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You have such phenomenal content! Just found you today. Subscribed and will be sharing your channel to give you a boost! I genuinely hope you reach so many people! :)

Also holy crap what a phenomenal clip! Subscribed!

Boy 1904 by Jonsi and Alex! Phenomenal choice of background music!

I LOVE this. Keep doing what you’re doing.

I've been reading Tolkien for over 50 years, and have always found his themes so heart hurting, both in joy and in sorrow. He had a way to speak on certain themes that always made me stop and think while reading. One quote which always stuck with me, especially now when I see people in power hurt each other in the name of what have you, that 'evil oft mars itself'. His main theme of the small people running the world is never said in his books, but he once said in an interview that the main theme of his books was this- "the wheels of world are turned by the small hand while the great are looking elsewhere." This to me is a truth that Tolkien speaks almost a century ago now, but still holds true and will hold true as long as Mankind exists. Thank you for this video today. I an for sure subscribing.

Huge fan of this content and Tolkien in general. I have also come to know and accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and saviour. I can tell you with absolute certainty that he is the ultimate source of light and Joy. He says in John 8:12 “I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” He will never abandon you or leave you, he loves you more than you could ever imagine, despite how broken you are. (Every one of us are broken and sinners) I can relate to having something you are reading jump out at you, it happens often when I read scripture. I would encourage anyone reading this to try reading the Bible. It’s the best selling book of all time for a reason. My recommendation is to start in the gospels at the beginning of the New Testament. I hope this message finds you, who reads this, well, whoever and wherever you are. Jesus loves you, and I love you too. “What must I do to be saved? They said “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” -Acts 16:30

It means this: “Women … weaken .. legs”

Agreed!!!

It's similar to what Tim Keller talked about in a sermon once. The thing humanity most deeply wants is "love that lasts", relationships that don't come to an end, things that don't crumble, people who don't die. Every love is forged, whether knowingly or not, that your heart will be broken eventually, or you will break another's by your passing. His answer is, of course, that the only one who can truly fulfill us and the only relationship that does not end is with Christ. Even so, the observation remains.

One quote I noticed when I first read LotR was: "Other evils there are that may come; for Sauron is himself but a servant or emissary. Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule." This is why individuals - Merry, Pippin, Sam, Gimli, Faramir, etc - can live 'happily ever after' but the world as a whole cannot, because the defeat of Sauron is just a temporary victory.

That's freaking gorgeous 😍

That's a risk I've always been willing to take. It's always been worth it.

Have you ever read Terry Pratchet's books? There are so many profound quotes in them that changed my life and made me think differently of the world. Tolkien was a great wordsmith. I've read Lord of the Rings at least 4 times. Pratchett is life changing.

Insightful and challenging ... thank you for this! What came to mind after listening to you share about pity and mercy was a quote from A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. It's about our needing to go beyond the surface to perceive--really see--what has shaped a person. The mother ends her plea to her daughter with these words, after the daughter expresses her disgust and anger at her brother for a decision that has disastrous consequences for the entire family. "Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most? When they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain't through learning - because that ain't the time at all. It's when he's at his lowest and can't believe in hisself 'cause the world done whipped him so! When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right, child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is.."

An oath might strentghen a weak heart-or break it. I just die a little every time

Beauty, Truth, Goodness, and Holiness cracks open our hardened and stony hearts. Further, since Tolkien was a serious Catholic, Galadriel represents something of Blessed Mary, the Mother of God, the greatest of saints. God’s grace awakens us from our denial & deadly slumbers.

I think of it less in terms of a specific personal relationship: Gimli reflects Tolkien's experience in war. It reminds me of a scene in The Pacific, when one of the US Marines says that going home briefly was worse than not going home at all - the love and comfort of home only served to bring back that vulnerable humanity, to strip away the emotional callus that had grown in to protect both from the loss, grief, fear, and pain they had endured and would endure again. Gimli's case is even more poignant because Galadriel overcame his generations-old distrust and hatred of elves. When I was serving overseas, I chose not to ask for leave back home because I knew it would be very short, and I would hate having to leave my family after a few days in the Christmas lights and smell of cinnamon rolls back home. I would rather stay somewhat miserable than be very happy for a few days and then be much more miserable after. Most of us don't have to say goodbye to Galadriel.

