Jim Deutch
Well-Known Member
In episode 107 there was considerable discussion of the wonder that Frodo felt at meeting Elrond "of whom so many stories tell". The best comparison we came up with in class was to one of us meeting King Arthur in person. But I think many of us have our own stories of feeling that sort of awe and wonder and it could be interesting to share them. Perhaps we can use the data to come up with a better understanding of what Frodo felt in Rivendell.
Here is mine.
In early July, I was vacationing in northern Italy and visited the Ötzi museum in Bolzano. Ötzi is the "Iceman", found in 1991 frozen in a glacier and determined to be over five thousand years old. He is almost perfectly preserved, with all the things he carried: even his wolfskin cap still has most of the fur on it. All his artifacts and his mummified body are there for viewing in the museum. His half-finished bow and arrows, his clothes and backpack, his fire-starters and flint dagger and its delicate braided sheath.
So, I've seen plenty of 5000 year old artifacts before: usually just a random collection of badly-corroded junk. But this was one guy and all the things he carried, as he tried to escape over the pass after being shot in the back five thousand three hundred years ago, and I truly felt a direct personal connection to him. His is the only fully-intact copper-headed axe in existence (and the find pushed back the known use of copper in Europe by a thousand years). The axehead is small, but it is beautiful: perfectly proportioned and perfectly preserved. I cried at seeing this ancient, beautiful, useful and important item that must have been his most precious possession and the tears are back as I type this.
THAT's the kind of awe that Frodo felt, perhaps.
Here is mine.
In early July, I was vacationing in northern Italy and visited the Ötzi museum in Bolzano. Ötzi is the "Iceman", found in 1991 frozen in a glacier and determined to be over five thousand years old. He is almost perfectly preserved, with all the things he carried: even his wolfskin cap still has most of the fur on it. All his artifacts and his mummified body are there for viewing in the museum. His half-finished bow and arrows, his clothes and backpack, his fire-starters and flint dagger and its delicate braided sheath.
So, I've seen plenty of 5000 year old artifacts before: usually just a random collection of badly-corroded junk. But this was one guy and all the things he carried, as he tried to escape over the pass after being shot in the back five thousand three hundred years ago, and I truly felt a direct personal connection to him. His is the only fully-intact copper-headed axe in existence (and the find pushed back the known use of copper in Europe by a thousand years). The axehead is small, but it is beautiful: perfectly proportioned and perfectly preserved. I cried at seeing this ancient, beautiful, useful and important item that must have been his most precious possession and the tears are back as I type this.
THAT's the kind of awe that Frodo felt, perhaps.