"There is something Monumental about it, but 'monumental' in the sense of a statue, or in the sense of The Lincoln Memorial."
For Me, the key to what makes the film accessible is Tommy Lee Jones, the Thaddeus [Stevens] character, because --
-- and I think it is important to understand this, people always talk about the biographical stuff that anyone brings to a film, and, in order for a film to work, you do have to find something with which you personally engage --
-- and of course, for Me, the thing with which I personally engage is The Story about the guy who's a hardline, belligerent radical, who discovers during the course of the drama, during the course of the historical story, that in order to get something done, he has to compromise in a way that will cause the people with whom he is surrounded to tell him that he is selling-out.
I think Tommy Lee Jones' performance is the centre of the film -- for Me, that's the character that you are interested in.
Now, clearly, I understand, as someone who has an interest in -- as you know, I have a ludicrous, student politic background, you know.... like everybody else....
No -- that's NOT like everybody else.
No, what I mean, is -- like any 50-Year Old old-leftie, I went through a period where it was like "No!, THESE are The Ideals, and This is...."-- so obviously, as you grow up, you realise that there is such as thing as Compromise --
RIMMER stands beside the road with his thumb out, his back to the truck, which is approaching backwards.
The box lying spins around and lifts itself into the open back of the truck.
RIMMER:
There's a perfectly rational explanation for all of this.
TRUCK DRIVER:
(In backwards speech) Tifl a tnaw uoy fi nwot otni gniog m'i.
RIMMER:
Then again, possibly not.
9 Ext. London street.
Shots of traffic in London, running backwards. We hear the conversations inside the van.
RIMMER: (VO)
HOLLY, what the smeg is going on?
KRYTEN: (VO) We're going backwards.
HOLLY: (VO)
It's perfectly consistent with current theory. Everything starts with a Big Bang, right? And The Universe starts expanding. Eventually, when it's expanded as far as it can, there's a Big Crunch, right? And everything starts contracting. Perfectly possible that time starts running in the opposite direction, as well.
During this last speech, shots of RIMMER and KRYTEN walking forwards in a crowd walking backwards, change leaping into people's hands from a busker's guitar case, a man sucking smoke from the air and putting it back into a cigarette, waist-down shot of a couple walking backwards.
RIMMER: (VO)
So, is this Earth?
HOLLY: (VO)
Oh, it's Earth all right, only Earth where time's going backwards.
Twin Peaks - Man from another Place teaches how to speak in the Red Room
LIBER Taw-Yod-Shin-Aleph-Resh-Bet (ThIShARB) VIAE MEMORIAE sub figura CMXIII
A.·. A.·. Publication in Class B. Imprimatur: N. Fra A.·. A.·.
000. May be.
[00. It has not been possible to construct this book on a basis of pure Scepticism. This matters less, as the practice leads to Scepticism, and it may be through it.]
0. This book is not intended to lead to the supreme attainment. On the contrary, its results define the separate being of the Exempt Adept from the rest of the Universe, and discover his relation to that Universe.
It is of such importance to the Exempt Adept that We cannot overrate it. Let him in no wise adventure the plunge into the Abyss until he have accomplished this to his most perfectest satisfaction.
For in the Abyss no effort is anywise possible. The Abyss is passed by virtue of the mass of the Adept and his Karma. Two forces impel him: (1) the attraction of Binah, (2) the impulse of his Karma; and the ease and even the safety of his passage depend on the strength and direction of the latter.
Should one rashly dare the passage, and take the irrevocable Oath of the Abyss, he might be lost therein through AEons of incalculable agony; he might even be thrown back upon Chesed, with the terrible Karma of failure added to his original imperfection.
It is even said that in certain circumstances it is possible to fall altogether from the Tree of Life, and to attain the Towers of the Black Brothers. But We hold that this is not possible for any adept who has truly attained his grade, or even for any man who has really sought to help humanity even for a single second,<<Those in possession of Liber CLXXXV. will note that in every grade but one the aspirant is pledged to serve his inferiors in the Order.>> and that although his aspiration have been impure through vanity or any similar imperfection.
Let then the Adept who finds the result of these meditations unsatisfactory refuse the Oath of the Abyss, and live so that his Karma gains strength and direction suitable to the task at some future period.
