Anyone seen The Battle of the Five Armies yet?

[Dawn Marie]

Anyone seen the last of the second trilogy...The Battle of the Five Armies yet?  I finally saw it the other day and it was phenomenal.  Hands down the best of all six L.O.T.R. movies. 

[David Kaftal]

Yes indeed, thank you so much Sunny-Gem! It never even occurred to me that Tolkien might be attempting to use myth to convey some sort of" higher truths," as the writer of the article states that Joseph Pearce (never heard of him before) claims. I always took at face value Tolkien's claim (from the preface of LOTR) that he was merely trying his hand at writing a long story that would engage and hold the reader's attention. However, the gnostic elements clearly visible in the mythical universe of the trilogy is another matter. And I've always been uneasy about occult-themed fiction, in any event. Sort of a moot point for me in a way, since I don't like the movies and don't intend to be rereading the books, but it's important to be clear about this sort of thing.

[35nd93pnh50uu]

Yes I wouldn't be put off reading the books again or watching the films, but I'm just reminded to keep a balance. 

Joseph Wilson said:

I think that as long as an adult person understands that is a work of FICTION there should be no problem watching the movies or reading the books.

[35nd93pnh50uu]

I think that is what the priest who gave the conference was trying to get at and it's a good reminder. :-)

Gloria said:

Thank you for sharing this  with us Sunny-Gem. This will be shared with many.

I would like to end this conference with an appeal to use our holy Faith as it has been given to us to use. We do not need to be looking outside of our Holy Church and True Religion for things to captivate our imagination and encourage us… In the lives of the saints we find more wonders than can be grasped in a life time.

These are dangerous times.

 

[35nd93pnh50uu]

Yes I've always treated the stories as an enjoyable adventure. I particularly liked the characters of Eowyn, Samwise and Aragorn. Tolkien couldn't have known that his books would be so successful at the time of writing which took many years as I understand it. We're so used to trilogies coming out now that it's easy to forget that this wouldn't have been Tolkien's initial intention. He was writing for himself and what interested him. 

David Kaftal said:

Yes indeed, thank you so much Sunny-Gem! It never even occurred to me that Tolkien might be attempting to use myth to convey some sort of" higher truths," as the writer of the article states that Joseph Pearce (never heard of him before) claims. I always took at face value Tolkien's claim (from the preface of LOTR) that he was merely trying his hand at writing a long story that would engage and hold the reader's attention. However, the gnostic elements clearly visible in the mythical universe of the trilogy is another matter. And I've always been uneasy about occult-themed fiction, in any event. Sort of a moot point for me in a way, since I don't like the movies and don't intend to be rereading the books, but it's important to be clear about this sort of thing.

[David Kaftal]

I believe that Tolkien wrote the trilogy in a series of installments over many years to entertain his son. If I recall correctly, by the time he got to the final book he was mailing the installments to his son who was in the RAF by then.

[Emil Castillo]

Never taught ill see a lotr discussion here haha.

But thanks for all the information you have linked.