legovanan
i was just reading more into the background of some of Tolkien's works. more specifically, reading about the Teleri, and what many people consider to be canon. this is an excerpt from Professor Tolkien's Letter #144, and i think it holds so true:
"I am doubtful myself about the undertaking. Part of the attraction of the Lord of the Rings is, I think, due to the glimpses of a large history in the background: an attraction like that of viewing far off an unvisited island, or seeing the towers of a distant city gleaming in a sunlit mist. To go there is to destroy the magic, unless new unattainable vistas are again revealed. Also many of the older legends are purely 'mythological', and nearly all are grim and tragic: a long account of the disasters that destroyed the beauty of the Ancient World, from the darkening of Valinor to the Downfall of Númenor and the flight of Elendil."

i love that line "seeing the towers of a distant city gleaming in a sunlit mist." i have a feeling that is going to appear in one of my poems someday, but it puts Minas Tirith so vividly in my mind... o the White City; the flag waving in the distance, swaying with the breeze.. Tower of Ecthelion. o great, i feel like Boromir in 'Lorien. hopefully i won't die the next day.
sometimes, our dreams are best unachieved, bcuz once we do attain it, what next? some of the best places are places we've never been to. it takes some of the magic, the mystery out of it if we've gone. the human imagination is always going to be more beautiful than the actual thing, for we build places and dreams up. sometimes they can live up to it, sometimes not.
it's true that much of the HoMe (History of Middle-Earth) and i include the Silmarillion, the Unfinished Tales, Lays of Beleriand, etc, in there; most of the tales ARE grim and sorrowful, for sorrow and sacrifice is one of Tolkien's primary themes, and it mirrors our life as it is. Tolkien always believed that the Ancient World, before the Industrial Revolution and all this technology was the best world, when all was "green and good", and he often complained that he was born in an England "a century too late", after the Industrial Revolution had taken place, and the beauty had been destroyed. (England is still beautiful, in my opinion. i'd be afraid to see it in the 17th century, if it's been 'destroyed'. it'd be wwwwwaaayyyy too pretty then)
i need to start reading the Letters of Professor Tolkien, bcuz they give alot of background and detail to his tales and his opinions on various themes and stories. i'd like to know what he's getting at with Aldarion and Erendis. His love for the Sea overcoming his love for her, and her idea that the Sea is just another mistress, a crueler and more powerful one than most, for it took away her husband, yet she cannot get him back. Erendis' side is easier to comprehend, but i'd like to know more on the side of Aldarion...
i'll stop now.