Memory is essential to the individual consciousness; otherwise the mind were but a blank sheet on which shadows are cast. But we see that not only does the mind retain impressions, but that it is so constituted that its tendency is to retain some more excellently than others. Thus the great classical scholar, Sir Richard Jebb, was unable to learn even the schoolboy mathematics required for the preliminary examination at Cambridge University, and a special act of the authorities was required in order to admit him.{WEH NOTE: Normally this would be an exercise of Medieval privilege by a Royal or other nobility. Wars have been lost over such "Grace" being given in the qualification of officers!}
The first method to be described has been detailed in Bhikkhu Ananda Metteya's "Training of the Mind" (EQUINOX, I. 5, pp. 28-59, and especially pp. 48-56). We have little to alter or to add. Its most important result, as regards the Oath of the Abyss, is the freedom from all desire or clinging to anything which it gives. Its second result is to aid the adept in the second method, by supplying him with further data for his investigation.
The stimulation of memory useful in both practices is also achieved by simple meditation (Liber E), in a certain stage of which old memories arise unbidden. The adept may then practise this, stopping at that stage, and encouraging instead of suppressing the flashes of memory.
Zoroaster has said, "Explore the River of the Soul, whence or in what order you have come; so that although you have become a servant to the body, you may again rise to that Order (the A.·. A.·.) from which you descended, joining Works (Kamma) to the Sacred Reason (the Tao)."
The Result of the Second Method is to show the Adept to what end his powers are destined. When he has passed the Abyss and become NEMO, the return of the current causes him "to appear in the Heaven of Jupiter as a morning star or as an evening star."[The formula of the Great Work "Solve et Coagula" may be thus interpreted. Solve, the dissolution of the Self in the Infinite; Coagula, the presentation of the Infinite in a concrete form to the outer. Both are necessary to the Task of a Master of the Temple.] In other words, he should discover what may be the nature of his work. Thus Mohammed was a Brother reflected into Netzach, Buddha a Brother reflected into Hod, or, as some say, Daath. The present manifestation of Frater P. to the outer is in Tiphereth, to the inner in the path of Leo.
First Method. Let the Exempt Adept first train himself to think backwards by external means, as set forth here following.
("a") Let him learn to write backwards, with either hand. ("b") Let him learn to walk backwards. ("c") Let him constantly watch, if convenient, cinematograph films, and listen to phonograph records, reversed, and let him so accustom himself to these that they appear natural, and appreciable as a whole. ("d") Let him practise speaking backwards; thus for "I am He" let him say, "Eh ma I". ("e") Let him learn to read backwards. In this it is difficult to avoid cheating one's self, as an expert reader sees a sentence at a glance. Let his disciple read aloud to him backwards, slowly at first, then more quickly. ("f") Of his own ingenium, let him devise other methods.
In this his brain will at first be overwhelmed by a sense of utter confusion; secondly, it will endeavour to evade the difficulty by a trick. The brain will pretend to be working backwards when it is really normal. It is difficult to describe the nature of the trick, but it will be quite obvious to anyone who has done practices ("a") and ("b") for a day or two. They become quite easy, and he will think that he is making progress, an illusion which close analysis will dispel.
Having begun to train his brain in this manner, and obtained some little success, let the Exempt Adept, seated in his Asana, think first of his present attitude, next of the act of being seated, next of his entering the room, next of his robing, et cetera, exactly as it happened. And let him most strenuously endeavour to think each act as happening backwards. It is not enough to think: "I am seated here, and before that I was standing, and before that I entered the room," etc. That series is the trick detected in the preliminary practices. The series must not run "ghi-def-abc" but "ihgfedcba": not "horse a is this" but "esroh a si siht". To obtain this thoroughly well, practice ("c") is very useful. The brain will be found to struggle constantly to right itself, soon accustoming itself to accept "esroh" as merely another glyph for "horse." This tendency must be constantly combated.
In the early stages of this practice the endeavour should be to meticulous minuteness of detail in remembering actions; for the brain's habit of thinking forwards will at first be insuperable. Thinking of large and complex actions, then, will give a series which we may symbolically write "opqrstu-hijklmn-abcdefg." If these be split into detail, we shall have "stu-pqr-o---mn-kl-hij---fg-cde-ab," which is much nearer to the ideal "utsrqponmlkjihgfedcba."
Capacities differ widely, but the Exempt Adept need have no reason to be discouraged if after a month's continuous labour he find that now and again for a few seconds his brain really works backwards.
