| rdfs:comment | - The Long Defeat is a phrase denoting an apparently impossible but noble battle. The modern sense of the expression seems to derive from J. R. R. Tolkien, who used it in The Lord of the Rings to refer to the long struggle against the evil forces of Morgoth and, later, of Sauron. Lady Galadriel, recollecting the role she and Celeborn have played in this fight, says to the hobbit Frodo Baggins: "For the Lord of the Galadrim is accounted the wisest of the Elves of Middle-earth, and a giver of gifts beyond the power of kings. He has dwelt in the West since the days of dawn, and I have dwelt with him years uncounted; for ere the fall of Nargothrond or Gondolin I passed over the mountains, and together through ages of the world we have fought the long defeat." The phrase reflects one of the major
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| abstract | - The Long Defeat is a phrase denoting an apparently impossible but noble battle. The modern sense of the expression seems to derive from J. R. R. Tolkien, who used it in The Lord of the Rings to refer to the long struggle against the evil forces of Morgoth and, later, of Sauron. Lady Galadriel, recollecting the role she and Celeborn have played in this fight, says to the hobbit Frodo Baggins: "For the Lord of the Galadrim is accounted the wisest of the Elves of Middle-earth, and a giver of gifts beyond the power of kings. He has dwelt in the West since the days of dawn, and I have dwelt with him years uncounted; for ere the fall of Nargothrond or Gondolin I passed over the mountains, and together through ages of the world we have fought the long defeat." The phrase reflects one of the major underlying themes of The Lord of the Rings, that "no victory is complete, that evil rises again, and that even victory brings loss." In accordance with his strong Christian beliefs, Tolkien saw this phrase as applicable to all of human existence, which had been tainted by Original Sin since the Fall of Man, and would remain so until the Second Coming. He stated in a letter: "Actually, I am a Christian, and indeed a Roman Catholic, so that I do not expect 'history' to be anything but a 'long defeat' - though it contains (and in a legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory."
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