I sense it can be how, after such a beautiful experience, all good memories, all other loves pale in comparison leaving an aspect of them as poisonous, undesirable, suddenly faulty and dissatisfying leaving resentment and anger at perceived deception by what were once sustaining, inspiring, fortifying people, places, memories. Woa, that just came out of me

If you want another hit of this kind of theme, check out "The Last Unicorn". It's like full of lines like these and little moments like this.

That was a beautiful insight, man! When i read it, it hit me too but i didn't put much thought in it. What came to my mind when you were speaking was that Soren Kierkegaard, in a work called Philosophical Fragments (or Philosophical Crumbs, depending on the translantion), speaks on the same thing, although thinking about religion: when God, by love, wants to make himself equal to humans, he risks that the individual experience offense instead of faith, meaning that the possibility of offense is inherent to faith. It's worth reading!

All journeys are a path to discovery. A quest means all these discoveries must be put aside until the quest ends. Otherwise, the discoveries can blind you to the path to end. So this is the true personal cost of the quest. Life is beautiful, and death can be beautiful. Rejection is easily overturned by acceptance. Loss by far is the greatest cost. All that was there is no more, and because you were there to feel and know that loss, there is now a piece of you invested is no more. So sadly, sometimes you can not recover from that loss as most of you were invested. A shadow you are now.

Turn to Christ. See what he did with his saints. Please.

So beautiful! Tolkien’s veil was very thin and his understanding of humanity was far beyond this world.

I'll be honest, I have started tryong to read that book 3 times and keep bouncing off around Tom Bombodil, and it always bothered me. I am married now to my beautiful Tolkein nerd, and we have an amazing 4 year old at home. Your words and the quote struck home for they are my light and losing them my greatest fear. Thank you for giving me the insliration to try the books again... and maybe start after Bombodil this time

Dying is easy. Living with loss is harder.

We could all learn from this. Thank you.

Frodo thinks Bilbo should have dispatched of Gollum out of pity but it was pity that Bilbo did not. This change of perspective is something I have experienced with the words "kindness," "love" and "hatred" which completely shifted my understanding of the meaning of these words in practice.

YOU GOT IT!!! I am so pleased that you are able to comprehend this profound truth. Tolkien lost nearly all of his college friends in WWI. 2/3 of the young men in EU and Britain were killed in that war. You can see how this affected him. I'm 77 years old and have re-read LOTR many times. Every time I learn something new or go deeper into what it means to be human. Everyone who encounters great literature and art takes away something they themselves have brought to it, and that insight changes with the accumulation of life experiences.

This… this is beautiful

I think Legolas' response wasn't necessarily meant as a warning against the price of connection and the encounter of the beautiful; rather, it was an expression of mourning over the inevitability of loss that will always accompany the gaining of something beautiful. Keep in mind, Legolas is an immortal elf who is thousands of years old. He is not one of the High Elves of the West as Galadriel is, but even so he more than Gimli at this time would understand what it really feels like to gain or find something truly good and beautiful only to discover that losing it forever is guaranteed to happen at some point in the future. Indeed, that mourning over that inevitability is a core part of the worldbuilding for all of Middle-earth. The elves were motivated to craft the Rings of Power thousands of years ago because they feared to lose the beauty and goodness of the world that they had helped craft and fought to protect for many ages, and so were eager to find a way to preserve the world around them so that it did not decay and they did not have to be separated from it. This fear was the vulnerability that Sauron took advantage of, disguising himself in a fair form to help them achieve that vision and in so doing (he hoped) to enslave them by forging the One Ring to control all the others. Gimli, as you said, is only now experiencing this kind of profound loss and separation, but we in our own lives will also experience it in some form. We come to love certain people - our families, our friends - but because we are all subject to death, the separation in this life between people is guaranteed for us mortals. As a Christian, Tolkien believed that death would not be the end, because we will all be reunited with each other and with God at the resurrection. But before that time, we have to feel the sting of death, which is the loss of those we love, and I think this exchange between Legolas and Gimli is a beautiful illustration of that.

