In Unfinished Tales , in the chapter The Istari, Manwe asks Olorin (Gandalf) to be the third messenger to Middle Earth, as an answer to the reawakening of Sauron. Olorin was noted for being the wisest of all the Maiar, and he remarked that he was "too weak for such a task, and that he feared Sa...

I'm close: I think that the Government giving anyone a sacrament is un-Constitutional. Civil Union contracts for all! (Then you can go get your sacraments at the temple, church, etc., of your choice.) That's a good point. Personally, I don't view marriage as a holy or divine covenant, I see it as a...

Since Av says so..

Christopher. Just as with The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and the 12-volume History of Middle-earth series. It's always been my understanding that Christopher Tolkien has served as a curator, of sorts, of his father's papers and has organized them into publishable, mostly scholarly works. Certai...

Christopher didn't write any of this...it's edited material from his father's papers.

So was the Balrog - all Balrogs were fallen Maia, which I assume you know.

I don't recall seeing anything about Maiar acting against each other, but it's certainly interesting. Cool! More research.

If someone calls me a faggot and swings at me, I am entirely within my rights to spill them onto the ground. If someone calls me a faggot and swings at me, I am NOT within my rights to spill them to the ground and then stop on their thraot. You use the MINIMUM require force to subdue an opponent an...

Emotional Leper wrote:More like "People who have gotten over High School Melodramatics" Fetish.

I share that fetish.

Does anyone know which of the many, many books written *about* Tolkien and Middle-earth specifically focus on, or have a good section on, Tolkien's definition and relationship (as a writer) with evil? I was rethinking an earlier assertion made by both SRD and myself in the GI - that Sauron is evil p...

On page 269 of the hardocver movie version, Gandalf says to Elrond: Even if you chose for us an elf-lord, such as Glorfindel, he could not storm the Dark Tower, nor open the road to the Fire by the power that is in him. But still--if I were heading up a group to send against the inestimable might of...

I just can't wait to hear some poor gay guy griping about how he's getting shafted in his divorce. Y'all should be careful what you wish for. :lol: How strange to hope for someone's unhappiness - or to think that such contempt is funny. Gay long-term relationships, like heterosexual long-term marri...

The sanctity of marriage argument was also used by certain groups who didn't think African Americans should marry Caucasians. But, is this the same sanctity that allows two idiots to run off in a drunken stupor and tie the knot in Vegas, only to divorce days later? And the same sanctity that has a 5...

If these new estimates are correct, that's great news. There has been concern about the increase of HIV infection in India, China, Thailand, and other Asian countries. Thailand can't afford to offer top tier medication to their people, and many are being given drug combos that don't include any of t...

Blaming Reagan for the AIDS pandemic is a little myopic. Suffice it to say that the gay community initially didn't do themselves a whole lot of favors, and neither did the government. That said, the gay community has done a fabulous (I kid, I kid the gays) job since with education and condom use. I...

Ah, it's been ages since I've read the books. I'll have to brush up.

Glorfindel would have helped a bit against the Balrog! But I suppose that his "power" would have announced their arrival in Mordor before they spoke melon and entered.

Tyler's The New Tolkien Companion has a good "article" on Glorfindel, specifically addressing the multiple personality issue. Has anyone ever wondered why Glorfindel wasn't one of the Fellowship? Even though he was slain by a Balrog, to say that you have battled a Balrog--actually engaged ...

I appreciated the extra details...and absolutely loved the book. So much so that I bought the collector's edition in the slipcover. For posterity. And to satisfy my nerdish needs to own all things Tolkien, even if some are unread. I reviewed the book on Amazon, and gave it five stars. www.amazon.com...

(takes a long time to get over that indoctrination, dudden it! ;) ) It does. Although I am firmly agnostic, I still find myself making excuses for people who make ridiculous decisions based on faith. When watching Jesus Camp, an interesting documentary on the indoctrination of children into some ra...

The multiple POVs you mentioned are why I put AFFC down. I didn't remember who everyone was, and didn't have the time then to reread ASoS. I'm almost not looking forward to reading it, but know it's necessary to get to ADwD which should be compelling reading. I've never been all that crazy about Dae...