The Hall of Fire

There, now the thread title has something for everyone. I do think that this discussion has been valuable, and can continue to be valuable, though uncomfortable, particularly given the heightened concern about the war given the developments over the past week. However, I continue to believe that tha...

Faramond, you have definitely not ruined the thread. I for one have very much appreciated your contributions, and I think I have made that clear already. I happen to agree with you that bringing up extremes such as Hitler tends to close off reasonable discussion, and I have made that clear already. ...

Okay, we'll try that.

Great post, bt. Really great. Thank you. You really explained what I was trying to get out very well. I think I will go ahead and change the name of the thread. Better late then never.

I have posted in Teremia's brilliant "m00bies reads the b00ks" thread Off-topic: Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could get Teremia to finally finish that journey here? that Denethor's attitude toward Faramir is in part explained by what he perceives as his son's rejection of him in favor o...

The exact quote is from Gandalf, speaking of Denethor:

'He is not as other men of this time, Pippin, and whatever be his descent from father to son, by some chance the blood of Westernesse runs nearly true in him, as it does in his other son, Faramir, and yet did not in Boromir, who he loved best.'

The blood of Númenor runs high in him. That's why he is spiritually wiser than either his father or his brother. But, of course, the blood of Númenor ran high in Denethor, as well. The "blood of Númenor" was a two-edged sword. After all, Ar-Pharazôn was a pure-blood decendent of Elros. Th...

Old_Tom_Bombadil wrote:I believe that Aragorn and Boromir would have stood with Gandalf if they did not have the hobbits to look after.

Indeed, Frodo tells Faramir exactly that.

A question of what was seen as a positive in Bush during the last two elections is a good one, but this is a hard time to think about that, because the cloud of the Iraq war is hanging over this presidency so thoroughly. Hmmmmm? This really made me go back and try to examine why I asked such an of ...

Nice to see you here, Windy! Good points have been made all around, which I think has been helpful in explaining where people are coming from. However, I have to admit that I mostly agree with Faramond. As misguided and destructive as I believe Bush's policies to have been, I can not even begin to c...

I guess it depends on whether one approaches LotR as a collection of historical documents to be pored over and pieced together, or whether one approaches the book itself, at least, as a narrative that ought to be able to stand on its own. Yes, I agree. I certainly do not mean to imply that the latt...

I know, Mith.


"I would not use the Ring. Not if Minas Tirith were falling in ruin and I alone could save her."

My hero.

Now this is a much more difficult thing that Faramir does, but how? Why? What makes him able to do that? That's what I want to know about him, and that's what the book doesn't tell me. He is a Good Guy, and therefore he can and does do the Good Thing. <shrug> It looks easy; how admirable is it? The...

Do I need to move this Faramir discussion to the Shibboleth forum?

Wonderful post, Misha.

I googled Lady Susan, and found no indication that any of it was written by anyone other then Jane Austen.

Going back to the question of Bush admitting mistakes, he probably made the clearest statements to that effect of his entire presidency tonight. From the AP: [Bush] for the first time acknowledged he had erred by failing to order a military buildup last year. "Where mistakes have been made, the...

It was clearly extremely naive of me to think that it would be possible to start a thread about President Bush and not have it turn into a vehicle for Bush-bashing. I think it is fair to say that I oppose what Bush has done (or, more accurately, allowed to have done in his name) as much as anyone, b...

Well said, Faramond.