July 12, 2003

Re: Mithril Miner and Warg
Feanaro

While I too think it would be a shame to remove Grima's hand from the death of Saruman, I have to disagree with the idea that it has anything to do with there being some good left in Grima. I always thought it was more a matter of a beat dog will bite back sooner or later, evil begets evil, etc.. Grima's motives in the book, as far as I saw it, were purely selfish. He was tired of being treated like dirt by Saruman and when he saw his chance he took it. If it were merely a matter of having a good side one would think he would have left Saruman when the fellowship met them on the road.

I think it is an interesting notion having a second one(two?) ring forged to counter Saruman. My one quibble with this is one of the great things about the book is that the fellowship doesn't have Saruman's power and have to out-think him instead of just going into a head to head war. It seems to me it would just make for one huge battle where they meet and beat the heck out of each other until the good guys win. It's pretty much a constant in the sagas and folklore Tolkien was inspired by that the heroes were outmanned and had to overcome unbeatable odds to be victorious. I think that's a large part of what makes the story interesting and the characters heroic.

Feanaro