[Child of the 7th Age]

Did my reading of Silm diminish my opinion of the greatness of the characters in LotR? Absolutely, positively no. The reading of Silm made me realize that the characters in LotR accomplished things which no other folk in the entire history of Middle-earth accomplished, even though they lacked the great valor and strength and wisdom of the ancient heroes. That is incredible to me.

I would ask you to look at things from a totally different point of view.

First of all, compared with LotR, the Silm is a tragedy of cosmic proportions. There is very little victory here. Yes, the Silm is filled with Valar and Elves. They are representative figures whose valor, strength, and brains can not be matched in LotR.

But the Silm is filled with tragedy after tragedy. There are few clear cut victories, even though the tale goes on for thousands of years. Look at the War of the Jewels....the only ones who really made a dent in Morgoth's power were Beren and Luthien. They managed to wrest away one of the Silmarils. Other than that, what was really accomplished? A prodigious number of Elves and Men were slain. It was only when the Valar took pity on their plight and directly intervened that Morgoth was finally overthrown.

The great men of Numenor similarly fell into evil ways. Because of their sacrilege, Eru decided to uproot the evil by sweeping away the island forever.

Just compare this with the poor folk of the LotR. In terms of individual greatness, they were no match for the wondrous Elves and even men of the First and Second Age. Yet, in a few short years, and with only minor intervention by a maia and the occasional element of divine providence, the hobbits and men of the Third Age succeeded in doing what those in the Silm were unable to do. They brought both fgures of evil --Sauron and Saruman--to their knees. And the chief agent of this was the humblest of all, a simple hobbit.

When you read LotR, you must stress not who the characters are, but what they did. And by that standard, they tower over all others, including those in Silm. It was a clear case where those who came after did what their ancestors could not, even though their own gifts were much smaller. That, to me, is mind boggling.

When I read Silm, I am constantly amazed at the wondrous individual feats and feel there is no way that I could ever match up to such folk. But when I look at Frodo and Sam, or even Aragorn, I can identify much more closely with them and believe that even the smallest can succeed where the great and mighty have failed. It is a feeling which is both humbling and inspiring.

[ January 17, 2003: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]