from the primary world--and that is in the finest tradition of discussion here at the Downs--to tweak out every little inconsistency or unexplained point in the Legendarium. You add a couple more examples that could be examined using the same approach. Treebeard and the Ents are likely candidates, of course, but even more intriguing is your point about Rohan. (You are getting into the mead hall business, aren't you! Splendid!)
What is the role of nostalgia in the Rohirric outlook, that is, the characters? Or are you saying that Tolkien himself created a nostalgic, revisionary history for The Mark?
I see that
davme continues his great desire to find aspects of the author's psychology in the text. Intriguing this.
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Originally Posted by drigel
Nice! I would suggest rather that Galadriel is used in LOTR as a model for a prime reader for the psychology of High Elves. You get a lot of history with Elrond and Cirdan. But with Galadriel, sigh, you get as close to Valimar as a mortal can be.
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Well, Elrond isn't all High Elf is he? so is his nostalgia tempered by his understanding of the Gift of Death? Or is he 'saved' from Galadriel's error by his understanding?