The Exempt Adept should concentrate his efforts upon obtaining a perfect picture of five minutes backwards rather than upon extending the time covered by his meditation. For this preliminary training of the brain is the Pons Asinorum of the whole process.
This five minutes' exercise being satisfactory, the Exempt Adept may extend the same at his discretion to cover an hour, a day, a week, and so on. Difficulties vanish before him as he advances; the extension from a day to the course of his whole life will not prove so difficult as the perfecting of the five minutes.
This practice should be repeated at least four times daily, and progress is shown firstly by the ever easier running of the brain, secondly by the added memories which arise.
It is useful to reflect during this practice, which in time becomes almost mechanical, upon the way in which effects spring from causes. This aids the mind to link its memories, and prepares the adept for the preliminary practice of the Second Method.
Having allowed the mind to return for some hundred times to the hour of birth, it should be encouraged to endeavour to penetrate beyond that period. If it be properly trained to run backwards, there will be little difficulty in doing this, although it is one of the distinct steps in the practice.
It may be then that the memory will persuade the adept of some previous existence. Where this is possible, let it be checked by an appeal to facts, as follows:
It often occurs to men that on visiting a place to which they have never been, it appears familiar. This may arise from a confusion of thought or a slipping of the memory, but it is conceivably a fact. If, then, the adept "remember" that he was in a previous life in some city, say Cracow, which he has in this life never visited, let him describe from memory the appearance of Cracow, and of its inhabitants, setting down their names. Let him further enter into details of the city and its customs. And having done this with great minuteness, let him confirm the same by consultation with historians and geographers, or by a personal visit, remembering (both to the credit of his memory and its discredit) that historians, geographers, and himself are alike fallible. But let him not trust his memory to assert its conclusions as fact, and act thereupon, without most adequate confirmation.
This process of checking his memory should be practised with the earlier memories of childhood and youth by reference to the memories and records of others, always reflecting upon the fallibility even of such safeguards.
All this being perfected, so that the memory reaches back into aeons incalculably distant, let the Exempt Adept meditate upon the fruitlessness of all those years, and upon the fruit thereof, severing that which is transitory and worthless from that which is eternal. And it may be that he being but an Exempt Adept may hold all to be savourless and full of sorrow.
This being so, without reluctance will he swear the Oath of the Abyss.
Second Method. Let the Exempt Adept, fortified by the practice of the First Method, enter the preliminary practice of the Second Method.
Second Method. Preliminary Practices. Let him, seated in his Asana, consider any event, and trace it to its immediate causes. And let this be done very fully and minutely. Here, for example, is a body erect and motionless. Let the adept consider the many forces which maintain it; firstly, the attraction of the earth, of the sun, of the planets, of the farthest stars, nay, of every mote of dust in the room, one of which (could it be annihilated) would cause that body to move, although so imperceptibly. Also the resistance of the floor, the pressure of the air, and all other external conditions. Secondly, the internal forces which sustain it, the vast and complex machinery of the skeleton, the muscles, the blood, the lymph, the marrow, all that makes up a man. Thirdly the moral and intellectual forces involved, the mind, the will, the consciousness. Let him continue this with unremitting ardour, searching Nature, leaving nothing out.
Next, let him take one of the immediate causes of his position, and trace out its equilibrium. For example, the will. What determines the will to aid in holding the body erect and motionless?
This being discovered, let him choose one of the forces which determined his will, and trace out that in similar fashion; and let this process be continued for many days until the interdependence of all things is a truth assimilated in his inmost being.
This being accomplished, let him trace his own history with special reference to the causes of each event. And in this practice he may neglect to some extent the universal forces which at all times act on all, as for example the attraction of masses, and let him concentrate his attention upon the principal and determining or effective causes. For instance, he is seated, perhaps, in a country place in Spain. Why? Because Spain is warm and suitable for meditation, and because cities are noisy and crowded. Why is Spain warm? and why does he wish to meditate? Why choose warm Spain rather than warm India? To the last question: Because Spain is nearer to his home. Then why is his home near Spain? Because his parents were Germans. And why did they go to Germany? And so during the whole meditation.
