The Interactions of the Ring-Bearers

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Ivriniel

hahahaha no Galadriel, not quite, as Annatar was a comely 'bad boi'

I was getting curious how long you'd be able to go without this catchphrase.

Originally Posted by Ivriniel

We repeatedly see Sauron's Ring/s as having most influence over males, such as Celebrimbor (who was spurned by Galadriel), then Isildur, Deagol, Sméagol (who murdered Deagol and that was male-male anger about 'possession'), Bilbo (who never married) then Frodo -- again -- who never married.

First thought that comes to my mind here is that the Ring most readily appeals to dreams of power and domination, which are stereotypically associated with masculinity. It could be an interesting thought experiment to ask ourselves what the Ring would have tempted women with - say, Erendis? Queen Berúthiel? Ioreth? Rosie Cotton?

Originally Posted by Ivriniel

The Ring and the mythology had Eowyn downing the 'male' Angmar-ian witch king (another 'seduced' male) by Sauron, and Galadriel (female repellent of a homme fatale) who repelled The Necromancer from the former Amon Lanc in Mirkwood

I'd consider Galadriel as a borderline case in so far as she was, however briefly, tempted by the Ring and teetered on the brink of becoming a true femme fatale: "All shall love me and despair!" Any connection with her mother-name Nerwen, Man-maiden?

Originally Posted by Ivriniel

I'm lifting out an 'evil Animus' theme or perhaps an 'evil Anima' theme (and here, I'm seeing the significance of what Tolkien might have inadvertently or implicitly or unconsciously transmitted to us in his notions of 'Evil').

What I see so far boils down to a mixture of gender stereotypes and (maybe unconscious, or semi-conscious) male homophobia.

Originally Posted by Ivriniel

Why were so many of the males (Sméagol, Frodo, Bilbo--even perhaps Isildur downstream?) separated from parenthood? Is the evil anima/mus concept, therefore, something about diverting the owner away from their birthright?

Wasn't this the Ring-maker's special domain to begin with - diverting mortals away from the Gift of Ilúvatar, their birthright from the Allfather, diverting them from both death and transcendence towards a fake (you might say spectral) immortality, aka undeath?

Originally Posted by Ivriniel

So in any 'person-to-person' interaction of Ringbearers -- inevitably -- there is the 'evil animus/ma' there in the background of *each* bearer present, *not* actually bearing the ring (as a subdued or latent or 'watching' unconscious presence, perhaps), interacting with the 'current' bearer's directly-linked evil animus/ma.

This opens up the possibility that there is some kind of variation on 'distorted' empathy (an empathy inversion, for instance, that communicates -- sub vocally -- between bearers. And the inverse of empathy (Sauronic transmission of his Animus/ma now entirely evil for Sauron) is certainly 'evil' incarnate. That is, ordinarily, empathy governs interactions, but in a Sauronic 'inversion' he 'swells greedily' into others 'evil' Animus/ma through inversion-empathy 'conduits' that transmit Sauronic evil.

I can see that in Frodo dominating Gollum in the Mount Doom chapter (stern white figure, wheel of fire, you know what I mean), where the Ring - and thus its Maker - speaks through Frodo. Not so much in other scenes.

Originally Posted by Ivriniel

The idea is not really that 'out there'. After all, Tolkien had the Three communicating telepathically. There is a word for it, and I've forgotten in.

The word is osanwe, "communication of thoughts" (literally something like "together-thinking", if I analyse it right), or sanwe-latya, "thought-opening". It's a natural ability among Ainur and Quendi, not tied to Rings, although I suppose the Three may have served as amplifiers.

Originally Posted by Ivriniel

Merry Xmas everyone

Same to you! Look to the future, it's only just begun.

[Ivriniel]

Hi there Pitchwiife, very post.

Originally Posted by Pitchwife

I was getting curious how long you'd be able to go without this catchphrase.

I'm both 'very surprised' and also 'not at once' that the Mirdain were very so easily beguiled by a comely fella from 'the West' with a very strange title "Lord of Gifts". It's immediately an impossible supposition because Gifts of love are unconditionally given and appeal to the heart-line, rather than the 'domination' ['Lord....of Gifts' - weird] proposition (which was very Sauronic, and with a sadistic overtone. Torture was a tool used by Sauronic purpose, for example). So, Cirdan 'smelled the stench' and aptly, and yet, the Noldor of Celebrimbor's folk missed the warning.

