I wonder when it came out. Definitely on my list if I have t read it.
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No, Gandalf was disembodied in Moria. His body was an artificial attachment to his actual self, given for the sake of his mission. Nor was he raised from the dead, rather he was just given a new body.
I like that comparison.
I recall proposing in a literature class that Bombadil was the result of Eru’s love for creation, the idea being that something so loved would inevitably ‘sprout’ personal consciousness and Bombadil was the form it took in Middle Earth.
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2001 – The Other Wind. Not recently, but a lot more recent than when I originally read the first three.
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It wasn’t, ultimately, the nails that held Him to the Cross!
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Yep when I read it it was definitely a trilogy. Now there are four: https://a.co/d/gIPJPlq
I remember these titles from before:
A Wizard of Earthsea
The Tombs of Atuan
The Farthest Shore
Not sure what the fourth is called.
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I recommend Gustaf Aulen’s Christus Victor.
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Tehanu is the fourth, the fifth is The Other Wind.
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Plus Tales from Earthsea. I’ve read Tehanu, which I didn’t think like as much as the first three, but I’ve heard that the last one is very good.
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Well I finally got around to watching the first season of LOTR Rings of Power series but I found it disappointing. Especially the elves who, in spite of their long lifespans and high culture, seem nearly as petty in their motivations as humans. It is hard to imagine it as a mythos when everything is spelled out in detail and very little is left to the imagination. I found myself left with simply a plot line and characters devoid of wonder. I’ve decided I just need to read the Silmarillion instead. It has to be better than this series.
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I can see that. we have gotten through the first three episodes of season 2, and think it is a bit better, but still not something that makes me wonder what the next episode holds. I’ve been looking at it as an exercise in how people are manipulated and they are seduced by power, but finding current political events much more compelling entertainment in that regard. 
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Well, so much for my resolve. I’ve started reading the advance excerpt from The Silmarillion provided by Amazon and it seems my high regard for the elves was misplaced. Besides even if I don’t like how they are handling it they’ve paid the price to make that decision so who am I to seek to cancel them? Bah, now I’m less inclined to read the book and will settle for seeing what they do with this franchise if it doesn’t end prematurely for lack of viewer interest … which it might.
If I do any more reading of Tolkien perhaps I will just reread the LOTR and leave it at that.
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The Silmarillion essentially depicts the elves as including a mixture of those with essentially pure motivations (most of them), and those who fall to serious flaws whose actions set themselves and their kin on courses for disaster (many of the most powerful and recurring ones) . It in certain ways could be viewed as paralleling parts of the Old Testament (creation, fall, early leadership, travel to a promised land, exile for disobedience, suffering, redemption) with large influences from Norse mythology.
Also, most of the Silmarillion describes events a few millennia before the series is set, and the series is compressing much of the Second Age into a much shorter time frame.
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Yeah - elves may be depicted as partial immortals of a sort, and above men in so many things, and yet themselves are not above the vagaries of pride - which could and did drive them also to foolishnesses in their own turn.
I’ve warmed up considerably more to this 2nd season of the Rings of Power now, as I watch it blending into the familiar (and I think true to the Tolkien mythology) themes of power-lust (even by good people - and with ostensibly good motivations) and deceit. It is doing (I think) a pretty good job of weaving those themes together, and staying true to the major themes of the story, even if not all technically in there. The seeming rebellion of certain orcs (under Adar) against Sauron, and their encounter with Galadriel in that common resistence is not something I remember happening at all, and is probably an addition, as I don’t recall Tolkien ever making an effort to ‘humanize’ orcs - whether in the Silmarillion or otherwise - and the novelty of it would have stuck with me, I should think, if he had. But even if I’m right about that - it is making for an interesting plot to follow - and the latest episode released at the time I’m writing this is in the middle of that adventure. I’m glad Galadriel has a character shield!
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Good to get more positive feedback by those who have already read the Silmarillion since I have much else I’d really rather read. I’ve caught up to where the series has progressed having recently watched S2W6. So next Thursday I’ll see what is next.
One description of orcs I thought was interesting was to see them as what we become when we internalize fitting into the mechanized routines of industrialization and begin to measure our self worth in terms of utility alone. It coincides with separation from nature, disinterest in beauty and loss of regard for what is sacred.
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Oops, double post.
I think that makes good sense. Much of it reads like the OT. Thanks!
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I see it the following way…
If salvation is believed to be a real outcome/event
How can i believe in a real outcome if no real evidence supports that outcome?
When i consider criminal investigative techniques, the trail of evidence must support the outcome…it must be as real as the outcome.
I just dont see any consistency between the trail of evidence and the outcome when linking the bible fall of man with a movie theme. This is a very important reason why the movie is a fictional movie and the bible is an historical account. When we have found archeological trail of evidence, it overwhelmingly supports the bible narrative. If one is going to beoieve that the future outcome is real, then the supporting evidence must also be real. Otherwise, to anyone/everyone salvation is just a mythical fairytale. That is what atheists i talk to seem to think about my belief in God, Heaven, and Salvation…its just a fairytale.
Correct, he does not. Orcs in Tolkien are considered to be irredeemably fallen demonic entities.
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