On another day, let him begin with a question of another kind, and every day devise new questions, not only concerning his present situation, but also abstract questions. Thus let him connect the prevalence of water upon the surface of the globe with its necessity to such life as we know, with the specific gravity and other physical properties of water, and let him perceive ultimately through all this the necessity and concord of things, not concord as the schoolmen of old believed, making all things for man's benefit or convenience, but the essential mechanical concord whose final law is "inertia." And in these meditations let him avoid as if it were the plague any speculation sentimental or fantastic.
Second Method. The Practice Proper. Having then perfected in his mind these conceptions, let him apply them to his own career, forging the links of memory into the chain of necessity. And let this be his final question: To what purpose am I fitted? Of what service can my being prove to the Brothers of the A.·. A.·. if I cross the Abyss, and am admitted to the City of the Pyramids?
Now that he may clearly understand the nature of this question, and the method of solution, let him study the reasoning of the anatomist who reconstructs an animal from a single bone. To take a simple example.
Suppose, having lived all my life among savages, a ship is cast upon the shore and wrecked. Undamaged among the cargo is a "Victoria." What is its use? The wheels speak of roads, their slimness of smooth roads, the brake of hilly roads. The shafts show that it was meant to be drawn by an animal, their height and length suggest an animal of the size of a horse. That the carriage is open suggests a climate tolerable at any rate for part of the year. The height of the box suggest crowded streets, or the spirited character of the animal employed to draw it. The cushions indicate its use to convey men rather than merchandise; its hood that rain sometimes falls, or that the sun is at times powerful. The springs would imply considerable skill in metals; the varnish much attainment in that craft.
Similarly, let the adept consider of his own case. Now that he is on the point of plunging into the Abyss a giant Why? confronts him with uplifted club.
There is no minutest atom of his composition which can be withdrawn without making him some other than he is; no useless moment in his past. Then what is his future? The "Victoria" is not a waggon; it is not intended for carting hay. It is not a sulky; it is useless in trotting races.
So the adept has military genius, or much knowledge of Greek; how do these attainments help his purpose, or the purpose of the Brothers? He was put to death by Calvin, or stoned by Hezekiah; as a snake he was killed by a villager, or as an elephant slain in battle under Hamilcar. How do such memories help him? Until he have thoroughly mastered the reason for every incident in his past, and found a purpose for every item of his present equipment, [A brother known to me was repeatedly baffled in this meditation. But one day being thrown with his horse over a sheer cliff of forty feet, and escaping without a scratch or a bruse, he was reminded of his many narrow escapes from death. These proved to be the last factors in his problem, which, thus completed, solved itself in a moment. O.M. {WEH NOTE ADDENDA: Here Crowley speaks of himself, the event being noted in his China walk account.}] he cannot truly answer even those Three Question what were first put to him, even the Three Questions of the Ritual of the Pyramid; he is not ready to swear the Oath of the Abyss.
But being thus enlightened, let him swear the Oath of the Abyss; yea, let him swear the Oath of the Abyss.
Hillary Rodham Clinton is a Wall Street-backed warmonger whose potential election as President of the United States this November poses an existential threat not just to Americans but to all of humanity.
As First Lady and then as Senator, she actively supported the US’ illegal wars of aggression abroad:
BILL CLINTON: “Today, our Armed Forces joined our NATO allies in airstrikes against Serbian forces ,esponsible for the brutality in Kosovo.”
HILLARY CLINTON: “You know I voted for the Iraqi resolution.”
CLINTON: “The President understands this. He’s fully aware that it’s going to take a lot of patience and pain-staking planning and we’re gonna support him!”
CLINTON: “…including thousands of chemical weapons. Large volumes of chemical and biological stocks. A number of missiles and warheads. A major lab equipped to produce Anthrax.”
She not only admitted the US role in creating Al Qaeda:
CLINTON: “When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, we had this brilliant idea there we were going to come to Pakistan and create a force of Mujahideen, equip them with Stinger missiles and everything else, to go after the Soviets inside Afghanistan.”
But then, despite this admission, as Secretary of State her support of the war on Libya and the jihadis in Syria directly led to the rise of ISIS and the migrant crisis in Europe:
CLINTON: “The transition to democracy in Syria has begun and it’s time for Assad to get out of the way.”
“President Assad is not indispensable and we have absolutely nothing invested in him remaining in power.”
“I think based on definitions of war-criminal and crimes against humanity, there would be an argument to be made that he (Assad) would fit into that category.”
CLINTON: “Libya was a different kind of calculation and we didn’t lose a single person.”
