Riddles

Oh.:-D

What's another name for Santa's elves?

(And no, I don't believe in Santa, I just found this riddle quite clever ;)

Legolas, Arwen, Tauriel, Gil-Galad, Elrond, Glorfindel, and Thranduil?

What about Galadriel? Lol

Little Munch-kins? JK What is it? :P

You forgot Haldir, man!

and Elros and Luthien and every other elf from the Silmarillian.
Edit: oh and Celeborne

I haven't read the Silmarillion, but I will!

I've read the first few chapters but I don't get it out very often.. I want to read the rest of it but I just have other things I'd rather do more.

I know exactly what you mean. I'm taking forever to get through the Two Towers myself because of all my other responsibilities… :)

ouch is this the first time your reading them?

Yes. :) I got through the FOTR a while ago, but I'm taking so long to finish the TT. I don't even want to know how long ROTK will take. :P

FOTF…TT…ROTK????

He's talking about the LOTR books. Fellowship of the Fing ;P, the Two Towers, and Return of the King
Lol, when I read them, it took me like a week to read all three :P They were interesting to read, but there are a lot of questionable stuff in it.

, but there are a lot of questionable stuff in it.

Care to elaborate?

I didn't like how the good guys use witchcraft, and there are good wizards. I watched part of the hobbit but then stopped when we got to the Radagast (I think that's his name?) the Brown part. All that stuff about calling up the spirits of the dead and witchcraft and saying spells was so unnecessary, and he is supposed to be a good guy! (I was disappointed, that part wasn't even in the book!)

I'm re-posting what Karthmin said on the subject a while back.

In the LotR, for all of those who have not read it, witchcraft is nowhere protrayed as good. It is always the part of the bad guy to use witchcraft or etc., and never the part of the good guy.
There are 'supernatural' things that people do, but that is always because they have that power because of who they are. You have to remember that in Middle-Earth there are Ainur (both Valar and Maiar), who are the most powerful, and thus can do things that would be considered 'supernatural' (they are basically angels). Gandalf was one of the Maiar, so he could do things normal people couldn't. In the movies much of this was lost, and he was made to look much more like a traditional wizard (because there was no context of his type of being).
Next would come the Eldar (elves) who would have greater powers than men, and could thus be said to use "magic" (NOT witchcraft); but this is because of who they are: elves. And so they can do things that normal people can't.
Next come Men, in the order of power. Because of intermarriages with elves, some had greater power than others. But they are normally pretty normal, and unless they're bad guys, they don't ever use magic.
But never ever ever is there an instance of any good guy using witchcraft, as it is biblically defined. The bad guys do use it, but it is ALWAYS (sorry for the caps) portrayed as bad….and, you know what? Good always wins in the end.
As far as what you said, Jimmy Waters, I would agree that the Lord of the Rings will not necessarily progress your walk as a Christian. But I will not detract from it either, and it is possible to strengthen one's Christian perspective from the series. Though Tolkien wrote from a decidedly Christian perspective, there is no overt Christ-figure in Middle-Earth, and salvation is practically by works (very, very unfortunate). However, the distinctively CHRISTIAN theme of self-sacrifice is in much of Tolkien's works. He also portrays a CHRISTIAN view of providence (all things working in accordance to the will of God, even though evil does its level best to wreck His plans).
All in all, Tolkien's works have little to no drawbacks for me as a Christian reader; and those few drawbacks would mainly be on a theological level and not on a textual or content-based level.
In the Lord of the Rings…good is good and bad is bad. That's what we should look for when it comes to recreational literature.

And it focuses a lot on the evil and dark things, and the ugly creatures. And I guess the question is not, "Is it a bad book/movie?" but more "It is edifying?" We couldn't see any benefit from watching further so we stopped.

I'm not sure that I agree completely. The problem is, the magic or "supernatural powers" that the "good" guys have, is very very much like witchcraft or magic on this earth. So if i write a book and put all sorts of bad magic in it and then say "in this story world, magic is natural and therefore good" it wouldn't change what it actually is. They still say spells and stuff which a Christian should never think of doing. So I think saying that spells are ok because they are not "people" is not quite right

Basically, you can't have "people" doing bad things because "they aren't people." The thing is, if you try and find a person who does similar things to Gandalf, it is a person who does witchcraft! And the witchcraft that the bad guys use can also be used by the good, which is completely different from here. We can't use witchcraft to do good things!

I agree with you, witchcraft can never, ever do anything good. But, I do look at people like Gandalf in the context of their world, in which he's basically an archangel. I always have a slight beef with fantasy novels, as those without discernment may view the use of magic (which is a very subjective word, BTW) as good in any case, which is untrue. I do respect your position though, but I disagree that there are no edifying morals in the stories. The heroes do show Christ-like qualities (i.e, giving themselves for others, healing, etc), and the bad guys always lose in the end. To me, that makes a good story.

