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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iosue" data-source="post: 6005839" data-attributes="member: 6680772">I like to think of LotR in terms of Frye's thematic modes, as suggested by Tom Shippey.  They also provide a nice short-hand for different playstyles of RPGs.Ironic: Hero is inferior to the audience.Low-mimetic: Hero operates on the plane of common humanity.High-mimetic: Hero is superior to others, but inferior to environment.Romantic: Hero is superior to others and to environment.Mythic: Hero is on divine plane.LotR moves through the various modes.  The hobbits start off low-mimetic with a taste of irony.  Gandalf, Aragorn, the elves, etc. start off high-mimetic, and stay that way to the end of Fellowship.In Two Towers, people get upgrades.  Aragorn remains high-mimetic, but starts showing flashes of romance.  The Three Hunters, for example, cover 135 miles (216 km) in 4 days, or nearly 34 miles a day.  (By comparison a full marathon is 26 miles.)  Aragorn also holds off hundreds of uruk-hai with only a magic sword and the force of his personality.  Frodo moves up to high-mimetic.  Gandalf the White is firmly in romance territory -- he can't be harmed by weapons, even the ones carried by Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli.In Return of the King, the upgrades proceed.  Frodo shows flashes of romance.  Sam bounces between high-mimetic and low-mimetic.  Aragorn is now firmly in romance -- he wrests control of the palantir from what is essentially a fallen angel, summons the dead to fight at his command, and comes out of a day long battle unscathed.The Silmarillion, of course, dealing with minor gods (Valar) and angels (Maiar) is firmly in the mythic mode.</blockquote>

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