I think the Valar probably have Sauron feels! But really if you think about it, he could probably have been this terrifically productive force for good if not for Morgoth's influence. Like Fëanor and the Silmarils, really. The entire Silmarillion is just like feels-in-a-bottle, or essence of condensed tragedy. I swear it's the one fandom that actually gives me angst overdoses, and considering how much I like that genre, that's saying something :D
Oh and to bring the conversation back to your fic, its origins, I was poking around the Internet and stumbled upon this guide to Fellowship of the Ring (they have similar guides for the rest of the trilogy and The Hobbit.) It had this to say about Frodo's mithril coat:
Mithril is an incredibly strong, light, and beautiful metal... So, that’s what mithril is. But what does it symbolize? Well, if we look closely, it appears to represent hidden (Hobbit) potential. When Bilbo passes his mithril coat on to Frodo, he tells him to keep the armor under his clothes. In other words, Bilbo encourages Frodo to let himself be underestimated: it's always easier to defeat people who don't take you seriously. When Frodo first wears his mithril-coat (again, in secret), Gandalf looks at him penetratingly and comments, "You take after Bilbo [...] There is more about you than meets the eye, as I said of him long ago" (2.5.61). The mithril-coat reminds us not to judge a book – or a Hobbit – by its cover. Underneath a lowly Hobbit's ordinary exterior, you may find a mithril-coat waiting to surprise you.
And I read that and remembered the original fic and almost burst out laughing ;) Sadly the site doesn't have a guide for the Silmarillion, I'd absolutely love to see them try and reduce that to a "high school English class" level of analysis...
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Date: 2013-01-03 11:26 am (UTC)From:Oh and to bring the conversation back to your fic, its origins, I was poking around the Internet and stumbled upon this guide to Fellowship of the Ring (they have similar guides for the rest of the trilogy and The Hobbit.) It had this to say about Frodo's mithril coat:
Mithril is an incredibly strong, light, and beautiful metal...
So, that’s what mithril is. But what does it symbolize? Well, if we look closely, it appears to represent hidden (Hobbit) potential. When Bilbo passes his mithril coat on to Frodo, he tells him to keep the armor under his clothes. In other words, Bilbo encourages Frodo to let himself be underestimated: it's always easier to defeat people who don't take you seriously. When Frodo first wears his mithril-coat (again, in secret), Gandalf looks at him penetratingly and comments, "You take after Bilbo [...] There is more about you than meets the eye, as I said of him long ago" (2.5.61). The mithril-coat reminds us not to judge a book – or a Hobbit – by its cover. Underneath a lowly Hobbit's ordinary exterior, you may find a mithril-coat waiting to surprise you.
And I read that and remembered the original fic and almost burst out laughing ;) Sadly the site doesn't have a guide for the Silmarillion, I'd absolutely love to see them try and reduce that to a "high school English class" level of analysis...