It was always one of my favorites.

I'm old, I started watching cartoons. In those, Gandalf was played by the director John Huston, whose voice is masterful

Sounds similar to how Tolkien wanted his work released in a single "cut" but had to release it in 3 books due to publishing constraints of the time.

It's definitely an improvement of an already fine work.

Beautiful

It’s so beautiful isnt it

That's specially touching after he burried his son, and Gandalf said "He was strong in life. His spirit will find it's way to the hall of your fathers"

He died an ULTIMATE warrior. Fighting after acknowledging that they WILL NOT be victorious, that it's impossible... and being victorious anyway. Ensuring that Men will survive, instead of being killed by the black hordes of Mordor. Bruh, I can't think of a better way to die.

Truly he was of Broheimian stock

But Theoden was more of a poet than a warior. So much conflict in him almost brought ruin to his people

Agreed. i have always regretfully identified with Boromir if I had to choose a character

He tried to redeem himself, but The Ring is perilous. Oaths in Middle Earth are serious business, and taking one moves fate in ways it doesn’t in our world.

Let's face it, saying "most of us" are Boromir is flattering most of us. Most of us are either Barliman Butterbur or Bill Ferny, depending on which side of the moral fence you fall on.

Boromir was much more noble, brave and strong physically and mentally than most of us Also most of us do not carry the responsibility of an entire army and nation on our backs

@@jonasrmb01also none of us are as badass as Sean Bean! It's funny, I'm working on a novel and think a lot about storytelling, and something I keep coming back to is how different TLOTR would be had Boromir survived Fellowship (I am by no means a Tolkien scholar, this is just for fun). Had Boromir survived, in The Two Towers he'd have aided Aragon in defending Helm's Deep. In Return Of The King he would accompany Gandalf and Pippin to Gondor and convince his father of the threat. Boromir commands the White City's forces, freeing Gandalf to better repel the Nazgul and reduce casualities. Faramir isn't sent on a suicide run. When Aragon arrives with additional forces, the Gondor losses aren't as bad. Boromir greets Aragon as friend and King. I'd love to hear how others think Boromir's survival would have impacted the story.

I send much love - there is good and even connection in this world, and it’s worth fighting for ❤️

Have you considered reading the book that influenced the values of the story that makes life worth living, namely the Bible? Lord of the Rings is to the Bible as the dwarves are to the elves - strong and powerful in its own right, but a pale comparison to the glory and splendor of the real thing that it's imitating.

@hoorayimhelpung3976 - WRONG !! Tolkien, himself, denied over & over & over - that "The Lord of The Rings" was based on either The Bible or the events of WWII - which is where & when he started writing it. He flatly stated many times - no matter how often people tried to pidgeon-hole him on this - that it was NOT an allegory - that he "wholeheartedly DETESTED” allegory in all its forms. Try reading ABOUT Tolkien - pay attention to what HE said - about what HE had in mind . . . rather than superimposing your own obsession over his writing.

@@wandamundy1759 he didn’t base the story on the Bible. However, Tolkien admitted that his Christian faith heavily influenced the series. Because of this, I think anyone who is a diehard fan of his books should look into the book where the values displayed originate from.

​@officialthomasjames Nah, the Bible is a mediocre fantasy book at best...

Also, look back in Tolkien and his experience with WWI. History first hand. And the Ents represent the Americans who dragged their feet to help end the war. History :)

⁠@@johnboy4025Tolkien has said that he didn’t want his book compared to what he went through in his time, that he believes all the events he wrote would’ve been the same and hardly impacted by his experience through the war. I believe he says this as a note before the first book begins. He also references his distaste for allegories in this section(might be easier to search for)

Yeah you got it right 👌

@@johnboy4025dragged feet? America won both wars and fought harder than any country.

@@TaylorWilmesthats not true. America was neither inconsequential in either war, nor did they fight the hardest. In WW1 that honor probably goes to France who lost an entire generation on The Western Front and in WW2 would have to probably go to the USSR or China both of whom saw their countries occupied and deaths in the tens of millions. Comparatively, we in America were an ocean away from any meaningful threat and lost very few casualties. However our material and financial support was crucial to both wars and our soldiers definitely helped to turn the tides but to say we fought the hardest is not correct.

