Posted on 09/15/2010 3:24:20 PM PDT by warpsmith
In the midst of piles of Lord of the Rings merchandise on every shelf, Tolkien’s wisdom is applied to just about everything — Tolkien and industrialization, Tolkien and communism, Tolkien and religion, etc. What’s surprising, especially in today’s hypersensitive post-Gloria Steinem world, is the dearth of commentary on Tolkien and women.
(Excerpt) Read more at freerepublic.com ...
Same woman? Wow indeed. Incredible, great find.
Is this the same Christine O’Donnell that won the Republican primary in Delaware last night?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorfindel
She spells “Glorfindel” as “Glorfindal”.
How did the republican muck diggers miss that?
Interesting she was on FReepers radar (in a good way) way back then.
Maybe that’s why Rove hates her. Being a Dwarf, his people never did like elves much, so I suppose also not liking those who write about elves.
“Which just goes to show, you really CAN do anything with a Harvard degree.” (#17)
Uhm...
Of course, the reason that Tolkein wrote so little about women in the story, is because the story was concieved during the overshadowing experience of Tolkein’s (and C.S. Lewis’) life, the first world war.
There weren’t a lot of women in the trenches or on the battlefields.
If you examine the campaigns in LOTR, they line up in scope and movements similar to the real life war Tolkein fought through.
Did you hear her asking Hillary Clinton for her support. She gave really high kudos to Clinton last night
Women of Middle-Earth: A Discussion of J.R.R. Tolkien's Depiction of Women
She missed two!
Rose Cotton
and
Eoreth herbswoman.
Eoreth was my favorite! “’The hands of the King are the hands of a healer’ I said, and that was how it was all figured out, and Gandalf, he said “long will men remember your words Eoreth””.
Rose Cotton wasn't bad either, loved her “Well you sure took your time getting back!” to Sam and her ironic “Don't lose him (Frodo) now that things are starting to get dangerous!” Sam didn't know what to say to THAT one! After Mordor and RingWraiths, some ruffians in the Shire were rather small change!
All writers have limitations
I assumed that this was one of his
I've read those book >15 times, always loved them
I thought Jackson actually did a good job of
“fleshing out” the female characters in this epic tale
and where he deviated from the story line,
he generally did well
I missed Goldberry and Tom Bombadil however
ping
I really don’t see Tolkein as minimizing the role of women in his book. Arwen + Aragorn, the idea that an immortal woman would give herself so fully to a man that she would cede her immortality to marry him.
Eowyn, and her desire to fight on the battlefield, that she would not be left to defend the home, to the point where she KILLS the Witchking of Angmar, the most powerful of the Ringwraiths.
Galadriel, the most powerful of all the Elven Queens, who passes up on the ring when Frodo offers it to her freely.
The women all play pivotal roles in his book.
That’s pretty good for 1945.
An oldie but goodie.
Gladriel is one of the best characters. She redeemed herself by not taking the ring. She was of the Noldor elves that betrayed the Valar and were cast out in exile into Middle Earth, moreover she was one of those abandoned by Faenor to make their way over the crushing ice.
Her song, asking “what ship will bear me now” is the lament of a fallen Angel, mourning for the Heaven she had renounced. She was borne back across that wider sea!
I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew:
Of wind I sang, a wind there came and in the branches blew.
Beyond the Sun, beyond the Moon, the foam was on the Sea,
And by the strand of Ilmarin there grew a golden Tree.
Beneath the stars of Ever-eve in Eldamar it shone,
In Eldamar beside the walls of Elven Tirion.
There long the golden leaves have grown upon the branching years,
While here beyond the Sundering Seas now fall the Elven-tears.
O Lórien! The Winter comes, the bare and leafless Day;
The leaves are falling in the stream, the River flows away.
O Lórien! Too long I have dwelt upon this Hither Shore
And in a fading crown have twined the golden elanor.
But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?
Fromn that article’s (seven-year-old!) description of O’Donnell in FreeRepublic.com:
“© Copyright 2003 Catholic Exchange
Christine O’Donnell serves as Director of Communications for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. She has been described as sassy, stubborn and sweet, and by those who disagree with her as “the girl you hate to love.” This young woman who National Review Magazine says “blends the flare of the Bible with Cosmopolitan,” shatters the stereotype about her generation. Her frequent television appearances include ABC’s Politically Incorrect, MTV, CNN, C-SPAN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC and CNBC.”
Groundbreaking news that O'Donnell has made inroads into the geek community, a much larger % of the population than the Greek community!
Eowyn is gorgeous and likable whether middle-earth or not.
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