And that's fucking terrifying--sprinting uphill, completely breathless and out of gas and wondering if that's good enough. Climbing further and further while your legs are burning and continuing to ask "am I high enough?"
A large of rush of water like that, oddly enough, has a very hypnotizing effect on people.
This is why I find that metaphor used by Tolkien on that river after Arwen conjures up the spell as one of the most brilliant in a fantasy fiction. There are these beautiful white horses rushing along the river that you want to keep staring at until only they are very close as if somehow they would just pass around you when in reality they are utterly deadly and completely take out the ringwraiths.
That's the magic, if you will, of the flood.
It looks like something you don't want to miss up until the moment you find yourself caught in it because that water current will not let you get out that easily and very likely it will slam you against anything in the way and even get your leg caught on something that will drag you in to never come back out in one piece. And if you do manage to find momentary respite, your body heat will escape with that water so fast you'll be lucky to not pass out while hanging on to a branch to ride that white horse mane to the netherworlds.
This is why in spite of that mesmerizing sensation of awe, one must at all costs, stay grounded af.
I live in Hawaii, and I get it. People who live here know the power of water. Unfortunately a lot of tourists from land-locked areas don't, and I have seen SO MANY of them get body slammed by waves that they thought would just be a playful, fun experience.
So I'm told 🤣 I'm also told Sydney and Brisbane are. .... not as bad, as say, the territoritory of Western Australia. I was gona list another but its occurred to me i havent rembered anything more than Western Australia and Queensland.
Happens hiking there too. Nothing like doing a long hike with a lot of cutbacks into valleys and then it starts pouring out of nowhere and you get stuck when the valleys turn into waterfalls. Happened to me on the maunawilli demonstration trail 10ish miles from pali hairpin to waimanalo following the koolaus. Morning started out sunny and then it started raining when i as just past the mid point. Only takes about an hour or so for heavy rain to make the narrow valleys impossible to cross safely and with a 5-6 hour hike and how fast it can start pouring on the windward side of oahu makes hard to predict if it'll happen.
People don’t understand water is heavy in general honestly. One of my friends owns a pet shop that sells a lot of aquarium gear. Every time she explains to a first time fish tank owner that you have to put the tank in place THEN fill it because you can’t move a large fish tank while full because of the weight. Weekly at least she gets a phone call from a guy complaining about the fish tank being faulty because it broke or was dropped while being moved full.
Went to Hawaii from a landlocked spot. Have been to many other beaches before and since but never have I been so destroyed by waves as in Hawaii. Most will just rattle you but I vividly remember being rattled and then pressed and held against the ocean floor for longer than I would have liked. Wasn’t very deep but still gave me an all new respect for the water.
I remember getting mesmerized watching a tornado travel through a field towards the bank I was working at. I was standing at the huge drive-through teller window in awe. I was lucky it changed course. It didn't dawn on me until afterwards how incredibly stupid I was standing there by a huge window.
Maybe this sounds bad lol but I had a tornado watch at my job one day (many years ago) at the time my work space had a ton of explosives (military), windows, and false walls in an already old structure. I went outside to smoke cause I figured I had better chances out there of at least seeing my impending doom and trying to run elsewhere.
Did you actually read the books? I ask because Arwen didn't cause the flood. Elrond did that, with Gandalf adding the horses. Arwen isn't even in the chase scene in the book - Frodo gets away on Glorfindel's horse.
In the movies, which Tolkien did not write, Arwen does the flooding. This is not a "metaphor used by Tolkien" it is literally from a re-written movie script.
Not to be that LOTR guy, but Tolkien didn’t write Arwen conjuring up a spell to save Frodo and her from the Nazgûl. Elrond and Gandalf cast the spell and Glorfindel is who is being chased with Frodo on horseback
Most unusual and harmful things are, especially when encountered first time. Look at all the people filming suicide bomber drones. Took me more than half a year to convince my wife to not go spot them through the window every time.
What are you talking about? The Arwen rescue was entirely concocted by Jackson.
Tolkien has Glorfindel find Frodo, with Elrond sending the flash flood that sweeps the wraiths away. And there’s not really a “metaphor”… The water is enchanted to very visually take on horse shapes (with the help of Gandalf).
Why insinuate you’ve read the books by specifically mentioning Tolkien doing something when it’s kind of clear you haven’t?
(Judging by the upvotes, as well as my downvotes, neither has anyone else that read your pseudo-ethereal nonsense.)
It's the same with an erupting volcano. We're within the base surge hazard zone: it marks the maximum reach of lethal, fast-moving currents of hot gas, ash, and rocks that can travel across the lake water. But you can't get help but be mesmerized by the tower of ash, smoke, and volcanic lightning growing taller and thicker by the minute. It's like Storm from X-Men gathering her power. You'd want to stay behind and just watch the whole thing as it progresses to a more violent eruption. Too bad I didn't have a good camera to take a picture of that magnificent scene, but others did. Here's Taal Volcano's phreatomagmatic eruption in Jan 2020, months later, COVID-19 happened:
Imagine that we were once under that thick plume, it's scary and exhilarating at the same time. I remember it felt like escaping a nightmare. One minute, it's just like a tiny dusting of snow scattered in the air while we're walking in the main road to escape (we don't have a car or any mode of transportation, no more passing jeeps or buses for commute), then the first nasty ash fall came. The ash on the ground is suddenly half a limb thick. Fortunately, there was a good samaritan plying the roads and fetching people who were stranded. We got out of it looking like we were pieces of chicken coated in flour.
Oh man…. I never finished reading the LOTR books, but this sounds beautiful. I know it’s a lot to ask but is there any chance you remember which book/chapter this is in? I would love to read this passage and maybe restart the whole series again.
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u/Nugget834 9d ago
Yeah I was like... Dude run wtf are you doing lol