The Marquis de Leech

Schrodinger's Wraith: The Status of the Witch-King of Angmar, 15th-25th March T.A. 3019.

Possibly Mardil wanted Earnur to marry one of his own family (Tywin Lannister style), and sent some "advisers" along with Earnur to make sure he didn't get ideas about the Northerners? It's just a hypothesis though.

That would have required Earnur to have a brain. He honestly strikes me as a sort of Middle-earth Robert Baratheon (Mardil being the brains of the operation). Anyway, I've continued my streak of Tolkien re-reads with The Children of Húrin. Reading it back to back with The Silmarillion really does throw into sharp relief the different portrayals of the main character. Túrin is far more sympathetic in the book than the relevant chapter.

Earnur left governing decisions to Mardil... and Mardil is the grandson of the very guy who told Arvedui to get stuffed. So they aren't inviting Aranarth down south. The Stewards knew the line of Isildur were out there (Denethor put two and two together with Thorongil), but "hardened their hearts" on the subject.

Followed up my Rings re-read with a full re-read of the published Silmarillion. If ever there was a book you wish were longer...

Oh, Gildor is my least-favourite character for that very reason. He's there at the Grey Havens three years later, so he's hardly in a rush... would it have killed him to accompany Frodo to Rivendell, or at least Bree? (Tolkien's Quendiphilia grates a bit on occasion, and this is one of those occasions).

It's an interesting question: if Sauron had caught Frodo, and reclaimed the Ring... would Gandalf be culpable? Tolkien would say No, but I'd imagine that Denethor (and George RR Martin, for that matter) would disagree.

Just finished my first full re-read of The Lord of the Rings in many years (and my first since I started doing my own writing). Apart from Books I and VI, it is notable how fast-moving the book is, and even those can move when they want (fun fact: Farmer Maggot appears in the space of three pages). One can see the flaws, however: Merry's decision to serve Theoden because Theoden was polite to him feels extremely forced. Frodo disappears throughout swathes of his own book, while keeping Saruman off-stage (save for a flashback) until his actual defeat feels like a questionable structural decision. Gandalf and Denethor verbally sniping at each other is just brilliant though. Gandalf has had his own way thus far,.. and now runs into an antagonist who is Smarter than the Average Bear.

Knocked off a 4,600 word short story today, so that feels vaguely satisfying.

The Valar become less Greek, in the sense that as time goes on, they become less overtly a squabbling bunch of overly-powerful kindergarteners, and more regal/holy/worthy of respect. In the earliest version, Melko even had support from others in the pantheon,. Numenor's occultism connected with its role as the Atlantis stand-in. Recall where the Atlantis myth comes from - Plato's Timaeus, the founding document of Neoplatonic mysticism, and also recall that early twentieth century occultists were obsessed with Atlantis. By accident or design, there is actually some overlap between the story of Numenor and early twentieth century Theosophy. Not that Tolkien would have studied up on that directly - IIRC, it was a designated heresy - but rather, there were plenty of such ideas floating around the intellectual community at the time. C.S. Lewis liked himself some Yeats, of course, as did Lord Dunsany, and Charles Williams was a bona fide Inkling.

Well, Pagan Neoplatonism did of course consider the Greek Pantheon to be the Demiurge, so in that sense Tolkien could have his cake and eat it too, what with a monotheistic One and a lower demiurgic pantheon. Though I would note that the Valar get a lot less Greek over the course of Tolkien's life. While I generally agree with your mythological reading, I would make some quibbling points: The monotheistic reference post-Ragnarok is clearly a later Christian add-on. The Eddas, after all, were written by Christians. Turin is Sigurd meets Kullervo (Finnish Kalevala), not so much Oedipus. Earendil strikes me as Tolkien engaging with Irish Immram stories and the Voyage of St Brendan (in much the same way as C.S. Lewis does, with Voyage of the Dawntreader). Numenor is actually a quite fascinating case of Tolkien potentially (and almost certainly second or third hand) engaging with contemporary occultism. It's basically ground zero in the legendarium for occult themes.

Oh, I understand the reasoning. It's just that hitherto I had always imagined Denethor with a beard (via Pippin telling us that he looks like a great wizard, and Pippin only having met bearded wizards).

Lockdown means I won't get my paws on The Nature of Middle-earth for a while, but I see there's some natter about Numenorean bear dances. Which I don't think anyone expected. (Oh, and apparently we're getting confirmation that Aragorn - and more surprisingly Denethor - were beardless).

