Yeah, it was all sort of about right wing and left wing - above +5 and you were more right wing, below -3 and you were more left wing. This boy got +28
"It's just something Gandalf said, "Don't you lose him Samwise Gamgee", and I don't mean to."
The battle for Helms deep is very much a like to Wellingtons armies against Napoleon.
Rohans armies are Wellingtons lines and Isengards armies are Napoleons famous collums of the "Pas de Charge".
The Pas de Charge consist of sending hundreds of men in a collum and punching through the enimies ranks, spliting them in two and overwealming them. Isengards armies use the same tactis as Napoleons forces.
Wellingtons line consist of his troups standing side by side in a line allowing for the maximum amount of men to fire. Rohan fights like this at Helms deep.
Two facts of war must be remembered when looking at helms deep.
1. a collum never beats a line. The exception is at helms deep when Isengard had far superior numbers and could overwealm the enemy with them
2. no army can stand up to a heavy cavalry charge. (this is before morden warfare ws invented.)
"there's only one way to win a war: shout, shout, and shout again!" - The Duke of Wellington ((Blackadder - Stephen Fry))
i believe that there are many hidden meanings in tolkiens works. i don't know if he was actually enlightened or just a very intelligent person with a clear sense of good and evil who produced enlightened works. but you could look through his works and find countless "hidden meanings" because his works are largely metaphors for the timeless struggle of good versus evil. the value of his works and depth of his metaphors go well beyond the events of the World War II era and describe the struggle of humanity as a whole. tolkien was himself a devout catholic, and here's one metaphor:
the "return of the king" to his throne is a powerfull metaphor for the return of God to our hearts. you may see it as Jesus if your a Christian, or Allah, Yawah, Nirvana, Enlightenment, or just a power, but the absolute nobility and goodnes, and the truth of that Power is in all of us. while we live a selfish and fragile ego based existence it is that Power in us that is trying to return to throne of our hearts and rule our lives with absolute truth and completeness. our lives all come down to the inner struggle of rulership of our being between absolute Love and completeness that is that Truth in all of us and everything that opposes it. therefore, i would contend that the "return of the King" is the restoration of God to the inner ruling throne of our being and the expulsion of all the INNER enemies, not unlike the true interpretaion of the Muslim concept of Jihad.
07-31-2004 09:16 PM
