Suprising quotes in the LOTR

Originally Posted by Eomer of the Rohirrim

But isn't that what happens when peoples are separated? I find it quite sad.

It seems to me that the mental capacity of elves is very brittle.

[Folwren]

Oh, yes, there were quotes that surprised me! This one that I'm about to put out made me stop reading for a moment and re-read it several times just to make sure it was there.

Originally said by Gorbag in the TT, in the last part of The Choices of Master Samwise:
There's someone loose hereabouts as is more dangerous than any other damned rebel that ever walked since old times. . .

I certainly wasn't expecting the swear word, and therefore it was surprising.

At least it wasn't Sam or anybody else.

--Folwren

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

But isn't the point that, once evil had re-entered the world, even the Elves were split into different, even unfriendly, groups? It's not so much about the weakness of Elves; more about the terrible effects of evil.

[Folwren]

Originally Posted by Eomer of the Rohirrim

But isn't the point that, once evil had re-entered the world, even the Elves were split into different, even unfriendly, groups? It's not so much about the weakness of Elves; more about the terrible effects of evil.

Aren't you straying from the point of this thread?

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Not at all. It would be a shame to just list those things one finds surprising. Far better to discuss and share ideas, wouldn't you say?

Originally Posted by Eomer of the Rohirrim

But isn't the point that, once evil had re-entered the world, even the Elves were split into different, even unfriendly, groups? It's not so much about the weakness of Elves; more about the terrible effects of evil.

Which elves do you know of that strayed to evil?

[SarumanCymraeg]

Originally Posted by Mansun

Which elves do you know of that strayed to evil?

There are one or two, though they are rare. There was one quite evil Elf in the Silmarillon but his name doesn't spring to my mind. And can you imagine Galadriel if she had taken the ring?

But I don't think EotR was trying to say that many Elves were evil, but rather that the effects of evil had as much effect on the Elves as, say, the Dwarves, in that different Elves estranged from each other (it has been suggested, for example, that Mirkwood and Lorien weren't over-friendly, and going back to the First Age there are many different splits among Elves).

I read this in this (http://www.istad.org/tolkien/legolas.html) article about Legolas. It's quite an interesting theory, if theory it is. It might help answer Mansun's question to a degree as well

In comments in his later letters and writings, Tolkien reveals a startling political divide between Lórien and Mirkwood, almost as great as that between Elves and Dwarves. Galadriel was an exile of the High-Elves (but had lived in Doriath among the Sindar); Celeborn was (in most accounts) a Sindarin kinsman of the King of Doriath. In the Second Age lived in Hollin for a while and visited Lórien often, when it was ruled by another Sindarin King and a friend of Oropher's (Amdir, father of the Amroth we hear about in the Lay of Nimrodel). While the Silvan folk of Lórien welcomed them, Oropher and his people did not. I have a feeling he was not at all happy when Galadriel, who was never free of her cravings for dominion until her showdown with Frodo, started wearing one of the Three Ruling Rings in S.A. 1590. I suspect this was when Oropher decided to make tracks:


"The Elvish folk of this realm had migrated from the south, being the kin and neighbors of the Elves of Lórien; but they had dwelt in Greenwood the Great east of Anduin. In the Second Age their king, Oropher [the father of Thranduil, father of Legolas], had withdrawn northward beyond the Gladden Fields. This he did to be free from the power and encroachments of the Dwarves of Moria, which had grown to be the greatest of the mansions of the Dwarves recorded in history; and also he resented the intrusions of Celeborn and Galadriel into Lórien. On Galadriel and Celeborn, UT: 270. "


Apparently Legolas does not know about these family politics, or at least, he never seems to have any misgivings about Galadriel and Celeborn. He doesn't think about why he has been raised as a Wood-elf rather than Sindar. That's just what he is.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

What SC said.

It's not that the Elves strayed to evil but that evil strayed to them.

[The Sixth Wizard]

There's someone loose hereabouts as is more dangerous than any other damned rebel that ever walked since old times. . .

What I find strange about this is not the swearing but the fact that the orcs speak as if they really remember the 'old times'. Are orcs immortal? Someone give me a hyperlink.

[Essex]

Originally Posted by Mansun

Which elves do you know of that strayed to evil?

The term Kinslaying comes to mind!!!!!!!!!

[Macalaure]

Originally Posted by Essex

The term Kinslaying comes to mind!!!!!!!!!

Exactly! If the Teleri wouldn't have strayed to evil, they would have given the Noldor their ships, and so wouldn't have been slain.

Originally Posted by Macalaure

Exactly! If the Teleri wouldn't have strayed to evil, they would have given the Noldor their ships, and so wouldn't have been slain.

Is it possible that Elves ever served Sauron in Mordor? What about Dwarves?