[VanimaEdhel]

Any time anyone mispronounces anything or incorrectly describes something in my school, I have the habit of correcting their pronunciation, then going into a history of the derivation of the name, then the entire story around the person or thing.

Then, in history class, on Halloween I was dressed as an Elf. That prompted a boy I know to say, "Anyway, what's with Middle Earth? Is there an Upper Earth or something?" and my teacher to say, "You know, I went to see that with my dad. At one point he leaned over and said to me, 'I wish I had that ring so I could disappear right now!' He was right! It was so pointless!"

My response was first to ask my teacher if he read the books, to which he responded, "Of course not!" I responded that of course he did not understand the movie then, as they left many key elements out.

Then, I addressed the guy, saying, "Well, no, there are not 'Upper Lands' and the like, but there is Valinor, which is part of Aman, the Undying Lands. The Vala live there. Manwe, Ulmo, Melkor, Yavanna, Varda: they are all Vala. They are gods of sorts. Well, Iluvatar or Eru is the ultimate god, but he is more of a presence. Then, there are also Maia, such as Gandalf. He was of the Istari, which are Maia, or demi-gods. The Balrog was also a Maiar. They were actually once good before Melkor, often referred to as Morgoth, turned them through false promises and the like..."

Then, my teacher cut me off... [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] I would have gone through the entire Silmarillion if he had let me. My excuse is that technically this is history, just history of something that doesn't exist!