She was the one who announced the US’ so-called “Asia-Pacific Pivot” that has seen more US forces being placed in the Asia-Pacific as a direct military threat to China:
CLINTON: “…and we look to the Asia-Pacific region, as we have for many decades, as an area where the United States in uniquely positioned to play a major role.”
CLINTON: “The United States is not seeding the Pacific to anyone.”
And she has stated in no uncertain terms that Russia and Iran will be militarily targeted in a Clinton presidency, and that the “nuclear option” is, as always, “on the table”:
CLINTON: “And we will make sure the Iranians and the world understand, that the United States will act decisively if necessary including taking military action.”
“There will have to be consequences for any violation by Iran and that the nuclear option should not at all be taken of the table. That has been my position consistently.”
CLINTON: “And Russia has to support the international community’s efforts sincerely or be held to account.”
CLINTON: “That Russia and China will pay a price. Because they are holding up progress, blockading it. That is no longer tolerable.”
And unlike her many, many political statements of convenience that are merely a reflection of what is most politically acceptable at the moment:
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Do you think New York State should recognize gay marriage?”
HILLARY CLINTON: “No.”
CHRIS MATTHEWS: “No … OK.”
CLINTON: “I support marriage for lesbian and gay couples.”
CLINTON: “I represented Wall Street as a Senator from New York and I went to Wall Street and in December of 2007 before the big crash that we had. And I basically said ‘cut it out, quit foreclosing on homes. Quit engaging in these kinds of speculative behaviors.'”
“Now who’s exactly the blame for the housing crisis? Now I think there’s plenty of blame to go around. Home-buyers who paid extra fees to avoid documenting their income, should of known that they were getting in over their heads.”
“I take a back-seat to no one when you look at my record on standing up and fighting for progressive values.”
“I get accused of being kind of moderate and center. I plead guilty.”
HILLARY CLINTON: “We went through a thorough process to identify all of my work-related emails.”
JAMES COMEY: “Lawyers doing the sorting for Secretary Clinton in 2014 did not individually read the content of all of her emails.”
CLINTON: “So that the emails were immediately captured and preserved.”
COMEY: “There was no archiving at all of her emails.”
…we can be assured that these threats of potential nuclear world war by Clinton are not idle threats. A future Clinton president would be assured of a like mind in the new Prime Minister in the UK, who has stated in no uncertain terms that she is willing to launch a nuclear strike that would kill hundreds of thousands:
GEORGE KEREVAN: “Let me congratulate the Prime Minster on her new rule, but can we cut to the chase? Is she personally prepared to authorize a nuclear-strike that could kill 100,000 innocent men, women and children?”
THERESA MAY: “Yes. And I have to say to the honourable gentleman, the whole point of a deterrent is that our enemies need to know that we would be prepared to use it.”
Hillary Clinton is a neocon, a war hawk, a liar, an unindicted criminal and a Wall Street puppet. Why is it, then, that those on the so-called “progressive” left who would be warning against her if she had an “R” next to her name are instead lecturing other leftists that it is now their duty to fall in line and help her get elected?
NOAM CHOMSKY: “If Clinton is nominated and it comes to a choice between Clinton and Trump, in a swing state, a state where it’s going to matter which way you vote, I would vote against Trump, and by elementary arithmetic, that means you hold your nose and you vote Democrat. I don’t think there’s any other rational choice. Abstaining from voting or, say, voting for, say, a candidate you prefer, a minority candidate, just amounts to a vote for Donald Trump, which I think is a devastating prospect, for reasons I’ve already mentioned.”
JUAN GONZALES: “We in SDS refused to vote. We wouldn’t support McCarthy. We wouldn’t support Humphrey. Our slogan was “Vote with your feet, vote in the street.” I’m—I’m here to tell you that the slogan was right, the tactic was wrong. And I think that the country, in retrospect, there would not have been a substantive change, there would have been a positive change, if Nixon had not been elected. But you learn from your mistakes. Hopefully, other generations learn from the mistakes of those who came before them.”
ELIZABETH WARREN: We’re all here today because we’re with her. And we’re going to work our hearts out to make Hillary Clinton the next president of the United States.
BERNIE SANDERS: “She will be the Democratic nominee for president, and I intend to do everything I can to make certain she will be the next president of the United States.”
