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Film Analysis

Tolkien and the White Ship

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THE WHITE SHIP STRANGELY EQUATES WITH THE IDEA OF DEATH . . .

. . . in the minds of the thousands of lovers of J.R.R. Tolkien.  Perhaps this is as it should be.  Frodo departs with the Elves.  We see Gandalf & Galadriel there too and it all seems just.  Without being aware of it, J.R.R.Tolkien’s Fae’re has subtly adjusted all of our misgivings about death.

Everybody deals with death in their own deeply personal way.  Lord Dunsany hardly kills off anybody but then, he’s interested in an entirely different set of approaches unto Fae’re.  There’s plenty of room for everybody, including The Brothers Grimm and Ridley Scott’s “LEGEND” style of making movies.

The White Ship is definitely a symbol for students of this genre.  A ship that sails westward and eventually ends up sailing perpendicular to the planet’s circumference?  Land appears and it’s definitely this planet but more, a blessed land that was once approachable but is no longer accessible–these authors were Christian, indeed!  But Beowulf was not really Christian.  The Mahabharata is not Christian either but flows & weaves its elaborate tales as did Tolkien.  So, there is something about Fae’re that speaks “all things to all men”.  

Great stories transcend time.  By overcoming the 4th dimension, the writers of Beowulf can be simultaneous with J.R.R. Tolkien & synchronous with Ganesh, in the land where the White Ship docks.

The White Ship resolves everything.

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