Recent content by Rachel Port

Paraphrase: The Ring-bearer is the only person whose goal if finding Mount Doom. On the way, his job is to keep the Ring away from Sauron's minions, which means not throwing or giving it away, not letting anyone see or touch it except the Company and those who were at the Council where this...

Frodo's job is to get the Ring to the Fire. I'm one of the people who believes Frodo didn't fail. His quest is the Quest of Mt. Doom, not the Quest of the fire. Once he gets the Ring there, Providence can take over. Elrond doesn't include the Ring's destruction in his charge because that charge...

Somehow I picture Sauron's spirit crouching somewhere and gradually, over decades or even centuries, beginning to grow a form around itself. I don't think of him as putting on a form so much as building one, almost like a spider spinning a web, first creating the silk from within and then...

For all we know Aragorn and/or Gandalf do carry rope - as well as Legolas, Gimli, and Boromir, or perhaps Aragorn made sure that there was rope in the large packs carried by the pony. It's not the importance of rope as much as Sam's feeling of responsibility that is highlighted in this passage...

I realized in one of our recent discussions of Sam's commentary - his talk to Bill the pony - something I've thought before when one of Sam's grumbling comments seems to speak to us, especially at the end of a scene - that Sam serves some of the functions of a Greek chorus. The site Master...

Odola, we are talking about different things. I was simply saying that it's jarring to me to hear how Greek and Roman cultures influence Biblical texts because I think of the Biblical period as being well over before those cultures moved into the Middle-east. As for Talmud, it was written down...

Not just the Pentateuch, but the entire Tanach - what Christians call the Old Testament. Most of Tanakh was redacted and canonized during the Babylonian exile ( circa 598 -538 BCE) , and the last books added are from shortly after the return and the dedication of the second Temple. The whole...

I go with number 4. Sam carries so many supplies - more than his share - and has spent much of the day making sure things fit in his pack. Unpacking and repacking with something else to fit in is daunting, not to mention that he doesn't know how soon Gandalf will come out and they will be ready...

I was saying that the Jewish Bible predates Greece by several centuries - and goes back at least 2000 years before the Romans. Odola, can you send a link to your sources - I don't follow what you are saying, don't know that way of looking at pre-history/early history.

I once saw a map of the ancient world that showed the Mediterranean almost an inland sea surrounded by land, so that North Africa was not considered part of another continent. This made sense in a world where trade largely depended on water routes. Egypt was as much part of the Biblical world as...

This is so important. I've recently been realizing how Euro-centric our understanding of the Bible is. The Bible world is eastern and southern - North Africa, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia, and the part of Europe on the Mediterranean. Your post made me think for the first time how limited the...

It's also different from the experiences of hobbits, and therefore of the English. I think we see this love and closeness develop during the story - it's not something we start out with. We see Frodo discovering things about Sam that he was unaware of before, and we can infer that this is...

Yes, Odola, I saw that. What's not happening is the live class, with chat so we can interact while the class is taking place.

Is this no longer on YouTube live? Did I miss an announcement? This is the second week I can't find it.

I've always imagined it as sucking air in through the teeth.