June 28, 2002

Courage
Brett C.

Dave M., I thought your article on courage was very much in the bullseye; Gandalf even says in the last debate that the commanders of the west are better off perishing in battle before the balck gate to give the ring-bearer any chance than cling to life but know all chance of besting Sauron will be gone. Though perhaps this point jibes more with sacrifice, another important theme in the book.

It's been a while since I raised this point, but the article on Sauron the deceiver and tempter brought the issue back up in my mind; that is that at the end of the first age the Valar suck at getting a handle on the dark powers [I can already hear Annatar giggling].

Seriously though, Eonwe lets Sauron slip right through his fingers. He actually had him in custody and then all the explanation we get is that Sauron ran off and hid, and nobody notices until they were back in Aman. Huh?!!! Come on. If this had been Goering at the end of WW2, no way would the American forces have let him out of their sight once they had him, and they sure as shootin' would've turned over every stone in Europe to find him if he had managed to slip away.

Now I've got a lot of admiration for the Powers, but you can't get away from the fact that as far as collaring Sauron is concerned they make a muck of it from start to finish, and I have trouble escaping the conclusion that a lot of innocent Middle Earth dwellers pay the price for their ham-fisted approach. Sauron isn't just giving the folks in LOTR a venue for the excercise of free will - he's a meglomaniacal sociopath with the magical equivalent of a small nuclear arsenal. The Valar are just lucky they had one Maiar in Olorin who could actually get the job done.