Copy n pasted you mean. He revealed himself on numerous occasions publicly that all his works were taken via his freemasonic keyrings to the hidden libraries of all these past texts, safely stored beneath remaining old world wonders like Oxford and Cambridge, away from prying eyes of the 'uninitiated'. Peter Jackson is even telling you here, treat it as though it were actual history...🙄 Tolkien wasn't actually the true author of any of these works, just listen to him attempt to talk in interviews. He's a bumbling collection of buffoonery and nonsense hardly one capable of such vastly told stories I can assure you. The original works contain all of the truths contained within his books but with it the modern day corruptions of dogma and religion. Sometimes a wet kipper to the face won't wake those from their dream. The tartarian meltdown channel for further avenues into waking from this slumber.

@@apocalypticdaze2139 I see, you're something of a poet yourself: ---------------------------------------- "Do, any, one, sea" Stars are eyes, Beneath which we dream All that is seen, isn't And no time, Passes by ----------------------------------------- You should really consider publishing some of your work. It brought me to tears.

And to think that to him, it was just a hobby to vent his creativity with languages....

@@Assywalker error 404 apocalyptic daze not found

The hero’s journey, we all must take ❤ transcendence

"tend to treat Tolkien’s religious subtext with an almost eye-rolling triviality or something to brush under the rug and chuckle about" Any one who makes commentaries on Tolkien's work and the importance of the foundational beliefs is an intellectual deadbeat at *best* ... Maliciously ignorant at worst.

Eyeroll comment.

@@Sal3600 ?

True

@@Sal3600 =(

Hi ya, Is that version of the Hobbit radioplay available anywhere?

Me too sir.

That’s really cool, what an honor! Would have loved to meet him myself, but unfortunately he had long passed before I was born

I've always taken to the hobbit story over most everything else. I've played every game, too. I'd be wildly interested in the dramatic radioplay version!

There is also the fact that (in most versions) she was exiled, so by relinquishing the Ring she also accepted to fade herself. Middle-earth is in a constant state of decay and elves who remain there are doomed to fade. Not only was she giving up Lothlorien, by refusing the Ring, but was also dooming herself to fade, or at least she thought so. She was only allowed to return to Valinor due to an extraordinary pardon for her refusal of the Ring

The long defeat. There is hope for men in Middle Earth. Not elves. They left us

@@lamascararota666 yes! Galadriel refusing the ring completes like a 4,000+ year arc that started when she was young and arrogant and defied the Valar by going to Middle Earth.

​@lamascararota666 Actually, the Noldor,l and all of the Elves of Middle Earth were welcomed back to Valinor after the War of Wrath that ended the First Age. Galadriel, Thranduil, Celeborn, and all the other Elves remaining in Middle Earth, did so of their own free will. They weren't quite ready to give it up until the end of the Third (or Fourth) Age.

@@ishmaelforester9825 It seems to me it is rather that Elves were not intended for Middle Earth to begin with. At the least, not after the marring of Arda by Morgoth. They were called to Valinor after their awakening, and that blessed realm is now accessible only to their ships.

Timeless

..it’s worth fighting for...refined and TRUE 🔥🌹

What I love about English literature is the recurrent humble but thoroughly convincing focus on the quality and virtue the common man is capable of. Italian literature in comparison is pompous and conceited.

@@lss922 that’s cause English comes from Germanic traditions. Tacitus wrote a great commentary on the Germanic tribes and the honorable traditions.

"My friends, you bow to no one" 19 years on and I still get choked up

This will be proofen wrong when we managed to destroy the real world.

Except not.

@@metastase895 Except it is, especially nowadays. In a objective and technical perspective, creativity and innovation is what makes the world go round, and whether you like it or not successful innovations can significantly help humanity live a better life overall in many ways.

Oh yes.

