Well I typed for a while and then lost it when i tried to paste in a link to somebagpipe music. Its not that the world really needs to read what i was thinking. mostly I was complaining about the holiday. so much to buy so little time (or cash).
So wednesday is the release date of Two Towers. I wonder what Tolkien would think. I was quite affected by the books when I first read them, and I felt real loss when the author died in '73 I was in fifth grade and I had read the books only a year before.
A friend asked me quite recently if i thought that Tolkiens work was basically a Christian story. She was trying to resolve an argument she had heard from her in-laws or some other smug religious types. They apparently also argued that the whole thing was basically an allegory for WWII. Tolkien of course went on record to say LoTR was not an Allegory, (and its outline was draughted in 1936.) Tolkien's Christianity clearly asserts itself in the books, but he also left out direct references to rites, temples, or reigious practices. Additionally the equation of any character to Christ would be rather heretical. The crucial moral value in the story si the Pity that Frodo shows Gollum, which in turn allows Gollum to play his part in the destruction of the ring. I recomended that she check out C.S.Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia for some more strongly Christian fantasy.

A! Elbereth Gilthoniel!
silivren penna míriel
o menel aglar elenath!
We still remember, we who dwell
In this far land beneath the trees,
Thy starlight on the Western Seas.