Just reading all that makes me tear up all over again!
I am adding myself to the host of people who felt empty. For ME, for the Elves, for Sam, for the re-broken Fellowship, for LOTR itself, name it - just empty. I don't really like the word "bittersweet", I think "a smile through tears" is a better description for me (although they do mean pretty much the same thing... but I see a small difference...).
Really, I can't complain about the ending. It's beautifully done, and just couldn't have been done better. Also, I prefer sad endings (not necessarily
tragic, but with some element of that) or those with questionmarks over them to "happily-ever-after"s.
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Originally Posted by Lommy
All the three Arda books, LotR, Sil and even TH end with a loss. Yet, there is always something sweet that remains from the past and a new age begins, in good and bad.
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Yes, but The Sil still is more of a tragic work, TH is more of a happy one, and LOTR is " smile through tears" - hopeful but sad, a more gentler sad than The Sil.
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Originally Posted by Lommy
I guess most of the people (like me) would say that the end is neither happy nor sad; it has both kind of elements and you can't categorise it.
The answer which I'm after is however that if you had to say which one it is, what would you say? There can be sad elements in a happy end and happy elements in a sad end.
Is the ending more sad or happy in your opinion?
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I'm part of "most people". I think
Azaelia answered your second question very well:
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Originally Posted by Azaelia
So, I guess I'd say that on a logical level (a level on which I am not particularly good at thinking), the ending of LOTR is a happy one, but on an emotional, intuitive level, it is a sad ending, and it's that element that I feel more.
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I think some quotes from the books would be appropriate:
"The world is indeed ful of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater." ~Haldir
(Although the literal/obvious/physical darkness was brought down, it still remains in different forms in ME. And you could replace "love" with "hope" and get The Grey Havens in a nutshell.)
"Among the tales of sorrow and of ruin that come down to us from the darkness of those days there are yet some in which amid weeping there is joy and under the shadow of death light endures." ~Of Beren and Luthien
I see Gandalf's famous line was already quoted, but I'll do it again:
"I will not say: do not weep, for not all tears are an evil."
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Originally Posted by Gurthang
Tolkien's books end.
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But great tales never end as tales, you know that!
PS: I am against speculating about what happend to Frodo&other mortals in Valinor. It's meant to be left a questionmark - just like Bombadil, and Maglor's fate, and what happened to Ferny, and all other mysteries and enigmas. Knowing the answers to them just ruins everything. It gives you knowledge on the "logical level" - like
Azaelia put it - but it takes away from the emotional level.
PPS: I hope no one will eat me for doing this, but I couldn't help thinking of
Greensleeves when I was writing my post.