"Reflect upon the Past. Embrace your Present. Orchestrate our Futures." -- Artemis 🐲✨🐲✨🐲✨ "Before I start, I must see my end. Destination known, my mind’s journey now begins. Upon my chariot, heart and soul’s fate revealed. In time, all points converge, hope’s strength re-steeled. But to earn final peace at the universe’s endless refrain, We must see all in nothingness... before we start again." 🐲✨🐲✨🐲✨ --Diamond Dragons (series)

I'm pretty sure LOTR is older than that stereotype. Tolkien wasn't making a statement against the stereotype, he was just saying that women belong in the kitchen. It wasn't a statement about how women can do anything, instead it was a statement that regardless of how well they do in men's roles women should and will regress to women's roles always. Which isn't surprising, it's an old trilogy based on the Bible.

Good men who've had strong wives and bad men who've had theirs put them in place have known for ages the strength of a woman go far beyond roles in either they find purpose or rebel against. And that strength has and Is found within and not by indoctrination to fight against feigned Injustices never suffered.

@@jogadorjnc tell me you didn't watch the video without telling me you didn't watch the video

It's also part of the feminine aspect of wisdom, something that is truly marvelous.

​@@jogadorjnc the fact that the whole point, Tolkien valuing MORAL victory over physical/apparent victory, went over your head; men who just value fighting and glory and all that bs and say "women belong in the kitchen" ARE the problem LMAO

I am starting to suspect that there is a dark subtext to those books. I am still unsure, but I will go back and read them with a critical eye.

​@hypnotictango2464 what dark subtext?

@@naturesfinest2408 Some are saying that there is a not-European message in the books. I didn't see it when I read them, so now I would like to go back and read them again to find out once and for all.

@@Siegfried5846 what was their main point(s) of their argument?

@@Siegfried5846 God in the bible is very personal, in the lord of the ring is distance and don't say what is right and wrong litarely. The world was build not by the mind of eru (like God in the bible) but by music, weird because satan is well know for his deep knowledge of music. There are good magic and bad magic, in the biblie any magic is bad magic. Worship (put any emotion) of star, moon, sun you are already dead in the bible you see this all the time in the book. Tolkien mutilated and transformed the devil and Jesus in images, Aragorn is king, healer, Frodo the sacrifice lamb, Gandalf is the erudite, resurrected and prophet jesus is everything in once, morgoth satan in his initial rebelion, sauron satan in his last and pathetic form. You have to be crazy to say the book is about christianity at all the themes yes but how is ported no, i want the weed tolkien used is good book yes, was a good book about chistianity hell no!!!! OBS: i do can write a book just to show everything that is wrong about lord of the ring if compare to bible. OBS: sorry for anything english is not my first language.

Indeed he has ❤

@@stephenlaing2152 someone's salty

Good for you Brother...Safe Passage🐝🌈💫🌹

@@stephenlaing2152 so u admit to being a slave working the salt mines. What a nice life u must lead, ya cheeky lil salty bugga!

@@stephenlaing2152 you insulted the OG commenter (not their face btw) so I called you out, now your big mad at me? "_Oh no, a nobody online called me salty, now I want to beat them up IRL._" Cringe.

Good luck out there, my friend!

dude same bro. I never really understood LOTR beyond cool sword fights, but after the service and a tour in Afghanistan I can't get through these movies without crying constantly. It's wild how you see yourself in so many different characters--but above all I ended up seeing myself in Frodo. I wish I could express how fucking insanely scared you are when you first start going out. Just this dread that makes you want to hide from what’s coming, what I imagine hiding from a Nazgûl is like. Realizing that you’re about to lose everything you ever had and everything you ever will, and it’ll be a horribly painful experience and the earth will swallow you and you’ll be nothing-and you know it’ll happen because you see it happen to people around you. Just paralyzing fear that you can’t move bc every step feels like a step closer to turning into some dead body that’s all limp with limbs pointing in weird unnatural directions and flies walking around on your eyeballs This fear that is slowly eroding away at your when you go on missions and you feel so tiny compared to all these weapons that'll blow you to pieces if you step in the wrong spot or these AKs that'll rip holes in your body because the rounds are so big. Just scared as fuck bro, but you keep going because that's what your bros need from you, and you end up putting one foot in front of the other. LOTR to me is about enduring, and about doing the right thing at the right time for the right reasons because there's good in the world worth preserving, and that all of your actions echo throughout eternity. When i think of the ending scene when Aragorn tells the hobbits not to kneel, and instead kneels to them, i fucking bawl thinking of all the dudes who did the right thing to make the world a better place, and never got acknowledged because that wasn't why they did it. Just scared out of your fucking mind, but you still do what's right because you have hope that things may not be perfect, but they may be better, and you may not be the best guy for the job, but you may be the only one. What gives light must endure burning, and the meaning of life is not to take as much as you can with you, but to leave as much as you can behind to keep the flame alive in others.