<...snip...>It could be an interesting thought experiment to ask ourselves what the Ring would have tempted women with - say, Erendis? Queen Berúthiel? Ioreth? Rosie Cotton?

*chuckling as I write* Rosie Cotton's 'purposeful dominations of Shire-esque' vista, villas, meals, and adventuring Hobbits Returning.

"I Rosie Cotton--the Cotton, do now own Samwise Gamgee as Adventurer Gardener. Our Garden Empire shall....swell....throughout the Shire, and first seem green, but then I shall cut off all roses and leave thorns only on them. Thence, our liberator, dwelling at - where is that 'Evendim' place! I shall not abide it! My rose-less thorny stems I shall ....vomit....north on the Greenway and beyond, to line ALL ROADS with The Cotton's preferred ornament. All dissidents will be enslaved and forced into rose-chopping chain gangs!"

I'd consider Galadriel as a borderline case in so far as she was, however briefly, tempted by the Ring and teetered on the brink of becoming a true femme fatale: "All shall love me and despair!" Any connection with her mother-name Nerwen, Man-maiden?

An interesting combination of terms 'love and despair'--a depressed adoring cohort of dominated people! At least that Celeborn and his 'Elwe-ish' rage-mouth of his would be quelled.

What I see so far boils down to a mixture of gender stereotypes and (maybe unconscious, or semi-conscious) male homophobia.

This one's particularly interesting. I was steering around it in the post, but stopped short of inquiring about the professor's values of same-sex attraction, and whether or not unconscious homophobia influenced the legacy of his notions of E-vil. He never touches the subject of same-sex attraction, explicitly.

Wasn't this the Ring-maker's special domain to begin with - diverting mortals away from the Gift of Ilúvatar, their birthright from the Allfather, diverting them from both death and transcendence towards a fake (you might say spectral) immortality, aka undeath?

Yes.

I used the language "perturbingly divisible" in another thread about the theory put down about the spectral ideas in the books, and tangentially how this relates to Bilbo growing sociopathic tendencies in the Hobbit [due to wearing his R....ring *looks at reader with cheeky smile*], and as argued almost a Ring through this unorthodox idea. The post is too turgidly written, but it's for Mortho+ron mostly, and so is for fun debate.

In it, I touch on one of my favourite pet ideas of late about Spectral haunts of cultures which Pitchwife, u n me touched on, on the URL which will have to have resumed attention upon, intermittently for the very interesting notions you draw together. The reason your thread is particularly relevant is because it gives us a chance to explore Spectral ideas (and this thread, again is another Spectral 'channel' about the general area).

Spectral concepts are very illuminating of the authors of various mythologies, I find. I should, perhaps at some point, start a thread about it and what I mean, more clearly. But the reason I used language "perturbingly divisible" is to touch on a theme about how authors' ideas about 'reality' and 'fantasy' can point to -- schisms of the self -- in the actual author. This is very relevant to a discussion about Interactions of the Ringbeaer's as Tolkien's divisible spectral haunts were subsumed by the Ring and an 'evil animus/ma' concept.

I note, in particular the absence of 'unifying' mythology, to bridge either of redemption concepts into the 'fallen' in Middle Earth, or else 'conduit/pathway' mythologies that remind us that 'monsters be in the minds of men, and monsters without homes [reunifications] do warn, arguably, about the psychology of the author.

A very controversial point, in some senses, for Tolkien was obviously a great man, yet, we don't for example see "Nazgul marrying Elves" or "Nazgul overcoming ....something....to become a Spectral ORDINATION concept, bearing an oblique trajectory away from Wraith, towards Eldar (in the 'otherworld'....Glorfinel-ian idea at the Fjord of Bruinen) where this ordination of a 'Wraith' meant 'Road Less Travelled, Yet Illuvatar, I find at the End' [a chuckle here - as I suppose after Nazgul screeching, the 'Road Less Travelled' must vary the idea that....Shelob....vomited up the Silmaril. This is Morth's fault!].

The divisible Spectral World, where 'divided roads' never 'cross paths', in pantheons of SpectREs -- that never do Needlecraft -- for example (that's for Morth) is, perhaps an old fashioned way of conceiving mythologies (a debate point to add to Mithadan's notion).

The word is osanwe, "communication of thoughts" (literally something like "together-thinking", if I analyse it right), or sanwe-latya, "thought-opening". It's a natural ability among Ainur and Quendi, not tied to Rings, although I suppose the Three may have served as amplifiers.


Same to you! Look to the future, it's only just begun.

Cheers - such an interesting comment Tolkien made about telepathy......