The above quote comes from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring. Elen Sila Lumenn' Omentielvo is Elvish for "a star shines on the hour of our meeting."
My user name also comes from Middle Earth, and I think I just admitted to being a Ringer, or Lord of the Rings fan. Luthien, I feel, is one of the best characters in all of Middle Earth. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Aragorn tells her story to the hobbits at Weathertop, but her story is written in more detail in The Silmarillion. Luthien fell in love with Beren, a mortal man. When Beren asked for her hand, her father said only if he could bring him one of the Simarils. To get one of these priceless jewels, Beren and Luthien stole into the fortress of Morgoth, basically Tolkien's equivalent of Satan. They steal one of the Simarils, but a huge wolf manages to bite off Beren's hand and they return to her father. Some time later, Beren actually dies and Luthien dies of a broken heart. Her grief at losing Beren prompts Illuvater, or God, to grant Beren a second life and to allow Luthein to "leave the world" when she dies so that she can be with Beren. (If an elf was killed they lingered on in Valinor whereas mortals "left the world" for heaven).
Tauriel comes from Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy and was not part of Tolkien's orignal mythology at all. But unlike a majority of my fellow Ringers, I never had a problem with her. I think she's cool and can hold her own in a fight. I guess the major complaint that most people have is her relationship with Kili. Although I do agree that it was not needed, it did not bother me quite so much. After all if Kili came knocking on my door...
So that being said, I want you to know that this will not be a blog completely about Middle Earth. Other blogs already do a wonderful job doing that. Tolkien and his world will be mentioned and probably even be blogged on a couple of times, but it will not be my complete focus. Basically, I want this blog to be a review of fantasy books and movies with a little bit of creative writing maybe thrown in for good measure. I warn you up front that many of the books and movies I tell you about may not be readily available, being out of print. But who knows? Maybe if enough people ask they will put it back in print :).
So why fantasy? I was first introduced to fantasy through Disney and the fairy tale books of my childhood. I have almost completely memorized 95% of the stories in the University Press' Bookshelf for Boys and Girls volume 2: Folk and Fairy Tales. As I grew older, I graduated onto more advanced fantasy tales and have been a lover ever since. I am well aware that these stories are not "real life" and do not pertain to real life problems, but I give you the same answer I gave some one else who said that to me. I live in real life, and it usually stinks. If I can escape for a few hours into a world where boy always gets girl, heroes always win, and villains are always vanquished, I'm happy.
This blog will be divided into sub categories. Movies will be in a class of its own. The books will be divided into "High or Epic fantasy", "Murder Mysteries", "Teen or Junior", "Fairy Tales"and "Other" for all the books that do not fit into the above categories. I hope you enjoy reading.
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