Tea at Trianon: The Five Wizards vs. Sauron

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

The Five Wizards vs. Sauron

From Gamerant:

For those who haven’t heard of the term before, a ‘maiar’ is basically a powerful being or spirit with Tolkien’s legendarium. The maiar have been around for thousands of years, and some of them even chose to take physical form and come across to Middle Earth. There are many characters in the Lord of the Rings trilogy who are actually maiar, including the 5 wizards, of whom the audience can see Saruman the White, Gandalf the Grey and Radagast the Brown in Peter Jackson’s film adaptations. Interestingly though, Sauron, the supreme dark lord that is trying to overtake the world and fill it with his malice and scorn, is also a maiar. In contrast to each of the aforementioned characters, who are all pure maiar that use their power for good (except Saruman in later years, because he is twisted and corrupted by the promise of power) Sauron is an evil character, and used his substantial powers to dupe and deceive those around him. But many fans have begun to question, if all of these characters are maiar, and started with similar origins before Middle Earth, why does Sauron seem so much stronger than the others? Why do they all greatly fear and revere him? (Read more.)