I just joined the army recently, a lot of the themes of the LotR have been completely recontextualized.

Man, I feel almost shy to intrude, but all you guys' stories deeply moved me deeply. How I wish that we as a species could some day grow past the need for wars and violence, past sending poor, scared people to die for the victory of no one but those who play their selfish games with us as pawns. There are no victors in war, only those who are left and broken promises. I feel such pity for you for having to endure what you did and still do. Growing up dreaming to be Aragorn, until realizing that you're Boromir or Frodo is, I think, a journey so many of us make, and for you, it was probably a lot more literal than for most. I'm not religious myself, but hope is universal. And so it is my deepest hope that you can cling onto or one day rekindle that hope in yourself and heal from what you've been through.

Check out Mark Passio’s UKposts channel on the cult of ultimate evil

This is very true, especially what you've said about Lewis and Narnia. LOTR is so much richer.

​@Meegwun Applesxand iranges. Narnia is children's stories by someone who didn't have children but wrote as if for himself when he was a child (when he invented a world in a box). Hobbit was children's story by someone who had several children. LoTR and Silmarillion was, among other things, an exercising in inventing a parallel world to the world he was a world expert in, namely Norse Western European mythology and language. Lewis wrote other more adult stuff, including an unfinished horror sci-fi story, The Dark Tower.

in the books she is completely conflicted as well in a very realistic way. Not even Gandalf, aragon, and eomer can agree on her motivation. desperation? love? honor? despair? all of the above.

People learn that Tolkien was an ardent Catholic, and immediately analyse his works as somehow representing the typical Catholic views of the time. Besides Tolkien himself rejecting that, it is hard to argue he had the typical views of Catholics of his time. I'm not doubting the man's piety, but his vast knowledge of history, and life experiences in the World War formed his views in a way that's far too unique to be put into a box as simple as "20th centuru Catholicism".

Check out Planet Narnia by Michael Ward. You're selling the Narniad short.

this is a one-in-a-lifetime dose of internet

common ddoi W

You make my day just a little bit better

omg DDOI

wow didnt expect you to be here

They don't understand that through Sam and Frodo, the point of the street becomes clear. It's Sam's love for his friend that pushes him along because that is what some people need in real life. Frodo is the average person who is forced by the outside world to take responsibility. The story wouldn't work without Sam or Frodo.

This false perception of Frodo as being weak, and not worthy of Sam's loyalty and devotion, is very much the fault of the films though. Book Frodo is wiser, stronger and braver. Tolkien makes it clear in the Letters that Frodo's failure to destroy the Ring was not a moral failure. Although there is much I love and appreciate about the films, I will never understand why Peter Jackson thought it was a good idea to wimpify Frodo's character.

Tolkien did say that Sam is the real hero of the story though? I agree on the rest btw

@@lss922 Tolkien didn't say Sam was the 'real hero'. He said he was the 'chief hero' - a subtle but important difference. He also called Frodo the hero. I first read LotR years before the films came out: I've always regarded Frodo and Sam as equally heroic - they're a team.

@@lss922 Did he? He could have said that Sam displayed the most admirable quualities since he displays both bravery and humility. I doubt Tolkien misunderstood his own story, which he would have if he said that characters that did heroic things weren't 'real' heroes, since that would be the implication if Sam was the real hero.

