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PotbellyHairyfoot
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Post Chapter quote QS1
on: March 18, 2016 05:24
The dealings of the Ainur have indeed been mostly with the Elves, for Iluvatar made them more like in nature to the Ainur though less in might and stature; whereas to men he gave strange gifts.

Strange gifts indeed! From the viewpoint of the recipients do they really seem to be gifts?
Gandolorin
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on: March 19, 2016 06:27
From this chapter, we are told that Iluvatar gave strange gifts to men, and something about them and the strange gifts given them. WE are told. Who, and when and where, tells any of the things of this chapter to men? Chapter 12, "Of Men", and 17 "Of the Coming of Men into the West" are still before us, though I am certain there was no Oromë for men. Do they even know about these "gifts"? It's all very well for the Quendi to learn about them and perhaps (after centuries, or millennia) to come to certain conclusions from their point of view. What do men even know about their "strange gifts"?
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Neenime
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on: April 02, 2016 09:54
From the viewpoint of Men, I think the gift of that restless ambition and seeking might be a double-edged sword. To never be quite satisfied unless one is accomplishing something can be uncomfortable, yet there can also be an energetic, lively and pleasantly driven element to that. Artists, adventurers and seekers experience it.

Death seems harsh to us in this world and this century, but I think that in other cultures it is an accepted fact. Knowing our temporal limits can imbue life with a sense of urgency and drive that might not be altogether unpleasant.
“Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. I have found that it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love. " Gandalf
Gandolorin
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on: April 04, 2016 04:29
What none of us - and that includes all other cultures known to us, and I'll bet all of the very many we have no knowledge of - had to deal with was what the Three Houses of Men were faced with in Beleriand. The other possibility, of apparently limitless time. Urgency can lead to hastiness and sloppiness. Maybe the Dwarves had a useful middle road, with around 250 years to expect. This is not "eternity" as something unfathomable that some reputed wise men (and more often than recorded history relates women) try to convince us exists. This is Men generations down the line realizing that the Elf an (by now almost becoming legendary) ancestor had met in his time is the same Elf one is currently talking to. Not one of Eru's nicer ideas.
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Neenime
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on: April 06, 2016 09:14
gandolorin- what were you thinking of specifically in your reference to Beleriand?

Sloppiness of haste? Yes that's a possibility, of course.

I wonder if Men felt cheated by this difference in life expectancy. Was the gift perhaps seen as a sentence? Might that have caused resentment and then seeking solace in accumulating honour, lands an d riches, as a form of psychological compensation?
“Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. I have found that it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love. " Gandalf
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