08-17-2012, 02:25 AM
|
 |
Moderator
|
|
Join Date: Jul 2009
Gender: 
Posts: 13,311
Thanks: 6,714
Thanked 6,269 Times in 4,082 Posts
|
|
Cool Philosophies in Fantasy Literature
From the Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
Quote:
. . .Whereas to Men he gave strange gifts. . . the hearts of Men should seek beyond the world and should find no rest therein; but they should have a virtue to shape their life, amid the powers and chances of the world, beyond the Music of the Ainur, which is as fate to all things else; and of their operation everything should be, in form and deed, completed, and the world fulfilled unto the last and smallest.
But Ilúvatar knew that Men, being set amid the turmoils of the powers of the world, would stray often, and would not use their gifts in harmony; and he said: ''These too in their time shall find that all that they do redounds at the end only to the glory of my work.' Yet the Elves believe that Men are often a grief to Manwë, who knows most of the mind of Ilúvatar; for it seems to the Elves that Men resemble Melkor most of all the Ainur, although he has ever feared and hated them, even those that served him.
It is one with this gift of freedom that the children of Men dwell only a short space in the world alive, and are not bound to it, and depart soon whither the Elves know not. . . . But the sons of Men die indeed, and leave the world; wherefore they are called the Guests, or the Strangers. Death is their fate, the gift of Ilúvatar, which as Time wears even the Powers shall envy. But Melkor has cast his shadow upon it, and confounded it with darkness, and brought forth evil out of good, and fear out of hope.
|
I love this outlook, and somehow, it seems to have a kind of truth about it.
If I could be a student of one of the Valar, it would be Nienna.
Quote:
|
Mightier than Estë is Nienna, sister of the Fëanturi; she dwells alone. She is acquainted with grief, and mourns for every wound that Arda has suffered in the marring of Melkor. So great was her sorrow, as the Music unfolded, that her song turned to lamentation long before its end, and the sound of mourning was woven into the themes of the World before it began. But she does not weep for herself; and those who hearken to her learn pity, and endurance in hope. Her halls are west of West, upon the borders of the world; and she comes seldom to the city of Valimar where all is glad. She goes rather to the halls of Mandos, which are near to her own; and all those who wait in Mandos cry to her, for she brings strength to the spirit and turns sorrow to wisdom. The windows of her house look outward from the walls of the world.
|
Someone else in the sweeping History that Tolkien created did study with her:
Quote:
Wisest of the Maiar was Olórin. He too dwelt in Lórien, but his ways took him often to the house of Nienna, and of her he learned pity and patience.
Of Melian much is told in the Quenta Silmarillion. But of Olórin that tale does not speak; for though he loved the Elves, he walked among them unseen, or in form as one of them, and they did not know whence came the fair visions or the promptings of wisdom that he put into their hearts. In later days he was the friend of all the Children of Ilúvatar, and took pity on their sorrows; and those who listened to him awoke from despair and put away the imaginations of darkness.
|
Now this was thousands of years before The Lord of the Rings. Who knows this Olórin? LOL! All of you!
From the Lord of the Rings:
Quote:
|
Many are my names in many countries, he said. Mithrandir among the Elves, Tharkűn to the Dwarves; Olórin I was in my youth in the West that is forgotten, in the South Incánus, in the North Gandalf. . ..
|
Good epic fantasy I've found is among other things and embodiment of philosophy.
__________________
“Quod scripsi, scripsi"
"Sometimes, the source of the beautiful dawning light that drives back the darkness, is your house burning"
|
LinkBacks (?)
Linear Mode