However, if I have to wade through a lot of trash or innapropriate content to get to my good ending, I'd consider that book bad as well. That was my experience with the book Stormdancer. It has a great setting and plot (steampunk ancient Japan!), but there were inappropriate parts sprinkled throughout that just cheapened and ruined it for me. It had good character development, and a good storyline overall, but the badness of the sin of some of the characters stained the rest of the book.

I think the books are okay , but I'm not so sure about the movies. I've only watched some of the hobbit and from what I've seen it is not really worth watching (sorry to all you hobbit fans). I really really wanted to like it but… in the end we thought even the good guys aren't very good. Like the dwarves for example, they are funny, but are rude and exhibit a lot of ungodly characters. I'm not sure that I can actually say much against it though because I watch/read Narnia which is similar. Have you read John Flanagan's books? He wrote a really cool series called Ranger's Apprentice. I don't agree with everything in there, and there are a couple parts we sort of skip, but I really enjoyed reading them!

coughs Is this the riddles thread, or the Lord of the Rings thread?

yeah witchcraft can defiantly never be a good thing. The thing with LOTR is there is such a deep history. Tolkien hated the words 'magic' and 'witchcraft' but he used magic as a term for the supernatural powers that some of his characters had for lack of a better one.

Ummm… well, we are talking about the riddles in the Lord of the Rings :P jk Yeah we should transfer to the theology thread :D

I think the books are _okay_ , but I'm not so sure about the movies. I've only watched some of the hobbit and from what I've seen it is not really worth watching (sorry to all you hobbit fans). I really really wanted to like it but... in the end we thought even the good guys aren't very good. Like the dwarves for example, they are funny, but are rude and exhibit a lot of ungodly characters. I'm not sure that I can actually say much against it though because I watch/read Narnia which is similar. Have you read John Flanagan's books? He wrote a really cool series called Ranger's Apprentice. I don't agree with everything in there, and there are a couple parts we sort of skip, but I really enjoyed reading them!

Waits for Sam to say something about Ranger's Apprentice lol

I think the books are _okay_ , but I'm not so sure about the movies. I've only watched some of the hobbit and from what I've seen it is not really worth watching (sorry to all you hobbit fans). I really really wanted to like it but... in the end we thought even the good guys aren't very good. Like the dwarves for example, they are funny, but are rude and exhibit a lot of ungodly characters. I'm not sure that I can actually say much against it though because I watch/read Narnia which is similar. Have you read John Flanagan's books? He wrote a really cool series called Ranger's Apprentice. I don't agree with everything in there, and there are a couple parts we sort of skip, but I really enjoyed reading them!

I've read every RA book!

I'm all for a good LoTR discussion, it's just if it goes on too much, it might be hard for those interested in the riddles and their answers to find them amidst the avalanche of unrelated posts. :P Especially when there's a whole thread devoted to LoTR already.

And in the spirit of Riddleses: what have we got in our pocketses precious?

to be honest I didn't like some of PJ's portrayal of Tolkien's 'magic' esp. in Radagast's case he may have taken it a step to far. but other than that and a few other small things I love the Hobbit(s)

Okay, well I think these are very borderline books that every one has to make the decision for themselves. I'm not exactly sure of my own opinion so I was just wondering what you guys reasons would be :)

to be honest I didn't like some of PJ's portrayal of Tolkien's 'magic' esp. in Radagast's case he may have taken it a step to far. but other than that and a few other small things I love the Hobbit(s)

and there it is. (lol)

Ok well when we were watching it, when we got to that part, we asked does it get worse or better? and our friends said, it's worse later on. sooo… :)

it gets better… except for one… other part… but the 'witchcraft' is showed as bad there.

Oh ok. Mom said she watched LOTR and it was better than the Hobbit. But she watched it when she was a new Christian so…

You see??

I ask a riddle and it is buried under a pile of irrelevant comments!

You see??

I ask a riddle and it is buried under a pile of irrelevant comments!

yeah LOTR it a lot better than the Hobbit in almost every way :P I don't think there is anything like the screen with Radagast in the hobbit : / :P

And in the spirit of Riddleses: what have we got in our pocketses precious?

Handses!

Yeah, it would be really cool if they made movies of them! (the ra books that is) have you read his last one? I didn't know until recently he wrote a number 12 called The Royal Ranger (after the lost stories)!

And in the spirit of Riddleses: what have we got in our pocketses precious?

Handses!

nope. (how could I type with my hands in my pockets?)

bats wings goblins teeth Knife!!!

_bats wings goblins teeth_ Knife!!!

wrong again.

STRING!!! spins around or nooothing!

Not fair! Two guesses in one. Gollum, gollum. Nothing it is.

We know! We knows safe paths… safe paths through the dark!

We know! We knows safe paths... safe paths through the dark!

well, what do you know. Do tell! Next time I'm stuck in the dark I'll let you know.

Legolas, Arwen, Tauriel, Gil-Galad, Elrond, Glorfindel, and Thranduil?

Well yeah, but this one is a grammar joke :P Want me to just tell you?

We know! We knows safe paths... safe paths through the dark!

well, what do you know. Do tell! Next time I'm stuck in the dark I'll let you know.

"Not it's business!!"

Yeah!!