Wk7 Bk5 Ch9: Human Failure and Decline

[Stormrider]

From: Stormridr (Original Message) Sent: 4/27/2003 10:04 PM

Minas Tirith by Alan Lee

"Copyright Alan Lee. All Rights Reserved"

Legolas and Gimli enter the city of Minas Tirith and make a few comments on what they observe:

Gimli stalked beside him [Legolas], stroking his beard and staring about him. 'There is some good stone-work here.' he said as he looked at the walls; 'but also some that is less good, and the streets could be better contrived. When Aragorn comes into his own, I shall offer him the service of stonewrights of the Mountain, and we will make this a town to be proud of.'

'They need more gardens,' said Legolas. 'The houses are dead, and there is too little here that grows and is glad. If Aragorn comes into his own, the people of the Wood shall bring him birds that sing and trees that do not die.'

After they encounter Prince Imrahil and exchange a few words, they continue with their assessment:

'That is a fair lord (Imrahil) and a great captain of men,' said Legolas. 'If Gondor has such men still in these days of fading, great must have been its glory in the days of its rising.'

'And doubtless the good stone-work is the older and was wrought in the first building,' said Gimli. 'It is ever so with the things that Men begin: there is a frost in Spring, or a blight in Summer, and they fail of their promise.'

'Yet seldom do they fail of their seed,' said Legolas. 'And that will lie in the dust and rot to spring up again in times and places unlooked-for. The deeds of men will outlast us, Gimli.'

'And yet come to naught in the end but might-have-beens, I guess,' said the Dwarf.

Were Legolas and Gimli being presumptuous or optimistic thinking that Aragorn would become king and wish them to help repair and beautify Minas Tirith?

As an Elf, Legolas must have been familiar with Nimloth, which was descended from the Tree of the High Elves, Galathilion, which was derived from the elder of the Two Trees of the Valar. Why would he make a comment that he would bring "trees that do not die" to the City?

Was he able to get his hands on other trees of similar descent that would satisfy Gondor's reverence for the dead tree?

Did Legolas believe that there were no other trees of such high esteem in Middle Earth and was offering to bring the best of what the Elves did have?

What are Legolas and Gimli trying to tells us about men and their works?

Is there a difference between human works and those of Dwarves and Elves?

[Stormrider]

From: Merlin the mad Sent: 4/28/2003 2:34 PM
J. R. R. Tolkien said that the work of Elves is like "embalming:" they try to preserve what is dear to them and stave off the ravages of time. Dwarves work to create treasures with their hands from the rare metals of the earth: and they work best with stone underground to make their halls. Men do not concentrate on either of these things, but love power best. Their work is always toward increasing their own prestige and power: their buildings and gardens and all works of their hands are toward impressing outsiders, and showing their subjects that their lords are capable and to be feared as well as reverenced for their greatness. Men can "ape" the works of the Dwarves and Elves, and even rival them in some things, but all the greatness in stone or gardens that Gimli and Legolas saw were rightly observed to be shadows of a former greatness, and the lost or faded learning of a by-gone age when Gondor enjoyed the knowledge of the Numeroreans, which was essentially elvish knowledge.

MtM