March 7, 2004

Thanks Magic Fire and Elendur
Finrod Felagund

I have to thank you for your comments about my article, hope that you have found it usefull. Re-reading Prof. Tolkien's statements about Beorn, he pointed at him and his descendants as the only skin-changers in Middle Earth. Though, Beorn's descendants never changed their shape in the kwown works of Prof. Tolkien. Reading some of the ancient myths of western Europe helped me a lot for understand the background of Middle Earth, and I strongly recomend a book from Lyn Carter "The origin of the Lord of The Rings" as a source of epic masterpieces of Literacy, from Homer's Odissey to Sir Thomas Mallory's "The Death of King Arthur". The book also includes some letters of Prof. Tolkien as well as interviews of him and his closest friends and followers such as C.S. Clark. Another important text to understand the condition of dwarves, elves and the people of Rohan would be the Snorra Edda or the Ancient Edda by Snorri Sturluson. This book contains tales and legends never written before the 10th century, but kwnown through oral tradition untill then. The similarity of the world's order in Prof. Tolkien's work and the world of the Edda is sometimes amazing: Valhalla equals to Valinor, Midgard to Middle Earth, Freyas necklace and the Nauglamir, Tulkas and Thor. Sometimes the grammar, the names of the folk and things and places is so alike that makes you wonder where did all of this came from. Also, the atitude of the Eorlingas. For the ancient norseuropeans the only death worth to have was in battle. That explains Theoden's speech before the battle of the Pelennor and the fact that he took his death so easy. They showed up not to win or to loose, but to die in battle, and that always makes anyone a fearsome warrior. I think that was my favourite part of the film too. In the book, Theoden charged over the commander of the haradrim and wasted him. Untill the war of the ring Theoden hasn't had a chance to prove himself worthy of share the halls of his ancestors 'cause no major war took place during his reign. The Eorlingas where de descendants of the Eotheod, folk from the nort of Rhovanion, and I can't recall right now but I think they are related to the House of Hador. I'll have to check that again. The thing is that the Rohan's where the most "nordic" of the peoples of Middle Earth, and even in the kind of weaponry and armour you can notice that. The Golden Palace of Edoras is a large wooden building just like the viking kings and chiefs used to live in.
Ok, am I the only one wishing that Peter Jackson goes on with a 3 part movie version of The Silmarillion or at least The Hobbit?
'Till next time everyone!