[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by alatar

Out came the hose. Whatever it was with the ants, they - the living and the dead - were washed away, and now that we're into Fall, are long forgotten.

Reminds me of the passage in Appendix A on Arwen's fate at Cerin Amroth:

Originally Posted by JRRT

There at last when the mallorn leaves were falling, but spring had not yet come, she laid herself to rest upon Cerin Amroth; and there is her green grave, until the world is changed, and all the days of her life are uttterly forgotten by men that come after, and elanor and niphredil bloom no more east of the Sea.

Here ends this tale, as it has come to us from the South; and with the passing of Evenstar no more is said in this book of the days of old.

Originally Posted by alatar

Reading the book with the stories and poems like those above, I couldn't help but be touched by the huge mess the whole affair was...and yet, for what? What did it accomplish again? Ask someone on the street to see if they even know about what had taken place.

All of it washed away by some big hose?

And this reminds me of Tolkien's contrast of--not modern war poetry but-- Beowulf with an imaginary (for the sake of discussion) theme from the life and death of St. Oswald.

Originally Posted by The Monsters and the Critics

It is just because the main foes in Beowulf are inhuman that the story is larger and more significant than this imaginary poem of a great king's fall. It glimpses the cosmic and moves with the thought of all men concerning the fate of human life and efforts; it stands amid but above the petty wars of princes, and surpasses the dates and limits of historical periods, however important. At the beginning, and during its process, and most of all at the end, we look down as if from a visionary height upon the house of man in the valley of the world. A light starts -- lixte se leoma ofer landa fela -- and there is a sound of music; but the outer darkness and its hostile offspring lie ever in wait for the torches to fail and the voice to cease. Grendel is maddened by the sound of harps.

It is quite possible that anyone who feels this with Tolkien would understand not to make comparisons with the Nazi regime. This is not to gainsay Mithalwen's point about the Blitz nor alatar's about War.