When I first read LOTR many, many years ago (I was stationed in what
is now Eritrea, and in sight of the Mountains of Mordor), I didn't
much like the first book, and of that first book, Tom and Goldberry
were my least favorite. I wanted to get on to the epic battles. But as
I aged, something changed. I suppose I've read LOTR at least 10 times,
maybe even more, and I find in my more, ah, mature years, the first
book is by far my favorite, and has been read again a time or two
without bothering to go on to the other two.
Understood is why Tom and Goldberry were left out of the movies, but
less understood is why Peter Jackson decided to leave out The Scouring
of the Shire. To me, that final bit--and the petite battle--before the
finale at the Grey Havens, puts the whole story in a context that
would be (and is, moviewise) missing without it. The Shire has been
changed by events, and Merry, Pippin and Sam have been changed, and
while life returns to something approaching normalcy, it does so in
the knowledge of what happened and more importantly, what might have
happened--never mind the overarching denial of most Hobbits. In a sort
of metaphorical/allegorical way, it reflects what happened throughout
rural Britain in the aftermath of The Great War--except that changes
were far more dramatic in the "real" Britain because so many, many men
were no longer there.
--Bob Whitmire
www.bwp33.com
On Jul 16, 2009, at 7:43 PM, Moose wrote:
> An individual wholly in touch with both bright and dark parts of her/
> his
> psyche and balanced between yin and yang (masc/fem, anima/
> animus ...) is
> not affected by the draw of evil or the battles of good and evil. Tom,
> as representative of Tom/Goldberry, is unaffected by the ring. But if
> Frodo left it with them for safekeeping, they'd just lose it through
> inattention.
--
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