FARMINGTON – This year’s Summer Fest will feature a big Lord of the Rings Trivia Contest with some highly desirable secret prizes! The contest will begin at 4:00 pm at DDG Booksellers on July 27. To get some perspective on the contest we were extremely fortunate to be granted the opportunity to put some questions to Manwe and Varda, King and Queen of the Valar, Lord and Lady of the West.
Kenny: Thanks you so much for joining us from afar and sharing your thoughts.
Manwe: Question us and be answered man of the Fourth Age.
Kenny: Well when it comes to Lord of the Rings trivia some people wonder whether movie based trivia is acceptable to be included with book trivia.
Manwe: There is a difference indeed between the film and the book versions in that the the books depict that which truly is while the movie is but an illusion, a simulacrum made by the arts of the enemy.
Varda: Indeed they should never be combined in trivia questions, as was said of Saruman’s blending of Orcs and Men, “That would be a black evil!”
Kenny: Totally agree, we’ll just stick to the books then. Thanks. Now here’s a question I’ve wondered about. When Frodo used the Phial of Galadrial, whose light was descended from the light of the Two Trees of Valinor, against Shelob, who was a descendent of Ungoliant, she who destroyed the Two Trees, was that subtle revenge destined to be?
Varda: Not at all. It was Frodo’s free will which gave destiny shape.
Kenny: I see. Speaking of echoes and shadows of an original, I was wondering whether Christopher Tolkien had made a good decision in publishing Tolkien’s unfinished works. Not the Silmarillion, of course, but those so called History of Middle Earth books?
Manwe: That was ill done, to be sure.
Varda: Yes fie on him.
Kenny: Finally, did Tolkien himself ever visit Tol Eressea at the last, in the light of day and not in dream?
Varda: Yes, it was but a brief visit, he returned to your shores ere the end.
Kenny: Thank you both so much.
Varda: Use well the days.
Manwe: Listen closely to the wind.
Kenny: I will.
