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#1 | |
Curmudgeonly Wordwraith
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Ensconced in curmudgeonly pursuits
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Then of course fencing in creative, energetic folk like the Noldor was bound to cause friction eventually, even without Morgoth butting in. How long before the mean constraints of Valinor, however beautiful, would act as a catalyst for more adventurous Elves to yearn for more freedom? Galadriel, while not agreeing with Feanor and his sons, certainly longed for greater kingdoms to rule. In addition, Elves, like their mortal counterparts at times, seemed to always seek for that which they lost.
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And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision. |
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#2 | |
A Mere Boggart
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: under the bed
Posts: 4,737
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Would I have wanted to be one of the Moriquendi? Too right. I'd have tolerated Orc raids over beautiful boredom any day.
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Gordon's alive!
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#3 |
Curmudgeonly Wordwraith
Join Date: Jun 2007
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Perhaps this explains the seeming death wish of some Elves -- a vainglory straddling the line of utter madness. I guess that's the point where Elves turn 'fey'. I mean, really, what was Fingolfin thinking going up against Morgoth? Was it necessary from a strategic standpoint? Did it serve any purpose whatsoever? It seems immortality may cause a distinct urge to gamble with one's life, or rather, a disregard or fearlessness of consequences.
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And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision. |
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#4 | |
A Mere Boggart
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: under the bed
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Though after endless years seeing destruction and horror, especially in Beleriand while Morgoth was at large, I'm sure some Elves must have just snapped and lost it and literally threw themselves into battle. And who knows what went through the minds of the Noldor after they had stormed out of Valinor, lost kin on the Helcaraxe or the Kinslaying, maybe regretted their choice to leave?
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Gordon's alive!
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#5 |
Curmudgeonly Wordwraith
Join Date: Jun 2007
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Interesting that the word 'fey' has its root in the term faery itself (French, I believe, as in Morgan la Fey), thereby insinuating an instability in the Elvish (or, more properly, Sidhe) set in a classical sense. Reading something like W.B. Yeats' or Crofton Croker's folklore of Ireland, it's certainly reasonable to believe that faery-folk are unreasonable and more than a bit daft. They are certainly not a stable race in any case (which is reiterated for modern readers in Mr. Norrell and Jonathan Strange).
I wonder if Tolkien perhaps gleaned a bit of the Elvish feyness from 19th century English and Irish writers. I know he didn't care much for Gaelic mythology (Usnach, Cu Chullain, Redbranch, etc.), but Faery feyness abounds in more current Irish folklore (say, within the last 2 or 3 centuries), and in older tales Tolkien was more partial to, as in the Welsh Mabinogion and the Arthurian cycle as well (The Green Knight was not the most stable character, was he?). I haven't read any George MacDonald in the last 2 decades, but I seem to remember a great bit of feyness permeating his novels.
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And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision. |
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#6 | ||
A Mere Boggart
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: under the bed
Posts: 4,737
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It is interesting how Tolkien though, of all people, counterbalances this with an examination of a race both immortal and bound to the fabric of the earth. I can't explain that. ![]() Quote:
When Men like Eomer and Boromir express a certain amount of fear about Lothlorien they are only echoing the feelings of people in the real world when told a place was inhabited by fairies - they were and are (in Tolkien's work) pretty perilous and unpredictable beings. Incidentally, what did you make of Jonathan Strange in the end?
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Gordon's alive!
Last edited by Lalwendë; 10-22-2008 at 02:33 PM. |
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#7 | |
Curmudgeonly Wordwraith
Join Date: Jun 2007
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If I were the editor, I would have perhaps cut out 100 or so pages (or as the Emperor said to Mozart, 'There are too many notes"). I was also bewildered that Strange brought himself to the brink of madness to save his wife, but then blithely traipsed off with that crashing boor Norrell rather than spend time with Arabella (the only settling influence he had). It was a very odd novel: so much to commend, but just as much to condemn.
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And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision. Last edited by Morthoron; 10-22-2008 at 07:08 PM. |
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#8 | |
A Voice That Gainsayeth
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: In that far land beyond the Sea
Posts: 7,431
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"Should the story say 'he ate bread,' the dramatic producer can only show 'a piece of bread' according to his taste or fancy, but the hearer of the story will think of bread in general and picture it in some form of his own." -On Fairy-Stories |
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#9 | |
A Voice That Gainsayeth
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: In that far land beyond the Sea
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I am now speaking from the point of view of the Silmarillion, UT and such, I don't know if there's anything more in HoME or such (which could make it more or on the other hand less fitting). But that's how I see it.
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"Should the story say 'he ate bread,' the dramatic producer can only show 'a piece of bread' according to his taste or fancy, but the hearer of the story will think of bread in general and picture it in some form of his own." -On Fairy-Stories |
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