Well, seeing as Milton literally sticks the Greek and Egyptian pantheons in Hell, one can see a difference with Tolkien's Valar...

Milton is the fellow responsible for the popularisation of Evil having a Charismatic Glamour. That's about as far away from Platonic notions of Evil as it is possible to go. (Tolkien actually gives us both: Feanor as Milton's Satan, Morgoth as a Platonised notion of the Devil).

Sending away his girlfriend profoundly upset him. He wasn't a callous monster, but rather someone who had to deal with very real emotions. He was, of course, (North African) Roman, however. Arguing that rape victims were not Defiled Forever struck at the literal heart of Rome's own mythos - he argues that Lucretia's suicide was the murder of an innocent, not something to be celebrated by Rome. So, yes, the guy was progressive there, to the point where he was literally willing to debunk his own nation's "founding myth."

Good grief, there's some serious falsehoods here. Plato believed women should be educated, and had the potential to lead, but that's not feminism, that's simply him being a Spartan fanboy - Sparta having better treatment of women than Athens. On the other hand, as per the Timaeus, he thought that bad people were reincarnated as women. Plato never bad-mouths Xanthippe. The notion that she's a scold comes from Xenophon. Plato's Republic isn't the aristos ruling over the plebs. It's that a class of well-trained Philosophers should rule (who are raised collectively. We're not talking hereditary aristocracy). Though in the Statesman he's keener on a constitutional monarchy with a written law and a Senate. Not defending Aristotle. The guy was Sheldon Cooper in a toga. An insufferable genius. Augustine does think women are inferior, but he's very progressive by the standards of his era. He spends a while in The City of God arguing that female rape victims were not culpable, and were still chaste (sin being a decision of the mind, not a matter of what is going on with the body). The guy also dearly loved his girlfriend. I've got no idea where you're getting the notion that Augustine thought women ought to be blamed for original sin - he's very harsh on both Adam and Eve alike with his notions of original sin. There's a lot to be wary of about Plato (eugenics!) and Augustine ("submit to theocracy, you evil motherfucker"), and Augustine thought that goat's blood dissolved diamond... but they're pretty good (or at least tame) so far as Classical Era misogyny go.

The mythological basis is Christian Platonist, with heavy influences from Germanic myth (plus the various hodge-podges of folklore, Finnish traditions, Welsh, and Classical material. Plus shout-outs to Shakespeare and Rider Haggard, among others. All filtered through Tolkien's personal linguistic interests). The result is a rich and complicated stew. Tolkien (and more especially Lewis) would see nothing contradictory about meshing together Christianity and Plato.

His hatred of Apartheid and the British Empire, and his sympathetic views of Jews, would suggest otherwise. Tolkien was a conservative, of course. But he's really so idiosyncratic that he becomes unclassifiable in any modern sense.

With the Valar, what you're seeing there isn't Christianity, but rather a philosophy that influenced Christianity. Specifically, it's Neoplatonism: the notion of separating out the One (Eru) and the Demiurge (the Valar). Neoplatonism also emphasises that matter is the least real form of existence, and that evil is an absence of good. Boethius goes so far as to think that being evil makes you less real... and it is extremely interesting that Tolkien's Melkor winds up stuck in material form.

Question: did the expression "like a thief in the night" enter English with the King James Bible, or was there some earlier biblical translation? It's occurred to me that the expression shows up once in The Lord of the Rings (Boromir), and is a chapter title of The Hobbit. There would be something gloriously ecumenical about Tolkien the Catholic using an expression from the most famous of all English-language Protestant Bibles - and with Tolkien being a language expert, he would have known the origin.

Mika Waltari. Best known for The Egyptian, but I personally prefer Dark Angel, his fictionalised version of the 1453 Fall of Constantinople.

Coronavirus outbreak in New Zealand might well bugger up the third Bledisloe Cup match.

Latest Old Phuul chapter done. This really is the make or break chapter, in the sense that the authorial gloves come off, and I reveal what, exactly, the protagonist is. I want the reader to think "No, Rhea... don't do it!", not "you sick weirdo," even if she actually is.

The High Kingship is most certainly male line only. (Feanor) > Fingolfin > Fingon > Turgon > Gil-galad It's not a legitimist succession, since Maedhros gives up the claim of his line, but it's clearly the oldest male in the male line. Idril may have been Heir to Gondolin, but not the High Kingship.