There is more spiritual art that is ignored

Should people also try and fail in a materialistic way to overcome that evil, it usually finds itself alone amidst it's own destruction. All that remains is twisted visions of what was before and that which it has yet to conquer. Ultimately evil cannot sustain itself indefinitely, regardless of how powerful it becomes.

And this is so much better than saying "Everything happens for a reason." It's not that badness exists Because it was Meant to be an opportunity, necessarily, but more that one can chose to interpret it that way if and when they can manage it. Even without believing in the Christian god, this reframing is at the heart of good, practical therapy: Choosing to at least Consider that every bad thing is as much (if not more) of an opportunity for good things to be derived or created.

@@islab2458 Some things are just terrible, unfair and beyond justification. A huge part of therapy when dealing with trauma is accepting that what was done to you is wrong and unfair. Injustice is real and no amount of reframing can transform an atrocity into a silver lining. Regardless of how a person reacts to ill doing, the initial act was still best avoided in the first place.

@@WhatIsSanity ...well said.Yes of course that’s the Heart of the Quest/Question 🔥🌹 to my mind...

@@cosmicman621 Thank you for your kind words.

Just adding to this, these video essays give me hope in humanity. Real humanity. In our empty modernity and materialistic existence, these videos continue to remind me that what is truly great are the profound, the intangible, the spiritual essence of what being human truly is. Thanks for producing these. It is fuel for the soul, hope in the dark, and the light to a better future we all need to aspire to envision and create.

@@letosgoldenpath1993 ....loving your nickname :D One of my favorite books from Herbet's Saga ^^

Yes. But there's something in these Like Stories of Old videos that nearly always brings a tear to my eye, often when I don't even know why.

Yea this guy's content is stellar.

For real. Just wow.

Sh. We don't talk about that anymore

TRoP is the definition of disrespect They even left their trash everywhere in New Zealand damaging it's beautiful land scape and potentially harmed animals you won't see anywhere else

No one talks about that abomination and its already falling into irelevance like it should

The Ring of Gyges. Yes written by Plato but credit given to Socrates

Tolkien got the ring from Wagner, not Plato.

@@Siegfried5846 As if Wagner could not have also been inspired by plato, or that two sources can be used for inspiration. Not to mention that the ring cycle is also about greed, as the ring in that story gives the wielder power to rule the world, the other major effect the ring has

@@laggrenade863 No, Wagner got the ring from the Volsungasaga. If you have evidence that he took inspiration from Plato, please send it to me, as I am fascinated to find out more in that case.

@@stephenlaing2152 I've been saying that since the movies came out! Yes, they were filmed beautifully, yes the music was great... but... Ugh. I wish I had never seen them. (well only the first one. When I saw that botch up I refused to watch the others). The "movie" in my mind was much better!

@@stephenlaing2152 ah i see this is more of a crusade for you, in which case i doubt anythings getting through to you. Art and life are complex. Many stories may be enjoyed on many layers. Why complain when someone enjoys a different layer from yourself - heck you might see something interesting as a result. This and many other stories are deeper both in the authors intentions and in the readers interpretations - both important but neither can claim sole ownership. Ill simply hope that as you grow as a person alongside the rest of us you’ll come to see that and be enriched as a result. Lastly, claiming Tolkien’s stories are “just fantasy stories” is a highly confusing statement. You dismiss the entire genre but then argue so loudly and rudely to protect your vision of it… why are you here??? What are you even doing???

@@thomasmiller8289 Stephen Laing breathes air but denies its very existence

I find this reaction so interesting. I saw the films multiple times in the cinema and I do appreciate them. But there are characterisations and plot points in the films that I very strongly object to, and which I believe Tolkien would have found offensive. The wimpification of Frodo, and the character assassinations of Faramir and Denethor, are three of the biggest departures from canon, and they will forever be lost opportunities. Try listening to the 1981 BBC radio dramatisation of LotR, with Ian Holm as Frodo and Bill Nighy as Sam - it's a much more faithful adaptation, and it's a gem.

