DrYouth wrote:The Orcs had an army.Speaker to Animals wrote:There was no clash of civilizations. It was the armies of Hell against civilization. Chaos versus order.
There was a degree of order.
They used the Giants as siege weapons.
The dragons were air force.
Sauron was a leader who enforced his will. There was intelligence gathering.
Sauruman was a subcommander in the hierarchy...
Not pure chaos by any stretch.
And the Humans, Dwarves and Elves had plenty of chaos. Their were rivalries and conflicts among the various agents.
The Dwarves were suspicious of the elves and the humans and vice versa.
Boromir, at one point betrays the other members of the fellowship - so this is not a pure story of good vs evil...
The ring itself brings out evil in anyone who carries it... and only Frodo is trusted to be able to withstand this challenge.
Even Gandalph does not trust himself to the task.
This is not a dualistic narrative... if it was, it wouldn't be great.
Lewis is much more dualistic... and therefore much less interesting in my eyes.
No written language. No legal system.