scouring, etc

[jazzfish]

Just finished Lord of the Rings. This may well have been the first time I read the Appendices all the way through (though I did skim the ones on the calendars and the alphabets).

Two takeaways from RotK:

First, the Scouring of the Shire hits different when you're under occupation. It's also perhaps the most fantastical part of the book, since it posits that the citizenry were nearly all ready to rise up and just needed a push, as opposed to a third of them cheering on Otho and Sharkey and a third of them just hunkering down and hoping it would all pass them by.

Second, the meme take on Denethor as 'doomscrolling in the Palantir to Sauron's algorithm' is ... remarkably apt.

Now ebooks for a couple of days, and then once I'm home the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. UT is, as I recall, mostly-complete fragments with some commentary. The twelve-volume History of Middle-Earth reverses the proportions, and is thus less interesting to me. UT also contains a version of the Quest of Erebor ("The Hobbit") as told from Gandalf's perspective, which should be neat.

---

All quiet on bus stop patrol. Tuesday had a couple of plateless SUVs and a couple of blocks-away whistle choruses; Thursday and yesterday were quiet. It's nice to be out in the snow in my black wool coat and hat, though, and nice to get some smiles from folks driving past.

Comments

[sartorias]

Weird, yeah, listening to LOTR these days.

[jazzfish]

I've never before had such a sense of "this was written from a very different perspective, and in Another Time."

[shadowkat]

It was written between 1937 and 1949 in Britain during WWII. He wrote it in snatches, and possibly during bomb raids. (It was published in the 1950s, but written during WWII).

[jazzfish]

And from a late-Victorian perspective. The Frodo/Sam devoted-servant/loving-master relationship especially, but also the whole attitude of "what these people need is a King."

One of these days I will read Tolkien And The Great War, just to have a better sense of how WWI shaped him.

[(Anonymous)]

Except...Britain's main leader was Churchill. The previous King had abdicated the throne and was supporting the Nazis, while the Queen was letting Churchill take the lead, and having the Crown take more of a back seat.

Also, while there's a King at the center of LoTR - the true hero isn't the King? It's Frodo/Sam and Gollum who in actuality defeat Sauron, not Aragon.

[shadowkat]

"Except...Britain's main leader was Churchill. The previous King had abdicated the throne and was supporting the Nazis, while the Queen was letting Churchill take the lead, and having the Crown take more of a back seat.

Also, while there's a King at the center of LoTR - the true hero isn't the King? It's Frodo/Sam and Gollum who in actuality defeat Sauron, not Aragon." - this is me.

Adding - if I remember correctly? Didn't the previous King give into the One Ring? And lose it? There's a subtext in LoTR and The Hobbit that is definitely not pro-King. If anything it is pro-Hobbit, and the letting go of power. The power corrupts absolutely.

[reedrover]

Thank you for being there.

[jazzfish]

Just doin' my duty.

( <3 )

[queenoftheskies]

My daughter is reading Unfinished Tales now with a group on Discord.

So many people are back into Tolkien right now, it seems.

[jazzfish]

Guess it's a good time to read about small good actions toppling a seemingly-invincible evil power.

[queenoftheskies]

You are definitely right about that.