01-13-2013, 08:27 PM | #61 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: The Great White North
|
Re: Fourth Age of Middle Earth gaming
Quote:
The Second Age ended when Sauron lost the Ring, in 3441 S.A. Númenor fell in 3319 S.A.
__________________
How do you keep a fool busy? Turn upside down for answer. ˙ɹǝʍsuɐ ɹoɟ uʍop ǝpısdn uɹnʇ ¿ʎsnq ןooɟ ɐ dǝǝʞ noʎ op ʍoɥ |
|
01-13-2013, 08:27 PM | #62 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Hemet,Ca.
|
Re: Fourth Age of Middle Earth gaming
Quote:
__________________
what is best in life? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamntation of the women. |
|
01-13-2013, 08:32 PM | #63 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Hemet,Ca.
|
Re: Fourth Age of Middle Earth gaming
I blame Tolkien for making it deliberately confusing. Of course, much of the Silmarillion is boringly repetitive, and perhaps Tolkien was making it more like real epics of Antiquity and myths which have that same kind of quality. Also I think it was made to be inconsistant just like many real world myths. Or possibly a bit of an aftersight.
__________________
what is best in life? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamntation of the women. |
01-13-2013, 08:34 PM | #64 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Hemet,Ca.
|
Re: Fourth Age of Middle Earth gaming
Also Why I rely on the people of this forum as many are smarter than I am. :)
__________________
what is best in life? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamntation of the women. |
01-13-2013, 08:44 PM | #65 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: The Enchanted Land-O-Cheese
|
Re: Fourth Age of Middle Earth gaming
Quote:
But you are right that Tolkien was trying to create something like the sagas of old. His original intention was to create a "National Epic" for England, the way Virgil's Aeneid is the National Epic of the Founding of Rome, or Kalevala is the National Epic of Finland; but along the way the story became less about England and more about elves. |
|
01-13-2013, 08:47 PM | #66 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Hemet,Ca.
|
Re: Fourth Age of Middle Earth gaming
Quote:
__________________
what is best in life? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamntation of the women. |
|
01-13-2013, 09:10 PM | #67 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
|
Re: Fourth Age of Middle Earth gaming
The Morte d'Arthur doesn't qualify, because it's in prose; epics are in verse. (Tolkien's elvish mythology was largely written in verse originally.)
Also, Tolkien regarded the Matter of Britain as British (that is, Celtic) rather than English. Though he apparently thought about writing a long poem about the fall of Arthur. I have the impression that he also didn't like the "courtly love" material in the Arthurian stories; his stories celebrate monogamy, not adultery. If there is an English national epic, it's probably Paradise Lost, though The Faerie Queene might be a contender. Bill Stoddard |
01-13-2013, 09:15 PM | #68 |
Join Date: Feb 2007
|
Re: Fourth Age of Middle Earth gaming
|
01-13-2013, 09:23 PM | #69 | |
Join Date: Feb 2007
|
Re: Fourth Age of Middle Earth gaming
Quote:
The problem is that (among other things) first the Viking invasions and then the Norman Conquest wiped out a lot of Anglo-Saxon (English in the original sense) oral tradition, literature, and custom. For a couple of centuries after that, the aristocracy of England spoke French, French became a significant influence on English linguistically, and the older Anglo-Saxon culture was overlaid and intermixed with a Normal/French/Viking version. That left England with a hole in its ancient legends. Heck, big parts of the Arthurian cycle owe as much to French influence as Celtic. Tolkien was fascinated by the linguistic evidence of the common roots of most of the 'northern' myth-patterns and legends, for ex the various words used by the Germanic peoples for 'elf', and the role of dragons in those legends. Presumably the Anglo-Saxons had their versions of those common legends and stories...but we don't really know because those stories were lost. |
|
01-13-2013, 09:30 PM | #70 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
|
Re: Fourth Age of Middle Earth gaming
Quote:
Bill Stoddard |
|
Tags |
lotr, tolkien |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|