Lord of the Rings and Philosophy @ Concordia University Wisconsin

[Dûrbelethwen]

It is the opinion of my philosophy professor that in Lord of the Rings the places are just as important as the characters.
There was a "genius" of the places which menas the guardian or spirit of a place
Other worlds/ realms/ lands open our minds and hearts to new possibilities.
Places are a background to characters and some characters are shaped by places.
The Shire: It is like a state of being- it has a childlikeness, it has a preciousness if it was lost it would be a loss to Middle Earth.
The Old Forest: It seems to be seperated from the rest of Middle Earth, Old Man Willow is sort of like the Mob-boss of the old forest, it wants to be itself,
Bree: has a sense of transvence (we did not spend a lot of time on Bree)
Rivendell: etheral, a place of refuge, also serious-place of healing and coucil. It is a spiritual fortess and it can be compared to those places (Rohan and Gondor) that are not and what happened to their leaders.
Moria: It feels like a large tomb, compare the look and the sound of the two names Moria and Mordor, it warns people against greed because trouble always occured because of a search of wealth- both material wealth and knowledge as when the enemy army can uppon the fellowship because Gandalf took time to read the tales in Moria.
Lothlorien: compare the lighter feel of the word versus Moria, it feels that it has its own time-eternal, the Mallorn trees seem to be symbolic of the elves who are in their decline like the leaves but as the leaves they are hanging on until the new people come in. The temptation of Galadriel is more poignant because she would have been able to perseve Lothlorien with the ruling ring.
Isengard: should have been a place of safety but has been taken.