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PJ - Closer than we think?

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Lord_Morningstar
Post subject: PJ - Closer than we think?
Posted: Fri 30 Dec , 2005 1:10 am
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Joined: Thu 03 Mar , 2005 8:22 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia
 
Here’s a fun little exercise. Note that I’m not being deadly serious.

I often see purists attacking many of PJ’s decisions with regards to the nature of Middle-Earth and its inhabitants. However, were things like the Wizard Duel, Orc Pods, blonde elves and storm on Caradhras really as un-Tolkien as we think?


Wizard Duel

Wizards can’t use telekinesis, can they?

From The Two Towers – The White Rider
Quote:
[Gandalf] lifted his staff, and Gimli’s axe leapt from his grasp and fell ringing on the ground
From Return of the King – The Pyre of Denethor
Quote:
[Gandalf] lifted up his hand, and in the very stroke, the sword of Denethor flew up and left his grasp and fell behind him in the shadows of the house;
Gandalf is able to send Gimli’s axe and Denethor’s sword flying by waving his hand at it. Both incidents involve weapons, but could a wizard conceivably send a person flying with the same sort of magic?


Orc Pods

This one’s a stretch. Still, have a look at The Fall of Gondolin from The Book of Lost Tales:
Quote:
all that race [Orcs] were bred by Melko of the subterranean heats and slime. Their hearts were of granite and their bodies deformed; foul their faces which smiled not, but their laugh that of the clash of metal
Obviously, the bad guys were not creating Orcs in the same way in the Third Age. On top of that, the idea had been abandoned by this stage anyway. Still, in the earliest versions of the legendarium, Melko did originally create the Orcs from ‘slime’. It’s worth noting that some aspects of this idea did stick around – the trolls are often talked about as being made from stone. Originally, trolls were creatures of stone and Orcs creatures of slime. By the time LotR was written, the slime-Orcs idea was long-dead, but PJ’s Orc pods could have existed in Middle-Earth at one stage.


Blonde Elves

Only Vanyar and Elves descended from Finwe are blonde, right? But what about this fellow from Lorien –

From The Fellowship of the Ring – Lothlorien
Quote:
He [Haldir] gave a call like the low whistle of a bird, and out of the young trees and elf stepped, clad in grey, but with his hood thrown back his hair glinted like gold in the morning sun.
Unless I’m mistaken, dark hair does not glint like gold. Likewise, how could a normal, everyday elf from Lorien be of Vanyar descent? He would have been a Sindar or Silvan Elf.


Storm on Caradhras

Wizards can’t chant and change the weather, can they?

Before you answer, ask yourself – how did the White Council drive Sauron from Dol Guldur in 2941?

From The Hobbit – The Last Stage:
Quote:
It appeared that Gandalf had been to a great council of the white wizards, masters of lore and good magic; and they had at last driven the Necromancer from his dark hold in the south of Mirkwood.
To do this, they used the devices of Saruman:

From The Fellowship of the Ring – The Council of Elrond:
Quote:
But Saruman has long studied the arts of the Enemy himself, and thus we have often been able to forestall him. It was by the devices of Saruman that we drove him from Dol Guldur.
What sort of devices would Saruman use to drive Sauron from his fortress? Troops? He had none, save the few men who lived in Isengard, and besides, anyone can command troops. Obviously, whatever he used was only something a powerful wizard could do.

Perhaps it was something similar to the mist of Galadriel?

Unfinished Tales – Cirion and Eorl:
Quote:
[...] For when at last the host drew near to Dol Guldur, Eorl turned away westward for fear of the dark shadow and cloud that flowed out from it, and then he rode on within sight of Anduin. Many of the riders turned their eyes thither, half in fear and half in hope to glimpse from afar the shimmer of the Dwimordene, the perilous land that in legends of their people was said to shine like gold in the springtime. But now it seemed shrouded in a gleaming mist and to their dismay the mist passed over the river and flowed over the land before them.

Eorl did not halt. "Ride on!" he commanded. "There is no other way to take. After so long a road shall we be held back from battle by a river-mist?"

As they drew nearer they saw that the white mist was driving back the glooms of Dol Guldur, and soon they passed into it, riding slowly at first and warily; but under its canopy all things were lit with a clear and shadowless light, while to left and right they were guarded as it were by white walls of secrecy.
The point is, Saruman probably cast some sort of long-range spell to clear out Dol Guldur – perhaps he filled it with light and caused the Orcs and other evil creatures to flee? He would have needed to do so from a great distance – he could hardly stroll into Mirkwood.

***

Something fun to think about (although I doubt any of these connections were intentional). Anyone got any more?

_________________

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