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The X Phial · 04-29-2001, 01:12 PM

<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Wight
Posts: 134</TD><TD><img src=http://www.jamestbaker.com/cec/X-Files-01.gif WIDTH=60 HEIGHT=60></TD></TR></TABLE>
Re: Re: Galadriel

You can understand the distance between elves and men without having read the Silmarillion. I charaterize it thusly to myself. From the point of view of the Elven, Men were short-lived and unaware of nature. They did not give the same reverence to the Valar (gods) becuase to all living men in the Third Age, the Valar were but an abstraction and stories. They probably thought of men as we would think of adolescents. We respect them as people, but know much that they do not.

Men on the other hand, probably found Elves to be strange and mysterious. Elves don't die, they have elaborate ceremonies, they are much more in touch with nature, and they are more aware (at least in the case of the leaders) of the divinity of the Valar. They also probably find them cold and arrogant, which makes sense from the point of view that they were mostly being treated like adolescents. Also, the Elven were pretty few and far between by the Third Age (when the Lord of the Rings takes place) and as such were even more magical and unknowable. Galadriel was among the eldest of all in Middle Earth and as such her name would have been in tales out of Gondor and heard by the Rohirrim, much more so than Celeborn's would have. I would imagine that the men who strayed into Lorien were changed in ways that made them more elf-life and mysterious, thus frightening.

-*-The X Phial-*- "Yet more fair is the living land of Lorien, and the Lady Galadriel is above all the jewels that lie beneath the earth!"</p>

04-29-2001, 01:12 PM	#7
The X Phial Shade of Carn Dûm Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Out there with the truth. Come find me. Posts: 320	<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Wight Posts: 134</TD><TD><img src=http://www.jamestbaker.com/cec/X-Files-01.gif WIDTH=60 HEIGHT=60></TD></TR></TABLE> Re: Re: Galadriel You can understand the distance between elves and men without having read the Silmarillion. I charaterize it thusly to myself. From the point of view of the Elven, Men were short-lived and unaware of nature. They did not give the same reverence to the Valar (gods) becuase to all living men in the Third Age, the Valar were but an abstraction and stories. They probably thought of men as we would think of adolescents. We respect them as people, but know much that they do not. Men on the other hand, probably found Elves to be strange and mysterious. Elves don't die, they have elaborate ceremonies, they are much more in touch with nature, and they are more aware (at least in the case of the leaders) of the divinity of the Valar. They also probably find them cold and arrogant, which makes sense from the point of view that they were mostly being treated like adolescents. Also, the Elven were pretty few and far between by the Third Age (when the Lord of the Rings takes place) and as such were even more magical and unknowable. Galadriel was among the eldest of all in Middle Earth and as such her name would have been in tales out of Gondor and heard by the Rohirrim, much more so than Celeborn's would have. I would imagine that the men who strayed into Lorien were changed in ways that made them more elf-life and mysterious, thus frightening. --The X Phial-- "Yet more fair is the living land of Lorien, and the Lady Galadriel is above all the jewels that lie beneath the earth!"</p> __________________ But then there was a star danced, and under that was I born.