Tolkienese, or, Adventures in Geekdom
Right, so I tried to read The Silmarillion when I was a teenager and basically retained none of it. I'm trying it again now, *ahem* years later, in anticipation of The Hobbit, and also because husband got me one of those lovely hardcover illustrated versions a while back which has just been collecting dust on the shelf. I figure I can finish it by December, yes?
It's easier going this time around, in that I feel like I have more brains and also more context than I did back then. But wtf is dude trying to say here?But when they desire to clothe themselves the Valar take upon them forms some as of male and some as of female; for that difference of temper they had even from their beginning, and it is but bodied forth in the choice of each, not made by the choice, even as with us male and female may be shown by the raiment but is not made thereby.
Like, I think he's trying to say that the Valar were created with gendered temperaments, for lack of a better term, but what I don't get is: can they still assume the form of either gender no matter what their innate temperament is?
I'm sure I'll have more questions later as I proceed through the book. Watch this space.
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It's easier going this time around, in that I feel like I have more brains and also more context than I did back then. But wtf is dude trying to say here?But when they desire to clothe themselves the Valar take upon them forms some as of male and some as of female; for that difference of temper they had even from their beginning, and it is but bodied forth in the choice of each, not made by the choice, even as with us male and female may be shown by the raiment but is not made thereby.
Like, I think he's trying to say that the Valar were created with gendered temperaments, for lack of a better term, but what I don't get is: can they still assume the form of either gender no matter what their innate temperament is?
I'm sure I'll have more questions later as I proceed through the book. Watch this space.
This post has
comments at its original location at http://hesychasm.dreamwidth.org/247509.html. Please comment there or here.