It's like those small moments of pseudo-happiness you can find in depression. Those moments are the worst because you know they're not going to last.

You are a light - much needed message for all, thank you 💙💙💙

The whole of The Lord of the Rings is thus. There is hardly a section or a paragraph that hasn't gripped my heart over the 50 years I have read this book, and I have read it nearly every autumn of those 50 years.

To go against evil when you have nothing to lose, is one thing. To war the worst of humanity when you know the the fragile reality of the best of humanity...Now you, and all the world, have much to lose.

Loss from any cause, not just rejection. I've had light and joy from love for over 50 years now...but one of us will die first. We see that coming. I have lost dear friends to death...to make friends is to face the possibility of losing them. To have beloved places...you will have to move away someday. The ability to do the things you most love can disappear in an instant, from an accident external (a fall) or internal (a stroke, a diagnosis that forces you away from that ability. Joy and light...over and over...like the kind of weather that brings sun, then storm, then sun again, then storm again. But the loving, the recognition of the worth of what you have briefly, the joy we take in those people, creatures, beauty, ability....that's essential. It must be risked. Even with the pain of loss...even with the loss of light...still welcome the light and joy when they come. Turning away from them, refusing to accept them and respond because the loss will hurt...means you never get the joy and lose all hope. Like Gollum.

This passage hits me different now that I'm a father. I love my daughter in a way that can't be put to words. She's a beacon of light to me, and a source of endless joy. I'll be moving out soon, as her mother and I can't reconcile our differences and have a healthy and functional relationship. I don't know how I'll face the darkness of not getting to be around my kid every day, but I have to for myself and for her. I can see how a person might easily fall to despair in such a situation.

mind = blown 🤯

I work as a teacher. Ive felt this so many times. A student is difficult, violent, disrespectful or many other negative things. It gets to a point where you don't want to see some students show up to school. Then you get a glimpse of what's going on in there lives and they still may not be your favorite person or someone you enjoy being around,but you feel bad for them, puty them, and work a little harder to be kinder and more patient in hopes that their life might get better. I dont know if it has an impact on students, but it certainly has made me grow This is extremely well said and I'm very grateful to have found your channel and hear your uplifting messages. Thank you.

This. It's easy to forget we're living in a global crisis of mental health and that _everyone_ is hurting no matter who they are or what they have. I often forget to be merciful in my own way, and sometimes I feel like I work so hard to keep myself loving I wonder if I actually love anything. It's never fun to get through those thoughts. But, hey, deep roots are not reached by the frost.

Interjecting wow at so many points interferred with the flow iof an otherwise intelligent interview. Please trust yourself to simply pause, breathe and then ask one of your insightful questions.

Nice video. Thanks for sharing this.

Aye. When we're young, we're never told about the dangers of brushing up against bliss. Making love to someone you are truly and desperately in love with is as dangerous as anything a man can face. When she leaves, there's isn't a drink, drug, or sin that can fill the void inside of you. You can learn to live with it, but the yearning to be whole again never leaves you.

Tolkien was a massive anglo saxon nerd, this line holds simular vibes to the old anglo saxon poetry such as a the wanderer. Along with the idea of the Sparrow in the Meadhall.

That exchange between Galadriel and Gimli began the friendship between Gimli and Legolas. Legolas' eyes were opened and softened toward an (so he had been told throughout his life). Thank you for the memory.

I think also it was the fact that he had to give it up to preserve it. It’s so much more beautiful and heroic that he chose to protect it by moving forward with the Fellowship. I always think that Tolkien understood the love and longing for home, of seeing the horrors of earth and forests and stone split to make way for the trenches of WW2.