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- From: jjonsson@alexandria.lib.utah.edu
- Subject: Re: Hobbits in the Undying Lands
- Message-ID: <jjonsson.347@alexandria.lib.utah.edu>
- Sender: news@fcom.cc.utah.edu
- Organization: Marriott Library, University of Utah
- References: <1k0sthINNpj4@digex.digex.com>
- Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 06:40:12 GMT
- Lines: 30
-
- In article <1k0sthINNpj4@digex.digex.com> dzik@access.digex.com (Joseph Dzikiewicz) writes:
-
- >I have read and been convinced by the postings here that concluded that
- >Hobbits are close relations to Men.
-
- >But this raises a problem for me. At the end of LOTR, Frodo and Bilbo
- >take the last ship to the Undying Lands. Later, the appendices tell us,
- >Sam took a ship west to join them.
-
- >But if Hobbits are racially derived from men, isn't this a problem?
- >Aren't men strictly forbidden from going to the Undying Lands?
-
- My impression has always been that the Undying Lands are more than likely
- just a metaphor for some sort of paradise or heaven. After all, they
- separated physically from Middle Earth at some point late in the second or
- early in the third age of the sun. (Wasn't it after the Numenorean attack?
- Someone check me on this.)
- I've always viewed the end of ROTK as the ship taking off from the
- Grey Havens and going voluntarily into heaven. It's more striking for me to
- think of it that way, and that's the way I'll probably always think of it.
- It makes sense for everyone on that ship to be beatified in some way, and
- that's just how I see it.
-
-
- Jeff Jonsson
- Marriott Library Data Control, University of Utah.
- ==============================================================================
- --"Ash nazg durbatuluk, ash nazg -- jjonsson@alexandria.lib.utah.edu
- -- gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatuluk -- jjonsson@utahlib.bitnet
- -- agh burzum-ishi krimpatul!" -- "You talkin' to me?"
-