Good article by Demosthenes over on TORN
http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2012/12 ... dle-earth/
Galadriel the Political Manipulator
Galadriel the Political Manipulator
The Vinyamars on Stage! This time at Bag End
- Voronwë the Faithful
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- narya
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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.
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.
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. ~ Albert Camus
- axordil
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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?
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?
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Thousand-year juice cleanses.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King