@@philippalinton5850 I find your reaction equally interesting. I don't think they were missed opportunities but rather, interesting divergences that highlight something different. So I don't think the movies would have been better if they enacted the changes you suggest, but they would simply be different. I like when the core spirit of the source material is preserved just enough, but enough divergence is there to avoid the source material and its adaptations becoming interchangeable. In my opinion, TLotR achieved that amazingly. I enjoy both the books and the films equally yet differently.

@@JavierGomezX I have no objection on principle to interesting divergences. I'm not a purist. Overall Peter Jackson's LotR films are pretty faithful to the book. But they could have been even better, had PJ not been given to baroque excess (at times). Among the things I object to is Denethor being turned into a one-dimensional villain. That's not a reflection on John Noble, who was very good in the role. It's a reflection on the screenplay, which missed the mark. I object even more to Frodo's heroism being undermined throughout the films. Frodo's maturity and inner steel are missing. If the films had given me a stronger, braver, wiser Frodo - reflecting more how he is in the book - that would made all the difference.

@@philippalinton5850 On the contrary I think those details you find distasteful have their own merits that separates them from the book. A more vulnerable Frodo in more need of support and a one dimensional Denethor have their unique roles to play and have different effects that are not necessarily bad.

@@JavierGomezX Book Frodo shows his vulnerability MANY times, especially the closer he gets to Mordor. Vulnerability combined with courage. Why would a film director choose to undermine one of the main heroes of the story (Frodo) while allowing the other hero (Sam) to shine? I read so many comments in this fandom bashing Frodo and praising Sam as the 'true' hero - especially from people who haven't read the books. As for one-dimensional characters supposedly adding something to the story, that's a strange take. None of my favourite films have one-dimensional characters. Film Denethor could still have been a villain without losing his complexity. A skilled screenwriter could convey that. To be clear, I think the LotR screenplays are pretty good - but not perfect.

They will fade away, but Tolkien will last forever.

We need to revive such values and virtues as much as we can.

Guessing you don’t know what post modern is eh?

@@nicolajane7389 Pointing out that a book who's underlying message is inextricably linked to traditional moral values and paradigms, whose own author once described it as a unconsciously fundamentally religious and catholic work, is opposed to an academic paradigm which seeks to "deconstruct" metanarratives such as the values embedded into lord of the rings, somehow demonstrates a lack of understanding about postmodernism?

It seeks to deconstruct historical meta narratives that try to claim a monopoly on truth. I love everything here, and in terms of my own faith, I HOPE it’s cosmologically true, but neither I nor you have any way to know. Faith as a byword for hope is empowering. It generates understanding, empathy, and endurance. Faith as a byword for certainty is a brittle sword.

Mr Tolkien brings to life, the Anglo-Saxon world he studied and lectured in. A time, a world, whose heroic deeds are lost to us n the distant mist of legiond. We too will soon be forgotten, but can do little about that.

For someone that has never put it into words before, you beautifully articulated it. Thank you.

Childlike optimism is different than childish optimism, I might add - this is a key distinction.

Overcomplicating things. 100 years later, JK Rowling will be worshipped like lady galadriel in literature.

@@captainaryan26 CS Lewis is quite famous, but his works are not quite so impactful

I'm pretty sure since the ring is literally described as being spiritually linked with Sauron... The ring didn't hold Gollym to a promise(while also yeeting itself in the process). It's all about Gollums desperation, and greed. He takes a blind leap for the precious in it's most exposed moment. You have 2 bearers trying to force the outcome with evil in their hearts. That's the only reason it finally takes a tumble into the mountain. If there was no Gollym, it would have been just like with Isalder, where a friend wouldn't be able to kill a friend. But... Two enemies squabbling over the Ring like baser greedy.. corrupted minds, it was DOOMED. It might have been foreshadowed, but it wasn't the Ring holding good on Gollums promise. It's a piece of Sauron. Hell, even after it's destroyed Sauron is still around he's just neutered

