Galadriel the Political Manipulator

Post by **Alatar** » Mon Dec 24, 2012 10:42 am

Good article by Demosthenes over on TORN

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2012/12 ... dle-earth/

Mon Dec 24, 2012 4:02 pm

That's a good article, and consistent with how I felt Galadriel was presented in the film.

Post by **narya** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 6:32 am

First let me have a little geek out moment, that I, and millions of others, are reading a blog about politics by Demosthenes, just as Orson Scott Card predicted they would, back in 1985, in Ender's Game, before there were blogs, or a WWW that everyone was plugged into, and it seemed so far fetched.

But back to the point of the blog - that Galadriel sought a power base in Middle Earth. When I think of traditional power bases here on modern earth, I think of the guys with the bigger armies and the better guns being the guys with power. Yes, there was a great wars in the earlier ages, but by the Third Age, Rivendell and Lórien looked like spa retreats. Traditional power bases also tend to be the ones with natural resources to exploit. I saw no evidence, in books or movies, of food crops, fiber crops, ranching, mining, transportation, energy production, or any other means of gaining material goods for the citizens or for export. Perhaps they got their dollars from ecotourism.

Post by **axordil** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 3:52 pm

It's true, the elves always do come off a bit like the lilies of the field. You never see them producing anything one actually needs to live. Like food.

Men, dwarves and hobbits all have at least some sort of economy going. Even orcs had the slave-maintained farms in the scenic southwestern corner of Mordor. Elves? No visible means of support.

Mana from heaven?

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 5:57 pm

Thousand-year juice cleanses.

Post by **axordil** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 11:21 pm

I guess all the lembas does tend to bind things up over the eons...

Post by **Holbytla** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 9:30 pm

The elves have had eons to attain knowledge and physical prowess without the worry of aging or becoming ill. Imagine what you could accomplish with 10,000 centuries at your disposal. You would have at least mastered life's mundane chores and had time enough to learn to walk over snow to boot.