Actually it is only elves from a certain family that is allowed to choose Raven. Luthien pleaded her case before Mandos, who allowed Beren to return to life if Luthien would sacrifice her immortality and her fate of going to the halls of Mandos after her death along with all other elves. Earendil, a descendent of Luthien and Beren also was given a choice, and his line thereafter. Elros and Elrond, his sons, chose to be numbered among men and elves respectively. Arwen, being the daughter of Elrond could also choose.
Supermac, why? I think being a Tolkien nerd is much more respectable than, say, being a Harry Potter nerd. Harry Potter's too superficial for anyone to qualify as a nerd about, frankly. I guess I'm just a wannabe Tolkien nerd. I get my merit badge when I get around to reading the Silmarilion. You want sad? I'll give you sad. Someday I'm going to learn Elvish. How's that?
I guess its not that sad. I've read the Lord of the Rings about 4 times, the Silmarillion twice, Unfinished Tales a couple of times...and I'm on the fifth book of The History of Middle Earth. I own the Guide to Middle Earth, and the Atlas of Middle Earth. I'm a nerd that way. I read all the Harry Potter books as well and found them very enjoyable. Light reading, but enjoyable. The first three I read in three nights and the fourth one took me two evenings. Books are like movies to me. I just can't put one down once I start...kind of like I always have to finish a movie once I start...even if its bad. And I can't stand reading just one book in a series. If I read one, I've got to read all of them. That's why I'm working my way through all of the Tolkien stuff, read all the Potter books, and suffered through the middle couple of the Left Behind series (last couple have been good.) If I didn't feel like I HAD to finish a series I would have quit after the fourth one in that series.
My wife has a similar argument. In many of the children stories she likes, good characters do bad things -- but they always reap the fruit of what they've sown. One example is from A Horse and his Boy by C.S. Lewis. A girl (can't remember the character's name) has a servant whipped as a byproduct of an escape she makes. While she is successful in the escape and there is no reproach for that action, she is punished for the whipping by getting clawed by a lion (Aslan). And, late in the narrative, it is made clear to the character and reader that it was punishment for what she had done to the servant. That is a particularly bald-faced example, but a similar trend runs through all of C.S. Lewis' work. Nothing similar happens in Rowling's work. In Harry Potter, the bad deeds of the antagonists are punished while the bad deeds of the protagonists are ignored or lauded. There is no sense of justice in the Potter stories. They act like jerks and are commended for it because they are the heroes of the story. In the words of Roosevelt (actually, there seems to be some controversy over the origin of this saying), "He may be a son of a b****, but he's our son of a b****."
Spoilers below Petrified......broken wand......house elfs......sent into woods.....attacked by tree.....turned into a cat......becomes a mirror addict....detention.....lossing points for Griffindor.....Locked in a room. Most bad deeds are done in self defense.
That's actually 19 y.o. @AroundTheWorld It's awesome that Snape and Doppy look identical to the British version
Doesn't look like I responded to the OP, so I want to take this opportunity to let you all know that, yes, I saw Harry Potter.