@@davey815 What you write is reasonable of course. Whether it applies as a better description of events has more to do with whether 'ring nature' or 'ring lore' has its own requirements and character. Or, as your suggestion would favor, 'rings' are more along the lines of 'horcruxes' as in Harry Potter -- a more or less pure relocation of some fraction of the maker's not only energy, but character and outlook. Is it possible / necessary that 'rings' have their own requirements for existence, once made have to follow some fixed inner logic-- or are they expressions of the maker and not just fueled by the maker, are they capable of reassessment and complex perception and adaptation to events? While I haven't thought it through entirely, I notice that the elven rings didn't somehow lessen their makers. I suppose to decide this it's necessary to understand how/why the ending of 'the one ring' ended the others, given we are told Sauron had nothing to do with the three elven rings. It's not clear to me why 'the one ring' made later, when ended, would end the three made earlier. Something to think through.

stay strong bro

You are pretty good god your age. Very deep philosophical views. I hope you are right for I have lost hope in humanity.

It has not taught you anything good if it taught you that narrow, black and white worldview

If you don’t think there is evil at work in the world - including in your own heart - you are hopelessly unprepared for life. Some things are binary in their essence, Tolkien would have no issue affirming that

@@remychadwick2467 I didn't say that. But LOTR teaches you that Sauron is WHOLLY evil, and he isn't fleshed out at all. In Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle, Albrecht's evil can be understood. It is shown WHY he does the things he does. That's clearly a much deeper work. So what can be learned from Lord of the Rings?

⁠@@Siegfried5846I think Tolkien is teaching that power inevitably corrupts unless it is restrained and wielded completely in service to others. Evil is just the overwhelming obsession with power and self, which is alive and well in our world. Sauron does actually have a motivational backstory in the Silmarillion

Sorry to hear about our job. That stinks. Good luck to you.

@@CreativeIsolation thanks for the consolation! I'm basically fully powered by silver linings, so on to the next thing! Never fear ;D

I hope good things come to you.

You lost your job because something better is on its way

Oh, I love that idea! It does fit

Ulmo never abandoned the Elves in the First Age. He would not abandon the Free Peoples, though by that time knowledge of the Valar would have been lost or much forgotten and distorted by everyone except the Elves.

Just some linguistic information: “valar” is the plural form; the singular form is “vala”. The same goes for “maia” and “maiar”.

When you read the books it is clear there is an unseen force that gradually nudges the events in favor of the good guys. I think that is Gandalf's main role, to be an emissary of this force and to allow it to play out without forcing anything. Everything from the Rohan attack on the Orcs which caused suspicion of Sauron that Saruman might betray him, to Pippin looking into the seeing stone making Sauron think Saruman has the ring which buys time for Aragorn and Frodo, to Merry and Pippin's interaction with the Ents causing the defeat of Saruman, Faramir seeing Boromir's body which sets the stage for his interaction with Sam and Frodo and of course Gollum and his role. There is this surface hopelessness throughout the story but right below that is almost this growing certainty that the good guys will win.

It isn't just Ulmo who takes an active role in the affairs of Middle-Earth, though his intervention has had far-reaching consequences. Varda and the power of her name prevented Sam and Frodo from being murdered on two occasions.

I agree. In the books they also rode out to the fords of Isen to meet up with the other cavalry and when that didnt work out they fell back to Helm's Deep.

"A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry" Is excellent by the way. Thank you for the recommendation.

It is not arguably better; it is objectively and undeniably better not just here, but basically throughout.

@@artugert I think TLotR and it's films did an amazing job being the same at its core, yet being divergent enough for both to be beautiful in their own way. You can read the books, see the films, and be struck in 2 different ways by 2 different kinds of awe, while still feeling the spirit of the story. Truly amazing.

@@JavierGomezX I agree. In my opinion, the books are some of the best books ever written, and the movies are also some of the best movies ever made. I thoroughly enjoy both of them. But as far as the story itself is concerned, I think the books are far superior to the movies. I know making movies and working with studios and everything is not easy, so I don't blame them for it. They did an amazing job.