Thread: going to Mordor
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Old 10-11-2003, 08:37 AM   #11
Carorëiel
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Tennessee
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Carorëiel has just left Hobbiton.
Sting

Perhaps this is a bit off-topic or outside the vein of the subject at hand, but I always find it interesting think about the "bad" things that happen in LotR that "had" to happen in order for something else to work out. That was vague, I know.

Attempt to explain: Say Gandalf hadn't fallen. (His fall being the "bad" thing.) Of course, all of the events following those in Moria are called into question--who knows what might have gone differently if Gandalf had been there? (Tolkien, I suppose. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] ) But let's just think about the whole Gollum bit. If Gandalf had been around, would Frodo and Sam have taken up with Gollum? (Would they even have gone off on their own?) And if they didn't take up with Gollum, what would have happened at the Cracks of Doom? Would have been a very different story, obviously. So, in a ridiculously circuitious way, Gandalf had to fall so Gollum would be around to bite off Frodo's finger and save the world.

What does all that have to do with this thread? I don' remember. [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] There was originally some connection in my head. Maybe it will be apparent to someone. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Incidentally, all this bad-stuff-happens-so-good-stuff-can bit is not my own. I know I read it somewhere--I think there's an entire critical essay on it somewhere. But I've moved to Ohio and foolishly left much of my Tolkien crit. books in PA. Dumb. So, if anybody knows the piece, could you post the title? I'd love to get reacquainted with whatever I just babbled about.
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