The message here is as clear as it is predictable and disappointing. Once again those with the influence to shape these events and ignite a genuine protest movement against Hillary’s coronation at the Democratic National Convention are falling back into their roles as partisan ideologues, advocating for “their” candidate over the “other side,” taking the two-party system as a fait accomplis and complicity with that system as the only way forward.
But as Michel Chossudovsky of GlobalResearch.ca points out, this election is fundamentally different. This time, the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY: “In so many words Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy stance is ‘to blow up the planet.’ She has made statements to the effect that a first-strike nuclear attack against Russia or Iran is on the table. So that if she is in the White House she could in fact unleash the unspoken, which is World War 3. I think this is something we have to address both in terms of analysis and also political choice. That anyone who wants to blow up the planet is not ‘progressive.’
“Secondly, she has a criminal record. Not only in regards to the email scandal but also in relation to The Clinton Foundation, which is involved in fraud, money laundering, political cronyism, etc. It is amply documented.
“So that, in effect, the choice for the American people is to elect a war-criminal.”
Too many people become attached to the personality of these political personas or fixated on the “D” or the “R” after their name. This clouds their judgement and stops them from seeing their policies and agenda for what they really are.
As Diana Johnstone, author of Queen of Chaos: The Misadventures of Hillary Clinton points out, Hillary is best understood not as a person, but as the instrument for the think tanks, Wall Street financiers and other connected insiders who want to embroil the United States in more illegal wars and plunder the country and its people even further.
DIANA JOHNSTONE: “I mean Hillary to me is not even an interesting person. She is simply a shallow, ambitious woman. Who has decided to make herself the instrument of the Washington think-tank persuasion and is using that too pose as a great expert on world affairs to be elected as President. She simply is the embodiment of all that is terrible in American foreign-policy that has developed over the past decades.”
It is no hyperbole to say that the election of Hillary Rodham Clinton as president this November would be one of the greatest tragedies in the history of the United States, and perhaps the world. It is incumbent on people of all stripes–American and non-American, Republican and Democrat, progressive and libertarian, anarchists, and those who have never thought about politics a day in their life–to protest her nomination at the Democratic National Convention, work against her campaign for President, and avert the nuclear nightmare that is now coming into view.
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Mark 8:36
"That's our motto.
We want freedom by any means necessary.
We want justice by any means necessary.
We want equality by any means necessary.
We don't feel that in 1964, living in a country that is supposedly based upon freedom, and supposedly the leader of the free world, we don't think that we should have to sit around and wait for some segregationist congressmen and senators and a President from Texas in Washington, D. C., to make up their minds that our people are due now some degree of civil rights.
No, we want it now or we don't think anybody should have it."
were given to The Elves, immortal, wisest and fairest of all beings.
7
to the Dwarf Lords, Great Miners and Craftsmen of the Mountain Halls.
And
9
Nine rings were gifted to The Race of Men, who above all else desired power.
For within these rings was bound the Strength and Will to Govern each Race.
But they were all of them, deceived - for another ring was made. In the land of Mordor, in the fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Sauron forged in secret, a Master Ring, to control all others and into this ring, he poured his cruelty, his malice, and his will to dominate all life.
One Ring to Rule Them All.
One by one the free lands of Middle-earth fell to the power of The Ring. But there were some who resisted.
A Last Alliance of Men and Elves marched against the armies of Mordor and on the slopes of Mount Doom, they fought for the freedom of Middle-earth.
Victory was near but the power of The Ring could not be undone. It was in this moment when all hope had faded that Isildur, Son of the King, took up his father's sword...
Sauron,
The Enemy of the Free Peoples of Middle-earth was Defeated.
The Ring passed to Isildur,
who had this one chance to destroy Evil forever.
But The Hearts of Men are easily corrupted.
And The Ring of Power has a Will of Its Own.
It betrayed Isildur to His Death.
And some things that should not have been forgotten, were lost.
History became Legend,
Legend became Myth
and for two and a half thousand years, The Ring passed out of all Knowledge until, when Chance came, it ensnared a new bearer.
The Ring came to The Creature Gollum, who took it deep into the tunnels of the misty mountains and there it consumed him. The ring brought to Gollum unnatural long life. For five hundred years, it poisoned his mind. And in the gloom of Gollum's cave, it waited.
Darkness crept back into the forests of the world. Rumour grew of a shadow in the East, whispers of a nameless fear and the ring of power perceived its time had now come.
For the times will soon come when Women will shape the fortunes of all..."
