The Gold Plated Ambulance

[Sava]

I thought LOTR was about WW2.

[Elok]

I thought LOTR was about WW2.

It is, if you squint really hard and ignore all the parts that are different. If you highlight those parts instead, it's a lengthy plea for the rights of "little people."

[Sava]

So Jews are the Hobbits?

[MRT144]

Please, the hobbits never kept kosher, what with that elven bread.

[Ben Kenobi]

There. That fits the story at least as well as a WWII allegory--better, in places--and makes sense in that Tolkien was a medievalist. But Tolkien, to my knowledge, never mentioned anything like this. The only allusions to Byzantium in the story are the "dromunds," used exclusively by the Enemy, and possibly the evil Variags (Wiki claims they were modeled on the Varangian Guard). Furthermore, Tolkien was a Catholic living in the West during a time when the "effete Oriental despots" view of Byzantium still held sway in most scholarship. So it's all crap. The fact that it fits the narrative so well is almost certainly coincidence, and says far more about me than about Tolkien or the world he created.

Not crap at all. Half of an ancient kingdom falls, half survives on for many years. Gondor as Byzantium is very clear, and Tolkien himself said this.

Rohan are the English - Old English is the base of their language - settling lands left by Gondor that Gondor could not protect. .

[kentonio]

Kinda.

In the south Gondor rises to a peak of power, almost reflecting Númenor, and then fades slowly to decayed Middle Age, a kind of proud, venerable, but increasingly impotent Byzantium.

[notyoueither]

I used to think I was getting mental exercise in swatting down illogical and poorly constructed arguments or at least being humorous but I realize now that I'm wasting my time on one person who doesnt deserve another second of it.

We have a winner!

[Elok]

Huh. Who'd'a thunk it? Thanks, you two!

[Elok]

So Jews are the Hobbits?

No, but Tolkien did write a really nasty letter to a German literary agent who dared to ask him about his ancestry. It's pretty awesome, actually; I've posted it on here before.

[Sava]

ze germans!

[The Mad Monk]

Not crap at all. Half of an ancient kingdom falls, half survives on for many years. Gondor as Byzantium is very clear, and Tolkien himself said this.

Rohan are the English - Old English is the base of their language - settling lands left by Gondor that Gondor could not protect. .

Oh please. The hobbits are the English, complete with their self-satisfaction and false sense of security.

[DinoDoc]

I thought LOTR was about WW2.

The author didn't think so.

[Sava]

Good for him.

[Berzerker]

You think it's selfish for a husband or wife to want their husband or wife to remain faithful to them while they are alive?

of course...how could you condemn your loved one to years and years of anguish?

you wouldn't expect your wife to wait either and Schiavo waited almost a decade before entering the process to pull the plug and that took another ~7 years, thats 15 years he waited - and you called him a cheater because he eventually remarried. And I think he knows better than you how she felt.

now back to LOTR, I was wondering how that became relevant

[The Mad Monk]

I thought LOTR was about WW2.

No, no. WWZ.